In case you were under a rock or not paying attention yesterday, Steve Jobs and his crew changed the world again.
Jeff Harrel probably has the best take on this.
I’m going to be taking a break, quite possibly a very long one from the whole blogging thing.
I’m bored, and worse, I feel like I’m boring. I’m not having any fun.
So, I’m walking away for now.
Thanks to Stryker, Sgt Mom, Cpl/Sgt Blondie and the gang for letting me play in their playground. It was an honor to be associated with you all.
There was crap on TV last night. Not a thing worth watching. Beautiful Wife gave up in complete disgust and went to kill trolls on the Big PC. Boyo came up from his playroom to watch cartoons on the Big TV. I plugged in my headphones and spent about two hours just surfing around YouTube.
I was surprised. I knew there were TV clips and funny commercials there. In the back of my mind I sort of knew that people put their own videos in there, but I didn’t know the extent of the community. Many of the videos are simply of people talking or singing to their webcams. What sort of took me back was that there are some seriously talented people marketing themselves via YouTube. I just thought it was like, “Our family vacation videos.” or “Teenage skateboarders trashing their nuts.”
I’m not going to run out and become a Hill88 Fanboy (Although, I think Second City needs to grab up this gal, get her on stage for a couple years and then ship her off to SNL for boot camp. It’s rare and wonderful to find someone who takes silly to that level.) or wait with baited breath for Esme`e’s latest rendition of Alicia Keys, but it’s nice to know that when there’s nothing on TV you can pick up the trusty laptop and kill an hour or two just checking out what’s there. Hell, I killed half an hour getting caught up on the Letterman interviews I’ve missed.
Don’t misunderstand…there’s as much crap on YouTube as there are video and web cams on the planet. I believe Paul refers to such things as, “teh suck.” The further you drift away from the “most watched” and “favorites” etc. the more you get into things that Jerry Springer would disapprove of. And though I’m as big a fan of boobies as the next guy…some of the younger gals kind of creep me out with the bumping and shaking etc.. It seems a bit desperate.
Exposed: The Extremist Agenda.
If you get a chance to see this, watch it. It’s both scary as hell and truly hopeful as it shows the worst in extremist propaganda, including what lil kids “sing” for “fun.” It’s hopeful because there are more and more Islamic leaders speaking out against the crazies.
My First Sergeant turned me on to Glenn Beck. I guess I’m a sick twisted freak. I think he’s great. But I’m also in recovery so I get that kind of humor.
We get it. Saddam’s gonna hang. Move along.
Jeez, the talking heads on Fox News are practically salivating.
I have no problem with him being executed, I’m kind of surprised, but I don’t have a problem with it.
I’m kind of creeped out by the whole Death Watch thing.
Does anyone else find it weird that it’s almost 2007? I mean, I KNOW time has gone by but it just feels somehow wrong that we’re well more than half way to the teens. Where did this decade go?
While I’m thinking about it, has anyone figured out what the hell we’re calling this decade? The “Oughts?” The “Zeros?” The “Ohs?”
My favorite take on this comes from the locals: “We used to have snow like this all the time, this is so weird.”
And that’s from the military folks, not the hippies.
I’ll keep you posted.
This is all over the place in one form or another:
The latest U.S. deaths brought the number of members of the U.S. military killed since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 — five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Emphasis mine.
Mohammed on a moped, are we really going to start seeing this on a daily basis now? “X amount more than were killed on 9/11?” This is how we’re measuring things?
You know what pisses me off? I know Viet Nam made the reporting of enemy casualties oh so uncouth, and that when it was tried back in 2003 the DoD took huge hits from the media for it. So how come it’s okay for the media to report daily, almost hourly, on OUR dead? What makes that okay? How come their dead are sacred and ours are fodder?
Rest in peace Godfather of Soul.
Singer James Brown, known as the “Godfather of Soul”, has died at the age of 73, his agent has said. He was admitted to hospital in Atlanta after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia but died at 0145 local time (0645 GMT), said Frank Copsidas.
The star was famous for hits including I Got You (I Feel Good), Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag and Living in America.
“He is such an influence, I learned so much from him,” Mr Copsidas told the BBC World Service.
He had his demons, but most of the great ones seem to need them.
