About Fred
The image I posted below is one I cobbled together in Photoshop. I'm going to upload it to CafePress in order to make a bumper sticker out of it. If you'd like a copy, let me know. They run $2.50 exclusive of shipping and if there's enough interest (i.e. I order 15 or more), I can get a break on price and cover the shipping cost. So, if you're willing to pony up $2.50, I'll have one made for you.

I've Made My Choice

Going Cracker Mouse
I'm a serious Mac fan and I loves me some o' them gadgets but lately I've had a problem that was so serious as to render using the computer impossible. I use an Apple wireless "Mighty Mouse" which, when it works is just fantastic. But I've had a problem with it: the cursor would jump around the screen like it was searching the desktop for crack stashes. I looked at a few resources and saw nothing that really addressed the problem. I even downloaded new keyboard and mouse firmware from Apple. But tonight I found the solution to the problem: it seems that mousing on a solid color surface solves the problem. It's a little weird to be mousing on a sheet of printer paper but at least it works. I'll take utility over elegance in this case.
I have the feeling that there is something more to this. And it may relate to the halogen light on my desk or the light from my LCD TV. But I'm going to clean my mouse pad and see if that makes a difference.
The modern world can be glorious but when it doesn't work in expected ways, it can be quite the pain in the butt.
Oh yeah: the post title is a nod to famed British Pekinese Tricky Woo.

In other gadget news, I finally got a Moto Razr phone and it's a vast improvement over the LG slider phone I've been using. The wireless companies are smart to pester their clients with offers of credits when the service contracts expire. I'll end up paying about $30 for the phone. DEal.

Trademark Troubles
I've started a new business of selling cheap knock-offs of designer dresses but the trademark police are after me. Maybe I shouldn't have named the business Oscar de Low-Renta.

Arc Of A Diver
This could be called Newport News news. Were I so inclined. And I am. A little item in today's noisepaper: "New fireboat sinks before put in service." I will snip the item as reported in the Associated Press (taken from here):

NEWPORT NEWS - The city Fire Department's new boat sank Wednesday morning - before the department could even take ownership of the $385,000, state-of-the-art vessel.
The boat, moored at a marina by the James River Bridge, was discovered with its back end on the river bottom and the front end sticking up out of the water. Investigators were trying to determine the cause.
The fire department had yet to take ownership of the 33-foot boat. It was waiting for the manufacturer, MetalCraft Marine of Canada, to finish installing electronic equipment, department spokeswoman Dana Perry said.
Perry said the department has two other boats that can be used to fight fires on the water but it doesn't have the capabilities or technology of the new one, which is named in honor of Carl Brashear, the late Navy master diver.

If the name Carl Brashear rings a bell, he was the subject of the Cuba Gooding starred movie "Men of Honor." And with full respect to the courage and achievements of MCPO Brashear, is it really a good idea to name a boat after a diver?

Because I Can
A little picture blogging since I scanned in the cover of Jake's new album in order to add it to my iTunes artwork. A very restrained, low-key cover after the self-titled, portraited cover of the last disc.

Sweet Oily Mother Of Food!
If you think I meant to type "holy" in the title of this post, I didn't. Here is a report on (get the man on Artery-Rooter on the speed dial) a spray-cheese filled, bacon-wrapped and battered, fried hot dog.

Holy Human By-product!
My ARM adjustment info arrived. Day-um. Time to pay this sucker off.

All Right!
Jake's new CD is out. So out that it might as well be mincing around San Francisco bath houses. Sorry - bad analogy. When I say it's out, I mean he's sent me one and it's playing in iTunes even as I type this. Worth the wait? You bet. Take that with the grano salis that I'm an abject fan of the man's work. I want to say that weak Jake Armerding disc is the better of any number of other artists' work. But he's only put out three and there's not a weak effort in the bunch. The new disc is called "Walking on the World" and I'll save the song listing for later but it does contain the title track, "Flirting," "Keep The River On Your Right" and "Falling In" all of which I've heard him play live. Good stuff. I love the electric guitar on "Assassination Blues."
Actually, I knew his CD was out because his gigs page has listed "CD Release Shows" starting last Thursday. (What a treat to get a copy in the mail!) And he's coming to a local venue on April 3 so you know where I'll be that night. Strangely, I don't see links on his site to buy the disc nor is it in iTunes yet. His other two discs are and I strongly suggest anyone not familiar with Jake to drop and buy a few tracks. I do believe I'm going to have to pick up a few copies of "Walking..." at the show so I can give them as gifts to the initiated and the un.
I've been waiting for this release for a while and I'm not disappointed in the least. Perhaps the only thing I'd fault Jake on is that he's not more prolific. But with my luck, if he were, the quality of the product wouldn't be as high as it is. As it stands, my "Jake Armerding" iTunes platylist now contains 35 songs and runs for 2 and a half hours. That's a lot of Jake. But I could hear more.

New On The Blogroll
Hog On Ice and Blue Crab Boulevard. On the former, scroll down to the post "Where Sicilians Really Come From." The guy can write. He's funny. He blogs food. Could a man ask for more? (Hat Tip to Gradual Dazzle on that one.) The latter has one of the most gorgeous header images I've seen. Blue and Green. Fabulous. Plus, lots of good stuff. Go. Read a lot. Thank me later. (Hat tip to Lycurgus.)

For Your Amusement
I have joined the Forum at Birds and Moons which is an online community for the PRS-inclined. The name comes from the fretboard inserts that Paul Reed Smith uses ("moons" are sometimes seen as dots). There is a thread on an eBay scam which goes on for 13-some pages. It's not exactly G-rated with language (more by implication than explicit obscenity) but it is fall-down funny. If you visit and don't understand any of the terms used (the plural term for PRS guitars, for instance, is PRSi), make a comment and I'll try to explain.

Hypnopompic Thoughts
A day or so ago, the Amber Room came unbidden to my mind as I lay waking. I have no special knowledge of the whereabouts of this missing treasure and I don't recall having seen, read or heard anything about it any time recently. So I don't what obscure process of mind brought it floating up into my consciousness. There are several theories as to what happened to the panels that make up this magnificent treasure (point of explanation: I love amber. It is a "gem" that is warm, honey hued and even absent the preserved insects that drove the plot of "Jurassic Park" imbued with a kind of life that mineral gemstones get from their faceted refraction.) I won't go into the theories here as the Wikipedia page at the link above has considerably more detail than is worth my repeating.
But what formed in my mind is the notion that someone, one of the Nazis who took the room apart and packed it out, saved as many of the panels as possible by covering them up. The idea I had was that they were painted over but painting over probably wouldn't have been sufficient, the elaborate carvings would be too identifiable. But perhaps if the panels were plastered over, they could have been stored as slabs of plaster in some relatively unsecured location whence they could be removed at a later, safer date.
I'm afraid that this is hopeful speculation on my part as the destruction of the amber in the destruction of Konigsberg castle is vastly more likely. But I hop that some day the Amber Room will be found and reconstructed. It would be another sad loss in a long war were it to have been destroyed.

My Lousy Typing
In typing the word "answer" this afternoon, I made it "naswert." I like it. Today's assignment: what is a naswert?

My Hero
If you want to see and hear a fat man make a Paul Reed Smith sing, here's almost five minutes of Johnny Hiland on YouTube. Mr. Hiland has his own signature model in the PRS range. That in Vintage Yellow would be a sweet guitar. There's also a QuickTime movie of JH demonstrating what his guitar can do. Nice.

