Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Bowie, from his Diamond Dogs period:

Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!

Ah, "hot tramp" would be the story of my love life with the exception of the two Mrs. Penningtons.  Wait.  Didn't they choose ME as their consort?

Never mind.  Tramps it is, then.  In a manner o' speaking.

―:☺:―

Apropos of not much... the Keith Richards station is THE most eclectic station I've defined on Pandora, evah.  Today's Happy Hour has featured selections from Bowie, the Stones, Keith hisownself, Waylon Jennings, Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Cream, Ozzie, the Allman Bros, and AC/DC just to name a few, and that's just today.  I defined this station back when I began reading Keef's autobiography and it's become The Only Station I Need.  HIGHLY recommended.

Test Drive

I downloaded Internet Exploder 9.0 last evening and am still in the test-drive phase, which means I ain't sure if IE9 is gonna replace Firefox as the broswer of choice here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  A few things are immediately apparent:  (a) IE9 is fast, faster than Firefox by a noticable margin and (b) the interface is much cleaner than FF, with more screen space dedicated to the web page you're looking at, as opposed to tool bars, menu bars, yadda, yadda.  See for yerself: 

IE9

Firefox 3.6.15

The downsides, so far:  (a) IE9 puked all over me last evening when I went to post that cat video, throwing a 404 "Page Not Found" error where the vid should be.  I need to do some testing there.  (b) IE9 STILL doesn't have a built-in spell checker and that might be the fatal flaw that prevents it from becoming the Browser O' Choice.  I know there are add-ins in this space and I might play with that option a lil later.  (c) 64-bit IE9 still doesn't support Flash.  The 32-bit version does, so that's what I'm using.  (d)  IE9 only runs on Vista and Windows 7.  That doesn't affect me personally, but if you're running XP you're SOL.  If you're running something earlier than XP, well... I'll not insult you, even if you deserve it.  I don't know if IE9 works on Fanboi hardware, nor do I care.  Fanbois prefer Fanboi software anyway, like the "Let's Go Hunting In Africa With Native Porters and Shit" browser.

(Parenthetical diversion... FF has issues where videos are concerned, too.  Note the Goo Goo Dolls mysteriously appeared in the screen shot above where the cat video should be.  This "feature" has happened more than once to me in the past; the only cure is to paste the video embed code in the "Edit HTML" window of Blogger's post screen. WTF?)

The geeky set likes IE9... a lot.  Here's one such review, if'n yer in to that sorta thang.  My jury is still out, however.

Update, 1400 hrs:  Well, I'm thinkin' the road test is over and IE9 ain't for me.  IE9 doesn't seem to want me to log into the Disqus commenting application a few of my blog-buds use and apparently caused Google to doubt my identity, as well, seeing as how Google suspended my account for about a half-hour earlier today.  The suspension might have been an unhappy coincidence but I question the timing.  The lack of a spell-checker in IE9 irritates me, too.  So... thanks but no thanks, Mr. Gates.  Yer latest ain't seamless enough fer me.

As Seen On Red Eye VI

Heh.  I think I watched this at least five times at the first commercial break.

Fanbois Rejoice!

The iPad 2 is here... it's actually been here since Friday but we failed to notice because of other events.  So here's what the LA Times has to say...

The ironic thing is you can't view the above vid on your iPad, since iPads don't do Flash.  But, Hey!  Who publishes or posts embedded Flash vids and what good are they, anyway?  No one or nothing of any importance (other than older YouTube stuff, before they changed their embed code)... right, Fanboi?  So move along now... there's nothing to see here, literally... and never mind that black hole in your screen where the LA Times should be.

Honor

Occasional Reader Rob sends along a link to an article in The Telegraph (UK) titled "Why is there no looting in Japan?"  An excerpt:

The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.

And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan’s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I’m not the only one curious about this.

The answer is simple, really.  The Japanese have a culture of honor, a culture where the concept of "shame" still has meaning.  It's actually beyond meaning, it's a way of life.  One simply doesn't do something/anything that would bring dishonor on one's family or close associates.  In public, anyway, private behavior can be quite another story altogether.  There are exceptions to the honor code on the fringes of Japanese society... every culture has its outliers... and crime most certainly exists.  But the national fabric is very much on display in this case of extreme adversity.

