Pretty Cool

This:



That lil girl is gonna get a LOT o' candy this Halloween.  A LOT.

Saturday: Good Visuals But...

... very, very stupid.



From the Usual Source of these things:

Base jumper John van Horne leaps from the 1,381ft KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in to a roof-top pool of another 34-storey building in the distance.

Just climbing the tower is dumb, jumping off the thing is even dumber. 

Bits and Bytes

Some linkage and a video...

There's this, to begin with.

I'm actually rather embarrassed about my results, what with only getting 11 out of 15 correct.  This, after living in Ol' Blighty for three years and making at least four trips back since I left in 1983.  (H/t: Skip, who's an Honorary Brit, too.)

And then there's this, from Anne Bonney:

There are cheaper alternatives at the link and thank The Deity At Hand for that.  Forty-seven Yankee Dollars for a single candle is about three ticks to the right of "outrageous."  That said, I've heard lotsa people will never move to an e-reader because of the lack of that "book smell."  Well, problem solved!

And finally, here's the video I mentioned up top... but first a screen-cap from the source... Hemmings Daily (the comments at the link are interesting, most notably this vid was shot mere days before the big earthquake of 1906):

It makes perfect sense... to me, at least... that Americans' bad driving habits originated in California, and San Francisco, specifically.  That said, the video above ain't got a THING on driving in the Third World, which might could be best described as "you hadda be there."  Go ahead, ask me how I know.

♪♫ One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong... ♫♪

WTF?

"Completely Inappropriate"

That's putting things mildly.  The prof critiques an e-mail:



You can't make this shit up and who would want to, anyway?

I need a new tag for stuff like this, something along the lines of "idiots."

Washed and Waxed

That would be our mustache: washed and waxed.  There's this about that:

Monday, September 30, 2013

Project Update

Back in July I posted about starting a new project, to wit: "We've embarked on growing a "regimental" mustache, otherwise known as a "handlebar" (or we're tryin' to do so, at least)."  This was our starting point:

This is where we are now:

And then there's a this, just a few minutes ago:

The project is coming along, albeit much slower than we'd like.  We also seem to be somewhat asymmetrical, with our left side growing faster than the right (there's NOTHING political there), which a good trimming might could fix.  I like projects like this: stuff with minimal effort, something I can do in my sleep.

Pot-Poury

I might have been the only person in my small circle of blogging friends who didn't acknowledge Robin Williams' passing yesterday.  The Usual Source of political 'toons has a few items dedicated to Mr. Williams today; here's one such:
 

And from the Usual USAF Source, this:

Military Tribute to Robin Williams

—John. A. Tirpak

​The Pentagon issued a rare tribute to an entertainer on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a statement, said "the entire Defense Department community mourns the loss of Robin Williams," whom he described as "a gifted actor and comedian, but … also a true friend and supporter of our troops." Hagel noted that Williams had entertained "thousands of service men and women in war zones" and his philanthropy supported numerous causes "that helped veterans struggling with hidden wounds of war." The Twitterverse on Tuesday filled with stories from service personnel and vets on how Williams had taken the time to visit and talk with them personally, going so far as to seek out and spend time with troops who, because they were on duty, couldn't attend his front-lines performances. Many described him as a modern-day Bob Hope. Williams earned his first Oscar nomination for portraying Air Force Sgt. Adrian Cronauer, an Armed Forces Radio DJ, in the 1987 film, "Good Morning, Vietnam." The United Services Organizations, in a release, said Williams went on six USO tours between 2002 and 2013, including five overseas stints during which he visited troops in 12 foreign countries. This included three stops each in Afghanistan and Iraq.

RIP, Mr. Williams.

In other news...

I'm thinkin' UPS loves this video:



Drop-kicking the package on to the roof is a nice move, eh?

In the "Minor Bitches, Moans, and Complaints" category...  We've been living with our Keurig machine for exactly three months today and I'm not very fond of the thing for one simple reason: it takes too damned long to brew ONE cup of coffee.  The machine apparently has lost its mind, in that it has NO ideer what those three different portion-level buttons on its face are for.  To be clear: one has a choice (supposedly) of brewing either a small, medium, or large cup of coffee, depending on which button you push; MY machine brews exactly one-third of a cup of coffee no matter WHICH button you push.  So every morning we stand at the machine diligently pushing buttons and waiting for the machine to cycle THREE times before we get our first cup of coffee.  I don't think that's the way the machine is supposed to work.

It's always sumthin'.

Saturday: If You Play It They Will Come

Alternate title: "A Man Outstanding Sitting In His Field."



Over four and a half million views!

Yet Another Shoebox Blogging Day

The working world prolly feels like this today...

... but not us retired geezers.  I like Mondays for several reasons: traffic is down compared to the weekend (not that traffic is ever much of a problem here), the stores are less crowded, and there's decent stuff on the teevee.  I have no need to return any given Monday.

In other news... I booted up my laptop yesterday morning for the first time since early February.  I was good to go after about six hours, 78 (!) Windows updates, two iTunes updates, gawd-only-knows-how-many AV updates, and three reboots.  I don't think I'm gonna go six months without firing up the laptop ever again.

