A message from Mike

My friend Mike sent this email to a list of friends post-election day. It was powerful to me and I want to share it out...

Like a lot of off kilter people, I didn't just follow this election. I stalked it; staying up every night watching election coverage; driving around listening to angry talk radio; obsessing over polls on the web. My mental health was riding on the outcome.

Because for the last eight years, I've watched on as Bush and company have exhausted our military, burned through the national treasury, attacked our constitution, politicized justice, institutionalized cronyism, rigged elections, neglected our infrastructure, and drove us to the brink of financial ruin. It's far more damage than Osama Bin Laden could have ever hoped to inflict. But Bush the cowboy played right into his hands.

And as Bush destroyed everything he touched, I felt like Chief Inspector Dreyfus in a Pink Panther movie, being driven insane by Inspector Clouseau. First with the nervous facial ticks, then the inappropriate mad laughter. And if McCain and Palin had won the Whitehouse, I would have been wrestled into a straight jacket and carried off to a padded cell.

Instead, I feel like a huge Bush tumor has been removed from my brain. And I need to go through some sort of therapy to deal with all the optimism. And since I no longer have the compulsion to watch Keith Olbermann shout into the camera every night, I have some free time work on my post-Bush rehab, starting with an examination of an embarrassment-free Presidency. For example:

Can scientists now speak without getting shouted down?

Will the new guy at FEMA actually do a heckuva job?

Will reality be the new reality?

And who's embarrassed to be an American now? Racists? Neocons? Neil Cavuto? But I repeat myself.

Will these be the people who threaten to leave the country? And just where does a racist go with their white sheets and pointed hoods packed neatly in a suitcase? Mexico? Antarctica?

Who cares? It doesn't matter. It's just the asking that cures me. Sure, there's a lot of serious work to be done in this country, but for now I can take comfort in knowing that when our President steps up to a podium, it won't be like Inspector Clouseau stepping onto a museum filled with priceless artifacts.

God bless you Mike. You put into words that which I could not. Morning in America.

The results...

Barack comes back

Lipstick on a pig

The McCain campaign is indignant about what?



Oh. I get that...

Go GOP!

huh, I managed to miss this at the RNC last week:



Mighty big of them to give Barack the chant at the end! ;)

Downhill Skating

Back in about January, I put up a post about Skateboarding. In that post I mentioned that I had some pictures around here of me skating on Coronado Street in Ocean Beach (San Diego) in the late 70's.

Well, today was clean out the dresser day. In that effort, I FOUND THE PICTURES!:

That's me up front and my brother and his brother-in-law in the background towards the top of the hill. They shared a great house at the top of the hill, so this was just something to do to blow off steam at halftime watching the Chargers, or just when we felt like it.

There were always cars parked along the street, much like there is now I'm sure. Either way, it was great fun. I had a favorite move which was to come as close as I could to the back of a car and make my cut-back off the left rear bumper:

Apparently this was before we discovered gloves... Sigh. I miss those days. That was just a lot of fun. I didn't fall on this one above by the way. Also, if you could see my socks, they matched the shoes, yellow and black stripped. Very cool. ;)

McCain's Veep-stakes

Conan O'Brien unveils the new NBC movie on the topic:

Ya gotta love Bella Karolyi

His turn with Bobby C. during the Olympics has been a real thrill.

Of course, his turn on Animal Kingdom was somewhat unexpected:



That might just take off though. A little animal sex cheer leading squad may be all it takes to help some species make a come back...

Joe Cocker at Woodstock

I bet you thought you knew the words to "With a little help from my friends", right? Bet you don't:



Not sure who April is, but either way, it was a fine effort in her honor.

Times like this, I love baseball

The commentator said it all.

Update: It turns out that this is a 'viral ad' from some beverage company... i still think it's pretty funny.

Gina, she's so pretty

i like how she winks at me... ;)

Kirk for President.

Siamese Squash?

Or is that a "male" squash?: I think I saw one of these under some guys' truck on the way to the store. Not sure.

Ask...

...and you receive:



$700?! That's the price of a board already... I'm not in Australia where I think the issue is a bit more pronounced. I still say, if I'm on Gus' menu, let it be.

