Magnificent Artistry from Dead Trees

All the old cottonwood trees in the area of a Craig, Colorado , park had some disease and needed to be removed. So they had a chainsaw competition in the park and offered a prize. The following pictures are a result of the competition. Great artists!




These photos where taken by DamnedifIknow's camera.

Your Face in Space

On the final two shuttle missions, that is. You can upload an image of yourself to fly on the final two missions. According to their participation map, they are already taking over 3,000 people with them.

So put on your Sunday best...I know I will!

Open Blog - Monday

Who hates Mondays?

The Drama Button

http://www.dramabutton.com/

Go ahead. You know you want to push it.

Scenic Pictures

Friday Night Grin

One day there were two boys playing by a stream when they stumbled upon a naked woman frolicking in the water. After a few moments one of the boys turned and ran away.

The first boy couldn't understand why he ran away so he took off after his friend. Finally, he caught up to him and asked, "It was interesting man, why did you run away?"

The other boy replied, "My Mom told me if I ever saw a naked lady I would turn to stone, and I felt something turning to stone, so I ran."

Four for Fridays

Hello everybody! Wow, it's Friday after a short week! Can you believe that? This week's questions are about sports.

1) What is your favorite sport?

2) What is your favorite sports team?

3) Did you participate in any sports activities when you were younger? If so, what?

4) Who is your favorite athlete?

Enjoy your weekend!

Open Blog - Weekend Version

Friday, already? What's up for the weekend?

Jupiter Smacked Again!

Well, I haven't had much time to blog recently (and June doesn't look much better, but I will try) but this story is too good not to do a quick post on. Jupiter has been smacked again by something...a comet or asteroid. Again, it has been discovered by amateurs. First reported by Anthony Wesley and confirmed by Christopher Go, they each got video of the event. Here is a still from Wesley's video.

Pretty prominent little bright spot there. You can watch the video here.

This just happened today, so it's still a developing story...stay tuned.

UPADTE: The video has been posted to Youtube, so here it is.




Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

A reason to start working out.

My friends say I'm nuts, but this is way more than I've ever managed.

Late Nite Catechism 2

That is an act: http://www.entertainmentevents.com/pdf/LNC2_Pro_Sales_Kit.pdf

She looks and sounds authentic. And very funny.

Government Health Warning

How Many Miles Per Liter Does That Thing Get?

Miles per liter of Coke Zero, that is...

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my wooly Wookies! How are you? Are we sure this is Wednesday? It feels like Tuesday. Those long weekends always throw me off. It will happen again with the 4th of July this year. The 4th falls on a Sunday, so the celebration will be on Monday, the 5th. And the hangovers will be on Tuesday, the 6th. Oh dear. I hope that everyone’s Memorial Day was special. I honor those who gave their lives so that I could live in freedom. Thank you for your sacrifice.

No matter what the calendar says, I know that summer is officially here when people are walking around in shorts and air conditioners are clicked on everywhere. Happy happy June! Enjoy the wonderful, though variable, weather. People have spent a lot of time working on their lawns and gardens. I have seen some simply gorgeous flower beds in Racine. Many stores and businesses have also beautified their grounds. Downtown Racine looks very inviting. Even vegetable gardens are attractive. I think that growing food is beautiful. And yummy.

Unfortunately, the good weather also brings out some bad elements, like boom cars and loud parties. Some of my neighbors celebrated their Memorial Day with sonic assaults of rap music blasting from their house, while various boom cars drove up in apparent duels of decibels. Oh my. This was accompanied by children screaming and intoxicated adults yelling. What a patriotic show. I’m sorry; it was all I could do to keep myself from placing the dreaded Zoltar® Curse™ on them. Fie on such disrespect! Shame, shame, shame.

Not to beat a dead horse (because I believe that it’s still alive), but the Racine Post continues with their campaign of keeping a spotlight on the Laurel Clark Fountain situation: http://news.racinepost.com/2010/05/fountain-cont.html. As I’ve stated in the past, I am very pro-children when it comes to the fountain and I believe that the city should pursue any and all alternatives towards that end. Maybe even supernatural ones, or at least paranormal. If the city is gong to hire grant writers and economic developers, they should also consider hiring a psychic to advise them on city affairs. In any case, I sincerely hope a solution is found which will once again allow our children to play in the fountain. If not, I may still resort to the dreaded Zoltar® Curse™.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog today. I do so appreciate my regular Irregulars and others. It makes me feel like I am part of an extended family. Thank you all so much for your kindness. Sometimes the solace of a friend is so deep and genuine that it only takes a few moments to feel refreshed.

