A Request for Help for a Fellow JLander, Sorrow for a Departed Friend, and Thanks for an Award!

I've been perusing http://journals.aol.com lately, and despite its many flaws I like the 'recently updated blogs' list. I'll often pop on to a blog I haven't seen before and take a look. You'd be suprised - or perhaps not - at the many great blogs on AOL, and the few that are absolutely dreadful.

My favorites tho' are the odd ones, the 'my minister is sleeping with my grandpa and they are plotting to kill the mayor because he's a Republican from Jupiter' versions.  And these people seem absolutely serious.

Sweet.

One of the brand new one's I stumbled on was Roses are Read (a nifty play on words, I think). She's brand new to the web and I've tried helping her with a few issues she's had here in JLand.

The trouble is she's now attempting to add music to her entries. I've always been print-centric and loathe to include anything that couldn't eventually be printed out - even my Youtube entries make me squirm - so I have no clue how to do it.

I've tried to help but it's no go. If you know how to do this, please stop by her site.

* * *

While trying to help her I came across the help site of Pam from One Girls Head Noise, a woman who was very kind and helpful to me when I started out here. She passed away in '06 but even now she reached out a helping hand.  Her alternate site is full of hints and tricks, and worth a look whenever you're stuck. A link to her site even created the license plate at the start of this entry.

Man, I really do miss Pam.

* * * *

I was flattered to receive my first award or recognition here in JLand, and it came from across the pond. Over at Villiage Life I was put up for a Nice Matters award with the following kind words:

I have only been looking in on Dan's journal for a few weeks now but he sure has a way with words and has a lovely family.

Thanks for the kind words. As you all can see I've loaded the award graphic in the sidebar and will display it with pride.

* * *

Ok, I really don't care and probably won't even watch, but as an American I'm obliged to give my Super Bowl picks. My head says the Patriots (gag) by a TD or more, but the rest of me is hoping the Giants take it by 3.

Tags: SuperBowl

Buddy Holly - 49 years on

Today is the 49th anniversary of ‘The Day the Music Died’, the fateful day when Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, along with their pilot, Roger Peterson, perished in a plane crash near Clear Lake Iowa.

Rest in peace guys.

My wife asked me if I was going to write anything new for the anniversary, and I said no, thinking I’d just rehash some of my old tributes. (here, and here, for instance). I’ve changed my mind for two reasons. One, the old stuff was kind of skimpy, and two, well, the mood struck me.

I first got into Buddy Holly because of Robocop. Back in ’87 Robocop was a double feature, playing first and followed by La Bamba. My friend Erv went with me to see Robocop, and I went because I wanted to see LaBamba.

I was immediately hooked on Ritchie Valens and grabbed every cassette of his I could find, including a copy of a concert he did at his high school. (you’d be surprised how much the man recorded in an 8 or 9 month career).

[Sidenote: The concert cassette had an address of a fan club - pre-zip code no less - and I wrote in. The President of the Club, at the time of my letter a woman in her fifties, kindly wrote back and said the club had been phased out nearly thirty years before.

I still have the letter somewhere around here.]

Anyways, the movie soundtrack had a great cover of Holly’s Crying, Waiting, Hoping and I hesitantly called Mean Mountain Music, a store specializing in ‘50’s LP’s and tapes, and asked if they had any Buddy Holly.

“Uh, yeah,” the guy said, sarcastically. I deserved it; hell, I deserved a ‘duh!’.

So I became hooked on Buddy and stayed hooked, long after my affection for Valens faded into childhood nostalgia.

Why do I love the guy?

Not to sound shallow, but first and foremost I like the songs themselves. They’ve held up great over the decades, much better than many of the ’50’s rock tunes, and they still get you moving.

[ It’s a shame most people only know of “Peggy Sue”, a song I find pretty dull by Holly standards. ]

I also love his inherent cockiness. Here’s this curly haired, scrawny Texas kid with huge glasses, in an era that idolized beauties like Elvis and Troy Donahue. Yet he goes out and records songs that just reek of smug self-assuredness.

In his cover of Chuck Berry’s Brown Eyed Handsome Man, a fun and aggressive song (and one of my favorite of Buddy’s) he sings:

Arrested on charges of unemployment,
he was sitting in the witness stand
The judge's wife called up the district attorney
Said you free that brown eyed man
You want your job you better free that brown eyed man

Or in one of his own tunes, That’ll be the Day, he rejects his girlfriends threats of breaking off their relationship and retorts: ‘if we ever part and I leave you’

I like the fact that a half century after he’s gone musicians still tip their hat to him and acknowledge his influence. In 1998 Bob Dylan won album of the year and said in his acceptance speech:

"And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory [note: this was on the final and fateful tour} and I was three feet away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."

