Thinking about Thanksgiving

especially on Veterans' Day.
(Better viewed on higher speed connection; crossposted at Livejournal.)

My First Costume

This is the first year I had a costume for Halloween. I made a tin foil robot after seeing many on the web. The mall was having their annual trick or treat for a few hours in the evening where kids could walk in safety and get treats from local merchants. People were encouraged to put on a costume and come give the mall some seasonal atmosphere. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to test the waters, so I geared up and went to the mall in costume, sans robot head as I couldn't get in the car with it on.

I was pleasantly surprised at the response. Got a lot of parents pointing out the robot to their kids and getting requests for "TinFoilio" to make appearances at some stores. What I couldn't quite grasp is the disparate response from the little kids who either: were intrigued and waved and wanted to approach the "robot", or wanted to flee in terror, often shrieking - though I must confess the latter did hold a certain perverse appeal. Still, what's to fear from a tin foil robot?

Then I saw an on-line article about the correlation in people's minds between the width of a man's face and his tendency toward aggression. Given that I already stand around 6'2" and the extra height of the "head" added about 4 inches to my height, I suppose that could be imposing. But how tall is Minnie Mouse at Disney World? So that couldn't be all of it. So I'm left with wondering if there is anything to that "wide face" theory.

For your consideration, here is a picture of the wide-faced guy the article used as illustration and a photo of my robot head. The robot "head" is 12"x12"x12".






After I got home I decided to stroll around the neighborhood, which in itself was fun. Cars stopped to pay respects, I overheard someone say to one of their kids, "Look, there's a robot, just walking around. You think he's just walking around alone?" One little girl was concerned about that. It was kinda sweet. I "busted" a few robot dance moves to the delight of some of the kids - a few who even joined in. I walked down Belmont and got some honks from passing autos and a few slowed. Had my picture taken several times, though none were posed. All-in-all, a very positive first experience bringing TinFoilio "on-line".

I already have several more ideas for TinFoilio iterations in mind, hopefully in time for New Year's. Maybe TinFoilio will have better luck finding and sustaining a relationship than I have!

(Note: Posted originally at http://misterjimmy.livejournal.com/)

Before the finger pointing gets out of control

I want to observe this about the following tragic incident:
Pittsburgh gunman 'lying in wait' killed 3 police officers.
People will read the killer's comments e.g., 'being concerned that "the Obama administration was poised to ban guns", "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon" and fail to connect the dots.

So let me connect them.

Anyone who is so out of touch with reality to start shooting and killing people isn't rational enough to be intellectually concerned about anything! And let me state for the record, those same people don't have any gun 'rights' to take away!

I'd say the odds are slim to none - as in none - that sad, demented people like them have passed muster by the state and federal government. I doubt that their fingerprints are on file with the FBI and the ATF - and by extension, the CIA, Secret Service, etc., as are those who are issued carry permits. And about that -

The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance call. Had sad whacko actually somehow managed to obtain a permit, the officers would have known this, would have expected and been prepared for a possible armed encounter, and I doubt would have simply knocked on the door politely.

And even a quick read of the article would reveal this bit:

"According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 133 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2008, a 27 percent decrease from year before and the lowest annual total since 1960."

Numbers of legally armed, trained, vetted citizens on the increase and mortality of law enforcement on the decrease. May be a coincidence, maybe.

Violence increasing? So called gun-free zones, such as schools and certain other specific types of public places and buildings where legally armed citizens are not allowed. Which makes a pretty tempting and easy target for a psychopath.

I have no desire to do anyone any harm and I pray to God I'm never put in that situation. But I also don't intend to go quietly if someone tries to rob me at knife or gun point, decides to start a shooting rampage at the local mall, or invades my home or that of my neighbors.

My hope, my request, is that those individuals who oppose our current firearms and carry laws not judge me - or any of the legally armed, rational, careful, law-abiding citizens - by the actions of people like the man described in this incident.

He and his sad kind no more represent nor speak for gun owners, than does Benny Hinn represent all television evangelists, nor Jack Kevorkian speak for all physicians.

(I just wanted to get my fingerpointing in early. Let the ranting and railing begin.)
Cross-posted in my Livejournal.

That sucking sound

I thought the US Congress had become the biggest bunch of blowhard windbag do-nothings ever elected in my lifetime. But these days I'm convinced that, when it comes to hot air generated, no elected body can touch our own Tennessee legislature when it comes to getting nothing done and taking a long time to do it.