Disagree?  Want to amplify on my comments (and they prolly require amplification; we are ALL about brevity in these pages)?  I welcome your opinion and/or discussion, as long as it's civil.

I Can't Look Away

Longtime Gentle Readers (all three of ya) know that I have an affinity for Japan, what with having spent nearly five years of my life there... arguably the best parts of what passes for a life, too.  Said affinity makes it incredibly difficult and painful for me to watch the horrendous images and stories of the earthquake/tsunami unfold on my teevee, yet I can't look away.  I was pretty much glued to the tube for the whole weekend, or at least until that point in time when CNN began to repeat themselves, as they invariably had to do.  I still can't seem to get my head around the sheer magnitude of the devastation: entire TOWNS erased from the face of the earth; a 30-foot wall of sea water racing three miles inland; thousands dead.  It's nearly incomprehensible.

On a personal note... The Second Mrs. Pennington advises me that our/her friend Junko and her family (who are in Tokyo) are all OK.  Life in Tokyo is pretty much day-to-day, except for the 300 planned rolling blackouts.  Which brings up the possibility of melt-downs at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant but I don't wanna go there.

Let's go here, instead... a couple of pics from Former Happy Days... in Tokyo, 1991:

TSMP and her best friend Junko

YrHmblScrb at bedtime 

More and similar photos here.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Goo Goo Dolls:

Stranger than your sympathy
I take these things so I don't feel
I'm killing myself from the inside out
Now my head's been filled with doubt

It's my considered opinion that today's poetry rests almost entirely within the lyrics of popular songs.  I'll be the first to admit the music... the playin', the arrangement, the virtuosity with the instruments... are what grab me first and foremost in most any kind of popular song.  But I would be remiss in sayin' the lyrics don't attract me, because they do.  It's just that it takes me a lil bit o' time to get there.

So it's in the spirit of both the poetry and the playin' that I offer up Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack.  The tune is catchy and the lyrics are semi-profound in their pedestrian sorta way.  Also: there would be no personal connection associated with this tune.  I just like it.  It's mere coincidence that the lyrics might be applied to our current condition.  And that's the truth, to quote Lily Tomlin.

It Happens EVERY Year

The time change is kicking my ass in a minor sorta way, in that I'm out of sorts and will remain this way for the better part of a week.  Example:  there are still two cups o' morning coffee to finish.  That said, a week's worth o' body clock adjustment will leave me pleased with the "extra" Happy Hour time.  

OTOH... I'm oh-so-glad I don't have to drag my old ass out o' bed and be somewhere tomorrow morning.  The Spring-forward bullshit REALLY kicked my ass during my working years, mainly because I was always an early-guy, always in at 0600 or so.  I saved the above photo as documentary proof, even though it's 13 years old.  (Rochester, NY... c. 1998)

―:☺:―

As a public service... here's Buck's Brief Treatise On Writing:  Not every freakin' noun needs multiple and increasingly obscure adjectives.  The same relationship exists between verbs and adverbs.

"It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics."
Ernest Hemingway

That is all.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Train:

Well she wants to live her life
Then she thinks about her life
Pulls her hair back, as she screams
"I don't really wanna live this life"

Ah, well.  Live the life ya wanna live, Sweetie.  We're just proud and humble that we got to "meet Virginia" and even know her, in every sense of the word.  Memories are made o' this.

Memories are one thing... the here and now is sumthin' else entirely.  Our here and now:

That's pretty good, now... innit?  It's 71 degrees outside as we speak and we've paused for just a moment for (a) a refill and (b) to construct this post before we get ourself back to the bid'niz at hand, which involves Mark Twain, beer, and cigars.  Are ya surprised, Gentle Reader?  I thought not.

Shhh! Quiet! Did You Hear That?

You:  Hear what?

Me:  This.

―:☺:―

In a similar vein...  I've posted stuff like this on occasion:

I always use the same tired ol' line when traffic drops off, i.e., "was it sumthin' I said?", the above example bein' from February of 2008.  But we are at a loss to explain this:

Well, not really.  I kinda sorta think the answer is highlighted in this graphic:

The answer is titties, Andy. 

All kidding aside... if you're not reading Andy you're missing some seriously good writing, Gentle Reader.  There are no echo chambers, there's very little pontificating, there's just well-crafted and entertaining writing... which we need more of these days.  Andy delivers.

