I've been looking around,
and I've found myself in a rut.

Ever find a new restaurant, and it becomes your favorite place to eat? It's a regular cycle of mine. From way back. I'll attach myself to a restaurant, or fast food place, and go there two or three times a week. Till I get tired of it. Then I move on, and find another eatery for my obsession.

This kind of cycle can be expanded, covering months and years, affecting all aspects of life. You meet something, you like something, you really enjoy something. Then you want something else. Anything else. You switch to another new interest. Maybe even recycle an old interest. And when I say "you," I mean anyone but you. Certainly you're not like that! :)

My current rut is about blogging. There's no wind in my sails. I've wondered if it was a long passing infatuation. I hope not! :)

Burn, Baby Burn
Tonight I had a treat, Burn Notice. This is a USA Today series, about a covert spy operative. Michael Westen. He got a Burn Notice, which means he was cut off from his handlers, had his money frozen, and left on his own in Miami. If you like action/intrigue, you'll like this show. It's not heavy, it's light hearted, and pretty much family friendly. I got to see the pilot again tonight, and it sparked me up! Look for it! Or download it, or whatever you folks do. :)

The experience got me to thinking about the impact the screens have on our lives. Used to be the television, now it's whatever moving pictures and words are dancing on a flat space. The act of consuming a message, and the opportunity to discuss it, as quick as you can type it. Flying through the air, with the greatest of ease!

A Genetic Disposition
My grandfather on my Mother's side was a Baptist preacher. He literally preached in a log cabin church. I never met him. But I was told some stories about his life. He was a popular preacher, but he dismissed having his sermons broadcast on radio. Why? He believed the word of God was to be shared door to door, one on one, like a communal experience. That was the only way to spread his ministry. I can respect that.

Eventually, grandpa grew too old to keep up his ministry. He aged, and settled into a life at his House. Somehow, a television set made its way into the living room. He didn't think much of it. These were rabbit ear years! And he was older. But on Saturday Nights, they were able to get Pro Wrestling LIVE! And he would jump up off the couch, transfixed on some kind of nonsense, like Mr. Colossaus vs. Mojo Komiemoto, or whatever. Didn't matter. He watched the drama, and those dancing bodies running into each other. He was happy.

I have an appreciation for how he tried to keep radio and television in context, while later in life embracing its magical and persuasive elements.

Was there a point here? Nope, I don't think so! Just that I'm working out of my rut. If you've read this far, you are due for a couple of treats! :)

Here's a Calvin and Hobbs knockoff. I thought it was cute. :)

This is something I have to take care of. I was sent an email with an image. It's supposedly "God's Eye," or something like that. I was supposed to email it to seven or 20 friends within 20 or seven minutes, or something like that. So I figured posting it here would suffice! But it is a cool pic:

Reminds me of a song. "God's Golden Eyes," by John Hiatt. It's on a fantastic CD, called Crossing Muddy Waters. It's an old CD now, but still resonates with me. I couldn't find a link to the song. I don't usually do lyrics, but here's God's Golden Eyes:

We came through the forrest
Of jealousy and greed
All our loved ones before us
Gave us everything we need

To cross that great river
Of every tear was ever cried
'till we find ourselves staring in God's golden eyes

In the desert love waited
Licking salt water from her skin
We could have been sedated
For all that we put in

We thought it was some devil
Who put the crying in goodbye
Till we found ourselves staring in
God's golden eyes
We found ourselves staring in God's golden eyes

And we did all we could do
We couldn't run from me and you
We did the best we could
No matter how hard we tried

Like babes we come whining
For some forgotten sin
Surprised to be shining
Just like diamonds in the wind

Every facet so perfect
And every cut the proper size
When we find ourselves staring in God's golden eyes
We find ourselves staring in God's golden eyes

You gotta hear the tune!

:)
TG

Hey Yall! How's everyone been doing? Not much to report here. I guess I'll ramble, yall!

