All New?

Up next; an all new episode of Boston Legal. My question is is there such a thing as partially new? What about kind of new? I never knew that there was degrees of new. Unless of course you mean "new to you", which isn't new but unexperienced. Not virginal, that would be new... just unexperienced.

Funny thing, I seem to be inspired by Boston Legal alot nowadays. Denny and Alan were at a spa and Alan reached over and grabbed Denny's hand and thanked him for treating him to the spa. This is normal BL type stuff, but it got me thinking. Hands really are amazing things.

Personally, I have mitts, paws if you will. Which leads me to my first point. To me, hands are a prominent feature on a person and no two sets are alike. Let's talk man hands, which sometimes show up on women, but let's just talk about the real man hands. That is the ones that are attached to men, which aren't always very manly.

You can always tell a prissy boy by his hands. He may be all pumped up or decked out in leather, but you can't disguise your hands.

First, look for scarring. Some people scar more easily than others, but if there are none... stike one. To me, a hand without scars is a hand that has not seen much use. Not seeing much use means not doing much REAL work, and what use is a man that doesn't work?

Second, if there skin is softer and smoother than a baby's ass... strike two. I am not saying that it should be like gator hide, but calouses and course skin come with use. I can not stand to see a man wear a pair of gloves while doing something that poses no immediate danger to his hands. Handling barbed wire, welding, working on a car whose motor is still hot... okay. Pulling weeds, using a shovel, pushing a mower... come on, pull up your skirt already.

Third, and lastly, a pet peeve of mind. If I grasp your hand to shake it and suddenly I think I am on a pier wrangling a trout off a hook... stike three. I am not saying that you should be able to crack walnuts in your hands, which I can by the way, but you should at least make a showing. Let me tell you something, every one of my dad's co-workers that was into shaking hands while I was growing up made it a point to squeeze the shit out of my hand when they got a chance. It was not uncommon to have hand shakes that lasted for minutes with some of them (hello Bill Hooper). One of them, who is currently my boss, still does it. Just the other day we shook hands and after about 30 seconds I grew tired of it and put the screws to him... He tried to let go, but I wouldn't let him until I had popped every knuckle in both our hands. Manos de pietro! Anyway, a firm hand shake says alot.

I am not even going to touch the subject of manicures. There should be no man in manicure.

For women it is much more complex, as most things are with women. The big thing to look at with women's hands is the skin. Not too many scars, but not none. Not rough but not too soft either. A firm hand shake but not a manshake. See this says they are willing to or do work, but take care of themselves. If they manage to grow long natural nails, not too much work going on there.

Anywho... enough about hands.

A little late, but still funny

According to the Movies.com Which Movie Star Are You Like? quiz, you're: Jennifer Aniston America's Sweetheart? Try America's Victim! The title may help you spark that big-screen career you've long been hungering for, but we're guessing you're probably nobody's victim. You've always been the most likely among your Friends to have a big-screen career — no victimization necessary! Take this quiz at Movies.com

George W. McCarthy Bush

Alan Shore made a good point tonight on Boston Legal. Who ever writes that show loves Bush about as much as I do. Anyway, here is the point.

"The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism." Adlai Stevenson.

Replace communism with terrorism and there you go. In fact, read the whole speech in that manner and you will be shocked at how things have come full circle. Except this time, it is not the Soviets we have to fear, but the power hungry little fiend in Washington. You really must read this speech.

Where is our Adlai Stevenson? Where is the powerful voice calling out in opposition to this tyrant? Where is the political hero who will sacrifice his career for the American people?

It is a fact that the US has a big brother complex not seen since Hoover. Data is collected on all of us at a never before imaginable pace due to the advent of computers more powerful than ever before. Every movie, phone call, non-cash purchase, non-broadcast television show and web-site you visit or see is cataloged and put on file. The title and content of this posting probably sent a red flag to some desk jockey somewhere to heighten their attention on me. Think I am joking? Think they aren't watching? listening?

Go get your cell phone.

Go ahead.

Go to the Setting.

Go to location.

