The Next Month

It seems like it was just yesterday that it was Halloween. But of course it's been an entire month. Time flies.

A month from today will also come, at least for those who are still living when it gets here. If history is any guide, I will also be here. Even though it's true I could be hit by a train, a car, a flying bullet or something and not be here. If I'm not here, thinking how the last nine billion years of history simply flew by, future time will fly by even faster than it does with me here.

December's always a hugely busy month for me, with Christmas and everything associated with it. We'll be traveling some -- that's busy. Staying here, staying there, in a motel, eating in restaurants, etc. Very busy stuff.

By the time a month from today gets here I won't be done with it yet. Because some of my traveling will also be on New Year's Eve. So I'll only be almost done, not entirely done.

What a lot there is that I have to do in the next month! And it's going to fly by and for a lot of it I'm going to be flying by the seat of my pants. But all this, too, shall pass.

Classic Vinyl

I've been listening to the channel "Classic Vinyl" on XM.

I don't do that very often even though I like about everything there. I don't like the idea of old farts listening to old fart music. Even though that's what I am and that's what it is.

But sometimes I may as well listen. It's good. Some of it's so common and well-worn that it's like looking at the back of your own hand. I might need to flip it to "Deep Tracks" before long just to get off the common groove.

A lot of the things I've been hearing on there I already have, either as a CD or on a record somewhere. But a lot of it I wouldn't go to the trouble of getting the CD out or the record (especially). So it's good just to hear it.

I like the channel "20 on 20", which used to be the top 20 played over and over. Now they've changed it around. The top 20 is only a few times a day, which in my opinion is a step in the wrong direction since it was extremely cool before. But now it's even worse than that. At least on weekends. This is my first experience hearing this because I sometimes go months without tuning in. Now they have one countdown of the top 45 songs played over and over. That sucks bad!

A guy named Spyder Harrison. I'm sure Spyder is a fine person, but I do not want to hear the same 45 songs played in that order with the same clever patter. I tuned in once at random and listened a while. Then a while later I tuned in and it was the exact same place in the program. No good! How hard would it be, if you didn't want to pay a DJ, to program the channel just to play the list of songs they have in random order, with an occasional station ID blurb? That would be a lot better. Put Spyder on one time, or move him to channel 30 and play him a few times, and make the 20 on 20 channel good again.

My Next Corelli Book

I'm on a Marie Corelli reading jag. I've finished two books and started a third.

This one is called "The Soul of Lilith." I'm only up around page 50 so I don't know exactly where it's going to go. But it's pretty interesting so far.

There's a mysterious guy, seems like he's something of a hypnotist, searching out the secrets of life and existence. So far he's searching them out by questioning a young woman he has asleep in a room. He has her drugged or something. She doesn't open her eyes, but she responds to questions he gives her.

She's denying that there's such a thing as death. He seems to think she's wrong. I'm hoping it stays good. This book is from the late 1800s sometime.

Trying To Watch ESPN Online

I'm not a big sports fan but I'm trying to watch the tail end of a game on ESPN online.

All I can see is some kind of psychedelic swirl, a broken picture that's not even a picture. Strange colors, like a drug trip (I imagine).

Admittedly, my computer's not the greatest computer in the world. But it seems like it would work a little bit.

At least I have the audio, and there's 45 seconds to go. This is the WVU vs. Pitt game. I don't care a thing about it but I started watching it on the TV while having dinner.

UPDATE: It was tied at the end, but then at the last second a guy for WVU kicked a field goal and won it. I could only hear it but that's what sounded like happened.

They Never Go To The Bathroom

I just finished a long book, 540-some pages, a real thick story of a guy.

He's off doing mysterious things in mysterious places. He wakes up from a long nap -- maybe a whole day's nap -- and immediately goes to work writing a long poem in one sitting. And I'm thinking, How come this guy doesn't have to pee first?

He does all kinds of things throughout the book but he apparently never goes to the bathroom.

I desire and demand that books give potty breaks to the people in the pages. It's ridiculous, for example, that there aren't that many references to going to the bathroom in literature. I know in the Bible, 1 Kings somewhere, like chapter 18, it refers to men peeing against the wall. And in Ezekiel he's supposed to cook his bread over a fire fueled by human dung (chapter 4), although he pleads with God and it's reduced to cow dung.

But what about the feeding of the 5,000? They're out in the wilderness and you gotta think some of those people had to go to the bathroom out there. What a mess it must've been, no outhouses or arrangements.

