Musings on Greyhound
Anybody who has ridden a Greyhound bus in the last few decades will probably go 'yup, uhuh'.
Every social sciences or psychology/psychiatry major should be required to do a week of riding Greyhound buses, every year during college. Doing so will probably do more to enlighten them about a spectrum of humanity rarely seen on college campuses, as well as teaching them more about tolerance than any seminar, class or teach-in ever will.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Four Things
So, again, I'm out there surfing through the Blogosphere, and I run across another questionaire type critter, "FOUR THINGS". I've got no idea where it originated, but here's where I encountered it... Squidly
FOUR THINGS
Four Things
Four jobs I've had:
1. First job: shoveling crap
2. Military Policeman
3. Business Systems Engineer for a bank
4. Bookseller at Waldenbooks
Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Blazing Saddles
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
4. Sabrina
Four places I've lived:
1. Floris, Virginia
2. Mountain View/Sunnyvale, California
3. Las Vegas, Nevada
Four TV shows I love:
1. Kim Possible (shut up!)
2. Good Eats (Food Network)
3. Stargate SG-1 (SciFi)
4. 7th Heaven
Ten(?!) highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:
1. Medium
2. House
3. The Sopranos
4. Six Feet Under
5. David Chappelle
6. Oz
7. Gray's Anatomy
8. Will and Grace
9. The Shield
10. ER
Four places I've vacationed:
1. Sturdevant, Wisconsin
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival, Cedar City, UT
3. Rideaboot: 41 States, DC, and 2 Canadian provinces
4. Taos, New Mexico
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. My spaghetti
2. Homemade tacos, the way Mom used to make them.
3. Rocky Road Ice cream and Cherry Coke floats
4. Sauerbraten (though I rarely get it...)
Four sites I visit daily:
1. http://www.michellemalkin.com
2. http://www.nscale.net
3. http://www.daybyday.com
4. http://www.jewishworldreview.com
Four places I would rather be right now:
1) Sleeping in my bed with my wife's head nestled against my shoulder.
2) Sleeping on the beach in Maui, in the midst of a windsurfing vacation.
3) Riding my motorcycle towards a Swiss cafe for breakfast.
4) Building my house.
FOUR THINGS
Four Things
Four jobs I've had:
1. First job: shoveling crap
2. Military Policeman
3. Business Systems Engineer for a bank
4. Bookseller at Waldenbooks
Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Blazing Saddles
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
4. Sabrina
Four places I've lived:
1. Floris, Virginia
2. Mountain View/Sunnyvale, California
3. Las Vegas, Nevada
Four TV shows I love:
1. Kim Possible (shut up!)
2. Good Eats (Food Network)
3. Stargate SG-1 (SciFi)
4. 7th Heaven
Ten(?!) highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:
1. Medium
2. House
3. The Sopranos
4. Six Feet Under
5. David Chappelle
6. Oz
7. Gray's Anatomy
8. Will and Grace
9. The Shield
10. ER
Four places I've vacationed:
1. Sturdevant, Wisconsin
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival, Cedar City, UT
3. Rideaboot: 41 States, DC, and 2 Canadian provinces
4. Taos, New Mexico
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. My spaghetti
2. Homemade tacos, the way Mom used to make them.
3. Rocky Road Ice cream and Cherry Coke floats
4. Sauerbraten (though I rarely get it...)
Four sites I visit daily:
1. http://www.michellemalkin.com
2. http://www.nscale.net
3. http://www.daybyday.com
4. http://www.jewishworldreview.com
Four places I would rather be right now:
1) Sleeping in my bed with my wife's head nestled against my shoulder.
2) Sleeping on the beach in Maui, in the midst of a windsurfing vacation.
3) Riding my motorcycle towards a Swiss cafe for breakfast.
4) Building my house.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Normblog Quintile 1
So, I find a reference over at Michelle Malkin's blog about a profile done on her by Norman Geras, over at normblog. I mosey over there, read it and about a dozen others, and as myself, "why hasn't Norm asked me to sit for a profile?"
Immediately, the snarky, yet accurate Cranial Department of the Obvious says back to myself, "because nobody ever reads your blog, boonerhead."
