Sorry. Bad pun. And the situation isn’t actually humorous. They have no explanation for the Chief Justice’s seizure, and since it is his second one on record, that makes it epilepsy. That doesn’t mean he is going to have daily seizures. It doesn’t mean he isn’t either. It’s like so many other disorders involving the brain. There’s a catch-all category for the ones they can’t definitively identify. The best I’ve read says that since he has had two seizures, even though they were separated by a good many years, there is a 60% chance he will have another. Someday. Nebulous, huh? The big question is, what should be done about it. Politics aside, what do you think ought to happen? Should he wait to see how long it is before it happens again and then decide? Or should he undertake more rigorous tests and observation? Perhaps alter his lifestyle? He says he is fine to resume his duties. What do you all think?
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Shakeup in the High Court
Monday, July 30, 2007
Who Cares About Lindsay Lohan?
Actually, I do, but not for the reason that most of those who fawn over celebrity do. I am interested for the same reason I was interested in the Paris Hilton nonsense recently. I am bothered by the fact that celebrities get preferential treatment from the legal system out here in
With all of that, you figure she must be in jail, right? Nope. She was released on $25,000 bail. I’m pretty sure she didn’t even spend the night. It’s lucky that she didn’t kill anybody. Personally, I think a repeat drunk driver, especially one on a suspended license, needs to do some real time to get the message home. Clearly rehab is not working for this train wreck. Is her contribution to society so great that we need to look the other way for her?
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday Funny
A friend of mine turned me on to this Iranian comic named Maz Jobrani. Here he is on Leno. I am going to do some more digging on him, but I like what he is doing and how he is saying it. Funny, but with undertones.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Pourquoi détestons-nous les Français?
Ever since the
They helped us win the Revolution. They gave us aid in arms, ammunition, funds, and troops. They sold us the
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Airplane, Torpedo, Machine Gun
Voldemom and the kids went to the San Diego Air and
They were walking around the museum playing and Josh felt left out. They explained the game to him in detail. They taught him all the signs. Maya and Josh squared off for the confrontation. One-two-three-shoot! Maya threw torpedo. Josh threw scissors.
They had another round of rules discussions. They reviewed the signs. This time he had it. Josh was sure. Again they squared off. Again they stared each other down. One-two-three-shoot! This time, Maya threw machine gun. Josh threw his arms up and surrendered.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Happy Day-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named
That’s right, today is the birthday of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. And if you think I can’t name her, then I’m sure you can guess that I can’t tell you how old she is. Actually, I doubt she’d care, but this is more fun. I also decided on a new nickname for her. This is not due to any actions on her so much as her current nickname. How about Voldemom? So, Happy Birthday Voldemom! We love you! Enjoy your new hammock!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Admira-Bull
I’ve been waiting to do this until the pictures were up, but I need to give a shout out to one of my oldest and dearest friends. He is also the current title holder of “Coolest Person I Know”. Don’t be jealous. He’s just that good. He is my second oldest friend. We’ve been through high school and college together. He opted for the ROTC route and has done quite well. As a matter of fact, he is now the Commanding Officer for the USS Constitution. Check him out with his crew in all their old-timey glory. And here is his personal photo. Congrats, Bull. I’m mighty proud of you, bro.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Bit the bullet
I bit the bullet and upgraded my Blogger template. As such, many enhancements have disappeared. I’ll try to add them back. My main goal was to get the comments back to being reliable again. It looks like I have done that. So, I should be able to respond to some of the recent comments now. I was having trouble doing so recently. I’ll add the blogroll back next. Then the recent comments. Then any other widget that tickles my fancy.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Would you rather?
I’m stealing a concept from my friend James over at Aces Full. Every week he poses a conundrum of the sort “Would you rather: X or Y”. Sometimes it is a question of having something. Sometimes it is a question of doing something. I thought of one recently based on a personal situation and decided to throw it out to my viewers. I’ve modified it slightly from what actually happened to try to reflect a more objective mind set as opposed to my interpretation of events. Here goes.
