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July 25, 2017

Salad Daze

You Are Balanced 


You're the type who likes everything in moderation, and you're especially good at balancing out life's extremes.

You are a bit of a novelty seeker, and you like to have a really good mix of things in your life. There is always room for something or someone new.

You meld well with many different types of people, and you can bridge the gap in groups where members have little in common.

You don't take anything in life too personally and seriously. If you have a bad day or week, you know things will eventually even out.


July 24, 2017

Partly Cloudy

I was trying to find an article on 22 Words, but got this instead:


These types of 404 pages annoy me even more than the broken link.  I wanted to read what I was linked to (from the 22 Words Facebook page) and instead of telling me to join with you (the "Let's find something!") in looking for another article, how about fixing your damn link to begin with?

July 20, 2017

Despacito- Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee

The most streamed song ever, with (at the time of this post) nearly 2.7 billion views.


Suck It, Photobucket

I was doing as I normally do when I check email, replying to a few in my inbox, checking the recipe newsletters, reading some sales circulars from Amazon and a local grocery store, then went into the Spam folder to clear it out.

I always scan the subject titles and the addresses just in case something important has been accidentally flagged as junk when I saw one from Photobucket.  At first I thought it was Spam, but it seemed to be from the website, so I opened it to find this:

WE NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE BEEN USING
PHOTOBUCKET FOR 3RD PARTY HOSTING*

*What is 3rd Party Hosting?

Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, Etsy, eBay auction listings, a blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting.

And some other crap, mainly that they wanted to charge me some insane amount to provide hosting for my graphics.  Now, I use the Blogger albums they provide for any jpegs, but they don't support animations and I use some in posts in here, as well as the day-date calendar and border.  I also use the service for forums that don't supply image hosting for non-paying users like me (read: cheap bastards like me)

I didn't get a notice until this one that they were changing their TOU (terms of use).  Since they had always supplied the code, the HTML to embed images, I always thought it was OK, but apparently it's not now.  My "library" with Photobucket is only 1% full and they used to show a bandwidth meter and it was always set at around 10% or less, so I never worried.  I did keep an eye on it after having a few websites directly link to images and got a warning from Photobucket that I was over the limit, so I made it private and that was the end of the thieving. 

There are lots of people complaining about it online and I don't blame 'em.  Some people relied upon it for their image hosting, esp. people uploading them to Amazon for reviews and people trying to sell things on eBay. Now their entire websites and/or posts are affected and have this placeholder where their photos used to be:


So, if you see that in any older post or on the animations I use for things, then that's the reason. I've already signed up for a new free image hosting service and hope they'll not go the same route as Photobucket...which I predict is going to go out of business soon, because I think - as do many others - that they're in financial trouble and this is one last grab for some quick cash.

Anyway, I'll be doing the changeover soon, hope it works.  If not, I suppose I can live w/out any flashing signs or animated GIFs.  I'm sure the readership of this pathetic excuse for a blog won't suffer any...how could it?  We're only something like the 12,784,987th ranked blog in the world, after all.

July 19, 2017

Don't Get Yourself in a Pickle!

A "bump" from Nov. '08.  No one commented, so perhaps no one or not many saw it. Unlike many of my stories, this is a true one.

Besides, I needed a post for today and just couldn't get enthused enough to work one up.

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
- Will Rogers


It was a Senior Work Day, and we boys were working on a Saturday, making some money for our class trip after graduation. We castrated pigs that morning, then after lunch we were instructed to move some irrigation pipe. Someone noticed an electric fence on a nearby pasture and the question was raised:

"Say, you ever pee on an electric fence?" Out of the six of us, four admitted they had and another boy and I were the only ones to admit to have not having had the experience.

"Do it!" the four urged me and the other guy. I shook my head, having been around electric fences before and not liking how the shock went through me where I had made contact with the fence after not seeing it and then accidentally walking into it. The shock was bad enough on my thighs, the thought of having "it" shocked wasn't appealing to me, not at all.

The taunts went on, but I didn't care because those words didn't hurt nearly as much as electricity. Maybe I was the only one who had been awake in eighth grade science when we learned about electricity and in particular how salt water can be a circuit and conduct current. For one experiment, we used a pickle to complete a circuit; it glowed inside and crackled like an old pool hall beer sign.



Nope, no need for me to electrify MY little dill.

The other guy was challenged by the sneers from the rest and with a show of bravado, marched over to the fence, unzipped and after a few moments of potty blush, began to urinate on the charged wire.

