Some days it's not worth chewing through the leather straps

When Doc interviewed me , I mentioned that I would do a post on the places I visited in the Navy. Well, I forgot about it until now (sorry Doc) and put together a list of places and rememberences from foggy memory and an album I found in the basement. Here we go: My first ship was a Destroyer home ported out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the USS Morton. This is where I left for my first deployment to WestPac (Western Pacific). Olongapo City, Philippines - Nastiest city in the world. You cross over a bridge walking into the city that goes over the Olongapo river, which is in effect one large open sewer. Subic Bay, Philippines - US Naval base in the Philippines which has since been abandoned and turned back over to the Philippine government. Kaohsiung, Taiwan - No laws about copywrited material, I bought about 50 albums that were recordings of big name groups that were direct copies of US albums, or recordings of live concerts. They make their own album art, and translate the lyrics wit...

CMU professor gives his last lesson on life "If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you." Wednesday, September 19, 2007 By Mark Roth, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Read the story here . It really is something...

The view out my front door, great colors !

Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on By Simon Rabinovitch Fri Sep 21, 10:57 AM ET About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the Internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary . Bumble-bee is now bumblebee, ice-cream is ice cream and pot-belly is pot belly. And if you've got a problem, don't be such a crybaby (formerly cry-baby). The hyphen has been squeezed as informal ways of communicating, honed in text messages and emails, spread on Web sites and seep into newspapers and books. "People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they're not really sure what they are for," said Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, the sixth edition of which was published this week. Another factor in the hyphen's demise is designers' distaste for its ungainly horizontal bulk between words. "Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and Web sites, a...

From AP, via Comcast news: Bush: Kids' Health Care Will Get Vetoed By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - President Bush again called Democrats "irresponsible" on Saturday for pushing an expansion he opposes to a children's health insurance program. This brought to you by Mr Responsible himself... How many billions have you dumped into Iraq? "Democrats in Congress have decided to pass a bill they know will be vetoed," Bush said of the measure that draws significant bipartisan support, repeating in his weekly radio address an accusation he made earlier in the week. "Members of Congress are risking health coverage for poor children purely to make a political point." At issue is the Children's Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program that subsidizes health coverage for low-income people, mostly children, in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private coverage. It expires Sept. 30....

{Edited after the interview} Damn! I am really pissed about how the interview turned out! Two hours of talking to Jenni, and she was reduced to a couple of answers to interview questions. And, no mention of her book! Come on, help a girl out! But, we get 5 promos that the presidents little drunken girl Jenna has written a book... WTF? {end rant} Tonight is the interview of our friend and music therapist Jenni! Here is her email note to us: Hello All, This is an almost famous, less than fifteen minutes of fame announcement..... On Friday, September 21, I will be on 20/20. I was interviewed back in August for a show they are doing on "Difficult Decisions". They found me because of my book, and interviewed me as a part of a segment on the difficult decision to participate in homosexual reparative therapy. After my interview, Steve agreed to be interviewed as well. They came to Denver for his interview and interviewed the two of us together for a short time. The producer gav...

Except perhaps feeding him to his own dogs...

I received this story from Chicken Soup the other day. I have seen it before, and have heard of similar stories of couples (usually older) that have passed away close to each other. Here is the story: The Promise By Thomas F. Crum One evening I found myself at a conference in Washington, D.C. And as fate would have it, Bucky Fuller happened to be making a presentation that evening at another conference in the very same hotel. I got to the ballroom in time to hear the end of Bucky’s lecture. I was in awe of this little man in his eighties, with his clear mind, deep wisdom and boundless energy. At the end of the talk, we walked together through the underground parking lot to his airport limousine. “I’ve got to go to New York City tonight for another presentation,” he said, looking at me with an anxiousness that I had rarely seen in Bucky. “You know, Annie’s not doing well. I’m very concerned about her.” We hugged. Bucky Fuller had once confided to me that he had promised his wife ...

From The Joy of Tech:

From Ananova, the online news over in the UK comes this wonderful story: Couple divorce after online 'affair' A Bosnian couple are getting divorced after finding out they had been secretly chatting each other up online under fake names. Sana Klaric, 27, and husband Adnan, 32, from Zenica, poured out their hearts to each other over their marriage troubles, and both felt they had found their real soul mate. The couple met on an online chat forum while he was at work and she in an internet cafe, and started chatting under the names Sweetie and Prince of Joy. They eventually decided to meet up - but there was no happy ending when they realised what had happened. Now they are both filing for divorce - with each accusing the other of being unfaithful. Sana said: "I thought I had found the love of my life. The way this Prince of Joy spoke to me, the things he wrote, the tenderness in every expression was something I had never had in my marriage. "It was amazing, we seemed to...