Picturing A House On Fire

I don't like the thought of the house being on fire. And so far, so good. No fires.

While walking the dog I was looking over at the house, at the lights shining through the windows, emitting light around the blinds, and thinking ... A good steady light, that's what I want to see.

What I do not want to see is any kind of orange flickering. That would be a disaster. I was thinking, I'd have to let the dog go and go running over there as fast as possible, dialing 911.

Always thinking. It has worth to think the unthinkable, since the unthinkable obviously could happen. What would I do? That would be it. Then clean it up.

Fortunately nothing like that's happening. And that's the way I want it to stay!

The Adam Lambert Deluxe Edition

My CD came today, one day after being released. I ordered it maybe a little too late for them to get it here yesterday. But that was OK. I will still happy.

It is the deluxe edition, which, as it turns out, doesn't mean anything for the CD itself or the case. It seems to me anyway that the CD and case are the same as the one in the store.

The difference is that there were a couple of songs downloaded from Adam's official site that aren't on the CD, plus a couple of others which were on the CD could be downloaded early, plus a book.

The other tracks are called "Master Plan" and "Down the Rabbit Hole."

The book is a small hardcover book the same size as a CD case. It has some slick paper and artistic photos of Adam. It's a short book and some of the pages are just black, nothing else. 15 pages with a black picture on the front inside cover.

Adam Lambert Last Night

I forgot to watch the AMA show last night. I was busy anyway and couldn't have watched it. But I could've tuned in to catch Adam Lambert, as it turns out, since he was last. But I didn't think of it.

So I saw the publicity about it today, his supposed scandalous performance. I watched it on You Tube twice. The first time through, yeah, it seemed a little over the top. Then I saw a rehearsal clip. Then I watched the performance the second time. It was edgy and designed to make people talk and it succeeded.

That's good, since the album came out today. Mine is not here yet, since I ordered it from his website, the deluxe edition. So I'm hoping tomorrow or the next day.

As for what he did on the show, it shouldn't be that big of a shocker in today's world. Haven't performers been grabbing their crotch for a while? As for the simulated oral sex, that was edgy, I'll give you that. Kissing the guy. It's just performance, etc., etc. I didn't mind it. And I'm old, far from Adam's target audience.

He's the male Gaga. That's one way to look at it.

It's actually just like Elvis, except we've come a long way from back then. People thought Elvis was over the top with sexuality.

Getcher Motor Runnin'

This is a theme I'm still thinking about.

I was singing it yesterday. Then tonight when I came out of the restaurant, I'm tired and cold. I get into a cold car and sit there for a minute feeling down. Then it occurs to me, "Getcher Motor Runnin'."

Get it runnin' at least good enough to get home and get to bed.

I can't do much with it tonight. Tooooooooo tired!

Why Dogs Hate Each Other

I don't know why dogs hate each other. It's crazy. You always hear it's territorial, but I don't think that's entirely it. Unless they're geared to protect just any territory they happen to be on.

I was at the park with the dog and another guy, a guy I actually know, came by with his dog. I yelled over that I'll go this way, you go that way.

But of course our dogs had seen each other and were going nuts trying to get to each other. I'm calling for my dog to cease and desist but to no avail. Just a waste of breath.

We got to the car and I looked at my dog. "You can't help it, I know. It's just something in you. Why do you hate each other?"

She's so normal and intelligent when there aren't other dogs around. But, if she's at the kennel, and there are plenty of dogs in adjoining cages, yowling and howling, she seems like she's not that interested.

ACORN Stole Everything

I saw an article today that 50+% of Republicans think the group ACORN somehow stole the election for President Obama.

Republicans are so weird. What'd he win by? 9 or 10 million votes? How did they manage to steal so many votes and have no one mention it till now?

I've heard of sore losers, but the Republicans definitely beat all!

And yet ----- And yet, in 2000 they were happy to claim the presidency by 537 votes, no questions asked. Any hint of funny business, what was their response? As I recall it was "Get over it."

Well, this time it's 9 or 10 million votes. So I think we are justified by saying "Get over it."

Republicans. They really are skunks.

What Do Hogs Have To Live For?

We saw some hogs on their way to the butcher place, the slaughterhouse one day. And someone said, "If you get the chance, run!" Words to that effect.

Like the hogs would think, "I'm about to be killed. I need to escape."

I've been thinking about it on and off. Same thing for other animals. They have no idea what's coming up. And even if they did, and were able to make a break for it, where would they go, what would they do?

