Right here. The really hard stuff, too. And then you can go for these, too.
Apparently, she’s resigning the governorship at the end of the month (at a picnic?!) and neither she nor the new Lieutenant Governor who will replace her will run in the next Gubernatorial election. Nothing about 2012 and the national scene.
I have my own suspicions, but the Californians who have opinions who regularly read my journal can read this posting in the Mahablog (which I regularly read) and see if they agree about the breakdown of the political process in the Golden State.
Here also is a quick breakdown of who is paid in IOUs and who is paid in cash.
I am singularly uninterested in the Jackson story. I’ve seen enough oddball celebrity circuses, and the really interesting and truly weird stuff will not come out for a while for most people. I expect more news circuses repeated endlessly on the news, and I will ignore them all.
Finally, someone sems to be doing something about rescuing Antioch College, which the alums will have to tell me if it meets their requirements. I just love Yellow Springs, and want it to remain whole.
Sanford: there’s just no end to the dumb on this; obviously, the man forgot what the color of the sky was in the rest of our world. Somewhere in South Carolina, a divorce lawyer is going to be very well off in the near future.
Exit question: Show of hands, ladies. How many of you would be willing to take back a guy who told you, “I’ve met this other woman and she’s totally my soulmate, but I’m going to try real hard to fall back in love with you”?
Chicago: In the past Mayor Daley has always survived his tough spots by letting his critics lose their nerve, get distracted, or simply self-destruct. The difference this time is that there are a whole lot more of them, and each day thousands are reminded of why they’re pissed off when they pull into a public parking space. No doubt.
This weekend, Meredith, her cousin Kay and I got out on a rare outing to a movie, and saw STAR TREK on the big screen; the kids were ‘I-dunno-about-this’ until they got sucked into the story, and they want MORE. I thought for a re-boot of the original series, it was actually darn decent.
The problem was that Meredith was flipping out over a poster on the wall as we went into the theater at the multiplex; I’d heard of this movie vaguely, from online groups I’m connected with, but I didn’t expect her to spot it and be totally flipped out about it. (possibly triggering movie poster for Adoptive kids after the cut and some spoilers about the movie ORPHAN.) read more…
Due to overload on the family (and that I’m unable to handle the mower at present) we depend on a mowing service to come over and do the lawn – a very nice operation, really, and we recommend them to any locals that might need it.
But the dogs have been plagued recently with some kind of biting bug, and even Kay, my niece, got chewed on by them, and we’re trying to figure out what the heck they are. Our best guess is that we have fleas back there. The dogs are well treated by Frontline, and the fleas aren’t in the house, but it’s murder to be on the grass, especially if it gets long.
Susan (my wife) is a biologist with the US EPA – and has worked for years in the Pesticides area. She and I are both strong believers in the idea of organics over chemicals for pest and garden control, and we all were in the back yard earlier today – Kay and Grandma Connie were out weeding the asparagus patch Susan put in this spring, and Susan and Mere were out digging up the burdock that has been going nuts in the yards, digging up plants and Roundup-ing the plants. I was out giving out what limited gardening advice I have to pass on, and IDing plants (mostly ‘yeah, that’s a weed’) for disposal.
I’m trying to research out how to organically try to nail fleas in a backyard. (Suggestions welcome.) Aside of the fact that we REALLY don’t like the idea of tossing around chemical pesticides (we have kids and dogs cavorting around the yard, let alone us and the food plants we grow and eat), we appreciate the danger in just using the things.
What I’m coming up for dealing with fleas in the backyard is below the cut; the main ‘dry’ applications need reapplication when they get soggy from rain.
With a whimper: engineer shuts down WCPO’s analog TV transmitter (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Same with other Cincinnati stations: WXIX (film of the analog signal actually going out), WLWT (nice little historical signoff piece), and also Dayton’s WHIO.
The rise and fall of Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s rubber plantation in Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s.
“Bring Your Gun To Church Day” in Louisville. Check your ammo at the door.
Cornish Pasty flavored potato chips, which has to be one of the least expected ones I every could think of. And a domestic quarrel using Cheetos as a weapon on both sides in Tennessee.