I love the fact that no two songs of his ever sounded the same; Nickelback he was not. ‘Peggy Sue’ is not ‘Not Fade Away’ and ‘Words of Love’ is about as far away from “Oh Boy!” as a single artist can get. And whenever possible he was innovative, both in the recording studio and as a composer and arranger. Check out the use of the celeste/xylophone solo in ‘Everyday’. Who does that???

Finally, I love his inspired guitar work, which seems far and above anyone of the era, with the exception of Berry himself, and I really like Buddy’s voice and trademark ‘hiccup’.

Anyone can play ‘what might have been’ and mourn a great and productive future that never came to pass; Lord knows no one ever has the guts to come out and say ’had so-and-so lived, they’d have ended up locked in a mental hospital like Britney Spears’.

But with Buddy I think it’s safe to assume that the crash ended what would have been a long and influential career. Perhaps not as an artist himself, because he was already deeply interested in the producer/publishing aspect of the business. But with his knack for finding new and exciting ways to push the boundaries of rock ’n roll, who knows what he could have culled from some never-to-be-heard artist.

Next year is the 50th anniversary of the crash, and for the past 21 years I’ve wanted to spend that day in Clear Lake, Iowa to commemorate the event. I told my wife today to start making plans for the date, and God willing we’ll be there.

I only wish we were celebrating 50 years of new Buddy Holly recordings instead. 

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Tags: Buddy Holly

Lost: 'The Beginning of The End'

Truthfully, I wasn’t really feeling the season premiere of Lost.

Ok, sure, part of it was the terror that was the combined might of my children. And some can be chalked up to the disappointment of being greeted with a paltry one-hour season opener.

But really, there was no ‘oomph’ to the episode. No startling revelations or explanations (as if!). No sense of the drama of where the season 3 finale left off. No romantic news, no new characters, no new nothin'.

All of it a bit ‘blah’ really.

Here’s what we did learn:

At least six, but probably only six, survivors returned to the world. Among these ‘Oceanic Six’ are Hurley, Kate, and Jack. We can presume the coffin from the season finale contained another of the six, but that is just conjecture.

We’re made to think that the six returned only after forging a less than noble deal to keep their mouth shut about the island. We’re also led to believe that the rest of flight 815’s survivors remain, alive, on the island, held there at least in part by the complicit silence of the Six.

We know that neither Jack nor Hurley are comfortable with the deal they’ve made. Jack, however, seems to have choked down many of his demons and recovered a ‘normal’ life, albeit with a current of regret and pain running beneath the surface. Kate does not seem to share many of these misgivings, at least from what we’ve seen.

Hurley’s prediction about his money would seem to be incorrect, based soley on the car he was driving.

Hurley’s denial of Ana Lucia would indicate that the Six claim that no one but them survived the initial crash . . Or he just didn’t feel like talking : )

Much of the episode must be interpreted in light of Hurley’s illness. Is he crazy and imagining things, or are these people real? Or is it a combination of the two?

Presuming he is real, the mysterious visitor to the mental hospital would indicate that dark forces are still searching for both the island and the survivors. Whoare these people and what do they want? They can’t be the people who forged the ‘deal’, so who in fact did ‘rescue’ the Six?

By the way, that characters’ name, Matthew Abbadon, means roughly ‘place of the dead’ in Hebrew, presuming a reference on the web is correct. UPDATE: I guess that's wrong. Abbadon is an angel in Revelations who guards the place of the dead (hell).

Was Charley a real ghost or an imagined phantom? Either way he represents Hurley’s regret and his concern for the survivors so it really doesn’t matter. And they did surprise me with that one. I thought Hurley ran from the ’numbers’, not a person.

I vote that he’s a hallucination. No, make that a ghost - er, I can’t make up my mind quite yet.

Some questions I have:

“Not Penny’s Boat”. Maybe I’m misremembering the finale, but aren’t the Losties reading a whole lot into the scribbled words of a dying man?

The man in the chair in Jacob’s cabin looked an awful lot like Christian Sheppard, Jack’s Dad, didn’t it?

I didn’t dig Jack pulling the trigger on John, even if John deserved it. Jack is the moral compass of the show, and I don’t want to see him deviate from that.

If you’re hiding from a sophisticated boat-plane-skydiving-satellite phone yielding bad guys, why choose to hide in a man-made, in-the-open barracks John? Why not head for the caves from Season One?

