Sunday, April 30, 2017

Judgment

Let it be known - I'm not into flogging, publicly or privately.

No judgment.

But for those who are, isn't it nice to know that there are educational sessions on the proper ways to flog someone?

This weekend I participated in what is probably my last CLAW......or Cleveland Leather Awareness Weekend.

Two things I've said the last two years:  that that would be my last one and that leather isn't necessarily my thing.

No judgment.

CLAW does a great job with fundraising and awareness of any number of issues. But locally, they support the the Cleveland GLBT Center and does a lot of work (and financially supports) HIV awareness programs.  There were no less than four separate local hospitals and research areas in attendance to educate and spread the word.

A few months ago the powers that be came a-calling and asking for my assistance. As it turns out, I'm one of the more reliable folks who have provided support over the years. They needed someone to coordinate the Skills and Education sessions.  Not a small job and one of the things I've never ever ever done.............or even attended.

My past experiences there have been paperwork, tax forms and managing a consignment area.

As it turns out there would be 103 (!!) sessions over two days. Ruckiry (not Jon's boss), I had people working for me that would do some things I at which I would fail:  mainly AV and rounding up volunteers.

Roughly for every two sessions I needed a volunteer.  I'd assign the volunteer per session and then make tons of switches based on the session and well, the volunteer. You really can't have a female be at a 'male only' session.

It was weeks of work  Rooms. Sessions. Who needed AV and what kind - and then how many projectors, etc were available and how to get them from one room to another and then how to mix it up so proximity was kept.  THEN you add in physical bodies.

Mind you, most of it was just spreadsheet work. And I have a new found respect for Google Documents, which can be shared by other managers within the organization.

In my CLAW past, I had never attended an education session. It was all work. The "joke" is, coordinating these, I still didn't quite attend.  Quite.

With a few no-show volunteers, Blobby had to go check on a few sessions to make sure they started ok.  All the gents (presenters) were great. Prepared and ready to go. Participants were seemingly never on time. But I stuck my head in a few sessions.

I stayed away from anything 'pup' related.  I just do NOT get it. Nor do I actually want to. Ditto with mummification.  No judgment.

Honest to g-d, there was some guy into crucifixion. Allegedly did nails and all.

Ok. A little judgment.

Even the guys I worked with who had seen it all squirmed a bit when talking about that one. Not that any of them attended a session. That's the joke......the leadership just doesn't participate. There's zero time. Someone's gotta do the work.

I will say this about the attendees, there is far far far fewer judgments within the confines of the host hotel than by the general public when just one of those guys walks down the street in a kilt.

Actually, there are almost no judgments from the participants.

Sure, I judge.........but at CLAW I'm a lot less so. One almost has to be. Mind you, I wanted to smack some trans man (?) (was a woman now a man), who was just annoying as fuck on every single level. Needs 10 words?  Take 561. And that was his best quality.

I encountered a few really really nice guys.....and a few cute ones too. And I don't think I realized how international this thing was:  sure you got the Mexico and Canada faction. But Germany, the UK, Australia were represented too...........and I had a great convo with a guy from Jordan!

That all said - why won't I do this again? I think it's the amount of work. I am happy to help the beforehand stuff - and I have some takeaways where I could easily improve on what they'd done in the past - but the on-site work is non-stop.  In eight hours, we're talking 18,000 steps (thanks FitBit!).

Mind you, with those changes I will suggest to the next go-round, it should make it much easier on the days of the event. It will truly eliminate so much hassle. But this is how change is made......have someone who is in operations be a change agent.

CLAW wanted me to do some time today, but no.  Four or five weeks of work after my full time job and a cold, rainy day being stuck in a small command center, I was happy to decide to be home with my husband, dog and cat.

It also might have something to do with a man my age, calling me - ME (!) - "daddy".

FUCK HIM.  Total Judging.

The organization does great work, regardless of what one might think of men in leather and all that might go with it. I think the ability to let go of judgment is no small feat......even if it's for a weekend.



Song by: Iron & Wine

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Clean

A rough work week turned into a weak blog week.

Saturday's makes it better. Be honest, this is really what you come here for.

King of the Park

Surveying all that is his!

Shep met up with a full breed version of his self. 


He's a cute guy, and Shep has a formidable bark, but praise be that ain't nothing like this. 


Cutest guy in the dog park making time with the cutest dog in the dog park. 

Post dog park bath. 

Shep does pretty well. 



