You know you want some.

The yummiest looking pancakes I have seen in years.

Why yes, of course I'd like to come over to your place and have a whole bunch of them!

From: http://testadoprovadoeaprovado.blogspot.kr

How to make them is right here.

He Got It

Not many leaders since Ike have understood what war really means.

And Democrats too…

Curiosity has landed!

Stayed up and watched MSL/Curiosity successfully land on Mars tonight.  Congratulations to all involved in the mission.

Random stuff

While walking home tonight I saw the fox again.  At least, I am pretty sure it is the same one.

Got my flu shot and pneumonia vaccine today.  My arms are a little sore (especially the right arm, where I got the pneumonia shot) but I am glad I have them done and out of the way.

Very tired and my knee is killing me, so time for bed!

Come on Maxie!

Really ending the world

Watched Knowing again this evening.  Definitely my favorite end-of-the-world movie.  It is thoughtful, well-acted (especially Cage and Townsend) and has the strength and conviction to actually end the world.

Better be careful! I might be dangerous!

Maybe I am a mass murderer!  My god, I might be a litterbug too!
Shit!  You better lock me up now before I explode!


http://activepolitic.com:82/News/2012-07-25c/Facebook_Abstainers_could_be_labeled_Suspicious.html

Perspective on the health care debate

I wish lots and lots of people would read this...


How I lost my fear of Universal Health Care

Not good.

Fell tonight.  Definitely not good.

What a letdown

All of that just to foretell at brain-splitting headache at 4:00 in the morning?  Come on Universe, you can do better than that!

Signs and Portents

Interesting walk home from work today.  I saw a fireball cross my path and had an encounter with a fox.  Wondering what's up… 

Lucky me.

I am so happy that I do not have any family (for all intents and purposes)… I don't have to deal with crazy family crises.

Goodbye FB, I won't miss you at all.

I have joined the FB resistance.  I deleted my FB account today, in 14 days it will be final.

Mmmm... weather

Strong winds, a bit of rain and approaching thunder.  I love it!

Browser Security

I strongly suggest that you switch to a browser that supports Do Not Track Plus drom Abine.  You will be amazed at the extent to which you are being tracked – and by how much of that tracking the browser extension blocks.  Also, Google Chrome users should switch to Chromium for less snooping of what you are doing.

Lost in the space race

I have no doubt that the Russians and Chinese are quietly smiling to themselves as the U.S. space budget is gutted.  As we cede our dominance in space, those two countries will move more and more to militarizing space, effectively pinning us on the ground, leaving us with no eyes in space and no travel.  There is so much accomplished by the unmanned program, including the development of technologies that will improve manned spaceflight as well...  but the budget process is destroying our space program.  It is arguably a treasonous act.  There is a new, undeclared, space race – and the U.S. will be left behind.  People will, in the not so distant future, say things like "Remember when the U.S. had the best space program?  Too bad they killed it."

Just looking around

Last night as I walked home there were patches of ankle-high mist.  Now there is too steady a breeze for any fog to have formed.  Up in the sky the clouds are racing northward.

Laid on thick

The weather here is being served-up thick and gooey.  The fog is already in pea soup mode.  It won't be long until it reaches can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face mode.  Add in the local owl, which seems to be perched on a tree limb directly over the house, and it is a great combination.  I love it.

Fog. Yum!

It is already fairly foggy outside.  I can't wait to see if we have complete pea soup in the morning.  I love thunderstorms with strong winds (special shout-out to snowstorms with lightning – yeah!), but if I can't have that, a good thick fog is always nice.

Mmmm... wind...

The wind is regularly gusting over 30mph, I love the feel and sound of it.  If only a thunderstorm would come this way...

Mmmm, cat girls...

Need I say more?

click me!

"Absolutely safe"

So now the head of Airbus is having to get in front of a microphone and reassure everyone that the A380 is safe.  Using the word "absolutely" at least twice.  That should be the clincher for you, do not fly in an A380.  One (or more) of them will be flying coffins due to wing structural failure, you wait and see.  It is bad enough when any plane crashes, but when an A380 goes down, over 500 passengers and crew, not to mention anybody at the crash site, will die because Airbus builds crap planes.

Browser security

You probably have no idea how much information about you is mined and shared based on where you go while browsing the Web.  Maybe you don't care, or don't want to know.  So be it.  But if you do care, then you want to go here:
http://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php


Watch the short video and follow the installation instructions, then browse feeling a little better about the data trail you are not leaving behind.