While others claimed to have seen a spark, I must have been in the wrong position, but I did see the guy's knees buckle, then straighten up to launch him into the air and land backwards into a muddy ditch.

It took him a while to recover, then he became angry at our laughter and turned his rage upon me.

"Your turn!" he commanded.

With tears in my eyes from laughing so hard, I declined again. "MY momma didn't raise no fool." I told him, which made him even angrier.

"You're the only one who hasn't done it!" he said. "We'll make you!" he went on, looking around at the other boys for allies.

One by one, the others shook their heads, saying they really HADN'T ever peed on a fence, just wanted to see if someone would do it.

This set the guy off and in a profanity-laden tirade, accused them of being liars.

"Better that than a dumbass." was the reply.

July 17, 2017

Air Force Quiz

Only 1 in 50 Americans Can Ace This Air Force Test.

Can You?

Yep.

Aim High... Fly-Fight-Win!

The Air Force Song

July 16, 2017

July 13, 2017

The Green Chair


You Should Sit in a Green Chair 




You are the most harmonious person in the world. You know how to bring different types of people together. 


You have a healing energy, and you are a natural peacemaker. Things tend to get better when you show up. 

You are a powerful force, but you are never aggressive about it. In fact, you do a lot more listening than talking. 

You are a good communicator and excel at finding compromise. You believe that people have more in common than they think they do

 

Not sure if any of the results really fit me, but if you give me a green chair, I'd sit in it.

Just as long as it wasn't Behind the Green Door

July 10, 2017

Don't Throw it Away!

At least not where someone can slip on it.

You can use the inside of a banana peel to polish leather shoes and silverware and stop mosquito bites from itching. Some people eat the peelOthers use them for acne, cleaning their teeth and pain relief, among other things.

When I was a young man, it was thought you could smoke it, too.

 

July 8, 2017

All My Friends are Crazy - 500 Miles to Memphis


I'm a big fan of this band and the sound, just enough country to suit me and more than rockin' enough to make me love this particular tune of theirs. (among others) The lyrics of the song hit close to home because all of my friends in real life have been a little bit crazy. (and some of my online ones, too)

I don't think I could dance to it, though. I think I'd need three legs to do this two-step.

July 7, 2017

Dysania

Dysania - the state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning.



There's a simple remedy for that;  sleep past noon!


July 6, 2017

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Texas are the five states with the most reported hauntings.


July 4, 2017

Happy 4th of July




If you're celebrating the 4th today, please try and not eat too much.  BBQ
Drunk Uncle Sam Don't drink too much.
And for Heaven's sake, don't blow off a finger. Firecracker Kid

 Flag Waving
Just have a good time and enjoy the freedoms of this great nation...while we still have them.

July 1, 2017

Transurphobia

Transurphobia - the fear of haircuts.

Understandable.


My pop used to cut my hair when I was a kid, an easy way to save a buck.  My folks bought a pair of clippers, not the electric kind, but manually operated and they were horrible, pulling out hair and I guess I carried on so much they bought electric clippers.  They were better, but it was still the same type of haircut, a close burr, a "buzz cut".   Oh well, it was better than a "Moe bowl-type" cut.



When I got older and a little less timid, I challenged my pop to let ME buzz HIS head.  He started taking me to the barber then, think it was something like $1.25 for a haircut.  I didn't like the hometown barber and neither did my dad...who called him "the Montana sheep shearer".  I liked the guy, but agreed with my father and always thought a sheep shearer might very well have been more gentle than him.  (The space between my ears and scalp was always nicked and bleeding after every hair cut.  That wouldn't have been so bad, but I wore glasses and the ear pieces would keep the minor wounds raw and irritated. )

When I was old enough to make my own money with summer jobs, I started paying for my own haircuts, but they were two bucks by then, the same as the hourly minimum wage.  A well-to-do classmate always had great looking haircuts and he talked me into going to his barber...who charged the then-outrageous price of $7.50!   That could have filled up my car, taken a date to the movies and maybe even enough left over to buy her some popcorn!  The last haircut I got was $12.50, not counting the tip...and considerably more than the hourly minimum wage at the time.
So, since my hairline was receding with every passing year, I bought my own set of clippers and started buzzing my own head.   I tried shaving it, but that was too much of a hassle, just better to take the clippers to what few hairs I have left.  The best thing is that just a couple of self-haircuts can pay for the clippers. 

What I'd like to know is why the hair on my head is disappearing and multiplying in my nose and ears?