Would you rather:
· Stand up for what you believe is right if doing so has even a small possibility of posing a major risk (financial, emotional, social) to you and your family.
· Allow a grave injustice to pass at a smaller personal cost, but a potentially larger cost to society
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
she-who-must-not-be-named.com
Ok, a bit of a contradiction here. Or perhaps this is a concession that you can’t always avoid having your name on the internet. She-who-is-looking-to-reenter-the-workforce has created a website for her teaching portfolio. Ok. I created a website for her portfolio, but she created the portfolio. I just converted it from the school’s content management system (which is lousy) to Microsoft’s free Office Live (which is less lousy, but still pretty lousy). I was looking for free and easy and got that more or less. It came at the cost of flexibility and functionality.
The purpose of this site is to allow principals who are given her application and the URL to see what she has done and is capable of. Apparently, none of them look at it, but you have to either have a print version or a CD version. I was unsuccessful at a multi-format auto launch CD (since people can turn that feature off), so I came up with the idea of a website.
I wouldn’t mind a little review from my friends. I can only find so many bugs before I start to interpret what I see. If you want to look, go to she-who-must-not-be-named.com. I tinyurl’d it for obfuscation, so you’ll have to trust me that I am not trying to mess with you.
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Papaya Decade
Today marks a full decade of Maya! Happy Birthday, kiddo. About this time 10 years ago, She-who-was-well-into-labor was recounting her conversation with dead relatives to all of us in the delivery room. Although, that was east coast time. So, if we are dealing with GMT, contractions were in full swing and the medical staff were ignoring her requests for an epidural as it was far too late for that. Tonight, we celebrate with Red Brick pizza, Cold Stone ice cream cake, and Harry Potter. And about 22 friends and their families. Expecto Pandamonium!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
I Has a Post
Ok. I haven't posted in a while again. Not as long as my last while, but still. Stuff going on. I know. There's always stuff going on. I'm a magnet. Or a catalyst. Or a well dressed digestive enzyme. Anyway, here's some LOLcat fun I found to distract you in the meantime?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Aforementioned Improv
There’s a really good article in Today’s Local News about what I’m up to. I was impressed with the flow of the story and how well he captured what Improv is about. Even better, he edited out all my verbal fumbling and made me look like I really know something about this Improv stuff.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
You Read My Mind
As some of you know, I am occasionally a little sarcastic. Okay. Revise that to be often and quite. I know when I’m pegged. But don’t throw too many stones. I know many of my readers also possess the snarky gene. I’m most often snarky in the face of stupidity. Yesterday, I had a snarky thought. Stop the presses! What was newsworthy was the fact that someone near me vocalized it. I was in the grocery store that is part of my office’s plaza and was in the checkout line. A young woman walked up to the checkout clerk and asked “Where is your refrigerated water.” The clerk looked at her as though she was crazy and replied “In the refrigerator.”
Monday, June 18, 2007
Father's Day Fun
Well, another Father’s Day in the books and I rather enjoyed myself. We made it a Father’s Weekend instead of just a day. We opted for simple burgers and dogs on the grill Friday night after which I got my presents. Most were very cool handmade items. The kids made popsicle stick frames with pictures of us that they drew. Josh also made a footprint painting with a poem in it. His Kindergarten teacher laminated the whole thing and helped him wrap it. I also got a couple of Superhero T-Shirts so Josh and I can match, as he is always wearing Marvel apparel of some sort or other. I am now the proud owner of a green T with the heads of Wolverine, Captain America, Spidey, and The Hulk and a red T with an action shot of Spidey. Woot!
Saturday we went to Olive Garden with some friends for a nice dinner. A good time was had by all even though they were out of the Torta di Chocolate and forgot to bring us our Black Tie Mousse Cake which we chose as an alternative. We forgave them. We’re magnanimous like that.
