No Thrills on Blueberry Hill

I was watching one of the great Texas Country Reporter episodes on YouTube; the show was one from a few years ago: Blueberry Hill Farms. It's a great story, a city family buying a blueberry farm and making a success of it. I had to laugh, though, as one scene was the father talking about how much fun they have working the farm together as a family. The screen capture below is at the 3:40 mark of the video and the look one of his daughters gives him after he says that is priceless.

"Yeah, right Dad."

Death Clock

Originally published 7/31/07

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From the website:

Welcome to the Death Clock(TM), the Internet's friendly reminder that life is slipping away... second by second. Like the hourglass of the Net, the Death Clock will remind you just how short life is.



Darn, I won't make it to the New Year's party.

http://www.deathclock.com/

They say time flies when you're havin' fun.

It goes pretty fast when you're just goofin' off, too.

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I was looking at a post I had linked to and saw this and decided to take the test again. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm gonna live a little longer than when I first took the test.

It's great what the loss of a few lbs. will do as well as a change of attitude, huh?

Google Loves Me

Vote For Bush!

I was reading an article about George and Laura Bush's daughter Jenna having a baby shower thrown for her by her TV co-workers, then noticed a "Which Bush is your favorite?" poll on the side, so I voted.  I know OF Billy Bush and the band Bush, but can't claim to have listened to the show of the former and couldn't name a tune by the latter.  Of course, I know about the two presidents Bush and knew about Jenna and her fraternal twin sister Barbara from the news stories* that came out when their father first became President.  

I thought about the vote for a little bit, then went ahead and clicked on George W. Bush, what the heck.  I voted for him twice before, why not three times?  According to half of America, I'm responsible for the country's ills because I did vote for him the first two times. 

*I remember a story about the Bush twins getting arrested twice for minor in possession (of alcohol) within a few weeks and not long after that, Jenna getting busted for trying to use a fake I.D. as so to buy alcohol. I remember making a joke at the time that the U.S. could probably reduce the deficit just by selling the twin's empties.

Paranoia

I was checking the status of my refund earlier today and decided to read then take a screen shot of the warming that pops up before you can proceed on the site.  I've seen the same thing when looking at the Top Ten Most Wanted on the FBI site as well as trying to look up something on the official White House website.


Nothing new here, folks, move along.  Y'know, you're really not paranoid if someone really IS watching you.

The word paranoia always reminds me of this tune:


Destroyer - The Kinks

"Paranoia, the destroyer"

Good News, Bad News

The bad news is it's taking its own sweet time getting here.

What Took You So Little?

I was checking out the StatCounter statistics; since this blog isn't monetized, it really doesn't matter about the number of visitors, but I have the counter mostly to satisfy my own curiosity as to just who - and to a lesser extent, how many - people visit. It's also interesting to see where they come from and what they're searching for.  I also like to see what browser and operating system they're using.  It doesn't keep a running total like the StatCounter does, but my Feedjit counter does a good job in "real time" letting me know who is visiting, what they were looking for and what country they're from.

I've only had the counter for a couple of months and learned something after going by the Google Analytics page statistics; I used to think this blog had about a hundred visitors every day, but that was "page loads" and not unique visitors.  That figure is usually from 30-40. Oh well. (the counter doesn't give detailed stats on the https traffic;  for that, I'd have to pay for it and I certainly don't want to do that!)

One statistic I hadn't checked before was the length of stay and I was a little dismayed to see how little time most people spent here. Here's a screen capture of that particular stat:

As you can see, nearly 80% spend less than five seconds after they get here. One thing I'll give 'em...they recognize a worthless blog when they see one.

The 9 that stayed longer than an hour must have fallen asleep at their computer.

This Soup is Nuts

I love "Something" Soup

I'm Thinking

Of this oldie but goody.

This won't mean anything except to those of us who used to frequent the now-defunct MSN Groups. The post titles were in response to a woman making a post in the off-topic board "I'm Thinking of Changing My Nickname". As you can see, *some* of us thought the topic was hilarious and decided to poke a little fun at her. What was even funnier than the responses was her indignation at the rather gentle ribbing.

I don't remember who gorgeous was, but I do remember SPIRITDAVID and his spats with the CF management team, always good for a chuckle.  I also remember RVSnowbird, an older man who lived in an RV and was looking for female companionship.  I remember that last about Snowbird because he had specific criteria, very strict, with weight limits and the woman had to be several years younger than himself.  (I figured he needed someone younger than himself and in better health to take over driving duties and the weight limit?  Maybe his RV had poor springs, who knows?)  Brad, or "Binky" is no longer with us now, he was a great guy.  I don't know what happened to Quinduno, either, but he probably blew a gasket if he kept up with his vendetta against authority.

Reusing

I got an email from Amazon earlier; once you look at something and are signed up for their email alerts, they practically bombard you with suggestions of that item. I've received at least one mailing a week since I looked at cell phones.

