I Don't Want The Dems To Lose ... BUT

I seriously think our country will be better off with continuing Democratic leadership and more of it. The Republicans have shown that they cannot be trusted when governing and they cannot be trusted when out of office. They're liars, cheats, and scum.

But the polls are starting to look bad for the Democrats, meaning, of course, that the only alternative (for some, not for me) is the Republicans. Boo, hiss. We suffered through eight long years of their constant misrule, and it seems like people would have something of a memory of this. But that's the way it goes. It's always "Throw the bums out," not realizing that the bums we'll be getting are worse than the bums we've got!

So I do not want the Democrats to lose. But ... if you govern like a bunch of prima donnas, fighting cats, and outright crooks, don't be surprised that someone eventually notices. The last year has not exactly been the display in Congress that I would've chosen. My own vision of this is for more people like Al Franken, who seem to be there for public service, the common good, and the well being of the country. Instead, we get ne'er-do-wells who are simply big pigs at the public trough. Like Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman, and that ilk. Or foxes guarding the henhouse.

The Republicans, again, are worse. Putting our fate in their hands is so bad, you may as well cut your own throat now and cut out the middleman. Because, and you can take this to your failed bank, they'll be as monstrous as ever. Actually worse, since they have President Obama to oppose at every turn. That's their agenda and it ought to be obvious.

Frank Sinatra - Cycles

A few days ago I got a Frank Sinatra LP at the thrift store, which was "The World We Knew."

I went back today. They had the same records, but instead of being in a convenient box for browsing, they had them stacked up on top of one another. Making them impossible to look at in a decent way. Still, I pulled some out and got a few, including another Frank LP, this one called "Cycles."

It's in decent shape, the record. The cover, like the other one, has a big cataloging sticker on it, this one Number 340! So, someone kept track of their records that way ... or more likely they were part of a radio station's library.

When I got home I looked up "Cycles" on All Music and was disappointed to see this is supposed to be Frank's "weakest" album, a big 1½ stars. But that didn't discourage me, since I'm not personally as finicky as professional record reviewers. And I'm more likely to like it than some of these expert personages.

And that's the way it turned out. I think it's delightful. I'm not put off in the slightest, nor do I think the arrangements are boring, all that. It's good. What? It's really good.

The cover has an emotional kind of picture of Frank. It's a strange picture, since it was obviously from the same roll of film as the picture on the back of "The World We Knew." Same stuff setting around. But it seems to fit in with the record.

The pictures on the back of the cover are interesting in a different way. One is Frank with Tiny Tim! How classic! The other is Frank with George Harrison and Patti. It's hard to recognize George in the picture, but the liner notes fill in the ID. The liner notes, by the way, are more extensive, smaller print. I haven't read them entirely.

I like the album. Even "Little Green Apples," which is not always my favorite song in the world. Frank always sounds great.

A Pact With The Devil

Good grief, what can you say? The stupidity is just so stupid it's like performance art instead.

Pat Robertson, who someday will unfortunately have to hear those dreadful words, "Depart from me, I never knew you," has come out with his take on the Haiti tragedy. Which is that they had it coming because at some point in history a couple hundred years ago, or in the 1800s sometime, someone down there made "a pact with the Devil."

That is just so mind-numbingly moronic it floors you.

This is his "Christian" response. Not a very classy guy. Wow. 

What NBC Should Do

Who's in charge at NBC, morons?

Clearly Conan O'Brien should keep the Tonight Show. They had an arrangement, he waited all that time, Leno was out, and so that's the way it should be.

It's also clear that Conan has a love for the heritage of the show and wants to continue that. NBC, what their problem is exactly, I don't know. But whoever's in charge must have some serious problem indeed.

What they should do is call the whole thing off. Leave Conan in there. Let Jay go wherever.

Our Idiot Media

Harry Reid.

With all the problems we have.

Exercising My Memory

Like I said on one of my blogs last night, I'm watching the movie "Clambake," starring Elvis Presley.

And last night, one of the scenes that was coming up, that I was looking forward to, features the guy who played The Great Gildersleeve on radio many years ago. I can't think of the guy's name in real life. I'm trying to think of it right now.

I know of course that I could easily look it up on the internet, and I'd have it in about 10 seconds. But I'm trying to exercise my actual memory, because I know I have it there (1), and also because just looking everything up on the internet is very lazy, and eventually my memory is going to be mush if I don't use it.