Possibly the wildest-furnished mansion I’ve seen for a while, up for sale. (tip to Becky Zoole for this one)
The Art and Folklore of Raccoon Dog Testicles, involving “Shall we gather at the river” being turned into a schoolyard song in Japan about that subject.
I’m looking at a point in the history of the Kingdom of Qin during the Warring States period that would have most easily short-circuited the Qin efforts to conquer the other kingdoms and establish an empire. Suggestions welcome.
What I’m looking at is that the idea of China as a unified imperial state is nowhere near a certain thing, and that it was just as possible to see something more akin to the European states of the middle ages all over what is now considered the ’standard’ territory of China.
Unlike many folks out there who read this, I’m not a gung-ho Anime fan; part of it is that extreme cuteness isn’t a big draw for me, and the other is that the more wild, cartoony stuff isn’t much in my taste, either.
However, I have exposed Mere to the Miyazaki movies, and she’s seen a few; KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, THE CAT RETURNS, NAUSICAA, CASTLE IN THE SKY and HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE are favorites, and she just saw WHISPER OF THE HEART with her cousin. It was a little slow for me, but it was right up the tweener girl alley.
I’ve held off on SPIRITED AWAY; partially from the parents-taken-away stuff that can be triggering for adoptees, and partially from the scary-weird parts (she’s sensitive to that, and her sister far more so). She saw MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, but that was a while back, and she found it weird and very very slow.
I should look into PORCO ROSSO and POM POKO, I assume.
Any other suggestions?
The only series anime she’s seen was HAIBANE RENMEI, which we all loved. (One of the discs is missing, I gotta replace it.) Her con ‘persona’ name, when she uses it, is ‘Little Reki’, from that series. If you’re suggesting a series, keep in mind that she’s still only 9 1/2, and that if it’s too weird or slow, she’ll lose interest.
But she and her cousin Kay are digging into the house Anime stuff with great gusto, and i’d like to keep them supplied in Anime crack.
I finished going through the VHS tapes that I can do anything with; I’ll hooking up the phonograph next to get working on digitizing the records to MP3s.
There’s around three boxes of pre-recorded tapes left to be disposed of (either at Goodwill or a local used-media store) and a small handful of tapes left over for actual sale (Amazon rated them above $15, so they’re worth fooling with) and two to offer off to a local friend first.
The stuff left:
- Nick Danger In the Case of the Missing Yolk (Firesign Theater) – $100 on Amazon
- Firesign Theater: Martian Space Party – $20 on secondary site
- Emigrants / The New Land (both around $40-45 on Amazon)
- CBC: Life and Times – Robert Munsch (totally unavailable in any format anywhere; gotta be worth something)
- Le Grand Chemin $20 at amazon
- Cast A Deadly Spell $15 at amazon
- Little Dorrit – Part One: Nobody’s Fault $24 at amazon
The two I’m handing off:
- Groucho: A life in revue
- One Warm Line (Stan Rogers documentary)
If someone’s interested in the sale stuff, let me know, and we’ll arrange something. I’m giving my friend a few days to see if she’s interested in the other two, and then they’re free for the asking.
What do you get,
When you open the top,
And look inside,
And smack your lips,
And turn it over,
And spill it out?
What do you get?
Lip-smacking’
Whipcrackin’
Paddywhackin’
Olagazackin’
Infolackin’
Alliganackin’
Crackerjackin’
Cracker Jack!
Candy-coated popcorn, peanuts, and a prize…
That’s what you get in Cracker Jack!
Rush Limbaugh: Full quotes at the link. At the other end of the world, Congressman Michelle Bachmann is suggesting that the Obama Administration is going to use Census information to round people up that it doesn’t like, and cites the Japanese-Americans rounded up during WW2 and taken to internment camps.
So I guess it’s probably really my fault for voting for Obama and plunging us all into a deep, dark gay socialist hell on earth. Sorry, Governor Sanford, I just had no idea as to what I was doing. I was only follwing the instructions of Comrade Jiang Yu Cai as she was directed by the ChiCom Politburo, too, so they’re involved in the heinous plot.
Just blame Deb Geisler for getting me started with the damn Girl Scout Cookie door-to-door photo.