Don’t forget to submit your musical requests and indecent proposals to: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com.

Watch out for bicyclists and children on our streets and roads. They don’t always do the adult thing – even the adults. Play hard, but play smart. "Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street." Actizol!

Open Blog - Wednesday

One day of work and it's hump day. That's not too bad.

Woman Sues Google Maps for Bad 'Walking' Directions

Lauren Rosenberg Googled directions for walking while visiting Salt Lake City. The directions included a stretch of highway that has no sidewalk. She walked on it, got hit by a car, and is now suing Google. Is Google responsible for the accident, or should she have used common sense and not walked on a highway?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/197618/Google_Maps_Error.html

Frank, the Trucking Duck

“As stupid as it sounds, maybe if more people had a duck in their lives, maybe we wouldn’t be all so mad at each other.” – Joe Mansheim, trucker.

I've done all sorts of stupid things. Ducks for peace sounds fine to me.

As Memorial Day Comes to an End

Eurovision 2010

I've written about Eurovision before bring up examples of Swedish contributions and past winners. Well this past Saturday was Eurovision 2010 in Oslo and while I do not usually like watching it because of the overwhelming amount of really bad music my husband loves watching it and it is tradition. Well This year while watching it there was a really neat moment. This was in a bit of break.. They had just finished up all of the telephone voting and we were waiting to hear who had won and this was the act they had. I found myself quite touched and awed by the whole thing. We all love our homes and countries. Most people throughout the world think that where they live is the best in the world even if it's not perfect. There has been so much fighting and war and ugliness throughout the world it was nice to see something like this. We should never forget that we are all alike. We were born in different stations in life, different geographical locations and opportunities but we are all the same. I really did love watching this I hope you find it as amazing and touching as I did..



The second great story for Eurovision this year is the winner. This is a girl that just turned 19 last week and up to 4 months ago completely unknown, just your average teenager. They were having a competition going on in Germany looking for their Eurovision star, they set up photobooth like things around and people left something like a 1 minute audition in a camera.. the Eurovision officials/producers in Germany found this girl and she ended up winning with over 100,000,000 people watching. Her reaction when she won was great. I did like this song and was glad it won, although not my favorite but pretty good none the less (especially if you were to watch the whole 40 songs that competed). I was trying to find a clip of the final song (the winner gets to perform again after they won) because you can see the surprise on her face.. was having a hard time finding one of the final performance.



This was my favorite, unfortunately he ended up 5th or 6th (the ones I like never end up winning).. kinda a John Mayer kinda sound

Open Blog - Memorial Day

The Davis-Mothan Air Show

I didn't post these when the Davis-Mothan Air Show took place back in March, but thought Memorial Day weekend would be a fitting time to put them up.

A B-1 Bomber on the ground.
An A-10 in flight. These are stationed at DM and are a common sight in the skies of Tucson.
They did a simulated bombing run and set off a bunch of explosives. Very impressive. I still wonder what they set off that made those two cool smoke rings.
There was a halo around the Sun (due to ice crystals in the upper atmosphere). I tried to get an aircraft flying through here, but couldn't get positioned right (and the timing of the shot is difficult with a fast moving plane). I even tried to find a U.S. flag to block the Sun, but the U.S. flag was flying next to a tent and in I couldn't get the U.S. flag in front of the Sun (would have had to stand under the tent for the angle to work). Still, was happy to get this shot.

An F-22 on display on the ground.
The Thunderbirds were the highlight act. I kept trying to get a pic of them doing a pass and found the timing difficult. This is the best one I got (try taking a pic of planes flying in opposite directions at 400 mph!)
Here is a nice low pass.
Finally, a little classic formation flying.

Ewok Karaoke

I can add nothing to this...

Ewok Karaoke from Rob Tyler on Vimeo.

Favorite quotes

2 of my favorite quotes are -

" I don't believe in alot of things but I do believe in duct tape"

" If women don't find you handsome, they can sure find you handy."

Do you know where they are from?

What are your favorite quotes?

Two-year-old smokes 40 cigarettes a day

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2987307/First-shocking-pictures-of-smoking-toddler-Ardi-Rizal.html

I startd smoking young, 7th grade, but that is ridiculous.

Those words that sound alike, but mean different things.

Okay, guys, here we go...this one came to mind as I was reading a post on Facebook.

Fourth, forth
Seated, Seeded
Fore, four (fore-fathers was the term that was meant to be used....)
Lean, lien
Seam, seem
sine, sign


Okay, you guys take it from here. Something to amuse me for the weekend.