Stay away Gus!

My bro pointed me to this video:



A model for surfers would be greatly appreciated!

Haz Cats?

My first entries of LOLCATS...

My hook shot

I love to play basketball. When I am in shape and have my game on, I favor my hook shot. I model my hook shot on the master:



I'll hit some from fairly far out. Nothing like Kareem. Still, I have a mean hook shot.

The Preakness

If you are going to the race this weekend, you may want to take in the *other* event that is happening there, the Outhouse Trot:



I think this may be what I now consider, to be the height of stupidity. Not because doing this event might land you in something quite literally "crappy", but, it's an enormous waste of perfectly good beer. Ya, that's what everyone is flinging at the runners. Full cans (and some bottles) of beer.

Earth to Mars: Phoenix landing

I saw this clip of the explanation of the Phoenix mission to Mars. This is an attempt to land near the north pole of Mars to see if they can find water or evidence of water:



I love this stuff, having grown up in the Air Force in the 60's on a missile base.

What will be interesting is:

a.) will the craft actually make the descent (other missions have missed)?
b.) will it actually land intact?

Dropping the last bit as the video indicates, seems like a humongous risk. I believe in science. This is really hard work. I'm not taking bets, but, I'm guessing it will land successfully. If it does, the knowledge that comes from that, should be awesome.

Sports Announcing Gold

I wonder where stuff like this comes from in the heat of the moment:


"No regard for human life"? I dunno. That is *one* monster dunk man.

Who lives in a Pineapple under the sea?

That's right, Spongebob. And guess what, he can be in your bum too!

Who is the dork that insisted that they put the text on there that this can be rectal too? There are going to be some kids in very expensive therapy for a long while...

I love basketball

This would be an awesome match-up:



one more and they could go 2-on-2. How cool would that be?

Charles Barkley is a Dumbass

It's true:



I've been somewhat pre-occupied with other goings on in my life. However, I've been getting in more games of late so I'm pretty happy about that. Especially ho my Lakers are doing!

The Amazing Human Body

And the doctor who cataloged it all...



A close friend of mine was covered in the New York Times today. It's actually a story about her father who was a doctor and created one of the most amazing catalogs of images of the human body ever made.

My friend's dad was actually the one who did the dissecting, not the photography. The gallery of images they show in this article is crazy cool. There are 17 images and that last link there will start you at the first image (above). Here is another image from that gallery as a teaser to make sure you know what we're talking about.



Science is cool. This is on Digg already, go enter the article URL and Digg it up!

Snake sitting

If you are at all squeamish about seeing creatures eat each other, move along. This post has circle of life type content...

I snake sit for a friend on occasion. He has a California King Snake named Zebra. Zebra is a pretty good house guest. He(she) is quite quiet, well mannered, and manages to use really good manners, particularly when eating. Meaning, he(she) doesn't play with his food. He spies it, nabs it, squeezes it till it stops arguing, and then scarfs.

Tonight's menu, medium hopper tartár:
I never name these things. Not even for the time it takes to bring it home from the pet store. These are "feeder" mice. That's what you ask for when you go to get them. I never play with them either. I wouldn't want anyone playing with my food... That just seems like good manners to me.

This is Zebra:
Ya, sorry about the focus, you don't get too good a view of his head here. He(she) looks hungry, no? I assumed he(she) was as the 'ol tongue was really going. Of course, the dinner for the night is in the bag just behind my hand, so I'm guessing Zebra knew what was up.

I was coached to let Zebra put the squeeze on the meal before I took to much interest in the process. I usually do enjoy watching. I find the act of a snake eating their prey a fairly amazing thing. Especially the whole dislocating the jaw to get the thing in there and then the muscle movement to move the meal through the digestive tract. Here is Zebra with the meal just about 2/3's consumed:

Ya, I know, I know. White mouse on a white background. If you look to the corner of Zebra's mouth on it's left, you can kind of see the mouse. To the right, if you look closely, you can see some of the fur.

Anyway, just another curious weekend of art, bovine attacks, sunrises, and the circle of life...

I went to worship today at...

The Church of the Sacred Sand and the Holy Brine...

