Clean Sweep

Lord of the Rings won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for tying the record held by Ben Hur and Titanic.

Light Blogging Alert

Watching Oscar's.
I wouldn't even dream of trying to blog it.

Field of Dreams

Backup day

End of the month is usually when I do my home backups so I have been busy.
If you don't regularly backup your home computer you are dumb.
Take it from me folks, I am a trained professional, there is nothing like backups, to help me sleep at night.

Tough Times in Blogdom

A lot of crazy stuff is happening in the blogs I follow lately.
Real world stuff intruding on the unreality of blogging.
What you ask?

Well Michele is talking about her marriage breaking up though there is hope for them it seems.

Lee's dad has gotten a bionic heart which is better than the alternative.

Rob lost his job because of blogging, got a nice retirement package and now his ex is trying to take it away from him as well as his visitation rights.

Dean's dog may be have to put down and he confessed in his blog that he is an alcoholic.

Glenn was only able to make ten posts so far today

Dawn's kid is ok but he has funny colored poop (her term not mine).

Steve has taken a break from blogging but given that his posts are usually the length of War and Peace he needs one.

Joni's mate has major medical problems

It is getting so I am afraid to read some of these fine blogs.

Me? Aside from driving about 3 or 4 hours a day to a job where I am getting about half of what I used to get I can't complain. at least until this week when it turns out I might lose that job through no fault of my own. But hey compared to the others that is small change.
I wish you all well, hope everyone stays healthy and all your problems resolve themselves , except Glenn who is reported to put puppies in blenders, though that is only a rumour.

1500 Louisiana

Chevron - Texaco has signed an agreement to buy 1500 Louisiana and move a lot of their staff from other parts of the country to Houston.
You may not be familar with the address but if I said Enron II it might ring some bells. This tower was the twin of the Enron building that was being finished as Enron was going down the tubes. It is good that someone is going to occupy it since it is not a bad looking building.

Daffodils

Every spring the first thing that always comes up is daffodils and this year is no exception.
We have two of them that made their appearance last weekend. I think there are some white ones around somewhere but I have not seen them yet.

Interesting take on the Passion

I have not said anything about this movie yet since I have not seen it.
Dennis Prager has seen it and has a lot to say.

It is essential that Christians understand this. Every Jew, secular, religious, assimilated, left-wing, right-wing, fears being killed because he is Jewish. This is the best-kept secret about Jews, who are widely perceived as inordinately secure and powerful. But it is the only universally held sentiment among Jews. After the Holocaust and with Islamic terrorists seeking to murder Jews today, this, too, is not paranoid.

He see it as two different movies depending on the viewer, it is a good read,

That was fast

My new job took an unexpected turn last night as my boss's boss was sacked and escorted out of the building.
Now we have to go through an audit and possibly a reorg.
Am I in danger of being unemployed again? Could be.
I bought lotto tickets again tonight, just in case.

Spring Training

I agree with Michele.
Baseball season has begun and everything is right with the world.

On your TV

I know I am getting old but this new spot I have been seeing for Cialis is over the top. Everytime it comes on now, if my daughter is in the room, I feel I have to change the channel.
I never felt that way with the viagra ads.

I love the "warning" at end.

"While rare, erections of more than four hours should seek medical attention"

That's a warning?? It sounds like a call to every horny woman and man in the country to go out and buy it.

I knew several nurses in college who would have loved to give me immediate attention for that particular problem.

Silver Lining in Iran

The takeover of the legislature by the mullahs might prove to be their undoing.
When there were reformers the people had hope that things would get better. Now there are no reformers in control (not that they were ever REALLY in control) and the people of Iran are no longer under any illusions that the iron fist of the mullahs will somehow be reformed into something that they can live with.
The overwhelming majority of Iranians are not in favor of the mullahs. Now they know that they will never be free of these oppressive thugs.
the pot had been near to boiling and unless I miss my guess things will likely come to a boil in the near future.
I have predicted this will happen for some time and this latest election scam just is another step in that direction.
I feel for the people of Iran because I fear that the rulers they now have will not give up power without a fight. There will be bloodshed but hopefully when the smoke clears the people of Iran will be free.

Anti Semitism on the Left

Good post by Michael Totten, more a a fisk really. Read it.

Link from Glenn and later reminded by Eugene.

On Assignment

I would love to tell you all about the new job I have but I can't figure how to without telling too much.
I will say this, it is much more important in theory than a lot of the bean counter stuff I have done in the past. At some point peoples lives might depend on how well I do what I will be doing.
Now if I only got paid a decent salary and didn't have to drive over half of Houston it would be a great job.

I am taking next Monday off to attend Microsoft Dev Days. If any of you are going to be there let me know.

