Figment Honey Toasted Almond Gelato?

From the James Webb Space Telescope- a cluster of an estimated 500 million stars in the Andromeda Galaxy.

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If anyone isn't sure what to get me for Christmas, look no further than this Nosferatu candle holder. (I'm also accepting Halloween presents.)

October 6, 2024

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I was walking to school with Gretel and we heard a crazy person ranting:

"There are Russian spies everywhere, even in the highest level of the US government! That's your lead, print that! People in THIS family won't stand for it! Thus saith the Lord!"

Now here's the thing, I buried my own lead, this guy was ranting from... inside of a porta-potty. That kind of undercuts any integrity his message might have had.

I told Gretel to be quiet so I could listen. She said it was coming from a TV. I said, "No, there's a crazy person in the porta-potty." She put her head down and started walking faster.

She asked me if they were Russian spies in our government. I said there might be, but even if there are, I don't think that guy knows it. 

Once we were well past him I heard the porta-potty door shut and I told Gretel to stop so I could get a look at the guy. I casually look back and whispered to her, "That's the guy."

She pointed, and said, "Him?"

"Don't point!"

She has a lot to learn if she's ever going to be a Russian spy.

October 6, 2023

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From Uncharted Lancaster:

Founded in 1846, Lancaster Cemetery is home to the wandering ghost of Augusta Bitner. Legend holds this young woman died on her wedding day when she tumbled down the steps after tripping on her gown. Her granite statue is said to roam the cemetery at night.

https://unchartedlancaster.com/2021/10/06/haunted-lancaster-the-sad-tale-of-augusta-bitner-and-her-wandering-statue-in-lancaster-cemetery/

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The Guardian- Banksy auction stunt leaves art world in shreds

“This is now part of art history in its shredded state and we’d estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% to its value, possibly as high as being worth £2m plus.”

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/06/banksy-sothebys-auction-prank-leaves-art-world-in-shreds-girl-with-balloon

October 6, 2018

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If I was undecided, or not even sure I was going to vote, I'd compare this with what Trump has on his campaign website for the future. (He has nothing for the future, and maybe that's by design. Maybe he knows something we don't know.)

October 6, 2020

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Remember when Trump said that he would have stormed into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to protect the kids? I didn't believe him, but I believe he'd storm into it today without a mask.

October 6, 2020

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Let's think about the symbolism of last night's Mr. President Pageant at the White House IF he left his mask on, after getting back from the hospital. 

-I'm okay, but be caution.

-I want to protect everybody that I'm near.

-Wear your masks.

Now think about how incompetently he handled it. 

-Reinforced the fact he wants to downplay the severity, which he already admitted to but people still don't believe. 

-Sent the message to tens of millions of people to not be afraid, which a significant percentage will inevitably translate into a lack of caution, automatically ensuring that people will die who would not have. 

-He wanted to present an image of strength, but he stood there huffing and puffing, which we wouldn't have ever seen if he left his mask on.

Compare his intent of looking like a tough guy with how he actually looked- weak, dumb and bullheaded. This highlights his incompetence.

Newsflash- he cares about his image above everything, including public health. Wait, what's the opposite of a newsflash? We've know this since the beginning- image above basic competence. We've known this for decades.

The rest of the world hasn't fallen for it either, he's a joke to them. The disease is not a joke, and they feel bad for us, but he is a joke. Look at how all of their leaders have handled this. In a word, seriously. They care about people not catching Covid-19, verses trying to look tough after they have caught it, and the results show.

He's never bought into the fact that the country need a president who will win the talent portion of this pageant. He's always been too focused on looks, the image. Anyway you look at it, if he left his mask on he would have been more likely to win.

October 6, 2020

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I've been re-watching Breaking Bad for the last few days to get ready for the new movie coming out. I forgot the details surrounding that guy Walt had to kill down in the basement, Crazy 8. I had a recurring nightmare last night, one in which I realize I killed somebody previously and the cops are on my trail. I know that they're inevitably going to find me out, and I have to remember all the lies I told and try to think ahead of them. I wake up every time so thankful it's not true. It feels so real though, that every time I have that dream for a few days I'm still wondering in the back of my mind if I really did it. (I didn't.)

