X-Mas Is Here

At least the toys are.  Started unloading them this week.  Most are rather banal, but some make a stab at education:

That's pretty nice. Cool, educational.  We get a series of Smithsonian toys every year which cover a range of  educational subjects.  Better read the fine print:

Little Cletus mite be disappointed with his gift not having them Mars germs and all.

What an outrage.  I'm going to call my betters in Congress and have them do something about it.

False Flag! It's A False Flag Operation!

I guess by this time everyone has seen the video of a jerk giving the window girl at Chick-fil-A a hard time.

It tastes good not because it's free, but because it's been filtered through Christian values.

This is so much of a farce, you wonder if it has to be part of a joke.  Regardless, it shows how the liberal left has become it's own worst enemy.

I admire how she handles him; she repeats the company line in a fairly calm manner.  Not me.  My defense mechanism in such a situation is to start an uninterrupted discourse of all the foolish  mistakes the company has made followed by a lecture of how I personally have been wronged... Wronged!  by the corporate suits. Works every time.  They sympathize with your plight and leave the store promising to do whatever it takes to get you a raise.

I have to be careful though.  Last week the big boss went to a meeting where the bigger boss announced that spies had been working the stores in the district photographing everyone at work  "..and why don't we dim the lights and look at the slides now?" My DM immediately looks for a window to throw himself out of when yours truly pops up on a slide, and is pointed out as an example of the company work ethos.  My secret?  Always have something in your hand, and perfect the retail version of Zoolander's "Magnum".  A focused look, but never questioning.  You are the master of the data, and it amuses you.  Slightly.  I've spent months walking around a store with a sheaf of green and white computer paper on a clipboard and absolutely no idea what to do with it.  Of course it all comes around, so I've walked into offices where the manager has been writing gibberish for years with no one finding out.

Redneck Logging

Like there's any other kind.

Had a tree die from the heat.  Not sure of the exact type, but it was one of the *berry trees which are basically giant weeds.  They grow fast, always where you don't want them and have the habit of rotting very quickly when they do expire.

The idea of me up on a ladder holding a chainsaw with property very close has all the hallmarks of a farce somewhere between "America's Funniest Home Videos" and "Faces of Death" so I called an expert, if an expert is described as a friend of a friend who needs some money, but not too much.

Sherm did a pretty good job.  He cut the stump off level so it could be used as a pot holder, and didn't trample the plants that were in the flowerbed around the base.  Part of the contract stipulated removal of the debris, and I didn't see a pickup, so when I went out and saw bare ground with him carrying branches into the alley, I was sure there had been a miscommunication.

No worries though.

Yep.  All the way to the front.

Apparently he's just going to leave it there and burn it as he needs it.

Quickly Dr. Oldman! To The Aerodrome And Nova Zemlya!

Ok,  I have no idea about the fashon world and thought Prada was a bureau of the Russian government.  The glimpses of fashion shows that I've seen look rather silly to me with the men's fashions appearing especially namby-pamby.

Not this though. This I want.




I'm going to have to change my lottery prayer from "Dear lottery fairy, if I win I'll make sure little Timmy gets his operation" yadda, yadda yadda to "I'll make sure all my friends and family are dressed in the Prada 2012 fall collection."

Just A Random Thought

This will seem sick and insensitive, but let's be thankful the Aurora shooter only had guns.  Imagine the carnage if he had his PhD in neuroscience before pulling a Joker and wanting to "see the world burn."

This is one of the things that does worry me.  Technology is progressing in leaps and bounds and it's only a matter of time before someone cooks up a virus or toxin in his or her basement lab.  Actually, I think it's a testament to the goodness or laziness of mankind that it hasn't happened on a wider scale by now.

Two  other thoughts:  I hope the "humans are a cancer on the Earth" types start getting their due attention.  I fear them more than I fear Islamic radicals, Christianists or the Tea Party.  Second, all those James Bond movies where the villain is plotting the end of millions don't seem like fantastic escapist fiction anymore.

Brains Get No Respect

Power out in Maryland, fires in Colorado, drought here (again) and hardcore Islamists in charge in Egypt and Mali.  What to do?  For me, the big decision is whether to press on with the second season of Lexx.  I'd grown rather fond of the Divine Predecessors:

but now that they've been squished, eaten, and blow'd up, I'm wondering if there is any reason to go forward.

P.S. Ever noticed that there is now a sort of standard brain accent?  It's a lot like a ghost accent with the groaning replaced by bombast.

Well, Just Be The Best Soylent Green You Can Be

The first casualty of the Supreme Court not overturning Obamacare is poor Virginia.  She's terrified that the next step is a summons from the Star Chamber of Health consisting of Ron Gettelfinger, Van Jones, John Holdren, a Dutch doctor, and an administrator for the NHS.