How can I ever get profiled? Well, in the immortal tradition of all wannabes, I'll just interview myself. I've scoured my questions from normblog, where most of the profiles I read use the same questions, especially at the top.
AND NOW, WE BEGIN!
Why do you blog? > Because I'm supremely confident that what I have to say is important enough for other folks to read, and insecure enough to want to find out if other folks actually think the same.
What has been your best blogging experience? > Setting up my blog. Considering the 4 posts I've got so far, there's not much opportunity for "best experiences" yet, eh?
What has been your worst blogging experience? > Forgetting my username and password to get in to edit my blog.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Post to your blog frequently enough that you don't forget your username and password.
What are your favourite blogs? > Michelle Malkin's, Michael Yon. There are a lot of others that I frequent, I'll slowly add them to my links...
Who are your intellectual heroes? >Thomas Sowell, C.S. Lewis for clarity, my brother Toasty0 for quality challenges to my thinking, John Locke, and a variety of others.
What are you reading at the moment? >Blogs, opinion pieces, and not much else. At this immediate moment, I'm flat broke.
Who are your cultural heroes? > Norman Rockwell, an artist who believed in the positive side of art. Louis L'Amour, a master of essential storytelling. Johnny Hart.
What is the best novel you've ever read? > Best? That's hard to say. Some of the most memorable include Crime and Punishment, Jack Chalker's Well of Souls books, Ivanhoe, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Xenocide, C.S. Forester's Hornblower, and Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars novels. One problem is I have read thousands of novels. However, if I was to seriously consider which has had the most impact on me, I'd have to say the books of Jim Kjelgaard, which I read in grade school. His philosphy on "the art of living" deeply affected me.
What is your favourite poem? > I'm no sure if I have one, poetry has never really done much for me.
What is your favourite movie? > ahh, this is much easier. Blazing Saddles. I definItely lean towards comedies.
What is your favourite song? > "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful". My favorite compositions are Bach's "Jesu, the Joy of Man's Desiring", and Copelands "Fanfare for the Common Man."
Who is your favourite composer? > Johann Sebastian Bach.
Well, that's enough for now. If I'm going to do this in quintiles, I'll need leave some for the next installments. (and hopefully shamelessly get more traffic via trackbacks or the like....)
Immediately, the snarky, yet accurate Cranial Department of the Obvious says back to myself, "because nobody ever reads your blog, boonerhead."
How can I ever get profiled? Well, in the immortal tradition of all wannabes, I'll just interview myself. I've scoured my questions from normblog, where most of the profiles I read use the same questions, especially at the top.
AND NOW, WE BEGIN!
Why do you blog? > Because I'm supremely confident that what I have to say is important enough for other folks to read, and insecure enough to want to find out if other folks actually think the same.
What has been your best blogging experience? > Setting up my blog. Considering the 4 posts I've got so far, there's not much opportunity for "best experiences" yet, eh?
What has been your worst blogging experience? > Forgetting my username and password to get in to edit my blog.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Post to your blog frequently enough that you don't forget your username and password.
What are your favourite blogs? > Michelle Malkin's, Michael Yon. There are a lot of others that I frequent, I'll slowly add them to my links...
Who are your intellectual heroes? >Thomas Sowell, C.S. Lewis for clarity, my brother Toasty0 for quality challenges to my thinking, John Locke, and a variety of others.
What are you reading at the moment? >Blogs, opinion pieces, and not much else. At this immediate moment, I'm flat broke.
Who are your cultural heroes? > Norman Rockwell, an artist who believed in the positive side of art. Louis L'Amour, a master of essential storytelling. Johnny Hart.
What is the best novel you've ever read? > Best? That's hard to say. Some of the most memorable include Crime and Punishment, Jack Chalker's Well of Souls books, Ivanhoe, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Xenocide, C.S. Forester's Hornblower, and Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars novels. One problem is I have read thousands of novels. However, if I was to seriously consider which has had the most impact on me, I'd have to say the books of Jim Kjelgaard, which I read in grade school. His philosphy on "the art of living" deeply affected me.
What is your favourite poem? > I'm no sure if I have one, poetry has never really done much for me.
