Holding My Own Tongue...
If you stopped by here before about 8:30 this morning you were subjected to a less than polite rant I had composed in a moment of self serving weakness--talking in a less than flattering manner about some of my fellow "artists" I was forced to hang around with on St. Simons Island.
Upon reconsideration I came back and took it down...thus the apparent lack of posting today.
It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I try my best these days to say something at least a little positive. Thus bitching about the ingrates and morons in the artists guilds of our little island (there I go again) is counter productive because I don't live there anymore and I can do nothing to change them and their behavior toward one another.
Any way, a jurried Exhibit/competition I was planning on entering this year has been postponed if not cancelled due to lack of funding and some other "issues" and since I have a good deal of time and money already invested in a piece of art I was planning on entering ( and which I don't need hanging on the wall in my dining room) I'm more than a little pissed at the lack of artistic outlets I've participated in in the past two years.
There was a few years there when I did two or three shows a year and won stuff or at least got an honorable mention, and these days I just sit around looking like a big old over weight middle aged artistic has-been talking about the good old days when no one knew me except in the bars and taverns and whispered "that guy drinks and paints but he's not a professional house painter..."
Now I still drink and I've recently done some house painting but I don't do new watercolors, I've stopped sculpting in clay, and my pen and ink work has been relegated to the checkbook and the balance sheet doing taxes.
What is this world coming to anyway?
Friday, May 08, 2009
Thursday, May 07, 2009
The New Phonebook's Phone's Here!
21st Century Portable Dialing...
The past couple of days have been sort of interesting.
We went out and had Sushi to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Nothing wrong with our local Mexicans (all twenty of them here in Knoxtown) and the local Mexican Restaurant, but it's always nice to "dis" the invading immigrant nation of "undocumented workers" by doing something weird like eating Japanese food on their independence day.
Before that the new LG Dare touch screen cell phones arrived. We tore into the boxes and fiddled around with the bells and whistles for a couple of hours and then got back to work on the bathroom rennovation. (Paint is done on the walls, ceiling, and refinished vanity/wall cabinet--regrouting of the wall and floor tile in progress)
After living with them (the phones) about 48 hours I have to say they're pretty impressive.
Large bright screens with vibrant colors, and an interesting tactile feedback when you touch the screen to push a key...the phone actually vibrates slightly to tell you that you made an entry or input.
Of course it has a whole bunch of music capability and game crap on it which will probably end up being a distraction in the end, but the ability to check my E-mail and browse an occasional web page on the fly, not to mention getting local weather and radar pictures is totally AWESOME.
Pat has a 250 message per month account so she can send pictures of the Turbo Pup to everyone and receive pictures of the Grandkids and other family members new babies, and I threaten anyone and everyone that wants to send me a text message with me coming over to your house and peeing on your front door for wasting my time.
You want to talk to me...you call me.
If I want to talk to you, I'll answer the phone (or call you.)
After spending $200 per month on Cable/Internet/Cell Phones...it should all be...
Pretty Simple
No?
The past couple of days have been sort of interesting.
We went out and had Sushi to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Nothing wrong with our local Mexicans (all twenty of them here in Knoxtown) and the local Mexican Restaurant, but it's always nice to "dis" the invading immigrant nation of "undocumented workers" by doing something weird like eating Japanese food on their independence day.
Before that the new LG Dare touch screen cell phones arrived. We tore into the boxes and fiddled around with the bells and whistles for a couple of hours and then got back to work on the bathroom rennovation. (Paint is done on the walls, ceiling, and refinished vanity/wall cabinet--regrouting of the wall and floor tile in progress)
After living with them (the phones) about 48 hours I have to say they're pretty impressive.
Large bright screens with vibrant colors, and an interesting tactile feedback when you touch the screen to push a key...the phone actually vibrates slightly to tell you that you made an entry or input.
Of course it has a whole bunch of music capability and game crap on it which will probably end up being a distraction in the end, but the ability to check my E-mail and browse an occasional web page on the fly, not to mention getting local weather and radar pictures is totally AWESOME.
Pat has a 250 message per month account so she can send pictures of the Turbo Pup to everyone and receive pictures of the Grandkids and other family members new babies, and I threaten anyone and everyone that wants to send me a text message with me coming over to your house and peeing on your front door for wasting my time.
You want to talk to me...you call me.
If I want to talk to you, I'll answer the phone (or call you.)
After spending $200 per month on Cable/Internet/Cell Phones...it should all be...
Pretty Simple
No?
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Novel Synthesis of difunctional halo organo noncarbon Group IV main group element amides
Ah ah ahhhhHHHHH aHHHHHHHH ahhhh AHHHHHHHHHH
"...help me.... I'm My Brain is meltttttinnnnngggg...."
"...help me....