I went to Capitola to surf this morning. Downtown Capitola was a pond. It was still oh-dark:30, so could not get any pictures. I headed to the next break, here is the temp from there:

Oy. I took a look at the surf:
I call this particular low tide a "fin-breaking low tide". I usually avoid this particular combination of tide and reef.

I went further north. The morning was wearing thin as was the surf conditions. Amazingly, this wasn't half bad:
Okay, between sets. The crowd kept growing and the temperature here was a degree lower. Most folks looked to be riding 9'6" boards and above...

Here comes the Sun:
I usually prefer to be in the water to enjoy this view. Today, I was content to enjoy the warmth of the car heater...

This is the set wave:
It was actually a little better than this.

I don't care what anyone says, I have had more moving spiritual experiences in the ocean, including a near-death experience (Blacks...) than most people have in their lifetimes. They usually occur at a session like this one. Well, when I actually get wet. One of those was just 2 weeks ago when at one of these breaks, I was visited by a sea otter.

Now, to be true, I have had one wholly non-spiritual experience while surfing. But that was because I snapped my board. That was at Black's too. Yet, that is one of my all-time favorite breaks.

Raging Bull

Ya, ya, it's a cow. I was able to get up close, which is a lot harder to do than most folks think:


Unfortunately, I came too close:

It took me a while to remove the imprint of flowers from my backside...

Art in the garden

I call it, "Pot puking up posies":

Mick Jagstone and the Rolling Boulders!

10 points to the first person (not Jorge) who can place the title reference (above). :)

I was coring a mess of strawberries for desert and listening to satellite radio on the dish and a Marshall Tucker song (There Goes Another Love Song) came on. While that may not be rock and roll history to most, it is to me.

For reasons not quite known in the moment, hearing that took me back to 1978 where Marshall Tucker opened for the Rolling Stones at Anaheim Stadium. Actually I remember them and Etta James. Possible there was another band but the grey mater runs thin...

Either way, this was for the Some Girls Tour . I went with a few friends and we had an absolute blast. That may be one of the best concerts I have ever seen. I have seen a ton of concerts over the years and actually have pictures from some of them still.

I took to thinking I bet I can find something on the web about that tour. Dood, not only did I find *something*, I found a whole photo album from the show at "Stones Mania". I WAS AT THAT SHOW! Looking through the pictures brought back some excellent memories. I also think it's funny how ahead of the future Mick was. Check his arm sock that Alan Iverson and now Kobe are using.

I have one image in my mind that was not on that album. Ron Woods was playing a solo and Mick gets right in his face and all but French kisses him. He kinda went all Gene Simmons with his tonuge right next to Ronnie's mouth. Ronnie actually wasn't into it and kinda sucked in his lips... Funny.

That was a great concert. What a great show. I hear that the Stones are still a good show. Still, you gotta remember that the show I'm talking about was literally 30 years ago. I can't imagine they are as agile anymore. They're grandfathers! ;)

On Philosophy

I am a novice philosophy student. I believe in philosophy as a way of seeing the world and interpreting that which you see. I am somewhat familiar with some of the big names, the classics, the big Kahuna's, nay, "the originators": Socrates, Plato, Aristotle...

As well I have been introduced to some of the "new-comers" like H.G. Frankfurt. However, think my favorite philosopher of modern time is The Cat In The Hat.

Now, you're probably scratching your head right about now thinking, "dood - that was a little kids book." You would be right of course. "So what?" says I. I don't have a direct quote from the good Msr. Geisel, but I'm sure he'd say, "oh ya, that was always the plan... Start 'em young!".

Still scratching your head? I thought so. In the book, as the Cat goes about creating chaos and fun, he proceeds to make his case by telling the kids, "it's fun to have fun, but you have to know how!"

Perhaps not your textbook definition of philosophy. To that I say, bah! humbug. In the end, the cat is simply letting the kids know, you can have fun in so many ways, it's just how you look at it. Take for example my previous abuse of my brother. That was great fun! Well, for me anyway... And that is my point!

To wit:
Found on Flickr.

Think about it. Some person with a camera was walking along, one may presume, saw this poor deceased squirrel, and said to themselves, "hey... I bet if I took a couple of G.I. Joe's and posed them..." Right? It's fun to have fun! See? Philosophy made easy!