Song by: Depeche Mode

Friday, April 28, 2017

App of the Month

A game this month.

It's part Tetris.  It's part.....I can't remember the name of the other game I had that also had coloured dots.

It's all free.

...and it's kind of fun.

Two Dots is the name.

Mind you, at first, my thought was "lame". But for moi, there is a problem-solving aspect and an OCD one too. Those play right into my wheelhouse.

It took me a little while - though not horrendously so - to catch on to the game. I suppose most of that is because I'm a guy and don't read the directions. Or the prompts. Or the hints.

So usually I fail the level with which I'm working a time or two before I catch on as to the goal. After that, it's mostly cake.

mmmm......cake.


Like in this level, I must get 10 anchors to fall off the bottom of the screen, which means removing other dots. But you can see I cannot connect any same coloured dots And you have to do it in so many moves. This one was like 40 moves., which is seemingly high. Usually the amount of moves is less than 20.....or even 10.

And unlike many a game via an app, there are a lot of levels.  I'm already up to 27. I don't know how high they go.  But unlike a lot of games I have downloaded, this one tries to get you to purchase 'boosters' or extra turns.  So with every failed level, you get a prompt to buy something.  Annoying.

As you all know how cheap I am, that is SO not happening. I just keep playing the level until I win. Buying seems like taking performance enhancing drugs.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

One of Those Days

It is one them days.

Early to work. Late leaving.  I didn't even make dinner...........I picked up Thai on the way home.

So long story short: I have no thought out blog entry.

I looked at news stuff to see if there was anything of note to write about, but I have no energy or inclination to read about SCROTUS' alleged tax cut.

So you just get a post about not posting.


More tomorrow.


Probably.


Song by: Duran Duran

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Scoundrel Days

I won't say "I got nothing"........but you know.

We're almost at "the first 100 Days".  I can't stand it.


The first 100 of a lot of big nothing, though you can't say that to him or his believers. They way I see it, not only does he not have a wall (not that I was expecting on in that amount of time), he doesn't even have a way to finance it.

His 'secret plan' to defeat ISIS in 30 days.................still a secret.   ....and I'm not sure he said  "in 30 days of.....what".

Tax returns upon getting elected?  So not happening.

Repeal Obamacare?  Looks like it is still in place to me.

How is that Travel Ban working out?  Ohhhhhhhh yeahhhh.......right.

Dumpers will say he got his Supreme Court nominee, but he didn't. Sure, he got that Future (and current) Fascist on the bench, but that was more Bitch McConnell's doing than SCROTUS. Denying and delaying Scalia's replacement had zilch to do with Dump.

I mean, sure he's ruining the environment with coal run-off polluting water systems. Sure he's allowing the killing of hibernating animals. He's ok with considering taking Meals for Wheels out of the mix and tossing out public broadcasting - - since the arts and education and feeding the elderly isn't a priority.

Buy American?  Hire American?   It works if you're not the Keystone Pipeline.......or the Ivanka Dump Line.  Or visiting a company in Wisconsin to promote hiring American when said company has outsourced more than 50% of their IT and product management to India.

I'd say don't start me on the hypocrisy of all his trips and complaints about Obama's.......but deep down no one seems to care.

People, especially his followers, don't give a flying fuck. The rest of us, well, I dare say, we are desensitized to his out and out lies. He's constantly testing the waters and somewhat winning.

I could go on with other items too, but I think you get the point.

It's demoralizing.


I guess it's a good thing my 90 day supply of anti-depressants just came in the mail.



Song by: a-ha

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Site of the Month

We've been DVR'ing Veep and it's new season. I have yet to watch one of the two new episodes.

The great and horrible thing about Veep is how real it probably is.

In the confines of television it is hilarious and painful at the same time. In the bigger picture, the show is probably scarily accurate, though I dare say that President Meyer's press secretary, Mike McLintock, is less of a bumbling oaf than Sean Spicer.

I think the difference between the HBO show and the circus in DC is the swearing. I have to believe the latter says "fuck" a lot more than the former.............and that's saying something.

So yes, I hit some click-bait on Facebook the other day for a Buzzfeed quiz on if it's a real DC quote or Veep quote. I'm a sucker they saw coming a mile away.

I scored 12 of 14.  85.7% success rate. That's a solid B....maybe B+.

I tripped up on stupid ones (though aren't they all stupid ones?).

I know I need to get back into watching Veep, but I'm sooooo down on politics right now, I am not sure I can stomach how it will all play out or even if I can stomach a fictitious faux presidency.

