Science Cathes up to One Man Web Log

OK, Here is a story from todays news:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/25/time-travel-is-impossible-scientists-say/

The headline is "Time Travel is Impossible, Scientists Say"

And here is a quote from the story:

By proving that even a single photon must obey Einstein's theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, Hong Kong physicists believe they have debunked the idea of time travel once and for all.

A Hong Kong University of Science and Technology research team led by Du Shengwang said they had proved that a single photon, or unit of light, "obeys the traffic law of the universe."

"Einstein claimed that the speed of light was the traffic law of the universe or in simple language, nothing can travel faster than light," the university said on its website.

"Professor Du's study demonstrates that a single photon, the fundamental quanta of light, also obeys the traffic law of the universe just like classical EM (electromagnetic) waves."


Now here are some quotes from One Man Web Log entries that pre-date the "scientific breakthrough" :

http://marctwyman.blogspot.com/2010/05/to-hawk-or-not-to-hawk.html
I can't go into it with mathematical equations but I don't think warp speed is physically plauseable.

http://marctwyman.blogspot.com/2010/05/scientific-breaktrhrough.html
I was driving through the U-Turn at Gessner and Katy Freeway and maybe it was the G-force of approximatley 1.009 Gs that gave me the proper frame of mind to come to the indisputable conclusion that time travel will never be possible. No matter how advanced human technology advances it will never happen...

http://marctwyman.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-and-space-travel.html
As far as time travel goes a trip down "memory lane" is about as real as it is going to get. At least considering the parameters of the physical universe as we know it.

Is the Chili good here?

The other day we went to Chili's and I decided to try the chili. I asked the waiter if it was good and he kind of laughed but he said it was. I thought it was OK and I figure that it is a good represention of what it is supposed to be which is a Terlingua style chile. However, It is a little bit more chili tasting that I prefer. Not necessarily too spicey but too much of a chili (chili powder) taste which I understand would be correct as far a what folks would expect.

Last night I decided to make a batch in the crockpot my ownself. I used about a half a bag or so of red beans (dried), a couple of cans of diced tomatoes, a can of chili paste, a container of sodium free free range chicken broth, about 6 or 7 fresh jalapino peppers (seeds removed), a good amount of ground turkey meat, a couple of good sized white onions, a bell pepper, about a half a batch of celantro (chopped) and a bout 8 celery stalks chopped. I also added a good bit of chili powder, some garlic powder, some onion powder, some Mrs Dash, a little black pepper & I think that was about it. I rinsed off the read beans added all the ingredients. I cooked the turkey meat with some chopped onion in a large skillet and then added it also. I let it cook on the lower of the two crock pot settings and I tasted it this morning and added a little bit more chili powder. I was thinking about cheating a little bit and adding some Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce but I decided against it. It came out pretty good. It isn't the purist's chili but it is something I can eat for several days in row and not get overpowered. I had some tonight with som brown rice and it tasted pretty good. If a person wanted to get really serious about it, they could add some of the peppers in stages but it has just enough kick for me but more importantly a good flavor. To me it is just hard to go wrong with a crock pot. You just throw a bunch of stuff in there and about 8 hours later, it ususally tastses pretty good.

Casey Anthony

I sympathize with the jury because they had to find that beyond a reasonable doubt that the mom killed the kid. The prosecution did not have an official cause of death and without that it is hard to convict someone of murder. As far as I am concerned, if the public is going to be mad about the results, they should be mad at the prosecution for going forward with a case without enough evidence to convict. They should have either waited until they had the evidence needed for the murder conviction or they should have charged her with a different crime. Maybe endangerment of a child or child abuse. Florida seems to have a history of going after people without proper evidence. Janet Reno did it and got famous in the process. It turned out she was creating evidence through hypnosis that did not stand the test of time.

The "Tax Lady" is done

Check out this video of Roni Lynn Deutch apparantly blaming the state bar of California for the mess she is in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmajIcRShL8


Yesterday she plead "not guilty" to contempt of court:

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=18579082&postID=5831369971147613124


American Tax Relief, Another of the 4 major players among the "Tax Resolution" companies, was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023083/101109atrpi.pdf


It was a state attorney general lawsuit that was the first domino in bringing down Roni Lynn Deutch and just last month the State of Tennessee won its case against another of the 4 major players in the "industry", JK Harris. This is was not the only state level AG action that has focused on JK Harris.

http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/233089-tennessee-wins-case-against-jk-harris

The Solution?

The country is in deep do do financially and the legislative answer from both sides seems to be a nice pork sandwich. I am thinking maybe we should be having a salad. Or maybe a nice healthy bowl of soup.

There was a deal

There is no question that there was some sort of deal. Osama was holed up in a mansion not far from Islamabad. No way that the Pakistani intel folks were not clued in. They have been playing both sides all along.

Either way. It is a great moment for America.

Tauelangi Angilau

We just got back from our two-day Galveston mini-vacation. We stayed at the LaQuinta on East Beach and Kathy, the manager who works nights, took great care of us. We got a good deal on a suite so we had plenty of room and an ocean view. Luckily for us, weekdays are still not booking up like they will be once things heat up a litttle but overall Galveston looks like it has come back pretty well. As far as the Seawall, Murdocks was the only place to rebuild over the water. The fairly new Hooters restaruant was washed away and never returned and of course the Balinese is still gone also. One thing that struck me when driving down Seawall Blvd. after dark is that too many of the street lights are out and also they need a little more lighting along the sidewalk. Even if just for a several blocks or so just to create a little better place to take a stroll in the evenings.

I brought my laptop along so I felt like I had jettisoned into the current century when I was able to look at Denny's Menu online to call in my order one morning. Of course Denny's was close enough to see from our window but it was still convenient. I guess most places offer free wi-fi but it was something I had never taken advantage of before. LaQuinta does provide a breakfast with choices of Belgian Waffles from the waffle machines, orange juice, coffee, yogurts, cold and hot cerials, as well as a selection of muffins and also bread that could be toasted.

We spent about a half a day at the beach just relaxing. I set up a couple of umbrellas and a pen for my dogs so we were pretty well prepared. There was a bit of a cool breeze but the water was actually comfortably warm. That reminds me; I still need to wash and vacuum the car.

A bit of sad news also. Hurricane Ike claimed one more victim during our stay in Galveston. A 65 year old man from Utah named Tauelangi Angilau was killed during the demolition of the Flagship Hotel which was damaged by the water and waves during the storm.

The Blues

The internet is funny sometimes. Here is the wording of a link that got fabricated and displayed in a banner add based on my browsing activity: "The Blues - Symptoms, causes, treatments of The Blues" Then it gave the web address to a medical site of some sort. I guess Comander Data could have answered this one a long time ago if someone had bothered to ask him. Now that IBM has "Winston", we can defer other age old questions to him. I think I like it better when there is still a little bit of mystery but what can you do?

The Real Deal; Mr Quinn Sullivan

This kid is a real guitar player at any age. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4xVkTr01l0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewm_7mzfZi0&feature=related

Civil War

You know, if you think about it, the Civil War really wasn't all that long ago. Crazy stuff. What a terrible time to be a soldier living in America. They have been running a series on PBS for the last several nights and I have caught bits and pieces of it. It really souded like Lincoln was a great leader and a great human being. Sad he got killed by an idiot but he got the important stuff done. Hopefully, looking back on it, he would have been satisfied with his contribution to humanity. The other obvious thing that struck me is how good a General Robert E. Lee was. In terms of American values, he was fighting for what I consider to be the less than the best cause, but back then, in the minds of the Southerners, I am sure they rationalized it was more about states' rights.

Police search home of actor Charlie Sheen

(Reuters) - Police searched the home of Charlie Sheen on Thursday looking for firearms that would have violated a court order against him, but they found only bullets and an antique rifle, a lawyer for the actor said.

Thats right, the link doesn't work. There is enough Charlie News out there that I don't need to be a supplier.

I know he has put himself out there but even if he has, I don't know if it means he has to give up his rights. Maybe they would have searched his house even if he hadn't been so public with all his rants and such. Still, I can't help but wonder.

Somebody call the ACLU.

Two great tastes that go...

=




PLUS

Well, Not exactly.