Obama's Best Moment Yet

The president hosted the Chicago Blackhawks at a White House ceremony yesterday...

Not bad, Mr. President.  You pronounced "Toews" correctly and your remarks were generally on-point, not to mention being perfectly clear.  

Not to take anything away from the current Stanley Cup champions but it's prolly gonna be a long time before the 'Hawks make a repeat appearance at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.   The 'Hawks might make the playoffs this year by the skin of their teeth, what with bein' only one point above eighth place in the West... and time growin' short.  I wouldn't take that bet.

One thing will remain the same at next year's Stanley Cup visit to the White House, though: the traditional honorary jersey presented to the president will still be red... with a BIG OL' WINGED WHEEL on it!  Apropos o' that... I wonder if the jersey will have Bertuzzi's number on it?  That would be a non-starter if MY name was Todd.  Just sayin'. 

From NOAA

A stunning graphic of tsunami wave-heights from last night's Japanese earthquake, as captioned at NOAA's web site:

Tsunami Wave Height Model Shows Pacific-Wide Impact

Model runs from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory show the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin. The largest wave heights are expected near the earthquake epicenter, off Japan. The wave will decrease in height as it travels across the deep Pacific but grow taller as it nears coastal areas. In general, as the energy of the wave decreases with distance, the near shore heights will also decrease (e.g., coastal Hawaii will not expect heights of that encountered in coastal Japan).The second image shows the depth of the Pacific Ocean floor. Notice the similarity between areas of low wave height and deeper areas of the ocean.An animated view can be seen here.

The legend only goes to 240cm, which is roughly seven and three-quarters feet.  We KNOW the tsunami that wrecked the coast at Sendai and beyond was much higher than that.

Disaster

I'm up at this hour and watching coverage of the horrendous news from Japan.  It looks like the Tokyo area hasn't been hit hard by the earthquake, variously reported as either an 8.9 (CNN) or 8.4 (NHK).  I have CNN on my teeve and NHK World streaming video on my PC.  The tsunami damage in Sendai is extensive, with the airport completely engulfed and a lot of farmland completely inundated.  The live video coverage has been extensive and quite good, as far as production values go.  I've never seen live footage of a tsunami before and the effect of the wave is mind-boggling.  The damage is going to run into the billions of dollars, the human toll is largely unknown at this point.

I watched the Japanese prime minister's brief comments a short while ago, and the good news is there is no damage or incidents at Japan's many nuclear power plants.

Well, damn.  NHK's stream just went down; I imagine their servers are getting hammered or perhaps they've lost power.

My best wishes go out to the Japanese people.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Variations on a theme of "Stand"...  first up is the inimitable Ben E. King, from my high school days:

Fast-forward to the 1980s and the Clash:

And we'll end with Tammy.  I wanted to embed the Lyle Lovett version of this tune but embedding is disabled, the curse of bloggers everywhere.  That said... if you like the tune you should chase this link.  Lyle's version of the tune eclipses Tammy's even though she OWNS the song, for all practical (and legal) purposes.  But that said... here's Ms. Wynette:

And here we stand.  Or sit, as the case may be.  Heh.

Apropos o' Not Much...

Ye Olde Ancestral Home...

Haunted, even!  This by way of Occasional Correspondent Lin who never ceases to amaze me with her finds.  We had a brief conversation after I viewed the above video, pieces o' which included...

Me:  re: the vid.   How interesting!  Ye Olde Ancestral Home makes the big-time!  I'm 99.94% sure there's no relation here but it was cool to watch...

She:  Au contraire, cher, the chances of you not being related to every other Pennington or de Pennington are slim to none.  Manorial names were not commonly adopted outside the manor-holding families.  Chances of being genetically related to another Smith, Turner or Chandler are slim, given the number of unrelated trades people who assumed trade names after the Norman invasion. 

Heh.  All y'all will have to keep an eye on me as I might start putting on airs and stuff.  "To the manor born" and all that.

Apropos o' Yesterday's Post...

...where I said "No one talks about it much, but after the Columbia disaster I'm thinkin' we ALL hold our collective breath when the shuttle comes home."

 I scare myself sometimes.    