There should be a menu choice like E911 on, Location on, or something like that. Think about that for a minute.

GPS (global positioning systems) can find your exact location, down to a foot, from space by triangulating the signal time off 3 or more satelittes. A cell phone bounces off 3 or more cell towers to insure good reception and between different carriers towers. They can position you closer than a foot by your cell phone any time they want. Even when it is off.

Want more. Go to the bank and get a cash withdrawl. Fresh crisp new bills come out of a magic machine next to the teller. What they don't tell you is that the serial numbers on the bills are logged.

Speed trap cameras that capture license plates don't just capture the speeders, the record and log everyone to track movements.

Cameras roam the faces of specatators at sporting events looking for convicted or wanted criminals.

ATMs sniff your hands looking for illegal substances and explosives.

Believe it.

What will it take to end the madness? Another Rosenberg trial? Or will the American people rise up and say enough? Oh wait they can say that, it would be un-American. Just ask Bush.

A winemaker yet ?!?

I racked my first batch of wine the other day. TO be more precise, it was mead, which is wine made from honey. Oh, racking means taking it from one fermentation vessel to the next.
I surely hope that it mellows as I let it age. I tasted it, which only told me that I had made alcohol... and cleared my sinuses. It has a nice amber color and hopefully it will clear to about the color of apple juice with the same transparency. It should be good to drink by my birthday in August. Which will be cool to get silly drunk off wine I made on my 30th birthday. Oh, did I mention it is something like 15% abv? Sweet, or will be if it mellows properly.

I think I will try to make some beer. Not only does it finish quicker but I have more of a fan base for that. That and I can do a couple batches in the time it takes to do a single wine batch.

Still, with spring approaching, I will try some fruit wines. Strawberry, Watermelon, and blackberry I have heard were good as well as peach. We will see around Thanksgiving. I have 3 carboys (6 gallon water cooler style bottles) so I can have 4 batches going at once... and I can buy more bottles.

I bet pomegranate wine would be good.

Do you here what I hear?

Silence, according to Dictionary.com, can be described as the absence of sound. Think about it for a second and try and remember the last time you actually had a moment in silence.
I personally can not remember a time in the last few years anyway. There are times when there isn't much noise, but never silent. There is always some sort of background noise. At the old house a train horn or a passing car. At this house, a dog barking, a tweeting bird, or a passsing car. Even at work, in my fishbowl with the door closed I hear the whirr of my computer, the muffeled noise of voices and rivet guns and the occasional overhead page. I truly can not remember the last time I was not immersed in sound.

Now give this some thought, is that a bad thing? I have come to the point where I can not read without background noise. I find my mind wonders unless it has to concentrate to block out some noise. I literally need the noise to focus, to really focus. When I run material plans which, for those that do not work where I do and for some that do, is the most intense and detailed document that we have, I turn on some music loud enough to annoy those around me, put on the headphones, and promptly tune it out. Watch "For Love of the Game" with Kevin Costner and you will get the jist.... "Lock the mechanism."

I just think it is amazing that everyone wants a little peace and quite, but quite isn't that peaceful.

I again saw a billboard outside a church that kind of pissed me off.
"Evolution is unproven and unprovable." Maybe I missed the chapter in the science books that gave evidence of Creationism. I would say there is more proof of Evolution than there is of Creationism. Still, why put such rubish on public display. I can understand and appreciate the ones that say things like "Souls Saved Here" because they are faith based. If you believe that you have a soul and that it is in peril, than the message speaks to you. The earlier one takes on the age old debate of Science vs. Faith. If I ever considered going to that church, which had the "Hot Pink Cross" as one of my sisters friends once called it, my decision would have been made for me with this sign... in the negative. Sensationalism has no place in the church, at least not in my opinion. I mean, you are studying the teachings of someone who ascended 2000 years ago. I doubt he has added to it lately so what is the need for sensationalism? Do you really need to be sensational to get butts in the pews?

Oh, where exactly is the Gospel according to Jesus. His real name wasn't even Jesus, it was Yeshua. Yeshua Ben Yosef. (Yeshua son of Yoseph if you like, ben meaning son of. ) Oh! the hieracy.

