damn dummies

Singer Amy Winehouse, 27, reported dead of overdose
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:06 PM PDT on Boing-Boing

British singer Amy Winehouse was found dead today at age 27, of an apparent drug overdose. Reuters:
Police said they had found the body of a 27-year-old woman at a flat in Camden Square, north London, after being called by ambulance services around 1500 GMT (11 a.m. EDT).
She was a talented artist with a disease, and a long line of enablers who depended on her. As an aside, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, and Janis Joplin died at the same age and in a similar manner.

Maybe, just maybe this has always been one soul that has been destined or damned to die the same way every 27 years. Just one perpetual living source that has the unique calling to be a musical virtuoso only to burn out quickly.
OR
The music muse burns so brightly in their bodies that they are used up and discarded. Elvis lasted as long as he did due to his twin up as a sacrifice and Michael Jackson had to be killed to release the muse back into the ether. He was holding the muse at bay by regular offerings of a child’s innocence and chimpanzee tears.
OR
Each of these young musicians have faked their own deaths with the combined help of the CIA, MI5 and a secret illuminati group to become some sort of super spy lead by the original Paul McCartney. What better way to hide then to hide behind a face that everyone knows has died.
OR
Damn dummies squander their talent and their bales of cash on drugs and booze.

Its Back

About a 3 hour drive from here is where my father in law grew up. It is smack in the middle of the farmland breadbasket of southwestern Kansas. The kinda place you think about when you think Kansas. Flat, brown and desolate. It's like Nebraska without all the excitement.
The town he grew up in, Isabel, has a population of 12 or 13 (depending on how the local schizo is feeling that day). You would think it was a ghost town, really. Even the High School has been shut down.
Just beyond these meager settings there is a local “resort” called 99 springs. I use the term loosely as it is just a buncha summer homes around a lake. Some retirees live their year round and some houses are just used to get away. A farmer's version of Club Med. The housing is mostly comprised of mobile homes and prefab houses.

Except one.

“The Cabin.”

The term “rustic” is being very polite. It is a 1 bedroom zero bath cracker box with a kitchen and an enclosed deck.
That’s it.
There was recently (in the past 20 years or so) “some” electricity added. I mean some because there are only 2 maybe 3 outlets and they can’t all be used at the same time. Seriously, if you turn on the radio the fan slows down.
No running water (meaning no shower, sink or toilet), no TV, no cellphone service and barely any radio. The signals just cannot make it out there unless bounced off a satellite. It’s always bothered me a little that any outside communication has to go into outer space before reaching us, if at all.
There, smack dab in the 18th century, “The Cabin” sits at the top of this hill with the gravel road running past. No modern amenities, no air conditioning and no sweet, sweet cool porcelain to cradle my ass and whisper "everything is ok".
Also, the trees and houses on either side have a tendency to block all but the most errant and erratic breeze. The closest place to eat is about a ½-hour drive and the only thing to go to town to do is go to Wal-Mart.OO the nightlife is intense!
It’s not the middle of nowhere but if you stand on your toes and squint your eyes, you can see it from here.
This is my destination this weekend as it is every other year for the local family reunion. My wife and her siblings look at this as being just the treat of treats. Me?
Not so much.
I don’t like camping out , I love fishing and I don’t mind “getting away from it all.”
What I do mind is being in this sweatbox in the middle of July.
I dont even mind sweating. Its sweating until my deodorant has collected into a puddle in my socks for no other reason then just standing.

So, let me recap for a second here.
2 days, 8 adults (well 7 plus me) and 9 kids (ranging in age from 15 to 3), small room, no air conditioning, no bathing, no distractions and the icing on the cake? This weekend is supposed be topping off at 105 degrees.
so if you are doing the relational math that equals out to

17 hot, sweaty, dirty, smelly, exhausted humans yanking like lumberjacks on each others last nerve as the temperature raises and the insect population closes in for the kill.


oh the joy.

Questions

1.  What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? : Write a book series.
     *    What's holding you back? I am not a very good story teller. I envy those people who can sit down and explain what happened in the most mundane of days and hold your attention like they were explaining the storming of the beach at Normandy. I do not have that talent. While I can see a movie of my novel in my head it gets lost coming out the fingers. Maybe it's just stuck in my elbow?
 