But I did see a guy on TV cooking apples the other day so I decided to try it myself.

I cut up an apple and cooked it in a little bit of cooking oil and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on it. Then I realized I needed some sort of pastry to go with it so I got a couple of of those half cooked flour torillas they sell at the store and cooked them in the same pan I had used for the apples. I sprinkled cinammon and sugar on them also and then made some apple cinnamon tacos.

I have noticed before that if you put a little bit of butter on a flour tortilla and cook it, but not too much, it gets kind of a sweet taste. The cinnamon apple tacos actually tasted pretty good.

corny southwestern update

The stew/soup crockpot concoction/recipe from the last post turned out pretty good.

I had put enough chili powder to enhance the "southwestern" style zing that I like but not so much to overpower everything.

I was also glad that I didn't use the whole bag of 15 variety beans.

The only thing I addded was a can of corn after it was cooked and that seemed to help the texture and fit the recipe just right. One other thing that might work is some finely chopped raw onions added when it is served but I haven't tried that.

a total crock

Today I decided to use the crock pot to cook some beans and chicken.

Here is what I put in there.

Half of a bag of Hursts 15 Bean soup mix (it is a bag of beans with a flavor packet. I didn't use the flavor packet.

3 Chicken Breasts cut up

3 peices of bacon cooked in the microwave first between paper towels and then cut up

3 carrots cut up

3 or 4 celery stalks cut up

one and a half onions chopped

2 Jalapino peepers without the seeds

1 Bell pepper chopped

2 potatoes cut up

1 can of diced tomatoes unsalted

A good few shakes of Garlic Powdr

some onion powder

Several good shakes of Chili powder

a few good sprinkels of Mrs Dash

Oh Yeah, You gotta put some water in there also.

Thats all I can remember. I put it on about 3 hours ago. It already smells good but I know it is going to take a while for all the beans to cook right. I may cheat a little bit.

I guess I will find out how it turns out tonight.


ps. don't use your fingers to clean out the Jalapino's. Cut the pepper in half longways, take a spoon and under running water scrape out the seeds. Do this last and then make sure to wash your hands with soap and water right after that (before you touch your eyes or mouth). You need to use soap because the oil from the Jalapino needs to be broken up to be removed.

The way it has always been done

Hello from the one man problems of the world sovling brigade:


I was just listening to a radio talk dj republican guy talking about the middle east and how if revolution takes hold in the middle east and Saudi Arabia goes down to fundamentalists then we are all going to be chicken fried as far as our economy becaues we do not have enough energy to run things without thier oil.

My thinking is that if we can put a man on the moon then we can figure out how to produce, or actually capture, energy.

It is a simple fact that all of the energy we are using originally came from the sun. Dinasaurs either ate plants or other dinasaurs that ate plants so if oil came from dinasaurs then it ultimately came from photsenthisis or the bioligical converting and storage of the suns energy.

The natural answer is to capture the engergy from the sun and with all the advances of chemestry and biology to the point that they are not actually connected, we can do this.

There you have it,

Now go out and grow yourself a can of oil.

Bye

Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt is well respected as one of the great fingerpicking blues guitar players.

Here is a video of him playing a spiritural called: "Walk that Lonesome Valley"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgdLVWgU4G0

I really like this song. It is also interesting to see what a gentle personality that Mississippi John Hurt had in introducing his song. Very authentic in more ways than one. I think Im gonna learn me how to play this song. Then maybe I can walk the lonesome valley a little better my ownself.

Here is a version of Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis doing the same tune (sans the Jordanaires) with a little rockabilly guitar to go with it :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJnpSSTERo&NR=1&feature=fvwp

I do like the back up vocals by Jerry Lee Lewis.

Here is June Carter and her sisters doing the same tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79a-qg6t5fw


& if you have time, click on this one to walk somemore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1fFO92vxoQ

This one is from the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAs4L9AKUKk&feature=related

Mubarak is done

The people have spoken in Egypt and Mubarak is out.

I hope they are able end up with a representative form of government that is not oppressive. There is no doubt the terrorists will try to step in but I am encouraged that there has not been alot of anti-American rhetoric attached to this revolution.

I heard that Twitter and Facebook were the conduits for the whole thing. I imagine that social network sites will be shut down from here on out many countries around the world where the people do not get a voice in the government.

I now join with all Americans in wishing the people of Egypyt the best.

Here is a video of some of the celebrations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q37tYtXoBw&feature=watch_response

I like the one where the Taxi Driver put flags on his windshield wipers and pushed them forward so the flags were waving.

It is really touching to see the people so happy. I know things can get messy during a transition of power but Damn, I hope these poeple get to stay happy.

Conan Plays Guitar

Unless you are Jay Leno, You will like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfxu8qbY4Is

Conan O'Brian Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGyv0hXrulQ

Wanda Jackson - Rockabilly Queen

Here is a video from Wanda Jackson's appearance on David Letterman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzDfYidKU5c


Jack White produced her latest album and has kind of put her back on the map. This performance rocks in a way you just can't do at home.


Watch this one for some history on these two & more about the album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCN4kVcgK5w&NR=1&feature=fvwp

It's like the Beatles

The other day it was in the news that the White Stripes will no longer exist as a band.

Here is a video of some vintage stripes that seems to capture what they were about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03YUgHAshSo

I don't know if Jack White will be able to capture the rawness of the stripes on his own. I am sure he could if he really tried but it is harder to have the true punk rock vibe once you have made it to the big time like he has. The other thing, it is hard to recapture what Meg did on drums. That may seem strange to say but she was a big part of the White Stripes, probably much more than people realize. There was something about the chemestry or that made thier music rock at the core.

I wish both of these kids the best.

jack & alicia

Here is a video with Jack White and Alicia Keys:

It seems to have a little bit of a James Bond type quality to it to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icrNkmf9uyQ

There is a short section somewhere past the middle of the song where they do a call and answer with some scat vocals and lead guitar where it kind of sounds like Robert Plant in the early Led Zep.

Tattoo'd Lady

Here is another one from Rory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uezV4zn8tvI

Cool song here. The intro is again a clue about how Rory was unpredictable and did not play cliche style riffs. A true original.

More of the story of Rory

Check out the intro. This was years before VanHalen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k4iocWURPk&NR=1

Rory Gallagher

Hiya, hello, & Howdy.

Here's Rory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zsRRt1FWE

This guy was really something. He was known more as an electric guitar player. One of my favorite songs of his is called "Calling Card".

Very Talented individual, and very entertaining.

One heluva guitar player.

Rasta Bob Vibration

Check out this video of Bob Marley with his band and the Three I's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGO8HN1QQdI


You can find plenty of Bob Marley Videos on Youtube by just doing some simple searches using Bob Marley or The Wailers.

It is interesting how Bob used to go into somewhat of a transe before he started singing. He does it on the video above. It seems like partly showman ship, some ganga, and also a bit if just getting lost into the music and channeling what is.

Here is another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd2GZqQOuRw

This one is called the Rastaman Chant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmFhvWhiACg

& I hope you like Jammin Too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR5Qo4Pnc94

& of course, Redemption Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI

Los Quatros Amigos

These guys really rock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw1bHaUk1CM&feature=related

If you don't like this video, Please kindly never speak to me about music.


Thanks,

Rock On!

Democracy in Egypt?

We here at the one man web log have generally stayed out of political discussions but there is no hard and fast rule and besides that "so what?" if we do.

I am hearing politicicans talking about our responsibility to spead democracy in Egypt. Today it is John McCain speaking out.

My opinion is that we need to spread democracy here at home and we don't actually have a responsibility to spread our own ideologies around the rest of the world. Spreading our "Ideals" is a little different and that could use some work. Generally American policy has been shortsighted and we have aligned ourselves with who ever was in charge and looked the other way as far as "atrocities" and inhumane behavior. Sadam was our boy at one time. The Shah of Iran was our ally and so was Marcos in the Philipines. We have a fairly long history of aligning ourselves with people who are now probably sitting at a common poker table in hell. Really evil villain types and we stood by them until the people had an uprising and then we unsuccessfully tried to jump onboard. That is a failed policy and it won't work in Egypt any better than it will work in Pakistan if the people over there get worked up.

