We Shall Now Praise Plagiarize Morgan...

 ... on account o' because we got nuthin'.  Or next to nuthin'.  (As noted, stolen from Morgan's house.) First:  extreme beauty.  Watch this in full screen HD, if'n ya can:

This vid is simply one "wow" moment after another.  Apropos of nothing... Vancouver really IS that beautiful.  I spent a week in the Vancouver/Victoria area once upon a time in the way-back and was MOST impressed.

Second:  There's some great snark here, here being "Unhappy Hipsters."  I mean GREAT snark.  Especially if you've known yuppies like those depicted at this blog, or happen to know someone who keeps "Architectural Digest" on their coffee table.  Send them this link and drive 'em nuts.

―:☺:―

Snow Siege, Day Four.   My last nerve is frayed.  I've been without water for four days now and I'm beginning to lose hope my water lines will thaw today.  I don't have the first clue as to why I'm freezing up so much this winter but I DO know that the situation is pissing me off greatly.  I have a feeling the park lost its water Thursday and that sort of situation is beyond my control, coz when there's no water pressure to maintain flow then my lines freeze.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Update, 1820 hrs:  Our water unexpectedly returned about 20 minutes ago.  We struck while the iron was hot (and wet!), washed a sink FULL of dirty dishes, refilled three empty gallon jugs (the emergency water supply, which was down to the last gallon), and are now waiting for the hot water heater to recover so we can shower.  We are, to put it mildly, the happiest of Happy Campers.

Cheesy Videos XVI

We haven't done any video for a good long while, so why don't you join me for a two-minute walk around El Casa Móvil De Pennington?  It's actually pleasant outdoors at the moment but not pleasant enough to... um... stay out there for any length of time.

You'll note this is the 16th installment of Cheesy Videos, which is an irregular feature at EIP.  Previous editions are here, conveniently located in one place for your viewing pleasure.  As if you care.  Heh.

Update, 1242 hrs:  Apropos of not much... we've warmed up to 34 degrees as I type and the racket of falling ice on my roof is MOST annoying.  Alas, we are trapped within the walls of El Casa Móvil De Pennington until the roads (and my driveway) are clear so there's nothing to do other than grin and bear it.  And why are we trapped, you may ask?  Because The Green Hornet HATES snow and reacts in the most vicious of ways should I attempt to force her into dealing with it.  We know when not to push things, Gentle Reader.

Mom

Not really.  But I'm thinkin' Mom might have known this lady... judging by the hairdo, the fashion, and the (ahem) accessories.  

Women and guns:  always in style.

The Sun Peeked Through

But only briefly.  We did manage to get a couple of pics before Ol' Sol went back behind the clouds...

My cherry tree.  Forgive the solar flare, please.  Click for larger if ya wanna.

And icy fingers reaching for the sky...

 

We are ever-so-pleased we only got a little bit of ice, yanno?  We continue to keep an eye out and there's a distinct possibility we may get more sun before the day is done.

Update 1540 hrs:  Three more.

I particularly like the effect of the sun on the ice here; it's like hundreds of little white Christmas lights.  You really should embiggen this one.

 

It's just SO danged pretty when the sun hits the ice.

Heh

A friend sends this along...

Dear Mrs. Turley,

I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.  I work at Home Depot and I told Sarah how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had.  Then I found one more in the back room, and several people were fighting over who would get it.  

Sarah 's picture does NOT show me dancing around a pole.  It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.  From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Allen

Yeah, right.  A likely story.  No need to be embarrassed, Mrs. Allen.  Pole dancing is an honorable profession and one that I greatly admire.  (insert big-ass grin here)

Your Local On the Eights

 

Note the band of blue sky.  I'm hoping the sun comes out later. 

No... make that MY local on the eights, if'n you please.  From the Portales News-Tribune:

Winter wasn't ready to let up Friday morning.

The temperature was 16 degrees just before 8 a.m. in Portales, according to Accuweather. Overnight, 1-5 inches of more snow had accumulated on top of yesterday's snow in the area, said Maria Torres, intern meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque.

