Screw this.

Posted by: Ted at 08:09 PM | category: Square Pegs
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George W.Bush, of course, represents a particular kind of offence to European sensibilities. He blew out Kyoto, instead of pretending to care about it and then not implementing it, which is what our hypocrisies require.   --  David Aaronovitch

Posted by: Ted at 10:01 PM | category: Tagline Archive
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From Random Nuclear Strikes.

According to the UN:

..self-defense is not a right, but is a limited excuse for violating the rights of the criminal.

Posted by: Ted at 01:12 AM | category: Links
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Just in case you were wondering whether I'm still watching the flicks, here's a preview that's got me watching the calendar.

3 Bad Girls, 1 Desert, 1 Supercharged Thunderbird, 1,473 Exotic Weapons, 1 Ruthless Crimelord, $206 Million in Stolen Goods, A Cop Who May Not be a Cop, Hundreds More Cops who are Cops (Maybe...), 317 Mercenaries, A Pair of Mentally Challeneged Contract killers, 1 Device that could snuff out life on Earth, Impromptu Wet T-Shirt Spectaculars, Existential Stirng Theory, Serveral pairs of "Pouty Puss" Underwear, Girl on Girl...On Girl...Fighting, Nasty Nuns, Circus Freaks, A sword wielding psychopath, Elvis Impersonators, 1 Creepy Pre-Schooler, Hot Women in bars, Hotter women behing bars, 4 psychotropic drug trips, a cavalcade of Horny strippers, Ferrari vs. Porsche vs. Yugo, Deadly sex torys, Feral Feminists in G-Strings, Savage Bikini Waxing, One badass hearse, The Department of Homeland Security, Vegas Porn Stars, A spirited round of Honduran snuff sex, international intrique, death and dismemborment, Celebrity cameos, one pissed off midget, The Greatest chick fight in cinema history, Genorous amounts of Mouth-Watering Female Flesh, More cleveage than you shake a stick at and Kidney-rattling Erotic Displays of Carnal prowess heretofor Unimagined...

Greatest Trailer ever

Posted by: Ted at 11:31 PM | category: Cult Flicks
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Subtitled "Directing monarch butterflies to urban food sources along migratory routes in North America", this is science that works.

Very cool.

Posted by: Ted at 08:23 PM | category: SciTech
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For all those tools and gadgets that are good for one thing and one thing only, check out Unclutterer, specifically their Unitasker Wednesday category.

Hilarious stuff.

Posted by: Ted at 09:21 PM | category: Links
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New category, for bits of fiction.  I'd appreciate any feedback you'd care to share.

Clowns

more...

Posted by: Ted at 02:18 AM | category: Flinging Ink
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Our Potomac Nationals handily won their division for the first half of the season.  Unfortunately, that means more than half of the team (and practically every starter) has been called up to AA or AAA ball.

This second half is gonna be interesting.

Posted by: Ted at 08:17 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Last year, I made a deliberate decision to slow down.  Not so much to do less, but to do more simply.  Part of it was an unhappiness with my life, but also an unhappiness with the way I was living my life.  Too much stress.  Too much seriousness.  And too much giving, to the point where I was neglecting myself.  You have to take care of yourself, pamper yourself even, if you're going to thrive while still giving of yourself to others.

You can judge for yourself when I went all introspective, because that's about the time when Rocket Jones slowed down.

One of my resolutions was to write more often.  As in "write", as in pen and paper.  My mother was a horrible letter writer, it was easier to pick up the phone.  I take after her, to the point that even firing off an email seems a chore sometimes.

So I've taken to writing again.  Real letters, on fine paper, using honest to goodness fountain pens.  I have a nice little collection of pens and ink started, nothing very expensive, all what are considered "budget" pens.  I may write about them in the future, mini-reviews if you will, or I might never get around to it.  I don't know.

But, if anyone would like an old-fashioned pen pal, or someone to exchange an occasional snail mail with, well, drop me an email (hey, I'm not a fanatic).  You know the address:  RocketJones *at* gmail *dot* yourpants *dot* com.  Remove your pants before sending, you know the drill.  Yes, that amuses me.