Who left the second blood trail?

Hurley regrets going with John. That doesn’t bode well for Locke’s group, does it? Or is he simply just apologizing for not supporting Jack?

Well, fiddle-de-dee. Going into this I never would have thought that much of the episode sunk in. Huh.

You can bet I’ll be back for more next week.

* * * *

Update: Here's some interesting tidbits about the episode that were posted on Lostpedia this morning.

While playing horse with Hurley, Jack gets the letters "H" and "O". "H" is the 8th letter of the alphabet and "O" is the 15th - 815 (the flight number)

• Behind Hurley as he’s freaking out over Abbadon there’s a small sculpture of the letters ‘HO’ on a shelf.
• Hurley mentions Charlie’s ghost showing up in the convenience store right next to the “Ho Ho’s”.

Tags: Lost, blogplugs

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On how my kids are far from perfect and why my evening was awful

My Mom, of all people, occasionally criticizes me by saying I want my family life to be perfect and that I'm prone to expecting - demanding - it at every turn.

Frankly, that's an empty and annoying accusation because I've never claimed perfection. I am happy with my wife, I am happy with my kids, and not a day goes by where I do not count my blessings.

That's not perfection, that's being damn lucky.

But yes, of course there are moments/hours/days (hell, weeks) when all hell breaks loose and I'm full of frustration and anger and every other emotion in the dictionary.

Take tonight as a prime example. My wife had gone out for the evening and it was my job to put the kids to bed before watching Lost. Let me preface this by saying that it is usually my job to put them to bed; I am no rookie, I am not a pushover at bedtime, and normally the process is 1-2-3.

Anyway, the kids had been prepped for days about the importance of this show to me. They'd noted my excitement, they'd asked questions about the show's premise and they dressed quickly and peacefully for bed. I didn't even care if they went to sleep, since Friday they have no school, but I did want silence and for them to stay in their rooms (not that I was dumb enough to tell them that and open the floodgates)

Either way it was two plus hours of hell. This is what a typical minute of that time was like:

* YaYa, with that evil sparkle in her eyes, claiming innocence and victimhood and declaring - with a straight face and calm pulse no less - that the other kids were interrupting her attempts to sleep.

* LuLu, ever the tattle-tale of the trio, reporting every slight, large and small, and crying because a) her cheerleader doll had 'ugly' bangs b) her cheerleader doll was dirty c) she wanted her cheerleaders audio shut off d) the blanket was the wrong one e) YaYa took the good spot f) Smiley was annoying her

* Smiley, the devil fully at work in his two year old body, running back and forth upstairs so hard that the chandelier shook in the dining room and just plain wiping out the entire second floor by throwing the contents of drawers and closets willy-nilly. It will take an hour to put it back together tomorrow.

No threat, no punishment, no coercion could stop the madness. It went on and on and on for the length of the show and more . . it is truly a miracle that I managed to choke it down and not lose my cool completely.

The most horrifying part is that they dang near killed Smiley. The girls were sick of him tossing things at them soYaYa tied a jump rope to a doorknob and the other end AROUND HIS NECK as a 'doggy leash'. It was nothing short of parental instinct that caused me to respond to his cries, since they were no more or less urgent than any of the other thousand noises from upstairs.

I went up to find him straining with all his might to extend the reach of the rope - and tightening it around his neck with every step.

My Lord!

The kicker: the baby, the dreaded and disliked resident of this house during her recent attempts to cut her teeth, was quiet and peaceful the whole time.

But, lest you think that 'perfection' escaped Nostalgic Avenue completely this evening  . . the girls came downstairs together and, very sincere, presented me a present (a tissue box with wrapping paper inside and a ribbon around it) and said "We're sorry for ruining your show Daddy". Then they hugged me, went upstairs, and for the last hour it's been a calm and relaxed household.

Take that, naysayers.

Of course, then I realized the tissue box had been full a few hours before . . .

Tags: LuLu, Lost, Smiley, YaYa, Baby

The Tet Offensive - 40 years later

Forty years ago today, following on the heels of premature attacks the day before, the infamous Tet Offensive began with co-coordinated strikes across South Vietnam.

From a military standpoint it was a blessing in disguise for the South, as in hindsight both sides agree the attack was a military disaster for the Communists.