She said Saturday and Sunday were expected to be sunny with a high of 46 Saturday and 51 Sunday.

...

An additional 1-5 inches of snow fell on Portales Thursday night, adding to the accumulation of more than 6 inches from the day before.

It's pretty hard to tell how much snow we got just by going outside and walking around.  That's because it was very windy during the storm, so there are drifts that look to be eight or ten inches deep while other areas have hardly an inch or two on the ground.  One thing I DO know, tho: it's colder than (insert cliché here.  My favorite has to do with the sorceress' mammary glands). 

My cherry tree right now:

And in Former Happy Days:

It will be like this again soon... but not soon enough.

Heh - Two From Ramirez

Toons from Townhall.com

A Lull In the Action

I went outside a few minutes ago and this is what we look like:

People in snow country might laugh but this amount of snow is close to paralyzing things in these parts.  All the schools and gub'mint offices in P-Ville and the surrounding area, including Clovis, are closed.  I'm just glad I don't have anywhere to go, as noted elsewhere.

We're also having a lil bit o' thundersnow which has resulted in flickering lights and the catching of breath on my part.  I don't mind the snow so much in the final accounting, but stuff like this is scary:

My poor cherry tree!  We're well below freezing at the moment, so it looks like it will be snow and not ice for the rest of the day.  Let's hope it stays that way. 

Update, 1435 hrs:  It's been snowing off and on all danged day.  I have to admit watching the snow fall outside my window has been both amusing and beautiful, as far as that goes.  That said, it's not beyond the pale to think we'll get the forecast ten inches today.  I'm thinking we've received at least six inches already but I'm not motivated enough to step outside and verify that.  Looking at it from my window while sipping a Chimay Blue and enjoying a Padilla 1932 is quite enough, thankyouverymuch.

SOTU & Hand Baskets

So. Didja watch it?  I did... the whole thing... and I didn't even fall asleep.  I didn't make it through the Republican response though, falling asleep just as Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was entering the statehouse chambers.  Watching The One is exhausting work, yanno?

Mr. Krauthammer has all you really need to know in case you missed it.

As for me?  Not impressed.  I'm at the point now where all of The One's speeches sound the same to me.  The Big Mystery last night was whether or not Obama was gonna "pivot," "move to the center" or otherwise pull a Clinton after his party got its ass handed to it in the VA, NJ, and MA elections.  Short answer: no.  Up the ante, keep on keepin' on, stay the course.  And you guys in the opposition party should just quit obstructing things and get on board, coz now that you can filibuster shit you'll be responsible for The One's failures.  He said so.  So I guess The One is saving the Clintonian course correction some of the pundits were anticipating for next year's SOTU.  You know... when the obstructionists have the majority in at least one chamber.

There was one "I can't believe he SAID that!" moment, though.  He looked directly at Chief Justice Roberts and all the Supremes ... and said:

With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections. (Applause.) I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. (Applause.) They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.

Those two applause moments in parentheses?  Those were standing ovations.  Or as much of the chamber as one could see on the teevee stood up and applauded while the Court sat stock-still and took it.  Well, sorta.  Here's Glenn Reynolds:

“POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who’s in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words ‘not true’ when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.” Drudge is calling Obama’s criticism “intimidation,” but apparently, they weren’t so intimidated. As I said before, Obama’s behavior wasn’t very Presidential, and it wasn’t very wise.

...

MORE: “When you hear the president of the United States demagoguing the First Amendment, you sit there and you take it, son.”

No, actually, you don’t, and Alito didn’t. And that will step on Obama’s press tonight and tomorrow, turning his demagoguery into a negative for him. That’s why Presidents usually act Presidential. Not so much because it’s dignified. But because it’s smart. That’s something that Obama, with his limited experience on the national stage, hasn’t figured out yet.

I literally sat in front of the teevee with my mouth hanging open.  I've never seen a president level criticism like that in an address to Congress before in my life.  Never.  As Mr. Reynolds says... with great understatement... The One's behavior was not wise.

