Ninja Libraian

How can you not LOVE this??

How could I not add the new DAILY SHOW page to the links over on The Left? Just up today and already full of awesomeness!

The site has an archive of shows going back to '99. Plus lots of other goodies I haven't had a chance to check out yet.

Check out the new item over on the side. Another reason why I'll be voting for Senator Chris Dodd in the California primary early next year. The man is the only Democratic candidate whom I am totally behind at this point. I'm proud to say that I was able to vote for him as my Senator while I lived in Connecticut.

Just in case some of you folks are wondering, the sand storms you may have seen reported out here are way north of Ladera Ranch. On the other hand, we have had a couple of quakes the past week.

Blaah! My mood mirrors today's weather, overcast and cool. It appears that unless the Red Sox repeat their turn around of the couple of years ago they may be eliminated by Cleveland in the next game. Currently at 3-1, I have to keep my hopes up that Sox pitcher Josh Beckett comes through in Game 5.

Heard some of His Smugness' press conference this morning. Damn that David Gregory for not taking a hint! Also, did G.W. seem to be having a bit more trouble than usual with the English language? He appeared to be slurring his words as well. Of course, maybe it only seemed that way because I was listening to it while Stephanie Miller & the mooks were doing a MST-3K on the whole thing.

By the way, I had some other things planned for both here and Shot's Shack, but Blogger seems to be giving me trouble uploading images. We'll see how things are going later today.

DIY - How to Make a Zine; Paper, Scissors, Pen - Rockin!

Hey, Elayne! All those years doing I.J. and apa-stuff, who knew it was this easy?

Boy, if I wanted chilly, cloudy and generally gloomy days I could have stayed back East. Hardly, what I signed up for when I moved out to the Left Coast! Still the weekend was mostly nice enough, with some rain which we needed so I shouldn't complain.

The news reports that most of the traffic problems caused by the tragic tunnel fire up north has been cleared up. As of this morning the was no public identification of the three victims who perished. Sadly, one was an infant boy, although I don't mean to slight the two adult males who also lost their lives in the inferno. Over thirty vehicles were involved, mostly commercial vehicles, so it is lucy that more people were not injured or killed. Personally, I'm always nervous driving along side the semis on the I5 each way. Although, truth be told, most of the accidents I've witnessed have been with passenger cars.

Donna and I played Bingo on Saturday at a smaller hall, here in Orange. She didn't feel like traveling up to San Manuel, so we settled on evening bingo. Believe it or not, I actually won the final game of the night, but had to split my winnings with two other folks who also needed "B-2" for the blackout. Still, it paid for our play that day and we've put it aside for our next time out.

I just wanted to experiment with our new Gateway laptop. Excuse any major typos I don't catch since I'm trying to get used to the keyboard.

Donna has been using it for weeks since we bought it, but I haven't so much as turned the sucker on. Figured it was about time to play around and get comfortable. I haven't used a laptop on a regular basis since back at UNH in 2004, where we would use it for classroom instruction. At least we have a mouse now and not that stupid little ball thing!

Wow! Only 41 days and counting to our anniversary cruise. The past few weeks seem to have flown by and the holidays are fast approaching. We are debating whether or not to take the laptop on the cruise, but since it's only three days we probably won't. On the other hand, if we take the Alaskan cruise as we plan next year I definitely will bring this along, just to blog and gloat!

We had only our second significant rainfall on SoCal last night into this morning. Sadly, though we needed it there were several bad accidents due to the weather. Worst involved several big rigs colliding just outside a tunnel north of LA on the I-5 last evening. At least one driver is missing, ten people transported to hospitals and it may be hours before rescue/recovery efforts can be made since the tunnel itself may have suffered structural damage. It could have been much worse but again nobody will know for sure until later today.

Well, I am beginning to feel more comfortable with the computer, so I think I'll play around reading blogs, etc.

Have a good weekend!

Cats' Bad Day

Just because they are cats.

A tip of the ball cap to Al Gore for his well-deserved Nobel Prize. It has been widely expected and wished for by a lot of bloggers. At least those of us on the more progressive side of the 'net.

I heard while at lunch that it barely took minutes, following the announcement, for the folks over at Fox and on 'right-wing' sites to denounce not only Gore but the prize itself.

Guess they should urge Henry Kissinger to return his in protest, huh?

I still don't believe that the former VP will throw his hat into the Presidential ring this time out. However, come 2012 we might see him once again hitting the campaign trail. I also think we can expect the next Democratic President (and I have little doubt that we will have one in '09) will find some position for Mr. Gore, if only to keep a close eye on him.

If you look over to The Left you'll find that I've added three science related sites to the 'skeptical' area. These are all recommended by James Randi and I've found some very interesting topics on all of them. Of course, I'll be the first to admit that Science was not my best subject back in school, although I generally enjoyed it.

Many of the essays on these sites are way above my head and level of understanding, but they all examine some of the myths, preconceptions and misunderstandings the general public has on such matters.

It doesn't hurt to get a 'second opinion' on things before you except anything at face value.