There's nowhere for a hog to just run to to have a decent life. Of course we have lots of wild life out there making a life for itself, deer, moose, etc., but hogs aren't used to life in the forest.

Anyway, what do hogs have to live for? They're not raising families or planning for the future. They wouldn't even be alive if these guys weren't going to eventually slaughter them. Since people basically don't raise hogs for the fun of it.

Cemetery Rubbish

I was at a cemetery today, having been at a funeral.

And when we were leaving we rounded a corner where there was a junk heap set back maybe 30 feet from the road. The junk heap had some big Hefty trash bags, which probably had leaves in them or grass clippings, and they were surrounded by lots of dead flowers, maybe some plastic flowers, etc. Hundreds of them.

I thought, Wow, that's not good. They clean the graves periodically, OK. But how about hauling it all away and not just having it set there!

MP3 Samplers

I don't usually get through the entire MP3 sampler, the ones they give away at Amazon.

I definitely appreciate the gesture, getting free music. But to have a track by particular artists that I don't really know doesn't excite me like maybe it would've once upon a time. I tend to want everything by everyone that I like and not just a lot of extraneous songs.

And I do generally like the songs I hear, except I can't afford to get a whole album by all of them. And I wouldn't have time to listen to them if I did.

So just to have a lot of random songs doesn't appeal to me that much.

I've been listening to the songs off a sampler tonight. Brushfire Records Fall 2009 sampler. There's some very good stuff, but it's the same problem (see above) with every sampler.

Numerology

We're all familiar with the numbers, 1-2-3-4, etc., and that's that. They go along in a predictable sequence once you get used to the pattern. I'm sure this is basic stuff for most people.

And, they say (and I believe them) that numbers would just keep going if you let them. If you had the time and patience, you could eventually demonstrate that there's simply no end to how high you could count.

That said -- and it's all quite simple -- there's still some fascinating things about numbers. Such as particular numbers that show up in mythology, religion, scientific patterns, etc. For example, 3 and 4 are probably popular enough to warrant their own fan clubs. And I know 7 is a biggie. 6 has a certain fascination, like in 666. Not to wish myself any bad luck by saying it.

Tonight I was privileged to be mentioned in someone's 1,000th tweet on Twitter. How's that for a special honor? I hope no one would say it's arbitrary and meaningless. It seemed destined, since I showed up on the scene just as she was 5 tweets out, wondering what to say for her 1,000th. I stepped into the breach -- her indecision -- and said she could retweet something from me, which she did.

Then the weird thing about what she retweeted was possibly an inadvertent, unconscious quote I made that is substantially the same as a quote made by Woody Allen, as quoted on Twitter. I just saw it go by this morning and it made me think, Hmm, I wonder if I saw that before.

So this lady RTs me saying that, which might be plagiarism on my part. But honestly, I can't be expected to know what everyone everywhere has said heretofore. How am I supposed to know? Woody Allen might be sitting around his house saying all kinds of things and I don't know about it. Or anyone, celebrities and non-celebrities. I'm sure people are talking all the time. And the possibility that someone I say would coincide with something someone else has said seems pretty real. Put the numbers together, if you can think of the odds.

I think certain numbers are cooler than others, but each one has its proud place among the numbers, depending on whether you need to use it or not. If we didn't have a particular number -- like let's say 17 didn't exist -- we'd have to invent it. Because we couldn't very well go from 16 to 18 without it. And the pattern is obvious. If 10 + 6 is 16 and 10 + 8 is 18, it stands to reason that 10 + 7 would have to be 17. It's virtually inescapable.

Whole Family (The Men) Arrested On Sex Charges

Of the stories I've seen today, this is the one that's lodged in my brain, simply for the sheer shock of it.

To see five guys from one family sitting there in orange jump suits, plus one in Florida (not pictured), charged with a history of sex crimes, you have to think, Wow, that's insane.

I guess my family is so normal. We get together and talk about normal stuff. It's not hard to imagine what these guys talked about when together, assuming they're guilty.

You might expect one guy of someone's family to be sneaking around doing something. But not the entire clan!

Crazy.

PMS

I just realized after all this time that "Pimp My Skivvies" has the initials PMS.

No, I'm not suffering from PMS. And being a guy, I probably never will.

Breast Implants And The Bible

Carrie Prejean -- what was she, Miss America, Miss California, Miss Fox News? -- defends getting breast implants, saying it's not against her Christian faith.

That's an interesting topic to think about!