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
And Then There Was One One Third
A Shadow Of The Ones That Went Before Me...
From late 1959 until 1980 there were three men running around on this planet, with the same lineage, sharing the name Virgil Raymond Rogers.
The Senior Virgil was born in Kentucky in 1912 and passed away way too young at the age of 68.
Virgil Jr., my father, made it from 1932 until this day, May 5th in the year 1996 when he succumbed to Scleroderma after a short illness at the age of 63.
I, Virgil III, as of about 9 AM Eastern standard time this morning will have lived for 13 years since my beloved Dad's passing, and doing the math I see by coming up on age 50 myself this year that based on my history I'll be lucky to make it as far as the first two Gentlemen named Virgil did.
Regardless of my plight, I miss them both, and each day in spite of the errors I've made and detours I've taken to date on this planet I pretty much try my best to emulate both of them--falling way short historically but still using them as my example none the less.
Things definitely aren't perfect, but they're most definitely better because of them.
Miss you Dad...
From late 1959 until 1980 there were three men running around on this planet, with the same lineage, sharing the name Virgil Raymond Rogers.
The Senior Virgil was born in Kentucky in 1912 and passed away way too young at the age of 68.
Virgil Jr., my father, made it from 1932 until this day, May 5th in the year 1996 when he succumbed to Scleroderma after a short illness at the age of 63.
I, Virgil III, as of about 9 AM Eastern standard time this morning will have lived for 13 years since my beloved Dad's passing, and doing the math I see by coming up on age 50 myself this year that based on my history I'll be lucky to make it as far as the first two Gentlemen named Virgil did.
Regardless of my plight, I miss them both, and each day in spite of the errors I've made and detours I've taken to date on this planet I pretty much try my best to emulate both of them--falling way short historically but still using them as my example none the less.
Things definitely aren't perfect, but they're most definitely better because of them.
Miss you Dad...
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Global Warming Climate Change?
I'd Say Someone Needs Their Diaper Changed...
So I'm cruising down Drudge Report this morning trying to decide what disease, pestilence and/or other natural disaster--floods, hurricanes, wild fires, or earthquake--to worry about on a rainy Spring day (oops...I forgot Tsunamis) when I came across a link to this NY Times Article which mentions that the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting eco-friendly tree huggers are having meetings and discussions about their image with "the Public."
Seems that in spite of their best efforts at stirring up a climate controversy with "the Public", and in spite of their successful efforts to get most of the people on thesocialist left side of the Political Spectrum (read that California and New England) on board following Owl Gore, many regular Americans living in Ozark, Alabama and Eastern Bejesus, Arkansas still just have a hard time getting riled up enough about CO2 emissions and Cows burping and farting.
Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.”
The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.
Those two paragraphs, Ladies and Gentlemen, represent possibly the most profoundly true, honest group of words I've ever seen published in the NY Times on the subject of "Global Warming."
They are in fact stating what to me is the obvious truth, in as much as to date "Global Warming" has served as a cottage industry for politicians, psedo-scientists, and citizen do-gooders who don't have anything real and tangible to worry about in the world.
Shaggy haired or not, these people are generally self described liberals. They most likely are also closet socialists no matter how loudly they scream the word "progressive" at you when you call them liberal.
As to common sacrifice, they're also willing to deliver that to everyone but themselves in the form of taxes and higher energy costs, and the resulting increased cost of consumer goods, while the most visible among them--the Owl Gores of the planet--live in 40,000 square foot houses and fly in private jets from city to city and Green Event to Green Event in order to wag their green fingers at the dumb/dizzy "climate change" followers demanding support.
Thing is, if they can't get you on their eco-friendly bandwagon voluntarily, they will take the Government and force you on board by changing the law and eliminating your choices to buy or make or do things they don't agree with.
They'll sanction killing babies in the womb within the first 6 months of life, but YOU have to change the refrigerant you use in you car Air Conditioner.
And YOU can't buy heat resistant paint in California for your bar-b-que grill because the Spotted Owl or the Snail Darter might get a rash on their testicles.
Silly crap like that makes them feel like they're making a difference in the ambient temperature on May 3rd in Knoxville, Tennessee or how much rain falls on St. Simons Island in December.
And as to the "complex scientific disputes," they don't want to have any of discussion and they don't want to read reports that don't agree with what they've already decided is true.
The fact is that they are losing the discussion when it comes to the "science"--thus the reason for them referring to the ongoing process as a dispute--and thus them wanting to change the subject because...
THE DATA JUST ISN'T THERE TO SUPPORT THE LEFT'S ARGUMENTS AND CURRENT POLITICAL AGENDA.