An Old Question
If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Of course it does. The sound is of self-proclaimed environmentalists whining about the loss of forestation.

Working on Something
In light of recent events, I'm re-writing Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle." Here's the start:

The inspector arrived just the other day
He came through the door in the usual way
But there was food to cook and bribes to pay
He took the cash as I looked away
Then he was sayin’ all at once, and his anger grew
He'd say "This is gonna go bad for you, man
This is gonna go bad for you"

And there’re rats in the kitchen at the Taco Bell
Now that I notice it, what’s that smell?

Another Bloodzilla Moment
Want to make green tea ice cream? Of course you do. So you surf over to Amazon and find Nissin Green Tea Ice Cream Powder. And it's so easy. Let me quote how easy it is: "just add milk and a egg york." You've got plenty of egg yorks don't you?

"Bloodzilla moment" - an instance of "you can't make this stuff up" named after the comic Bart Simpson described as "A vampire dinosaur! You can't make this stuff up!"

This May Not Strike You As Funny
But if you've been looking at eBay listings for guitars for a while, and know something about guitars other than PRSes, this is fall down funny.

Yeesh!
Kelloggs has a new product - Special K Cereal with Chocloatey Pieces. First, it must be noted that the word used is "chocolatey." Nice. That means it is not necessarily chocolate. Just of a chocolate nature. Inclined toward chocolate on the great chain of being. That's a pretty common evasion in products. Like "Froot Loops" don't have to have any fruit in them because they're called "Froot" loops. If they were called "Fruit Loops," there would have to be fruit.
But that's not actually the genesis of this post. I saw the television ad for the new Kelloggs cereal. The idea of the ad is that all these chocolate candies start moving into the cereal box. But they make one huge mistake. The first chockies they have getting animated are a couple of pieces left on a pillow as if in a nice hotel. The problem is that when the roaming chocolates shed their wrappers and start moving over the pillows, they could not look more like cockroaches. Ick. I like chocolate but I'll not be trying the roach cereal.

A Quick One
Which is actually a Who album. This is just a musical quick one but it's Cross-centric. Here is an mp3 (about 20 minutes as I recall) of an interview with Mike Cross on No Carolina radio. If you're "not familiar with the weirdity that is Mike Cross," please give the interview a listen. Mike's down to earth friendliness, good humor and musical ability all come through. I'll blog the show either later today or tomorrow.

It Be Prezzies Day My Peops!
Have a happy federal holiday. Two quick music notes for the nonce: The Mike Cross show on Thursday was brilliant. Better than the two I saw last year. I'll give it a full post shortly. And the other notable is my latest buy from the iTunes music store: "Flathead" by The Fratellis (link goes to a music video on their site). Don't know it? Of course you do. It's the song in the new iPod commercials. I love the "da da da da" chorus. I've also listened to their song "Chelsea Dagger" which is pretty good. I like this band of "brothers."

Fears In The Deep Dark Heart Of The Night
I see an ad for the Dyson vacuum and then I lie awake until the hour of the wolf worrying that my vacuum cleaner is losing suction. Maybe if I just stop vacuuming I can get some sleep. No. If I solve that, the nightmares of Ty Pennington breaking into my home so that he can tear it down and then walk away without rebuilding it will return.
I think I need to borrow some meds form the Enigmatic Misanthrope.
Oh, and one more thing, having seen "Sideways" and some episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," I really, really can't stand Sandra Oh.

This Is A Post With A Link
A single link. But it rich with Walken goodness: Eight great Christopher Walken sketches from SNL. Yes, including the census taker sketch.

Yep, It's Winter
Annoyingly noisy all last night. I find that I don't sleep too well on windy nights and last night was just that. As well as being a night full of precip. All part of the rich pageant of life. Then again, so is post-nasal drip.
Have I shoveled out? Well, as Bobby DeNiro would say. "li'l bit." I've done more than half the driveway and my lousy hip joint and lower back then just put up too much resistance. So tomorrow I'll clean the rest of it off. Lord willing and the crick in the back of my neck don't rise.
I didn't mean this to be all about me. The shoveling is the thing. Snow has a surprising variety of forms. I've shoveled deep snow that held together but wasn't wetly heavy. I've shoveled "day after" snow that crusted over. And that's what I've got now. It's not too deep but it's crusty as a well-baked baguette and pretty heavy. Which leads to my bitch: Just shoveling snow is not too bad. But when you have to break a shovelable chunk off every time you take a shovelful, it adds noticeably to the time and hugely increases the annoyance factor. (sigh) Winter weather. 'Twas ever thus. I will count my blessings as I sit in a house that hasn't lost power once despite the storms. A pot of tea is called for.

New Product News
I see that the good folks at Kraft foods, who are so kind as to bring us television ads featuring entirely babe-a-licious angels who eat only Philly brand cream cheese products, have something new for us: A tub of Philadelphia brand Ready-To-Eat Cheesecake Filling! Oh me oh my! Oh joy abounding! Now those whose options in the million-calorie tub consumption has been limited to frosting have a whole new choice! Isn't progress grand?

A Little Preview
Atlantic Cycling has had its organizational meeting and the season is more or less set. Here's how it lays out in the form of a business card-sized handout we'll be making available to all and sundry.

Do You Remember
When the Grammy Awards actually meant anything?
Right. Neither can I.
For a list of the craptacular list of "artists" appearing and presenting, you can go here.

Lingering Thought
I'm thinking that next Halloween we'll be seeing some number of people dressing in costumes of a space suit with a diaper pinned on over it.

And Again

Comment Would Be Superfluous

Shark Jumping
It's a strange thing to see a television franchise jump the shark on more than one of its shows in the space of a few months. But damned if the CSI people haven't managed it. Exhibit 1: using Cletus Federline as the "guest star" on an episode of the original "who dies in Vegas, gets investigated in Vegas" show. Now the New York show uses the painfully annoying Nelly Furtado as a "guest star." You're not only not like a bird, your not like an actress either. Hmm. One tard per show. At least that works out.
I've enjoyed the CSI shows but I think they've plucked my last nerve. G'bye. Well, except for Emily Procter on CSI: My how yummy. I don't think I can bust that habit yet.

Ripe For Parody
No doubt by now you've seen the story of astronaut Lisa Nowak's bizarre behavior in going after her rival in love for another space man. First of all, if your name ends in "wak," it might not be a good thing for you to act like a wak-o. Secondly, is this not the perfect opportunity for someone with more mad video skilz than I to make an "Astronauts Gone Wild!" video? YouTube is calling. Heck, Saturday Night Live should be calling but they manage to be funny about once per hour and a half now. And having said that, the "Dakota Fanning Show" sketch has to be one of the funniest things they done in a coon's age. (Link is to VH1's "Best Week Ever" site and seems to be as worksafe as possible these days.)

It Cold!
Whoo. We be chillin. I guess it's going on all over. I won't do the obligatory global warming schtick. Actually there's one thing I really like about cold weather - the water from the cold tap runs brain-freeze cold. Very drinkable.

The Soup Bowl
I watched some of it. Yay for the Colts. Yay for Payton Manning. (Yawwwnnn) Commercials. You watch a sports event for the commercials? And men read "Playboy" for the articles.
Sorry for the dyspepsia. But the ship of my life came aground on a big ol' berg of "I don't care." Something must be wrong because I'm not even finding college basketball interesting this year.