It inspired no general uprising against Saigon - on the contrary, it inspired a wave of anti-VC sentiment. It did not lead to the disintegration of the ARVN (South Vietnamese forces); they fought some of their most successful actions during Tet. Casualties were high, virtually eliminating the Viet Cong as a military force and morphing the action from a perceived civil war into a blatant inter-nation conflict as the North was forced to assume the brunt of combat duties.

Of course, the perception was that the North was alarmingly successful, and in all things perception is 80% of the battle. The media and the American public came to the conclusion the war was a quagmire and, right or wrong, that victory was not possible.

It was the beginning of the end, for both American involvement and the nation of South Vietnam.

My father was there with the Air Force, stationed at Phu Cat airbase. From my understanding he arrived in-country not long before the attack and spent the majority of the next few weeks helping supply Khe Sanh.

On admittedly short notice I asked him to compile a few memories of his experiences. He has yet to get back to me, but when/if he does I’ll post it here, in this entry, and I’ll let folks know of its arrival via a quick new entry.

The anniversary of the attack garnered no media attention that I saw, heard, or read, not even a mention on Refdesk.

I suppose as a nation we don’t feel the need to look backwards or dwell on the past, and dredging up memories of Vietnam probably isn’t very popular in light of our involvement in Iraq. Besides, I doubt the media is eager to admit they altered the course of history by abandoning their role as objective or reasoned observers. Best all around to forget.

Well, I remembered. And to all the servicemen, US, ARVN, Australian and ROK, who held the line and turned back the Offensive, granting South Vietnam seven more years of precious freedom, . . . Thank you. Your sacrifice, even in light of Saigon’s fall, was valuable and honorable.

Again, thank you.

Tags: Tet Offensive, Phu Cat, Khe Sanh, ARVN, ROK, Vietnam

J-Land Photo Shoot #127

I enjoyed last weeks contest, so here's another entry in Sometime's I Thinks J-Land Photo Shoot.

The subject this week is OLD.

This is a picture taken on my first tour of the home I live in now, which was vacant for a number of years. 

The cloth electrical wires and old-school fuses above, when combined with a vastly outdated power supply (to my recollection, less than half the juice that flows into a 'normal' home), were not enough to power a modern fridge or washer.

As a result the house had only an old ringer washer and an icebox. As you can imagine we replaced and updated the electical service.

Now that I look at the link above I realize I've posted this pic before, as part of that tour. So, in the interest of not selling the same item twice, here's a shot of the washer I mentioned (there were actually two in the basement).

* * * *

Tonight Lost returns for Season Four, and let the word spread far and wide: knock on my door, call my phone, Nextel me, or otherwise interrupt the glory of watching my favorite show in HD on a big screen (for the first time) and you will face a wrath unseen since the time of the Pharoahs.

Have a nice day!

Tags: Lost, Photo Shoot, Nostalgic Ave

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A follow up on our efforts w/ AOL Journals

I want to thank everyone who stopped by and supported our efforts to get a save and print option for our Journals.

Just so everyone knows I didn't give up the cause, I sent the following letter to some AOL editors.

"To all AOL Editors:

 

Last week I used my blog to request that AOL give us a means of making our journals a little more permanent, either by creating a ‘save’ feature or a ‘printable’ version of each entry.

 

http://journals.aol.com/slapinions/Slap-Inionscom/entries/2008/01/13/to-all-aol-journalers/2206

 

The entry seemed to hit a nerve in J-Land, since as of this writing nearly a hundred journalers have stopped by to lend their support in the comment section of that post. And small wonder – for most of us our journals are scrapbooks and biographies recording entire years of our life.

 

Each of these journals represents not only a valued customer but a consistent source of ad revenue. Remember, an ad banner runs across every page of an AOL Journal. There are many blogs that post dozens of entries a month and garner hundreds of hits or more- with each visit putting money in AOL’s pocketbook.

 

We ask again that AOL create both a save and a print option for our journals as soon as possible.

 

Thank you,

 