Yesterday was yet another brilliant day, weather-wise, here on The High Plains o' New Mexico.  We've been unseasonably cool for the past week with highs only reaching the mid-80s, if that.  We also received more rain this past month and my gut tells me this has been the wettest summer since I arrived here in P-Ville.  My gut might could be wrong, however:

Well, now.  This year is only average if one can believe the source data.  May and July were definitely wetter than most but the other months this year were slightly below average.  So much for my "gut feel," eh?

Coincidence? I Think Not!

Even the Occasional Gentle Reader knows I steal stuff from Shoebox... prolly a lot more than I should.  So then we see this on the Shoebox blog today...

Ahem.  Haven't we been here before?

Friday, July 25, 2014

More Idiots Among Us

It's easy to spot the grade-school dropouts in life.  They're the ones who can't... or won't... color within the lines.

And... 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Idiots Among Us

Taken 20 minutes ago at Wally-World, wherein this person required TWO handicapped parking spaces.  I didn't realize you could get a disabled tag for being mentally handicapped.

Just sayin'.

Meh

What am I missing here?



Something?  Anything?

Yet another movie I won't be seeing.  One wonders how Hollywood manages to make any money these days.

Is It Ever TOO Late?

To post, that is.  We spent the better part o' our day off the grid, beginning like this:

That would be a sunrise, Gentle Reader, sumthin' we rarely see these days.  We took the pic from inside The Tart, shortly after oh-dark-thirty.  We were gone for about 12 hours and this is what we looked like at the end o' our day:

We killed us some bugs today (click to embigify).  I'm thinkin' it would look a lot worse than this had we not hit that half-hour rain storm on our way back to base.  Bad enough, though... I see a beauty shop appointment in The Tart's immediate future.

And now it's back out to the verandah for our second beer.

Saturday: A Couple o' Things

First, an amateur used car ad from Down Under...




From the "About" section at the Tube O' You:

I'm trying to sell my awesome little car. It's a 1999 Holden Barina. Its not in great condition, but its still a fun little car.

Tweet me an offer using the hashtag #buymybarina. I've also set up a little site for it http://buymybarina.com

(Added later)

This little clip has done so well that we've decided to try and do some good with it.

The Barina will be auctioned for the charity Cancer Council Australia. 

Pretty cool, eh?

And then there's this:



Occasional Readers know I'm not much of a bezbol fan.  But I AM a fan of those who achieve legendary status in their sport, whatever that sport may be, and Mr. Jeter has attained that rank.  Mr. Jordan's bid'niz did a great job with this tribute; well done, Sir.  Very well done.

Pretty Cool

Occasional Reader Rob sent this along yesterday...



Computer animation has reached the point where it's pretty danged hard to tell if something's real or if it's Memorex.  That said, one wonders why there aren't any frogs in this vid.

Back on Facebook

Well, sorta.  Today we replaced our old five-dollar Wally-World shower curtain...

With a spiffy new social media shower curtain...

We could have put ourselves in the picture but opted NOT to provide too much information.  Rumor has it this might could be the Obamas' shower curtain, i.e., "lives in Washington D.C.," but I'm quite sure it isn't.

I bought this at Amazon, btw.  Like this.

I didn't buy a cute pink shower cap, though.

Matchbox

Like most guys "of a certain age," I had a rather large collection of these toys as a child.  Here are a couple of vids from Pathé News describing how Matchbox cars were made once upon a time.





I was surprised to find out Matchbox cars are still being made and marketed, albeit not in Britain.  Lesney, the original manufacturers of Matchbox cars, went bankrupt in 1982; Mattel owns the brand now after it changed hands a few times.  The Wiki has everything you could possibly want to know about Matchbox cars and a few things you prolly don't.

H/t:  Hemmings Daily.

Close Call

Wow.  The slow-motion bit is the scariest part; I missed the flying concrete in real-time.

Apropos o' Not Much

I'm not sure if anyone picked up on the framed photo on SN1's desk when I put up the congratulatory post about his selection to Lt. Col. this past week.  To refresh your memory, I'm talking about the pic below the white arrow on the right:

Here's that same photo, but larger:

The explanation, from an old post:

The top picture was taken sometime before 1991. I know the approximate date because Buck isn't sporting his Gulf War I ribbons. From left to right: Sam, as NROTC cadet; your humble scribe, six or so years post-retirement (and the uniform fit perfectly); and Buck, as a Senior Airman. I hesitate to say Buck, Jr, as he isn't a "junior." "Buck" just happens to be the common nickname given to us both. Buck is the older of the two.

My, how time flies.  SN1 is much closer to 50 than he is to 40 and both sons could retire from their respective services if they had a mind to do so (shorter: both are working for half pay these days).  Makes a body feel OLD, it does.

Congratulations!

SN1's boss gave these to him yesterday...

... saying "All Lt Cols are arrogant bastards*."  Shorter: Buck's on the list (which became public today) for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel.  He prolly won't pin on his new leaves until July of next year, which means he'll have to walk on egg shells for the coming year.  But, Hey!  It's coming!

* I'd be a little bit concerned about that beer's tagline: "You're not worthy."

Saturday: Where Was This LAST Week?

Well done, Dove.  You obviously hit a nerve, what with nearly 11 million views.