Sunday was the big adventure. We got up early and drove downtown to catch the ferry to Coronado. You can drive to Coronado, but we wanted to try out the boat. It was an easy 15-minute ride and though I am exceptionally prone to seasickness, I didn’t even entertain a notion of nausea. Upon landing, we made a short walk across a long pier and over to Bikes & Beyond. We rented a 2-pedal single bench surrey and set off to explore the island. We wanted the 4-pedal dual bench, but Josh couldn’t reach the pedals and Maya only barely could. Plus, it was a lot heavier and with the two of them and she-who-still-has-a-ways-to-go-in-recovering-her-leg-strength with me, who do you think would be supplying most of the pedal power? Opting for the lighter model was a good choice. Josh sat in the basket up front. Maya and she-who-etc-etc took turns pedaling and sitting in the middle, and I got a great leg workout. To mix it up a little, I occasionally got out and pushed while they both pedaled. That was an even better workout as I jogged along behind. With my assistance in the back and my weight not in the seat, we were able to reach tremendous speeds of six or seven miles per hour! When all of us were riding, and I was pedaling, we were passed by kids on scooters.
We pedaled all the way to the Hotel del Coronado and took a rest break so we could see the interior of the famed structure. It was designed by wizard of Oz author Frank Baum and was used in the film Some Like it Hot. It was quite fancy inside. Josh and I took a ride in the old cage style elevator just because we could. Rest break was over and we had to try to get out of the hotel grounds. That’s when we noticed the street sign. Orange. Doh! There were only a few rules with renting the pedal car. Pedestrians have the right of way. Don’t pedal it through the market area. And stay off D, E, and Orange. That explains why it was so hard to get the car up the street. Luckily, we avoided the island police as we made our way back to the bike paths and eventually the shop.
From there, it was lunch at the Bayside Café, a little playtime on the beach, and a ferry ride home. We made it back with enough time for showers, a change of clothes, and a quick stop to pick up sandwiches before the evening revels. We topped off the evening with a 3 hour Improv rehearsal. But that will have to wait until next post…
Friday, June 15, 2007
Post something You Idiot
Ok. Ok. So this blog has been pretty neglected in 2007. I am sorry. For those of you who are still checking in on me, thank you. For those who aren’t, will those of you who are let them know that there is something new? The rest of this post was deleted. Private mail me if you don't know why.
Read More......Monday, May 14, 2007
Meme Time!
I was tagged (at my own request) with a meme by net friend barbie2be. I'm trying to jump start things here. She sent me 5 random questions. Here they are, with my answers:
1. Have you ever ignored the advice of your spellchecker?
Constantly. Spell checkers are weak on technical terminology. I also like to make up my own words. There are occasions when there is no right word for a situation and I need to adjectivize a noun. (I'm ignoring sc's red flagging of 'adjectivize' right now.)
Of course, sometimes I listen even when I know the spell checker is wrong. You can get some creative names that way. My friend Patti's email alias is now indelibly in my memory as "Puffy Merger" because of a spell check.
2. If you could only listen to one CD on a cross-country drive, what would it be?
I'm guessing that an MP3 mix tape CD would be cheating. I think I'd pick something I only marginally like as listening to it for an entire cross country trip would probably kill it for me. I'm going to go with Pure 80s as I can see myself belting out these greats hour after hour.
3. When life throws you a curve ball, do you swing hard and hope you connect, or do you just duck out of the way?
I lean in and get hit by the pitch.
4. Have you ever sent food back in a restaurant, and of so, why?
Yes. It was chicken and it was not cooked all the way through. And it was pretty clearly not cooked all they way through. I also send back food when I ask for something specifically, like 'no bacon', 'no cheese', or 'no mushrooms' and they didn't listen.
5. How long does it have to be since you last saw a friend or acquaintance for you to greet them with a hug?
Not long at all. I'm a hugger. It has to be the right person though. There are people I have known for years who aren't huggable and there are people I've know for only a month or so who are.