(from the usual source)

Discovery Is Home

Space shuttle discovery rolls to its final landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (photo as captioned at FNC's web site)

Safe and sound.   No one talks about it much, but after the Columbia disaster I'm thinkin' we ALL hold our collective breath when the shuttle comes home.

So now Discovery is off to the Smithsonian, a sad but fitting end to an illustrious career.

Wishful Thinking

Which is all the thought of Spring is at the moment here on The High Plains of New Mexico.  Our grass is still dun colored and there isn't even the HINT of buds, blooms, or blossoms.  Well, that's not entirely true... the tulips have put up two-inch green shoots, so there's that... and the weather has warmed considerably, as well.  Spring is springing elsewhere in these United States, tho, and I read the First Post of Spring... with photos!... over at Blog-Bud Dan's place this morning.  Dan posted some beautiful photos of his blooming daffodils, which speak to me of Spring like nothing else.

Daffodils... whether in photos or in real life... also fire off memories.  Herewith one such:

Spring

Photo Credit: Anita Martinz from Klagenfurt, Austria (via Wikipedia)

It won't be long until we see tulips, daffodils, and other Spring bulbs bursting from the ground, what with today being the first day of Spring. The crocuses have already come and gone in some places...I've seen them bloom in the snow oftentimes in other parts of the world where I've lived... but for most of us the glories of Spring are just now arriving.

My all-time favorite memory of Spring flowers involves rounding a bend and swooping down a stone-walled lane into a tiny Cotswold village not far from where I lived in High Wycombe, England back in the early '80s. It was on a chilly Sunday morning in early Spring and I was out for a morning ride, alone. This village couldn't have been home to more than 500 souls, but there were literally thousands of bright yellow daffodils in full-bloom lining both sides of the lane leading into and out of the village. It was a breath-taking sight, and that is understatement of the highest order.

I immediately headed back for home after trundling through the village, parked the bike outside the house upon arrival (leaving it running), and burst into my living room, surprising the living HELL out of The Second Mrs. Pennington. I simply said "Grab your helmet, put on your jacket, and come with me! Now!", my outburst being more order than request. She complied... albeit in a somewhat perplexed manner... asking where we were going. I only replied "You'll see."

And see we did. I retraced the exact same route I had taken about a half hour earlier, except this time I approached the village just a little slower while reaching back and tapping TSMP's leg just as we entered the village. I could hear her "Ooooh!" exclamation over the noise of the bike's motor and rush of wind as I slowed to a veritable crawl. We pulled over to the side of the lane, parked the bike and spent about a half-hour walking the lane, drinking in the beauty of the flowers and the tiny thatched-roof houses in the village. And there wasn't a soul to be be seen anywhere, strangely enough. Just the two of us, amid a riot of daffodils on a quiet Sunday Spring morning in Britain.

It doesn't get much better than that, Gentle Reader.

―:☺:―

Today's Pic: Our mount on that glorious Spring morning... my old RD350LC, on the day I sold her... the week before I left Ol' Blighty. Notice my pallor. That comes from living in a country where I might have seen full sun on perhaps seven occasions over the course of three years. OK... I exaggerate... but not by a whole helluva lot.

Spring is just around the corner.  I wish I could sweep around a corner in the crisp Spring air and into a daffodil-festooned Cotswold village one more time.  Just ONCE more.

Well... OK. If You Say So.

I never quite thought about it in this way but yeah... this makes sense (from the AFA's 03/09/2011 Daily Report):

A Working Dog's Workout: Air Force military working dogs at several bases are testing a new fitness regime to improve their readiness for deployment. "The program ensures we send the most physically fit dogs to a combat zone," said SSgt. Rick Laird of the 460th Security Forces Squadron at Buckley AFB, Colo., one of the trial bases. Focused on building both strength and endurance, the regimen includes muscular exercises such as "power fetch," obstacle training, and weight pull. There are also cardiovascular exercises that transition between brisk walks, jogs, and full-out runs. Security forces dog handlers run with their four-legged partners four times per week, including trots on the treadmill. "I love the fact that I am able to PT with our K-9s. When we are down and do not feel like running, they are always up for it," said SSgt. David Duritsky, a 460th SFS dog handler. (Buckley report by A1C Marcy Glass)

We've all seen fat puppies and anyone who's ever had a dog understands the importance of exercise for the health and longevity of our best friends.  But I never considered the ins and outs of getting military working dogs in shape for combat.  I'm glad someone thinks about these things.