Dan (aka slapinions) and luddie343, hunybea4him, midwestvintage, mutualaide, manda2177, mleighin21st, rebuketheworld, sunnyside46, deshelestraci, irisheyes1929, merry1621, quartrlyfecrysis, oddb0dkins, fowfies, ladymagnolia1963, heavenlybama, helmswondermom, ma24179, jeanno43, maryajacobs5, jibaro6543,sybilsybil45, mariealicejoan, libragem007, redpoppy007, tendernoggle, ora4uk, wwfbison, blazensun, winivere2002, chasferris, gaboatman, thegirlnexdoor77, innxdoor, sylviam4000, easteeleco, southernmush, onemoretina, jhorky, layla44808, preciousone25, slimhawk,lsfp1960, stupidsheetguy, bojgill4375, justplainbill, jckfrstross, shrbrisc, magran42, barbpinion, nelishianatl, sdoscher458, cacklinrosie101, abaleman666, yakima127, kaydeejay5449, rdautumnsage, justaname4me2, bhbner2him, peytonswater, memes121, seraphoflove9001, astoriasand, oldetownephotos, lv2trnscrb, csandhollow, valphish, luvrte66, labdancer51, nightmaremom, jackiepie,aniracj, gehi6, madcobug, adlessor, thebaabee, bgilmore725, monponsett, catslittertray,bookncoffee, pharmolo, specialadyfink, kirkbyj05, edwardssoapy, geocachelinda66, jeanno43, rap4143,jeadie05, scotthlori, kellwitch, chevyz71gurl74, alphawoman1, astaryth,jeannescorsone, fisherkristina, quartrlyfecrysis, gaboatman, abaleman666, kirkbyj05

 

* * *

I wanted to send it to the editors/authors of all the 'editor blogs' located on the AOL Journals homepage (http://journals.aol.com) but the vast majority open to standard web sites, so I was unable to obtain their screenames. Moreover many of the blogs state that they've moved on to .com addresses.

Why AOL editors would choose to blog in a format completely unlike what they offer us is open for debate.

In the end the email went to:

 -----Original Message-----
From: ">slapinions@aol.com
To: JournalsEditor@aol.com Williammorris@aol.com" _nanciymeng@aol.com; leonaoflaherty@aol.com
Sent: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 4:46 pm
Subject: AOL Journals

But as it turns out nancyimeng has changed her email address so I forwarded it on to here new one: nancie.meng@corp.aol.com.

I'm also going to pop on Magic Smoke and copy the email into a comment there.

I'll let you all know what, if anything, I hear.

UPDATE: Mere hours after sending the email, I received this:

Thanks for the email on this!
Would printing to a PDF file be useful?

 ______________________________________________________________________________
William Morris
We've got Community! Try our new People Connection... http://peopleconnection.aol.com

 

Could a solution be on the horizon??

Tags: blogplugs

Crazy Day, a worrisome furnace, a physical and a Big Red Dog

Here's a few pics of the girls as they prepared to depart for school today during Catholic Schools Week.

Today was designated as "Crazy Day" and we took full advantage the opportunity to not hunt and peck for uniforms and matching socks. Not seen in the pics are their mismatched shoes.

 

Smiley got in the act too.

It certainly seemed crazy to be having school in the first place today, with temperatures of -4F,winds of 20 mph, and a wind chill approaching -40F. Many of the Catholic schools in the area are closed - most I think - but ours stays open whenever (Milwaukee) Public Schools give it a go, and so school was in session. Nevermind that MPS is insane and is making thousands of kids wait on bus stops in this weather.

 The wife asked if we should keep the kids home. Heck no, I said - it’s a warm building and a warm meal (we drop them off so there was no bus issue) and that ‘warm building’ was something I couldn’t guarantee here.

You see, at about 5 am I was woken up, in my cozy bedroom on the second floor, by the knock-knock-knocking on my chamber door of my basement furnace.

I headed downstairs thinking of that Dad from A Christmas Story “who closed the damper!"and wondering what magic he had to keep his furnace going. For those who don’t know, my furnace is age-old, certainly older than me.

Me? No clue. So at 6 in the morning I called my friend the Socialist, who said he’d be over in 20 minutes. He arrived promptly and fixed it almost as quickly, lubricating a drive shaft in what he called the ‘squirrel cage’. Maybe, just maybe, we can still hold off on a new furnace until next fall.

Once again Socialist has proved his worth and his loyalty, and I thank him.

 * * * * * *

YaYa and LuLu both had shots yesterday, and YaYa had a comprehensive physical. She weighs 47 pounds and stands 48 inches tall (“You’re almost a square!,” the nurse said) and is in good health.

Her eyesight didn’t come out that great though. It was 20/25 in one eye and 20/40 in the other and she was referred to an eye doctor. Not a big deal, seeing as both her parents wear glasses (I started in 1st grade), but there was some thought she was tanking the test for shi*s and giggles. She’s never shown signs of bad eyesight nor complained about it.

 “Are you sure? Do you have trouble seeing at school?“ my wife asked.

 “No,“ she answered. “Well, sometimes I can’t see the spelling words on the board, but that’s it.”

Oh, well, as long as it’s not affecting something important like your education kid.