Here's a great quote she gave:

No, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting breast implants as a Christian. I think it's a personal decision. I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says you shouldn't get breast implants.

That's true. There are lots of things the Bible doesn't specifically address. Meaning, of course, anything it doesn't specifically forbid is allowed.

There are verses, though, that she could consider, like Hebrews 13:5:

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

It definitely says "be content with such things as ye have." But I guess that could mean if you're not content with what ye have, make your things different till ye are content.

Catnip Scented Litter?

I have a brand of cat litter I buy, unscented. It's a store brand. And to me it's the best kind we've ever had. So I show up about every week to buy another bag.

Today I went and they'd rearranged everything in the store. There was cat litter basically in the same place as usual but not the kind I wanted. So I wandered a bit and found it at the other end of the aisle, the same brand but not the unscented.

So I had to buy the scented. I don't know if there's any difference or exactly why I've been buying the unscented over the scented. It could be just as simple as this, that virtually anything I prefer the unscented over the scented.

I was getting ready to change the litter tonight, then, when one of the cats went into the box. So I waited for a while, then went to change it, figuring it would be safe from befoulment for an hour perhaps.

But no sooner had I got it changed when the same cat showed up and went in for something.

It made me think, What if the scent is catnip? Wouldn't that be a racket? Catnip scented litter, and the cats are in there doing their thing day and night. It would be bad!

Post Office Closed -- Doh!

The worst part about holidays, no mail!

Now we have another one. We just had Columbus Day -- aka the lamest reason in the world to close the Post Office. Now we have Veterans Day.

Veterans Day is great. But what it has to do with the Post Office, someone tell me. Good grief, there's no reason the P.O. needs to be closed all the time.

I know it's a fact of life. Our mission these days is not to turn back time and skip these great holidays. Our mission is that they don't add more. National Happiness Day or National Day Without Mail or the Tibetan New Year.

My iTunes Is Weird Tonight

I was trying to open it and it asked me to choose a library. I've never done that before. So I don't know what might be wrong.

Then I chose the only one there was and it froze trying to show me the album covers. So I had to do a hard shut off of it and now I'm trying to reopen it.

I hope there's not a big problem. I hate starting over on this stuff. I did have to start over with a fresh library three or four weeks ago, thanks to a problem that was my fault.

UPDATE: It seemed to work OK the second time. But, LOL, it's prompting me for yet another iTunes update! Can't they get it the way it should be and leave it alone for a few weeks!? Good grief. We shouldn't have to suffer all these long, dreary updates all the time!

Some Kind Of Phishing Scam?

Does this sound like some kind of phishing scam?

I get a call in the morning, a wrong number. "Is XXXXX XXXXX there please?" No, there's no one here by that name. You must have the wrong number, sir."

Then I get a call in the afternoon, another wrong number. "Is XXXXX there please?" Another guy asking for the same name, but just the first name, not the last name this time.

I said no, there's no one here by that name. But I say that's the second wrong number for a guy named XXXXX today. He says he gave this as his number. I say what's it for? He says it's something to do with a particular career field, that XXXXX put this as his number. I said, Why would he do that? He says, Maybe his actual number is just a number or two off.

Then the guy wants me to email XXXXX at a particular gmail account to tell him that he's given out the wrong phone number.

At this point I'm a little suspicious, of course. He's the one wanting to contact him. Why should I email the guy? I asked, Is this some kind of scam? I can't think of what the guy said, but I'm sure he said No.

I didn't email him. It sounded too weird. As I thought of it through the day I thought maybe it was some kind of phishing thing, involving the chat feature at gmail.

I see looking around on the internet that some things happen with that, but I didn't see any scam described quite like this one.

Is it a scam?

Wow, A Follower

Somehow, miraculously, I got a follower on one of my other blogs!

That makes two now over five blogs. Heck of an average, I know, but you have to start somewhere. I know it could be more if I told my real life friends and family about these blogs. But I keep it all secret.

Someone asked me the other day about what "projects" I'm doing. I "duhh'ed" and stumbled my way around with words for a few seconds, then covered nicely.

Ha ha, sometimes, just for the heck of it, I like to go downtown, lean against a building, and defy people to recognize me. Of course they never do. How could they?

In Other News -- I'm always interested in the automatic bot/word aggregators at Twitter. I can't remember the ones I've accidentally triggered. One is "ho." If you use the word "ho" in a post there's a bot to pick it up and mention it. I had another one but can't remember what it was. Then tonight I accidentally got another one, when I used the phrase "high five" in a tweet. That's pretty odd, huh?