So, Anyway
I'm watching TV when the ad comes on with the dude who asks me if I "troubled" by an "overactive bladder." Yeah, man. My bladder's always goin' off on ski trips and scuba diving, hittin' the bars to pick up chicks and I'm left at home to vacuum the backyard and rake the carpet.
No only that, I learn how you get information about incontinence garments on the Intraweb: you log on and just hit CTRL-P.

Why?
With the announcement of Oscar contenders, the recent Gilded Globule awards, there is one thing that's been bugging me: The movie "Babel" is persistently pronounced as "babble." My cursory look tells me that it's not an incorrect pronunciation but doesn't it make sense to pronounce "Bable" as "bay-bel" so as to distinguish it from "babble," which is, after all, a word in and of itself. One can babble and many people babbling can lead to a babel. At least that's how I read the definitions.
Don't even start me on the pronunciation of "flaccid!" (It's properly "flak-sid" if you haven't been digging into your Websters of late.)

Do Not Settle For Pets That Suck
Use Petflix!

OK, so the title is longer than the post. Sue me.

YES!
Checking the Mike Cross website, I see that he's going to do a show at the Birchmere in mid February. Woot! I won't have to drive to Georgia this time. Anyone care to join me?

Not Something I'm Prone To Blog About
Wrestling. Rather, modern American "professional" wrestling. And I'm not really going to get into wrestling per se. I just want to mention a couple of professional wrestlers. Dave "The Animal" Bautista and John Cena. I don't care about their "ring careers" but both have a great deal of charisma. Just as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson transcended wrestling and has made a decent career for himself as an actor, I think both Bautista and Cena have the style and intelligence to make it in entertainment beyond the exposition that is wrestling. Anything that gets they away from the malignant promoter Vince McMahon is a good thing. Cena is currently in Subway ads with Jared Fogle. I think he does a good job.
Even if you don't care about professional wrestling, take a look at these two guys sometime and see if you don't find that they have something more than the rest of the rasslin' crowd.

From The Slush Pile
No, that's not a comment on the weather. It's the slush pile of paper and software boxes and manuals and correspondence hanging fire on my desk. What has floated to the top today, like a light, loafy relative of Mr. Hankey. Did you really need to click that link? Oh fer lack of pop culture knowledge! Anyway, the poo that popped is a clipping I took form the newspaper late last October. It's an AP story so it's fecal heritage is well earned. The headline: "Security council voting continues - Oil generosity keeps countries faithful to Chavez."
I'll give you the lede to set up the situation since I've let so much time pass since clipping this: "Voting resumes today to fill a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council with Venezuela's fading hopes buttressed by a number of countries that have benefited from President Hugo Chavez' (sic) oil-funded largesse." The US was supporting Guatemala against Venezuela for the position. The point of the article is to list a number of projects the Venezuelan government is putting up money for which is endearing Central and South American governments to Herr Chavez. The leading example is a "state-of-the-art transplant unit" at a Uruguayan hospital for which the Venzies are ponying up $20 million. This, according to the article, is why "(o)ne of the Chavez backers may be Uruguay." Get that? May be. Pure conjecture on the part of the AP reporter presented as factual reporting. Not anything new for the AP but let's look at a few more projects.
$260 million financing for Jamaican highway repaving, $12 million for housing as well as asphalt, fuel storage tanks and university housing for Dominica in a deal that sees Venezuelan help with airport construction to "boost tourism." Yeah. Because tourists come to tiny nations because their airports are just spectacular. Sorry. Can't help the snark sometimes.
Now, the Uruguayans didn't get just the money for the transplant unit but since their leftist president Tabare Vazquez was elected in March 2005, they got some $400 million from Chavez. And this is what the AP wants us to believe may be buying Uruguayan loyalty to Chavez. And it may for all I know. I don't begrudge Venezuela's fuehrer giving as much aid as he wants. What fries me about this is first, the editorializing of the AP in a news story. Secondly, it reads like a propaganda piece for Venezuela with all the good works that are being done on its dime. And finally, what's even more germane to the story is the single mention that "(t)he United States, for its part, has allocated more than $3 billion in aid to Latin American and the Caribbean in the last two years though there is no evidence that recipients have been pressured to vote for Guatemala."
(strangulated invective) The US gives massive amounts of money, multiples of what Venezuela gives and doesn't put any pressure on the beggar nations to act in concert with us. And, apparently, many act against us. Chavez, on the other hand, spreads his pesos around to buy the fealty of the beggar nations. And, per the article, seems to get it.
The United States seems to be uniquely crippled in the world that any time we are giving aid, it is never conditioned on the recipient showing any form of gratitude that matters. But a tin-horn dictator who is destroying his own country's infrastructure to get the money to buy foreign influence gets the votes of the recipients of his gifts. It's not right either way. Time for the US to re-think foreign aid. And I say this as the son of a US Foreign Service officer.

Snow Day!
Despite all the trauma and trouble of snow in the DC area, I am delighted that winter has finally decided to make itself known. Unfortunately the icy, snow-covered streets on Sunday as the snow was falling meant that traffic was in max creep mode. I was on the road for a bit more than an hours and made it to apoint that I should reach in about half that time. And the traffic was a furball on the Beltway so I threw in the towl on getting over to the Cooldog show. Darn. I hope my show cost can be credited to me for a future show.
But that meant I could watch some Niffle. And even though I kvetched about the games, the Colts-Pats game was a classic. And I watched another disc of Netflix Galactica. Said show returning to the broadcast slate on the SciFi channel. Oh freaking my gawd! Great, no, incredible new ep. This show just gets better and better. I'll do a post on it in the not-too-long from now because I'm starting to have some ideas about plot points that are cropping up. I will say this though, it looks like they've taken the Lucy Lawless Cylon out of the mix. Which is too bad. She has never been more gorgeous than as the D'anna character. Lucy Flawless more like it. I am a sci-fi fan generally but "Battlestar" is turning into the best iteration of a series since "Babylon 5." Higher praise I can not dish out.
And one other thing must be said, Tricia Helfer as the Cylon "Six" or "Caprica" is just mind-blowingly gorgeous and sexy beyond belief. And she has recently posed topless (only - at least of the pics I've seen) for Playboy. And yet, and yet, she's sexier clothed on Galactica. The topless pictures show her as over-madeup and too plastic. Strange what can happen to a beautiful woman.

Lack Of Posting
Will continue for a couple few more days. Stuff is ongoing and I am behinder than I should be. Saturday - trip to the guitar store. Sunday - Cooldog show. Good times. Good times.
In the meantime: eat something tasty, pet a pooch, take a nap, buy something shiny (I'd suggest a new guitar but you may not share my madness), tell someone you love him or her, play a game, rent a movie, pop some popcorn (especially kettle corn -mMMmmm!), put real butter on your toast tomorrow morning, drink a white soda (like Sprite) for a change.
I'm not suggesting you do all of these, just one or maybe two. Enjoy your life just a little bit.

Never Much Cared For Her Myself
Except for the movie "The Mask." But now Cameron Diaz seems to be angling for the role of the Joker in some future Batman re-make. Click the link if you're brave.

Nothing Like A Blue Guitar
Specifically, a PRS Matteo Blue 513 Rosewood. I've been informed that Paul Reed Smith is going to stop making Brazilian rosewood necks (not the fretboard, the neck itself) so this should become a collector's guitar. Not to mention that PRS may not be making quilt tops as well. So Peg might already be a collector's item too.
Here is the PRS page on the 513 Rosewood. I love the stylized bird inlays on the 513's neck. It's just a pretty, pretty guitar.
UPDATE: Don't bother to follow that first link. The guitar has been sold so its info on the Intarwebnet has been dropped down the memory hole. Just click the PRS page link to see a fine example.