2.  If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?  Be yourself and true to yourself from now till the end and do not sweat one lil bit what anyone else thinks. Form your own opinions, think for yourself and be your own person. You will be so much more happier that way than any other. (this is what I have told my kids from day 1.)

3.  If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don't like and like so many things we don't do? Because life is what you make of it and to be able to do what you want, you have to have money. If you can make a life for yourself and your family that you are truly happy, want for nothing and do not need money then I envy you.

4.  How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? I stopped aging in my head at 29. I continually have to ask the Wife how old I am because I can never remember but I can usually get it within a year ±.

5.  Which is worse, failing or never trying?  Really depends on the situation. For instance I would rather not try jumping off a cliff to see if I could fly then fail at it. Over all though it comes down to that old cliché, it's easier to ask for forgiveness then permission. You have to ask yourself which is it going to be harder to live with, always wondering might have been or regretting what was.

6.  If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently? Unfortunately nothing. I would continue to squander away my precious moments like tap water.
 

7.  Would you break the law to save a loved one? Seriously? I would invent a law, get it ratified into every law book from federal down to the local PTA and then bust it in half like an old piñata just to "maybe" save a loved one.

8.  If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why? I have always wanted to live in Australia. Don't know if I believe in all that Shirley McClaine former live regeneration stuff but something has always pulled me toward there.
 
 9.  Do you push the elevator button more than once?  Depends on the elevator
     *   Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster? In my office building, very much so. Usually it takes 12 hits to get the damn thing to move, no more and no less. Sometimes you have to hit the up button to bring the down car. Other places... not really. It'll come when it comes.

10. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?  Well to answer the question I guess a joyful simpleton because joy is so much harder to come by but why cany I be a joyful genius?
 

11. Why are you, you? No one else wanted the job.

HomoDepoT

Home Depot to American Family Ass.: take a hike, we support gay causes

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 12:05 AM PDT

The American Family Association presented Home Depot's board of directors with his organization's demand that they stop funding gay pride events and other events that promote tolerance and diversity. He had a petition with about 500,000 signatures from people who've vowed to boycott the store unless it joins them in their campaign against gay people.

Home Depot Chairman Frank Blake told the AFA to take a hike, stated that Home Depot was proud of its support for diversity, and that's that.

Like all big box stores, Home Depot isn't without its problems, but today, they've shown some real backbone.

Home Depot Tells AFA To Take A Hike (via Making Light)

Now I am not for gay rights and I am not against gay rights.

I just don’t care enough to make a distinction.

I think a person’s sexuality is a moral matter and moral matters have absolutely no business being in anyone else’s hands but their own.

What I don’t like is anyone telling other people they just HAVE to conform to their way of thinking or else…

You have your opinion and I have mine.

You can tell me yours just as I can tell you mine.

As soon as you try and force someone to have your opinions your over all worth as a person is diminished.*

*(well unless you are a parent and the issue is like “ I have the opinion that your room needs to be cleaned” then it’s ok. I guess if you have stock over a person’s life and well being they gotta conform to your opinion as long as they want clothes and food and junk.)

WoW.. thats cool

One new solution to the whole “regret” thing is to just remove yourself from the timeline completely with a spacetime cloaking device. By opening up a gap in light waves and then sealing it again, researchers have proven (yes, they’ve actually done this) that it’s possible to cloak an entire event from an observer. You’re not just hiding yourself; as far as the observer is concerned, whatever you do inside that light gap never actually happens.

I am impressed and as soon as I look more into this and try to actually understand what they are talking about I will bet I will be even more impressed.

Pox Humana

Bah... 110 degrees outside and an entire weekend full of my son reminiscing about his bygone days and 48 straight hours of "go-go Power Rangers".

It hurt my heart when I asked my son whatever happened to the Power Rangers anyway..
He tells me that he stopped watching them because all his friends were making fun of him for liking them.
Damn kids.
A pox upon their houses.
Forsooth and hell yeah.
Just because a person likes something and you don't does not mean they should be openly ridiculed. Unless it is porn
Oh and religion....
and politics
...and....
Damn.

We suck!
We humans start entire wars over "I like this and you don't" matters don't we?
So how can we expect more and/or better from our kids?

Except those that come into contact with my kids,
from them I expect absolute perfection in all aspects
 or a really poxified house.