A few weeks ago I was checking into the price of peanut oil, having heard of its high smoke point and health benefits. As I often do on Amazon, I then went on to look at other related items, mostly outdoor deep fryers.

After looking at a few of the suggestions on Amazon, I started wondering if peanut oil can be reused. Before we were married, my ex managed a seafood restaurant that had daily specials on many menu items with both fried catfish and shrimp being the most popular. After a few days of use, they "rejuvenated" their oil with a nifty filter machine; you drained the oil into the machine, then it was filtered and pumped back into the deep fryer.

As I was typing in "reusing cooking oil" into Google, the auto-complete gave me suggestions. I've seen quite a few humorous screen shots of those in various websites, some laugh-out-loud funny and others making me shake my head. This time was a little bit of both.

I know about reusing things - mostly because I try to make it a habit, both from an ecological standpoint but also from an economic one. I've read about some of the suggestions Google was giving me; from my homesteading and survival Facebook groups, I've seen quite a few ways to reuse old wood pallets, from making furniture to filling them full of potting soil and making small herb gardens. One of the best uses I've seen for them was sinking them in a pond for what I call "minnow motels" - minnows lay their eggs on the underside of wood and the relatively small openings in the pallet keeps the larger predator fish out.

I've also seen a bunch of different ways to reuse plastic bottles;  just the other day I saw a photo of a raft someone had built out of 2L bottles.  Not sure if I would want to cross the ocean on one, but....  I have been known to reuse a tea bag, but it's certainly a weaker "cuppa" the second time.  I've read that earthworms love old tea bags and they also degrade well in compost heaps.  I've also read that they're good to mulch into the soil under acid-loving plants such as blueberry bushes.

I also belong to a canning group on Facebook and the general consensus there and elsewhere is that one should NOT reuse canning lids.  The rings, yes, but new lids should be used.

It was the third entry in the auto-complete form that really threw me for a loop.  I'm sure that, if refrigerated, it would last for a day or two, but how the heck can you reuse it?

They're Expensive Hear

I've been using a cheap set of headphones I bought from WalMart to replace another cheap set I bought from Amazon a few years ago, so I thought I might price them again and see if there was one of decent quality that wouldn't cost too much.

These sound OK, but they just don't have the range I'd like.  For one, the bass  level isn't very good.  I've gone into the equalizer and tried to adjust it, but these phones just won't handle it.  They also don't have the volume I want; they're perfectly fine listening to talk radio or most music, but when I play my AC/DC I want it LOUD, y'know? (what's the use of listening to it if it's not played at the intended sound level, nearly enough to bust your eardrums!)

I have some good quality "bud" type phones that give me the volume and sound that I want, but they're uncomfortable and I read something just the other day that said they can give you an infection that can cost you your hearing.  No thanks, if I lose my hearing I want it to be because I played "It's a Long Way to the Top" at too many decibels, not from some eardrum rot.

So, I went to Amazon and typed in "headphones" into the search box, then selected the highest rating,  4 stars and up. I probably shouldn't, but trust most of the reviews there and haven't been steered wrong...yet.

A list of headphones came up, so I clicked on the first one. At the top of the screen were the words "You purchased this item..." and gave a date from a few years ago. They weren't BAD headphones, but they just didn't tolerate me sitting on them or getting up and trying to walk away with them still on my head. The set still works, but only if I hold one of the wires "just so". I don't know why I keep them, but figure they'll be good for something someday - maybe I can fix them or use the jack for something else.

Yeah, right.

I don't remember what I paid for the original headphones, but they were new.  They're not something I would buy used - the thought of putting something on my ears that have been on someone else's grosses me out.  The new price is really reasonable for an inexpensive set of headphones, but I really don't think I want to pay that much for used ones. (click image for larger view)

No, Thanks

I already have a set.

Couldn't sleep, so I got up to check my reader and noticed a new posting from WikiHow, my subscription to their "How to of the Day" feed. I had to laugh because it looked like they were talking about either obtaining some incredible intestinal fortitude or making something that could only be made on an expensive and advanced lathe or milling machine.

There was another similar post from WikiHow that hit my reader while I was clearing out the rest of the posts - this one was about making Brass Ball cocktails.  The article was blank, as was the original one and I noticed that it had already been edited a dozen times.  That's the trouble with the Wiki sites, namely that anybody can edit them.  "I know that's true, I just read it on Wiki!" "Oh yeah, that's not a good source."  "Well, I know it's true because I just wrote it!"

Back when I was active in MSN Groups, the help group "Community Feedback" had a Wiki listing.  They had a description that went like this: "Community Feedback is dedicated to giving help to MSN Group managers." along with a bunch of other self-congratulatory crapola.  I used to go in and put "dubious" in front of "help" in the sentence. Petty of me, I know (some might say infantile or even passive-aggressive), but I loved to annoy them.  It was cheap entertainment.

Speaking of brass balls, I watched one of my favorite History Channel programs Saturday morning: "Heavy Metal".  The show is about all things military, but my favorites are when they highlight ships, tanks and airplanes. This program was about the B-17, one of the best U.S.bombers of WWII. One segment detailed the heavy losses incurred during the raids on the Schweinfurt ball bearing plants.