What could it be? The guy's name? Uhhh, how do you remember anything? I'm thinking ... something Alexander. Doesn't sound exactly right. Going through the various phonetic sounds in my mind. Need to quit typing for a little bit and clear my mind. What is his name? I've got the "G"s of Great Gildersleeve in my mind, but that's a false path. It's ...  if I could just think of the first name, the last name would pop in. And vice versa. I felt like I was close, but nothing. Don something? Think "xxxxxxxxx as the Great Gildersleeve!"

I'm not coming up with it. That's what the internet has done to my mind. Made it mush. Keep thinking!

Don is just giving me Ameche, and of course that's not it. Harry? Frank? No, no. Boy, I don't feel at all close. It wasn't a show I listened to originally, since I wasn't even born. But I heard numerous episodes in the '80s when they played it on the radio in the town I lived in at the time.

This is terrible. I should be on the right track at least by now. Quit worrying. Let your mind go blank for a bit. It is -- what? It's not Fred something. Travis? I'll run through the alphabet. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P (Peevey was a character); Perry sounds like maybe what it was. Something Perry. Q, R, S, , U, V, W, X, Y, Z. It has to be one of those! Perry is the closest I'm coming, I'm afraid.

OK, I'm looking it up on the internet. Here I go. Then I'll think I should've thought of it!

Well, I was close. His name was Harold Peary. Close to Perry. And I was actually thinking Hugh Perry, but I dismissed that.

Even though I couldn't remember it, I came halfway close. And at least I can go to bed tonight not driven crazy about it. Thank goodness for the internet!

I Started Clambake

Since it was Elvis' birthday yesterday, and since I was thinking of Elvis quite a bit, I started the movie "Clambake" this morning (for my 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening exercise sessions.)

It's a light breezy movie, the kind of Elvis movie I like. One thing I can barely stand (I can't stand it) is to see Elvis in some serious role where he's in trouble, being beat up, or threatened in any way. I want the harmless stuff where Elvis might have girl troubles, but that's it.

In "Clambake" he's trying out the life of an average poor guy, since he's very rich in the movie. He wants girls to love him for himself, not his money. So he trades lives with a poor guy. It's got a lot of good stuff in it. Plus, getting to look at Elvis ...

I'm looking forward to the next 10 minutes of it (tonight's session), because I'm going to see the Great Gildersleeve, who is like a doorman at the hotel that Elvis stays at.

Elvis On Tour

Happy 75th birthday to the King of Rock 'n' Roll!

I caught quite a bit of the film "Elvis On Tour" on TV tonight. I've heard of this film but for some unknown reason had never seen it. It was great.

It seems like there's never been anyone quite as magical as Elvis Presley.

I was just a kid when he came on the scene, but somehow -- since my parents were fans -- my first record album as youngster, 5 or so, was an Elvis album. I only had one record of my own and that was it.

Of course I've been a big fan ever since. And now he's been gone quite a while. And yet this would only be his 75th birthday. He still means a lot to me.

Looking Through Old Files

I'm a saver. Notes, scraps of things, scrawled notes, irrelevant stuff. I've done a little better getting rid of stuff, but I do tend to have extensive files.

I was just looking at some of my files, searching around at random and seeing what popped up. I found a big scan of a Yellow Submarine poster that I swear I couldn't find one time when I was looking for it. And I'm sure I searched for the obvious file name yellowsubmarine.jpg. But to no avail. But tonight just looking here and there, there it was!

As I recall, I was looking either for a good picture of the Blue Meanies or the Apple Bonker. For a blog entry, but I don't remember which one.

In other files, I have some Old Time Radio files, which I keep thinking I might actually listen to. But listening to old radio shows demands real concentration. If you drift off for a second -- and I usually go quite a bit longer -- you've missed the whole thing, or the key thing.

I have lots of pictures, photos I've taken, not as many as a lot of people probably. But here's one, I was looking for pictures of a run down school I went into one time. I couldn't find them. I don't know what ever happened to them. This school was so run down, the farmer who owned it literally had put pig pens in it and used to keep hogs in it. The day I went in the pens were still there but the hogs were long gone.

I need to search and find those files. I can't believe they could really be gone.