 * * *

Lisa ran out of gas on the way home from the physical, and in a bad neighborhood no less, as she missed her original freeway exit. Just wanted my gallant rescue on the record. That’s all. :)

 * * *

I missed A.I. last night but gobbled up four episodes of Family Guy split between several stations. Lisa was laughing because as soon as one episode ended I’d holler “turn on channel 57, Family Guy’s on!”

Sure, I’m doing my usual binge, no doubt followed by a sharp purge in the near future, but for now Family Guy makes me burst out laughing time after time.

Obnoxiously, no less.

Here's a clip of the 'over' sketch from the episode where Stewie and Brian buy a home.

* * *

 I took my measurements on November 11th as my current weight-loss effort started and again last night. Despite a bad week here, the evidence was pretty clear.

 I lost 2 inches in my chest and stomach, an inch in my thighs, a half an inch in my waist, etc.. Last I checked I weighed in at 342, down maybe 30 from my 2007 highpoint.

 I can’t see the difference, although my clothes no longer feel like a girdle. The trick is to keepup the effort and push forward.

 * * *

Re: Clifford the Big Red Dog “Clifford grew so big the Howards’ had to leave their home . . “. That’d be the f*ing day.

Tags: YaYa, LuLu, furnace, Socialist

Some Shots of Lauren

 

Here's some pics of Lauren. For some reason the photo program would remove the red-eye on some pics but not others; if I ever have time I'll try to touch them up in the future. I love the last pic, by the way :)

Whoa, Nellie that's a big head! Mine, I mean, not the baby's.

 

Tags: Baby

Three shots of our living room and a chance to show off some of my wife's work

First, a little before and after. Before, circa Jan-Feb of 2007:

And then in September of the same year. Granted, it's mainly cosmetic (except the floors) but impressive all the same.

The painting above the fireplace was done by my wife. She has an impressive knack for the visual arts/crafts/decorating/party-planning. I have none of her skills in that area, but I have her on one point: she has no imagination for stories or make-believe. I'm serious. If you erased all stories from human memory and assigned her, and her alone, to get the ball rolling and come up with a story . well, better luck having me design a prom dress.

Here's another project of hers I find very impressive. She took an old painting we purchased at a yard sale and covered it with four squares of hand-selected fabric. I've always felt this rocked and that is was an imaginative improvement over the original painting.

[Note: I'm sorry the picture leaves a little to be desired. I just dashed upstairs to take the shot (it's 12:49am), flicked on the light, took the photo and dashed out before I woke up my wife. No time to orchestrate a great shot}

Tags: Nostalgia Avenue

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Where's an editor when you need one?

From an AP article on the 2008 State of the Union address, written by Terence Hunt. The emphasis is my own:

"Bush made only one mention of Osama bin Laden, who remains at large more than seven years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 . . . "

Bear in mind that the last time I checked it was January 27th of 2008, nearly 8 months shy of the attack's seventh anniversary.

My intention here isn't political, and I know mistakes happen. I just find it amusing that an elementary school math error could slip past a professional journalist and his various editors.

My Wife's Artwork for Catholic School's Week 2008

Catholic Schools Week begins Monday and my wife, as room mother for both of my daughters' classes, had the responsiblity of decorating their classroom doors. She had to make sure to work in the theme of  "Catholic Schools Light The Way"

Here's LuLu's door:

Each of the paper dolls is dressed in 'clothing' crafted from fabric scraps my sister Katie donated to Lisa. They each also hold a candle in their hands to 'light the way' - the candle being a string of white battery-operated christmas lights Lisa bought for the project.

YaYa's door features an idea I came up with, the use of fireflies:

Because this one was in some part my idea, in concept if not execution, I include a second photo.

Each of the fireflies features one of the before-mentioned lights on their behind.

A heck of a job - kudo's to the Mrs. Here's hoping the kids remember some of what she did for them years down the road.

Tags: Lisa, art

OMG! (and please excuse all the !'s)

THIS IS NOT A JOKE

Woohoo!

People magazine's online edition is reporting a reunion of the New Kids on the Block, the seminal boy-band of the late '80's - early '90's!

Long time readers will recall that my wife and I have nearly 30  videotapes chock full of concerts and news footage of the band, and we have a trunk in storage jam-packed with everything from NKOTB slippers to trading cards to marbles and lunchboxes.

We even spent the turn-of-the-millenium in Boston at a Joey McIntyre concert. Hey I know it sounds odd, but my wife was a super fan and what the heck - they grew on me.

Who says you can't love Zeppelin and New Kids on the Block?

