My Sick Mind

"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small." - Neil Armstrong The blog is green for Earth Day , which is either today, tomorrow or yesterday depending on when you are reading. That's about all I'm doing, since I don't have any lamps in the place where I can put in those squiggly bulbs. I'm already running low-flow shower heads and my car is a PZEV (Partial Zero-Emissions Vehicle), so I think I'm maxed out. There's a meteor shower on Sunday night. The Lyrid one. 18 per hour, they say. I'm not all that worked-up, unless one of them slips through and hits my car. I know I shouldn't torture myself, but I was tuned into Fox News today, and they had some sort of round-table discussion of the media's coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, and whether or not the TV news got a li...

Believe it or not, I take this blogging thing seriously. It's almost like a job to me. Most days, I get a little stressed because I realize it's getting late and I have nothing to say. Generally, something odd happens that gets me excited about writing. Other times, I get blind-sided by something and I can't help but run to the log-in and throw it up there. That happened today. I get e-mail from Abercrombie & Fitch because I bought a t-shirt from them 5 years ago. I don't regularly shop there because I find that American Eagle Outfitters , Eddie Bauer or Land's End offer better value and sometimes, better quality products. They sent me a catalog link today, and I started browsing around. I need jeans, so I was naturally attracted to the ones pictured above. Wouldn't you be? Fashion-wise, I guess the idea is that you are purposely wearing something that looks like it should be thrown away, which makes distressed jeans and an iPod a perfect match. Usually, t...

Here’s the latest in the area of planned obsolescence, and I’ll bet you didn’t know this when you bought your fancy new iPod . Get ready to throw it in the trash, and remember to back-up your files: "These days, the champion of audio obsolescence is Apple," writes Giles Slade in the March/April issue of Mother Jones . The iPod is the poster child for products that are designed to be disposable. Apple limits the lifespan of iPod batteries and constantly introduces new products - an alarming fact considering that iPods are crammed with lead, mercury and other toxic materials that can end up in landfills and contaminate groundwater. Apple is hardly alone in generating toxic waste. For example, Microsoft's new memory-hogging Vista operating system will effectively render many existing PCs obsolete. On April 9, 2007 it was announced that Apple had sold its one-hundred millionth iPod, making it the biggest selling digital music player of all time. 100,000,000 of those littl...

The media swarm has descended on Blacksburg, Virginia. I can only imagine the phone calls to Couric, Gibson and Williams on Monday afternoon, telling them to pack (if they aren't already) and head out to Virginia. Once the national parasites checked in, it was only a matter of time (minutes) until the locals had their reservations. Philadelphia's local news had at least two reporters from each station on the scene. Multiply that by 4 (local news here) times all the markets with local news (Umteen) and it must be a media nightmare for the locals. I don't see the value in sending a local news face to do a report on the scene. Does Action News' Dann Cuellar bring any value to the report that we couldn't get from the local ABC outlet in Virginia - who may actually know something about the town and its people? It strikes me as an invasion, and a little exploitative - but that's modern journalism for ya. In my perfect world, as mayor of Blacksburg, it would be ...

This story broke during the day on Monday. Briefly: Two shooting incidents on the Virginia Tech campus today have left 33 dead. Thirty-one, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall; two died at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Fifteen other victims from Norris are being treated at area hospitals. The VT campus is beautiful. I was there about 12 years ago on my way home from Tennessee. The buildings are beautiful grey stone that they call Hokie Stone , which is a variety of limestone that they have been using since 1901. It is quite striking against the green Virginia landscape. Until today, it was the most memorable thing about the school. When I got home from work, I switched on the TV, and up came the BBC News, which is on one of the cable outlets here. The reporter seemed incredulous that such a thing could happen. As a journalist, I could tell that he was challenged, both by Great Britain's attitude toward handguns and his own. He was professional enough to allow it to be a mere ...

I had no idea who Shilpa Shetty was until Richard Gere performed this unthinkable act on her on Sunday. NEW DELHI - Angry crowds in several Indian cities burned effigies Richard Gere on Monday after he swept a popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty into his arms and kissed her several times during an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi. Pictures were splashed across Monday's front pages in India — a country where sex and public displays of affection are largely taboo. In Mumbai, members of the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena beat burning effigies of Gere with sticks and set fire to glamorous shots of Shetty. It sounds more like a Shilpa Shetty awareness event. And I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to get effigy materials. In some places, the effigy thing seems to be second nature. Just like hugging is here. Shilpa Shetty is a cool name, though. Kind of rolls off the tongue. I suppose Gere is supposed to know better? Gere is a well-known Buddhist and an act...