Jupiter and Mars

It is cold outside, but the sky is clear.  Jupiter and Mars are beautiful tonight.

When is now?

It is bad when you really have no idea what day of the week it is.  My trusty Mac tells me it is Saturday evening now, and I believe it.  But the fact that it is indeed Saturday took me by surprise.  The fact is I had no idea what day it really was.  Lately, I have just had my head down, nose to the grindstone.  I look in the little notebook where I have my work schedule written down – what date, what hours on that date – and it doesn't mention the day of the week, it doesn't need to.  But it is a good thing I found out that tomorrow is Sunday, the bus schedule is different on Sundays.  Time for bed.

What is that?

It is pouring rain outside.  That doesn't bother me at all, in fact it usually helps me sleep.  I wish we were having a full-blown lightning storm – I love those.


But there is something outside that disturbs me.  I keep hearing strange, deep noises.  Not thunder.  At least I think I am hearing noises.  It is possible that I am hallucinating and have no easy way to confim this since I am alone.  Am I hearing weird noises, or is my brain telling me I am hearing something that is not there?  I do not know.  I will go to bed now and hope for the best.

Beautiful night sky

The moon and Mars (or was it Barsoom?) together in the sky last night were beautiful.  I had to work late last night, but being up and outside to see them was worth it.

What a hoot!

There is an owl that lives near here, and when it get talkative, it often results in Max being weirded-out.  Tonight the owl is so close, it might as well be inside.  Max is not pleased.  Sleep?  Who needs that?  (npi)

Airbus A380 - more problems

I have flown in a handful of Airbus jets, and I haven't liked flying in any of them.  But the A380 is taking the cake.  You could not pay me to fly in one of these flying disasters-waiting-to-happen.  One of these days a wing is going to come off in-flight and there will be 500 passenger and crew deaths.


The latest: http://news.yahoo.com/qantas-grounds-a380-finding-cracks-wings-013730967.html

2012 previews?

Last night was rough and tiring.  I woke up time after time from dreams about geophysical changes that happen leading up to 12-21-2012.  In these dreams (visions?) Earth doesn't suffer a whole bunch of calamities bunched right at the end of the year, but rather things start going from bad to worse over the course of the year.  Throughout all the dreams was the underlying understanding that 12-21-2012 is important not so much as the end of the current calendar cycle, but as the beginning of the next cycle.  Everything that happens in the months leading up to 12-21 is as much a preparation for the new cycle as the winding down of the current cycle.


In some ways, last night was fascinating in the moment.  But I am tired now and would actually enjoy a good night's sleep tonight.  I will find out soon enough if this is to be a restful night.

Well played me!

Moving the fb bookmark to a less prominent location was the best idea!   I now go there less than once a day, and when I do go look, I just get re-flabbergasted by the amount of pointless stuff that I have received – which means I will wait even longer before I look at the site again.  And face it, if you think aspects of fb are obnoxious now, just wait until after the IPO and they have to satisfy stockholders and analysts with ever-growing sales figures.  Won't be long now until fb completely jumps the shark.


Ultimately I will probably unfriend most people there so that the s/n ratio will improve and I will be less likely to miss interesting news from the likes of The Raveonettes and Dead Can Dance.  The sheer volume of re-posted stuff from PIQ alone (yes, I mean you Mandy!) makes it hard to find and read what I am actually interested in.

Fascinating...

Clean-up

Moved the FB bookmark off of my bookmarks bar in Safari and Chrome.  It no longer warrants a place there.  Little cause to go there, certainly not daily.

Verdict Rendered

Went to court Monday, foreclosure auction will take place 23 April unless the in-process short sale is completed.

The World Wants to Know! episode 1

My new series, The World Wants to Know, opens with this burning question:


Why are dogs so compelled to seek out any and every wastebasket containing used kleenex, pulling all the kleenex out individually and shedding them into little pieces scattered about the room?


For the love of god, why??

Just thinking' about time...

Are prophetic visions and déjà vu two sides of the same coin?  One is essentially "You will be here in the future" and the other is "I was here before."  Can déjà vu sometimes be brought on by the fulfillment of prophesy?  In other words, the sense of "I was here before" might in some instances actually be "I was shown this situation before it happened."