Stars and Stripes and a Church and a Droid

It's here! For the first time in three years, we get to add an extra second to a day. This 'leap second' will be tacked on at 11:59:59pm GMT (although that is 5pm PST), making the last minute of the day 61 seconds long. So what, you may be asking? Last time we did this, Reddit and Gawker briefly crashed, and Qantas Airways had to cancel 400 flights due to a glitch in booking. So, if the day feels long, now you know why.

Many of you probably have a pet that sheds hair. Many of you wish there was an easy way to pick up all that hair from your floor, couch, pants leg, etc. Break out that tennis ball. Put on your dishwashing gloves. Blow up that unused balloon. Those should work, and there are even more surprising ideas in the article.

How come my skies don't look like this? These photos are 2 of the 20 in an article about capturing the cosmic elements and tying them to the earthly surroundings. Pretty cool for me.

Here's a question to ponder or maybe even ruminate about. What if Star Wars was kind of real. By that, I mean what if we had those types of space ships nowadays? And what if some crashed on Earth? This artist decided to create photos depicting these sad endings to famous Star Wars ships.

Don't believe in all that stuff? No? Then why is there a communication manual for R2 units?

I found this on the interweb the other day:
"I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 21-day diet in 3 hours and 12 minutes"


I also came across this list of comments that kids make about grandparents. I will share just a couple of them now to whet your appetite.
Usually grandmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes.

They can take their teeth and gums out.

From the now-legendary Reunion File, here are a couple of shots of the church that my grandparents attended, and where my great-grandfather was once pastor. It still looks the same as I remember. The parsonage over on the left was rebuilt after a tornado tore it down in early 1948.

As you can imagine, I have been there many times, and I do not remember it EVER looking like this tourism postcard.

Well, let's wrap this baby up and put her to bed. Oh wait, I do have one more item to share. I am sharing a comic from my first year, and not updating it. I couldn't really create good characters for them, and this tells the story sufficiently.

Now, for reals, it's time for the day with an extra second to get started. I'll be back tomorrow (plus one second).

Today's Far Out Post

Are you a 'streaming' listener or do you listen to your own library of songs? As of now, I do not plan to listen to Apple's new streaming service (Beats 1), and I rarely listen to Pandora, even though I do have some stations set up in there. I do not plan to utilize Songza or Tidal. I have 10K of owned material that pretty much reflects my preferences. I do take some of my son's music to sample, but his tastes are a bit more broad. What do you do?

Now, if it is a truly 'far out' listening experience you want, maybe there is a Denver station that can meet your need. The radio station at Smokin’ 94.1, which includes DJ’s named Mary Jane, Ed Blaze, Stoney Reynolds and the owner Gary Ganja, started on June first. Its marijuana themed from what goes out over-the-air down to the décor inside the office space and, for now, it’s still commercial free. I did not check to see if it is available over the interweb, but that would be 'far out', indeed.

You know what's far out? Today's Clarity of Vision, because it comes from the weird open spaces in my mind. Today, I wonder about people saying they have a decent amount of something.

Another far out occurrence in the world right now is Greece shutting down its banks and stock exchange. Would you that you nervous if the US were to do it? Of course, it would. In fact, it is likely this will still affect the US stock market. Greeks are limited to 60Euro ($66) withdrawals per day. Could you make it on that? Remember, that is the total you can pull for the entire day, so food, gas, entertainment, bill would all have to be paid from that. Whew!

Another far out happening this past weekend was that I got t-boned. Yup, I was on my home Friday night and was pulling into a turn lane when a car ran into the passenger door. It seems that the stopped lanes to the right of the turn lane left open a space so she could pull through. Well, I didn't see her coming and, "BAM". I pulled into the next side road and searched for the insurance information. When I walked back onto the main road where we hit, she was gone (I say she, but I am not 100% sure of that. Maybe 60% sure since I only glanced in that direction for a moment). I called the police and they said that because she left, it was a criminal hit-and-run.

Did I mention that it was quite warm and VERY humid at the reunion last week? I snapped this shot of how the room mirror fogged up when we opened the hotel room door. Our glasses did, too, but this illustrates how much more humid it was outside at 9am compared to the level in our room after A/C all night.

It was a bit cooler (but no less humid) when we hopped onto the boat for a cruise around the bayou. This shot shows members of four of the families attending this year.

MBH likes many of the true crime stories. She might like this article detailing the escape of those two criminals a couple of weeks ago. I started it, but haven't read the whole thing yet. And a related story describes why normal Americans are fascinated with that genre and these real-life criminal tales.

Who went to the movies this weekend? I did. We went to see Jurassic World and really enjoyed it. Even the kids did OK. Yahoo notes that 'Jurassic World, one of the biggest box-office sensations in history, grossed $54.2 million in its third outing to hit $500 million, becoming only the fifth film to earn $500 million or more domestically. The others are The Dark Knight ($534.9 million), The Avengers ($623.4 million), Titanic ($658.7 million) and Avatar ($760.5 million). To boot, it’s now the top-grossing film of 2015 to date after overtaking Avengers: Age of Ultron ($451.2 million).'

Drop and give me… 82? Yahoo is sharing a list of 82 variations of push-ups in this article. Ever tried a spiderman push-up (see No. 15 below!)? How about an alligator (No. 13) or a jackknife push-up (No. 34)? There might be no end to the different spins (and cool names) you can give this classic exercise, but they've brought you 82 options, arranged into five categories: beginner, intermediate, explosive, expert, and equipment-based.

OK, it's Monday and the week is starting to intrude already. I'll see you on the most productive day of the week.

Are You a Blog Lover?

Are you an ice cream lover? Do you have a favorite brand? Many people swear by Ben & Jerry's. I do not eat ice cream, so maybe I would swear AT it. No, not really. Anyway, Kristin Hunt, a writer for Yahoo!, taste-tested all 41 flavors. Not to spoil the surprise, but Red Velvet Cake ranked the lowest. And I think you can guess where Vanilla landed. Nope, it was #39. Chubby Hubby landed in the 21st spot. And the winner is ... shown in the article.

Are you a pizza lover? Do you prefer a nationwide chain or a local Mom-and-Pop place? Would you go to a place where you walked down a line and chose your own ingredients, then wait while it cooks? What if it cost less than $8? Pieology is doing just that. Maybe I will hit one of their stores one day.

Are you a home-cooked food lover? I keep seeing recipes for roasting your own chickpeas and I keep thinking I should do that. I want to, really. And this version looks easy and tasty, but I probably won't do anything about it.

Are you an elevator lover? Would you still love them if they never stopped, making you have to time your entrance and exit perfectly so you don't trip or bump your head? If so, then Germany has just what you are looking for. Named after the Lord’s Prayer, about 250 “paternoster” elevators still operate in Germany. The cabins, only large enough to hold one or two people at a time, have no doors. They move up and down through the building shaft in a continuous loop, and every few seconds, another cabin comes to each floor

Are you a basketball lover? Did you know that the NBA held its 2015 draft already? Me, neither. Do you want to know how USA Today thinks each team did? Me, neither. BTW, they gave our team a B.

Are you an Apple lover? Not the fruit, the technology company. I confess I am, and that made me interested in the origin of the 'command' symbol on the keyboard. Check it out here.

Have you ever noticed my reference to CPA Cuz? Well, here he is with me at the fish camp last week. Keep him in your prayers as he undergoes treatment for liver and pancreatic cancer.

Are you a humidity lover? Or would you choose a dry heat? I prefer the latter. Which reminds me, did I mention it was hot and muggy at the reunion? Here is the son of another of my cousins showing me how he copes with the summer. I liked this shot because of him resting in the hammock, and I thought it was especially nice with the lake and the lamp in the background.

And here is another cousin showing me how to 'drop net' fish. Actually, he could still use a little practice.

Are you on Facebook and adding items to Throwback Thursday? This is tangentially related to that concept. In a surprise move (even to myself), I am going to reprint a 2009 CoV exactly as it was made back then using Microsoft Visio and not bitstrips.com. Why? It involved presidents and my inability to create believable depictions of them in the new tool. My challenge back then was that most jokes had to be delivered through words since the figures had no features.

To understand that last panel, I hope that you remember (from MeTV, maybe?) the theme song to The Jeffersons. And in the third panel, I was referring to Roosevelt famously using the term 'bully'. Back in the second panel, I was commenting on Lincoln's beard not including a mustache. Hey, I should not have to explain my comics in such detail. Ignore this paragraph, please.

Enough. I have things to do and places to go and people to see. However, I am at work already, so I'll do some of that, too. Have a great weekend.

Custer and Spock and Gordon and Louie

Today is the day that Gen. George Custer and his men were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana in 1876. I don't think I have ever traveled to the Black Hills, Montana. Have you?

Interesting article on considering the Confederate flag to be as taboo as the Nazi swastika. Yeah, maybe it IS time to put it all behind us.

What? Spock without his pointy ears? That would certainly be a departure from the original.

Raise your hand if you are surprised that the majority of restaurants 'saved' by Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares are now closed. It's too bad, but not too surprising.

While we didn't spend a lot of time outdoors at the reunion, we did often sit on my aunt and uncle's back porch. So, why aren't there any photos of that? I thought I took some, but I cannot find any on my phone. That's right. I said 'phone'. I did take my camera, but I did NOT take the camera battery. And their local Walmart did not sell DSLR batteries. So, the phone was the designated camera. Here is a shot of a bunch of us at the fish camp at Bayou Louie.

And here are some more of us.

And even more of us.

We are coming up on Independence Day (the date, not the movie). So, here is a classic CoV to get us in the mood. See you soon.

The Old Homestead

So, all you fellow reunioners, how was your first day back at work? I survived mine, and you know what? Another workdays showed up this morning. As I have noted many times before, at least I still have a job in this day and age when so many are losing theirs.

One of the art works in Aunt Martha's house was a painting of my grandparent's home painted in 1979 (the art was painted. I don't know about the house). There were a couple of liberties taken (a missing fence, the pitch of the roof), but it came out very nice and certainly shows the place as I remember it.

While we were there, we went by and actually looked at the old homestead. See the tree in front of the house on the left side in the painting above? It has taken over the front yard, as you can see here. I stayed on the road to take these photos (since we don't know the new owners).

The place has a new name, though. It does still have the cattle guard there at the road, which I certainly remember. We played out there many a day. I Googled the name Mini Acres Farm, but nothing shows up, so it may be a personal name for the place but not a legal one.

Take a look at this next clipping from an article about great underrated adventure spots. It shows a cool looking waterfall near Flagstaff, AZ. Yeah, we went looking for that one year. It turns out that it only runs certain times of the year and only after a big rain (which makes the road out to it somewhat treacherous). As for the other places in the article, we have been to a couple of them.

And Arizona makes a second appearance in a Yahoo story this morning in saying that the Grand Canyon is on the list of America's 11 most endangered historic places. So is a tribal site near Superior. And even the Ft Worth Stockyards.

Otherwise, though, I am not finding anything fun in my scan of major web sites. While it does shorten today's blog post, it also means I can get to work-related stuff early today. A bit of a mixed blessing if you ask me...not that anyone did.

Oh. One more thing.

OK. NOW I am finished.

On (And Off) The Road Again

I am off the road again as of last night, and I am glad. Traveling is fun, but so is getting home and sleeping in your own bed.

Where were we? We went to the annual family reunion in Central Louisiana. Well, the reunion is annual, but our participation is not. I think this was our first time to attend in five years. We had a good time, visited with family members, ate way too much, suffered through the humidity, took a few photos (way too few since I had taken my camera BUT NOT THE BATTERY, and resolved not to wait five years before going back. Here are some of us sitting around the 'fish camp' over near the Mississippi border on Bayou Louie.

And some more of us waiting on the fish to fry.

And here is where we were for the fish fry (including catfish, bream, and perch).

I will tell you about how the USGA Open plays into our weekend on another day.

I did not know that regional potato chips were so...regional. Take a look at these choices and see if they match up to those you find in your neighborhood grocery store. When were at the reunion, we did not have any of the Zapp's chips.

Do you microwave leftovers? Of course, you do. Who doesn't? Anyway, what if it could heat different foods at different levels on the same plate? What if it could keep pizza crust crunchy? That may all be coming soon to a kitchen near you thanks to Freescale Semiconductor (a spin-off of Motorola). Sounds intriguing, right? Read a tiny bit more here.

Obamacare, anyone? What do you think the Supreme Court will decide about the states without their own exchanges? I cannot imagine they will do something that would derail this health care initiative.

Which movie character would you vote for as the greatest of all time? In a poll taken by the UK Movie Group, the winner was.... No, no spoilers here. I will say that it was not Bond... James Bond. And to the sadness of SS, it was also not Fight Club’s Tyler Durden.

I am sooo far behind at work, and I have been jumping back and forth between blog writing and email reading, so I am leaving you for today. I have got to get some idea of where everything is before the 8am status call. There will be more news and fun and photos tomorrow.

A long time ago in a blog far, far away....

I wrote long ago about remembering how interesting it was to hear a lawyer teach a Sunday School lesson about Paul's defense on Mars Hill. I remember him talking about the way Paul presented his case, mentioning a defense point and then using it later to spring a 'trap' on the assembled group. Anyway, I was reminded of that when I saw a headline this morning about a paleontologist reviewing the movie Jurassic World. "The raptors hold their hands wrong, the mosasaur is too big, the T. rex moves too fast, the colors of the dinosaurs look too much like crocodiles and not enough like birds. And that’s just a taster."

I also just saw that China just screened the original Star Wars for the first time. That's funny, because I saw it "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

Another thing I learned today is that Unfrosted Pop-Tarts have more calories than frosted ones. Their crust is thicker to compensate for the lack of frosting. Too bad, because, if I were to eat them, I prefer the unfrosted ones.

We haven't done a "pick your art" challenge in a while. Take a look at these thumbnail shots. Remember, you have to choose one for your house. Which would you pick? I would choose the aspens first, and the lake reflection photo second. However, something about the painting on the middle right draws my attention.

Do you remember hearing about the earthquake that stuck Nepal (and Mt Everest) earlier this year. How bad was it? It turns out that it moved Mount Everest three centimetres (just over an inch) to the southwest, but did not change its height, according to Chinese research published on Tuesday. And the densely populated Kathmandu Valley, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) southeast of the epicentre, moved south by nearly two metres during the quake. That is crazy stuff, my friends.

Let's look back at a classic CoV from July, 2009, before we continue.

My health insurance this year is just horrible. So, when I can, I will always choose generics over brand names. And if there is an over-the-counter (OTC) option, even better. But...which one is better? Do you ask the pharmacist? Here are a number of their picks. Hint: Claritin is the go-to, before Zyrtec, Allegra Allergy or any others. Hint #2: Advil beats Excedrin and Tylenol for headache relief.

Shemika Charles once set the record for lowest limbo dancing, contorting her body to pass under a pole 8.5 inches above the ground. As this video demonstrates, she can limbo under a parked car. She is pretty amazing, I must admit. Yes, I MUST.

Enough for today. I am not sure what will happen the next couple of days as I will be away from the blog-making news desk. So, there will either be something or nothing. That's fairly definitive, isn't it? And you cannot say that isn't true. See ya in St Louis, screwy.

What Do Moby Dick and Cupid Have In Common? Keep Reading to Find Out

Where did the name of a nationwide coffee shop come up with its name? According to this article, it was pulled from a famour Herman Melville novel. Have you guessed the name of the shop and the novel's name? OK, The name was inspired by Moby-Dick “Starbucks” refers to the first mate in that Herman Melville book you never quite finished in high school. Looking back, it might seem like an unusual namesake, but the original idea was much stranger. Bowker first suggested they name the place after the Moby-Dick whaling ship, the Pequod. Thankfully, clearer (or more caffeinated?) minds prevailed.

Have you seen Jurassic World? We haven't, but we do want to. Anyway, you probably saw that it has become the record holder for the biggest opening in movie history, just inching past The Avengers. It earned $209 million in one weekend.

Do you drink much soda? I am talking either full-strength or diet. I hardly ever do. Anyway, it seems soft drink sales are plummeting in general. PepsiCo is investing in healthier options to keep up with them and announced a new line of carbonated craft beverages called "Stubborn Soda." The line is made up of six natural flavors, including black cherry with tarragon, root beer, lemon berry acai, agave vanilla cream, orange hibiscus, and pineapple cream, with no high-fructose corn syrup.

These people had some clever ideas on how to interact with statues. Have you ever done something like that? We have taken the occasional shot over the years, but I liked these.

OK, CoV time.

Deep-fried coffee? Turns out, it tastes..., well, not as good as your Venti Latte.

OK, I've said enough (and you can add more words to that if you know the R.E.M. song Losing My Religion). Either way, I am moving on with my day.

Want to Know Two Things I Am Not Doing?

What was I thinking? I looked at the painting below (I saw it on Houzz) and thought it could go in our gray bedroom. Thought #2 was that it was expensive, so I wouldn't buy it anyway. Thought #3 was that I could probably paint a knockoff of it if I really wanted something like that in the bedroom. Thought #4 was that thought #3 was stupid. I don't have time to even look at houzz.com right now, much less think about learning how to paint and then trying to duplicate this inspiration. Thought #5 was that I have used too many thoughts on this already.