―:☺:―

Hand baskets:

It's midnite as I write this and the storm hasn't hit us yet.  I hope the NWS is wrong and Jenny's forecast (in comments to the post immediately below this one) comes to pass.  I'm also glad I don't have anyplace to go tomorrow.

Today's Happy Hour...

... is something of an occasion.  And a treat, too, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

We got off our dime this morning and made the journey out to Cannon Airplane Patch for a commissary and Class VI store run, seeing as how the weather is about to take a ride in that ol' proverbial hand basket and it ain't gonna be warm.  Unfortunately.  As a matter of fact, our temps are forecast to barely break freezing tomorrow and Friday and there's a distinct possibility we'll have snow.  So there's that, for starters.  

But to get to the point... I wandered in to the Class VI store and was pleasantly surprised to see Chimay on the beer shelves, albeit only in a special commemorative package that included one bottle each of Red, Blue, and Triple, all in the company of a Chimay tulip glass.  Well... Hell Yes!  We bought one.  And we're now about to go sit outside and enjoy the relatively warm weather while it lasts.

Our cigar today is a Partagas Black Label in the Magnifico size and our soundtrack is Motown on Pandora.

Hmmm

Norman (click for larger)?

Or Buck?

You can get your very own personality evaluation here.  The site uses the most amazing technology to scan your entire Twitter stream, your Facebook wall, all your blog posts, and your LinkedIn data (among other things) to determine who you really are.  Now izzat cool, or what? 

I noted one small problem, however.  "Norman" has virtually ZERO presence on the web... so howcum he's smarter than Buck?  Or perhaps this is self-evident.

Buck, OTOH, is obviously the more social of the two entities even though he's dumber than a rock.  We'll get back to you once we figger this conundrum out.  In the meantime we shall remain Buck on the inter-tubes.

Too Busy to Actually Live Life?

Well... Google is here to help, as always:

Not really.  It's a prank.  From the LA Times:

Links to a bogus website called Google Xistence (ed: Google has flagged this link as a phishing site, see below) have been making the rounds today. The tagline: "Life is hard. Let Google live it for you."

The site resembles a Google product page, complete with YouTube instructional video, and purports to let users plug in their Facebook, Twitter and blog log-in credentials. The service supposedly lets Google live your social life for you -- so you can "play World of Warcraft or Tower Defense."

A Google spokesman confirmed what we had already suspected. "Google is not affiliated in any way with that site," he wrote in an e-mail.

The prankster behind Xistence, Philipp Drössler, didn't run with the hoax for very long. He immediately tweeted a link on the bogus @googlabs account he set up pointing to The Next Web's blog post titled "Google Xistence: We wish it was real."

But Google gave him a metaphorical slap in the face by listing the site on its practically ubiquitous phishing list. The second- and third-most-popular browsers, Firefox and Chrome, ping Google's list when users navigate to a Web page.

About the highlighted bits: that it did.  And I'm just paranoid enough to not tempt fate when it comes to malicious sites, so I didn't open the Xistence page link to see what all the brouhaha was about.  But I think the prank's concept is both funny and indicative of the times.  I'm sure there's a study somewhere that shows how much time we all spend on Facebook, Twitter, and the blogs... either our own or those of others.  Or there should be if there isn't.

Today's Happy Hour Tableau

While necessity is best known for being the mother of invention she's also the aunt of expedience.  We're just in from doing today's errands which included a beer run.  We weren't feeling up to a 30-mile jaunt out to the Class VI store as is sometimes usual, so we popped into the local Beer Mart and picked up a 12-pack of Coors' Moon Variants, which consists of four bottles each of Blue, Full, and Pale Moon(s?).  We're sampling our first Pale Moon as we type... and it's not a bad brew, once again.  The Moons get some bad-mouthing here and there among purists ("It's COORS, fercrissakes!") but I find all the ones I've sampled to date to be quite pleasant.