You don't need a reason

to call in sick on your day off!
Just for fun, pick a day when you aren't scheduled to work and then call in sick. I can imagine conversations like this:

(phone rings and is answered)

"Thank-you for calling Jinky's Geegaws, how may I direct your call?"
"Uhh, I need to talk to someone to tell them I'm sick and not coming in to work today."
"Oh, I'm sorry, let's see . . . your name please?"
"This is Jimmy"
pause
"Jimmy?"
"Yes, Jimmy."
"I'm looking at the schedule and I don't see your name."
"I know."
"I don't understand . . ."
"Yeah, well I'm calling to say I won't be in."
"But . . . I'm confused, I don't see you scheduled to work today. Maybe there's a problem with the schedule."
"Could be, 'cause I'm not gonna be there and if I'm scheduled that's a problem."
"But you aren't scheduled."
"And I won't be in, just wanted someone to know, I'm not a lollygagger you know and I want whoever's in charge to get the message!"
"OK, I'll make sure they get the message."
"Who?"
"Who?"
"Yes, who is going to get the message?"
"Uh, well, I guess the manager on duty."
"OK, so you'll make sure they know that I called? I want to keep a good record."
"OK, I'll tell him you won't be in . . . but as far as I can tell you aren't scheduled to be in."
"That's right, must make sure that gets on the schedule."
"You want me to put that on the schedule?"
"That's right! Make a note on the schedule that I called to say I won't be in to work today."
"OK . . . maybe you should talk to the manager."
"No, don't need to, this is my day off."
"Then why are you calling in?"
"Because I won't be there!"

See where this has possibilities? As well as how I have way too much time on my hands? This is what happens when CBS replaces an episode of The Unit with (anything else). And soon football season is over and it can only get worse!

Let that be a lesson to yuh!

Note to self:
When inspecting the chamber after locking the slide back on a pistol, keep fingers well away from the slide release.


(ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!ow! . . . really bad word here . . .ow!ow!ow!ow!ow!)



ow

What will it take?

(I'll have more to say - extensively - about this whole experience later.)

A few days ago I helped my sister bury her husband, Gary, who died of lung cancer. The effects of this cancer are particularly vile and evil. At the funeral service the minister - who was Gary's own brother - choked out his closing remarks with the last words that Gary spoke to him: "Promise me you'll tell them to quit smoking."

At the cemetary, while waiting for all the cars to arrive and everything to get underway, I saw someone step away and light up a cigarette.
I made myself not slap him in front of his family and friends, but only out of respect for my brother-in-law - who had become my friend, and my sister and her daughters. Otherwise, the left side of his head would still be ringing.

Just so you know, if you are an acquaintance of mine and you fire one up in my presence I'll take it as an intentional, personal insult.

Intentional.
Personal.

So Long, Two Thousand Eight

There was so much crap. I hated you at times, you know? That was some kinda you-know-what mind**** with what's-her-face. And the whole thing with layoffs and money and bills. Jebus. And you just kinda came and went didn't you? Just last year I was running up that hill right outside my house. I could smell a homefire nearby and it was cold. But, jebus, that thing with what's-her-face. That's one of them WTF episodes.

I did pay off a credit card but it was first one thing and then another after that. And people came and went. Friends and some family dropped off the horizon.

But, I'm not in ICU. My joints hurt sometime but - if properly warmed up and at peak fitness - I can still do maybe a 6 second 40. At my age, that's pretty freakin good. (At any age that's pretty good; at my age it's bloody freakin supernatural.)

I don't have a great place to live; I do have a place to live.

The work I do isn't the path I chose, but I have work.

I found out that some people who say they'll always be there for you, won't. But then I learned that there are others who always show up without a word. Code red, count on it.

Pain. I learned what real pain is like. I thought I knew what pain was but boy did you show me. Pain that doesn't respond to anything but time. Crumpling, deforming the body and mind, you showed me. But I learned tolerance and patience, and compassion.

I can hear; I can see; I can breathe without the aid of a machine.
I can read.
I have food. I have water.
I have . . . possibilities.
I'm alive; I have hope; I know that someday I won't be, but for now I still am.

So, no hard feelings.

In fact, thanks.

(Especially the health and hope part.)

CHristmas Images, David Lipscomb Univ., XMAS night.

Some images from Christmas night. Click 'em, they get bigger! The first two images are the left and right views, respectively, of one wide view, which the eyes can see but most cameras can't.