At least one of the administrations will make me laugh.

Monday, April 24, 2017

My Music Monday

Today is the last day {for me} for the consecutive songs of the week, and I'm on.....you guessed it........Monday.

My second 'Monday' in a My Music Monday.  For all the years I've been doing this, it's only the second time the day of the week has crept into a song title - and the first time was just a month ago with the Boomtown Rats.

Ooops.  Correction.  I had an Orkstra Obsolete post of that group doing New Order's "Blue Monday". And I may have done a demo of Apollonia and Prince singing on the demo "Manic Monday".  

Ok.....so this is only my fourth time. If you go by percentages it's still very low, until you factor in how many songs one might know with the word "Monday".   

.....and now it seems I'm down in a rabbit hole. 

Back to the music. I would have sworn I had more songs with today's day, but I don't. The three I mentioned and maybe three more.  

I've opted to go with the most obvious choice:  the Mamas & the Papas. As much as I liked them, even I  would have a difficult time to name more than 6-7 songs they did. And as much as I liked them, in honestly, while John Phillips wrote much of the material, the talent of the band rested on Mama Cass and Denny Doherty. 

Sure they had great "four" part harmony.  Yes, that's in quotes. In 50 years, I have yet truly to hear what exactly, if anything, Michelle Phillips contributed to the band. 

I dare say, that if I were to write an SAT answer it would be something like:  Michelle Phillips is to singing in Mamas and Papas as Michelle Phillips is to acting in Knots Landing

The "ouch" is implied. 

Perhaps I'm totally wrong about her musical abilities. I do know she never attempted any singing after the band's demise. 

All that aside, of all their popular songs, "Monday Monday" was my least favourite. It's not bad by any means, but it's not "California Dreaming", "Creeque Alley" or "Words of Love". 


Sunday, April 23, 2017

She Blinded Me with Science

I'll admit it: we skipped the Science March yesterday.

We should have gone, though it wasn't wildly publicized up here. I had heard about it only two weeks ago and that was from an out-of-town friend. She claimed to be coming up for it (she didn't - - according to her Facebook feed).

It was an ugly morning and cold outside. And staying in seemed easier to me. I know that's lame, but free time is rare. Shep got up at his normal ung-dly hour, but 710 was good enough to be the one to take him on his a.m. walk.  I stayed in bed until 07:30.......which is unheard of.

Mind you, I didn't sleep sleep.  I kind of slept. I don't do well with my thoughts while just laying in bed.

One of my cousins went to the march........and fuck, she's traveling in Amsterdam! So that makes me feel massively lame.

While I'm not truly making excuses for my lack of attendance, but who in the world is this march going to convince? Were there protesters who were denying science  - yelling from the sidelines like it was a gay pride parade?

The folks who have alternative facts are never going to be swayed.......at least until one of their kids gets leukemia and science cures them, though somehow most won't see it that way.

I'm thinking every minor to major city that has a science center benefited. I'd almost bet that if such a center exists, that each march took them right to it, or at least right past it.

Don't get me wrong, I think science is important and should be promoted. If one of these marches gets a kid interested to pursue on of the sciences, then it is totally worth it.

I will say, the few designs for the Cleveland march (one of them is above) were cool. Not enough for me to dole out $30 for, but..........



Song by: Thomas Dolby

Saturday, April 22, 2017

the Lake

Shep time.

Well in this house, it's always Shep time.  You get the condensed cute version. Not the - I'm an asshole and will bark at you for no reason for 30 minutes straight.

You don't get to see the every morning arousal at 04:45. I'm not sure how to get him to even sleep a half hour longer. And hour would be better.

But when he's cute, he's cute.  And he loves his outings, which we try to do something each weekend.

Last weekend it was off to Edgewater Park.   As you can see, it's on the edge of water. Lake Erie to be specific.

Sitting on the high end of the park (there is a lower level). You can see Clevelburgh in the back. 

On the way back, we went through Starbucks.  
Shep got a Puppacino. It was free. 

The Puppacino is whipped cream. He was way into it. 

After that, he was all about the whipped cream. ....and wanted my Frappacino. 
He got nothing. 

Like Petey, Shep isn't much of a posing dog. 

I unsuccessfully tried to get him to sit in the C. He was not having it. As a line was forming to get pictures taken, I gave up and hoisted him. 

Embiggen the picture. You'll see his ears flying in the wind, ala Sister Bertrille. 

