The Christmas Photo 2006

Eight Point Buck

Yes, I bagged my first white-tail deer a couple Tuesdays ago. An impressive specimen, but I did not have a camera with me. Instead, here's the weapon that killed it, and for the record, he attacked me.

That's $4708.30 of damage there, according to the estimate the body shop gave the insurance company. The driver's door took the most direct hit, and the window sprayed the front seat pretty thoroughly. I received minor cuts on my fingers, removing glass from my lap and climbing out the passenger side, then back in and out a few times. No other personal damage is evident, though I'm always on the lookout for excuses relating to mental and behavioral shortcomings... Well, it's supposed to be all repaired and ready for pickup tomorrow. We shall see. It'll be nice to have it back.

Quote of the Day

"Like all good ideas, elephant polo came about as a result of a few too many drinks in a bar one evening."

(Several Deep Thoughts from Jack Handey were also in the running, but the irrefutable assurance of universality expressed in this quotation make it the clear champion. Just the same, remember that if you lose your job, your marriage and your mind all in one week, try to lose your mind first, because then the other stuff won't matter that much.)

Another Reason To Read Achewood

Chris Onstad's Golf Memoirs.

...By the fifth or sixth hole we were doing all the usual stuff they edit out of PGA coverage: peeing while walking sideways down the fairway, aiming at houses, yelling at cats, and flicking coins at each other in mid-swing. Also: teeing off empty bottles of Sierra Nevada, making plans to go pistol shopping together, and promising to open a calzone restaurant together ("...and why the hell not!"). I can't remember if we played all nine holes, or if we just wandered back to his place at a convenient break in the fence...

It's Also A Mobile mp3 Player!

My new car, in its natural habitat, one of the last cars in the parking lot at work:



As for the headline, the stereo does include a line input for external sources such as iPods, which is cool, but the CD player will also play mp3 CD-R's, which is an acceptable alternative to a CD changer in terms of having several hours of music randomly accessible. Last week I figured out that this will also give me the opportunity to listen to a mess of podcasts on my commute that I've accumulated but never found the time to absorb. Actually listening to someone (or several people) talk doesn't quite make it when I'm trying to get some work done. I don't ususally walk around the house with headphones on, either, so playing a Talk CD-RW instead of listening to Talk Radio in the car is working pretty well this week.

I'm about half way through the dozen or so Instapundit / Instawife "Glenn & Helen Show" podcasts I cleared off the hard drive onto a CD-RW. (Along with the Barry Lyndon soundtrack, an Island records sampler called Bumpers, Dave Cousins' Two Weeks Last Summer, Cat Stevens' Mona Bone Jakon, the Doors' Other Voices and a preview single from the next Who album I threw on for the occasional necessary change of pace.)

The thing plays wma's in addition to mp3's, but I suspect it won't handle m4a's, so I'll have to manage listening to Lileks' The Diner podcasts some other way. Once I get through a backlog of TMBG, Coverville, Ricky Gervais, and Althouse. There's people out there making Dylan's Theme Time Radio available to folks lacking satellite radios, too. And there's almost a half a Gigabyte of DGM Hot Tickles and Firesign Theatre Archival Podcasts awaiting further attention, too. If gas prices were lower, I might start looking for a longer commute!

Finally, just to complete the panorama, here's the stacks of pallets casting the late afternoon shadows in the previous picture:



Panoramic photos created using "Autostich" software.

Pre-Flight Announcemnent

...Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate...

My New Car

Recent Photo

Marheine Photos

My Grandfather and Dad, circa 1918...



Extracted from an oval Family Portrait (under a strange semi-domed egg-shaped piece of glass) that I didn't get real good digital captures from. A little sloppy editing and retouching by myself. Improved version is a project for another day. Hopefully I can spend less time eliminating reflections and spend more trying to build a flat version of the picture and fixing scratches, tears and spots. The water damage will be a challenge, though. Thanks to Edwin and Zona Schufletowski for bringing it to Brantwood last weekend!

Reginald Kenneth Dwight

Empty Sky is Elton John's first album. The self-titled LP with the hit "Your Song" was first to be released in the USA, but was, in fact his second album. Just thought you might want to know.

(A totally different cover design was used when MCA eventually released it in the USA, after he'd become a big star and huge commercial success...)

The title of this post, by the way, is the dude's birth name. He legally adopted the moniker Elton Hercules John sometime in the late 70's, I believe. "Elton" after saxophone player Elton Dean and "John" after singer Long John Baldry. "Hercules" comes from the song of the same name ("...A cat named Hercules...") on the Honky Chateau album.

Memorial Day 2006

Tom Verlaine

Shortly after learning that TV put out an album I never heard of called The Wonder back in 1990, I learn that he also put out two albums (one totally instrumental, one not) last month. Yow!

What Are You Looking At?

What's New?

Not much that I have time to write about, I guess.