And the computer models which they claim originally predicted and/or continue to predict significant man-made influence on the climate have proven to be flawed if not outright false. If you run the same models for fifteen years and then compare the predictions from fifteen years ago with the actual temperature today (fifteen years later) the MODELS WERE WRONG.
So why would you continue to clamor and raise heck about "Global Warming" predictions in 2010 or 2020 when today in 2009 things have gone BACKWARDS in temperature about 1 degree F?
You see, in the world of the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting tree hugger, an issue doesn't have to make sense or have scientific data to support a given hypothesis, it just has to FEEL GOOD.
And if you can cripple American interests in the process, or at least raise some money you can take credit for handing out to people that didn't earn it both domestically or internationally, then in a liberal's mind their life has some meaning...and if they get to park their Lexus in a parking deck on Capitol Hill in DC and enjoy security provided by the Secret Service for the rest of their life in Suburban Maryland or northern Virginia all the better.
In spite of these fundamental flaws in the basis of the "Global Warming" movement, I bet that if you walk into a grade school today you'll find that EVERY SINGLE TEACHER AND NEAR 99% of the children we've handed over to thepublic government schools honestly believes in and is afraid of "Global Warming."
And that, boys and girls, is just a crying shame...
So I'm cruising down Drudge Report this morning trying to decide what disease, pestilence and/or other natural disaster--floods, hurricanes, wild fires, or earthquake--to worry about on a rainy Spring day (oops...I forgot Tsunamis) when I came across a link to this NY Times Article which mentions that the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting eco-friendly tree huggers are having meetings and discussions about their image with "the Public."
Seems that in spite of their best efforts at stirring up a climate controversy with "the Public", and in spite of their successful efforts to get most of the people on the
Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.”
The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.
Those two paragraphs, Ladies and Gentlemen, represent possibly the most profoundly true, honest group of words I've ever seen published in the NY Times on the subject of "Global Warming."
They are in fact stating what to me is the obvious truth, in as much as to date "Global Warming" has served as a cottage industry for politicians, psedo-scientists, and citizen do-gooders who don't have anything real and tangible to worry about in the world.
Shaggy haired or not, these people are generally self described liberals. They most likely are also closet socialists no matter how loudly they scream the word "progressive" at you when you call them liberal.
As to common sacrifice, they're also willing to deliver that to everyone but themselves in the form of taxes and higher energy costs, and the resulting increased cost of consumer goods, while the most visible among them--the Owl Gores of the planet--live in 40,000 square foot houses and fly in private jets from city to city and Green Event to Green Event in order to wag their green fingers at the dumb/dizzy "climate change" followers demanding support.
Thing is, if they can't get you on their eco-friendly bandwagon voluntarily, they will take the Government and force you on board by changing the law and eliminating your choices to buy or make or do things they don't agree with.
They'll sanction killing babies in the womb within the first 6 months of life, but YOU have to change the refrigerant you use in you car Air Conditioner.
And YOU can't buy heat resistant paint in California for your bar-b-que grill because the Spotted Owl or the Snail Darter might get a rash on their testicles.
Silly crap like that makes them feel like they're making a difference in the ambient temperature on May 3rd in Knoxville, Tennessee or how much rain falls on St. Simons Island in December.
And as to the "complex scientific disputes," they don't want to have any of discussion and they don't want to read reports that don't agree with what they've already decided is true.
The fact is that they are losing the discussion when it comes to the "science"--thus the reason for them referring to the ongoing process as a dispute--and thus them wanting to change the subject because...
THE DATA JUST ISN'T THERE TO SUPPORT THE LEFT'S ARGUMENTS AND CURRENT POLITICAL AGENDA.
And the computer models which they claim originally predicted and/or continue to predict significant man-made influence on the climate have proven to be flawed if not outright false. If you run the same models for fifteen years and then compare the predictions from fifteen years ago with the actual temperature today (fifteen years later) the MODELS WERE WRONG.
So why would you continue to clamor and raise heck about "Global Warming" predictions in 2010 or 2020 when today in 2009 things have gone BACKWARDS in temperature about 1 degree F?
You see, in the world of the sniveling, booger eating, pants wetting tree hugger, an issue doesn't have to make sense or have scientific data to support a given hypothesis, it just has to FEEL GOOD.
And if you can cripple American interests in the process, or at least raise some money you can take credit for handing out to people that didn't earn it both domestically or internationally, then in a liberal's mind their life has some meaning...and if they get to park their Lexus in a parking deck on Capitol Hill in DC and enjoy security provided by the Secret Service for the rest of their life in Suburban Maryland or northern Virginia all the better.
In spite of these fundamental flaws in the basis of the "Global Warming" movement, I bet that if you walk into a grade school today you'll find that EVERY SINGLE TEACHER AND NEAR 99% of the children we've handed over to the
And that, boys and girls, is just a crying shame...