I live in the southern portion of the United States of America. That means it gets hot. It's tolerable if you're outside, right now, if you're acclimated. But with enclosures, you gotta have the AC.

The AC in my car has been out since before last summer. I went through a season of sweat, showing up at work soaked, simply because I didn't have the money to recharge the AC in my car. I tried to put a positive spin on it. It was like a sweat lodge on wheels. Sweating is good. Empty your pores of the poison. yada yada. I decided not to do that this year.

It was just over a hundred bucks, refill the freon, on my way. But no. After the fix, those mechanic dudes noticed a leak. It was around the compressor, or something like that. So now, it would bleed me $850 to save my sweat. Much less the humiliation of sweating profusely another... six months? Time for a cost/benefit analysis. Bottom line, the AC in my car was blowing cold. It could leak out any time. I decided to take my chances, deal with it when the AC blows out. A cold wind still blows! :)

Speaking of wind blowing, I took a pic of a place still lying around after Katrina.

This is the Firedog Saloon. It's just a couple of blocks from where I work. Before the storm, it was a great place to go for lunch, or have a beer after work. Some good memories there. Had friends who were banned! :) But never me. I swear.

Last summer, this entertainer and troubadour, Jimmy Buffett, made a video in this skeleton of a building! It's not his best work, but here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfhNKK7rkhw

So no, it wasn't about the Firedog Saloon. It was just a backdrop for a song about another, fictional bar called "Bama Breeze." The locals weren't happy about that! They wanted a song about the Firedog! But they were happy Jimmy was there. It was a treat. And he promised to write a song more close to home. How could he not? Nice diplomacy. :)

If I were to suggest a title, "The Freon Leaking, Rolling Sauna, Firedog Saloon Run!" I could extrapolate some lyrics from that!

:)
TG

I'd like to propose a toast! Any toast! I'd prefer wheat bread, or some decent white bread. Even a bagel. Just toast it.

Let's start again. I'd like to raise a glass and say something! As I embark upon my second set of one hundred blogs, I'd like to say that I have had a drink tonight. So, under that cloak of plausible destinability, I'd like to say thank you.

Thank you for reading these words. Thank you for taking that chance of wasting your time, or coming to the conclusion that yeah, this really is somebody just pleasing himself, while hoping someone watches.

Such is the nature of the blog. I mean, seriously, I could start rambling and say things that make me feel good, get some stuff off my chest, and it would satisfy. For a moment or two.

But I hold those things inside; I think most people do. You've got to have that "shake your head" moment, when you either don't say what you're really thinking, or regret you did. Personally, I'd rather regret I said it! But it's like that Ballerina. It could spin the other way on a dime.

I don't have any great relative visuals for this blog.
Here's a giant guitar:

I think it's a Les Paul. If I could fit it in my lap, I'd play you a tune. Oh, don't fret. Maybe next year!

:)
TG

So this is my 100th blog. What to do? Nothing special. It's just a number, right? Like five, or 4,000.

I decided to do something I haven't done in a while. Tell some true stories from my past. They're unrelated, except for being unique in their own special way. First up...

You Can Handle The Truth!
This happened in my late teens. It was a Saturday afternoon, I was by myself, lounging around the House, watching college football. The doorbell rings.

I open the door, and there's this young boy, maybe seven or eight, and he's dripping wet, with a bath towel wrapped around his waist. I recognized the kid from a couple of houses down. Didn't know the family that well, but we'd waive and say hey if we saw each other. He looked confused.

"How's it going?" I ask. "I was taking a shower," he said, "And the hot water ran out..."

I didn't know what to say. I could ask him if he wanted to finish his shower at our place, but that seemed kinda weird. Then he says, "Do you have hot water?" I say yeah. "We didn't know if it was just our house, or it was out in the whole neighborhood..." :) I explained to him the concept of the hot water heater, and to wait a while till it warmed up and it would come back. He just said, "Okay."

I thought it was cute. Then I recalled he said, "We didn't know..." Did his whole family think hot water was a public utility? We'll never know! Next Up...

