A Volcano, for Christ sake!

OK, maybe it's a tad pointless to rant about something that happened 26 years ago. Be that as it may...
I'm watching (or more accurately just finished watching) Seconds from Disaster. Tonight's episode is about the eruption of Mt Saint Helens in 1980. One of the survivors is some guy who was camping with his friend not too far from, um... an active volcano.
So, the volcano erupted, he got horribly burned but managed to survive. Lucky bastard. 57 other people weren't so lucky.
Anyway, it's 26 years later. The narrator is talking about the science that goes into predicting volcanic eruptions. There's a lot of information here I don't feel like going into.
The point I'm getting at is this guy that survived, he's actually pissed off that the scientists at the time didn't do a better job of predicting how the mountain would explode, and as a result didn't properly warn him.
Some one correct me if I'm wrong, but the friggin thing didn't just up and explode out of nowhere.

Listen pal, you were camping in the vicinity of an active volcano. V-O-L-C-A-N-O. Mountain full of fire and smoke. People knew it was going to go off. You were stupid enough to put yourself in harm's way. You survived. Fucking get over it.

That's all. Now the same show is covering the crash of TWA Flight 800. I'm going to watch that.

All we are are Hanes in the wind

KG and I are going through some pretty serious housecleaning. Making room for the new arrival in April.

Tonight I found a pile of old T shirts on the bed. Shirts KG was planning on giving to Goodwill.

I personally can't bear to part with most of my old T shirts. They are very much like photos or postcards. Each one is a snapshot of some point in my life. As a result, I have well over 100 T shirts. Most of which I never wear. I managed to tlak KG into keeping most of them. I felt the pain of their loss even if she didn't.

They had all come out of a box that had been in the spare room. In tribute to the Ts that almost found there way in to the thrift store system, here they are:

White Houston Shakespeare Festival 1990. Had a portrait of the Bard done in a collage.

Gray T with John Tenniel's "Illustration of Alice" on the front.

Black that read "Behind every great woman is a great women's college. Smith 1994". She doesn't know it, but I actually took this one to wear myself.

Gray Delekta Pharmacy shirt with a drawing on the back of a soda fountain reading "Home of the World's 'Most Delektable' Coffee Cabinet.

White Simpons family portrait circa 1989.

Black with red lips reading "Spoken Word 729 HOPE Providence."

White Trinity College.

White with RI Rhode Island logo

White with graphic of the globe being held in a hand, reads "The Whole Tribe."

White PBS Mystery! logo with Edward Gorey drawing.

White Simpsons 2 sided family pic with Sebadoh logo superimposed on it. The story I hear is that on one tour Sebadoh used second hand Ts for all their tour shirts.

White 2 sided Animaniacs logo.

Gray Oxford Crew with crossed oars. Purchased while KG attended Oxford.

White Smith College Alumnae.

Gray Mickey Mouse graphic.

The college shirts I told her she couldn't get rid of. No one else should be able to wear them, and it's the only proof that she did go.

Still in the box was a black Club Babyhead T, along with a black Touisset Point Country Club shirt. And a Kbco Polarized Lenses shirt.

I had planned, back before my digital camera broke, to take a picture of both KG and myself wearing every single one of our T shirts. There are quite a few I could part with if I had a picture. It's more the memory the shirt evokes than the shirt itself.

I'll put it on the to do list.

A New Hope

After Episode 3 came out, I made a decision that I would introduce my son to Star Wars with Episode 1, and work forward. Not because that's the way George wants them to be viewed, but because I wanted to see what TKJr's perspective on SW would be having watched them in that order.

Well, I kinda screwed that up tonight. He's a big Darth Vader fan. He calls him "Dark Side". Tonight he was wearing my Vader mask and running around the house doing the deep breathing sounds. He loves R2D2. Goes nuts everytime he sees him. He likes C3P0 as well. Whenever he hears the commercial for the MOS exhibit on the radio, he starts singing the theme song. And of course... everytime he sees a stormtrooper he calls him "Daddy." So, with this in mind, I decided to put on Episode IV tonight. I figured the first 5 minutes of the movie has Vader, stormtroopers, R2 and 3P0. You can't beat that.

From the second the opening crawl began, TKJr sat on the floor, transfixed. His eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open. He stayed that way until the jawas got to the Lar's homestead. Then his interest began to wane.

I may sound like a dork, I know. But seriously, my eyes welled with tears watching my little boy mesmerized by what he was watching. He's only 2, but the magic worked. It was like reliving it myself.

Damn, being a father has got to be the best fucking thing in the world. Seriously.

Shit, it's been a week!

And yet I still have nothing relevant to say.

Nothing.