Another Blog War

A small blog war seems to have broken out tonight.
I am not going to comment for several reasons, one being I am still having problems seeing.
The other being that I hope a certain blogger steps back over the line he crossed.
Like most things this has been brewing for some time and like most things some people don't know when to let sleeping dogs lie.

A Random Sample

Michele always seems to come up with interesting things to blog about.
This one she got from a couple of other bloggers, Stephen and John.

Open up your Winamp, put it on shuffle and list the first ten songs that come up. Here's mine:

Rock and Roll Suicide - David Bowie
Under Pressure - David Bowie and Queen
In the Getto - Elvis Presley
You'll be in my Heart - Phil Collins
I Dreamed Last Night - Justin Hayward and John Lodge
Operator (Live - Final Tour) - Jim Croce
Whatever Gets you Through the Night - John Lennon
Help Me Through the Night - Joe Walsh
Expecting to Fly - Buffalo Springfield
Lather - Jefferson Airplane

The other three are all doing a second ten so I guess I can try that too since the first ten were not too bad , IMHO.

Maneater - Hall and Oates
We got Married (live) - Paul McCartney
S'posin' - Frank Sinatra
Stormy Weather - Billie Holliday
Hypnotized - Bob Welch with Stevie Nicks
The Man who shot Liberty Valance - Gene Pitney
Honky Cat - Elton John
Yesterday (live) - the Beatles
Hooked on a Feeling - B.J. Thomas
Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

I was thinking that once again I should have quit while I was ahead but I guess I can live with these. Knowing what's sitting on my hard drive it could have been a lot worse.

Fairy

I might actually be able to post some new pictures soon. There are a couple of things starting to bloom already.
This one was from last April. I am sure of the because the white stuff in the background is Star Jasmine and I always look forward to when it blooms filling the entire yard with great fragrance.
This particular Fairy is one of two, both tree roses that we bought at a local place a few years ago. They were mis-labeled as being part of the late season sale but they gave them to us at the sale price anyway, as they should have.
If you ever need a rose hedge, the Fairy is a good choise. It is dense and very thorny.

George Washington

That's me

This one doesn't surprise me at all. I do after all have a copy of Spidey #1.

In my safe deposit box


Link via Dawn

Acclimation

I must be starting to settle in because this quiz lists me as 61% Dixie in spite of spending most of my life in either NYC, Chicago or Ohio.

Link From Joni.

Something in my eye

I had some problems at work yesterday. My left eye kept bothering me.
I didn't want to take my contacts out at work as I have done at other times.
As soon as I got home I took my contacts out.
It turns out I was right because it hurt more once I got them out which is never a good sign.
It hurt all last night which is the reason I didn't post last night.
I went to bed early and woke up at 3am, still hurt.
I looked at it this morning and it looks worse than yesterday.
I hate when this happens.

Falling Behind

I have been remiss recently on reporting on the Wifi happenings. One reason is that things are moving so fast that it is hard to keep up.

For a quick example and overview:
Some of you like me are moving from 802.11b to 802.11g, Intel is far beyond that since they are now working on 802.11n which will run at 100mb. That seems like a bit of overkill to me but what do I know.
Also on the Intel front the centrino line will soon support Linux.

Another thing I didn't know was that Apple is the number 2 802.11g vendor after Linksys(which I use and is now owned by Cisco).

I will try to report more on Wifi on a weekly basis since it is an important technology. I don't know how much I will be exposed to it on my new job but I already know I will have to deal with things like VPN's and tunneling so who knows.

George W. Bush

Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.

The other side

I tried to post last night but was having problems.

For a read of what some on the other side think check out this post by Althea. I made a comment there but it seems like her readers don't like to here the other side or even acknowledge that an other side exists.

Which brings me to an email I was forwarded by my sister the lib.
It is a compilation of quotes supposedly may by GWB that is just hilarious.
Things like this

"The future will be better tomorrow."
- Governor George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- Governor George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- Governor George W. Bush

I opined that she had changed her mind about the president since it was obvious that he was a worthy successor to Yogi Berra who she adores as do I.

Seriously folks if the left thinks that they can continue to laugh at GBW let them.
That kind of attittude should allow him to pick up at least 300 electorial votes in November.

Lottery

I have decided that I am going to win the Lottery. Maybe not tonight though tonight would be good but I am going to win.

Movable Type needs a better way to delete all these spammed comments all at once.

Free speech on Campus

There are several consistent themes I have maintained during the time this blog has been in existence both here and on blogspot because I think they are relevant and important to our future as a free society.
Probably none more than the lack of free speech on today's college campuses.

While trolling around following links starting at Glenn's I came across speechcodes.org which will be added to the sidebar after FIRE.

Check out some of the things they highlight and you may be shocked and as worried as I have been for some time.

Oleander

This is from last spring. If you ever get down around Galveston there are Oleanders all over the place and they are huge.
They are also poisonous but I have not been able to convince the deer to munch on them yet.
These were two years old at the time I took this in May.

Day of the Triffids

Warm

It was a nice warm day for a change so I took it easy. Watched the morning shows then wehn out to get the garden. I should have worn boots the ground is so soggy I couldn't believe it.

Damn Wisteria is trying to take over the veggie garden. I found a root that was over 20 feet long. It the thing had been a triffid I would be dead now.

Camelia

I wasn't expecting this but when I got home today there was this spot of color staring at me from the corner of the yard.
We bought this Camelia several years ago and it has never bloomed much but this year it decided to. There are several blooms on it and this was the one that was easy to take a picture of.
It has had these buds on it for several weeks and I thought it would never bloom but happily I was wrong.

Valentine's Day

My wife worked late last night and handed me a wonderful card when she got home.
I wanted to get here some miniture roses today that she wanted but they were not available. Instead I bought her a couple of trees.
an Apricot and a Peach.
To be more exact a Red Baron Peach and a Royal Rosa Apricot.
Not romantic you say?
Well it was what she wanted and she was quite happy when she got home today.

Easter Parade

Talent Show

The show at the high school turned out to be a talent show. Not bad but it did get tedious after a while.
They did have two acts that were unusual.

One was a guy who must have been double jointed. He put his hands behind his head at an impossible angle and ran around the sage with his hands flopping around like they were not attached.

The other was a guy who put a surgical glove on his head and inflated it through his nose until it burst, to the theme from Star Wars.

Other than those there were singers, three bands and a few piano soloists.

I thought that the last show they did was much better than this but I guess they got more people involved this way.

Hectic Day

Have to take the kid to a show at her high school tonight.
There goes my Friday night.
(sigh)
The rest of the day wasn't that bad.
I am starting to get into working again and I like it.

A Clockwork Orange

Ishtar

Terrible Tuesday

It is raining like the great flood outside. It took me two hours to get home. I have not even turned on the TV yet and probably won't.

Scary Post from Kim about South Africa.

Scary Post from the Emperor Misha about Sweden.

Scary posts about John Kerry everywhere.

Mixed opinions about GWB on Meet the Russert.

Cool off everyone. It is still early and Bush looks good from where I sit. The economy is getting better, Iraq is getting better (hard to believe from the Media but true) and if my dog doesn't stop barking I may shoot him. Oh I forgot no shooting in the subdivision. I could always use the Kitana but the dog might win.

I am still getting Mydoom virii and guess what, they are all coming in on the email address for the blog. None of my other email addresses has gotten one but the blog email has been getting 3 or 4 per day for the last week.

Listening To: Things I Could Be - James Gang

40 years ago Today

Someone recently said on a blog somewhere that the Beatles were over-rated. That person is someone who was probably born after 1970.

I remember going to a Bar Mitzvah and afterwards we went back to the house of the people. Their daughter had just gotten a copy of I Want to Hold Your Hand. All anyone wanted to do was play it again and again. None of us got tired of hearing it. That is not exactly right since we did listen to the B side also since that was also a great song.
It was so new, so cool, so different.

Everyone knew their names. Everyone had a favorite Beatle.

I Want To Hold Your Hand was either the second or third 45 I ever bought. Actually I probably bought it and She Loves at the Same time so they are tied.
Don't ask me what the first single I bought was, that is a whole other story.

I went looking for those singles a little while ago and found them in a red and white 45 box with a picture of the Beatles on the front. I have two of these boxes holding the first 100 45's I ever bought.

But I digress.

There was a man who was king of TV. His name was Ed Sullivan. His Sunday night variety show ran for ages and was THE place to be seen. It was immortalized in the show and movie Bye Bye Birdie where just the mention of his name was enough to send a grown man into a fantasy,

There was no one bigger on television.

On Sundays in my house there were two shows that we always watched week after week. One was the Wonderful World of Disney, the other was Ed Sullivan.

On February 9, 1964 the Beatles came to Ed Sullivan.

I was watching. Even my mother was watching. I am told that over 70 million people were watching. It was the greatest rock and roll event to ever be on TV.
I don't have the bandwidth for video but this is what is sounded like.


Intro - All my Loving

My mom was making some kind of semi snarky comments but she changed her tune and said something nice when they did the next song which she remembered from the Music Man.

Till There Was You


That course was just the warm up for what we were waiting for which came next.


She Loves You


In case you have never seen it. The woooo part was where they shook their hair and brought screams from the crowd.
Ed's reference to "you promised" was a deal he tried to make with the studio audience to keep the screaming to a minimum.


The second half was one of the best B and A side singles ever sold


I Saw Her Standing There


I Want To Hold Your Hand


It was amazing night to remember and I still do.