A Weekend of Football
Holy cow. Watching the Niffle makes me long for the Aussie Rules season to start up again. But that's my tsooris and no one else's. I watched a good deal of the playoff games this weekend and made the mistake of reading the noisepaper while listening to the Baldymore Ravens on thie local radio station. E-yuk! I've never heard a worse case of homer syndrome in broadcasting. I was not opposed to the Ravens before listening to the game but now I am delighted at their loss.
I am actually spoiled for football radio. The Redskins (a team I not only don't love but inactively dislike) for years had great quarterback Sonny Jurgenson, great linebacker Sam Huff and long-time local sportscaster Frank Herzog doing their radio broadcasts. They were undoubtedly Redskins fans but they were so good, so honest in their game work that they were a pleasure to listen to. It didn't hurt that they seemed to have an easy camaraderie in the booth. A truly great booth team. It is a significant mark against Redskins owner Little Danny Snyder (short man's syndrome anyone?) that he kicked them to the curb.

Some Off-Season Thoughts For The Deck Farm
I'm already planning the expansion of the Deck Farm from three EarthBoxes with the addition of a couple of knock-off boxes made out of Wally-Mart containers. But I'm also considering one of these "greenhouses" as I think it might give me as much as another three weeks of growing season. I'm planning on ordering plants only this year - not growing from seeds, so I'm a bit dependent on the date the growers ship live plants for my start date. But with the little greenhouse, I could probably get some more early growth and perhaps another two weeks as the weather cools off. We shall see.
Still and all, $60 for a deck-sized tubular-steel and PVC greenhouse.... Seems like a deal. Plans as they stand are for four tomato plants, more hot peppers, more green peppers and a vegetable to be named later. Cukes, beans and peas are the leading candidates at the moment. I'd love to hear suggestions for good container-grown veg from the peanut gallery.

A Loss
I've just been informed that the original Pug of War, Spike has passed away at the ripe old age of 16. He had a long run for a little dog and I will remember him always. He was a great guy and wonderful doggie friend. You'd never imagine how much you can love a snuffling, snorty little curl-tailed beast until you open your home to one.
Here is the old grey fellow proving that the whole world is a bed for a pug.

Again With the iPhone?
Oy! Vat is it witchew kids and your shiny new things? Always the new things. You got no respect for tradition.
Sorry. I was channeling there. I didn't mean to disparage the shiny new thing that Apple, Inc. (not Apple Computer, Inc. anymore) has brought forth upon the face of this great land. I was watching the Macworld keynote address from my favorite reality-field distortion provider Steve Jobs when I drank the Kool-Ade. It's kool all right. I'm no more planning to drop the cash on this device than I was when I forced the Enigmatic Misanthrope into a fit of pirate speak (see comments on the post below). But what it does and the way it does it is just fantastic. I'm not going to laundry list the features, odds are you've seen reporting on it by now. But what knocks me out is the face of the thing. One solid sheet of polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate has high impact resistance but low scratch resistance so let's hope the iPhone (if Cisco agrees) has some world class anti-scratch coating.
With all the gee-whizzery, I can only imagine that there's one technological breakthrough that will make the thing perfect: transparent aluminum. I know Steve can do if he really, really REALLY wants it. Let's all clap for Tinkerbell, henh?

Netflix
Ch-ch-ch-changes. I've been sucking up the Bottlestar Glugactica divids so fast from Netflix that I got ahead of my "2 at a time, 4 per month" membership. Bugger. So I've now upped to the "2 at a time, unlimited" membership for just a few dollars more. We'll see how it all works out but since BG is coming back this weekend, I need to get the second half of season two assimilated (am I mixing space robot metaphors?) soonest.

Good Stuff
I was wander the echoing, cavernous halls of my local Costco today as I got loaded on such staples as milk, eggs, paper products and pepper. Pepper? Pepper. I was down to one smallish McCormick container of already ground pepper in the kitchen. I'm not a fan of already ground pepper as I think pepper is like coffee- best used as close to being ground as possible. But I've also inherited my mother's Scots nature and abhor throwing things away. So I've been using the ground pepper.
Nonetheless, I was looking for red pepper flakes in the spices section of Costco and saw a giant, discount-sized jar of Tellichery peppercorns. They were slightly more expensive than the same sized jar of regular peppercorns so I plumped for the difference. Brought it home. Opened it up to fill the pepper grinder. Mmmmm! The perfume of those peppercorns is intense and wonderful. I'll put the ground pepper aside now for cooking purposes and will be grinding Tellichery pepper onto my food for the rest of my fool life. I highly recommend them. Didn't find the red pepper flakes though. I guess the regular grocery store for that.

In Praise of Famous Women
Every now and again I come upon an actress or a woman who has achieved some measure of fame and am struck at how wonderfully and beautifully she has aged. The most recent example is Kathy Garver who played "Cissy" on "Family Affair" back in the late 60s, early 70s. She was a lovely young lady back then but her picture on her bio page shows that her beauty has not diminished after the passage of years. I'll be discreet enough to not mention her age (which is easy enough to find online) but I will profess my great admiration for her graceful beauty.
In talking with a friend the other day, I mentioned how impressed I was with Ms. Garver (one of the weekly magazines in my newspaper had a "where are they now" letter about her which led to my Googling her for a current picture). He then made a remark along the lines of, "Oh, they all have lots of plastic surgery." That may be true but it really doesn't matter. Ms. Garver's face retains the look she had all those years ago and her smile is absolutely brilliant. If she decided to have work done, it was done very, very well and I congratulate her on a good decision.
I think it's one of life's little grace notes to stumble on something like this. An actress to whom I really paid little heed and then to find she's been successful and just as beautiful now as she was then. Ms. Garver, or Mrs. Travis if you prefer, I salute you!
UPDATE: I sent Ms. Garver an e-mail asking that she might cast a glance the way of this post and I got a very nice e-mail in return. I am now and will forever be a devoted fan of Kathy Garver. It goes to show that there are good people in show business.

Son Of A ...
Apple's new iPhone is, as usual for Apple, way cool (link goes to an easily digestible post on The Unofficial Apple Weblog). But for all its gee-whizzery (and there is much I want in that phone), I can not bring myself to drop $500 or $600 on a phone when having to spend the $$ for a two-year service agreement. Apple has done other cool stuff this year but it's not so thunderously computer related as to make me want to rush out and buy. Unlike the iPod Nano which induced the single most intense case of geek lust in me I have ever experienced. And I still love that thing.
Home digital media is evolving at a rapid pace and I think the introduction of Apple TV (a wireless media box that will play iTunes media over your home big-ass TV) is probably a good product because so many people are comfortable with iTunes that the learning curve is nigh-unto flat. Apple engineers are smart people. Microsoft users will have more trouble migrating to the Vista OS than iTunes users (PC and Mac) will have integrating the Apple TV into their home media setup. And not too bad a buy at $300. I'm still too wedded to divids to be terribly interested in dropping those ducats though.

Is It Really Wrong?
I found a copy of Sakamoto Kyu's wonderful song "Ue o muite arukō" (which is better known as "Sukiyaki" in English) online here in mp3 form. Which is good because iTunes does not have the original available for sale. I have to learn the lyrics and the Wikipedia page is a good place to start. Sakamoto has a wonderful, clean expressive voice. I won't go into detail about the song; it's all on the Wikipedia page if you're interested.
Amazon has a couple of Sakamoto's discs but I probably should just get the $7 disc of "Billboard Top Pop Hits: 1963." At some point, I will feel guilty about grabbing a free mp3 but for a more than 40 year old song from an artist who passed away tragically in 1985, my nabbing one song seems a rather minor thing.
So, to answer my question, yes. It is wrong. But it is a deminimis transgression and one that can be rectified.