The crowd started chuckling. It was a compliment. 



Song by: Laurie Anderson

Friday, April 21, 2017

Ad of the Month

Admittedly, my Ads of the Month are funny or borderline suggestive.  Not this time.

WeAreSikhs is putting forth a multi-million dollar ad public service announcement campaign to edjumicate the Wonder Bread population of America on what it means to be a Sikh.

710 and I stumbled upon one of the ads a day or two ago. I loved it.

....and I hated it.

I hate that in this day and age, there needs to be an ad for tolerance for a religion people know nothing about........especially considering most of these jackholes who hate Sikhs for nothing more than wearing a turban, don't truly know about their own religion....whatever it might be.

But this isn't a tolerant country anymore.....if it ever was. Hate rules. Which is why an ad like this is absolutely necessary.

The ad made me happy.


Thursday, April 20, 2017

the Hanging Garden

Awwwww.......of all the felonious NFL players, why'd it have to be the only hot one of the bunch to up and kill hisself???

I don't even think it's arguable that of  all those crime-committing players that Aaron Hernandez was the hottest.

Murder accomplice, Ray Lewis?  ewww.   Rapist, Ben Roethlisberger? nu-uh. Dog killer, Michael Vick?  fuck no. Wife beater, Ray Rice? not so much.

To be fair to the late Mr. Hernandez (well......not so much late, as he's never coming), sure, he may have shot and killed one guy, but he did not get convicted of the two drive-by killings of two others. I mean, really, he was only 1 for 3.  So he wasn't all bad, was he?

To Hernandez, I can only imagine that his prison sentence seemed oddly unfair - considering those other NFeLons (see what I did there???)  who got little or no jail time at all. I'm not sure his ending brought any kind of relief to the family of his victim. Honestly, he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole. I'm not sure I wouldn't consider ending it too.

I can't rule out the possibility of being that hot in prison was too much pressure. While technically the man was a tight end, you know he was top bunk all the way.



Song by: the Cure

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!



Aimee Mann released her new solo disk at the end of March, Mental Illness.  Critics and the artist call it her "sad" or "down" disk. Or "stripped down" one. Or "acoustic".  I can go with either of those, but as you compare her work, can you call this any more (or less) down than say Lost in Space, Bachelor No. 2 or even the Forgotten Arm?

Mental Illness is certainly better than @#%&*! Smilers or Whatever. Not that either of those disks didn't have their moments, just overall they didn't rank as my favourites. And Mental Illness has its moments too, but I'd put it in same league of Lost in Space, Bachelor No. 2 or even the Forgotten Arm.

I am glad I waited a few weeks to review. The first listen was ok, but it took a while for some of the songs to gel for me.

To hear the press on this, Mann was listening to a lot of Bread and Dan Fogelberg when deciding on the sound of the disk. Honestly, I don't hear much of either of those in this collection (maybe the former with "Knock it Off"  and perhaps some elements of "Philly Sinks" and the latter with "Poor Judge".

Still many of these songs wouldn't be out of place on Bachelor No. 2.  That's not an iffy compliment at all, it's just that some of it seems done before......but I can live with that. "Good For Me", "Lies of Summer"    "Simple Fix" and "Stuck in the Past" could be lifted from Lost in Space (another compliment).

There are other stellar songs:  "Poor Judge", "Goose Snow Cone" and the possibly best song, "Patient Zero".  For me, the songs that took longer, were "You Never Loved Me", which actually might be better, if she left out the repeating title chorus. Just the opening of that song is great....it drags a little as it goes on.

While "Rollercoaster" is an ok song, in the big picture it doesn't cut it for me. I won't hit 'skip', but I don't truly enjoy the song.

I like when an artist sticks with something they know. I would say Mann branched out more with the Both and with Smilers and Charmer more than she does with Mental Illness, but those disks had very mixed results. With this one, she seems more comfortable and it shows in the music.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Stream

Oh how I love it when Cleveburgh makes the news.

I debated on whether to title this "Fame" or "Sacrifice' but ended up with "Stream".

...as in streaming video.

....as in, streaming video while I shoot an innocent man on the street.

W.  T.   F.  

Perhaps you've seen it. It made national news. Hell, on Sunday night it led the national evening news.  That's a pretty hefty thing to do when you've got the bullshit of North Korea and SCROTUS matching "wits".

So yes, a man got out of his car while being 'live' on Facebook....went up to a man walking down the street and shot him dead......all while filming.