We promoted the idea of democratic elections in Palestine and they democratically elected a guy from Hamas which is considered to be a terrorist organization and now we don't want to officially recognize him.

My point is that we can't just pick and choose when we want to have high and mighty ideals and then use that as an excuse to stick our noses into the business of governing other countries.

behold virtuosity

For the regular readers here, You probably noticed that I deleted my recent posts about "the state of rock & roll". I just didn't feel aimless ramblings were up to the standards that we try to keep around here so I used the delete button a few times and I feel better now.

I have been listening lately to a CD that used to belong to my dad called "Andres Segovia My Favorite Works". It is a compliation of songs he performed and recorded and peresonally assisted in the selection of for this CD. According to the liner notes, he selected the songs in the final year of his life.

The music on the CD is from Spanish Composers and it is obvious it was all composed or specifically arranged for guitar.

There are several striking things about these recordings. One is that Andres Segovia is an absolute master and I have never heard anyone to equal his skill level as a guitar player. None.
Of course this isn't a huge revlelation since he is the most well known classical guitar player of our time. These songs are not just 2 or 3 minutes and the playing is so clean and clear it is simply amazing. No mistakes whatsover and I don't think it is because of editing. Another thing is how well he seems to "feel" the music and his use of dynamics. A third thing that is amazing is that as you listen to the music, you can forget you are listening to a guitar player and start to hear the story he is telling. The songs he chose to perform shows his excellent taste in music and a beautiful appreciation for art.

He was able to make very difficult feats of guitar artistry seem effortless and it never sounds like he is showing off even one iota. He is the only guitar player who I have ever heard who used harmonics and it didn't sound the least bit contrived or put in just to show that he knew how to do it.

The CD says "MCA Classics" at the top and the title is "Andreas Segovia My Favorite Works". I don't know if it is still being distributed but I imagine that it is.

Again, Everybody knows who Andreas Segovia was but he still I was am just blown away by how good he was. My dad always liked both Andreas Segovia and Carlos Montoya. Montoya is know for being a great, if not the greatest, Flamenco guitar player in the world. There are some who list other flamenco guitar players but Carlos Montoya is easily the most well known. I have agree that my dad had excellent taste in guitar music and I know he spent hours listening to both of these guys.

In our next lesson we will cover Watermelon. Is it a fruit or a vegitable?

Please do your homework, get plenty of sleep, shave the back your neck, and wash behind your ears. Also, be nice to animals. Everybody knows that besides just being unkind, a person who is mean to animals is just a pure creep. I know that some of you take pride in your creepyness but there is no reason to be cruel just for the sake of cruelty. Enough of that already.

That's it. Lights out. I don't want to hear a peep.

Time and space travel

Hello,

I know I already covered this but I was J-walking across Richmond Avenue today near Augusta and it occurred to me that time travel is not as simple as it may sound. I have no idea why that when I am crossing a street and hurrying to not get run over that I would think about such a thing but it is a fact.

In the movies, whenever there is a time machine, the "travelers" always end up at random places at random times since the "kinks" have not all been worked out. But since the Universe is everexpanding and Planet Earth is constantly moving, it is impossible that time travel would work without some fairly lengthy calculations.

As far as time travel goes a trip down "memory lane" is about as real as it is going to get. At least considering the parameters of the physical universe as we know it.

Like I said, I know I have covered this but I still am puzzled why I would be thinking about this while quick-stepping across the road to avoid traffic. This may seem like a trivial concern but so what?

Y2K + 11

Some people think the world is going to end in 2012.

As far as I am concerned, if there is an asteroid headed towards earth, I don't want to know about it in advance.

For all practical purposes, the world ended for Nostrodomus and the Mayans a long time ago.

The other day I was watching a show about a scientist who found blood vessels in dinasaur bones. They seem pretty certain that they are going to be able to get some dinasaur DNA and put it in chicken embryos and make dinasaurs again. The scientists have come to believe that birds are all decendents of dinasaurs and share the same dna so if they can just make it turn on and off the right way and wha-la.

an excellent source of cholesterol

Howdy again, happy New Year.

I heard that Snooky is going to be in the big ball on Time Square. I hope she doesn't throw up on everybody.

OK, this one isn't for the vegetarians. And if you got a beef with me for not being a vegetarian, I understand. The only question I have is why do you have those sharp fangs called canine teeth? Are they made for ripping lettuce and carrots apart?

We picked up some T-Bone steaks but they were thinly cut. The problem with a thin steak is that if you cook it too much it gets dry and if you like your steak medium well with a little bit of char on the outside then thin cut won't work too well for that.

We also happened to have some bacon in the fridge so I decided to cuts some slits on the edge of the T-bones and I wrapped each side with a couple of slices of bacon. Before that I putt some garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper on each steak.

Once I had it all put togeather, I cooked them in a large skillet with a couple of tablespoons of cooking oil over a fairly good heat. I used a smaller flat skillet to hold them down once they started cooking.

As far as the tatste test? Don't worry about it. Why do you think they put bacon on meat in fancy restaurants? There are certain things you can't go wrong with taste-wise and bacon wrapped around meat is one of them. It is kind of like melted cheese. That's why people like pizza. If you disagree, then try a pizza with no cheese and get back to me.

Rock on and congratulations to Dick Clark for still being alive.

Happy new year.

savings by design

Today I was sitting out back on my lawn furniture. I may not have mentioned it before but last year we bought som new lawn furniture. The iron kind that is painted black. The chair is suspendeded by a spring type peice of metal on each side and it forms a rocker that doesn't smash the dog's or thier toes.

So far our collection has just one piece which is the chair but as far as I am concerned, it is a great collection when you want to sit down under the outdoor ceiling fan.

Today I was taking a break out back and there was a squirrel burrying acorns from my neighbor's Oak Tree. I have seen the squirrels carrying acorns back and forth for some time now as they get ready for the winter but today is the first time I saw on doing any burying. I guess they wait until there is a good rain and the ground is soft.

It was kind of amazing to watch. It looked like the squirrel was regurtitating the acorns. I would see a convulsive type movement and I could see a lump int he squirrels cheek/throat area as it was happening. I am going to have to read up on the interenet to find out more about it but at this point I am going to have to say that my research results are that squirrels actually regurgitate the acorns.

The squirrel would look around, find a good spot, and then do some digging and convulsing and the next thing you know he was pushing the acorn into the ground with a borroughing motion and then he had a routine where he put the dirt back and patted it down. I guess they have a sectin of thier brain dedicated to remembering where they buried the acorns later on.

It is pretty amazing how nature works. I am sure it is all part of a bigger picture where the Oak trees produce acorns the scquirrels will like and the squirrels plant the acorns and forget to get some or maybe the squirrel dies or whatever. The bottom line is that the squirrel gets some food and the Oak Tree gets it's seeds distributed over a greater distance.

I imagine you are asleep by now so enjoy your nap.

exit through the gift shop

We watched a documentary a couple of nights back. Click this link to find out about the DVD from IMDB.COM:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/

It was about a french guy in California who filmed everything in his life and he got interested in filming street art. He eventually met one of the biggest and baddest street artists of all; a guy who street name of "banksy" but kept his identity secret.

Eventually the french guy gets the idea to do his own street art and sell it at a huge art show that he promoted. At the end, the other street artists seemed to be not so happy with the french guy but in my opininion he didn't do anything except expose how much of a contrived situation art shows can be.

If you can print up some art an sell it for a million dollars, I will take my hat off to you. Especially if you want to hit it with some spray can paint and make it worth $24,000 and I still get to keep the hat.

38977 and counting (or clicking)

I just checked saw the "views" number on my Youtube video account has something like 38,977 views and it made me think.

I wonder how many of those were actual views. It could have been me just clicking on each video all those times and I don't have any views at all. How dissapointing is that? I also wonder how many complete views there are. Most of my videos are longer than what is recommended for getting the highest number of hits but I don't care.

Besides that, I don't have much to say except Happy Festivus you all and to all a good night. Also happy new year and whatever else blows your skirt up.

You know, being alive is a cool thing. We are all going to die at some point but it is pretty amazing while it lasts. Don't think about it too hard or it will make your brain hurt.

