Blackfive has paratrooper porn.
Yeah I know…what can you do with people who think jumping out of airplanes is fun? Ya make ’em Airborne.
Yeesh…
Beautiful Wife did laundry yesterday and changed out the linens. Yeah, clean sheets…love that feeling. She’d also managed to gather up the afghan Gorgeous Daughter had crocheted for my birthday a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t on the bed, under the bed or anywhere around the bed, but I was ready to go to bed. The nights here have been wonderful for sleeping lately, down in the high 50s/low 60s and with the bedroom window open, all you need is the spread and an afghan. I put my slippers back on and headed back downstairs.
Me: “Honey, where’s my gwee?”
BW: “I’m sorry, it’s still in the wash with mine. The one you’re Mom made you is in the gwee box.”
Some of you are scratching your head and wondering if I had a spell check malfunction. Others have it figured out. Some of you suspect. It’s family speak.
Every family has some. Made up words for everyday things. “Gwee” was a Boyo invention from back before he could walk. He was exploring the floor and had tuckered himself out. He was about to drop off right there on the spot but he kept stretching and crying and muttering “Gwee-gwee-gwee-gwee.” I looked at him…I looked where he was looking…I saw his baby blanket and I got up and picked it up…”GWEE-GWEE-GWEEEEEE!” I held up his blanket and asked, “Gwee?” “GWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!” After I picked up the fillings he’d loosened with his primal, dog torturing shreek, I handed him his gwee and from that moment forward, every blanket, comforter, afghan, beach towel used as a blanket because we’re too lazy to go find a real one has been “gwee.” Always will be as far as we’re concerened.
Give us some of your family speak in the comments. You know you have some. Woobies? Binkies? Ca-caroos?
“It boils down to the fact that we did the catastrophic planning a year ago, and had no money since then to do anything.”
Former FEMA Head Mike Brown.
Which sounds exactly like almost every military organization I’ve belonged to for the past 21 years. Ya make the plans but they take at least 5 years to implement, by which time the technology you were going to use is completely out of date.
…but we won’t go until Saturday.
Serenity of course.
They’ve added to the site since the last time I was there. Oh myyyyyyyyy. This is looking very good.
Because if there are boobies, I’m so there.
So I haven’t talked about my PT program since before my surgery in February and that’s mostly because once my legs recovered my routine was pretty basic and boring. Tuesdays and Thursdays I take a Body Sculpting class which is basically light weights, high reps to the point of exhaustion. Mon/Wed/Fri was some sort of aerobics, crosstrainer, walking, stationary bike, trying to run a bit here and there but not much because 1) I hate running with a passion only a city kid can fully understand. 2) Although the muscles in my legs have fully recovered and are in great shape, my ankles, knees, and back scream at me once I go over a quarter mile. and 3) My brain freaks out when I get to that point where I have to start panting uncontrollably to get oxygen saturation.
Recently, mostly because I PT test again next month, I’ve started running again and all of that has become an issue as well as a bitchin’ case of tennis elbow. The elbow is not a biggie; I can still rattle off 40-50 pushups/minute without breathing too hard (I blame the 24 years of previous smoking on that). My lower back has become worse and worse though. Started in Body Sculpting with dead lifts (only 20 pounds, don’t start, my wife and doctors have already chewed my ass) and has progressively gotten worse.
For years I didn’t touch weights because my very first martial arts teacher back when I was 10 sneered at body builders. His point of view was that they were all muscle heads with no flexibility and no really endurance. I used to think the same thing until I did some more reading. So I didn’t even notice when I started doing less stretching, less leg lifts, less Tai Chi, less of the things I used to do for “maintenance” most of my life. My muscles were growing again. I was putting mass in the places I needed them and not losing much at all, but my waist wasn’t expanding but…it wasn’t shrinking either.
This morning I pulled out a Tae Bo DVD (any comment against Billy Blanks will be immediately deleted, his videos literally saved my career in the 90s when I was in a PT deathspin) and went through it and OMFG was I stiff! I could barely kick at thigh level much less waist level and my lower back felt like it had a hard shell shattered off of it as I started to breath and move more naturally than I have in months.
I got muscle bound. I made the mistake that I’ve known about for 34 years. I let growing muscles become more important than taking care of them.
Teh Stoopid…dat’s me.
I can’t tell you how it feels to see someone protesting the war you’re fighting. I didn’t like seeing it during Desert Storm and I’m betting the folks over there now aren’t too thrilled either.
All I know is that it sucks right up there with finding out your best friend is dating your girlfriend.
It’s betrayal on a level that chokes your heart.
When are these assholes going to get it through their heads that when they protest the war it hurts the warriors? When will they figure out that protesting the war, only makes the enemy that much more sure of their cause and increases their morale while it weakens ours?