Our cigar today is an Oliva Connecticut Reserve, the soundtrack is Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, and we are taking our Happy Hour indoors.  It's just a wee bit nippy for sitting our old under-insulated ass outside, what with our R-factor being somewhat less than 15.  But we're working on that.

More Newt

This time the Speaker is on about positive campaigning:

Speaking of the Speaker... I watched him on Tavis Smiley's show tonight and Mr. Smiley posed the usual, customary, and reasonable exit question: are you going to run in 2012?  Rather than be coy about it, Mr. Gingrich essentially repeated what CNN reported about a week ago... which is to say he's weighing his options and will decide around the first of next year.  Fair enough.  And better than the "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" BS we usually get.

I'm on the record about Newt: I like him.  I haven't made up my mind as to whether or not he'd make a good president.  I have no doubt he has the intellectual horsepower and the political savvy for the job, I just worry about his underlying character.  We've gone on about this before, haven't we?  Often, as it turns out.

―:☺:―

A question for you, Gentle Reader.  Do you use Firefox?  If so, have you upgraded to v 3.6?  If you upgraded, are you having issues with video playback?  I upgraded this past weekend and videos will just not play normally any longer.  The audio is fine but ALL video plays with a herky-jerky motion as if it's buffering, which it clearly is not since the audio track is fine.  It's so bad I keep a separate IE window open for watching vids.  And if I have to do that, why use Firefox at all?


Your speculation/answers/opinions would be most appreciated.   Never mind.  I cleared my cache and we're fine now.  Why don't I EVER remember to do that before I open my mouth and confirm everyone's suspicions about my general ineptitude?

You Might Have Seen This...

... OTOH you might NOT have seen it.

Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker

Heh.  Yeah, I liked the previous president better, too.  And then there was this major slut spill on a California freeway:


VH1 Reality Show Bus Crashes In California Causing Major Slut Spill

Oh, the horror.  I wonder if Morgan was nearby?  Nah.  He lives in Northern California.

A MeMe... Updated

Back in May of 2008 blog-bud Lin tagged me with one of those meme things, and it was fun.  So much fun, in fact, that I decided to do it again... keeping some things as they were and updating or otherwise changing others. The rules of this game are simple: no words... just answer the question with a picture.  I took the liberty of including a couple of pics where appropriate, so sue me.  And without further ado, the updated MeMe...

1. What is your current relationship status?

2. What is your current mood?

3. What is your favorite band/singer?

4. What is your favorite movie?

5. What kind of pets do you have?

6. Where do you live?

7. Where do you work?

8. Who do you look like?

9. What do you drive?

10. What did you do on Saturday?

11. What did you do on Sunday?

12. What is your favorite network TV Show?

13. Describe Yourself.

14. What is your favorite candy?

I'm supposed to tag some folks, coz that's the way these things work. Consider yourself tagged, if ya wanna be. There's a lot of image googling involved. But Hey! That's fun, innit?

Some of you Gentle Readers played along back then and I thank you for doing so.  Those of you who've recently stumbled into these parts (and probably wish you hadn't) are invited to play along now.

Buyer's Remorse

I'm sure this is gettin' all sorts of play on the right today and I'll pile on, as well.  David Michael Green, an obviously liberal  professor of political science at Hofstra University (but I repeat myself), penned a real keeper this weekend entitled "How to Squander the Presidency in One Year."  The good prof starts out like a house afire:

There's only one political party in the entire world that is so inept, cowardly and bungling that it could manage to simultaneously lick the boots of Wall Street bankers and then get blamed by the voters for being flaming revolutionary socialists. 

It's the same party that has allowed the opposition to go on a thirty year scorched earth campaign, stealing everything in sight from middle and working class voters, and yet successfully claim to be protecting ‘real Americans' from out-of-touch elites. 

It's the same party that could run a decorated combat hero against a war evader in 1972, only to be successfully labeled as national security wimps. 

Just to be sure, it then did the exact same thing again in 2004.
...