Speaking of making your brain hurt, I just heard someone on TV talking about Jermain Jackson having two kids, one of them is named JerMagesty. Hopefully that won't mess him up too bad. The other thing is that his Uncle Randy, Jermaine's brother is also the father of Jermasty's half sibling. I don't remember if it is a boy or a girl but Randy was married to the woman first and had a child, then Jermaine stepped in to make it a "family affair" and have two children of his own. It made my brain hurt to think about it but I finally figured it out that they are still just both uncles and the kids are both cousins and half brothers and sisters. How freaky is that? Talk about a Sister Cousin.

I don't know how I got off into that but sometimes you have to wonder. This isn't the kind of thing you see at Walmart unless of course you are in the TV department and the Jerrry Springer show comes on. I guess Jerry is still in business but he seems to have gone downhill.

As I told you already, Not much to report on. Except I am making plans to travel to Europe in 2011. It looks like we will be in London, Amsterdam, Germany, Beljum, and France. I plan to eat some chocolate in Beljum (however you spell it) and maybe have a cup of coffee in Amsterdam if I have time. I don't think I am going to climb the stairs to get on the Eifel Tower. I think it will be good enough just to look at it and maybe eat some french pastry. Maybe I will borrow someone's dog so I can take it in a restaurant. I have never been there before and I would like to check out some of the historic sites. I know up there around the Black Forest is where the battle of the bulge took place and there is supposed to be a really cool museum somewhere around there but I am going to have to do some geography homework so I can pretend like I am with it.

OK that is enough for now.

Please go away and come back some other time.

Documentary Report

To Whom it may concern:

Hey Yall,

Hope the family and everybody is doing fine.

To pass some time and relax, we have been watching a couple of documentaries lately. One of them is called " The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia". It is about some folks from Coal Mining Country. I lack the verbal skills to correctly describe what it is all about so you can check out the DVD trailer on this YouTube video. Please keep in mind that it is not rated "g", or even "pg" so please do not let lead you to ruination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ysuG2O0zw


Another one that we are watching, but haven't seen the whole thing is about Mike Tyson. I wasn't sure what to expect but this one is kind of interesting if you are not already familiar with the actual story of Mike Tyson. What has hit me so far is that he didn't become Champion of the World just because it came natural to him. I knew already that he had been pretty much adopted by a mentor figure but I didn't realize how focused Mike Tyson was on becoming a great boxer. He studied films and focused on being an accurate powerful puncher and really was lead through a regimentied and diciplined program that resulted in a guy who would step into the ring and end the fight before everybody had a chance to get comfortable in thier seats. Just like Mohammed Ali, He focused on the psycholigical aspect of defeating his opponents as well as the physical. You may or may not be interested in this story but Mike Tyson remains something of a spectacle to me. Not that I find him to be hideous or anything like that. He is a guy who had nothing, got everything, and then pretty much lost it all but still has not "gone away". Regardless of all his other qualities, he has a sincere and (blatantly) honest quality about the way he presents himself.

This report seems to have fizzled and I haven't really given a proper rating to either DVD but as the kids used to say back in the day, It is what it is.


So keep the cards and letters coming and if you "owe your soul to the company store" please remember to remit your payment in a timely fashion.

Thank you to all Veterans

Today is the official day to honor Veterans here in the United States of America.

It is without any reference to any political affiliation or opinion that I hereby proclaim an expression of sincere gratitude and recognition to all Veterans.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice.

mesquite barbequed chicken vegetable soup

Howdy from the electric soup kitchen. I hope your doing fine.

Lately, I had the idea to make some soup and here is how I ended up doing it.

First I made some soup stock using onion, bell pepper, celery, and a good sized carrot. I put it on to boil and then I went out and fired up the grill.

Normally I have been using Pecan wood and haven't used Mesquite, except sparingly, since it can overpower the flavor of the barbeque. This time I wanted some of that type of flavor so I grabbed several chunks of mesquite threw them in chimney starter device that I really love.

Now, the idea is to get some flavor but you don't want to dry out the veggies or the chicken, since that is what makes the soup taste like soup (and not water). As you can see from the top picture, I threw 3 chicken breasts, a couple of jalapino peppers, a red bell pepper, an onion, a green bell pepper, a couple of good sized potatoes (cut up), a small piece of German Sausage, some celery, and I think that was about it, on the grill. Again, don't cook everything too much, but get some grill marks and some flavor.

The soup stock was cooked, I went back and took the cooked garlick cloves, carrot, bell pepper, and onion, out of the soup stock and put them in the blender with some of the soup water. I threw away the celery since it has those fibers and I didnt want that in the blender.

This part is very important. Power up the blender and imulsify the veggies from the soup stock (not the grilled ones). Before you pour that mixture back into the soup base, make sure to strain everything else out. Then go ahead and pour the blender pureed veggies back in to the stock. That will give the soup base a little texture and color. You will like the effect so didn't skip this step.

Now take all of the grilled items and chop them up and add them to the pot.

I forgot to mention that at the beginning, I also addes some garlic powder and onion powder, as well as some black pepper and a few other spices. Use what you like.

When I took the grilled items off of the grill, I put them on a big plate. Pour the juice that drains onto the plate into the soup also.

At this point, everything is almost already cooked so just bring it to a boil and then turn off the fire and let the pot sit covered for a while to continue cooking. Spoon up a little and give it a taste to see if it needs any more spices, It probably won't.

I don't use salt in mine but there is some sodium in the celery.

I am eating a small bowl right now just to sample it for this review and I have to give it a thumbs up. It is some of the best damned soup I ever made. It has a southwestern type flavor that you wont find up in New York City.

Next time you want to impress yourself, try this recipe your ownself.

Rock on Brothers and Sisters!

The Staircase

I just got done with watching a Documentary called "The Staircase"

We got it on Netflix.

Learn more about it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388644/

I give this one a good rating because it is well done and has an interesting subject matter. Actually, there are a few different interesting aspects.

It is about the trial of Michael Peterson, an author, from Durham, NC. He was accused of murdering his wife. I won't tell you how it ends so as not to ruin the show if you decide to watch it.

I would have liked to have seen a little more of the trial but that wasn't entirely the focus of the documentary so I understand. Also, from watching the extra features on the DVD, I learned that the Prosecution stopped giving full access to the film maker after about 3 months into the process.

Check it out if you like this kind of thing. Theare are a several interesting charactars; Particularly the lady who is part of the prosecution team. She is almost like a cartoon character in some ways. I don't say that in a negative way. She is just who she is and happens to have developed or inherietied quite a persona.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the room

Here is the movie trailer for a documentary I just watched on Netflix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zMakN-EMLg

Being from Houston, I found it kind of interesting. The Enron story is pretty much about human nature. People will rationalize just about anything if it is presented to them in the right way and they get a paycheck in the process. It seems to be a universal theme that greedy arogant assholes always claim excellence. Some things never change.

Basically, it wasn't much different than your average street hustle but just on a much bigger scale. Of course the guys at the top claimed they didn't know anything but they did end up in handcuffs at the end of the show.

Lucky for the surviving Enron Execs that this didn't happen a couple of hundred years ago. The Texans back in the day would have just tarred and feathered the scoundrels and moved on.

Salesmanship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ3c3WZ-3UU

click it!

redigitized

First of all, Congrats to the Chilean miners, thier families, and the news media consuming public. It would have been pretty sad to know those guys were trapped and then didn't make it out.

A week or so back, the computer at the house started making noises. I took a listen and it was the hard drive. It wasn't really in the 2010 October budget but I had to go out and buy a computer.

One thing that may have contributed to the demise of our computing machine was that I recently made the decision to get high speed internet. I had tried to sign up a couple of times before but I always got irritated at the process. The other thing was that I wanted to keep my same email address but enough was enough and there you have it, and so forth, an well, as they say, ect.

Once we got the better computer connection, I started watching more music vidoes and movies online and it seemed to be making the computer work a little harder and it seems like it was running a little hotter than it should have and I think that is what did the damage.

My plan was to go to Wal-mart and to Office Depot and just pick out the best deal. I went to Wal-mart and there wasn't anybody who worked there who knew anything about computers but I did come across a nice man named Santos. Santos likes talking about computers and I don't know why he was in the store but he took great interest in advising me. We finally settled on the right model and it turned out it was out of stock.