How come we never see this one "Jesus wasn't white and he didn't have blue eyes." That is fact. It can be proven. I would guess that it would be unpopular though. Why? Because God made us in his image and it would be hard to imagine his son didn't look like us beacause that would mean that we don't look like God. That is probably the strongest objection to Evolution.

Even if we did just poof into existance, Adam and Eve would have been black folk. Africa is the cradle of life after all. It wasn't always a desert waste land you know.

How about this... find a spot with some silence and think about all this and figure it out for yourself instead of having someone else tell you what to believe.

Until next time...

Down with Rodents

Ze Mize are uponus. Ve must irradiate zem. Die mize, Die!

It is true, we have a bit of a mouse infestation. More like a colony. I past blogs I spoke of a truck that I had reaquired. Since my neighborhood has restrictions on such rabble sitting in yards, I cleaned out a spot in the garage and pushed it in. Little did I know that with it, the truck contained half of Mickey’s family tree.

As I was pulling the truck out of the garage for the guys to come haul off, literally pull mind you, these little furry bastards were jumping ship like it was the Titanic. Only they found fair waters in my garage.

The war has begun. They are cunning though. I put the old standard spring traps out and they experienced some casualties but they died valiantly. In fact, many of them drug themselves into obscure corners of the garage, trap attached, so that I could not reuse the trap.

Alas, we have come to poison. Poor filthy animals.

Good Night... and Good Luck

The Oscars are upon us, and I have yet to see my ballot. Some people are slipping...

I went to a funeral the other day. The father and husband of dear friends of the family had passed, and out of respect to them both my mother and I attended.

Alot of other people went just to the visitation, but I think that is a cop out. The hard part is the actual funeral, and that is where you should be. Also, the actual service has a defined starting time, which means you actually have to make an effort to be there. Visitation has a range of times, so it is at your convenience. It just seems more meaningfull if you don't just drop by.

Anyway, I made some observations whle I was there and would lke to share them.

At my funeral, I would like a rosary said. I do not want a 20 minute sermon on how only God can comfort you in your personal time of loss. This may be true to some people and in some ways, but we will not debate that here. What it did do was take focus away of why were there... to commemorate to deceased. Storys should be told, memories should be shared. It should not be a bible study.

I would also like my funeral to take place in a church. If you truly believe that death is simply the separation of the spirit from the body, then the ceremony should take place in the same place where your soul was saved... by baptisim... in church. Besides, if God truly is the only one that can comfort you, what better place than his house?

I would like a priest do do my funeral service. I like qualified people working as contractors to the family. Besides, when my grandfather passed, the priest, whom had the personallity of an accountant, managed to do a good service and rip at least a few tears out of every eye in the place. I still remember the line, speaking for my grandpa "Remember me loving you." I am getting choked up even now.

If there is to be music, if my be performed live. No playing CDs over a PA.

Anyhow, there must be a feast afterward... everyone is expected to eat enough to choke a horse and get just a little tipsy... including the priest.

Other than that, my only other demand is that I have a head stone somewhere. Not a marker, a head stone so that there is some evidence that I was here.

One last point here. I have talked several times about the true measure of a man. Someday I will come up with a definitve formula, but one aspect would be friends. Not, acquaintances but true friends. People who weep at your funeral not just because you were too young, or it was sudden, or because they can relate it to someone they are close to or were. But because the truly feel they have lost something. People who you can not talk to in 5 years, and with one phone call you either step right back into the friendship or they rise to some desperate situation. Or someone who you see every day and when you suddenly don't it feels odd and unwhole.

On a lighter note, the Olympics are mercifully over and spring is in the air... Baseball is back. We are entering the best few months of the year. The best months of the year sports wise is September/October, followed closely by March/April. We have the NCAA tournament, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, The NFL draft and Baseball opening day and spring training... It's a beautiful time.

Until next time... in the voice of Bob Ross (soft deep tones) Happy painting and God Bless.