So Sick
That would be me. I'm not ill - just so sick of a radio ad that I could spit. The ad is for, as I recall, free credit reports and it is set up as a "how to pick up chicks" ad. The moron tells how he used the other moron's "program" to get better credit so he could buy a car and a boat and now "chicks dig me." Women - are you not insulted by this? The ad basically says that women are only interested in the trappings of material wealth. That is, women's affection can be purchased. So these people have in essence just called women whores.
It's not like men should think they're any better. According to the ad, men are so awful that they can't attract women without using a falsified aura of prosperity.
This ad just turns my stomach. It's one of those that just gets worse and worse with every hearing. I could put a bullet through the radio were I not so fond of the Bose Wave system. See ladies, a Bose Wave radio, trappings of wealth. Don't you want me now? Bleagh!

Egregious
I've stolen this image from the website (which will go unmentioned here) instead of scanning in the full page ad that ran in the AAA magazine. I am horrified. This grotesque blob of kitsch is to "(h)elp make great strides in increasing breast cancer awareness...." Oh my aching Lord. If women with breast cancer were not suffering enough, now they are plagued by this warty excrescence on the face of good taste. And, of course, a "portion of the proceeds from the sale ... will be donated to help fight breast cancer." It's not specified what portion that is of course. One is left to wonder if this is like the episode of the Simpsons where Lisa is told something is being produced with "a percentage" of recycled content. When asked, the spokeswoman says, "Zero is a percent!"
I'm not saying the people who put this out are giving nothing to the fight against breast cancer but anyone concerned about the fight (or good taste) will be better served to just give the $20 cost directly to the American Cancer Society, or any number of other good anti-cancer organizations. Finally, the "sculptural shoe" is "removable." Why, oh why would anyone ever want to remove this hideous thing? The evil part of me wants the designer of this to actually get brea... No, I can't say that. I can come close to hoping for it. But I can't actually wish that on anyone.

Entertainment
This weekend I rented a movie that was so bad.
How bad was it?
It was so bad that it could only be displayed in litterbox format.

I Want One
The good folks at thinkgeek.com have a radio-controlled toy that the eternal child in me is having a tantrum over: a "palmsize" RC helicopter. Link has a short video of the chopper buzzing around inside. It probably has a battery life of about a minute but it's just such a cool toy. I'll add that to my stupid-guy-things wishlist.

What I'd Like To See
I want to see an Israeli Air Force version of "Top Gun." For the sole reason that I want the big hit song to be "Oy Vey to the Danger Zone." I wonder if Kenny Loggins would consider re-writing the lyrics.

Site Changes
The "longings" section of music I have ordered for myself is gone. Poof. If I have something musical to write about, I'll write about it. I won't clog up the sidebar with details of my CD purchases.
More importantly, I have moved the link to Gut Rumbles to its own "In Memoriam" section. It wasn't just the blogosphere that lost something real last year when we lost the dyspeptic wit of Rob Smith, the world at large lost a sometimes reluctant gentleman, a a straight shooter and a musician. We are the less for his loss and he deserves to have his listing under that heading. I hope I have no cause to move other links to that heading for a long, long time.
And as a final note on Rob, I'm so lucky to have met him before he passed. I only wish I could have been invited to the Crackerbox for that experience as well.

The Year Thus Far
Wherein I try to put a little reverse English on the hanging curve of a mixed metaphor. Actually, my bum hip has been really been giving me grief and if not for the luck of timing, I'd have gotten nothing done this year a'tall. But today was better than the day before and that was better than the day before so tomorrow should be better still. Wish me luck as I embark on The Great Office Cleaning and Reorganization. And clear out quick notes to those I owe Christmas cards to as well.
Sheesh.

The Music Post I Didn't Get Around To Writing
As any long time reader of PoW knows, I am a big fan of Emm Gryner. Fan to the point I pre-ordered her latest (which has been lingering in the soon-to-be-gone "longings" section of the sidebar) disc "The Summer of High Hopes" which I have been listening to regularly ever since. It's terrific. Another total winner.
I am always left to wonder what drives the writing process, including the writing of music of course, and usually believe that there's something imagined out of autobiography that is the genesis of great art. Or inane blog posts for that matter but we're not talking about me here. And I believe that the naming of names matters as well. So my first surprise in this disc is that the name comes from a line in a song that doesn't share the title. Specifically: "The summer of high hopes/Brought tears of red merlot/ And the fact our love will never grow...." The song is titled "Merlot." This seems a bit of misdirection, as it were, from an artist who tends to be, let's say "elliptical" in her lyrics. The song that first drew me to her work, "Julia" on the "Science Fair" disc certainly seems to come out of her life but I really have no idea of what is actually is going on. But it's a beautiful song and has a very haunting lyric ("Julia, leave the dark alone/ Everyday is better than the last/ Julia, leave the dark alone/ Speak your mind 'cause this life's going fast").
It is dangerous to speculate but I'll take a stab at it. Emm is fairly recently married and my guess is that she and her husband might have been wanting to have a child which didn't happen. I hasten to say, that's an awful stretch but with the title and the beautiful but sad or regret-tinged songs, I feel lead to that conclusion. And a cursory Google search of her lyrics doesn't lead me to a place that has lyrics for the new disc online. Emm's site has been promising lyrics for a while and I wish I could link to them to take the burden off my typing. Let me just note a few of the song titles to support my supposition: "Girls Are Murder" (the first song), "All-time Low" (third) and "Sweet Destroyer" (11th and last). There is also a song called "Almighty Love" that can reasonably said to not fit my idea. It's so good that Bono, in November, said it was one of the songs in the last 20 years he wishes he'd written. I may not appreciate Bono's fevered politics but musically, that's high praise.
I'll present just one more lyric as justification of my idea. The very first line of "Girls Are Murder:" "It started when the daylight hit her open wound/How a season in this hell can kick you down/ Satellites start capturing your happy home/ But you feel alone enough/ to quote the killing moon tonight." That sounds awfully depressed or depressing but let me say - it's a gorgeous song. The melody, the musicianship, Emm's achingly beautiful voice. It's not alone. "Sweet Destroyer" is superb. "Almighty Love" - fantastic. As is "Blackwinged Bird" and "Black-eyed Blue Sky." I am tempted to say that the latter is my favorite of the disc. But I'm so enamored of all those I've mentioned, it's hard to single one out.
Let it not be said that my devotion is without some critical eye. "Queen of the Boys" and "See the Sea" both use the traditional "f-word" which doesn't thrill me, as its use often demonstrates a lack of originality more than emphasis. Plus to have this sweet, very feminine voice sing "Hurts like fuck I don't know why" ("See the Sea") is to me a startling incongruity. Her song. Her right to write. I'm just not a fan of the word so it jars me.
Bottom line - this is an amazing, great disc from an artist who is far under-known and under-appreciated. Even though she indulges in those traditional Canadian lefty tropes (the last line in the liner notes is "PLEASE do something everyday to help stop global warming XO Emm"), I really hope she gets the recognition she deserves.
On the other hand, those of us who pre-ordered also got a limited edition disc called "PVT" (read "Private") which is a re-make of her one major label issue 1998's "Public." Perhaps I am too accustomed to the songs as I know them but I am not much taken by this disc. I figure she needed to exorcise some demons after being dropped by a major label after one disc when she is a popular artist in Canada (and should be everywhere). So even though I don't care for it as much as her other work, I'm very glad to own it and I hope she's happier for having made it.
If you don't own any Emm and would like to start with her, begin with 2002's "Asianblue." It's very accessible, very pop-y for her. I'd hope it might get you started on owning a lot her work because she's a remarkable talent.
Damnably cute too but you should have expected that from me. Really.