So, what good has the more relaxed pace done?  Well, for the fourth straight year I've lost weight.  Not a great deal in any one year, but the downward trend has continued and that makes me happy.  Last year my doctor put me on a minimum dosage of a mild blood pressure medicine (I was at the high end of the normal range).  During my last visit, my blood pressure was back down to where it should be, and there's talk that if I can keep dropping the pounds and keep up with the stress reduction, then I can quit taking the medicine altogether.  Worthwhile goal, methinks.

More reading, less web surfing.  More organization, less clutter.  That sort of thing.

Seriously though, about the pen pals.

Posted by: Ted at 12:35 AM | category: Lifetoys
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Liz and I are headed to West Virginia this weekend for our 27th anniversary and to see Rachael.  She's working with a professional theater company for the summer, so we're going to see a couple of shows during the run.  This weekend is West Side Story, and we'll see The Producers in a few weeks.

Since Rachael is one of those starving college kids who's way too busy to eat right, we're taking some goodies to her.  Liz made an enormous pot of Maryland BBQ last night, and a goodly portion is freezing solid as we speak, ready to do double duty as ice block for the rest of her comestibles.  I made some banana nut bread and a batch of rum/apple biscotti, a container of home made pasta salad, some curry rice, plus we're packing assorted canned fruits and good-for-you snacks.  She's been living off of carrot salad and sandwiches, so this will make for a nice change for her.

Dang, now I'm hungry.

Posted by: Ted at 11:56 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Nic got some great photos of the fireworks this weekend.  Not Independence Day, *everyone* does fireworks then.  These are from July 5th, at the baseball game.  Check out her album too.

Posted by: Ted at 12:18 AM | category: Links
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Taken from a moving car during our trip to Arizona this Spring.

The Saguaro only live in a limited range of elevations, so as you move further north into the mountains, they suddenly disappear from the landscape.

Also, they're protected.  Any new road construction features several of these cacti transplanted and being supported by 2x4 frameworks.   It's illegal to dig one up or kill it, even if it's on your own property.

Posted by: Ted at 10:21 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Bunnies are better for my blood pressure.

Long-time readers know that we have three house rabbits.  Fred and Java are a bonded pair, and Ozzie is a confirmed bachelor.  Over the weekend we decided to rework the living arrangements.

Under the old way, we had two two-story cages stacked on top of each other (on stilts, so there was a hideaway underneath too).  Fred and Java lived in the downstairs cage and we left their door open all the time so they could run around.  They were confined to a large pen that was connected to the cages.

Oz, on the other hand, has the run of the floor, except that we have to pick him up and put him down outside the pen to run around.  We also had to pick him up to put him away at night.

It all worked well enough, but we seldom saw Fred and Java because they'd spend most of their time chillin' under the cages in the hideaway.  They don't need much in the way of human attention because they have each other.  Another problem was the large pen area, Liz wanted the floor space back.

So far, everyone seems to like the new setup much better.  Fred and Java now have the top three floors, connected by ramps.  They've got more room for toys and can get away from each other for alone time, plus we can see them now.  Pets aren't much fun if you can't enjoy their company at least once in a while, and we're hoping the more frequent socializing with us will make them less aloof.

Ozzie has the bottom floor to himself, and we just leave the cage door open during the day.  He's got the hideaway if he wants it, but so far he's just been running around the floor lovin' life, or sprawling in front of his favorite A/C vent.  He's still getting the hang of jumping in and out of his cage though.  We keep the hay bin in the front as a kind of porch or balcony.  Fred and Java were Gazelles when they jumped up or down, they had long experience at it.  So far, Oz is more like an Ostrich landing in a birdbath.  Loud and clumsy, but getting it done.  He'll improve with practice, I'm sure.

Yep, beats politics, at least according to the fuzzy goof who's snuggling my foot, begging for attention.  I think he's got something there.

Posted by: Ted at 08:12 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Announcement at tonight's baseball game.  Heh.

Posted by: Ted at 04:25 AM | category: Square Pegs
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All Jehovah's Witnesses would be required to sell Amway.  That way we would only have to slam the door once on weekend mornings.

Posted by: Ted at 02:02 AM | category: Square Pegs
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