On hindsight being 20/20

It's been almost a year since my great-worst-Christmas-of-all-time debacle. What was I thinking? Just goes to show you, you can be delusional and out of touch with reality at any age.

Spirits of another sort

For those of you who appreciate distilled spirits, I can't recommend highly enough the Ridgemont Reserve 1792 Bourbon (or as the late, great Shelby Foote would say, "boibun".) It's brisk, mellow, smooth, firey and completely satisfying. No need to rush through it. And for goodness' sake don't put anything in it. All you need is a clean glass. Take it out onto the porch on a frosty night and appreciate the mysteries of existence.

Oh, and lest you think it's only for thems as got deep pockets, it's twenty bucks at Froogal's, or whatever your local meglo-likker-barn is. About twenty-five most everywhere else - and I don't have deep pockets. Heck, on some pants I ain't even got no pocketses!

http://bartonbrands.com/1792.html

It's one thing to be ignorant because one is uninformed and indifferent. It's another to spread one's ignorance.

Randy Jackson - he had gastric bypass surgery, he's on American Idol. He's one of the Jackson brothers. He's also a bit of an idiot. Just now, as a guest on The View, he was discussing his weight and that now he has Type 2 diabetes and "There's nothing you can do about it." He then when on to proclaim - pertaining to weight management - that "diet and exercise don't work for most people."

Randy, first: diet and exercise don't work only if you don't do it. We're not talking about rice cakes and 4 hours a day at the gym. Just small adjustments and changes over time.

Now about nothing to be done about Type 2 diabetes, the American Diabetes Association and the Mayo Clinic seem to differ. Here's a snippet from the latter's website.

"Type 2 diabetes, once known as adult-onset or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition that affects the way your body metabolizes sugar (glucose), your body's main source of fuel. Type 2 diabetes is often preventable, but the condition is on the rise — fueled largely by the current obesity epidemic.

When you have type 2 diabetes, your body is resistant to the effects of insulin — a hormone that regulates the absorption of sugar into your cells — or your body produces some, but not enough, insulin to maintain a normal glucose level. Left uncontrolled, the consequences of type 2 diabetes can be life-threatening." (emphasis mine.)

While it may be true that once an individual let's himself go fail-safe, past the point-of-no-return, the condition cannot be "cured" and must be dealt with via medication, here's a thought:
"Don't get past the point-of-no-return!"

Off-hand, casually dismissive remarks like RJ's - especially coming from someone with celebrity status - simply give license to others to be irresponsible with life-style choices, or give up trying.

While it's true that there are people who for medical reasons cannnot keep their metabolism under control - perhaps people with thyroid conditions - the reality is that most people can keep their bodies pretty well-tuned and functioning simply by giving it what it needs: decent nutrition and regular physical activity and nothing that it doesn't need or want: tobacco, Sterno, etc.

The human body is a remarkable creation and is surprisingly forgiving . . . until it gets the message that the occupant doesn't give a *&%$. Then it might just refuse to play anymore. I can't do anything about my changes in vision: no amount of steamed broccoli or aerobic exercise is going to reverse my astigmatism. But it's a quantifiable fact that if I feel my clothes getting tight I can start walking again and watch the sugar intake and - lo and behold, it's a miracle! - my clothes start fitting again.

This is another entry in the Don't Pee On My Leg And Tell Me It's Raining folder.

Our culture's attitude towards "holy days"

A shop worker was trampled to death when hundreds of American bargain hunters stampeded through the doors at the opening of a superstore sale this morning.
The stock clerk was bowled over as he tried to hold back the unruly crowds.
As he gasped for air, witnesses said shoppers swarmed over him, stepping on him and pushing him back down as he tried to get out of the way.

Read the rest of this sad commentary
here

Man in critical condition after standing up to teen gang who vandalised his car

See, in the UK all you can do when attacked is get beat up, hope to God someone gets you to a hospital, then hope the police actually do something, then hope that the thugs don't come back and beat you up for turning them in in the first place.
And people think we're somehow less civilized because we want to be armed? Here's an odd coincidence - it is true that a lot of us (Americans) "cling to guns and religion". It is also true that most Brits do not cling to either. Isn't it ironic? I think I'll continue to be a Clinger.
(Not like Corporal Clinger either.)
Here's the story.