Closed because of storne

I walked down to the local Qwiki Mart at the height of the storm yesterday, hoping to buy a pack of smokes.

I wasn't surprised that the store was closed, what with a blizzard and shit. But closed because of storne?

I'm afraid of what a storne might be. I'll be keeping my eye out.

So, we ended up with, I'm guessing, about 16 inched here. Light, powdery snow. Not too bad. Got a sick toddler on top of that, so it's fun, fun, fun over here. Oh well, I guess every day can't be all shits and giggles.

meme!

Found this fun meme over on Love and Other Drugs

Here are the rules:

Grab the nearest book
Open the book to page 123
Find the fifth sentence
Post the text of the next 3 sentences (#5,6,7) on your blog, along with these instructions.
Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! Just grab what is closest. No cheating.

The closest book to my computer is actually "Guess How Much I Love You." But, children's books don't have 123 pages. So, a blind reach into the bookcase results in "The Master Magicians: Their Lives and Most Famous Tricks" by Walter Gibson. My sentences are:

He decided to make up for it with another grand tour, this time including Europe on his route. In December, 1904, Ching Ling Foo arrived in London with a company of Chinese jugglers, contortionists and acrobats. His troupe opened as the headline attraction at the Empire Theater.

Thanks, Mycalls. That was entertaining.

Happy, happy birthday to me...

Birthday Boy by The Residents

Bulging eyes abound about
The birthday boy today;
Screaming, "Creaming eyes!"
Screamed he,
His mother looked away.
"Creaming eyes explode upon
An apple pirate toad
And if an injun ate a plate
I'd laugh and live abode."
Nervousness itself was shifting
Guests against the door,
"Forgive us dear, but, uh, baking beer
It what we should be near."
"Bye," the bothered birthday boy said,
"Bye," the bothered birthday boy said,
"Bye or sell or bye,
Bye or sell or bye."
"Happy, happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me he-he-hee,
Happy birthday to me...

Hatred is human and hatred is here

In response to Mycalls comment... it appears that the admins at myspace have taken it upon themselves to remove Jacob's profile and replace it with the following diatribe:

"While the mainstream media is busy covering this tragic yet insignificant story, important things are going on in the world. The sad irony of the supposed “information age” is a noticeable absence of actual news from America’s most popular media outlets. House fires, car accidents, kidnappings—while all certainly important to the few people they immediately concern—are completely irrelevant to the human race as a whole, yet these such stories dominate the headlines. This is said to exclude stories of celebrity lifestyles, "human interest", and sports, all of which have positively no value to civic life. This standard of journalistic irresponsibility works in direct contrast with democracy, as citizens of America—a nation heralded as a supposed bastion of democracy—remain the most ill-informed citizens in the developed world. For example, a majority of Americans continue to believe that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the 11 September attacks, but know for certain that Lindsey Lohan has struggle with an eating disorder.

As such stories grip American audiences, the current administration in the White House is setting a course for American the democracy that could very well see it to its finish, much in the vein of Roman democracy’s defeat beneath the boot of militaristic dictatorship. At this crossroad of history, we find America much more concerned with stories which will never amount to as much as a sentence in any history book. Fascism, the face of which has begun to emerge in America, thrives on ignorance of this sort, relying upon a population sedated by inconsequential matters and willingly ignorant of issues central to the survival of their community and species.

Shame on the American media, and shame on the American public. You have shunned the gift of knowledge afforded to us by thousands of years of human progress, and have chosen rather the bliss of ignorance. The price could prove to be the freedom of the greatest democracy of all time."

I have no hard facts to confirm my theory, but judging by FOX's bombastic coverage and the fact that they were apparently using his myspace profile for most of their information, I'm guessing they prompted the removal.

Oh well. It was all sound and fury anyway. As for what has replaced it... I have no retort. I don't disagree.

He didn't like Mondays

So, Jacob Robida dies from multiple gunshot wounds to the head. But not before 2 other people lost their life.

I'm sure the media, the pundits and wags and armchair philosophers the world over will be debating what caused this 18 year old to suddenly burn up in an orgy of violence.

There must be a reason. There has to be a reason. Or, as Bob Geldof once said:

"What reason do you need to die?"

Take a look at the boy's myspace profile and judge for yourself.

And another thing...

We're back to the occasional odd google search.

Put in "fuck jcaho" and this site comes up at #6. Probably be #1 now.

Strange this to google, so thinks me.

TK8103: Party Animal

Yup, that's me getting down with the toddler set. The birthday boy is on the right, and that's TKJr and KG on the floor to my left.
Looks like I had something funky going on with my shoulder bells.

Note to self...

Never, ever borrow someone else's video-game controller. Ever.