Yesterday we took Skyler back to Childrens Hospital for a re-check of the G-Tube that was placed in his stomach last June. The doctor said she thought he looked like he had a fuller face since last time she saw him, and the additional feedings are doing their job. He has put on 11 pounds, well on our way to the mandatory 15 pounds before his spine surgery in November. She said that the original one was probably a little small now and that we should put in a larger size since he has put on weight. Then she looked at me and asked if I wanted to do it! I said sure, cause I like gross stuff like that. It really is a pretty simple procedure. You deflate the ball inside the stomach that holds the tube in place, pull out the old one, clean up the area, stick in the new one, inflate the ball again. Presto-chango, new feeding tube in place!

Some hits from the far Side desk calendar!

A little something for the weekend, courtesy of my friend Tim!

Kristi and Zed have both had posts recently about corporate gibberish, buzzwords, and phrases that make you want to reach down the speakers throat and show them their still-beating heart to them before they die! OK, so I got carried away, but they both had posts like the following cartoon from the always right on Scott Adams.

Doc interviews my and makes me do some thinkin... You are off my Christmas card list mister! :^) 1. You have a quirky sense of humor. What are the kinds of things make you laugh long, hard, and repeatedly? What I find funny quite often depends on what mood I am in. I am a big fan of stand up comedians, and I really enjoy the ones who are fresh, not giving me the same old "what's the deal with that airline food" stuff. If the comedian can make me laugh without resorting to swearing, big kudos to them! Also, I love silliness as in movies like Airplane and Caddy Shack. I can watch both of those over and over and always find humor there. I also like physical humor, Chevt Chase in the old days of SNL was brilliant at that. 2. You spent some time in the Navy. What was your funniest experience as a member of the armed services? Did you spend long months at sea, or were you stationed at a base for most of your hitch? I was in the Navy for 4 years, stationed aboard two diffe...

From Mad TV, I thought this was funny as hell. Terminator & Jesus - The most amazing home videos are here

The artist formerly known as Dirty Laundry requested an interview, and who am I to refuse such an offer? Check it out here!

I've never had my car stolen, but I don't think it would go down like this. Stolen Car

Doc asked to be interviewed, and who can resist someone who likes beer? Check out the exchange over at his place . Chris mentioned I was the next Barbara Walters, but I neglected to ask Doc what kind of tree he would be... Oh well, maybe next time. Thanks a lot Doc, it was fun!

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh. You may end up insane, but you'll have fun on the way to the asylum. Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

At the end of the season, just before they close the Seacrest pool, they have a tradition of letting dog owners bring in their pooches for the last day. We have been going for quite a while, and this is today's fun. It was pure pandemonium! The boys: Kathy, Hootie, and Yordi: Hootie the diver: I climbed up on the slide for a few more pics: Poor quality videos of the pool from my camera, sorry:

Should I be concerned that I have seen every stinkin one of these vids out there on the internets... Internet People - Watch more free videos

The always excellent Flannery Alden has agreed to be interviewed by me. This is somewhat like Forrest Gump interviewing Shakespeare, and she was kind enough not to point out my ridiculous questions! And get this - she promises a photo of the new "do"! So go check out the exchange here!

This is how I intend to go out... How to Cope with Death via Koreus

Samuel comes back to pee wee football, and whoever did the voice of the NFL (John Facenda) nailed it!

These past couple of Tuesday evenings I have caught a show on ABC called iCAUGHT (no pun intended). I saw an ad for it and it sounded kind of interesting to me. It is about the video revolution going on around us, how often we are all caught on video, and how the distinction between TV and internet video is blurring. Some of it is a bit lame, they have to assume that the folks out bumfuck Missouri aren't up on those internets yet, but there are some good stories as well. The show synopsis is here . To me, the best part of the show, and what I am writing all of you about, comes at the end. The host, Bill Weir, asked everyone watching to send in 3 words. Just 3 words about their life, whatever, and the put together a montage that was amazingly moving to me. There are 2 of these montages posted here , do yourself a favor and watch them. Let me know if they affect you also, or if my emotions are just running a bit too close to the surface. Then leave a comment in 3 words! Here are 3...

A lady in Cuero, Texas thinks she might have found the body of the legendary, bloodsucking Chupacabra. Phylis Canion found the body last month outside her ranch, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin. Know what I think it is? I think it's the legendary father of Sam, winner of the worlds ugliest dog contest!