Barack Obama has now, in just a year's time, become the single most inept president perhaps in all of American history, and certainly in my lifetime.  Never has so much political advantage been pissed away so rapidly, and what's more in the context of so much national urgency and crisis.  It's astonishing, really, to contemplate how much has been lost in a single year.

The Good Prof then launches into a litany of The One's failings, the best of which might be this:

And let's take it up a whole ‘nuther level, while we're on the subject.   A successful president is one who articulates a strong and compelling narrative for the nation.  So, in your quest to avoid rising even to mediocrity, be sure to leave a great big gaping canyon where that whole narrative thing is supposed to go.  No New Deal, no Great Society, no New Frontier or War on Terror for you.  Nope!  Just a thousand little projects with little non-solutions to big problems.  Hey, why not inject yourself into Cambridge, Massachusetts community police politics while you're at it!  Or the New York State Democratic Party gubernatorial primary!  Or you could deliberate for weeks about which breed of dog to get for your kids!  That's a great use of the president's political capital!

Oh, my.  You just KNOW things are bad when academics start pissing and moaning about their golden boy.  And then Professor Green drops this lil bomb towards the end of the screed:

Of course, I don't give a shit about Barack Obama anymore, other than my desire that really ugly things happen to him as payment in kind for the grandest act of betrayal we've seen since Benedict Arnold did his thing.  But what about the country?

Heh.  This dude is harsh and the above ain't the half of it, Gentle Reader.  But... what about the country, anyway?  What to do?  What to do?  Never fret, there's the standard Lefty poli-sci solution on tap, if ONLY The One would see the light and...

Go where the real solutions are.  Fight the good fight.  Call liars ‘liars' and thieves ‘thieves'.  Do the people's business.  Become their advocate against the monsters bleeding them dry.  Create jobs.  Build infrastructure.  Do real national health care.  End the wars.  Dramatically slash military spending.  Produce actual educational reform.  Launch a massive green energy/jobs program.  Get serious about global warming.  Kick ass on campaign finance reform.  Fight for gay rights.  Restore the New Deal era regulatory framework and expand it.  Restore a fair taxation structure.  Rewrite trade agreements that undermine American jobs.  Rebuild unions.

Ah, there's more but I'm sure you know the tune. You can hum right along if'n ya have a mind to do so, but as for me?  I'm just glad Ivory Tower academics don't actually run anything and spend all their time corrupting young minds.  Young minds have a habit of being changed once they're out in the Real World... or at least that's the way it used to work.  I'm beginning to have my doubts about that but that's also another story, entirely.  We'll not go there today.

So anyhoo... the Good Professor really isn't done after he's vented his spleen about his Fallen Hero.  No, he just has to fire one last shot, predicting we'll sink into a fascist dictatorship once Palin (his speculation) and those eeevil Rethuglicans come into power.  About which: Put the bong down and back away from the lectern slooowly, Professor, and no one will get hurt.

Contrary to Popular Opinion...

... as expressed by R.L. Burnside (below), it really ain't all that bad.  We were out to Wally-World this afternoon for a lil  re-supply activity and noticed someone shut down the wind machine... which is to say it was (relatively) calm and pleasant outdoors.  

So, we returned to El Casa Móvil De Pennington, stowed our groceries away, and proceeded to take Happy Hour on the verandah for the first time in lo these many days.  And it was/is good.  Our cigar is a Gurkha Empire Series III (unlike the review we linked we found our cigar to be most pleasing... it must be all in the luck o' the draw, heh), our beer is a couple o' Fat Tires, and this was part of our soundtrack:

I'm sorely tempted to go off on the lyrics to this tune, as there's much that can be said relative to the sentiment expressed therein.  But no.  We shall save that krep for another day, go back outside and continue as we've begun... because contrary to what Mr. Mason & Co expresses above we are most certainly "Feelin' Alright."  It's just that kinda day.  I hope your day is much the same, Gentle Reader.

