Drinking Space 9

The characters are always drinking, be it alcohol or coffe, but no one ... no one drinks water!

A character in the show, almost always drinking had significant cosmetic surgery and becmae blind -- you'd think from the drinking, but no -- from reading. What sort of values is the show trying to impress? I now know why it is considered fiction

Allen County seeks dry spell

Actually, a this point, it doesn't matter if it comes from a wand, incantation or magic beans. We have had lots, lots, lots, lots, lots of rain. Now. If I were an enterprising man, seeking to extort money from the desperate, like homeowners who want their lawns cut low, I could rake in tons of money. Until the monsoon season ends, wet we shall be. My car, with windows down, was bathed internally while I was away. Lovely, simply lovely.

Mad landscaping

Dig ... pull, set ... it's days in the making. I was clearly outdone by Dave.

Crossing the Gulf without a paddle

In my experience, I have had a chance to review education, as typtified by a middle-sized city and the quarks and limitations set by law, regionally, locally, federally.

Ultimately, with some effort you can see the gulf (like that of Mexico) between continents. While it is shorter/smaller than either ocean, it is a long way. You seek to find a way to get from Florida to Buenos Aires, but you haven't a paddle. So this is typical education. There are meetings, ideas and wonderful ideas on crossing the gulf on floatila without a paddle, a modern enginless boat without a paddle; outsourcing the hand water stroking to another person (country or privatized company), but nothing has worked.

Realistically, all the theories still resolve nothing because of a lack of innovation and the funds to carry out real education for all. No, not just throwing money at it, but without funidng, it dies.

More analogies: You're in Florida and need to get to Buenos Aires. You can't walk on water. You are now without paddles. You could spend $20 on paddles, then rent/make a boat and cross the gulf in a course of a month, with aid brought to you by chance passersby. A cleverer way would be to load up everyone on a plane and take off across the gulf and land, but it's costly and carries only a few persons (tens-hundreds) at a time. You could bypass the gulf, go through Central then parts of South America to get there -- still time consuming. You could charter a cruise liner and haul many people there in a few days.

I think the plan to build a bridge -- "bridging the gulf" (of achievement) is an idea that could not work the way it is now.

1. Can everyone, does everyone need to go to Buenos Aires?
2. Hauling people there, having them changed little for their journey -- except for poorer and fatter, but none the richer seems a poor choice too
3. Forcing each person to row their way there seems too cruel, so ...

Option 4
Assist only as needed, like a marathon. The runners are running to a goal, for their own reasons, finishing where they can. Not every runner finishes, and ultimately only a few finish within the top, and there is someone who finishes faster, because of training, because of natural abilities. Others, who tried are none-the-worse for their efforts. Their names are unknown, but they have tried and accomplished something others can't, won't and don't. They have finished what they could, assisted as needed on their run, by drink tables, snack talbes, medical aids, but not one person picked up a racer and forced them to run further. They ran because they chose to run.

A cold hard fact is: if you don't run, you achieve nothing. It doesn't matter if you aren't the fastest, aren't the strongest, or have the greatest stamina or best timing with your stride. There are one-legged runners who perform, and perform better than two-legged runners. There are deaf runners, blind runners -- these don't stop them from trying. You lose if you don't try. No gain nothing, are spared "defeat" only in that you didn't run, now left to only wonder -- to watch it from the side. There is no glory, no free drinks, snacks, no crowds to cheer you, despite the fact that you're in last place -- cheered on to finish, just as the final winner.

To get education to each person, money is needed.
1. to assist, only when needed
2. to provide anything that the person could no otherwise obtain
3. support, so that when the person tires and cannot legitimately finish, then they aren't shamed into a closet
4. each person knows that not working, weakens the self
5. while the participant's goal may not be Buenos Aires, but simple the Keys, they are supported to get there too.
6. some obstacles (parents, peers, commmunity) would be extricated for better success for all

Germanfest weather

or whether or not, looks grim this year with weather. It appears it is the high of the 8-year cycle of local rain. Around four years from now, 2010/11 we will have the driest summer. It is now, wet, wet, wet, monsoon season here, and I'd rather see that long-forgotten yellow ball in the sky known as the sun.

Germanfest will run with a canopy over the party, but still -- hot, humid air makes for bitter people, regardless the fun of the event.
My father was three quarters German, my Mum was around half German, making me mostly German, however born in America, fourth generation born American.

Shark Tale

1. Three Little Birds - Sean Paul/Ziggy Marley
2. Car Wash - Christina Aguilera/Missy Elliott
3. Good Foot - Justin Timberlake/Timbaland
4. Secret Love - JoJo
5. Lies & Rumors - D12
6. Got To Be Real - Mary J. Blige/Will Smith
7. Can't Wait - Avant
8. Gold Digger - Ludacris/Lil' Fate/Bobby V
9. Get It Together - India Arie
10. We Went As Far As We Felt Like Going - Pussy Cat Dolls
11. Digits - Fan 3
12. Sweet Kind of Life - Cheryl Lynn
13. Some of My Best Friends Are Sharks - Hans Zimmer
---
Now then, we have Gold Digger, in a kid's movie. "but she ain't dealin' wit no broke ___ggers" -- yes! That's what I want my kid singing!

