My Sick Mind

Once . Just once I'd like to be on a delivery schedule where they tell me "Between 8 and 12" and have a knock on the door at 8:15. Just once. As I sat flipping the channels between "Apollo 13" and "Witness" - I stopped once when the Kelly McGillis nude scene flashed on, stunned that Universal showed it so early in the day - I wondered who exactly were the lucky people who get to experience such events. (The delivery thing, not naked Kelly McGillis - although that's interesting, too). Somewhere in New Jersey a happy mattress owner was greeting their courteous delivery guys at 8:15 and gushing over the prompt attention to their schedule. It wasn't here. Just as Jack Swigert was powering-down the command module, a knock came at the door. I had anticipated it, because the cat sensed the strangers approaching, like a feline alarm system. 11:34. Technically , it's between 8 and 12, so can I complain? Nope. Plus the fact that it's a beauti...

I can't lie to you and tell you that there's a lot going on here at My Sick Headquarters. On Saturday morning, I'll be taking delivery of a new mattress - so that's kind of exciting. I'm spending more than I wanted, but something tells me that a good night's sleep is worth a few extra bucks. I'm spending that Ebola money I've been hoarding, so I figure I may as well spend it on "durable goods" like mattresses and cameras than something like fancy restaurants and trips to nowhere. I'm funny that way. The thought , when I started this selling frenzy was that the money would be used for something that I could use over the long term rather than something that is burned up quickly and possibly regret later. That's how my mind works, as if you needed to know. It's a nice mattress . A Sealy pillow top, as if I know what that means. At the store, I laid down on this fancy machine that is supposed to tell me exactly what type of mattress i...

As some of you know , photography has been a hobby of mine for a while - 30 years or so, I think. The passion comes and goes, and with the advent of an affordable digital SLR, the passion has come back a bit. I've been selling my old stuff on Ebola , and have saved enough money to take the leap into the digital thing and get a new mattress - but who cares about that?. On Tuesday , I took delivery of a new Nikon D40 and 18-55 zoom lens. Technically, it's probably a bit less than what I would ideally desire, but financially it was perfect. I've been slowly going through the manual, trying to find what all the buttons and switches do. Sadly, the weather around here has turned crappy, so I haven't had the opportunity to run around outside with it. I wasn't anxious to take a brand new camera out in the snow. Then, I remembered an article I read a while ago that encouraged photographers to look around their back yard and their neighborhoods, because sometimes the most ...

WASHINGTON — Higher costs for energy and food last year pushed inflation up by the largest amount in 17 years. Consumer prices rose by 4.1 percent for all of 2007, up sharply from a 2.5 percent increase in 2006, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Consumers felt the pain when they filled up their gas tanks or shopped for groceries. Prices for both energy and food shot up by the largest amount since 1990 . No kidding . Unless you're making your own consumer goods or buying stuff that doesn't have to be transported, you're screwed. Energy prices impact the price of everything if it has to be moved to the point of purchase. Does anybody want to go back to that Agrarian Society and use the barter system? Me too. We could still have the Internet, which would be a cool thing, but we'd need solar powered computers. This is hilarious ... WASHINGTON - Steel plates connecting beams in the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis were too thin by half and fractured, "the cri...

When you were a kid and you would make some kind of goofy face, your mother would tell you, “If you don’t stop, your face will stay that way!” While most of us never believed it, I think it’s true in a different way. Tonight, the seventh season of television’s version of the Goofy Face starts up again, and the slow erosion of what passes for entertainment continues. It’s called American Idol , and in case you don’t already know, I despise this program and everything it stands for. You started watching it because it looked kind of interesting, and because the first few shows featured people who sang so badly that dogs covered their ears, but not badly enough to be kept off of television. It’s beyond bad, but who doesn’t like a good train wreck? You are repulsed yet you cannot look away. Maybe one of your friends showed up at what they call “talent searches” in a city nearby because they figured that the producers were actually listening and that they might think they were good enoug...

The Bad Parking blog put up my photo . Run and see! Technically, it's not "car" parking, but only a "t" away, and who's to argue technicalities? And , as if we needed another reason to celebrate a bogus holiday, it turns out that good old Christopher Columbus is responsible for discovering a little more than just the New World - or so we're told... MONDAY, Jan. 14 ( HealthDay News ) - A new analysis of the genetics of syphilis provides support for the theory that the disease hitched a ride with Christopher Columbus from the New World back to the Old Worl d . The most familiar theory suggests that syphilis came to the Europe via frisky sailors on the Columbus expedition, and historical records suggest the disease did appear on the continent in 1495, three years after Columbus set sail for what proved to be the New Wor ld . Hey kids , take the day off and celebrate! In the meantime , here's a frog on a motorcycle:

It doesn't take much to make me happy. A few bucks in my pocket, some good games to watch and a tasty beverage. Lucky for me, I had all three of them this weekend. Saturday's NFL playoff games went according to Hoyle, with the Patriots and Packers advancing, but Sunday was another story - or two. I went out to what passes as the local Sports Bar to watch Saturday's action and hung out at the shack to watch Sunday's games. So, ask me about Sunday and I'll have a more conclusive argument. Mostly, I watched Sunday at home because I'm a fugazi Charger fan, and I need to concentrate on the game when they're playing. They won and advanced to the AFC championship game, where they will be dismantled by the Patriots. It's always fun to watch the Cowboys lose, and Sunday was no exception. I'm figuring that there a lot of Dallas residents scrambling to cancel Arizona vacation trips for the first week in February. After all, who wants to waste valuable vac...