Songs of PRaiSe
Here, at its starting bid, is just a sick good deal on a Hollowbody II with the Baggs piezo pickup (which mine doesn't have). The seller calls id a double 10 top but I would say that it's not exactly a 10 top - look at the detail picture of the body and the flame on the belly disappears. Yet other detail pics show the flaming does not fade out. Strange. I don't know what the reserve on this beauty is but any price below about $2,800 would be a steal. If I didn't already own an HBII, I would bid on this one.

I Think It's An Advantage
I was reading Joe Sherlock's most excellent blog (The View Through The Windshield over in the "links" section - you should be checking him out every weekday doncha know?) when he mentioned "stay(ing) up to watch the ball fall and see Dick Clark." I think a Left Coast life could be a real advantage on NYE. You watch the New York celebration, sip your champagne and then go to sleep thereby saving three late night hours. Sweet.

The Post Wherein Inconsequential Things Are Enumerated
The first of the year is a good time to change things. Apart from opening the new calendars, I put a new brush head on my Sonicare toothbrush, a new water filter in my coffeepot and changed the wiper blades on my car. Those are the six month things. I also put new batteries in the smoke detectors despite those who say that's a six month thing, I change them out yearly.
I also got something new from my friend the Guitar Nazi with whom I spent NYE. And his family of course. I got guitar strap locks. I have had exactly one instance of a guitar slipping the strap but that's one too many. And that's despite PRS using an oversized strap button. The strap locks are pretty freakin' cool. I'll have the locking buttons on all the guitars by the end of the month. I also got a beautifully cleaned guitar.
Once again, happy new year to y'all. If anyone out there with artistic talent wants to make an image for me, I'd like a cartoon sort of gnu wearing a tie-dyed Tee shirt and a headband. This would then be a card with the caption "Hippy Gnu Year!"
And the one other little thing. My Outback is 60 miles from turning over the 100,000 mile mark. I would have preferred to have it happen today but I never got out of the house. So, tomorrow, I gas up and drive around and flip the odo. I am strangely happy.

It Seems Self Evident
But it must be said: Happy New Year to you. And you. And you. And those people standing over there to your left.
I haven't given much thought to the blog lately but I hope to spin up the FTL drive in '07. It looks like a busy year so that could mean either more blogging or a lot less. As Fats Waller would say, "One never knows, do one?"
And it's never too early to contemplate resolutions (what? a day before? -Ed.). Resolution #1: Shut Ed. up permanently. Heh heh heh!
Actually, I have a resolution suggestion to those who may be receptive. It's so easy to complain about things in life, and you're often given good reason to do so. But there are people out there who do the right thing like give good service in high "public contact" job. I resolve, and ask that you consider doing the same, to make the extra effort to praise good service. Case in point: the drive-up teller at my local bank is consistently cheerful, friendly and efficient. So I wrote a letter to the bank manager praising her work. I've worked in a bank and I know how rare it is for someone to make their positive feelings known other than perhaps a "thank you" to the teller at the time of service.
I am going to do my best in the New Year to identify and explicitly praise people. If it's going to a store manager and telling him that a clerk gave me good service or writing a letter (the better option), I am going to do so at least once a month. I think it's a good thing to do.

Sundry Intarwebnet Ramblings
I completely sucked at this album cover art quiz. 14 out of 54. If someone wants to fill me in, I'm all ears.
Next, modding weirdness: guitar amps in toasters. Yep, toasters. I'm starting to think that rider's not coming on a pale horse. Download the mp3 of the hoofbeats of perdition at apocalips.com. (Yes, that web address does exist - and really, don't waste your time unless you are ... just don't waste your time.)

I'll Be Damned
File this under "trying new things." I sliced open the tip of my right index finger a day ago (think paper cut deep) and slapped an adhesive bandage on it. Wrapped around my finger as it were. But the bandage wasn't shower proof and as is the Tao of Paper Cuts, the skin gapped open. Even though there's little blood, it was a painful little cuss and damnably inconvenient. So how to deal with it? I didn't want another bandage because a bandage on such a used fingertip deadens touch. I was putting together my 5-guitar stand and kept dropping the farging Allen wrench.
An of course the solution hits me as I'm sitting at my desk: cyanoacrylate. Crazy glue. A few fine drops in the slit, press the skin together for a moment and I am good to go. It does still hurt but the wound is closed and I get to use the fingertip without loss of sensation. I do believe I'm going to use this for wound closure more often.

Great Stuff
Lycurgus mined my Amazon wish list for Christmas presents and still managed to surprise me. I'm now using an Apple wireless "Mighty Mouse." Sweet. I can scroll through web pages again! Not to mention having more buttons (the scroll ball acts as a button which I have mapped to invoke my widgets) than a giraffe's business shirt. This was unexpected and hugely appreciated since the sole plate on my wireless regular mouse had developed problems. The little slider switch that shuts off the mouse light slides on thin plastic rails and mine was, dare I say it, off the rails. Hmm. I dare say it. I'll see if I Apple sells replacement parts for mice so I can have it as a spare against the day my Mighty Mouse meets its cartoon nemesis.
Other good things: a cart for my gas grill, an adapter for said grill that will allow me to run it off a full-sized propane tank. (rubbing hands together) EXcellent! And the iPlayMusic lessons. The Enigmatic Misanthropes gave me one of the most delicious things made in this hemisphere: a Tortuga rum cake. I'm proud to say that I didn't breach the goodie until Christmas itself. But I fear for its longevity.
One final thing about Christmas eats: making whipped cream is just sick easy with the whisk attachment of a stick blender. I will never buy a can of the reddi again.

Merry Christmas!
God bless us, every one.
I am happy to report that the great cook up was not a great cock up. The roast was not perfectly done but the outer slabs were consumed with gusto. I can also say with assurance that Costco is a great place to buy a prime rib roast. Wil, my next one gets treated right, promise!
Secondly, the chocolate pots de creme were so rich and heavy with bittersweet chocolate that I dare even the deepest chocoholic to eat more than one ramekin of this pure delight. The dollop of whipped cream was a welcome counterpoint to the thick, silky chocolate. The cauliflower was not roasted as there was too much food by that point. The French onion tart turned out well but not perfectly. The crust should have been thinner and baked a wee bit less. But delicious. Oh my. The sweetness of the onion filling was startling. And finally, the Cook's Illustrated take on the traditional green bean casserole was a revelation. Like seeing a girl you knew in junior high turn into a passing gorgeous woman in high school. The essence of the goodness is to use fresh green beans, boiled "tender crsip" and to make the sauce with fresh mushroom chunks. If it's desired, I'll rip off the folks who put the magazine out and post the recipe here.
Plus I got lots of cool swag. But now, Renee Fleming is singing on PBS. I must go.