Caught this one in a WaPo Editorial that Blackfive linked to. Couldn’t resist re-posting it.
One of our best Christmas Eve’s ever was the eve we spent manning the phones for NORAD. Boyo was only 6 and was interviewed by the local news while he and a bunch of other kids were in the corner of the Command Center watching Rudolph etc. while Beautiful Wife and I manned the phones. We must have had 40 phones in there and we just couldn’t keep up with the calls. A small kitchen was filled with all sorts of food from sliced cold cuts to every imaginable Christmas Goody. The “uniform” was Christmas Casual and it’s pretty darn weird to see a Four-Star walking around with antlers on his head and a glowing nose on his face. Almost made you think he was human.
My absolute favorite calls went something like this:
“HQ NORAD Tracks Santa. This is Sgt Timmer, may I help you?”
“Hi Sergeant, this is a Mom in Milwaukee and I’ve got you on the speaker phone with my five children who are too excited to go to bed.”
Sounds of giggling kids, one little voice “Where’s Santa Claus?” then another, “Yeah, where is he?!”
An excited Sgt Timmer: “Milwaukee?! Ma’am, we’ve got Santa and his sleigh inbound to your position within the next half an hour! NORAD recommends that all good children in Milwaukee go to bed immediately in preparation for Santa’s arrival.”
Sounds of children shreaking, laughing, and bolting down a hall…doors slamming.
A giggling Mom, “Oh, God bless you Sergeant, Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas Ma’am, NORAD out.”
Pretty soon our house is going to fill with the smells of tomorrow’s feast. We’re not going anywhere this year and I didn’t invite anyone over this time. This year it’s just the three of us and I’m okay with that. Next year it will be a houseful of folks back home. Maybe not our house, but a house and you can be sure it WILL be full. Beautiful Wife’s got a HUGE family. Their weird, but we love them.
Merry Christmas and God bless us…everyone.
I’ve been hard on the moderate Muslim community for not speaking out louder. So it was good to see this over at the Headmistress’ place from the Washington Post:
Local Muslim leaders lit candles yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to commemorate Jewish suffering under the Nazis, in a ceremony held just days after Iran had a conference denying the genocide.
American Muslims “believe we have to learn the lessons of history and commit ourselves: Never again,” said Imam Mohamed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, standing before the eternal flame flickering from a black marble base that holds dirt from Nazi concentration camps.
A heartfelt salute to the Muslims who broke ranks with the fuck-tards who try to re-write history for their own profit and power. It’s things like this that give me some hope that we won’t be fighting forever.
Kim over at Wizbang calls Nancy Pelosi out for her four days of celebrating…Pelosi.
So what should we call this?
LalaPelosi?
NancyFest?
PelosiPalooza?
NancyFair?
Of course, your own are welcome in the comments.
I normally don’t pass on “Friend Spam” but I haven’t seen this one before and it just rings true. Add your own in the comments.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Get upset if you’re too busy to talk to them for a week. MILITARY FRIENDS: Are glad to see you after years, and will happily carry
on the same conversation you were having last time you met.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Are the reason you have no food.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. And Mrs.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Call your parents mom and dad.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Would be sitting next to you saying, “Damn…we screwed
up…but man that was fun!”
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Cry with you.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it’s yours.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that’s what the crowd is doing.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowdsââ,¬(tm) ass that left you
behind.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, “I’m home!”
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Are for a while.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Are for life.
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have shared a few experiences…
MILITARY FRIENDS: Have shared a lifetime of experiences no Civilian could
ever dream of…
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you’ve had
enough.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say,
“You better drink the rest of that, you know we don’t waste…that’s
alcohol abuse!!” Then carry you home safely and put you to bed…
CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will talk crap to the person who talks crap about you.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will knock them the hell out for using your name in vain.
In penance. I’ve Elfed Myself.
…and right now I can JUST see across the street. One of those days where you wondered why you went to work in the first place because we knew this was blowing in and everyone was just waiting to see how bad it was going to have to get before leadership sent us home. I would say they did okay. You could still see almost a block when we left.
I’m thinkin’ we’re not workin’ tomorrow either. Nine to eighteen inches of snow today and tonight propelled by up to 45 MPH winds. I think I’m going to be very happy I bought this thing for our little bit of sidewalk and driveway.