UPDATE: I went away for about 10 minutes and searched, folder by folder, till I came across them. They were from 10-17-2003. And following will be the one that has some of the pig pens. But I don't have a good contextual shot, so you have to take my word for it that it's in an old school.

The Republicans Burn Me Up

I don't typically watch shows like "Hardball," any of them. I don't even watch the more progressive ones, because there's something I can barely stomach, and that's giving the Republicans the microphone. I don't want to hear what proceedeth forth out of their lying yaps. I seriously don't!

Good grief. You can tell it's lies and spins at the first peep. And yet they give these crumbs a forum to spew their nonsense, hateful stuff. They're little more than worms, no offense to worms.

But tonight I had a sandwich to eat, so I sat in front of the TV and flipped it over to Hardball, and who would they have on but Ron Christie. And they played a clip of Michael Steele. Two of my least favorite people in the world, although they have some serious competition from all the other Republicans.

These guys defend the indefensible, the many instances of Republican hypocrisies. Perhaps the biggest instance of hypocrisy, which was no mentioned, which is never mentioned, is this: That when George W. Bush was president, the president could do no wrong by virtue simply of being the president! He was the law! He was the state! "L'etat est moi!" Unitary executive, all that. A trump over the Constitution. Kowtow, bow low, the Well Beloved Leader cometh forth! That was the Republicans' philosophy!

Now, how differently they speak. The president can do no right. Whatever he says, whatever he does, it's wrong. That burns me up. They are despicable in every way!

At least Chris Matthews got one big "Amen" out of me tonight, when he pointed out that the Republicans' constant criticism of President Obama is at the level of being nothing but absurdity. Amen and Amen to that!

Staring At My Computer

I should've gone to bed an hour ago. I'm tired enough. But I guess I'm addicted to sitting here staring at my computer. Like I'm always expecting something different to happen.

I got a new one a few weeks ago, and you'd think the novelty would've worn off by now. But it hasn't. I'm still fascinated with it, watching it go fast, etc. I've had slow computers all my life ... I should say ever since I've had one.

But pretty soon my underlying discipline will come to the fore. I'm starting to get dizzy anyway. Sleep deprivation, since I get up everyday at 5:30 whether I want to or not.

The first thing I do is go to the bathroom. The second thing is I come in here and stare at the computer.

English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Lady Grey

Someone gave me a 60 teabag tin of Twinings tea for Christmas, including three of the big flavors, English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Lady Grey.

The only one I've opened so far is Lady Grey, which is my favorite out of the three. But I like all three. It's a charming little tea, a charming little lady. Plus I like the blue packs!

For quite a while I've been drinking Constant Comment by Bigelow. And I had a cup or two today, in fact. It's great too.

Maybe I want Lady Grey because it's harder to get. I don't think that's the reason. But I wish it wasn't harder to get. I could order it, but that's a lot of trouble. Just sell it at the store!

I was at the World Market store the other day. And they had a big bag (100 teabags) of English Breakfast. And a big bag (also 100) of Earl Grey. But they didn't have a big bag of Lady Grey. I don't know why, but it's an odd coincidence ... because it's definitely not as well stocked other places either.

It's good stuff!

UPDATE: At this writing, amazon has six 20-count boxes of Lady Grey for $16.98. So that's $2.83 for a box. A great price. But then you have to factor in postage...but it wouldn't be that much more than it is at the store. In fact it might be less, depending on where you shop.

My Travails With A Scanner

I've been busy the last days and a half, messing around with a scanner (two of them, actually) that I got.

The scanner is a Lexmark one, with a printer, a fax, etc., built in. It's supposed to be "easy install," which turned out not to be the case.

It probably would've been easy if this was an XP or Vista computer. Then the install disc would've been just great. But, according to the box, it was also good for Windows 7, only you need to get whatever you need at their website.

I went there and I couldn't find any directions on how to do it. As far as it seemed to me, I was just left high and dry.

You think, do I use the install disc? Who knows? I downloaded the driver for Windows 7, but the instructions were pretty clear that you needed to use the install disc, which loads who knows what. I know by hindsight what I should've done now, but I didn't know at the time.

Once you've done the install disc, I didn't see any instructions on what to do with the driver. I'm not the dumbest person in the world. But I would've appreciated some actual help.