Go out and make some philosophy on your own today! See if you can blow someone's mind in the process. I dare you.

How NOT to drink a shot...

I really hope there is not need for further comment...

I'm speechless

Watch this:



Can you imagine?

btw, ;-)

Round Ball

This makes every guy go...



OOOOOO!

hoops!

One link leads to another...

I saw this link for a guy that does a 720º dunk:



wow. I could do that... ya, in my dreams...

That link lead to this, the absolute worst dunk you will ever see:



Poor guy. Bad enough it was caught on tape. Then he has to live with this on the internets forever...

I can't leave you that way. Kobe clears things up:



It's basketball season!

Brotherly love

This is my older brother Conrado:He is a real estate agent in San Diego. I give him a lot of credit because he is really good about using technology to help him in his efforts.

An example, he sent this this afternoon:

Subject: Need Tech Support

Bro,

There is a powerful tool on Google Maps to embed your Youtube videos - you can see the
obvious application for real estate. I followed the instructions on the below page to the
letter:

http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_youtube.html

Any even though I can see the youtube video where it is supposed to be, i only see it
when i am in My Maps and the public can't see it which is the whole point.

I have scoured Googles' tech pages and search low and wide on the net and can't find an
answer.

What do you suggest?

Thanks,

Bro

--
A little backstory may be useful here. I'm a support geek. I have been doing support in many forms for a long time. I work for a valley company doing support now, so his request is perhaps logical. My initial response:

a bribe.

To which he responded:

In what form?

I sent:

who knows? they are "fraking" google. what do they need? that's like asking bill gates if
he needs a dime.

Realizing I missed an opportunity to really pull his chain, I almost immediately followed that with this further reply to him:

damn. i replied too hastily. a quick check of the ether indicates that the usual and proper bribe for such assistance from such an entity is the sacrifice of a terrabyte of disk space that holds irretrievable data.

let me know how that works out.

I get that he wants me to do his dirty work. I can't help myself and just love to do this with my family when they are less than specific. He hadn't asked me directly for support - he asked what did I suggest? I made a freaking suggestion.

Some days, comedy just grows on trees... His reply to my question about lending bill gates a dime:

I was thinking i could bribe you to figure it out. I mean, that's what you do, no, i mean
you know about all these SW developers and are in a better position to know where they
hide the holy grail.

Holy crap! He really wants me to RTFM for him! Being a bit slow on the uptake and having chosen to do this via back and forth email, instead of coming into the 90's and IM'ing me, he comes back, clearly confused about the sacrifice suggestion:

Bro,

You lost me.

A terrabyte of disk space (Ok, I'm thinking you want an external 1 TB drive, but..) "that
holds irretrievable data" - I'm not sure what makes data "irretrieveable" unless you take
said drive and smash it, so i have no idea what you mean.

How what works out?

Oy... I decide to clue him in (having known me all my life and having been in the short end of my rhythm stick in the past, I certainly would have thought he'd know better..). I reply:

ahhhh. we get to the point after all. i see. you were hoping that since i get paid to while away in the support trenches some 40 to 50 hours a week, i might enjoy a foray into the google mines for another hour or two. in effect, doing more RTFM that perhaps you have not completed. that perhaps, as i am some sort of miscreant that gets his rocks by doing this, day in and day out, week after week, year after year, that more ought to be the way i want to spend my time?

i'm not saying it isn't, i just want to hear you say it...

;)

You're not gonna believe his response:

Hear YEE, Hear YEE, Hear YEE well!

The author doth proclaimith openly that he is in need of assistance that is crucial to
his success in certain technical endeavors that benefit business in the end.

THe author doth proclaimith and admit that one, Sir Daniel of Hinojosa, doth twill and
twain and bang and baing in the deep mines where data, information, and all matter of
knowledge and science is found, hark, yeah, it is legend that even the sword of Arthur
the King lies somewhere down there in these deep deep pits...

The author doth further proclaim that he has great confidence in the efficiency and skill
of Sir Daniel of Hinojosa in finding the holy grail, and besseecheth him to aim his arrow
at said target for the benefit of king, country and his bro.