It's Bad You Know

An old but highly informative vid... which you can watch full-screen in 1080p if your connection supports that sorta thing:

My county... Roosevelt... has largely escaped the real pain, what with our unemployment rate never exceeding two per cent since the excrement hit the ventilating device.  I sure as Hell wouldn't want to be living in Michigan right about now.

R.L. Burnside on the subject:

"She asked me why... I just went on and told her..."

Say What?

I know it's in poor taste to make fun of folks whose second (or perhaps third) language is Engrish.  But, that said... found on the innertubes:

Corvette ZHZ C6

ZHZ C6 Corvette Hertz Rental Hertz has now appear that they accept ordered 500 Covette ZHZ's from General Motors. The Corvette ZHZ is a Hertz alone appropriate copy with 436 hp V8 engine, paddle about-face automated manual and Hertz' chicken and atramentous acrylic scheme. Other appearance accommodate a dual-mode centered bankrupt system, alluring careful ride control, in advanced 18 inch and in the aback 19 inch seven-spoke achievement wheels, screen-mesh amalgamation and a rear spoiler.

It looks like Babelfish struck again.  I'm sure there's a veritable goldmine of stuff like this on the innertubes, enough that this could become a regular feature here at EIP.   I say "could" only because I'm too lazy to seek out the most shining examples.  And besides that... someone already owns this niche.

Still and even, there's something to be said for "a dual-mode centered bankrupt system" that produces cars as good looking as this one.  Even in chicken yellow.

More Flogging of Deceased Draft Animals

(sigh)  And the wind continues apace (click for larger, if'n ya wanna).  At least it's clear and bright with warm sun streaming in my windows.  Thank The Deity At Hand for small favors and all that.  Still, one longs for calm after three days in the maelstrom. 

―:☺:―

Today's Moment o' Truth:

Yeah, there's nothing like a big ol' dose of populism class warfare to reinvigorate the electorate and get the ol' economy humming along again, right?  That'll work.  Yeahrightsure.
h/t: AAEC

The Modeler's Craft Redux

Remember that video of the SR-71 RC model I posted a while back?  That was way-cool.  But this is even better and much more remarkable from a technical perspective... a model  V-22 Osprey that takes off vertically, hovers, and transitions to "airplane mode" while in flight, just like the Real Deal.  Witness:

Now that is just pretty danged impressive, innit?

h/t: Airpigz

Being As How We're Fair and Balanced...

... I thought I'd post some Leftard political cartoons.  Just checkin' the box, yanno?

They're not that funny; neither are they subtle nor even perceptive.  Which are a few reasons I turned in my moonbat card in the way-back... most of 'em seem to be humor-impaired and have all the subtlety of a sledge hammer. 

h/t:  AAEC.

Warm Ain't Everything...

... but it IS semi-amusing to watch the tumbleweeds rush by the overturned deck chairs outside my window.  We appear to have a bumper crop of t-weeds this year, but it's nothing like this.  Yet.

Needless to say it's yet another day where I'm stuck in the house.  What DID we do on days like this before al-Gore invented the innernets?

Update, 1330 hrs.:  I had to make two trips outdoors to retrieve flying deck chairs before I figgered out a way to secure them for good.  I also managed to get the danged things before they wound up in the next county, lucky me.  Ah, well.  This too shall pass.

Heh - Coal Mine Edition

Toon from AAEC.

Heh. And Other Stuff.

Good friend Lori oh-so-casually dropped this link in comments and there's some good stuff there.  Like this:

There are also some things that are even more sophomoric than this, but better than half of the graphics therein should make ya laugh, Gentle Reader.  Or cry.

―:☺:―

So... we kicked off Happy Hour a little bit early today and tried to hold the festivities outdoors seeing as how the temp is supposedly 63 degrees.  That normally would be most pleasant indeed were it not for an 18-mph wind and an overcast that prevents the small-beer warmth that emanates from the sun at this time o' year from reaching us.  (sigh)  

We tried.

Anyhoo.  Today's cigar is a Gurkha Park Avenue Churchill, our beer is 1554, and this is something from our soundtrack:



Not a bad day, all told.  I've had worse.