Christmas Eats
I'm having a friend over for Christmas Eve dinner. Her birthday is early in December and I offered to have to dinner which turned out, due to our incompatible schedules, to be a dinner on the Eve. I decided that I had to actually cook for a change if I'm going to change my habits in the new year and stick to good, home-cooked meals instead of relying, as I do, far too much on the easily available modern foods, either "fast" or "prepared."
So the menu, as it stands, with much cooking to do is as follows: a cheat on the appetizers - Costco frozen oriental "Dim Sum" shrimp-filled treats with dipping sauce, salad (another cheat - I buy bagged salad greens), the "Cooks Illustrated" version of the famous green bean casserole, roasted cauliflower, prime rib roast (stuck with garlic cloves and draped while cooking with bacon), French onion tart (again from "Cooks") and for afters pomegranate sorbet and chocolate pots de creme.
If things turn out even halfway decently, I'll take some snaps. But my point in posting all this is to lead to the question: Do you have any Christmas Day or Christmas Eve traditional eats? Leave me a comment. I'll go into what my family traditionally did for Christmas Day in a future post.

Horrible, Horrible Morning
One day after I do well in getting up, I have an absolutely abysmal night's sleep and can't get going to save my fool life. Why, oh why is the human designed that a raging headache can set in in the deadest heart of night for no discernible reason? And it's not like it's gone away by now either. My morning coffee awaits me and I am sullen and unproductive. Merry frinkling Christmas, yeah, you bet.
Oh argh. I have much to do today so this malaise had better hit the road.
However, for your Christmas pleasure, I present YouTube videos: Mariah Carey looking cute as can be all done up as Ronnie Spector singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and the late, great Karen Carpenter singing "Merry Christmas, Darling." There is good in the world. Enjoy.

The Old Learning Curve
So I'm plucking through the 16 bars of "Ode to Joy" that one of my instruction books has as a two-string exercise and something just doesn't sound quite right on Peg. First thing I find is that I'm not playing the string consistently at the bottom of the fret which has an effect on the sound. I test the tuning and that's good. Then I realize, I'm resting my hand against the trem bridge. The PRS trem bridge is so amazingly sensitive that I can actually get a tremelo just by pressing the base of the bridge with the heel of my hand. I've bent the notes without intending to.
That alone is not shocking - the PRS trem bridge is a beautiful piece of engineering. But the fact that I now hear the difference is just stunning. My ear is actually getting better. Next year, there will be Christmas music being made in my place, not just played.

OK, I Get It
I'm talking to myself here.

Woot!
My good friend the guitar nazi got himself a new guitar today. It's nice. But mine is prettier. Even he would agree with that. But he can make his do things I can only imagine. So game, set and match to him. The "Woot!" however, is not for him. It's for me. I got my Christmas gift from him and it's a five-guitar stand! Sweet. Now I'll have to get one more to fill out the stand. And maybe another if I loan one of mine out for a while.... Just kiddin' witcha. I have no more guitaritorrial ambitions.

Wakey, Wakey Eggs & Bakey
I'm not very good about getting up in the ayem. Being of an idle class and, as many would say, an idle disposition, I don't have that invisible hand pushing me out of the sack in the early dark. I greatly respect those who rise and shine. My late mother was an insanely early riser. She'd be up at 4am on many a day. And I doubt she was in bed at 6am save for illness.
Yet I have my alarm set for 6am even though the snooze button gets a good work out. Still, I routinely wake up in the five minutes before 6am so I'm not asleep when the alarm does crawl up to volume (a wonderful trait of the Bose Wave Radio, by the way). It's in these minutes at the margin of sleep and wakefulness that words swim into my mind like "Corn Belt" and "congealed carry permit." I wish I understood what was going on in this free-floating hypnopompia but that is something too elusive of understanding. So I've decided to change.
I'm now going to make every effort to take the time I wake on my own as the time I get up. Thus, early posting. Perhaps more bad puns. And I'll have the newspaper read before fargin' noon. It's never too early for a resolution.

Christmas Music
I am no fan of Mariah Carey, melismatic sludge is no way t treat good music. However, her song "All I Want For Christmas Is You" which I suppose can be called a hit of sorts, is wonderful. She shows her vocal talent (and as much as I am not a fan, I will readily admit that the girl can sing) in a bouncy, rollicking tune with some great touches like the almost Jerry Lee Lewisish piano as it comes in. I'd never buy the entire CD but I'm quite happy to add the song to my Christmas playlist.

Things I Like About iTunes
In the continuing series: Automatic importing of album cover art when ripping from a CD. It's a lot like the Gracenote CDDB providing all the track info automatically when one inserts a CD and the computer running iTunes in online. Simple bottom line: both features make my life easier and save me maybe five minutes of typing and cover art grabbing per CD. Thanks Apple.

Even I Groan At This One
Why does America have a Corn Belt in the Midwest?
To keep its plants up.

I Got Your SNL Sketch Idea Right Here
Not that I knew it before reading my favorite celebrity-bashing site but it seems that Miss USA is named Tara Connor. According to the New York Daily News, she's been a Bizzy Miss Missy:

Miss USA Tara Conner is on the verge of losing her crown after testing positive for cocaine, lustily kissing Miss Teen USA in public and sneaking men into their Trump Place apartment, sources tell the Daily News.

"Tara was a party animal," said a source who knows Conner, 20, and Miss Teen USA Katie Blair, 18, from some of the city's top nightspots. "I've seen them kiss before. They always dance all sexy on the tables. ... They definitely get close."

I also learned that the Miss USA pageant is run by Donald Trump who, it seems is terminating the reign of the party grrrl. Hmmm. Tara Connor. Terminating. Hmmm.
So here we go: Darrel Hammond as the Terminator robot which has the exterior features of The Donald. "I have come from the future to terminate Tara Connor. You're fired." Pure comedy gold. This stuff almost writes itself and I'll put money on SNL not using this brilliant idea.

Reality TV
I used to watch "Survivor." Then I realized that I watched because I hated the contestants so much that all I really wanted to see was their silly asses getting voted off. Though I was always impressed with the good work the production team did on set design. I only post about the current season to say that I finally broke my string. I've not watched a single episode of the show this time around. And I know now that I'll never watch it again. To hell with them all.
On the other hand, I'm now totally addicted to Sci-Fi's new"Battlestar Galactica." There are a lot of troubling aspects to the logic of it but what the hey. Great casting, very good writing and superb EFX. And I thank Netflix for letting catch up on what I missed. There is a richness to life available to us in digital media that's just stunning compared to what we had back in the old Big Three Network days. Yes, yes, we've lost some things as well. But that's a story for another day.
And another thing - the Ellen Degeneres AmEx commercials with the animals are great. Very cute, very funny. The Ellen ads without the animals ... not so much.

Banning Trans Fats
Now that the solons of New York City have seen fit to ban trans fats, can Gothamites apply for Congealed Carry Permits?

Another Plus For the Intrawebnet
A Google image search provides the biggest selection of clip art in human history. Unnh, I mean EVAR!

There Is No End To Christmas Pugs
This example comes from the AAA. But how dare they suggest that someone wouldn't want a pug for Christmas? Please!