Next I went to Office Depot and a young lady, who was very courteous, was showing me the computers. I finally just asked her which one she would recommend. She said it depended on what I was going to do with it. I told her that we just do normal stuff and I didn't want to spend too much money but I wanted something that would still be up to date and compatible for at least the next six months or so. I asked her again which one she would recommend. She still sadi it depended on what I was going to do with it. I told her that if she would just tell me which computer to buy, I was in the mood to buy a computer. I asked her if she got paid commission and she said she did. I told her that she needed to go ahead and tell me what to buy. I am not exagerating. She flat out refused to sell me a computer.

After that I went over to Best Buy and they had a desktop model that came with a nice monitor and a printer, and the whole package was about $584. There was a guy assisting me and he kept talking into a wirless thing. It had an earpiece and and a mic and he was acting like a secret service agent. I would be talking to him and I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or who ever was on the other end. It turned out that it was "the manager" on the other end. I told him I wanted the computer and he kept fooling around and doing other stuff and finally when I got his attention I aske him a question about a back up disc and setting up the computer and he told me it would cost $84. I then asked him if it had a word processor and he told me it would cost another hundred bucks or so. I then asked him if I could plug it into my TV and he said that he could have a member of the "Geek Squad" install the correct piece of equipment. I had already told him I was gonna buy the thing but he kept on fooling around and the manager came over and told him to wait on somebody else also (at the same time) so I told him I would come back later.

I then went over to Sams Club and saw a computer I liked but nobody was there so after a while I left. I went over to Radio Shack and almost bought a computer there but it was a display model and I didn't like the idea of the keys being banged on by kids or whoever.

I went over to Conns and there was a lady who asked me which computer I liked the best and I told her I didn't know because they were all turned off. She then asked me between two specific models which one I would pick. She didn't know anything about computers but she did ask me to buy one. I appreciated that but I was tired and I she didn't seem to have a clue about computers so I left.

This all took place in the period of about an hour and a half but I was gettting hungry and tired and decided to head home and I was passing by Office Max and decided, what the hell, I will stop on in.

There was a guy working there named Freddy and he was helping a guy who was about to buy a computer but he was making a call so Freddy spoke to me for a little bit and told me which computer to buy. He advised me to buy an Acer that was on sale for $399. It was a laptop with 3 gigs of ram, 320 gigs of memory, an Intel Pentium processor and already came loaded with Microsoft Works which has a word processor, a spread sheet, and other Microsoft Office style programs but just not as up to date. He also advised me to buy a thing with a couple of fans to set the computer on to keep it cool as well as a particular program to protect against spyware and other computer virus type infections.

Freddy probably didn't know any more about computers than the girl at Office Depot but he was honest with me and told me what I needed to hear. He told me specifically which items to buy and also what not to "waste" my money on. I normally don't buy the extra warranty but he told me it was a good thing to have so what could I say? I am glad now that I did buy the warranty so I appreciete the fact that he recommended it with confidence.

Basically, He did what Zig Ziglar said was all that needed to be done to be successful in sales. Zig's advice is to help people get what they want. I wanted a computer and Freddy helped me get it. Thank you Freddy.

I am sure that in a few years from now this computer will seem slow in comparison but right now I am flying through the digitized universe and consuming it at a rate that I have never experienced before. It is really too much for me. I have watched several movies, documentaries, and other stuff also. One movie in particular that I enjoyed was called "Play it Loud" which has Jimmy Page, Jack White, and the Edge. Check it out. I also watched a good part of a Rolling Stones Concert from a couple of years ago produced by Martin Scorsese (sp?). Those guys may be old but they still rock. I don't care what anyboy says. It is a free country and and as long as they can draw a crowd and everybody has a good time, I don't see the harm in it. Mick Jaggar is crazy and a high energy entertainer. Keith Richards may have lost his boyish looks but he is still an amazing riffmiester. The dude adds so much to the sound and knows when not to play also. They are really a tight band and they have a pretty good catalog of songs to choose from.

OK, that is all for now.

Elvis in the land of Sushi

Howdy Partners,

Today's lesson is about hamburgers. Chop you up some good ol german sausage and mix it in with the hamburger meat. Then add some chopped onion and bell pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, spices, and cook the burgers over charcoal topped of with pecan wood. Vegitate on that.


During Recess, please check out "Dead Elvis and his One Man Grave" on the youtube video link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0tbGeUrGfs

Seems like he is still eating the peanut butter and bananas in the underworld.

Here he is in Barcelona:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbU5uejhHik&feature=related

One of the benefits of advertising myself as a "one man band" is that I get to hear from other one man bands and Dead Elvis is currently touring Japan. If you are going to be out that way, please check him out. He will rock the tulips right over your head.

Here is another interesting character called "Reverend Beat-Man" who sounds like Howling Wolf. He also has a one man band but this video is somewhat of a sacreligious appearing cartoon presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jE9rk-dWek


Of course, I don't claim to be a literary critic but I have come to realize that all art and music that appears to be sacrelidge at face value is sometimes the complete opposite. When I was 13 years old I used to listen to an album by Jethro Tull called Aqualung. It contains quite a few references to the Churh of England and Christianity but what it is really mocking is the phoney values and abuse of religion being perpetrated by the perpetrators of such things. Power is a powerful drug. If you are the only guy who can fix a transmission, then when someone needs you, well, then you can call the shots.

Until next time,

Continue to seek the truth and enjoy good barbeque in the process.

Thanks

"Ruby Tuesday" is a name

A few Tuesdays back, I took the opportunity to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We were thinking of going to the world famous funeral museum but when I looked on line and found out that the HMNS had free admission on Tuesdays from 2 until 8, my cheap side took over.

The museum itself was absolutely fascinating. I was amazed and wonderfied.

When we first got to the museum section, I was looking at a fossil from about 5 million years ago and there was a fellow there who told me that he "wouldn't mind having that in his living room". It was a nice fossil in deed. I talked with the cat for a little while and it turned out he was in town from Alabama to get cancer treatment. I don't remember his name but I do wish him the best. He had been dealing with the cancer for several years and somehow I do think it is not going to do him in. He had a good attitude about it and he was getting treated at one of the world's best cancer treatment centers.

The HMNS has really come a long way since the last time I visited and if you haven't been lately, you gotta go man. It is really cool and there is something for everybody. They had a section about oil exploration and the enviromental impact but I didn't have time to check it out in detail. I mostly gazed at fossils, rocks, gems, shells, and stuff like that. They have a mummy in the basement and you can even see his toes.

I thought I had taken a picture of the "sloth" but I didn't find it on my phone. They even have the world's largest snail there. It is the actual world record snail.

After we got home, I took a break but I decided to head over to the Brittmore Icehouse where I had heard that John McVey has a regular Tuesday night gig. I got there kind of late and caught the final 4o minutes or so of his last set. I had seen John McVey play quite a few times as part of the house band set at the Shakespeare pub. I had also seen him play with his band at the Shakespeare pub during one of his official gigs there and also at the Elegant Hogg when he used to have a gig there. Basically, I thought I had a good Idea of what kind of player he is.

On the particular Tuesday night a few weeks back that I stopped by the Brittmore Ice House, it was a hot day, and also a hot night. There were a few "regualars' at the bar and a couple of folks sitting outside at a picnic table but there was no one sitting at the tables near the bandstand. Tuesday night is not big night for bars but John McVey would normally draw some folks in. I am pretty sure the heat was a factor.

When I got there, I ordered an ice cold beverage and then sat at the table right in front of the bandstand. John and his band were playing as a "three peice". Basically it was John, the bass player, and the drummer. I don't remember seeing these particular musicans before but they were very good. The drummer was high energy and both guys definitely pros. John played pretty much nonstop; going from one song to the next and it was truly amazing. He played several instrumentals that completely blew me away. The arangments were not the standard blues progressions and sort of had a surf feel to them but the main thing was John's Guitar playing. I really have not seen anybody play much better at the "club" level pretty much ever. John has the licks. Talk about a guy who had probably forgotten more riffs than most guitar players know, John is that guy. The only difference is that I think he actually rememers the licks.