Man, what great news!

Here's the complete text of the article:

After months of speculation and rumor, the Kids are coming back. A well-placed source tells PEOPLE exclusively that New Kids On The Block are indeed getting back together.

The band's Web site, www.nkotb.com, which had been dormant, is now back up and running in anticipation of the official announcement, which the source says will be made in the next few weeks.

The site currently features a television graphic with a fuzzy, flickering photos of NKOTB in their heyday, and a link inviting fans to sign up for info.

The boy band, which made legions of tweens swoon in the early '90s, selling more than 50 million albums, became a worldwide phenomenon before calling it quits in 1994.

Eighteen years later, they're still "Hangin' Tough." The oldest "Kid," Jonathan Knight, now a real estate developer, will turn 40 later this year. Since the band's demise, former members Donnie Wahlberg, 38, and Joey McIntyre, 35, have seen acting success, while Danny Wood, 38, has worked as a music producer and Knight's brother, Jordan, 37, has continued to record.

Tags: NKTOB, New Kids on the Block, Donnie Wahlberg, Joey Mcintyre, Danny Wood, Jordan Knight, Jonathon Knight

Jackson Browne, Eddie Vedder, My Mother-In-Law and the Glory of Working Speakers

A major triumph last night.

[note: don't let the length of the post scare you off - 80% of this post is composed of lyrics that you may read or skip at your leisure]

After months without a working printer or speakers I managed to install our printer/fax/copier/scanner/refrigerator/bidet on our computer in less than three minutes. Who knows why I failed so many other times.

Then I attacked the sound on our computer. In the fall Lisa had stepped on the control unit for our speakers, rendering them useless. Subsequent efforts to install a working unit failed and we've been deaf for months.

[You know, most of the time when we had sound I'd have the volume on 'mute' and not give a dang, but the minute it was taken away it seemed every day there was a different song or video that we couldn't enjoy.]

So I figured out that we were missing a driver (thank you medion.usa.com!) and thought I had it solved.

No sound.

I went to bed, I went to work, I came home and had the computer freeze, restarted it . . and a few minutes later AOL belted out "Welcome! You've got mail!"

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog! I'd forgotten to reboot to finalize the fix!

* * * * *

So I've been enjoying quite a bit of misc. noise online tonight . One of these is Jackson Browne's The Pretender, a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law.

She was quick to point out that the song didn't mean what she originally thought it did. It was intended as a song that empathized with my life, with work on one hand and a full family life on the other and not so much as a spare moment in between.

The song does that, but I think you'll agree there's a whole lot of resentment and regret and pity to go along with it, none of which applies to me. Here's the lyrics:

I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it's the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again
Amen

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight

I'm going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams
And then we'll put out dark glasses on
And we'll make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
We'll get up and do it again
Get it up again

I'm going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

 

I certainly appreciated her effort to find the song (even calling a DJ for the name). And besides, her daughter had once famously made the same mistake. Lisa once lovingly told me that the Pearl Jam song Betterman (my favorite) reminded her of me.

Fine and dandy, except that it's a song about a woman who wishes she had a better man.

Oopsie.

* * * *

Speaking of PJ, here's a video of Eddie Vedder's solo efforts on the Into the Wild soundtrack.

The song is Hard Sun. I heard it on a local station and quickly fell in love with it. I certainly wouldn't mind getting a copy for my birthday in March.

When I walk beside her
I am the better man
When I look to leave her
I always stagger back again

Once I built an Ivory Tower
So I could worshi from above
When I climb down to be set free
She took me in again


CHORUS:
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In a big hard world


When she comes to greet me
She is mercy at my feet
When I see her pin her charm
She just throws it back at me

Once I dug an early grave
To find a better land
She just smiled and laughed at me
And took her bruise back again


There's a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In a big hard world

There's a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In a big hard world


When I go across that river
She is comfort by my side
When I try to understand
She just opens up her hands


There's a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In a big hard world


Once I stood to lose her
When I saw what I had done
Bound down and flew away the hours
Of her garden and her sun

So I tried to warn her
I turned to see her weep
Forty days and forty nights
And it's still coming down on me


There's a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In a big hard world

There's a big
A big hard sun
Beating on the big people
In a big hard world

(Repeat chorus 6x, fading out)

Tags: Jackson Browne, Medion, Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder

I need help with the About Me section

Ok, I need some help. After three years and change on AOL Journals, you'd think I'd remember a thing or two.

Apparently not.

I'm trying to update my 'about me' section. I'd like to add some graphics there, graphics that link to another site.