Now you know some more random stuff about me. Doesn't that just make you want to comment?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Your Vote Doesn't Count
Ok. This is a little out of date, but I still wanted to comment on it. Last summer there was a lawsuit here in North County San Diego regarding the special runoff election for Duke Cunningham's disgraced seat. The contest was between Democrat Francine Busby, a member of the Cardiff School Board, and Brian Bilbray, an immigration and gambling lobbyist with ties to Jack Abramoff. Polls leading up to the election showed Busby with a small lead, but one that was within the margin of error...
Bilbray ended being declared the winner by the various organizations that call these things. On the say so of the Republican Secretary of State, Bilbray was whisked away to DC and sworn in before the election was certified. Some constituents of the 50th district wanted a hand recount and were given an unreasonable price tag ($150,000) by the Republican election commissioner. You see where this is going?
Lacking other alternatives, the constituents sued the San Diego commissioner and Bilbray in an attempt to get a hand recount. Their basis for the suit included the following points:
As you can guess from the title of this article, they lost. That isn't the troubling part. The troubling part is the precedent set by the text of the ruling. You can read the summary in the North County Times or Sign On San Diego, but I'll give you the high points.
Once Bilbray was sworn in, the state no longer had jurisdiction. This conclusion arose from Article 1, section 5 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that each House is responsible for the elections of its own members. Bilbray asserted, throguh his attorney, that only the House can now challenge the election. Of course, if you accept the assertion that once he was sworn in, the state had no jurisdiction to challenge, then you also have to logically conclude that the state had no jurisdiction to certify the election. So, it never actually happened. Ergo, your vote does not count. Welcom to George Bush's Amerika. Enjoy your stay.
Monday, April 23, 2007
You Got Hockey In My Baseball
Busy day, but wanted to send along this funny courtesy of net friend barbie2be.
Now, thaht's what ahm tahkin aboot!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
One Movie to Watch and Another to Miss
I actually watched some semi-recent movies. I didn't catch them in the theater. That's why they are only semi-recent. I'm giving a thumbs up to The Good Shepherd and a thumbs down to The Pursuit of Happyness. Go below the fold if you want to know why.
The Good Shepherd stars Matt Damon as Edward Wilson. The movies uses flashbacks Wilson's life to chronicle in a fictionalized retelling of the early days of the CIA. Some of the jumps are a little confusing, but overall, the movie flows well. There are more than enough plot twists to keep you guessing. I may see it again just to fill in some of the blanks I missed. That said, the feel of the movie is very good as is the supporting cast. William Hurt, Alec Baldwin, Robert DeNiro and more all play supporting roles. The supporting standout, though, is Angelina Jolie as Wilson's long suffering wife. She gives a strong performance that is aided by the makeup people who did a nice job of aging her through the movie.
By contrast, The Pursuit of Happyness stars Wil Smith as Chris Gardner. It also features his real life son Jaden as Gardner's son Christopher. This one is also based on a true story. Unlike Good Shepherd, though, this one is entirely predictable. Smith turns in a very good performance, but the movie is too angsty throughout. They really drive home all the obstacles he needs to overcome as they railroad the story from misery to misery and try to create suspense. "What is going to happen to Gardner and his son?" But the ending is never really in doubt and the emotional uplift is too little, too late to make this worth watching.
We also did a nostalgia turn and watched The Court Jester, starring Danny Kaye, a young (and surprisingly attractive) Angela Lansbury, and Basil Rathbone. I've been on a Danny Kaye kick lately as I prep to portray him in an Andrew's sisters tribute show. So, I've been working on his mannerisms and voice. The kids have been enjoying him greatly. His movies aren't great cinema compared to the movies of today, but his comedy is wonderful. Josh watched this and he watched the recent Dreamworks flick Flushed Away. Afterwards, he told me, "Danny Kaye is better than Flushed Away. Kids today just don't know it." That's my boy.