Finding Christmas
I live alone. Family is distant, friends abound but don't share the living space of course. Offspring have never sprung off so I've developed a life that runs to suit myself and no other. Which is all well and good until something like Christmas comes along. Last year I recall that I wrote it just didn't seem like Christmas. This year I'm setting out to change that. I listen relentlessly to my "Christmas" iTunes playlist (now up to 93 songs which plays for over five straight hours) and I'm doing the decorations. The wreath is already hung, though not yet jazzed up, and the tabletop tree is cooling in the garage awaiting its setup.
The problem has been that I have a box of Christmas stuff from the tree stand to ornaments to a string of battery-powered LED lights for the wreath and I have been unable to find that box. Yesterday was finally gut-check day. I even crawled into the under-stair storage area to look for the box. Just could not find it. Finally I pulled a box marked "Christmas" out of a corner and yanked it open to find ... kitchenware. Hunh? Then it hit me. I had originally packed that box with Christmas until I had too much of holiday stuff to fit. So I used an inexpensive plastic footlocker to repack all the Christmas goodies. D'oh! The footlocker has been sitting in the garage, easily accessible all this time.
So now the Box o' Cheer is all wiped off of car hole grit and sitting in the living room and today the tree goes up and the decoration begins. I've added Hallmark's "Santas of the World" miniature set as my ornament purchase this year. I'd like to get a string of miniature bubble lights if such a thing exists. Having grown up with bubble lights, I find that they just define Christmas tree decoration for me. If anyone cares to weigh in with favorite ornaments or ornament types, I'd love to hear it.
I also must tip my hat to my former mother-in-law "Yuletide Carole." A woman of rare artistic ability who did Christmas like no one else. A collection of Nativity scenes practically had to fight for space in the house with the several highly-decorated trees. That's right, I said "several." She is a Christmas Goddess. I have never before seen a tree like hers that has so many Hallmark "Sound and Motion" ornaments (which plug into light strings to power all sorts of little scenes) that the lights at the top of the tree are dimmed due to the 'lectricity load on the light strand.

Random Rudeness
As I was in the checkout lane of my local supermarket, I looked at the serried ranks of gums and candies among which was "Bubblicious." Of course my mind made this "Bubbalicious" which then struck as the Jeopardy answer to the question "How does Monica Lewinsky describe Bill Clinton?"

We'll Have Pugs For Christmas
The XMBD NMSE sent me a picture which just cries out to be shared. I'll let her do all the heavy lifting:

The Snack Pack meets Santa! Chaos ensues!
Front row: Allie (95% blind), Spike (95% blind, 100% deaf), Chino (98% goofy), Panda (110% willful), Fred (100% deaf).
Back row: Santa (100% exhausted).

As ever, click image for a bigger view. I'll have to post a pic the Spikerman as a bebe. He was so key-yoot!

Recent Movie Rentals
I watched the new Superman movie but a few days ago. What an egregious piece of crap. Brandon Routh as Superman is good but the movie as whole ... let me rephrase that: The movie as a hole. Don't pour your good money into that hole.
On the other hand the new Pirates of the Carib movie is flat out fantastic. Bill Nighy (with whose work you should be familiar - the first Underworld movie, "Love, Actually") as Davy Jones is superb and the sea creature/sailor creations are brilliant. Strangely, Keira Knightley, whom I usually adore, is startlingly uninteresting in this iteration. As is Orlando Bloom. But Johnny Depp is the consummate pirate. This movie is ownably good. I'll have to wait for Netflix to offer it for sale.

This May Be It
I was considering the XMBD NMSE's suggestion that my new guitar's quilted top looks like malachite. That's not an inaccurate observation. It got me to thinking of what connections I've had to malachite in my life. The salient thing in my memory was a ring my mother had and loved. And it hit me. The guitar is now "Peg" after my late mother. I will play it in memory of her. If, at some point in the future, she tells me that her name is really something else, I will call her by that name. But now she is Peg.

Guitars In Bonds

Well, OK, just one. And the guitar is only striped by the mullion shadows. I will take a better pic than this, given time. But I figured (deeply, richly figured as in quilted maple wood) that it was time to post a picture of the body of this beauty. Still no name has presented itself to me. That'll come in time I suppose.
Pretty innit?

A Better Shot
Here's the head of the new guitar in bright morning light. I'm about to overuse the phrase "Pretty innit?" but I wanted to show off the inlaid Paua (or Rainbow abalone) shell signature. And the rosewood headstock overlay.
Personally speaking, I love the shape of the PRS headstock - distinctive and practical at the same time. The layout of the pegs allows the strings to stay straighter and thus remain in tune better. Day-um but these are good guitars!

Christmas Music
I got the "A Charlie Brown Christmas" disc in the mail today and I'm glad I did. It is delightful. And just silly cheap from Amazon- $4.99. What is not to like?

Slightly Better

I pulled the new guitar into the morning sun streaming through my window and took a couple of shots. Here I give you the fretboard with the "birds in flight" inlay. My picture still doesn't do it justice but I'll get a really good shot of it one of these days. And, of course, you can see a snip of the quilt top at the lower left of the picture. Pretty, innit?
Click the picture for a bigger view.

I Was Hoping It Was A Compliment
Someone told me today that I have "movie star looks." I was happy until I realized the movie to which he was referring.

How To Spend Five Glorious Minutes
Listen to Cecilia Bartoli and Bryn Terfel sing Rossini. I understand this is on DVD. Which I'm going to have to get. My God, Bartoli is wonderful to listen to.

Decidedly The Last Pepper Post Of The Year
Here's a pic of the remaining production of jellies from the big pile o' peppers I posted about a month ago. I've handed out a few jars here and there. The picture shows 11 1/2 pint jars of cranberry jalapeno, 7 pint jars of jalapeno pepper, 22 1/2 pint jars of jalapeno pepper, 3 hexagonal jars of between 1/2 and 1 pint (again, jalapeno pepper jelly) and one glass jar of somewhat more than a pint of, yes, jalapeno pepper jelly.
And I'm done.
I've tried the jalapeno pepper jelly and I like it but I have to say that the cranberry jelly is even better - think of your regular cranberry jelly with a nice warm capsicum glow. Depending on what peppers I grow next year, I may go for the cranberry jelly. You'll not hear any more about the deck farm until next year's production begins to ramp up.

Oh Bugger

I'm always looking for devices that make housecleaning easier. I've had a Dirt Devil broom vac for a while but it was starting to show its age. So I bought one of the new ones - more stylish, more powerful, what's not to like? I'll tell you what. The old one had a bracket that let me mount the thing on the wall with the charger plug set so that mounting the vac in the bracket connected the charger. The new one doesn't have a wall bracket. Grrr. I'll probably have to roll my own.
And another thing. Illiteracy. Illiteracy on the front (left) and illiteracy on the back (below).

First Look

Here is a fairly poor shot of the head of my new guitar. Yes, it is a crappy shot but I wanted to get the inlaid signature, the 20th anniversary logo on the truss rod cover, the PRS locking tuners and the gold tuning hardware all on the record. Just a taste, something to whet your appetite for when I take good pictures of it. I made the mistake of taking the picture after dark when I had to rely on artificial light. And flash. The flash on my ol' digicam really just blows out the photos I take. I'll take daylight pix in the next day or so. That's the Swamp Ash Special in the background.
Now, I must tune that beauty up and strum a bit.

Gifting Season Begins

The XMBD NMSE was a gift-wrapping fool. And I mean in the non-pejorative, praising way. In point of fact, I have never known anyone in my life who was as good at gift wrapping, bar none. I learned a little bit and have been pretty good with the paper for a while now. This Christmas, though, I'm going to try to improve my bow-building skills. I never expect to have "mad bow-bilding skillz" but I don't want to look like a noob. So I bought some wire-edged ribbon. I wanted something other than black but my main roll of Christmas paper this year is pretty light so I opted for the black after all. Here's my first try. What say you?