More details about the Beatles' appearances can be found here


Due to bandwidth and other considerations these mp3's will not be online long, so get them while you can.

New link

I have added a link to the blogroll for Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry.
Not a blog but there is lots of information about exactly what John Kerry did in and after Nam.

George W. Bush

I don't think so

I will agree that I am generally an all around good guy but this is a bit much even for me.

You're Francis!


Which Historical Ruler Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kirk is better than Picard

For 100 reason why go to Downtown Chick Chat.

37. Kirk once made a cannon out of bamboo, sulphur, potassium nitrate, charcoal and then fired diamonds into the hearts of his enemies. (Need we say more?)

Ronald Reagan

Beatles

Forty years ago today the Beatles came to america.
Unless you were alive then you have no idea what an event it was.
Take it from me there was nothing like it in my lifetime and there has being nothing like it since.

Their songs had already taken over the charts but this was the first time they had come to the US as a group. The excitment, the energy was awesome.

more later.

Traffic

Yeah, I didn't post last night but I am not always in the mood and ... shit,
I just moved closer to the desk bumped th computer with my knee and now it is humming up a storm, there now it stopped, something with the fan but the last time I opened it up things got worse so I am letting it be.

Where was I , oh yeah last night.

I had yesterday planned out pretty well I would skip lunch get out at 5 grab my check and take the beltway home. That's the Sam Houston Tollway for you non-Houstonians.

more in extended entry.

Working on something

I am preparing a rather long post(for me) for this coming Monday. If you can guess the topic either by comment or email you will get an honorable mention.

War

Mookie has posted an eassy she wrote for school about two books on War. One on WWI and the other on WWII.

Go read it. it is an A paper after all. I wish all our high school students could write as well and as clearly.

Patton

Round up

Lots of good reading on other blogs tonight. I however don't have a heck of a lot of time to write much about it. I got home around 7 and ate dinner (from Wendy's) while going through my various mail accounts and replying where I had to. This mail address is getting me tons of MyDoom virus mails, thank goodness I renewed my Norton.
Kim is talking about religion while his wife has several good posts including one about civil unions that references one by Mrs. Dean Esmay.
Ok its not really about civil unions as much as it is about the Mass. Court (by a 4-3 margin) telling the legilature that they have to allow gay marriage.

Andrew has a good post on WMD's and the those who died on the Hajj.

But it is useful to remember that Western liberalism's attachment to life faces here an ancient and powerful enemy. If harnessed to a political movement, the indifference to death is the biggest and most potent weapon of mass destruction the world knows. Because it cannot be deterred.

Things are Looking up

I now have a temporary computer and access tot he internet from work. I don't have email yet but we did find a lan drop behind the partition where my cube will be once we get furniture.

Very loud thunderclap just now. Sounds like nasty night in H-Town.

I have not dropped my membership in the unemployed bloggers ring yet because this job is only supposed to run 3 months or so my headhunter told me. Today I found out that the grant under which I am funded runs for 10 months so I might be here a little longer than I thought.

Theodore Roosevelt

Pride of Barbados

Every spring my local store The Arbor Gate has free seminars on saturday mornings.

I took one look at this tree and had to have it. I have never seen blooms so colorful. I hope it comes back this year as good as this. It hasn't grown much but it is still alive.

Humanizing the enemy

Great article on Tech Central Station by Dr. Helen Smith aka The instawife.

This seems to be the case where America's limp response to terrorism in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s is concerned (Osama bin Laden reportedly joked that the worst Americans would do in response to 9/11 was file a lawsuit.)

Great read. This woman sounds like quite a tough chick. I hope Glenn keeps his nose clean.

Link via Roger and Glenn.

This is work?

Today I finished my first full week of work.
So far I don't have a computer, an email address or a phone.
I have been to two meetings and one more in the morning.
My cubicle to be now has an electric outlet but no lan drop and no furniture.

I am getting paid however so I guess that is what counts.

All is not terrible though I did get a code to use the copy machine today and a pad of post-its.

Groundhog Day

Starting to bloom?

Bill up in North Texas has posted a picture of his Rosemary blooming. I went out and checked my bush which is about the same size as his and nada.

I would think mine would bloom first since we are farther south but you never no it might just be a different type.

I am starting to see some new growth on a lot of things so I better post all of last years pictures quickly.

Of course it is still possible that we might get a late freeze like we did two years ago which will screw up everything. What happened then was we got a freeze on March 1 and my grapefruit and pomagranite were already in bloom. Well they didn't fruit that year or last but I am hoping for some fruit this year.

I learned last year that for some fruit trees to fruit there must be a certain minimum hours of below 40 degrees or they won't. It has been so warm this winter we might not get anything from a lot of the trees.

(sigh...)