The victim was an elderly man - a retiree - who was walking home from his Easter dinner. His last supper.....if you will.

Now, on social media, the killer (though why the media is calling him an "alleged murder", when it's right there on video is a little beyond me) is / was telling his followers that he had 'snapped'.

I'm not buying that. People who snap that way, don't know they've snapped, let alone verbalize it.

Also not buying his claim that he killed 14 others either. I would think 14 dead bodies would be harder to ignore, should they exist at all.  That said, my work went on lock-down as allegedly the killing was close by.  It wasn't.

Still, the reason for my almost 'Fame" title is:  is this what social media has become. The need to be noticed so badly that it goes to extremes?  And you thought the Selfie Stick was narcissistic.

Boy were you wrong.

As disturbing as it all was - and yes, they showed the entire thing here in the CLE - I am not horribly surprised. That might be the saddest part of this story................well that the dead man.



Song by: Forest for the Trees

Monday, April 17, 2017

My Music Monday

Song with a day of the week in the title.....and you have to go consecutively.  I started on Friday, so I'm up to Sunday.

As it turns out, Sunday is a big draw in the music world. I almost did a Blondie song, but you get those a lot from me. I also did a Counting Crows song. I almost did any number of versions of "Gloomy Sunday" - a song that has been around since 1936. And of course, you almost got Morrissey.

I went with the Monkees and their song, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"

While the gentlemen could play instruments and write music, it was well into their recording before they were able to do so. Still, they did their own singing, so that's more than most of the Partridge's did.

Honestly, I expected a clip where they run room to room and into a hallway trying to lose whomever was following him. Sadly, that is not the case.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Egg Man

I'm coasting today.   Ralph makes me laugh.

It's funny at 00:00:09 in length.  But if you look on YouTube, someone has taken it to the 10 hour mark with repeats.

Enjoy your day of eggs, chocolate and Jesus.





Song by: Beastie Boys

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Take a Walk

It was a good picture week for Shep.  Not so much for Sophie.

He seems to take a toy to a chair and sometimes to bed. This time it was the turkey. 

We took Shep to the Solstice Steps. His first trip to Lake Erie. 
Look at those big ass paws. 

The next day we took him to Lake View Cemetery.....and the James Garfield memorial. 

Crazy Eyes.  Or Eye. Singular.  But still cute. 

While at the cemetery, we took Shep to Daffodil Hill.......the same place Petey got this picture taken two years ago.....and made the front page of the paper. 

This is one of his best pictures yet. 

Whilst at the cemetery, Shep took upon himself to keep us safe from all the marble beasts. This one was just a horse, but he fended of a lion who resided there as well. 



Song by: Eddie Vedder & Neil Young

Friday, April 14, 2017

Near the Cross




Today is the day that all my quasi-religious employees will try to wish me a GOOD Friday.  ....and it's all I can do to not find a way to put them into corrective action as some kind of retribution.

I have two meetings - the last one ends at 12:15p.  My hope is; I get out of work early.  ....that would be an Easter miracle.


And just for shits and giggles, because I don't / can't / won't talk about the largest non-nuclear bomb the United States has ever dropped just got dropped yesterday (at least SCROTUS if fulfilling one of his campaign talking points - he LOVES nukes!)  ......I have an Arrested Development clip.







Song by: Iris DeMent

Thursday, April 13, 2017

12 of 12

So I'm doing my 85th 12 of 12.

Normally it is 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month. Since I only post once per day, you get my images the following day. All pictures taken with my iPhone. Click images to enlarge, if you choose.

Created by Chad Darnell and picked up from, what I can tell, any number of random bloggers who then link back to him and vice versa. Chad is no longer doing this, nor is successor coordinating the linking of other 12 of 12'ers anymore. Now it's just Erik and myself - that I know of. 

I still continue to do this, because of all my consistent post topics, I actually like this one the most.

05:12. A.M. dog walk.   ...avec lighted leash.


05:45.  Doggie b'fast time. 

06:25.  Time to tie my tie time. 
The pattern is called "Erythromycin Under a Microscope".  I shit you not. 

06:36.  Taking out the trash. 

06:55.  Mobile Order Pick-Up. 
Venit black tea. No sugar. No water. 


9:30. Running a Report for certain CPT codes

12:45.  Operations Meeting. 

14:05.  On my way to see the chairman of my department. 
Got to follow this guy. I could have easily passed him, but why would I?