Yet Another Music Snapshot (Y.A.M.S)

Long White Cadillac - Dwight Yoakam
Leave Virginia Alone - Rod Stewart
Running On Faith - Eric Clapton
Don't Let It Bring You Down - Annie Lennox
Fortunate Few - Delbert McClinton
Go Down Easy - Dan Fogelberg
Unbelievable - Craig David
One Moment More - Mindy Smith
Breathe - Anna Nalick
Watching the River Flow - Bob Dylan
(Hon. Mention: London Bridge - Fergie. I was in the car with my 16 year old niece and when the song came on I started kinda grooving a bit, which she thought was cool and encouraged me to work on my . . . "boo-tee-pop". So I am. And if I may say, I'm getting to where I can, how do the kids say? "Drop it like it is hot.")

Dear Bitter Anonymous

Friend, you've clearly had a much more difficult existence than I have, either that or you're in the final stages of tertiary syphillis and your mind is losing its grip. In any event, I wish you well, 'cause anything you get is better than what you are offering up.

(While you're at it, dude, LTFU!)

Join Us!

And by "us" I mean me.
HOPE! YOU CAN HOPE IN!
CHANGING! THE THINGS YOU THINK ONE THOUGHT AT A TIME!
I''ll be offering memberships in the near FUTURE!. You can spare yourselves another telethon/pledge drive/plead-a-thon/membership DRIVE by going AHEAD and sending me some money. I can't decide on what the premiums will be - you know the FREE STUFF you get for your donations?
Maybe I'll set up a PayPal account but in the meantime a pledge* will do.
*Pledge must be accompanied by funds.
You can send your love offering to:
Southern Center for the Advancement of Menimism*
P.O. Box 150421
Nashville, TN 37215


*The mailing address is real. Send your love offering today! Organization exists only in my mind and is for illustration purposes only. All funds will be used purely at my whim and are not tax deductible. No deposit, no return. Close cover before striking. You break it, you bought it.

Return of the Pleaders

On Thursday, June 26 I made the following prediction about PBS and their ubiquitous telethons:

So if the pattern holds we should see something along these lines again around mid-to-late August.

Annnnnnnnd . . . they're back! In less time than expected, too. (Thanks for not making us wait for yet another repeat of "One-hit Wonders & Tired Hippies".) The PBS telethons -sorry, pledge drives - are getting as common as those brought to us by Paul and Jan Crouch and the crowd at TBN.

Maybe PBS could get Jan to do a guest-host spot, bring a few hankies and tell some stories, trot out some video footage of doe-eyed kids around the world benefiting from her largesse in the form of Barbie dolls. Maybe Jan could toss in a Barbie for everyone who pledged at such-and-such a level? Maybe Paul could get a couple of the "Bishops" to come over and exhort us to sow a seed-faith offering?

Oh, and here comes Eric Burdon in that same, lame, mini-tent Hawaiian shirt.

As Homer Simpson would say, "Help me, Jebus!"

Now, when should we expect the next installment? I'm putting my money, er seed-faith offering, on the period of September 26 and October 4.

Touch somebody and say, "This is the season for your manifold manna harvest blessing!"*

*(For a montly pledge of 25 dollars. Manifold manna harvest blessing not valid in all states. Some restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. This offer is not a guarantee of said blessing. Package sold by weight, not by volume; contents may have settled during shipping. Fragrance free. No animals were harmed in the making of this offer. Warning: this blessing processed in a facility that processes peanuts. Do not take this blessing if pregnant or nursing or if you may become pregnant. Side effects may include gas, bloating, scaly patches, achy-breaky pelvis, Juggler's Despair, frequent urination and restless leg syndrome. If side effects persist or increase discontinue use and consult your local barista. Separate colors from whites and wash in cold water only. Use only a non-chlorine bleach. Lather, rinse, repeat. This offer may not be combined with any other offer.)

What Gets You Rejected

This is not the place for bitter, anonymous, argumentative axe-grinders. It isn't that kind of blog. Take it some place else.

The Pleaders

PBS insists they only "come to you a couple of times a year". But kids, this is becoming more like every couple of months. On May 31 of this year I made a personal note that "they're at it again, they are doing the doo-wop program which means we'll be seeing Danny what's-his-face again along with the dredged-up pop stars from the 70s."

And less than two months later we've got yet another broadcast of tired British pop-star recycling. Eric Burdon has a great voice but he looks more like one of the Little Rascals at a reunion than a pop icon. He's nearly as wide as he is tall and he looks like he's about five feet tall. And every time they get these people together their voices are weak and often off-pitch.

People please. I'm not sure if I should give PBS money to stop this crap or if that would only encourage them.

So if the pattern holds we should see something along these lines again around mid-to-late August.

I will keep up with this.