The Republican's Cruel Joke

Rep. James Clyburn, a great guy, was on Keith's show tonight talking about the health care debate.

He characterized the Republicans' so-called health care program as a "cruel joke," since it would do everything wrong. Such as covering only three million people and allowing for pre-existing conditions exclusions.

My, oh, my. The Republicans can't do anything right. Leave it to them to screw up everything they touch. Republicans believe, you know, that government can't do anything right. And they run for government offices to prove their philosophy right! They must think we're cracked. I wouldn't vote for a Republican for Congress no matter what!

The Loyal Opposition

Hearing Michael Steele and the Republican talking heads (which I haven't actually heard that much of, since I more or less refuse to watch the cable channels the majority of the time) -- but hearing them in snippets on the internet or in reports -- crowing about winning a couple of governor races is a sickening thing.

This ought to make every Democrat want to redouble our efforts for 2010. But we need help! The help we need is for our Democrats in Congress to get their heads out of their butts long enough to get something done in a positive way for the people.

Enough bickering. Enough of every man and woman in Congress wanting to be President For The Day. Get some party loyalty. Get some party discipline. If you can't go along with the Democratic agenda -- and I'm looking at Joe Lieberman -- then get out! If you want to be a Republican, if you're rooting for the Republicans to win, if you're going to support the Republican candidates for Congress as you supported the Republican nominee for president, then, I'm sorry, we don't want you and we don't need you.

I want the Democratic leadership -- and I'm including Barack Obama in this -- to develop a spine like steel, and some fists to match. And not only get things done, but get them done in a bold, positive way. I believe people will reward them -- the base, moderates, and independents -- if they start governing like people with some ideals.

When they do that, we won't have to suffer Michael Steele and the Republican crooks the day after the election in 2010. But the time is now. Get your heads out and look at the light of day. Take a survey of the landscape as it is. And get something done, you idiots!

Gotta Go To Walmart

That's about as boring as watching paint dry. But sometimes it's necessary. Need some of the basics.

The worst thing about it is the whole process. Get in the car, head that direction, get all the way there, find a parking place, get cold, say hi to the greeter, walk a mile looking for my stuff, stand in line for 10 minutes to check out, then all the way back home.

I need one of those pneumatic tubes like at the bank. If we had those whooshing all over town, think of all the money we'd save traveling around. Except, like computer viruses, someone would be constantly tampering with the software and diverting your stuff to a fence.

The bank has it easy, being a completely closed system. It'd take a lot of ingenuity to get in their pipe and divert it without them seeing you.

Benny Hill - RIP

Well, it looks like we, the world, lost a great entertainer. Benny Hill.

Benny Hill has passed on. According to Wikipedia, it took place in 1992. So around 19 years ago.

I did not know that. I just knew he was either alive or not. Now it turns out he's not.

I finished watching the tape I was discussing yesterday, "The Best of Benny Hill." I do think about him occasionally, and since I've been watching the tape over the last few days, of course I've been thinking about him more.

So he was only 68 (or about that) when he died. It happens. He didn't look like the world's healthiest guy on his show, but that would have been deceiving if he had lived to be 100.

According to Wiki, Benny was never married, although he proposed three times. His money was left to relatives.

The show was very funny. I preferred anything risque and spicy more than parodies of talk shows, etc.

Watching Benny Hill

I've been watching a tape I got, "The Best of Benny Hill." I remember thinking he was hilarious in the '70s.

The tape is OK but I'm not cracking up like it seems like I recall. I like it OK, though. I seem to remember the show being a lot more lascivious than this. It's quite mild.

Still, Benny had (has) that look that makes you smile. And so much of it is very cute.

The Word "H--O"

In the title I mean the word "Ho." As in "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas." Or it's more lamentable meaning these days (why people want to ruin a perfectly good word, I don't know), as shorthand speak for whore. That's awful.

I bring it up to say there's a Ho Bot at Twitter. If you use the word "ho" in a tweet, someone has a thing (or maybe they're doing it manually -- I doubt it), that collects those. I did it one day. I can't remember what I innocently put. It had nothing to do with being vulgar. Maybe I said gung ho or something. And this bot gave me a mention for that.

So I put some hyphens in the title here so I wouldn't end up there again. Not that I'm trying to avoid it. But there's no reason to provoke them.

There was some other word bot that collected a tweet by me one day. I can't think of what that was though.