Some people just need to be shot with reality before they truly embrace it. If you have to have someone tell you the obvious, you ought to step aside for a while and learn, right?

Da Vinci code

why would you watch a video based on good fiction, bad logic.

I'll write a book on changing your perspective on rods, cones, and color structure as defined by centuries of manipulation of the perceived. What if there weren't just three primary colors, but rather five and that your whole understanding of color in all things was based on a simplistic view, much like a lie? Wow! That sounds great ... does it survive reality ...

[shake, shake, shake]
'my sources say no'

Sorry, even magic eight ball (10 sided die within blue gel, inside an 8-ball shape finds it to be smelly like septic.
If your attempt is to claim -- based on data, logical, inspired ... well, so is polytheism, to which I do not subscribe. It's as reasonable as souls bound to inanimate objects like stones, rocks, living trees, irises

"You have a greater chance of animating this scapel than repairing a nervous system"

-- Young Frankenstein

not to cheer

about Yahoo -- despite its name, I'll not "yahoo", for its limitations I see outweigh its 'virtues', like the pics being unavailable for full size rendering, but for print, acquired through Target. I think that stinks. My cousin, who uses Yahoo, made available to us the pics from a reunion, but I couldn't view them as large photos -- each being 30-50 K size only. The pics I loaded were 700K - 2 Meg, free to download, but slow to do pic by pic.

Yahoo needs some fixing with true users

Why I like my camera

1300 photos in 4 days ... not a single print, yet the pics -- for what they're worth, are mine. It can, at max, take 2.5 frames per second -- fast, movie-like speed.
I'm now excited about buying more crap for it -- flash, other lenses; you'd think that the camera was a lover -- to please and to placate it's wants for tokens of love. I'd like to completely replace my old camera, for which I had a nice 90-300 zoom. That was necessary for timid animals like deer, well weary of humans.

"My wife. I think I'll keep her."

-Monty Python

Melting

schools are typically not air conditioned. Where I was today was, but it wasn't running in the morning and barely moved air. I expect the kids to be puking in the afternoon tomorrow if the AC is again, not used correctly.
What's odd is that the summer school begins days after the school year ends, and at 7:15 in the morning. There will be some cranky kids, to be sure. What were the developers thinking? I'll guess that they weren't thinking, or expereinced whatsoever.

Writing from the road

We are traveling through Antwerp, Ohio with the drive through liquor store.

 

This is a little late in posting.

We have returned and are all, quite tired.

CNN leaning like Pissa

Grandmothers Against the War ... has 20 regulars.  How is that spectacular?  How is that really newsworthy?  Okay, so they make pamphlets, signs, noise .. and so does PETA.  "We sound more credible than a bunch of teen protesters", as one of the stated.  Really?  Are they really more, better infomed?  Now, I'm not taking a position on or against the war or our involvement, but rather why would CNN give air to this group?  I would not.  I chalk it up to luantic fringe, or powerless angry folks who amazingly got media exposure, who -- without slanted media (CNN, FOX, newspapers, etc. all share this trait) would get as much note as a fifty year-old homeless man with grungy clothes.

On the road to nowhere 2

We followed Jack there, who was the only one who surely knew the route.

Take route 8 to this road, then on for 2 miles on a rustic road to a T intersecetion, there, left to another hidden road then right to a dark forest ... then at the gravel drive, proceed with caution ... potholes galore! After a while you reach a hunting lodge ... there you are.

It was a nice place. I had never seen a lodge before -- bar there with seating areas and beer cooler ... orange clay pigeons -- volleyball net, odds and ends. It was neat, but neater with the people there. My cousins' children, I could hardly recognize as they had changed so much!

Rides

Family rides the incline -- pricy. It was on top of a hill, obviously, and there were few places to park. Parking: $8. I think we were robbed there. Somewhere in the mix of pictures are indistinct wild turkeys near the railroad tracks ... 2 blocks from the river. I think the view was worth $5 .. parking, not so much.

check out other photos on flickr pictures.

What the hotel didn't write

The internet -- highspeed as it were, is -- tenative, depending on when it decides to work effectively.  It's okay, but the 100 MPS has yet to be shown.  It's a good deal faster than having to just wait, wait, wait ... which I hate!

stopped at stop

Presently at 197 East on 80/90 ... near Youngstown... long, long, journey

 

Interestingly, the other car has sleepy, sleepy people there, groggy.  Dramamine; I'll have to get some of that stuff!

Geting ready for reunion

Several bags ... change of participants. The locations have stayed the same, though traveling in downtown Pittsburgh, PA to get to incline might be a challange. I doubt where we will stop will have free wi-fi (note Monkeyjack's ill experience with reports of free wi-fi).

End ...

plagued by rhetorical questions

Animal house: Flounder approaches a table where people are playing poker ...

"Are you guys playing cards?"

---
More often than not ... I get similar questions that I meet with looks of ill-mood for their randomness or stupidity

Dented!

Marks of the event that put more texture to my car.

You might ask, which dents are they? The newer ones are white!

We're on the road to nowhere!

I'll just make this as easy to find as the money in Fargo -- along some post on a few-mile fence, in winter.