I have mentioned him before here on my website, but please do take the opportunity to check him out if you like blues, guitar, or cool music in general. He is the real deal and seems like a pretty nice guy on top of that.

Rock On John McVey. May the Force be with you!

Pamela Anderson had the answer

Well, I forgot to mention that the gutter still leaked after the Plasti-dip experiment so yesterday when I was out and about, I stopped of at home depot and bought a tube of silicone.

I got up on the roof when I got home and put on a laytex glove and appled the silicone to the joints and then smeared it around to make sue I had everything covered.

Earlier today, I got up on the roof and poured a bucket of water in the gutter and there were no drips. Hopefully, I finally got the job done.

I should have done it the right way from the begining but sometimes you just gotta figure things out as they happen.

Quick Easy Electric Enchiladas

OK folks, Just checking in for a minute; I got several Irons in the fire today.

As I just splained to you, I am busy today. Still, I got hungry and I didn't want to eat something boring. I looked in the fridge and there was some leftover Wolf Brand Turkey Chili from when we had Chili-dogs and also some left-over Rosarita Vegetarian Refried beans. I decided to make me some microwave enchiladas.

I took four corn tortillas and put them on a plate.

Then I put some cheddar cheese in each one, and also a good sized spoonful of Turkey Chile and a little bit of the refried beans and I microwaved them on high for about 45 seconds; long enough for the tortillas to get soft enough to roll up with out breaking them.

After that I added some finely chopped onion, Rolled them up and topped them off with some more chili, some chopped onions, and finally with some cheddar cheese.

I put them back in the microwave on high for about a minute and boom.

Believe it or not, they actually taste pretty much like enchiladas.

Also, You don't have to add the beans. You could use Cheese and Chili only, or if you had some leftover chicken, beef, or even spinach, You could use that or whatever else you like in an enchilada.

Next time you want a Tex-Mex flavor and are in a rush, "Do try this at home"

Later.

Baby Please Don't Go - Marc Twyman's One Man Electric Blues Band

About a week or so ago I added (to public view on Youtube) a video I made a couple of years ago you can see it by clicking on the link below. (USE BACK ARROW TO GET BACK HERE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuYyY2C8XBM


What are you waiting for? Click the link!

Plasticized & Rubberized

I woke up with my mind in the gutter again. I was thinking that I could get some of that stuff they used to dip plyers in to make the handles have a rubber coating. My oldest brother, Lon, worked as a teenager at The Company Store which was a hardware store on Gasmer in Southwest Houston. It was during the ten speed bicycle craze and they were a distibutor for Murry (I think) brand 10 speeds and due to Lon's high mechanical aptitude he was the guy would assemble them for the customers. He ended up working at other bicycle shops and was very good and constructing 10 speeds from the best components he could get.

I think he probably got some of the rubber coating stuff at the hardware store but either way I do remember us having it in the garage and it seems like he used it to coat some plyer handles or something.

So this morning, I was thinking maybe I could get some of that stuff and paint it on the joints of the gutters to condomize the gutter to fix the leak problem. I went to Home Depot and spoke to a guy behind the paint counter and told him I was looking for something that had a rubbery textrue that I could paint on my gutters to seal them up. At first he said he didn't have anything like that but then he said "wait a minute, I think we do have something like that". He took me to the aisle where it was located and he showed me two items. One was an undercoating material for vehicles and the others was the "Plasti Dip" that I was thinking about this moring. I thanked him for directing me to what I was looking for and he went on about his business. I looked around a little and they also had a spray can that could be used to line the back of a pickup truck and I thought about thatone and then right next to the "plasti dip" can, the one that opens like a paint can and you dip things in, they also had a spray version. It was perfect. That way I didn't have to ruin a paint brush or clean anything up. It was the laziest and most effective solution that I could think of so I bought it.

I came on home and was so excited about spraying the stuff on the inside of the gutter that I shook the can all the way home so there would not be any delay. I was about ready to head out back and all of the sudden I realized I didn't have my cell phone in my pocket. I spent about 5 minutes looking for the phone and finally found it under the seat of the car.

I then regained my composure and went up on the roof and sprayed the "plasti dip" where it needed to go.

Now I am hoping for rain. I could just use my garden hose to test it but that doesn't seem right. It would be like violating the "prime directive" on Star Trek. I can't be fooling with anything like that. I will do the right thing and wait for the natural process to take place. Besides, if it turns out that it never rains again then I don't need to worry about it anyway.

I have to go now. I want to go look at the sky.

Until next time, Just rock it like you mean it. Why the hell not?

the nature of water - the water of nature

Hi,

Just to give my regular reader(s) an update, I thought I would check in and let you know the latest.

This morning, I got up on the patio cover and sealed up sections of the rain gutter where it looked like the water was getting through. As noted in the last post or so, I readjusted the pitch of the rain gutter to prevent water from pooling up and then leaking out of the joints and dripping through the patio cover roof near my back door.

I got the job done and then I decided to doodle around and I came up with a brilliant design to hook up the sunscreen that I had taken down while I was working on the gutters and the fencing around the patio area. I got that done and I fooled around for little longer with some unfinished odds and ends and put up some of the garden tools I had left on the patio cover after chopping down a large shrub and cutting it up. Then I decided to go in and take a shower and have a glass of cool water. It is good stuff that cool water, especially when a person is thirsty. Then cooked a couple of pieces of chicken breast. They came out good but I am not going to go into the cooking instructions right now but I think I will call the dish "Spice crusted chicken".

After that we watched an episode of "Little People Big World" on DVD from the library and so on and so forth.

At some point after that I thought I heard a raindrop hit a window or something. Then I heard some thunder. I rushed outside to see if it looked like it was going to rain but it didn't look certain. There was some thunder and some clouds but they didn't seem to be covering the whole sky. Then a little bit after that I heard a few rain drops. I was sitting under the outdoor ceiling fan and sipping on cool water and hoping for a good rain so I could see how my raingutter repairs had worked. It started to rain a little bit then it stopped. Then it started back up a little. It wasn't covering the ground or a blanket of rain but I decided to be patient. It was a light rain and I sat there and hoped it would last for a while.

As I sat there I started thinking about farmers back in the day before irrigation and how they had the same kind of thought process but it was a little bit more life and death as far as thier crop and thier ability to feed the family went. I thought about how water, sun, and things like that are all very important but there needs to be a good balance. Floods are bad and people can die in the desert without water.

I continued to sit there and ponder and I saw a bluejay or some other type of blue bird and he seemed to be enjoying the light rain. He was fluttering around in the shrub and chasing bugs and I noticed how the birds were chirping and it was really a good moment. Very peaceful and it was nice to take the time to enjoy nature right in my own back yard. This went on for a while and then I decided to go inside since the rain had lighten up to a light sprinkle. A little bit after that I went back outside and the sun was out and the grass and the shrubs all looked refreshed and then I decide to go back in and I saw it. Right there on the ground was a small puddle of water right where I didn't want to see it dammit. I cussed under my breath and forgot all about how at peace I was with nature and all and then I got back up on the patio cover and had a gander. There was still some water pooling in the gutter but it looks like I just need to seal it better. I can still fix it but it sure killed my buzz. If the wonderful and life giving water would just stop finding its way down through the rain gutter, then I could feel proud of my self again. And yes, Sometimes it is all about me.

There you have it.

Now go back your homes. The show is over. Disperse.

The power of marketing

The heat has been hot for several days now but we finally got some rain. I know I am sounding like an old person but we needed it. The other exciting thing was that I got to check and see how my gutter repairs worked out around my patio cover. We had a pretty good shower and everything was beautiful. Water started coming out where it was supposed to and I was so proud. Then all of the sudden there was a drip near the door. Then it turned into drops and then all of the suddent almost a stream. Also there was a little coming down along the side of the chimney. Don't get me started on the chimney. I would rather have a window there but right now I got a long rectangualar monstrosity with two by fours on the corners and the cheap siding that Pulte homes used to use. Nowadays I they use hardyplank.

OK, back to the humidity. It was pretty miserable. My dream of sitting under the patio cover and enjoying a refreshing summer show came tumbling down and instead water was splattering all over the place.