Sorry Boss!
This is an accident story. It started out innocently enough. For many years, I worked in a small graphics studio with one other person, my boss. We'd have other help come and go, but for over ten years, I stuck around. Good times. Yeah, right! :)

One day, I bought a hoagie and some garlic breadsticks from a local sandwich shop and brought them back to work, to eat while I worked on a big project. I knew I couldn't finish it all, so I went across the hall to offer my boss some breadsticks. "No thanks," he says, "but they smell pretty good!"

This is where it gets bad. At the time, I had a bad cold. Chest congestion, sneezing, etc. So I'm coughing up the phlem, and sneezing pretty regular. Rather than go to the restroom each time, I take the tissues and throw them in the breadsticks sack. I was done with the sticks, and phlemage was substantial.

After a while, boss comes in to see how the project's going. It was a big brochure. I told him I wouldn't have anything to show him till the next day. He said okay. Then he asked if I had any breadsticks left. "Sure," I said. :) He puts his hand in, and pulls his hand out with some really gross stuff clinging to his fingers! I was so humiliated! But I couldn't stop laughing. And, fortunately, he couldn't stop grinning. He was a pretty good boss. :) Finally...

Catch Me If You Can!
This story requires a wee bit of background. When I was around eleven years old, in the early 70's, my father was offered a promotion, which required us to relocate. This meant we had to sell our old House and buy another, in the new location. By circumstance, the House sold before we were ready to move to the new location. So we had to live in a rental House for a couple of months.

The House Pops chose didn't have enough bedrooms, but it did have high ceilings. The solution? Triple Bunk Beds! Yes, pops and my older bros constructed, not purchased, triple bunks. With a ladder on the foot end. This thing was HUGE to me! But I had to sleep on the bottom bunk, safety first. That didn't keep me from climbing between bunks during the day. I had a Star Trek Thing going. This was before video games!

Then one night we had company over. It was a couple from church, with their daughter. She was maybe four or five. After dinner, the grownups wanted to have grownup time, so I was stuck with the little brat. :) We wound up at the bunk beds, closest thing to a playground at the moment. I told her to man the lower bunk, while I checked out the middle bunk to see if it was safe. I was in Star Trek Mode!

After that, it's kind of a blur. I was in the second bunk, fighting Klingons or something, and I hear her giggling and giving those playful yelps only lil' kids can do. But it wasn't below me, it was above me! She had climbed the ladder and was looking down on me from the top bunk!

So I'm looking up from the middle of this bunk sandwich, and she's leaning out, reaching down towards me. I say "NO! Get back! I'm coming up to get you!" But no. She leans too far forward, and falls past me towards the ground. I reach out with my right arm and grab her ankle.

I held her there dangling in space, she with her tiny fingers reaching towards the ground, a giggling God's Angel. I can still remember holding her ankle with one hand, wondering how I did it. That's the first time I truly believed in miracles.

Well that's my 100th blog! I'll try to have more pics and razzle dazzle soon!

:)
TG

Spring has sprung here! I spent Easter taking pics of foliage blooming all around, to share with my friends in colder environs.

But first, I had a treat tonight. Fox broadcast my favorite House episode!

It's Lines In The Sand. This episode has everything you look for. Great one liners, hilarious House interactions with Wilson and Cuddy (Attica! Attica!), A couple of memorable House solliliquies, an apparent House neurosis with the carpet, and of course the Patient of the Week! House could communicate with the autistic boy better than the parents! And then there was the girl attracted to House, which he finally realized was a medical condition. "Damn! Damn! Damn!" lol. Then the end. As Wilson best put it, "Now that's a Ten."

But back to the Bloomers. I hope I get the names of these flowers right. This first pic I took at one of my buddy's house. I think they're called Pink Flowers.

This one is the elusive Yellow Flower:

Not to be outdone by the Red Flower:

Or the impressive Pointy Flowers:

And finally my favorite, the Solo Purpleosino:

While taking my pics around the property,
I happened by poor Princess...