October 6, 2019

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People who insinuate that Christine Blasey Ford should have kept her mouth shut always have the option to take their own advice.

October 6, 2018

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Interviewed a guy today, along with our HR supervisor. The two of them start talking about their military experience and I realize I'm the only guy in the room wearing camo.

October 6, 2017

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My fig honey toasted almond gelato is gone, but it will live forever in my dreams. I will look back and wonder if it ever actually existed, or if I made the whole thing up.

October 6, 2015

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Looks like it must have hurt.

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Once in awhile us mere mortals are visited by the gods.

October 6, 2010

Postscript: Halladay's post-season no-hitter.

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Carole Lombard joined us on this day in 1908...

and Bette Davis left us on this day in 1989.

The second picture was taken the year of her death. What an icon.

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John McWhorter was born on this day in 1965. For my money, the most reasonable voice on race relations. And he wrote an entire book on swear words!

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Gorilla Monsoon left us on this day in 1999. Hands down, the best name in all of professional wrestling.

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Buck O'Neil left us on this day in 2006. He was the living embodiment of baseball. I could watch all 18 hours of Ken Burns' Baseball tonight, just for his parts. 

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson left us on this day in 1892. His poem, In Memoriam A.H.H.:

https://poets.org/poem/memoriam-h-h

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Tod Browning left us on this day in 1962. Gobble gobble.

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The Future of Storytelling- Paul Zak

By measuring chemicals made by the brain in response to stories highlighting empathy, researchers could predict with 80% accuracy whether or not someone would donate to charity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHeqQAKHh3M

October 6, 2012

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Daily Beast- Bill Maher 1, Ben Affleck 0

Should we accept multiculturalism when it's at the expense of individual's human rights? Short answer, no. For a longer answer, here's a good article.

http://t.co/NHTkhkKI0H

October 6, 2014

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If Citizen Kane isn't still #1, I'll eat Herzog's shoe. Not my top favorite film, but my vote for the best. Fresh and modern every time you watch it. Vertigo? A fine film, but a bit of a bore. The days these lists are unveiled are holy to me.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-citizen-kane-stay-no-1-afis-list-100-best-movies-1045408?facebook_20171006

October 6, 2017

Postscript: Alert Herzog.

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Stephen King, Duma Key- "If I kept saying it; if I kept reaching out. My accident really taught me just one thing: the only way to go on is to go on. To say 'I can do this' even when you know you can't."

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Confucius, somehow plagiarizing Socrates, before Socrates was born- "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."

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Groucho Marx- "Room service? Send up a larger room."

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Diderot- "A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced."

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Parmenides- "Change is an illusion." 

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Michel de Montaigne- "Democritus and Heraclitus were two philosophers, of whom the first, finding the condition of man vain and ridiculous, never went out in public but with a mocking and laughing face; whereas Heraclitus, having pity and compassion on this same condition of ours, wore a face perpetually sad, and eyes filled with tears. I prefer the first humor; not because it is pleasanter to laugh than to weep, but because it is more disdainful, and condemns us more than the other; and it seems to me that we can never be despised as much as we deserve. Pity and commiseration are mingled with some esteem for the thing we pity; the things we laugh at we consider worthless. I do not think there is as much unhappiness in us as vanity, nor as much malice as stupidity. We are not so full of evil as of inanity; we are not as wretched as we are worthless."

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Sigmund Freud, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis- "It is a predisposition of human nature to consider an unpleasant idea untrue, and then it is easy to find arguments against it."

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Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life- "Man is said to be a reasoning animal. I do not know why he has not been defined as an affective or feeling animal. Perhaps that which differentiates him from other animals is feeling rather than reason. More often I have seen a cat reason than laugh or weep. Perhaps it weeps or laughs inwardly — but then perhaps, also inwardly, the crab resolves equations of the second degree."

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Gore Vidal- "You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because there's too much going on that you can't take into account. You can, however, write a perfect sentence now and then. I have."

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Rodney Dangerfield:

I told my wife the truth. I told her I was seeing a psychiatrist. Then she told me the truth: that she was seeing a psychiatrist, two plumbers, and a bartender.

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My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it.

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My uncle’s dying wish – he wanted me on his lap. He was in the electric chair.

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