Namely this one:

I added the picture via the handy 'camera' icon and then hit the 'globe' and tried making it a link to the site in question (as that site had recommended, actually).

No go.

I also tried adding a smidge of HTML into the About Me to 'create' a banner, but I can't remember how to do that at all.

This is doubly important because I am waiting for the arrival of a new masthead (or what I guess is a 'tag', although that term is new to me; either way it's the thing at the start of each of my entries) and a sidebar graphic with updated pics.

I warn you in advance - should you submit some advice and it fails to work, I might email a follow up question or two.

Thanks!

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J-Land Photo Shoot #126

On a lark I decided to jump in and participate in the weekly photo shoot over at Sometimes I Think.

This weeks' subject: Black and White.

I had originally intended to contrast the beauty of our recent snowfalls with the dirt, grime, and salt that quickly turns the side of the road into a dark slushy mess.

But in reality that's more brown than black, so no-go.

As it turns out I think I like this shot better, although I admit it's nothing fancy. 

Speaking of snow, we followed that wonderful -7 (F) weather with a good six to seven inch snowstorm the next day. It was a pretty odd brand of snow, very loose and almost artificial. I remember thinking as I shoveled out our parking slab that it seemed to be composed of thousands of tiny individual balls - like a Willy Wonka-ish blizzard of Dippin' Dots.

                        

Of course, gimmicky or not, it didn't make digging out any more fun that it's been for the other three feet of snow we've had this winter. And as always I wonder- my ancestors leave central Europe, travel halfway around the world . . and stop here. Why???

Tags: JLand Photo Shoot, Snow

Heath Ledger, Fred Thompson, and Courtney Love (but not in that order)

It's hard to imagine just how shocked I was when a "News at 10" promo came on and casually announced the death of actor Heath Ledger.

I wouldn't describe myself as a 'fan' - I don't think I can say that about any current actor, except perhaps Tom Hanks - but I respected Ledger and his work.

He was charming in '10 Things I Hate About You', cheerfully anachronistic in "Knights Tale" and his performance in 'Brokeback Mountain' was as near to a complete transformation as an actor will ever accomplish.

When you saw his name attached to a movie you walked in with high expectations, and his death, by whatever means it came,was a waste of true talent and ability.

He will be missed

* * * *

Ledger's death took a lot of the wind out of my sails. Earlier in the day I was irate about an article about Courtney Love that I saw online - angry enough to bend my wife's ear while she was on break at work.

She patiently told me I was getting worked up over nothing, that Love had every right to do what she did, and that I should give her the benefit of the doubt.

Translation: Kurt Cobain is long dead, get over it, and please don't call me at work to rant about his widow.

She has a point.

Then again, so do I. Love has announced the go-ahead of a feature film of Kurt Cobain's life, based on Charles R. Cross' bio Heavier than Heaven.

I'm not a big fan of the book and frankly, [full disclosure] couldn't read it cover to cover. To me it just seemed to be a book-length gossip rag supported by, and perhaps catering to, Courtney's version of events. There's a lot of items that come out of left field that are unsubstantiated and seem designed to sell copies.

And of course, the book ends with an infamous narrative of Kurt's last moments that openly incorporates fiction and guesswork - 'New journalism' perhaps, but piss poor history.

[Here's a few comprehensive objections to the book. I agree with some and find others as odd as some sections of the book.]

So I'm naturally leery of any feature film based on the book, especially when Love's people call the movie "an accurate, credible glimpse of her life with Kurt" and a "labor of love".

Credible, huh? Then why ask Scarlett Johansson to play you in the film?

Courtney was always hot in that bad girl/crack addict kind of way, but for Johansonn to pull it off she'll have to do more work than Charlize Theron did for Monster. 

All grumbling aside, I'll see the movie. How could I not?

* * * *

By the way, here's a pic of Kurt's daughter Frances Bean, who was about a year and a half when he died. Man, we're all getting old.

* * *

In politics, Fred Thompson gave up the ghost (oh, poor choice of words given the rest of this post) and dropped out of the race. So much for my friends theory that he was simply laying low until voter fatigue set in for the other candidates.

I watched some of the Democratic debate last night. They'd best be careful. You have to fight tooth and nail in the primaries, but if you rip the competition too effectively you eliminate any reasonable chance of being a plausible VP, and perhaps more importantly on a grand scale, how can anyone buy your future support for the nominee in the general election?

Tags: Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain, Frances Bean Cobain, Courtney Love, Fred Thompson

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