Saturday, July 23, 2005

A bit of humor

Noticed this quote on Jeff Kimmel's blog and thought it was too funny. From the late comedian Mitch Hedberg -

When you go to a restaurant on the weekends and it’s busy they start a waiting list. They start calling out names, they say “Dufrane, party of two. Dufrane, party of two.” And if no one answers they’ll say their name again. “Dufrane, party of two, Dufrane, party of two.” But then if no one answers they’ll just go right on to the next name. “Bush, party of three.” Yeah, but what happened to the Dufranes? No one seems to give a shit. Who can eat at a time like this - people are missing. You fuckers are selfish… the Dufranes are in someone’s trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths. And they’re hungry! That’s a double whammy. We need help. Bush, search party of three! You can eat when you find the Dufranes.

A few other good oneliners from MItch - "Tortillas are sleeping bags for ground beef." -

"You know they call corn on the cob, corn on the cob, but that's how it comes out of the ground, man. They should call that corn, they should call every other version corn off the cob. It's not like if you cut off my arm you would call it Mitch. Then reattach it and call me Mitch-all-together..."

"Once I saw this wino who was eating grapes, and I said, "Dude, you have to wait".

"Mr. Pibb is a replica of Dr. Pepper, but it's a bullshit replica, 'cuz the dude didn't even get his degree. Alright."

"You know that Pepperidge Farm bread, that stuff is fancy. That stuff is wrapped twice. You open it, and it still ain't open. That's why I don't buy it, I don't need another step between me and toast."

"I make instant oatmeal in the morning then I don't do shit for an hour. Makes me wonder why I need the instant oatmeal, I could make the regular oatmeal and feel productive."

"I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've travelled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so that the map will not fall down."

Mitch is my kind of guy. :) I'll send you a few more of his one-liners in the days to come.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Phishing, Podcasting, RSS - huh??

Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet and American Life Project sends word of new survey results that he calls a "sobering reminder that internet users aren't as steeped in new internet phenomena as the people who work in IT-related industries or cover technology news."
According to Pew's data, only 29 percent of American have a good idea what phishing is; the numbers are lower (13 percent) for podcasting , and RSS feeds (nine percent).

Not very surprising - most folks barely know how to browse the Net, let alone send an email. I guess they must have a life, unlike myself and apparently YOU, who are reading this at the moment. LOL

Photo of the Day
I must be into flowers lately. Actually, it is so bloody hot, I have little desire to go further out into nature, other than a stroll in to the Gardens here at the Fox Hill Inn As with all these photos, a click on the picture here leads to the full sized image with greater detail. Canon 20D; 100mm EF2.8 Macro USM lens - 1/60th@f5.6 ISO 200

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Picture of the Day

The Hollyhocks are shooting up there this time of year. A good 6-7' tall now. This one's blossom hasn't gotten attacked by bugs yet. And believe me, the bugs love these plants. Click on the picture for larger and more detailed view. Taken with Canon 20D, 100mm EF2.8Macro USM lens.


A tall plant (Alcea rosea) native to the Middle East and widely cultivated for its showy clusters of very large, variously colored flowers. Also called althea.

[Middle English holihocke, marsh mallow : holi, holy; see holy + hoc, mallow (from Old English).]


Ebay Stock Rocks!

On the back of big earnings, Ebay's stock is soaring today some 20%. Whew! Wish I had bought that puppy.

Computers
Firefox updates to 1.06 to fix the things it screwed up with its 1.05 release a few days ago. You can get it here . If you use Roboform, you should go read the instructions for installing the Netscape Adapter for Roboform. (you need to remove the current one you have installed via Control Panel / Add/Remove Software and then follow the instructions to install the Firefox Roboform extension ).

Scrapbook adds a beta to it's already fabulous extension for Firefox. Pick it up at this Scrapbook beta site . It and Answers.com make using the Net a worthwhile endeavor.

Spotlight of the Day
John Scopes was found guilty of teaching Darwinism, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, in a Tennessee high school on this date in 1925. Though Scopes was fined $100, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict on a technicality. The trial, which became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial , was tried by two very famous lawyers, Clarence Darrow for the defense and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan. It was only in 1968 that the US Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Arkansas. Source - Answers.com

Quote of the Day
Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt - Clarence Darrow

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Hot and Humid Baby

Boy, when is this humidity gonna break? Took a trip to Winston Salem today - think this was a big mistake. Temps in the mid 90's and I 'd swear the humidity is over 100%. AT 7:40 p.m the temp is 90 with the heat index 96 - welcome to the South - ugh. Reminds me of my days in Atlanta. Nice to drag my laptop along and sit in an air-conditioned Panera Bread store and update all the programs I have that always require big downloads. Takes seconds and with JiWire's Spotlock security system ($5/month), I feel a lot more secure than before with no security.

Photo of the Day
These little fellas are the bane of all gardeners (not that I'm a gardener!). They sure love these shasta daisys. Tried to shoot this critter using my tripod, but too hard to maneuver it around and finally gave up. Bumped up the ISO to 800 so that I could shoot at faster shutter speed (slight breeze blowing) and took the best depth of field I could. Click on the photo for the full sized image

Monday, July 18, 2005


Freedom over money?

It's the freest lifestyle I've ever known. There's not a lot of money in it, but I do all right. It's a tradeoff…freedom or money, freedom or money…I'll take the freedom.

- Dick Grayson, New Orleans street musician


I woke up this morning, turned on the tube, and enjoyed a good hour of street music from LA, New Orleans, and NYC. If you get the Sundance channel, check out the movie Playing for Change . Some of the best music comes from street musicians. I still remember the group from Peru playing on a street corner in Portland, OR - turned me on to the music of the Andes and those incredible pan flutes. If you're in NYC, just traveling the subways introduces you to an incredible variety of acts (those folks you see playing in the subways and performing their art have to audition for those spots!). Worth a look (and a listen).

Tiger Cruises to Another Major win

Tiger made it look easy yesterday. Monty gave him a bit of a run, much to the excitement of the flag waving Scots, but it wasn't one of those William Wallace days (Braveheart) and he faded over the last 9 holes. Tiger must be getting a chuckle out of those doubters over the past few years who thought he had lost his touch. 2 Majors already this year with another coming up. Can he win a 3rd? (PGA Championship Aug 11th-14th) He's already 2 ahead of Jack's record of 18 when Jack was Tiger's age. There aren't many who can match Tiger's intensity and focus - in other sports, Roger Fedderer (Tennis) and Lance Armstrong (bicyling) come to mind. But has Tiger won the hearts of sports fans like Arnold Palmer did? Some don't think so .