18:37.  Finishing a draft of a presentation for tomorrow (today).  
It's gonna be an ugly meeting. 

18:45. Heading home, but first.....


18:55. ... I still have to grab groceries. 
The place was more packed than I've ever seen.

19:20.  ....and I still had to make dinner. 
Fish and snow peas. Simple. Fast. Good. 


....and now your Baker's Dozen

21:30.  My favourite Girl Scout Cookie. 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Rememberances

This is one fucked up White House.

And yes, I know that might the understatement of the century.

I find even though you probably know what I'm talking about, I have to actually reference it here, so archivists in future generations will have some specifics regarding my talking points.

Sean Spicer: Super Douche, sorry Uninformed Super Douche, and his comments on Hitler not using chemical weapons to kill people, or his 'own people'. Both highly untrue. Oh - and those killings went on that Holocaust Centers.

Today we just call those the JCC.

While as disappointing and disturbing that he said it at all.........and on Passover (!) no less...it's just not surprising.

I can't tell if he's just straight-up stupid, cocky and thinking no one will challenge him, just completely uniformed about history (which is oddly, different than 'straight-up stupid') or just some fucking pawn - a willing one - in this stupid regime.

There was surprise though:  the apology.

I almost titled this post "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word".

He not only apologized, but called it a 'mistake' - what he said, I'm assuming. He probably meant it was a mistake that he got called out, but hey.............it's the closest thing we might get to him being human ever.

Spicer gets about half a point of credit for that. And I'm being generous.

It's really about the arrogance. He's the media-face of this administration, which has to be one shitty job, but he accepted it. I don't care what the panels on Bill Maher's show says about Spicer being a really good guy who has gotten caught up in a bad situation and not the Sean they know.

I don't think they know him. I don't think people change that much or that quickly.

It is the arrogance of this administration. The one that thinks they can get away with saying such shit to make a point that is clearly incorrect - - on so many levels. They know they have their supporters who believe the shit they say - even when wrong. They're not the ones the apology is for - because, they'll never hear it. Not really.

I have said it before - - and I'm sure I'll say it again - - every time I think this White House can't sink any lower, they somehow exceed my expectations. I've come to a realization that there is nothing they won't / can't say. Or that they'll truly be held accountable for their words / actions.



The title image is purposeful. Hopefully whenever someone Goooooooogle's 'Spicer' that picture will come up.




Song by:  John Williams & Itzhak Perlman

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Airplane

I am sure you've all heard about, or seen, the United Airlines "incident" from yesterday.

I mean, W.T.F. ?????

You all seemed to comment, back in the day when I was a road worrier warrior, that you didn't know how I did it. Looking back on it, I'm not sure how I did either.

Parts of me really misses the travel. Most of me does not.

Even seeing the diagram of the plane with its available seating just made my stomach tighten up. I was the guy who knew my flight was at 06:23, so at 06:23 the morning before, I was checking into my flight and securing or changing my seat.............and then checking my status for upgrades. I was the obsessed business traveler.

Still, while the video - and the entire scenario are disturbing, at best - in a way it doesn't surprise me that much. Airline travel has devolved, much like US politics........think of United as the Dump of airways.

I see no PR way for United to get out of this unscathed. I mean, they already haven't, but I have to believe it will get worse. It's bad enough to be on end of  being bumped.......and worse if you're already on the plane (which is practically unheard of). But how do you recover when you got dragged off the fucking plane so one of your own employees can take the seat???

I'll assume it was a pilot who had to get to a location where they had none that were able to fly due to having met or exceeded their hours in air. Still.........it don't look good.

I love United saying they're 'trying to locate the passenger'.  Oh, they'd be finding me pretty easily, I suspect. And they won't be off the hook for less than 4 all you can fly for the rest of your life for free passes.............on Delta.





Song by: Widespread Panic

Monday, April 10, 2017

My Music Monday

Consecutive days of the week is the theme this month.  Erik said I was evil.  Erik, who made me do songs after 1990 about tattoos.  And I'm the one that's evil??

I started with Friday.  So I have Saturday, Sunday and Monday left in my rotation. While today is Monday, it's also Saturday.

I thought of being evil.....and doing the Bay City Rollers. But that means torturing myself too, so where's the fun in that?

I'm going with Crowded House, from their last album, Intriguer, which is somehow seven years old. It's not a bad album at all, but compared to some of the stellar work they'd done in the past, it's not a stand-out disk either.