(CBS3/AP) GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Gov. Jon S. Corzine was apparently riding without a seat belt, in violation of state law, when he was critically injured in the cra sh of his official vehicle, a spokesman said Friday. A state trooper was at the wheel and the governor was sitting as usual in the front passenger seat when the SUV slammed into a guard rail Thursday night, authorities said. Corzine broke a leg, his breastbone, 12 ribs and a vertebra. When asked why the trooper who was driving would not have asked Corzine to put on his seat belt, Shea said the governor was "not always amenable to suggestion." So, he's a cranky old guy who intimidated a State Trooper into allowing him to ride without his seat belt. Not only is that bad policy, but it is bad police work. If it were you or I in that vehicle, you can be damned sure that the trooper would tell us to wear our seat belt. Either that, or out of fear we would buckle it ourselves. I'm going to try that amenable ...

Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion, you're wasting your life. - Jackie Robinson Most of us were not alive in 1947. You would have to be in your late 60s to have even the foggiest memories of those days, but we only need books and video to know that baseball, and sports in general, were white men's occupations in the middle of the 20 th century. In those days, Major league baseball was played by 16 teams. In 1946, the National League pennant was won by the St. Louis Cardinals, who beat out the Brooklyn Dodgers by 2 games and went on to beat the Red Sox in the World Series. That was the Cardinals team with players like Enos Slaughter, Joe Garagiola , Stan Musial and Dick Sisler . They also had 3 guys named "Red" and other players with names like Emil, Marty, Nippy, Blix and 2 guys named Del. That summer, Jackie Robinson was playing minor league baseball with the M...

Ladyred said... Wow, I like looking at your stat counter ... Me too. It isn't often that dirty pictures are associated with Disney, but I haven't been blogging all that long, so I suppose it was coming. Note to Google searchers: Use quotation marks and learn to spell. But hey, thanks for reading! NOT FOR NOTHIN’, BUT: EzCorp announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of the 15 Colorado pawnshops operated by Pawn One, under the trade name Jumping Jack Cash . First, I always figured pawnshops were a creation of fiction, since I’ve never actually seen one. I’ve never been to Colorado, either, although I’m pretty sure it exists. It’s where they make beer and John Denver records. 1 Imus ... to Go. Meanwhile, the Don Imus controversy has taken on its own life. To me, Nappy-Headed Ho’s sounds more like the name of a snack cake than a racial slur. Chocolate cake with a white cream filling, sprinkled with coconut. They would taste great, but you couldn’t ...

Remember yesterday? Me too. I posted a story about a well-known tax preparer, hoping that they would read that instead of the personal story that was attached to the first one they found. As it turns out, the boys at the home office in Kansas City are still doing their blog research, and the bait has been taken. I hesitate to mention their name again, lest it come up in another search. I had my fun, now let's move on. I am easily entertained, as you no doubt can tell. Their little Google blog search turned up 8,911 results, so I guess whomever is doing their googling was kept busy for most of the day. What I want to know is, how do I get that job? Getting paid to goof around on the Internet is my idea of a cushy job.

I love the StatCounter. It tells me things. From the heartland (or so they tell us) the folks at H&R Block are snooping around to see what the blogs have to say about TurboTax. The big threat, I'm sure, is that people will find the courage to do their own taxes, thus depriving us of the privilege of paying through the nose for a service that generally isn't necessary. What bugs me about the Block search is that they read that tiny reference to income taxes interspersed with a story about my personal life. I should separate my stream of consciousness posts a little better. LESSON LEARNED. So, let's give them something to read, shall we? THE STORY: . Until I got married (the time I refer to as "My Great Sickness") I always did my own taxes. Short form - no deductions - just the old single, 1040EZ form, the one with the big boxes to fill in like a 5th grader with a crayon. They even show you how to make the numbers. Sheesh. When I got married, I was unsure of ...