There! Said it!
:-)

PS WTF IS RTFM?

OMFG - he doesn't know how to use Google after all. I was gonna help him out. Clearly, he just needs to poke, test, read, and think. He's a smart guy. I'm gonna send this and call it a night:

http://google.com - let me know how it works out.

I think I'll include the link to this article too...

RSS 101

I'm relatively new to RSS. I started using it and have been a huge fan, ever since I saw this really well made video that explains RSS and why it's worth the effort:



This is brought to you by the good folks over at Common Craft.

There be squid here Captain!

I have previously commented that I don't worry about being bitten by a shark while surfing. After seeing this video, I'm rethinking what worries me...



Can you imagine getting wrapped up by one of these suckers?

Phil Jackson - WTF?

I went with my family to the Warriors game at the Oakland Coliseum where they had a run in with the Los Angeles Lakers. I chose this game to take the family to because I've been a Lakers fan since the early 70's (that's my brother's fault - thanks Jorge! ;).

During basketball season, I'll have the game on at home and don't usually miss too much of the NBA playoffs each year. This has had the net effect of my kids being basketball fans. My son plays ball as one of his favorite sports and my daughter likes to watch some ball on TV with me.

It has been fun over the years to watch the Lakers make it to the playoffs. However, my son being a big Warriors fan, I have to admit, I enjoyed their run last year.

All in all, it made for a great setup to the game last night. And what a game it was! Daughter said it was a great game and the sort of game that made her feel like watching basketball might be okay... Wow, strong praise indeed.

Once the game started, as this is the first time I have ever seen the Lakers play, I had to get a look at Phil Jackson. Here he is on the floor with Brian Shaw:
Now, the take away there is that he is about the same height as Brian. Phil having been a player himself, he of course has to have some height...

For all the coverage I have seen of the Lakers over the years, and Phil Jackson's teams in particular, including the Bulls, perhaps I never appreciated how tall he is. If the Wikipedia entry for him is to be believed, he checks in at 6' 8" tall. He's no Shaq, but hey, he's about a foot plus taller than me...

Now with that said, dude looks like some kind of humongo-giant here:
I can't say I've ever seen the Main-Stream Sports Media (MSSM) cover this aspect of the Lakers. He's a whole head taller than Kurt Ramis on his left shoulder there. Kurt's Wikipedia entry clocks him in at the exact same height as Phil!

Well, there was a game:
Awesome action... Okay, not my best sports photograph ever. Hey, I'm in the cheap seats - cut me some slack - I only have 3x optical w/12x digital zoom here people...

Anyway, I'm perseverating on the bloody Phil Jackson throne. Look at this sucker folks, it's not just me:
Yes! I checked, Don Nelson didn't have one of these (did you know Nellie's Jersey, #19 from the Celtics, is retired in the Boston Garden rafters?). Phil must truly be an NBA God. I knew he was a Zen Master... but a throne?

Ya, Kobe played, directed, blah blah blah...

And, I did get a good art shot here:
It's a good art shot because there is clearly motion, and it is in focus. Click for a larger image. I'm pretty sure that's Ronny Turiaf just under and to the left of the net.

I had fun at the game, but it left me with all sorts of questions. Like, this guy:
Out of context, it's not big deal right? Of course. Here's the context:
The dod hangs from the ceiling. I wonder what that job pays? He gets into that crows nest from a ladder that comes out out of the ceiling or somewhere.

I'm mesmerized by this Phil thing. Here is is next to Kurt - THEY'RE BOTH 6' 8"! Look behind them though, Vladimir Radmanovic looks huge too. It's the Jackson throne.
Okay, I can let it go. (Go with the force)Luke Walton spent a bit of down time sitting in it at time-outs, so I decided the guys needing a little help tried to get some of Phil-o-wan Kenobi's mojo from a little throne time. Gotta be a good thing, right?

Tied at the end of regulation:

Time ran out for the Warriors. Though, the Merc article seemed to indicate the team felt they were on the loosing end of a ref-probe... Whattaygonnado?