I can’t believe BSG ended the season the way they did, but I find it both amazing and infuriating.
Okay, does anyone else have a problem with introducing MORE new characters at the beginning of the season when we still don’t know what the frell is going on with the folks we met LAST season?
I’m a HUGE Wallace and Gromit fan. The movie is coming out on October 7th. I’m as happy as Wallace with a wheel of cheese and a box of crackers.
Watching Surface this evening brought back an odd memory from when I was young:
Does anyone remember the name of science fiction book (for teens or tweens) that starts with a tsunami smashing into the East Coast, sheering off a cliff face and exposing a diamond statue found by some teenagers who were filming the wave? The discovery leads them to find a tomb. The tomb winds up being a stasis chamber which holds what is basically a creature from the black lagoon kind of biped. There’s also a machine for traveling through solid earth.
Any bells?
Anyone? Heinlein? Asimov? Bueller?
It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Shiver your timbers and blow me down, ’tis a wonderful holiday.
Loggins and Messina, Sittin’ In Again.
Okay, let’s get the obvious taken care of first. If you want Kenny Loggins’ solo stuff, if you demand Kenny Loggins’ solo stuff, do NOT go to this show. No “I’m Alright,” no “Danger Zone,” no “Heartlight,” no “Celebrate me Home.” You’ll have to trust me on this though, after you walk out of the three hours with Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina with one of the tightest bands I’ve ever heard backing them up, you won’t care. Not a lick.
The first set opened with “Watching the River Run” and “House at Pooh Corner.” This satisfied the casual fans in the audience and also let everyone know that they weren’t just going to play the songs the same way they were done 30 years ago, they’d reworked them, tweaked them here, moved parts around there. All still very recognizable, but what we witnessed tonight was not a concert of old songs done by a couple of old guys, it was a band jamming together still working on songs that were written 30 years ago.
Watching these two perform together again was joyous. When they sing and play together, the sum is so much more than the total of their parts. Kenny Loggins can sing, but when he sings with Jimmy Messina, angels weep. Jimmy Messina is an awesome guitarist, but when he jams off Kenny Loggins his fingers fly and dance and tickle your ears so that you’re left with a stupid grin on your face while he’s playing from the sheer wonder.
The end of the first set ended with a gospel rendition of “Peace of Mind” that had hints of the Staple Singers and the keyboardist brought in a taste of Ray Charles and the audience was on their feet singing as if we were all in rapture on Sunday morning. That went into a killer version of “Your Momma Don’t Dance” that took it back from Motley Crue, and aren’t we glad that finally happened?
The second set opened with the rest of the band a bit more forward and with Kenny and Jim amoung them more. The songs here were primarily acoustic and still they improved on old standards. Oddly enough, they played a song from Messina’s Buffalo Springfield days and an ol’ Poco standard. As the set progressed the jams became a bit harder, the arrangements a bit harder rock. One song I didn’t recognize but have sense realised I own, divided the audience pretty quickly. It was clear, “Same ol’ Wine,”is an anti-war song. It was a pretty good rythm and blues number musically but this is the heartland and once it became clear how much of an anti-war song it was, some people chose to leave. I admire their convictions, but they also gave us more room to dance. See, I have no problems with old hippies being anti-war, I sort of expect it and it doesn’t bother me all that much. It was one song, shake it off, move on.
And with the second set closing out with an amazing rendition of “Vahevala” and encores of “Angry Eyes” and “Danny’s Song” we just had to get up and dance and sing and just plain enjoy.
Three hours of exceptionally good music played and sang well by two guys with a killer band who know how to do it better than most of the “stars” of today. We paid about 50 bucks a pop for main floor seating and I feel like I got my money’s worth and then some.
If they’re coming your way, go if you can, you won’t be disappointed.
so I gues I shouldn’t be suprised that we’re getting comment spam in hebrew but…call me at least bemused.
I stole this one from Michele.
Ten albums I would recommend you add to your collection (No compilations or ‘best of’ collections permitted).
Like Michele, my suggestions would vary from day to day. I also tried to stay away from the obvious (Sgt Pepper, Who’s Next) albums that are probably in most people’s record collection to begin with.
1. The Band – The Last Waltz
2. Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation – Mighter Rearranger
3. David&David – Boomtown
4. Blondie – Live in New York
5. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
6. Patti Smith Group – Wave
7. Annie – Anniemal
8. Black Crowes with Jimmy Page – Live at the Greek
9. The Chieftans – Tears of Stone
10. Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler – Kneck and Kneck
And I would ask that our regulars at least add their top 5 or even their top two. What people listen to and would recommend to someone else seems kind of basic, getting to know you, information.