I installed it, then I was using it. But I couldn't really use it because it kept telling me I needed something called Microsoft NET framework 2.0. So I'm wasting a terrible amount of time trying to get that. Instead, it turned out I didn't need that at all. That Windows 7 already has something that's more advanced than that. But as much messing around as I did with it, I'm lucky I didn't delete it or get something installed that was less. I definitely tried!

I'm doing scans with the scan button on the scanner. They're chopping off every time, some kind of insane auto cropping function. The "letter" size wouldn't work reliably. It was a mess. And I'm thinking, You mean every time I want to do a scan I have to go through all these options??

After an hour or so of complaining and tearing out hair, I thought, I could just try to install the driver that I downloaded (and forgot about). If it screws it up further, I can probably go back and delete the whole works, I thought. Anyway, what's the difference? It wasn't working anyway. It's not like it was going to mess it up.

I installed it and suddenly things started working. Hallelujah. Then it was a matter of figuring out the software that came with it. Nothing very advanced, nothing very good, but it worked. Not enough options in my opinion. I like precision when it comes to scanning, but it seems like we're going backwards in the scanning options we have.

Once it was working I felt a lot better. Today, then, I was thinking about VueScan, which I got for my old scanner. I wondered if it's work on this Lexmark printer, and it sure did. It has more options than the built-in software.

Today, then, I thought I might go get another one. Since the software's installed, if I have a printer/scanner at my office and one at my home -- both identical -- I can plug it in and everything will work.

That turned out to be true. But I was surprised that it was listed as two separate scanners, which I had to choose from, etc. I was hoping it wouldn't know the difference and it'd be just the same scanner.

I had lots of other travails, and still don't know the full story. The "mode: flatbed/doc reader" option disappeared from VueScan, and I bet I spent an hour and a half messing around with, looking for it. Finally I did something, I don't know what (at the office) and got it back. Disconnect this, unplug that, etc. So I did a bunch of scans.

Then I brought the computer back to the house and hooked it up to the other scanner. The "mode: flatbed/doc reader" option disappeared again. And so that meant more hair pulling, more grumbling, more headaches. Their help screen didn't give any useful information on the subject.

Finally, when nothing else would work -- unplugging, etc. -- I decided to restart the whole computer. I did and it said it was "reconfiguring" Windows, a very scary idea to me. But when it all came back up it worked again! Weird, though, it took away my desktop background, like yesterday as well, and it was just black as a background.

Now we're at a good place. I guess. I still don't know why it screwed up. And I don't want to be rebooting all the time. But at least it worked. I should say, it worked when I last used it. Who knows what might have gone wrong in the meantime?

My Time At The KU Women's Basketball Game

I was in Lawrence, KS, the other day, and had the opportunity to go to the University of Kansas women's basketball game at Allen Field House. It was very fun. I'm not a big sports guy, but there are rare cases where I have the opportunity to go to something. In this case, I accepted the opportunity, and it was fun.

I honestly hadn't been to a basketball game (or anything) for over 10 years, that I recall. I'll probably think of something and have to backtrack, but at this point I can't think of one.

I learned a few things I didn't know. I did know that James Naismith was the inventor of basketball. But I didn't know anything about Phog Allen, so that was interesting. He was, I think, a student who played basketball for Naismith, then became a coach himself, and went on to be legendary, the winningest coach.

We watched the game, which was great. They played Pepperdine, and didn't have much trouble with them. I think they won 82-63.

As interesting as the game was watching everything else going on. I loved the cheerleaders and the KU dance team, part of whom are seen in the photo. They did a lot of interesting things, little dance routines during time outs. And looked good.

They had a halftime program, two guys and a young woman, all from Canada, who were like gymnasts. the men held a big pliable beam and flipped the woman up in the air, and she always came down on the beam, and didn't fall. Very impressive.

They had an interesting crowd control system. There's some guys (and women) in orange vests who go down by the court every time there's a time out, watching the crowd to make sure we're not running on the court. And the coaches have police protection, university police. I don't know why precisely, unless people occasionally attack coaches out of some kind of anger for a bad call or to show up the other team. There weren't any attacks this particular day. And I saw one of the cops yawn, so he might've appreciated a little action.

After the game we went through the Hall of Fame. I saw a lot of historic artifacts about sports at Kansas.

All in all, it was a lovely time. I liked Allen Field House and everything about the University of Kansas sports department.