There was one play in OT where Baron Davis tossed up a hail Mary alley-opp attempt that if it had completed, would have brought down the house. We were on our feet. It was an *awesome* game. Worth getting home at midnight and only getting 5.5 hours of sleep for. And I still gotta wonder about who else in the league they set a special seat for? I'm thinking, not too many others. I'll bet that irks some coaches. Well, not Isaiah Thomas I'm sure...

There be whales here!

Okay, well, not a whale per se.

Much less to be true.

Okay, it's a bloody Red Fin Shark.

It's in a tank in my son's room. I've noticed as I walk by his room during the day, this fella will station himself, nose down, tail up, in the corner of the tank. Here he is setting up:

Here he is again, not quite in position, but you start to get the idea...

Then he goes all Star Trek IV on me, and I can't get focus on him...
Weird, huh? Makes me wonder if he knows something I don't. Well, I'm sure he does, I just mean in an extraterrestrial sense.

It's my own personal whale here captain...

The hockey highlight

I love hockey. Here's one reason why:



From With Leather. Amazing...

Oregon: Vote for this guy...

Found this via /. (Slashdot):



I like what he says and I like that he does not take himself too seriously. Good on you mate!

Bike vs. Fence (sports)

Driving through my neighborhood, I seem to have just missed witnessing a drunk driving accident:
Guy musta been going, what, 10, 15 MPH?:

Apparently a hit and run, the driver is on the loose...

Tragedy - in San Jose... Sad really. When will people learn?

Bike: 1 Fence: 1 (tie)

Dinner

Inspiration comes in many forms. For me, it's art in it's many forms. Photography is the closest I can come to art. I couldn't draw a stick to save my life. I used to think I was a fair photographer, and I think that's as good of an assessment that can be made of that talent.

I love to cook and a friend I work with sent me a recipe for Tequila Lime Chicken. I needed to cook tonight and that was the best idea that had presented itself at the time things needed to be defrosted, so that's what I did.

Without the gory details, here we go... The Jalapeños are from my jardin, but have been in the freezer for a few years by now. The one at the top still has a little frost . I have trimmed the stems here and they kinda look like severed finger tips, huh? Well, minus the blood:
The recipe called for coating the chicken with about two teaspoons of cumino. I used the little shaker bottle and just sprinkled it on both sides. I probably used a total of about a teaspoon. I kinda think it was to much in the end. More on that later... This is the chicken cooking in the pan:
The lines that almost look like grill lines are from the dish that was used to defrost the breasts. The dish is actually a microwave bacon cooking dish that we've had for what, 23.5 years? It works. I like it 'cause the little grease trough that goes around the sides works well to catch the juice and schmutz.

Here, I've turned the chicken:

Having followed the recipe as I read it, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, the chile's, and lime juice is in the bottom of the baking dish. I totally boofed and failed to have my wife take a picture of the tequila and triple sec flaming off. That's always fun. Anyway, I placed the chicken on top of the other ingredients and dumped the liquid out of the pan over the top of everything. Ready for the oven:

I had just figured out that I was out of the quick brown rice I was gonna make and cous cous didn't seem like an appropriate side for this. Plus, we had a bunch of veggies handy for this roasted vegetable dish we love, so that was the designated side for the night...
I chopped up a red onion, zucchini, a summer squash (in winter? - technically), one each red and green bell peppers, and about a pound of asparagus plus less than 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt, and pepper:
I thought that was really pretty. The bigger picture showed it well.

Here is the finished chicken right out of the oven. I screwed up and forgot that I needed Jack cheese, so we used the 2% milkfat "Mexican Cheese" blend we had handy (it didn't really melt as well as I would have liked - I'll use the more fatty version next time - more flavor! ;):

The veggies just out of the oven:

All plated and ready to eat:

Ya, it was good.

The changes I'll make the next time are to use less cumino. I'll only lightly sprinkle it on one side. Then, I think I'll put the chicken in the baking dish and cover it with all the other stuff first. Plus, I'm gonna add about 15 chopped garlic cloves.

When it's time to add the cheese, I'll pull the chicken up out of the ingredients and then put the cheese on and bake / brown it up.

All in all, we enjoyed it a lot. It hit the spot. Above all, I was inspired. I like being inspired. It beats being bored... Thank you David!