After the program was over, it made me think of ball bearings and different situations in my life involving them. One time when I was a driller on a rig I had a bearing out of the drawworks and was about to replace a couple of the small ball bearings when one of the guys who worked for me accidentally kicked it and sent them rolling everywhere.  We were down for quite a while until I could scavenge enough to replace the ones that we couldn't find.  Wasn't my fault, but guess who got the butt-chewing?  I passed it along, of course.

Thinking of the rigs - and ball bearings -  reminded me of a joke about a govt. man sent out to test the intelligence of rig workers.  He started the tests out with a roughneck, giving him three steel balls and told him to do something with them. The govt. man turned his back, but when he turned around again, the roughneck was gone.  He looked around, but couldn't find him.

Getting another three balls from his briefcase, the govt. man went to the roughneck's immediate boss, the driller, gave him the three balls and told him to do something with them.  The driller looked at the balls for a while, scratched his head and then put two balls side-by-side, then balanced one atop the bottom two.  It was a fairly difficult and ingenious feat, so the driller got a good score.

The govt. man looked around for the roughneck, but still couldn't find him so he then gave the three balls to the driller's boss, the tool pusher.  The pusher looked at the balls for just a little while, then stacked one on top of each other, nearly impossible to do...but that was why he was the tool pusher.  He got a great score from the govt. man.

About that time, the roughneck came ambling up.  "Where are those balls?" asked the govt. man. "What balls?" replied the roughneck. "Those three balls I gave you an hour ago!" exclaimed the exasperated govt. man.

"Oh, THOSE three balls." the roughneck sheepishly said. "Well," he went on "I lost one...broke another..."

"But the other one's here in my lunch box!"

No Age Discrimination Here!

I was entering a contest earlier (for a washer/drier combo) and the entry page wanted all my pertinent information: gender, address, email and my age. Now, I understand why they want the contact information and also why they want the other information for their marketing purposes, but something struck me funny about the drop-down menu for the birth year:

I wonder just how many over a hundred yr. old folks they expect to enter the contest? I'd say they were already a winner for living that long.

I really need that washer/drier combo, though.  I hate going to the laundromat; I figured a while back that I could easily buy a washer and drier with what I spend there in a year.  Just the other day I was listening to a local "swap and shop" program on the radio and heard someone say they had a barely used washer and drier for sale for 25 bucks.  I quickly called the number and made arrangements to go check out the pair. 

I was disappointed after I got there, though...I found out the washer and drier was an old douchebag and towel.

No wonder they were so cheap.

You Don't Have to Spell 'Em

To have 'em, I suppose.

This screenshot is from the Facebook page of an Amarillo media outlet. The subject was mandatory testing for AIDS and as is usual with controversial topics, there was plenty of outrage...and "moral" superiority.

The names were blacked out because...well, I'm pokin' fun at 'em.

I had "some" Moriales once...Rosa, think her first name was.  She didn't give me AIDS, just a little something penicillin cured right up.

Just kidding, but the real joke was the self-righteous attitudes, one lecturing on "moriales" and the other calling the first one out, not realizing she was nearly as bad as the first - and making a spelling error, too.

Harry Potter is Evil

The number of comments on the Harry Potter Facebook page "proves" it.

-snicker-

Dumb (Ass) Comment

I subscribe to the Amarillo Globe-News Facebook page. Recently they linked to an article on their website about the US Marines bringing home Smoke, a donkey that had been a mascot of the Marines in Iraq.

The comments on the FB page were mostly positive, except for some who griped that it wasn't news, and then there was this, a comment about education funding and a few posts later, another comment. (I put them together in order to save space.)  For privacy, I blacked out the names.

Education is very important and we need to fund it, but if our educational system is churning out functionally illiterate jackasses like that, then something has to change.

The donkey is probably smarter than that person.

Ahoy, There Be Pirates!

Arrr!

Just checked my counter stats and saw this for the latest visitor:

Note the date of the last visit - wonder if Columbus visited this blog then, too?

(and no, this isn't an April Fools joke - not by me, anyway.  Sure wish I knew how they did that.)

Alton Brown's Nose

Celebrity chef Alton Brown meets fans at the 2nd annual gumbo cook-off on Dauphin Island

Naw, that's not really his nose, but is a screenshot of a video from a link I followed on "Alton Brown for President" on Facebook. I just thought it really funny...and bet he would, too. Here's the video link:

Alton Brown On Dauphin Island

Grate Ejucashun

I've been keeping up with my alma mater's football team via their Facebook page: Miami Warriors Football Fan Page

I noticed something when I first "liked" the page and have kept waiting for someone to fix it.



I guess I shouldn't be hard on whoever started the page and wrote the description. They probably went to school there, just as I did...and you know how bad my own writing are is.

ABC Outs FN Chef!

As far as I am concerned, Fieri should just STAY in the closet.