What is your favourite movie? > ahh, this is much easier. Blazing Saddles. I definItely lean towards comedies.
What is your favourite song? > "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful". My favorite compositions are Bach's "Jesu, the Joy of Man's Desiring", and Copelands "Fanfare for the Common Man."
Who is your favourite composer? > Johann Sebastian Bach.
Well, that's enough for now. If I'm going to do this in quintiles, I'll need leave some for the next installments. (and hopefully shamelessly get more traffic via trackbacks or the like....)
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Okay, so I've been away for a while....
In the spirit of Thomas Sowell, here's some "Random Musings" on current events and popular culture.
Did any of the illegal immigrants participating in the May1 protests turn to the Reconquista types next to them and say "why in the world would I want to 'reconquer' the American Southwest and return it to Mexico? I'm here because Mexico, (or El Salvador, or Guatemala, or ...) our home, which I love, is an armpit of corruption!"
The Republican Party seems to be lost, clueless, and comprised of primarily of idiots. Completely tone deaf on immigration, spending like Democrats, going wobbly on the War On Terror, their only hope is the undeniable fact that, compared to the Democrats, they are sane and sober.
Gas prices are "soaring." Must be eeeeeevil Big Oil. Or maybe its simply the inescapable result of China's and India's increasing consumption combined with no appreciable increases in supply?
The Duke lacrosse team "rape" fiasco demonstrates once again the utter irrationality of the legal culture surrounding rape. Rape shield laws are prima facie unconstitutional, as they reduce the defendants ability to "confront his accuser", and they are unconstitutional because they treat the rape accuser as a superior form of witness than your garden variety assault victim, which means that the guarantee of equal treatment is violated.
Did anybody hear that our air is cleaner now than its ever been? Nah, such a story is neither sexy, nor fits into the enviro agenda.
Modern locomotives are remarkably quiet!
The Pontiac Solstice is a schweet looking lit'l car, but I'd rather have the new Mazda "Miata". Of course, why Mazda dropped the "Miata" name and reverted to simply "MX-5" is can only be explained by the mysteries of the marketing mind.
Laptops put out a lot of heat.
George Bush, aka "W", is disappointing because of his remarable ability to sell short the conservative agenda, yet I still thank God that he's in the White House rather than Kerry or Gore.
Not a "random musing", but a bedrock observation: God is good.
In the spirit of Thomas Sowell, here's some "Random Musings" on current events and popular culture.
Did any of the illegal immigrants participating in the May1 protests turn to the Reconquista types next to them and say "why in the world would I want to 'reconquer' the American Southwest and return it to Mexico? I'm here because Mexico, (or El Salvador, or Guatemala, or ...) our home, which I love, is an armpit of corruption!"
The Republican Party seems to be lost, clueless, and comprised of primarily of idiots. Completely tone deaf on immigration, spending like Democrats, going wobbly on the War On Terror, their only hope is the undeniable fact that, compared to the Democrats, they are sane and sober.
Gas prices are "soaring." Must be eeeeeevil Big Oil. Or maybe its simply the inescapable result of China's and India's increasing consumption combined with no appreciable increases in supply?
The Duke lacrosse team "rape" fiasco demonstrates once again the utter irrationality of the legal culture surrounding rape. Rape shield laws are prima facie unconstitutional, as they reduce the defendants ability to "confront his accuser", and they are unconstitutional because they treat the rape accuser as a superior form of witness than your garden variety assault victim, which means that the guarantee of equal treatment is violated.
Did anybody hear that our air is cleaner now than its ever been? Nah, such a story is neither sexy, nor fits into the enviro agenda.
Modern locomotives are remarkably quiet!
The Pontiac Solstice is a schweet looking lit'l car, but I'd rather have the new Mazda "Miata". Of course, why Mazda dropped the "Miata" name and reverted to simply "MX-5" is can only be explained by the mysteries of the marketing mind.
Laptops put out a lot of heat.
George Bush, aka "W", is disappointing because of his remarable ability to sell short the conservative agenda, yet I still thank God that he's in the White House rather than Kerry or Gore.
Not a "random musing", but a bedrock observation: God is good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)