Stolen from Ravenwood, so go leave a comment there too.
If they ever do a remake of A Clockwork Orange, don’t ya think Eddie Izzard should play Alex?
Sometimes I don’t understand how my mind works and sometimes it makes all the sense in the world.
This morning I was checking out iTunes (it’s new music Tuesday) and nothing was standing out so I checked out the 30 second previews of the new Stones album, A Bigger Bang, and all of a sudden I wanted to go find some INXS. It’s simple really, there’s a riff on “Look What the Cat Dragged In” that’s a complete ripoff of “I Need You Tonight.” That bamp/bamp/bamp bam-diddy-bam-diddy-bamp…thing.
(Squeezing the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger.) Okay, LOOK! If you’re “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” why the FUCK are you ripping off a 20 year old, highly recognizable INXS riff? (Pointing my fingers like Lewis Black)
So…
Am I the only one who didn’t know about Google Desktop?
I’ve downloaded it and I’ve installed it and I’ll let you know what I think of it, but so far it seems like it’s mostly a memory sink.
Update: It’s made everything slow and kludgey. I took it off.
Available 20 Sep 05. You can pre-order on Amazon now.
Michele has gotten around to moving her archives and she’s opened the one from 9/11/2001.
I don’t regret it, but damn…
From the current VFW newsletter:
When the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) learned of the havoc and destruction caused by hurricane Katrina, $230,000 was immediately sent to the VFW Departments of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The emergency relief will mainly benefit devastated VFW and Ladies Auxiliary members in these hard-hit states. But the need is staggering.
VFW is calling on all Americans to “band together” for hurricane victims. To donate to VFW’s Hurricane Relief Fund please click here (https://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=what.levelc&cid=2774&tok=1).
In the words of newly elected VFW Commander-in-Chief, James R. Mueller, “It is critical that we respond immediately. Tomorrow is too late.” Mueller is asking the 9,000 VFW Posts worldwide to pledge at least $1 per member from the Post relief fund toward this immediate relief effort.
In addition to monetary aid, VFW Posts near affected areas are serving as temporary shelters for families seeking refuge in Katrina’s wake. For example, VFW Post #3619 in DeRidder, LA is currently sheltering more than 150 people. In the true spirit of the VFW’s AMERICA BANDS TOGETHER, local businesses are also uniting to provide clothing, food and supplies.
In late-breaking news, a VFW Headquarters Response Team is being dispatched to the area to survey current needs, help administer immediate relief as well as to assess – and report on – additional needs as they unfold. VFW Leadership will be broadcasting the VFW National Defense Radio Hour live from the flood-ravaged region on Monday, September 12, 3:00-4:00 p.m. CST. Tune in online at http://www.1510.com.
Please visit http://www.vfw.org frequently in the weeks ahead for more on the VFW’s work to help veterans and their families suffering from the aftermath of this horrible catastrophe.
Just in case you haven’t contributed somewhere yet…ya know…and were thinkin’ about it.
Ya gotta love Apple. All week on all the geek sites there’s been talk about the new iPod/Motorolla Cell Phone mutant gizmo called the ROKR that would be introduced today…and we got that, looks like it’s gonna run about $250.00 with a contract with Cingular. I won’t buy it, I like my phone to be my phone and my MP3 Player to be my MP3 Player, but I’m sure there’s a market.
But we also got a brand new, smaller, iPod…the Nano. Smaller than the mini but holds 2 gigs/500 songs for $199.00 or 4 gigs/1000 songs for $249.00 and comes in black or white and only weighs 1.5 oz.. Not much bigger than the shuffle and only weighs twice as much with a color window and the clickwheel..
Suhweeet!
Also…there’s a new version of iTunes to cover the new toys.
…but she’s so got me beat. Click and scroll down a little.
BTW, did you catch ANY of that this past weekend because OMFG!
No one knows how they’re going to react to diversity and hardship, but if I ever begin to turn into that blob of radiating emotion, please slap me…HARD…I don’t think I could stand the embarassment.
Yes it’s good. Yes you should go read it. Of course I wish I’d wrote it.
Myself? I consider myself a sheepdog in training as well. I’ve never had to hurt a wolf, but I figure that barking and growling at shadows for the past 21 years has earned me my kibble and has perhaps tricked one or two wolves from coming near the spot I was watching.
Bill takes himself to task a bit at one point for falling into “one big jerk-off chickenhawk fantasy” and I don’t fault him for that at all. I prefer to hang out with people who fantasize about putting themselves in harm’s way for the good of others. People who fantasize about being a wolf creep me out.
Yeah, I know that’s not going to make sense until you read Whittle’s piece. Go already.