Too tired to go to the gym, so I decided to sit and relax in front of my friend, the TV. These were my choices tonight: Nancy Grace debating for the one-millionth time, the controversy over the fate of Anna Nicole's baby. Holy crap, Nancy. Open a newspaper and find something else to talk about, will ya? Please. Dancing with the Stars , which, in spite of the dearth of stars, continues with the dancing. Even Cheryl Burke wasn't enough to keep me tuned in. Seemingly, for three hours it went on - some "results show" or something. "Results" of what, I have no idea. Boring. On several channels, the ongoing nonsense over some stupid remarks made by a radio host who long ago was irrelevant, and only now has found a voice, common sense notwithstanding. Anus, I think his name is. Meanwhile, the piling on continues, with bystanders becoming interested parties. Include me out. Jim Cramer screaming about Charter Communications , and telling his viewers that if they bid...

I saw a story on the web today about a woman who is selling most of her belongings on Ebay. Something about having too much junk and getting her life back. She's keeping the basics - photo albums, towels, plates - stuff like that, and discarding the rest. It sounds like such a good idea, the whole minimalist lifestyle gig. I think we grow too attached to junk and it becomes such a part of our lives. The sad part is, most of it is buried under other junk and the only time we see it is when we're doing some big cleaning project and it is uncovered. Then, there's that "so this is where it is" moment - followed by another filing procedure and more lost junk that we don't use, need or particularly care about until we find it and realize that it was missing for all those years. I'm looking around at a collection of stuff that pretty much just sits here. It would look much better in a box being shipped to someone else's house while the money rested in a sa...

Sunday was consumed with bad baseball (the Phillies ) and a golf tournament ("I spent 4 days in Augusta, and all I got was this lousy green jacket") where the guy who wins receives an article of clothing so hideous that it could only be either worn on a golf course or given as a prize. Who's gonna complain about a bright green jacket in the midst of all that? As faithful readers know, I am music starved. So much so, that I have taken to browsing the Real Player site for new and interesting downloads. My thoughts turned to comedy, and in my music starved state, I came up with the name Todd Barry . Todd's a funny guy, and a bit different than most of the comics working now. I saw him in New York in 2004 at a show that Mother Jones put on with Jeneane Garofolo, Will Durst and lots of other comics. Somehow, I wound up in the front row. If you are of a mind to, pick up Todd's Medium Energy CD. Anyway, I pulled up Todd's listings on the Real Player store. Among ...

Bryan Ritter meets an Easter bunny on his way to compete in a Hunky Jesus competition on Sunday, April 8, 2007, in San Francisco. Ritter, a high school English teacher, grew his hair for the past year in preparation for the contest. His efforts paid-off as a crowd of several thousand revelers voted him winner the grand prize, $100, from a field of more than twenty would-be Hunky Jesuses. Ritter said he is looking forward to shaving his hair later today. (AP Photo/Noah Berger). . Is it Jesuses or Jesui?

Indulge me while I take a break from watching paunchy men play golf . Thank you. After yesterday's post about my travails at the ballpark, I wanted to see what the wind chill was. A 43-degree temperature with 24mph winds makes for a "real-feel" of 34 degrees, according to the calculator over at NASA's site . I was curious, since I think the wind chill is a ridiculous notion, as to what the wind chill was when it was 95. Factor in a 20mph wind, and it feels like 103. I thought the wind was supposed to cool us down? Wind chill is ridiculous to me because I never really know what any temperature feels like. If it feels like 34 degrees, what does 34 feel like? I don't know, because when it's 34, the wind chill is 25. For practice, I go outside on calm days so I can figure out what real temperatures feel like. It's a hobby. Has anybody besides me noticed this little note that comes up when uploading a photo on Blogger? Apparently, we have a limit, after which, ...

Did you ever do something and think it was a good idea when you did it (like 'just one more drink' or changing cell phone providers) only to find that it wasn't? Last week, I bought a ticket for Thursday's Phillies game, called a "Businessperson's Special" (a.k.a. Unemployed slacker game) thinking it would (a) make for a nice 4-day weekend and (b) be a great day out for a ballgame, seeing as how the club is supposed to win and all. As it turned out, I spent three hours freezing my boys off at the ballpark watching Adam Eaton throw batting practice, and helped the club to its 0-3 start. So it wouldn't be a total loss, I spent most of the time wandering around taking photos. However, with a game-time temperature of 43 degrees and 24mph winds, the camera seemed more like a task than a hobby. At first, it seemed as though the day would turn out nicely, at least weather-wise. Soon, however, both the weather and the Baseball Gods would turn sour. The view ...

Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME . "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84. "I've no pretensions about immortality," he added. "I'm the same as everyone ... just kind of lucky. I was No. 1 on the 'who's likely to die' list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list," Richards said. In other news... HALLE BERRY GETS A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF...