Dongles, Dakota, Dylan, and deepart.io

Tina Turner sang a song about it. As did Bob Dylan. And even a lesser known Brewer and Shipley sang about it. What am I talking about? Well, it is 4/20, which somehow has come to be known as code for marijuana. How about you? Are you sneaking a smoke when you read my blog? Maybe it would make it more intelligible?

Today's 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar page refers to this day:
CROWDS AT ANNUAL 4-20 POT RITUAL EXPECTED TO BE HIGHER
headline, Dallas Morning News

The Really Bad Jokes calendar is more punny:
How does the undertaker tell the difference between his organ key and his car key?
He labels them with key chains: One says “hymn” and the other says “hearse.”

Sometimes, kids just gotta climb on things. Here, the girls wanted to pose on this rock near Bow Bridge in Central Park.

Here, you can see the path we are following. We have been over near Bow Bridge and are heading towards the Dakota apartment building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived. Actually, she still lives there.

Here is the Dakota, but it is apparently being refurbished, so it is covered in scaffolding.

Here is the photo from the wiki page showing how it usually looks.

Since John Lennon was shot, crowds of people have flocked to the area. So, the city decided to move everyone off the street beside the building to a spot where people could stand inside Central Park. This mosaic marks the new memorial spot.

It seems both Trump and Clinton are one step closer to being their party's nominee for presidential candidate. Thoughts? Feel free to discuss it amongst yourselves.

The other day, I sent in one of the shots of St Patrick's Cathedral to a site that converts them into art based on classic painters. It finally came back about 10 minutes ago. Take a look. I like it. Try one yourself at deepart.io.

I just read a scathing review of the new MacBook, but that is not what I want to share. rather, it is the real-life consequence of Apple choosing to only have a single USB-C port on the laptop. So, to really make this work in day-to-day computing, here is a diagram of what most of us would do to connect needed devices.

Oh, you lactose-intolerant readers, good news. There is a new non-dairy milk sheriff in town. In fact, you can find him at Whole Foods. You already know about soy milk, coconut milk, rice milk, hemp milk, and almond milk. Now, go check out pea milk. The article even says it tastes more like dairy milk than any of the others. Hmm, maybe I'll be having a milk shake again some day?

At one time, we had a directive from our leaders to move every project to green by whatever means possible. I am fairly certain this was not what they had in mind.

Did I mention that I was returning to Chorale practice last night? I did, but I still cannot really sing without aggravating my throat. It was fun, though, and I was able to review a couple of songs they added that I have not seen before. No concert this weekend, so that will help me continue to heal.

I did find a couple of things to share today. So, I do not need to pull from my saved backlog of ideas. In fact, let's go ahead and call it a day now, almost 40 minutes earlier than my usual. Do something constructive with the time I saved you, OK? Have a Wonderful Wednesday.

Fountains and Fotos and Fizzy Drinks

You've seen these type of photos before. Timing your shot so that you catch everyone in the air after jumping. Our pedicab driver captured this shot at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park in NYC.

The challenge on those jumping photos is not taking the shot TOO EARLY. The good thing about this shot, though, is that you can see one of the pedicabs behind us.

We did not have time to cross Bow Bridge, so maybe we can check out that walk next time. We did take a moment for a quick snapshot, though.

Today's entry from my 365 Bad Jokes and Puns calendar:
Geography teacher: What is the capital of Belize?
Student: The B.

And the quote from my 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar:
"I’m a great believer that if you’re not playing in the tournament, you can’t win."
golfer Colin Montgomerie talking about the Masters

From the 'People who resemble fictional characters' file, we find Linda from Bob's Burgers:

I've never actually watched a whole episode of that, but I have seen the ads. I have seen episodes of The Simpsons, though, so here is a characters from that show:

Here is another request for a photo modification by a Photoshop expert:

I know. You want to see another page from the corrupted coloring book that MBH cautions me about sharing? Sure, you do.

Hey, did you hear that Doris Roberts, the mother on Everybody Loves Raymond, passed away this weekend? RIP.

Here is a punny business name. I surfed the web for a few minutes trying to see where this sign was, but there are so many businesses with this name around the world. I am certain it is not in the US because of the trademark issues with the sound-alike name and the character that resembles Marlon Brando.

You can tell, since I am pulling stuff from my 'saved for blog use' file that I didn't really find anything to share in today's web search. You are correct. I did find one thing that was interesting. Check out this chart.

In the USA, soda sales are coming down and bottled water sales are climbing. At Pepsi, only 12% of their profit now comes from their namesake soda. Yes, we do drink bottled water. I don't like the taste of our municipal water. So, we pay around 1.3 cents per ounce of bottled water. I just checked and it looks like we pay about $11 for the first 10,000 gallons of city water. Yes, we are obviously paying a premium for the bottled stuff, but it is convenient, tastes better, and can be carried with us.

Today's devotional scripture was Matt 20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. The author then goes on to talk about being chosen, being 'elected' by God. I am not going to discuss that Calvinistic idea. Instead, my point is that I cannot read this verse without going back to a choir director in Lubbock who loved to say 'Many are cold, but few are frozen." Isn't it funny how some phrases, words, photos, smells, seem to evoke such strong memories of past events?

Let's update a classic CoV now.

Oops. I just got back from having gone off and starting to work without finishing up and publishing today's post. Sorry for the delay. I hope today is a good day filled with healing, happiness and health. See you real soon.

Heeere's Johnny, and Harry, and John and Paul and George and Ringo

Last night, I found a new article about the Beatles tribute band Rain. They just played in Salt Lake City and it was the same musicians we saw. Here's their photo and a write-up of the evening.

Right in the middle of NYC, there is a nice little park. Well, maybe not so little. But it is central to the city. Yes, you guessed it. It is Central Park. Here is my first shot of the park. I tried to find the buildings on Google Maps, but have not found the yet, so I am not sure where I am standing nor where I am pointing.

Here is the Bethesda Fountain near The Lake.

And this is the Loeb Boathouse just down the hill from the Fountain.

It's a no-stories-found-when-surfing-the-interweb kind of day. So, back to my saved stuff. We'll start with a Tweet about the plot of a movie, explained badly.

And some commentary from Seattle.

Here's a clever boarding sign from Virgin America.

I am not a tattoo specialist, nor do I even have one. Still, if nephew ZKW is thinking of ideas for a back tattoo, this man obviously thinks a name could work. Of course, any name could work.

This totally sounds like something I would say.

This one says it all with no additional commentary required.

It turns out that I DID have one more idea for saying goodbye to a (now) former coworker.

It also turns out that my time is up for today. And it is only one minute later than my normal target time for finishing the blog post. Oh, please continue to pray for a friend whose family lost a loved one to suicide. They are still grieving and coping. Have a Marvelous Monday.

Candles and City Roadwork and Clarity of Vision

I liked this 'Now Boarding' message at Virgin Atlantic. The messages are apparently created by employee Steve Freitag.

Oh, man. I forgot to load photos last night. Let me see if I have any available here at the office. OK, here's one of GRAND#3 blowing out candles at his birthday party. The figures on the cake are from a cartoon called Pet Patrol. I have never seen it, but my grandson did teach me that the names of the characters are Chase, Marshall, and .... Nope, I cannot think of any of the others.

This photo is of GRAND#2 learning to ice skate at the 30 Rockefeller Plaza ice rink. Can you think of any clever captions? Maybe 'No, you can't wait until the ice melts before you try to stand up.'

Not too long ago, the city resurfaced our street. In preparation, they first had to remove the current pavement. I knew it was happening when our entire house began to vibrate as a giant machine broke up the asphalt and spewed it into a dump truck for hauling away. I had to get a shot of that.

Today is one of those where I am not finding web content I want to share. Let's go to the stuff I saved from earlier days. We will start with someone requesting a Photoshop adjustment for one of their snapshots.

And a page from a reimagined coloring book. Reminder: MBH is not sure these are suitable for inclusion in my blog, but I find them creative, even if it is in a negative way.

Has it really been that long since we heard what the sign maker at the Seattle gas station had to say?

I've heard that, to get to this business, you have to travel a looong way. You have to go to the "Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning".

I don't know what it is about these LED-lit nighttime landscape photos that commands my attention, but they are just cool. Look at this one with the reflection in the water. Really nice.

In the likely-last of my series saying goodbye to my buddy at work, I move from the office reactions to an imagined one with his son.

I can feel the weekend waiting in the wings to get started. I had better get myself ready to embrace it and knock my remaining tasks for the week. So, I cannot sit with you any longer. Have a great one and come back next week. Please.

Is Today's Blog Post a 'Score' or a 'Bore'?

By now, you may already know that the Golden State Warriors have won more games in a season than any team in NBA history. Their 73 wins tops the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. It seems like Salesman Son (SS) predicted that earlier in the season. Congrats to them. And Kobe Bryant went out in style. Scoring 60 points in his final NBA game shows some skillz for a player old enough to retire. Congrats to him.

Here is the Rockefeller building across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC. You can see the shadow of the cathedral covering the statue of Atlas.

You can see some of our crew telling me to wrap up the photo shoot on 5th Ave and join them inside the cathedral.

Here is a shot of some of the pipes for the pipe organ and that beautiful stained glass inside St. Patrick's.

I usually share three photos per day, but decided I wanted to show you more of the interior while we are here. It is a magnificent edifice, right? Otherwise, I would have said building instead of edifice.

Have you ever binge watched a TV program? My family had started watching Lost from its early shows, but I didn't join until midway through the penultimate season. So, I wanted to watch the final season in real time with the rest of the fam, so MBH and I binged on the previous seasons. For us, that meant we would watch up to three episodes in a single evening, or maybe six or seven over a weekend. It was tiring. However, we are even less than amateurs compared to Brooklyn’s Alejandro “AJ” Fragoso, who just set a Guinness record with a 94-hour stint of TV watching. Can you imagine?

Here is the result of someone asking for a Photoshop expert to improve his photo.

And another of the corrupted coloring book pages. Again, this is against the wishes of MBH, but I thought it was funny. Viewer discretion advised. As always, I have to wonder about the mind that even saw this as an option when they started coloring it.

Oh, that clever gas station in Seattle has done it again.

And we also have a new clever business name.

Right now, I have no idea for another comic for my friend leaving tomorrow. Plus, where will I go if any others leave soon. My idea well is dry. For today, though, there is this.

Did you watch Survivor last night? It was a doozy, especially in Tribal Council. Last night is in the books now, so let's start a new day. Have a Thrilling Thursday and check back soon.

'My Shot' is Not a Drinking Game

Oh, you Disney dreamers. No, let me be more specific. Oh, you Walt Disney World dreamers. Didn't you hate leaving the magic of that world for real life when your time was over? OK, if that is the case, what if you could ... wait for it ... LIVE THERE? If that is your raison d'etre, then I am about to make your day. Disney is building a gated community near the Orlando, Florida parks called Golden Oaks. There's a dedicated shuttle service for residents that offers easy transportation to all four parks. Homeowners can also take advantage of a concierge service, access to Extra Magic Hours, and a clubhouse with a pool, bar, and gaming room. But the cutest perk has to be the Disney-themed statues located throughout the gardens that you can enjoy during warm, breezy nighttime strolls. Did I mention that the prices start at $2 million, and that there will only be 290 properties? Act now.

Other than that one article, though, I am not finding much stuff to share. So, we'll go to my backlog of stories. Before we do, let me say that we went to a concert by the Beatles tribute band, Rain, last night. MBH and I had a great date night (of course, she was the cutest one there) and the show was fun. Go see them if you like Beatles music and enjoy seeing groups live. You can get a taste of the evening by watching this official Rain video. Since we were out late, I did not remember to load any photos. Instead, I will share a couple of snaps I grabbed last night. First, here is the curtain displayed before the concert.

And this is the title page from the program.

And the group themselves (not taken by me, of course, since photos while the group is singing are forbidden).

I am not much of a coffee drinker, but the changes Starbucks made to their frequent drinkers club seem pretty drastic. The changes went into effect yesterday, so I hope you maximized your visits leading up to the new rules.

So, going to my saved blog ideas, let's see another of those landscape photos lit by a drone carrying an LED light.

And from the 'Explain a Plot Badly' file:

And another clever business name.

And a new sign at a Seattle gas station.

And a look at the first page of the sheet music for a song from Hamilton, just so that we have a Hamilton reference in today's post.

Another passing shot at my friend who leaves this Friday.

And my time is up for today. In fact, I am 9 minutes after my normal target. So, have a great Wednesday and check back soon.