Looking for content to share, the majority of articles on Yahoo seem to be around the Game of Thrones season 5 finale. And just because of the teasers and photos, I have already learned more than I want since we haven't watched it yet. If you want to be surprised, stay away from entertainment and news sites until you finish the season.

Hey, Preacher Bro. I may have made some claims that were not completely true in the past. I think this one IS true, though. Check this Pinterest page out for some free fonts. It sure looks like the majority are free (notice how I am already fudging my claims. I can't check it again from here at work).

I am not looking to start any renovation activities at the old homestead, but this bedroom shelving unit came out nice. Check out what this enterprising dude came up with starting with the IKEA PAX system. The article says they started with a big wardrobe that kind of dominated the space, but without as much storage. This is kind of true for us. Still, not right now.

How about a quick trip into Mapland. We did live in Mexico for a while, but I didn't remember that it took up the whole continent of South America. In fact, I didn't remember it was even IN South America (hint: it's not).

This is a totally not-based-on-reality comic. This would never happen at our house. It certainly has nothing to do with me seeing a washcloth in the trash this morning.

OK, I am tired of looking for stuff to share. And I need to get a little something done before my 8am call. Let's visit again soon.

Snape Hunting

I do not have any photos to share, but I did look back through one of my photo books and decided to pull a few pages. The book is from 2009, so even if you saw the photos, you might not remember their arrangement on the page. Let's start with a page entitled 'Fences'. Sorry, it is a bit fuzzy.

Next, let's see some 'Wide Open Spaces'.

The third of today's photos is some shots from Canyonlands.

And finally, several shots capturing the Fall colors of Colorado.

While we are on the subject of vacations, does the trip home after a vacation seem shorter than the same drive to get there? It seems you are not alone, and researchers are trying to explain why that is. Read this for (a little) enlightenment.

And now, this may be required reading if you ever plan on appearing on Survivor.

Are any of you having Harry Potter withdrawal since the books have been written and the movies all released? Apparently, the characters are also getting a little bored, so at least one of them has gone back to work. At American Airlines. You can see the photo below and read more about this guy here.

Well, I am out of material and time. See you next week. No, wait. I do have one more thing to share before our time together ends.

Book 'Em, Danno

I don't really have any new photos to share right now. However, as I was digging around through my computer, I came across this shot from a photo book a few years ago. I kind of like this arrangement.

We are looking towards a family reunion in Ouray sometime soon. Here are a couple of shots from the last one back in 2011, captured from a slideshow I put together. The grandkids are now bigger and a new one will join us this time.

And here is a photo book page from a trip in 2012. We are definitely seeing increased decay on Yankee Girl mine header nowadays.

History Quiz: Why are they called the LA Dodgers? Well, they were originally founded in Brooklyn. Does that give you a clue? OK, the team was first founded as the Brooklyn Grays in 1883. In 1888, they became the Brooklyn Bridegrooms because six members of the team got married during the season. The team moved in 1891 to Eastern Park which was surrounded by horse-drawn trolley lines. When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit started to replace the rickety old trolleys with fast-moving trolley cars powered by a new-fangled thing called electricity, people started getting killed because the cars moved quickly and they were not used to looking both ways. By the time 1895 rolled around, Brooklyn had earned itself a reputation, and the newspaper writers across the country bestowed a new title on the city’s baseball team. The first use of the team name Trolley Dodgers actually popped up in print over a hundred miles away from Brooklyn. The name stuck. Soon many newspapers were referring to Brooklyn’s baseball team as the Trolley Dodgers. Over time, the Trolley Dodger moniker was shortened to Dodgers. The baseball club officially acknowledged the nickname in 1933, when it put “Dodgers” on its jerseys. In 1958, the Dodgers moved West, but the Los Angeles Dodgers kept the name. Interesting, right?

Are your houses hot during the summer? We have a time during the afternoon when our electric rates are quadrupled, so we want to stay as cool as possible during those critical hours. But we also want to eat healthy foods. That means we will likely be looking for ways to cook that won't heat the house. What about using the grill? Here are some hints to help you with that, and help with clean-up afterwards.

Could you find London on a map? It seems whoever created this graphic could not. Take a look and see if you can tell what's wrong?

I'm struggling finding more content for today, and I don't feel like struggling this morning. I'll just share today's Clarity of Vision and get my day started. See you tomorrow.