Look at it this way:  you're not hearing the Bay City Rollers or Elton John's, "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting".

You can thank me later.

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Stuck in the Past

My word. It's 21:39 and I'm just starting to think about blogging for tomorrow today.

As I was contemplating a subject, I came upon a few old entries that I made the mistake of reading. I've mentioned before that touching on those is like going down a rabbit hole. Or a rat's nest. Depending.

I even read the comments - which made me smile and made me sad.

A frequent commenter was Birdie.  She has been gone for about two and one-half years. I just really enjoyed meeting with her, corresponding with her and her general support of my blog and other things in my life.

As I read through the post where I mentioned her death, I also saw the part where my friend Steven had recently been diagnosed with what was allegedly liver cancer. He fought valiantly for another two years, but he did pass away last November.

That was a little sadder to me, as our relationship was different than Birdie and myself. He and I talked, texted and emailed all throughout his treatment and up to his ultimate demise. Near the end it was texting only. And only when he had enough strength.

At one point, his family was texting me for him. They said he wasn't able to anymore and then that he was sleeping all the time. They said they'd let me know when he passed.

I'm still waiting for that call.

Being resourceful, I did check the Albany papers and found his obituary. I read the guestbook - it was all very nice and all very generic, though I don't know what I was actually expecting.

I've been thinking a lot about Steven these last few weeks for some reason. I got to say goodbye to him - many times. On a whim, I called his cell phone just so I could hear his voice - not knowing where his cellphone now resided (or if). Imagine my surprise when an old woman picked up. I immediately hung up.

Now, I suppose it could have been his mother, but I suspect his carrier has already recycled his cell number. In an odd way it helped bring some kind of closure.

So while I didn't actually have a topic for today, re-reading my own blog brought me one.



Song by: Aimee Mann

Saturday, April 08, 2017

How Do You Sleep?

Hopefully animal pictures will help us momentarily forget that we are counteracting the gassing of Syrian people by bombing the shit out the same country and people.

Dump was soooooo moved by the pictures of the men, women and children who were affected by said gas attack - the same ones he enacted the two failed travel bans against - that he just had to take matters into his own hand and let loose his destruction. The same kind of action he warned Obama not to do.

If there is such a thing as double or triple irony, this guy has it.

Now we'll watch SCRTOUS' approval rating surge from 35% to 38%.

Until then, we can watch Shep's approval rating skyrocket from 99.6% to 99.9% (3% margin or error............NOT!)

Sorry, no Soph this week.

When he crashes....he crashes hard.....and takes up the entire bed. 
...but it turns out, he's moveable. 

Lazy indoor squirrel watching. 

.....until he sees something. 

The few times I ever take naps, now it seems I have to share a sofa. 
Sure, I was curled up into a little ball and not stretched out, but.......totally worth it. 




Song by: John Lennon

Friday, April 07, 2017

Time Won't Let Me

Freshman year of college, I admittedly took Math 104 ......twice.


One could attribute that foible to me being bad at math.......which I kind of was, but equal part blame could be placed on excessive alcohol intake and my inability to make it to West Campus due to said alcohol intake.

The thing with math and me: I always got the concept of the subject..........after the test.

It was a cycle I had, and one in which I had an extremely hard time breaking. Looking back on it all, I suppose it was possible I had ADD or some such leaning disability. Tutors never seemed to help.

Anyhoooo........I always found it quite comical that I'm now in charge of tens of millions of dollars in budgets and that I base most of my day on certain statistics, in reports that I run, analyze and from which I base future growth and strategy.

Not only do I no longer have an aversion to mathematics and stats, but fully embrace it. And more importantly, I understand it.

The people at Time, seem to be me.........back in Mount Hall.....in 1981.  They don't grab the concept of percentages............or the word 'almost'.


Don't worry Time-folks. I eventually got it. You will too.



Song by: the Outsiders

Thursday, April 06, 2017

Rape Me

Oh. My. Fucking. G-d.

This is brilliant. Pure comedy gold.

GOLD, I tellz ya.

....and I'd be laughing harder, if underneath the surface it wasn't all so fucking tragic.

Well....tragic for anyone who isn't a FOX or SCROTUS supporter.....who are just shrugging their shoulders and thinking 'what's the big deal?'.

I snickered, just six days ago, when without any sense of irony, Dump acknowledged National Sex Abuse Awareness Month.

"Grab her by the pussy", indeed.

Four days after that, he's defending Bill O'FuckingReilly.