After the rain stopped, I waited a while and went outside and got the ladder and got up there to have a look to see what happened. I had a pretty good idea that it was the rain gutter holding water since the water kept dripping even 15 minutes or so after the rain. It turned out I was right. There was not enough slant to allow the water to drain out of the gutter and there was also a leak at the joint right above where it was dripping. I had put some sealer in the joints but I missed one side and also the end cap that butts up to the wonderful chimney.

It took a while but I finally got it pulled loose and didn't tear it up too band. I hammered it back in and gave it enough pitch to stop the water from pooling. I could tell because there was still standing water and once I made the adjustment, It drained out. Thank you gravity.

While I was eating some chili and rice a commercial came on and the announcer came on and and said "Come see George at the Verizon" and then a guy was talking and It sounded likc George Costanza from Seinfeld. I looked the screen and there was a guy dancing around in a monkey suit.

So there you have it. While the rest of us are sitting around watching TV, eating chili, and fooling around in the gutter, Some genius figured out that they could put a guy in a monkey suit and sell tickets. There is still hope for America afterall.

Oye Como Va

Buenos Dias,

I am here in the heart of TexMex country, Houston Texas. People in Houston are in a hurry so I am going to tell you how to make spanish style rice in a hurry. I am talking instant rice and no, don't go buy a mix packet because that is what it will taste like.

I wasn't in a hurry but I have been using instant rice because it is convenient and also doesn't get a pan all stuck with rice. I used a pyrex bowl and put a glass plate on top of it (in the microwave) Today is the first time I tried adding anything to the rice and I was surprised how well it worked.

Chop up some onion and celery and put it in the bowl with the rice and then add some chili powder, garlic powder and some margarine or butter, whatever it is that you use. I used I can't believe it's not butter light. When you put the butter in, don't melt it first, it will be clumped up but just stir everything togeather. The butter will kind of hold everything so that nothing settles to the top or bottom. Then add some cold water from the tap. The idea is that you do not want the butter to melt until the cooking begins to keep it spread out evenly. Don't overdo it with the chili powder or garlic powder but put enough in to give it the flavor. As far as the chili powder, you can tell if you have enough based on the color.

Thats about it, Microwave it about 4 minutes or so and let it sit (still covered) for another 5 or 10 minutes and you will actually have some authentic tasting rice. Mine came out pretty good if I do say so myself but I was hungry when I ate it so maybe I was biased but I was till proud of myself.

Speaking of being proud of myself, Today I stopped by Home Depot to buy some gate hinges. I have some chain link gates that have been in the back yard for several years and I wanted to put on on the end of a 4x4 post that is part of my patio cover. They sell a "lag bolt" that would work perfect except for the fact that it is a pretty long and good sized bolt and I didn't want to thread that into the 4x4 because it would take away a some of the strengh of the board. It would make it as strong as a 4x3.25 and I didn't want that. I looked around for a while, asked a Home Depot employee for advice and then decided to go over to Lowes. They basically had the same stuff at lowes but I kept looking around and I found a eye bolt. It is made to thread into wood and has a round shaped hoop on the end. I then got a 2 and a half inch long 5/8ths bolt and some nuts and made a holder for the piece that hooks up to the gate. At one point I was about to give up but I kept telling myself that with all the hardware and stuff they had at these types of stores, the solution was there. I even told the cashier how proud of myself I was. She didn't seem overly impressed but she was polite about it.

I took a picture just now with my phone and it is at the top of the page. I found a bolt that was not threaded on the part closest to the part your hook the wrench to and then I used to nuts so I could tighten them against each other so as to be able to lock everything in place. The picture is of the bottom hinge but the top one looks pretty much the same. It actually took me alot longer figuring out how to come up with a plan than actually installing the gate.

I did something else amazing today but I am too humble to keep going on about myself like that so that is going to be the end of the report.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

The One Man Web Log Staff.

The absolute best hamburger you ever had in your life!

Aloha from Texas:

I get a weekly email from Jeffrey Gitomer. He is a sales trainer and has a little different spin from some of the standard stuff which is all good but Jeffrey does less re-packaging and he also has a common theme that I really like. He actually believes in taking care of customers and giving a good value. His focus is generally on building relationships with customers and he promotes the idea of using the internet.

It doesn't matter if you are not officially employed as a "salesman" (or woman), the stuff he talks about can help anybody. If you want to sign up for his weekly email, then just do a google search of "Jeffrey Gitomer" and sign up. It is free.

His email this week had some stuff about how to deal with "uncertain economic times". Again, I like Jeffrey and I do recommend that you sign up for his free service but I do not agree with the idea that we are in "uncertain" times now anymore than we have ever been in "uncertain" times. That is the essence of the future. It is always uncertain and our economic situation here in America is pretty much a relative thing. If you just got off a raft (and entered the country legally) and you had previously been living in a poor part of Africa or Pakistan or somewhere where you had to hustle just to have a bowl of rice, then I would say that America is a land of great opportunity that you have never experienced before. If you, on the other hand, have just seen your retirement account shrink over the past couple of years due to the stock market then I would still say that America is land of great opportunity. Nationally, unemployment is at about 9.5%. If you really believe that you are not in the top 90% as far as what you have to offer, then I would recommend that you seek spiritual and emotional guidence and then maybe enroll in community college or learn a trade. Keep in mind that running your own business is probably the best way for someone who has nothing to get a bigger chunk of the pie. Do what ever you like. If you like sewers, be a plumber. It doesn't matter. You can make money if you want to. I figure that at least half of the people who are unemployed could get a job pretty quick if they were willing to make some drastic changes. If you live somewhere where unemployment is way higher than 10% because the factories just got shut down, then move. We have a great highway system and it isn't that hard to do. Just put your mind to it.

OK. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Let me return for my personal quest for excellence:

Today I decided to make the "Best Cheese Burger Ever".

I wanted to use ingredients that I had on hand so I worked with what I had. First I thawed out some hamburger meat and cut up some Russet Potatos. While the french fries were cooking, I prepared the hamburger meat by finely chopping some onion and mixing them in with the meat and also added a couple squirts of "Sweet Baby Ray's" barbeque sauce. Another trick I saw on TV was to make the center of the burger thinner sort of like a doughnut so that you don't end up with a big round hamburger when it cooks.

I also took some bacon and put in the microwave inbetween some paper towels and cooked it where it was pretty well done. I also sliced some tomato and onion and got some pickle slices out of the jar. Of course, I had to have a little bit of lettuce and we had a head of Iceberg so I used that. The other ingredient was grated sharp cheddar cheese.

Now the burgers and fries were almost cooked and the bacon was done also so I toasted some bread using my flat skillet using a little bit of "I can't beleive it's not butter" on one side. I didn't have actual hamburger buns on hand so I used some wheat bread.

I assembled the burgers in this order:

Bottom slice of toasted bread
A little mustard and Miracle whip(for a tangy zip)
pickle slices
Burger
Cheddar Cheese
Bacon Slices (1 peice total per burger)
onion slices
letuce
tomato slices
top slice of bread (also with a little miracle whip and mustard)


That is it. The "Best Barbeque Bacon Cheese Burger" I ever had. It was pretty good and having freshly made french fries with it was nice also.

Now I did try to keep it healthy by cooking the bacon very well and also by using sharp cheddar so I didn't have to use as much. I also cooked the burgers pretty well and put them on a paper towel to drain excess fat.

The idea of making the best hamburger you can make is really important in today's lesson. If you like avacados an mushrooms, or even soy burgers, then you can still make the best burger ever. The general idea is that no matter what you do, do it. Don't fool around. Why the hell not? It is a hell of a lot better to eat your attempt at the best tuna sandwich ever than just eat a tuna sandwich. By the way, finely chopped onions is the trick for a good tuna sandwich but don't overdo it.

So there you have it. The secret to success. Just like the Nike commercials say "Just do it" and maybe you will end up just like Tiger Woods or OJ Simpson. Congratulations in advance.

Keep on Rockin!

In the desert, It's hard to remember your name

I had to do some work on the roof of my patio cover today. My rain gutters needed to be reatached and I had to replace some wood and put in some flashing.