Update: Due to sideways snow, our windows are completely covered on ALL sides of the house. We haven’t got a lot of snow, there are still bare spots on the lawn, but the drifts are climbing to interesting heights.
The TSgt (E6) you’re talking to not only doesn’t know the prescribing directive for the form the two of you are discussing, a form that her office fills out and works with every day, but seems offended that you would even think that she should. Got downright pissy with me. Hey, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, I told her I didn’t think it was her fault but a severe lack of training. That didn’t seem to make her feel better.
When I was coming up, I was expected to know the AFRs, AFMs, AFPs and AFIs for the paperwork that I was completing every day. Is that unheard of these days?
By John Hawkins at Right Wing News.
Heinlein was right, when simple civility begins to break down, we’re in for a long dark age. I’m going to make sure Boyo can fight well and shoot straight before he leaves my house.
Can anyone explain to me the attraction of Hillary Clinton? I’m not getting it. I’m always open to one side or the other depending on who makes the most sense to me or on who I feel must be defeated. With Hilary, I get nothing. I don’t like her. I don’t dislike her other than in a, “Don’t talk down to me that way if you want my vote” sort of way.” Personally, I’d vote for her husband again over her. Hell, I’d vote for him again over most of the candidates I see lining up for 2008. There’s nothing new there, and Lord knows we need something new.
So what’s the draw? Please make it more than, “She’s not George W. Bush.”
Apparently we’re number 1.
“You” have been named as Time magazine’s Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the internet. The US magazine praised the public for “seizing the reins of the global media” and filling the web’s virtual world.
Time has been giving its controversial awards since 1927, aiming to identify those who most affect the news.
Is there a cash prize? The cost of toys this year is about to make me cry.
If you’ve read the professional critics and they’re keeping you away from this movie, you’re pretty much on your own. The theater was packed.
If you’re thinking of taking the kids, Boyo’s reaction (Age 10) was, “That was just aw-aw-aw-awesome.” The stutter being a laugh of pure delight.
If you’ve read the book and you’re expecting a pure translation, you’re going to be disappointed. They took some liberties.
As I said in the book review, there’s nothing new, story-wise here. You’ve read these kinds of stories before. You’ve seen similar stories on screen as well. Is it as good as Lord of the Rings? No. Is it a good story worth going to see over the holidays? Absolutely.
This is a great holiday movie, lots of fun, plenty exciting, enough twists and turns to keep you wondering what’s coming next. If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry, they simplified the story for the movie and it keeps moving well enough that it’s really over before you want it to be. The dragon is just amazing. You bet there’s going to be a sequel.
I do have a problem with the current amount of commercials at Carmike Theaters. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Coke polar bears and the penguins this time of year. I LOVE previews of coming attractions. The commercial FOR Carmike Theaters using it for business or church functions, maybe broadcasting concerts digitally TO the theater, pushing their theater as a digital town hall? Too freaking long with too much bass and a headache producing high notes. How much time was spent between when the movie was due to start and actual start time? Twenty freaking minutes! I resent that. I don’t like being a captive audience. I’m already not going to as many movies as I used to because of the cost. It takes about 30-35 bucks for the three of us to go to the movies and have snacks. I have a killer home theater system. DVDs cost 20 bucks max. We have pay per view as well for what? Four bucks? We can’t consume 10 dollars worth of popcorn and soda at home. My recliner is MUCH more comfortable than chairs at the theater. Now you wanna piss me off by making me sit through that many commercials?
We’re going to see Eragon.
This one had me talking to myself for almost an hour yesterday.
Some Airmen are not getting information they need to make them better and more productive, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney J. McKinley said.
That is why he believes the start of a roll call program, which he said could start “within days,” will help bridge the communications gap between senior Air Force leaders and Airmen around the globe.
Roll call. Because we don’t have any other way of communicating important information to our people. Hell, the next thing you know we’ll be passing around the Daily Bulletin clipboard and having people initial it.
Talk about kickin’ it ol’ school.
Innovation, the key to air power.
Seriously, what this tells me is that the CMSAF has to dictate that we talk to our people face to face, every day, and that frightens me at a core level. In what chucklefuck organization are there supervisors who don’t talk to their folks every day? Where is this place? I want to avoid it and tell my folks to avoid it.
