Here and Now

Where I feel like I live sometimes...

Is that MPH or KPH?

Wherever you go, there you are...or, something like that....

So true :) Found online And blogging would be, what, many paragraphs saying, essentially, nothing about donuts to, well, no one... :)

Actually it IS funny :)

Wait...hazardous plants?  What, like this:

Found online So we've been noticing these little reward offers on products. EVERYTHING has some kind of reward. The backs of receipts have "complete this survey and you might win a thousand dollars." Sheesh... Last thing was on some Pampers wipes that we keep around ('cause we are messy people, okay?). So there's this little code on a little coupon you have to redeem for point. Okay. Wait, you have to join the rewards points tribe or circle or community or something. Sigh. Okay. I'll use Lori's email address (after all, she handed me the coupon). Password has to be between 8-14 characters and contain at least one letter and one number...argh, that's a 15 letter password. No you can't have my actual birth date, but I'll give you something close, sort of. Okay, ten minutes later and the click submit code...oops, missed a letter on the code...argh. I can't just insert a letter? I have to type it again...sigh...  Okay, there we go. 30 po...

I got nothing better :)

Not so little anymore...

From Morguefile I subscribe to  A Word A Day  emails - I get a "new" word every day - it's about 50/50 whether or not I've encountered the words before, but I enjoy the definitions, the little explorations of meaning, the reminder that some of these words exist. Most weeks the words are on a theme - like nouns we've made verbs ("Google that for me" anyone? or "Friend me"). A while ago it was Eponyms - words derived from someone's name (yeah, I had NO idea that "mentor" came from, what, Telemachus's adviser from The Odyssey ? Who knew? Well, okay, probably lots of people knew that... I  didn't, however). In the intro came this kind of unrelated bit: Actors act, curators curate, and orators orate. But doctors don't doct * , victors don't vict, and pastors don't past. Such is the English language. And we certainly don't want ancestors to ancest, traitors to trait, or gators to gate. I loved that post ...

These are the coolest pair of signs ever.  I mean, I don't know why Dr. Seuss is making road signs, but this is AWESOME!

From www.imdb.com Today's my day off and while doing a few other things around the house, I managed to watch most of two old movies I hadn't seen before.   Turner Classic Movies  has been honoring  Elia Kazan  because today's his birthday.  I knew some of the big stuff he'd done, of course, On The Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden*  and so on.  A couple years ago Lori and I stayed up late and watched  Sea of Grass  with Tracy and Hepburn - decent enough movie, but miscast I thought. Anyway, this morning started with a movie called  Boomerang!  a "based on a true event" story about a murder of an episcopal priest and the subsequent investigation into the murder.  The State Attorney General has some doubts about the state's case against the man they arrest, there's politics (and dirt, too - shocking, I know) and an interesting glimpse into late 40s police procedures (fictionalized, of course).  It's a me...

I'll take it :)

What could a Cat Oven even be?  Yeah, I'm too lazy to even Google it...

A couple weeks ago  I  kind of went off about the news being all about the salacious and titillating and sensational - and that that's what we, the general public, must want or why would they give that to us...  And today I was surfing a couple news websites and here's what I see: Click to see all of this - Fox News.com 08-23-12 Now, granted, that's Fox News, I get it, and it's not the "headlines" per se, but it's, well, that's a lot of garbage for two lines of images and text.  Let's see... Deadly sex, Kidman getting naked, Nudity on TV... Not to mention a health threat and a celebrity threat and...geez, MS "kills" Windows Logo (I know, I know - it just means "gets rid of," but still...) And I was this: Click to see all of this - CNN.com 08-23-12 CNN.  Really?  THAT is the headline you're going with?  And the picture?  Sigh... So... Is that what we REALLY want to see?  I mean, *I* don't.  I want some...

I saw this morning that director  Tony Scott committed suicide  by jumping off a bridge in LA.  I enjoyed many of Scott's movies - I mean, who didn't watch  Top Gun  or  Crimson Tide  back in the day? - and some of his work on TV, too (Lori and I were avid fans of the show  NUMB3RS  when it ran - I think we've seen every episode). I just saw a report that he may have had  inoperable brain cancer  which might explain his motive...a bit, I suppose.  Some yesterday hinted  that being in his brother  Ridley Scott's  shadow might somehow have contributed...* Several articles had tweets from famous people regarding Scott's death: In a tweet Sunday, director Ron Howard said, "No more Tony Scott movies. Tragic day." Director Jon Favreau tweeted, "Such sad news about Tony Scott. Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends." Really?  Tweets?  I find that to be...just wrong somehow.  "Hea...

So, you can come in and sit at a table and talk.  But that's it.  Wow - take away the talking and it could be church :) 'cause, you know, no food...or...nevermind...

I saw this on Facebook the other day: Of course Mark Twain  never said any such thing ,* but it's a great quote nonetheless.  And I chuckled out loud when I read it.** Last week I was at the  Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit  simulcast at a nearby church.  One of the presenters was  William Ury ***, co-author of a book called  Getting to Yes  and famous Harvard guy who has been involved in handling negotiations from corporate mergers and union strikes to war in the Middle East and conflict in Northern Ireland.  So, yeah, he knows something about conflict... You can read some notes on his session at GLS  here .  A couple things stood out for me: Conflict is natural.  We negotiate things all the time, every day.  All major decisions of our lives require at least some negotiation and many, many small decisions.**** In negotiation, separate the person from the problem.  This is HARD - but abs...

From Morguefile I was eating lunch at a local restaurant in Tidioute when I overheard part of a conversation that troubled my spirit - because it was, in a small part, about me, though the people wouldn't have had any way of knowing that. Last week I was asked to pray for a "blessing of the bikes" for a  dice run  heading out of Tidioute on Saturday.  So I asked one of our guys who is a part of the regional  Christian Motorcyclists Association  for some pointers, showed up early and, at the appointed time, prayed - for the bikes to work like they were supposed to, for the road to be clear, for the bikers to pay attention and for other drivers to pay attention to them, for God's blessing to be on the riders.  That's what I can remember of it, anyway.* I joked just before they left that I would pray for no rain, too.  And I did.  And it rained on me on the way home.  But, I thought, no big deal, they were going in a big loop around the ...

So this was in my inbox.  I smiled because of the new twist on the classic,  Nigerian scam  and the updated  Lotto scam  that's been popping up in my inbox.  This one is so ridiculously unbelievable that I couldn't help but read it and then wonder, "Who would reply to this?" Click to read the whole thing Sadly, someone might.  But...really?  Somehow two metal boxes verified by the US government as containing actual cash in the amount of 16.5 million dollars is sitting unclaimed at the airport in Atlanta that FINALLY came in from those darn scammers from Nigeria (apparently) or somewhere.  I and, only I, one would assume, am the lucky one to have beat the actual scammers and have been contacted by directly by Homeland Security's Frank Navarro - not via an official email, of course, but via his "live.com" account. Sounds legit to me. Tell you what, Frank.  I'll just drive down to Atlanta and claim the boxes in person, okay?