I'm repeating it again: Dump had the balls to proclaim April to be National Sex Abuse Awareness Month!!!!!

I mean - who better than a predator himself?


And of course he is backing O'Reilly. While people might have thought before that FOX "News" was in bed with the GOP, well now, the White House and Murdoch & Co are just performing non-stop, around the clock (I said 'clock!)  annilingus on each other.

And old white guy defending an old white guy.  How original.

Let's assume that Dump doesn't know the facts of the story. I mean, he doesn't seem to know facts. Period. So why would he be so well informed this time?  But this is a man who is paying out $25M for Dump University fraud claims, without admitting guilt.   So $13M {known} payments from FOX don't imply guilt in SCROTUSville {population: 1}.  Still, should he be so cavalier to presume innocence on someone so quickly?  It's not like O'Reilly has the best fucking track record, he's got his own recorded exploits, like Dump. They both have patterns.

I'm surprised that Dump didn't nominate Bill Cosby to head the FDA with his vast knowledge of roofies. What a wasted opportunity.

So, GOP women - you twats who voted for this D-bag - I'm having less and less sympathy for you. I certainly not saying 'you deserved it' when you a bunch of guys in a bar surround you while you're on your back taking on a train, and hearing the chant "1-2-3-4 nail that pussy to the floor".

But you GOP women looked away with his Billy Bush pussy grabbing comments. You ignored the stories of him walking in on under aged girls changing their clothes. You laughed off the creepiness of saying he'd date his own daughter. You know for a fact that he fucked around on his wives (at least two of them). He's degraded women publicly on their looks......or because of their looks.

So, while you GOP women might not have deserved to be raped, or grabbed, abused (be it physically, emotionally or verbally) or demeaned and assaulted......you're as much a part of the problem as Dump is.  You pulled the lever for him. And that's not a euphemism.

He showed you he is a sexual abuser. It's on tape. Now a sexual abuser is defending a sexual abuser - saying he did nothing wrong. He's not saying he didn't do it. He's saying "it's NOT wrong!".

If you think his words and actions do not matter, think again. Now men can, will and have emulate(d) this behaviour.

Yes, you might not deserve what you get, but you did kind of asked for it......last November 8th.



Song by: Nirvana  (yes, I've already used this before, but it works)

Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Middle of the Night

This is just getting out of control.

So I woke at my usual 05:00 time (well, it's now Shep time - as no matter when he goes to bed, he wants to get up and out at 05:00), and as I am "getting ready", I am looking at my emails.

Lo and behold there is one from 0:20 from the neighbor across the street saying something vague enough, but clear enough:

"if the telephone pole wasn't already down, the person last night would have taken it down".

It was still too dark to go out and check, so Shep and I went about our walk, and then in for b'fast.

Leaving for work, the sun was still below the horizon, but I could spot something shiny in the ivy - I even told 710 it was probably a headlight.

Further emails mentioned that a car went across that cement island (though they missed hitting all the signs), across the other lane and up - almost - into our yard. The neighbor mentioned it seemed like they hit something dead-on that stopped the automobile.

I'm guessing they hit the end of the telephone pole that is still laying on the hill.....and the outward facing end has lots of metal from the semi-left street light fixtures. Oh - and that tree that they hit.

As you'd expect, all occupants were gone before the po-po arrived. Fled. Again. The stolen car / outstanding warrant / drunk-high / no insurance - license ratio to accidents in the 216 must be sky high.

And apparently the po-po had the car pulled from our property and taken away.

So, I guess my question is this:  isn't there some responsibility of the police department to somehow inform you there has been an accident at your residence and that they brought in equipment which damages your property?  Cuz I have yet to hear from them.

Still - two {known} accidents in the last eight days is excessive, even for us.

710 and I differ on how to protect the property. He doesn't want to pay for large stones / boulders. I kind of want the drivers to be maimed by large immovable rocks.

....and I have taken the path less traveled, and it has made all the difference.

Silly 710 thinks we should lobby for a guardrail at the cement island, as cars will "bounce off it" and get back into traffic. I don't think cars going 50-70 mph will "bounce" back into traffic. I think we'd just end up with a big chunk of guardrail in on our hill.

I suppose tomorrow I'll call city hall and see what they plan to do about the increase in accidents - if anything. I suspect the runaround, as we straddle two cities, no one wants to respond to emergency calls, it's highly doubtful either will want to pick up the tab.

More to come...........no doubt.




Song by: Loudon Wainwright III