It was pretty damn hot so I could only stay up there for so long and I had to come in and cool off. Finally, I decided to wait til tonight and at about 10pm I hooked up a shop light to an extension cord and it was much better.

Tomorrow I have to cut up some dead branches and I had leftovers for dinner.

What else do you want to know?

Oh yeah, I have a mexican built Fender Stratocaster that I have mostly used for a back-up guitar. I did a little work on it the other day to fix a short but I couldn't find the problem. When I put it back togeather it worked just fine. Hopefully it will remain one of life's mysteries and I won't have to worry about it anymore.

Several years back I had bought a set (of 3) Fender Custom Shop "Fat Fities" pickups and installed them in my main Stratocaster that I bought in 1988. I put the pick-ups out of that guitar in the Mexcan Stat, which is black. Then at some point I took one of the pick-ups from the 1988 guitar and put it in the neck pick up position on the mexican. This particular guitar used to have a humbucker in the bridge position but I don't roll that way on strats so I put in a single coil in it's place. I think it is what they called a "Texas Special" or something like that. It has pretty good size fret wire which Fender started doing after Stevie Ray was popular. The good thing about this guitar not being played so much is that the frets are still in good shape and the guitar plays well so I think I need to play it a little more often. You never know.

Well, I hope you got everything you were expecting in visiting my blog today. Customer satisfaction is very important to us here at the one man web log.

Good Morning.

sniper shovel

Good Evening.

Today I planted a few shrubs. The Houston Garden Center over on the Katy Freeway is where I usually buy shrubs & stuff like that. Usually, the fall is the best time to buy but the have sales going on right now since it is so hot in Houston right now. It really is too. Yesterday, while I was looking around and picking out some shrubs, I was about ready to get back in the Air Conditioning and do it another time but my perserverence perservered.

I was walking around and I ran into the dude over there who gives out advice on what to buy. He either really knows what he is talking about or he is a very good bullshitter. He always answers with confidence and makes a solid purchase suggestion. I told him I had bought some red tip photenias over there about 15 years ago and at that time they were supposed to be very easy to take care of. Since that time they have become less hearty and succeptable to blight or fungus or whatever it is that makes them die so fast. He pointed me out to some "silver" (in the sunlight) looking shrubs and I picked of three of them and then went over to Walmart and bought three bags of scotts top soil (.75 cubic liter). Walmart is cheaper for stuff like that.

I had left the shrubs and bags of topsoil on my driveway and today I carted them around to the back yard. My plan was to work in stages to keep from getting too hot but I didn't expect to be coming inside after just moving the shrubs to the backyard. I had my straw hat and a towel over my head so I looked like a landscaper and I brought some water outside and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. I also brougth two shovels, one regular looking shovel made for digging and one that my dad, Kent Twyman, had used to plant trees and shrubs in our family home back in the 1960s. We had nine kids in the family and Kent wanted us to have trees to climb in so he planted fast growing trees. He knew trees and plants pretty well and I am sure he would have preferred to have Oaks and other trees like that but he planted quite a few chinese tallow trees. When I was a kid, there were plenty of trees to climb and we did spend a fair amout of time in the trees and shooting china berries with our slingshots. Many of them are already gone but they served the purpose and Kent was happy that his kids had trees to climb. There was one tree that was right outside the kitchen sink window that had a natural "crows nest" and I used to climb up there and watch the fireworks going off at astroworld at 10pm. It was a pretty good distance away but I could see them pretty well. Even as a young teenager, it was nice to have a place to "hang out" at night. It was very peaceful to be up in a tree but you had to stay alert. I never did have a fall. My dad had convinced me at a young age that I was a good tree climber and now that I am older, I realize that he was just giving me confidence but since I had so much practice, I did turn out to be a pretty good tree climber after all.

Well, back to today. I dug the holes, put some topsoil in, and then finished planting the shrubs. The "sharpshooter" shovel that my dad used to use made the job much easier. It is a little bit worn but still cuts right through roots & such and does a fabulous job.

After that, I spent the rest of the day in the AC, made some noodles and I took a nap. I had some dreams but if you want to know the contents of all my dreams too, that is going to far. I told you about my dinner, my shrubs and my childhood of climbing trees. Seems like you should be satisfied with that.

OK, I will tell you how I made the noodles but that is it. I just used some elbow macaroni and boiled them with a little olive oil. As far as the sauce, I didn't start from scratch but it was still pretty good. I used a jar of "Classico" sauce with "mushrooms and ripe olives". I also added a can of diced tomatoes (salt free). In a separate pan I put about 4 large cloves of chopped garlic and about half an onion, chopped up also. I then threw some hamburger meat in with the onions and garlic and put a little bit of garlic powder, black pepper, oionion powder with parsley, and some other spice but I don't remember which one. Once the meat was cooked, I drained off the fat and dumped it in the large skillet with the sauce and diced tomatoes and left it on simmer for about an hour. That is the trick if you use store bought spagetti sauce, You gotta cook the acidity or whatever it is out of it that makes it taste like it does if you don't cook it for a while. I also put some parmesan cheese in with the sauce to cheat a little bit and that was it.

See, this is really too much information. You are creeping me out again and I have to go.

Bye.

David and Kathleen Bagby

Last night I was watching an episode of Dateline NBC and it was a story about a man named Andrew Bagby that was murdered by his girlfriend and then it turned out the girlfriend was pregnant. She was indicted for the murder of Andrew but fled to Canada, where she was from, and the Canandian court system didn't extridite her back the USA for trial but instead let her out on bail.

The Grandparents of the baby, Zach, moved to Canada to be close to the baby and in the end the crazy girlfriend killed herself and the grandbaby. It was really a sad story but it was also very compelling just how decent the grandparents were in the way they tried to do everything they could to help Zach and aftewards they helped get the laws changed in Canada.

Compared to anything I have ever seen on TV David and Kathleen Bagby are the most amazing couple ever. God Bless those folks.

Here is a link to a story about a scholarship fund set up in the memory of Zach:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38387899/ns/local_news-pittsburgh_pa/

Here is a link to and an excerpt from a story about the murder suicide:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_150829.html

Turner, infant son found dead

Dr. Shirley Turner's attorneys thought their client was ready to face a September hearing in her continuing legal efforts to avoid extradition to the United States to face a murder charge in the shooting death of Dr. Andrew Bagby, of Latrobe, once her lover and father of her 13-month-old son, Zachary....

Here is a link to an article about the documentary made about the Dad, Andrew, that was intended to be given to Zach. It now turns out to be a tribute to both of them and also the amazing grandparents, David and Kathleen Bagby. There is nothing that can be done to replace the losses they have faced but I hope they find some peace and happyness. They really do deserve it.

http://www.moviezeal.com/dear-zachary-a-letter-to-a-son-about-his-father/

id speaks to ego

I decided to play a few tunes on my accoustic guitar this morning. It goes well with a cup of coffee. After a while, I remembered a dream that I had last night where I was looking for the particular guitar I was playing. In the dream, I was looking around and couldn't find it and finally I remembered it was in its case (where I always keep it). Thats the whole story so I hope you are not disapointed. Still it stuck me as interesting that it seemed like I had made a decision to play my guitar when I was still asleep.

It is funny how sometimes we take things for granted. Just a while ago I was hungry and decided to "settle" for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then I started to think about it. The fact is that it was a damn good sandwich and even though it sounds like a cliche, there are people all over the world that would appreciated just having a couple of pieces of bread. Same thing with peanut butter or even peanuts.

I know my regular readers will think I am in a slump here but it doesn't get any more real than peanut butter. Peanut butter shows how much human beings have advanced. At some point someone had to dig up the first peanut and eat it. Somone figured out that peanuts were better to eat when they were cooked and the next thing you know someone was eating chocolate and bumped in to someone eating peanut butter and the rest is all marketing history. That may seem boring to you but if you thought of it first then you would be the millionaire and not senior Reeces so I don't want any sour grapes.

Grapes is another good example. Whoever thought up how to make wine out of grapes had to have an intitive imagination. As long as it takes wine to ferment, it wasn't something that they didn't have to really think about and be patient with. I guess it was more of an accident like reeces peanut butter cups and someone left some grape juice in a container and forgot about and then decided to drink it anyway and liked the buzz. This is going to call for some research.