You might not can tell, but Princess is behind a screen window. Like Opie, Princess is an inside cat. On this perfect weather Easter Sunday, she SO wanted to make a jailbreak! While Princess wants to bask in the sunshine, what's Miss Priss up to?

She's inside, showing her tail, and looking for trouble!
Hope you enjoyed the first signs of Spring!

:)

TG

If a Picture Paints A Thousand Words,
Then Why Can't Cows Paint Moo...

Not much going on this week, so here's some filler pics!

First off, the Albert Einstein Action Figure Hero arrived earlier this week!

Thanks to IndianaMom for showing me where I could find this treasure. And remember, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

This past weekend, I grilled some ribs. And I'm not a rib guy. I've always been a poultry guy. And steaks. But I finally got it right this past weekend.

Here's the recipe: Boneless Pork Ribs. There's these spice dispensers, called "Grinders," from McCormick. And they might not be the only ones with these dispensers. You pop the top off the spice dispenser, turn it upside down, and twist the top, grinding "fresh" ground spice. I used a garlic pepper, with a dash of sea salt. Grind and rub into the meat.

Next, splash the ribs in Balsamic Vinegar. This stuff's not cheap, but it's acidic and flavorful. Make sure they wallow in it a bit. Then cover and coat with your favorite barbecue sauce, marinate a couple of hours at room temperature, and grill on low for about 20-30 minutes. Turn and brush with marinade every five minutes or so.

These ribs were so good, I had to hire security to protect them!

Unfortunately, he got caught "hitting the sauce" while on the job! :)

Had to let him go! I tried to ask Miss Priss how this lowlife got into the House, and she didn't have much to say!

No, she's not roaring, she's yawning! She seems to think she has some sort of job security! We'll see about THAT! :)

Meanwhile, I caught my bro snoozing in his big lazyboy chair. I tried to sneak up on him to get a pic. Opie was snoozing with him in his lap. Opie lives in the front House, while MP and I live in an apartment in the back. Unfortunately, I woke them up while sneaking up with my camera.

Opie has a similar coat to MP. Personally, I think they'd make a lovely couple! :) I'm sure they have a lot in common, starting with being spayed and neutered! But when I approach MP about it, she seems kind of ambivalent:

But that's MP, hard to get, harder to have!

:)
TG

This is kind of a special blog. It's my 97th. I never thought I'd make it this far! I thought I'd do something special. Kind of an extravaganza. Three Ring Circus! Everybody's got their ticket stub, right? :)

We really do work at the office. It's not like we're just passing around and discussing freaky email. I'd like to share some things that were shared with me. And I didn't get all of these from work! It was a discovery process. Many of my friends have probably seen these head scratchers before. First off...

Anybody know this Math Geek?

He's the host of this website, which I'll link to in a minute. Math scares me. Always has. But this is a parlor trick on steroids, and all you have to do is subtract. One time. Here's what happens. He asks you to pick any three or four digit number and write it down. I pick a three digit number, because I have a simple mind. For instance, 658.

Then the Geek will ask you to make another number, from the same digits as your original. In this case, I might take 658 and make 586. Then, the Geek will ask you to SUBTRACT (this is the math, dammit) the smaller number from the larger. In this case I'm subtracting 586 from 658. You need three things here, a pencil, paper, and sobriety. Or a calculator. Then you could have a couple of beers.

In this case, the number after the subtraction is 072. After this, Geek Boy will do something pretty cool. Here's the link:

http://www.digicc.com/fido/

Pick your number! And follow the instructions closely! Works every time. Next up...

I'm So Dizzy, My Ballerina Is Spinning...