If I don’t talk to my crew by 0900, I don’t feel right the rest of the day. Plain and simple it’s part of my day. I get my coffee, I walk around and see how everyone’s doing. Why? That’s what all my “good” bosses did when I was coming up. Sometimes they did carry the Daily Bulletin around with them and say, “Hey, did you see they’re changing the leave program…AGAIN?”
Roll call. Where the hell am I going to have roll call? Well, the good news is, my “I hate public speaking” guy is going to have a LOT of practice.
It struck me yesterday as I was talking to one of my folks. I now know what’s bothering me about the Air Force’s recent emphasis on the fitness program. Every time any leader says, “This is our number one priority.” I grimace. I wasn’t sure why. I mean I found it annoying that all of a sudden after a few years of playing lip service to this new fitness program they actually started enforcing it. The official word was “We’ve been doing this for four years, no one should be surprised.” The truth of the matter was they were sort of, kind of, doing the new fitness program but no one knew how the hell we were supposed to do it AND accomplish the mission at the same time, so everyone sort of played along and did what we did back in the 80s and tried to basically ignore the thing. The other part of the problem, was that every base now has a civilian “expert” who makes a ridiculous amount of money annoying the wing commander with every little failure and every little non-conformity to the “new” Air Force Instruction that everyone freaking knows no one can follow and complete their mission at the same time. Yeah, I’m not a fan.
The other problem was and remains, the Air Force has always always always recruited for brains. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the other branches only have dummies, I’ve worked with too many smart people in all branches of the service. I am saying that we in the Air Force haven’t been known for being hard core. There’s Cops, there’s Ammo, there’s the seriously hard core Para Rescue, the psychotic kids in Combat Control and Combat Camera, but other than that, we’re mostly a bunch of geekoid techies doing highly skilled mechanical, electrical, or information systems and nerd-boy stuff. If we weren’t straight A students we at least had a B average. Gym Class for us was kind of a necessary evil broken only by the joy of Ellen Katz’s bikini’s refusal to stay on in swimming…all four years…God bless that girl, where ever she is.
I’m not sure about the rest of the Air Force, but I know my folks have a hard time even getting training for their 5-Level anymore. We’re supposed to be proficient at building web pages using Front Page or Dreamweaver (my preference) and we’re supposed to have classes that make us proficient at basic computer trouble-shooting. My folks? We can’t even crack a box without risk of getting fined for invalidating a warrantee or stepping on a contract. And we do continue to train them even without the resources…when we can spare them from their mandatory Gym time. Because training is secondary, Gym is mandatory.
After 22+ years of service, I’m watching my Air Force become more concerned with Gym Class over mission. We’re worried about Gym Class! WTF? It’s the same feeling I had when a friend of mine couldn’t graduate HS because he was taking extra courses at a college instead of going to Gym class for a quarter. Fucking Gym Class. You can call it WarFit, you can call it PT, you can call it whatever the hell you want, but we’re destroying people over Gym. Let me say that one more time. Your United States Air Force is kicking out good, smart, competent and talented people because some of them are cutting Gym.
It seems like such a brilliant flash of the obvious, but I do feel better knowing why it’s been bugging me.
I don’t know about you, but the first Mel Brooks movie I laughed so hard at I almost wet myself was Young Frankenstein. (Frahnkensteen?) I was a huge monster movie fan as a kid, always staying up to watch Creature Feature on WGN and then Elvira when we got her on UHF. I’m not sure which hurt worse, watching Gene Hackman almost kill him with kindness or the tap dancing.
I wasn’t a huge Ray Ramano fan but again, Boyle made that show for me. He will be missed.
(CBS/AP) Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in “Young Frankenstein” and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has died. He was 71.
The veteran character actor died Tuesday evening in New York after a long battle with multiple myeloma and heart disease, his publicist, Jennifer Plante, told The ShowBuzz Wednesday.
A Christian Brothers monk who turned to acting, Boyle gained notice playing an angry working man in the Vietnam-era hit “Joe.” But he overcame typecasting when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in Mel Brooks’ 1974 send-up of horror films.
The movie’s defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic “Puttin’ On the Ritz.”