The nicest thing about having two blogs, as well as a MySpace account, is that I can write and promote just about anything that captures my attention. Given that I most certainly suffer from Adult ADD it’s great to be able to write about whatever captures my wondering attention at any given moment. With the new ability to post videos here on Blogger I’m having even more fun as things come to mind, rather it is something current or nostalgic stuff I find over on YouTube.
I have some more websites that I plan on adding to one or the other of my blogs and I may be moving some around. There are a few science/skeptic pages that I plan on adding here and two web comic sites that I’m going to put over on SHOT’S SHACK.

Speaking of that site, I find it cool that when I do a Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” search for Shot’s Shack you go there immediately. With Parting Shots you get a lot of hits and even when you do a Blog search for that title it doesn’t always come up on the first page. So much for trying to be clever!

There have been some news stories (political and otherwise) that have caught my attention, but generally by the time I get a chance to blog about them they are old news. I also wonder if what I have to say is worth posting, since anything I write on politics or social issues I’m probably parroting someone far wiser so why bother? I’m sure that at one time or other I’ve had an original thought, but with the ADD I never remember it long enough to get credit. I want to blame it on enjoying the Sixties & Seventies a bit too much, but honestly I can’t remember if my memory was all that good before all that abuse.

This all comes around to the reason that I post some many links to sites that do discuss different topics. At some point I was interested enough to visit that page, found something I enjoyed or made me think. One of these days I’m going to remember what it was and go back, so the links are often there just so I can find them again. If you use them yourself, so much the better!

One final thing. Am I the only person who goes back at some point and reads what they have posted weeks or months before? I’m pretty funny sometimes, I think!

Fall in New England

I do miss living in the East this time of year. This will show you some of my home state in the Fall.

Wish you could smell the burning leaves.

Looks the the Dems are going to cave in, as usual, and give the WH a go-ahead on wiretapping U.S. citizens. Can’t be ‘soft’ on terrorists, can you?

Personally, I think that only people in Washington and the mainstream media think that the American public would believe that the Democratic party are not patriotic when they try to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens. Most folks I know would rather folks in Congress stood up to the administration. That is why most of us voted the way we did last year, isn’t it?

The Daily Show remains one of the best sources of information on television. It’s kind of sad to say that, but it seems to be the case as the regular sources of news are generally too afraid to offend anyone. (Countdown with Keith Olbermann an exception.) Last night Jon Stewart did two great bits on ‘torture’. Is it O-Tay to do it? Sure am!

On a much more pleasant note…The Yankees lose…THHHEEEEEE YANKEEESSSSS LOSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Mmmm…feel much better now, thanks.

Silver Apples---best band

Back in 1968, I heard this on a local radio station (during a show when the played experimental and new music). I went out the next day and bought SILVER APPLES the first album by the duo of the same name.

You can imagine what my friends and family thought as I played this over and over.

UHF Conan The Librarian

I saw this a few years ago and have always wanted to find it again. Enjoy!!

Back in December of '03 I posted a draft of a review I had just completed. I did not like the book, but made the mistake of posting an initial draft and not one with several corrections. The review upset the author at the time and I have just received another e-mail from her. She is right in that I thought her writing amateur at best, as I said in my review. However, in the corrected draft I removed an error regarding the book, which she pointed out.

At the time I told the Joe Bob Briggs folks that they could remove the review or insert the correction. Neither was done.

My apologies to JR and I have removed the review from my site.

"Kitty Sandworm" via Dave Kellett over at the SHELDON comics blog.

You have to love the eyes, don't you?

At this point in time is it even necessary to say what a moron we have sitting in the Oval Office?

The same week that one of his daughters is making the rounds promoting her book on children and health issues, Daddy decides that we don't really need to spend any money on SCHIP.

Hell, he and Lauradidn't need government help to raise the twins. Why can't the rest of America do the same?

How can you go wrong? Jokes about coffee AND Dune!

Once more another reason to make SHELDON part of your morning routine.

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I'll still be at work when the Angels/Red Sox game starts in Boston today. Aaaaargh!!

I'm on mailing lists for Major League Baseball, as well as both the Red Sox & the New York Mets.

It was amusing, but still sad, to get a letter yesterday from the Mets front office apologizing for their collapse. When the owners of a team are so brutally honest and feel it necessary to make a public apology you know changes are afoot. Still it appears they are going to keep Willie Randolph as manager. Personally, I have always liked Randolph and don't lay total blame on him for the miserable final weeks of the season Fingers crossed for next year.

I thought that with leaving Brooklyn it would be safe to take my Red Sox cap out of storage. However, seeing at the Beantowners are coming to SoCal to face the Angels I'm not sure if driving around with a big red "B" on my head is the smart thing to do. We'll see what happens during the first two games at Fenway.

As for the apparent most important story in America today.... Did you ever think that you might actually find yourself feeling some sympathy for Britney?

Now that the New York Times has dropped the charges for some of the columns, I have added a link to Dick Cavett's blog/column over to The Left.

I've always enjoyed Cavett, since he had his first late night talk show in the late '60-early '70s. He was intelligent, funny and had guests that you'd never see over on Carson (although Johnny was THE best at what he did). Over the years Cavett has remained a light in an industry continually going down a slop to lowest common denominator crap.

It is great to hear what he has to say about current events, past guests and other things in general. Enjoy!