Here's the caption that accompanied the above pic:

Buckley Air Force Base, Colo.- Staff Sergeant David Duritsky and Pier, 460th Security Forces squadron, enjoy their time physically training together at the fitness center Mar 2, 2011. Buckley is one of few bases instituting this new program to keep the military working dogs physically fit and deployment ready. ( U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Marcy Glass ) 

Click the pic for larger, of course.

The Passing of Time

I awoke this morning to the usual, customary, and quite reasonable bits of e-mail... the AFA Daily Report (which I read in its entirety), the daily Townhall missive (which I largely ignore, save for the political cartoons), overnight comments on EIP posts, and the odd communication from friends and relatives (which is odd in the "once in a while" sense and is not a comment on the content).  The latter which inspired a brief communication between YrHmblScrb and a long-time acquaintance, who noted today is the 43rd anniversary of his discharge from Uncle Sam's Air Force, which led to a brief communication wherein we exchanged views on aging and other such mundane things, the both of us bein' fully retired and lovin' it, for the most part.

My friend and I are sorta the same although very different.  He, on the one hand, did one tour with the Air Force and embarked on a career in The Academy, albeit a career less involved with academics and more involved with research in the field of physics, which career we suspect was highly rewarding... in every sense of the word.  I, as you know, Gentle Reader, chose a different path... in that I screwed around with a USAF career that mostly involved a lot o' beer and other mind-altering substances whilst traipsing around the world at a time when we were confronting an existential threat to our very way of life, or so we 're led to believe.  Then I married well, got serious, and made my bones in a brief but exciting 16-year foray into the Info Technology world after that Air Force thang was done.  All that is water under (or over) the dam, as it were.

But here we are, the both of us, reflecting on the past and thinkin' about gettin' old.  But I paused and reflected on one interesting thing.  My friend brought up the 43rd anniversary of his discharge and I, in turn, remarked that the first of this month marked the 26th anniversary of my retirement from the USAF.  Which is middling strange.  We, as a species, tend to mark the passing of time in increments of five...as in our fifth, tenth, or twentieth  wedding anniversary and such.  Rarely do we ever remark upon the passing of time in single-year increments, which I find passing strange.  Why is that, I wonder?

―:☺:―

Today was an interesting blog-day.  It seems like all my Daily Reads got prolific overnight, so much so that we divided our normal blog-reading into two sittings vice the UCR one, there being THAT much to read and comment upon.  Just to cite one example... Blog-Bud Daphne asked a provocative question today, to wit: 

I doubt I’m the only one feeling a low-level of anxiety about our economy, national debt, unbalanced budget, the Fed’s shenanigans, unemployment, rising prices on basic commodities, incompetent politicians, etc.

[...]

I rarely ask personal questions, but I’m intensely curious about this right now. I really want to know what you’re thinking and experiencing. Are you anxious, worried, at the end of your financial tether or feeling that everything is fine and this bit of government trouble will all blow over soon?

What suggestions or advice do you have to share?

To which I replied...

Are you worried? What kind of preparations are you making if the country goes the way of Greece?

Worried? Slightly, the biggest worry being a Weimar-republic or 1970s South America bout of hyperinflation. Total collapse? Not so much. It could happen in an “anything is possible” way but I think the probability is quite low.

Preparations? Zero debt beyond monthly expenses. I AM considering turning a part of my 401k into gold… of the real, tangible, “hold it your hand” Krugerrand sort… as an inflationary hedge. Nothing much beyond that, though, aside from reading the end-o’-days whack jobs, who I find enormously entertaining. ;-)

About those whack jobs... I'm seein' a whole helluva lot of that "end o' days" rhetoric of late, which includes tales predicting an impending Mad-Max sorta fate for us all.  I don't see any of that stuff happening, whether it's because I lived through the Carter presidency with its double-digit inflation, the "we're all gonna die" backyard bomb-shelter building epidemic of the Eisenhower years, and all that other stuff.  Or mebbe I'm just overly optimistic about things in general.  What's your take, Gentle Reader?  Is the apocalypse at hand?  Or is this just more bid'niz as usual?  Enquiring Minds™ wanna know.