MLE TIDBITS

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday today! Also, it's Autumns 1 year birthday! She was rescued 1 year ago from being put to sleep and was given to us by the lady who rescued her. Today we have an official homemade doggie birthday cake! Pictures (and candle) to come soon! (Click on picture for closer view)



HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUTUMN... You have touched our lives in ways we couldn't even have imagined!

Love,
Mom & Dad

PS ~ Happy Birthday to Mr. Joey (our cat)... He's 5 years old today! Wow!

Long ago, my dad pointed out to me that as time goes on the circle of people I associate with will become smaller and smaller and more and more global.  You start with your fellow high school shitheads that you happily bid farewell to as the first cut.  You finish in your college major and it narrows down to the other whatevers you are.  Then, assuming you do, as you climb the ziggurat lickity split Ace Rimmer style you soon find your peers consists of a fairly small group that you know by first name and you keep running into them no matter where you go.  I didn't believe him at the time.  Considering the health physics community consists of a few thousand people worldwide, I am starting to notice it happening.

Sometimes you get, or give, a reminder of those previous iterations.

I went out to the Richmond Field Station with a co-worker to check out a derelict irradiator unit which involved an awful lot of standing around and waiting for people to show up and open doors for us so we got to talking.  It seems he's from Grass Valley.  I'd been up there before courtesy of my college ex.  We were having a good time talking about those places when he stopped me and asked her name.  I told him and he had a Keanu-like "Whoa..." moment.

It seems she was in his high school graduating class, not that he really ever got to talk to her because she was one of the pretty, popular, cheerleader girls.  They both ended up at UCSC but they never really saw each other again, much like I did with most of the people from SLVHS who went to UCSC.  I then got eyed head to toe.  He had difficulty believing I had ever dated out of caste like that.  To be honest, I'd had some difficulty with it too.

I told him that it didn't last long or end happily.  He nodded sagely.  That made more sense.

While digging around I found this interesting gem.

I was contemplating learning the original German lyrics to Der Kommissar by Falco, and in the process of looking around, I found this!

( Laura Branigan's Deep in the Dark )

Tonight, while watching reruns, I caught the Twilight Zone episode, Living Doll. This oft rehashed plot concerns a doll (or in general inanimate object) which comes to life and does evil things like murder etc. SciFi followed up their first evil puppet episode with another Twilight Zone, entitled Caesar and Me in which the ventriloquist dummy talks its owner into armed robbery. I would love to know what our obsession with life like dolls coming to life and ruining our lives?

The best version of this general story that I have ever come across is a play by Charles Ludlam, called The Ventriloquist's Wife. If you can ever find a copy, read it ... or if you find some company brave enough to do the show see it -- it's both creepy and a big hoot!

a conversation has made me aware of a belief of mine that I had not previously articulated. I invite you to put your 2 cents in.

People argue that if we legalized drugs, they would become safer. People have argued that if we legalize prostituion that the world would be safer. If we legalize BLAH BLAH BLAH

I guess when it comes down to it, I do not believe that legalizing marijuana would eliminate the demand for a black market on it. I think there will always be people who dont want to buy it legally. The black market may give loopholes to to the government knowing your frequency. The black market may carry a strain that some shmoe recently hybridized and does not want to share.

I mean we essentially DO have legal meth, get a diagnosis of adhd (its quite easy in todays world) and drink six shots of coffee with an adderal and tell me how you feel - if you don't have a heart attack first. Yet, street meth is still prolific ...

I believe black markets exist for the sake of themselves.

No lectures today so I spent all morning working my online course. It takes a lot longer to send emails, post thoughtful supplemental lectures, and find good resources, than to do the same thing verbally.  I say that, and I type 70 wpm!  I was going to play some golf, but surprise surprise, it rained last night and was still raining most of the morning. Stopped now...but after lunch G (who is working today), suggested that I at least hit the gym so that I didn't waste all of a free-day working in front of the computer.

So I did! Only to have the Y closed due to power issues.  Oh, did I mention we had thunder and lightening with that rain?  Now I'm back at the ranch, playing in front of the computer, and will soon get ready to meet my friend K at a local wine tasting place where we can get caught up on life. 

Our plans for the rest of the weekend start tonight with a baseball game and fireworks show. Tomorrow we're going to head out to a Reservation to pick up some fireworks, spend time working in the garden, and then blowing up aforementioned fireworks with the our other neighbors. Saturday we're going to try and find a sofa (that didn't work out for us last weekend), and then check out , but Sunday we are going to the Tall Ships Festival!

Somewhere in all that, either tomorrow or Saturday, we'll get some golf in as well if the weather cooperates.  If it doesn't, maybe we'll catch Wall-E.  I just love long weekends, and I know you all have fun fun plans too! I'll post pictures as the adventures unveil themselves.

Normally, our beloved Jeff Z. is not a poetry-writin' man.

He still isn't today, but he did try mightily to give his most recent webcomic the gift of rhyme.

• 09:18 Rescue dog getting spayed presently. The vet loves her and called her a sweetheart #

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There. Terribly interesting, I know...

Without actually collecting enough data to mark a true correlation, I have noticed that when *I* notice when the weatherman annouces a 20% chance of rain, it almost ALWAYS rains.

Is that like Bono saying "Every time I snap my fingers a child dies?" (Then stop doin ' it  ye bastard!!)

We are still learning what we can expect from the Wheel Of The Year at CopperMoon. Lately, we have found a bear print on the trail to Fairy World. Last Saturday, we walked down to Wolf Camp and followed an obvious bear trail through the tall grass. It meandered down one side of the trail, where all the salmon berries were gone, then down the other side. In one place the grass was flattened in a large round circle, like the size of a bear rump.

Now I feel badly about hushing the dogs all the time. At least one of those nights, they were RIGHT about critters out there in the bushes.

Canoeing the Skykomish, from Gold Bar to the Snoqualmie, is muchly on my mind. If my NRS order arrives before Sunday, I'm likely to give it a go. Stay tuned!

[edit] UPS.com says they're delivering today!! 

 

quetz , what say you?

Last evening I was YouTube surfing. I came across some old 70's game shows. I was a VORACIOUS game show fan in the 70's.

"Match Game", "Gambit", "High Rollers", "Now You See It", "Jackpot", "Password", "$foo Pyramid", "Gong Show", "Joker's Wild"... And the real "Wheel of Fortune" with Chuck Woolery, Susan Stafford, and buying ceramic dalmatians and putting the rest on a Gift Certificate.

I ate this stuff up.

One in particular was "Treasure Hunt." A really trashy show from the mind of Chuck Barris. (Which should make that statement redundant).
( Here's the quick summary from wikipedia )

The show was undeniably exploitation for entertainment purposes.
( But then there was Emile Autouri )
And of course because I LOVE the obscure... I've faithfuly recreated a fan page for Mr. Autouri on Facebook.

Below is a YouTube exploration in abject stoicism. Back when Game Shows did fun things.

Must not forget the laundry I put into washer on leaving this morning. Move to dryer once I get home. MUST.