This evidently is an oldie but a goodie. It's an image of a spinning ballerina. Question is, is she spinning clockwise, or counter clockwise? Here's the link:

http://www.maniacworld.com/Spinning-Silhouette-Optical-Illusion.html

So, which way is she spinning? Inquiring minds want to know! :)

How Blind Are You? (aka Best Ever)

This one takes a bit of a time and effort investment. Like you haven't done that already! :) Just a minute or two. This is a visual, where pink dots are flashing in a circle, around cross hairs. Read the instructions above the graphic closely. If you take the time, you'll have a brush with the nature of hallucinations! Here's the link:

http://www.moillusions.com/2006/03/disappearing-dots.html

For me, what they said would happen, happened!

And a Special By the Way, much of the stuff I'm featuring here I found on www.moillusions.com. Don't know anything about them. But they've got some cool stuff!

The Scariest Visual Illusion Yet
This illusion carries a warning. If you don't care to see something frightening, don't analyze this image:

http://www.moillusions.com/2006/03/scariest-optical-illusion.html

It took me a minute or so to decipher what was really being depicted. Look closely. Not for the faint of heart!

That's it for now! Have a most enjoyable balance of your existence!

:)
TG

I haven't had much to blog about the past week. Then today, I realized there's a lot to talk about. Or report about? That's the thing about blogs, they are what you make them.

I came across three news items today, which kind of speak for themselves. Collectively, I guess they pose more questions than anything else.

I was cruising down the road with my bro, discussing the news of the day. And he says, "Did you know there's a body of plastic in the ocean that's as big as the United States?" Or something like that. I said, "that's just crazy talk!," or something like that. But he was serious. So I had to google it when we got back to the House.

Turns out, there is a very large body of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Because of ocean currents, winds, and such, all this plastic is circulated together. And it's huge. Plastic can be broken down into molecular structure, but that doesn't mean it's disposable. It's accumulating. If you want to read up on this subject, here's a link:

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Ocean-Plastic-Landfill-Algalita1nov02.htm

So that's kind of depressing. Then I stumbled across Moko. Perhaps you've read about Moko. This is a story from New Zealand. Moko is a dolphin, a regular patron of the coast of Mahia, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. Moko likes to play with humans and such. Note: This is not Moko!

Well, these two pygmy whales became stranded inside the New Zealand coastline, and mere humans were unable to set them on the path back out to sea. Enter Moko! She (or he?) came up to the semi-beached whales, and guided them back to their natural habitat, the sea. Here's a link to this amazing story:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKWEL1524120080313

This final news item is a bit disturbing. I don't have any fancy visuals for it. The housing authority in Boca Raton, Florida, announced that they would be taking applications to get on a waiting list for subsidized housing. They were to start taking the applications Wednesday morning.

The line started forming Tuesday night. According to the report, there were people from as far away as Georgia waiting in line, even though they weren't eligible. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people formed a waiting crowd, according to the report.

They gave out several hundred applications, then said the final couple of hundred would only go to the disabled. That's when the crowd became a "riot." People rushed the facility, and police in riot gear stepped in. Eight or nine people were taken to the hospital. Here's a link to this sad, but alarming story:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpauthority0313pnmar13,0,5643370.story

I tried to discuss the News of the Day with Miss Prissy, and her reaction was, well, typical for MP!

I mean, if it's not about MP, what's the point? :) But after a while, she got to thinking about it...

Between MP and Moko, we might could figure this thing out!

:)

TG

Edit Below!

As promised in my comments last blog, here's some more of that artwork made from a single sheet of paper.

But first, upon further vettification, these are indeed the works of Peter Callesen. He does some other things besides paper sculptures, and has an impressive body of work. You can learn more about him and see a lot of cool art at his website:

http://www.petercallesen.com/

If you go there, just click on his name and it will take you to an index. But here's a few more samples for immediate consumption:

Here's the EDIT! I got to thinking about this. The image below, how did the artist make the bridge (or whatever it is), without using some kind of adhesive, or other unconventional means? This is kind of like a magic trick. I've got one theory. Anybody got any ideas? :)

There's lots more, but I think that's Plenty Promotional Peter Plugging! Try saying that three times fast! So, what's your favorite of this batch?

:)

TG