Open Blog - Weekend Version

Tis the Season to beware!

Just riding my bike and here this signed popped up...Wasn't there yesterday...Guess someone must have seen one of the zillion gators present in Florida...duh....

This was taken at Ollie's Pond where I bike daily....this is where I see all those snakes (dead and alive). I also see ibis, egrets, osprey, a bobcat occasionally, and various other species of wildlife. No, kk, I don't just see snakes.....

Public Service Announcement

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine.. .

And those who don't and are always
seen with a bottle of water in their hand.


As Ben Franklin said:

In wine there is wisdom,
In beer there is freedom,
In water there is bacteria.


In a number of carefully controlled trials,
Scientists have demonstrated that if we drink
1 litre of water each day,

At the end of the year we would have absorbed
More than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria
Found in feces.
In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.


However,

We do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer
(or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor)
Because alcohol has to go through a purification process
Of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:

Water = Poop,
Wine = Health .

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid,
Than to drink water and be full of shit.


There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:
I'm doing it as a public service!

Four for Fridays

Good morning everyone! Wow! A three day weekend coming up! Isn't that great? This week's questions are about music.

1) Who is your favorite music artist?

2) Have you ever been to a concert?

3) If so, how many? when? where? who?

4) Is there any particular artist you wish to see?

Enjoy your long weekend, folks!

Swear Word Filter

http://www.noswearing.com/

It really works. No poop.

There I was, thought I was gonna die!

I am sooo beat. Worn out. I’m seriously out of shape, yet there I was again, I thought I was gonna die! The VA SCI put on a scuba diving event at a Milw. YMCA. Beforehand I was more worried about the water being too cold (actually very nice) but found my real anxiety 6’ under water when it hit me I shouldn’t be able to breathe even though I had air. Obviously I lived, but I did have to surface for a bit to lose the jitters. Have not been in a pool in 15 years. Think it will be a long time before I go again. Legs are so useless I can’t even stand with water lifting me up. At least I got out of the house and doing something.

New Seatbelt Law

A little poll about the new seatbelt law
Select all that apply

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my beautiful blossoms! How are you? I believe that someone has turned the summer switch to “on.” Hasn’t it been lovely lately? I know that the weatherman says it will rain today, but tomorrow we’re supposed to see the sun again, and more after that, with highs in the 70’s. That sounds perfect. We need the rain to foster the lush growth of spring. And we need the sunshine for the same reason. Balance. Something that many of us struggle with. Oh my.

I’m going to get on my soapbox again this week and simply ask, “Why isn’t somebody plugging our Gulf oil leak?” I have a client in the wonderful city of Milwaukee who has a terrific suggestion for stemming the flow of oil. He asks, “What did they use when the Chicago River started flooding the tunnels below the Loop?” The answer: mattresses. It’s true; they were amongst the first items shoved into the breach. My client suggests a massive mattress collection campaign, perhaps worldwide, to supply enough mattresses to sink down into the rupture in the Gulf to absorb and eventually stop the flow of oil. And I’m just irregular enough to think that it may work. Certainly nothing else has thus far. Give up your mattresses! Sleep on the floor for the environment!

I received an email this week from the esteemed Mr. Logjam. He wrote:

Greetings Dearest Madame,

As you know, our local baseball team the Brewers has not been doing well at all. I am somewhat worried and bothered by it. As you see, for my birthday party today, I am taking my 4 kids and 4 of their friends to tonight's (May 26th) game against the Astros. Not only would it be a very disappointing birthday present to see them lose, I would have also pissed away $800 bucks (plus 2 preferred parking tickets at $13 a piece) on seats behind the dugout down the drain to watch them loose. I have not fared well with the Brewers playing on my birthday. Last year, when they put the Happy Birthday list on the scoreboard, they spelled by name wrong.

Is there some kind of hocus pocus you could work on them to make them win? Like making sure the pitchers have less balls, and the batters more bangers?

Your divine and benevolent intervention would be greatly appreciated.

Yours in spiritual existence,
Logjam

Oh my, Mr. Logjam, let me be amongst the first to wish you a very Happy Birthday! May you enjoy a plethora more.

You know, fiddling around with major league sports is against federal law. That’s why it’s so much fun. Oh dear. Ha-ha. In any case, Mr. Logjam, I cannot publicly guarantee you that our beloved Brewers will perform magically for you tonight against the despised Astros, even though that is certainly what you deserve for your birthday. I can’t guarantee it here because the feds monitor my blogs. That’s right, dearies, with my connections and my abilities, it’s hard to maintain a low profile on everybody’s radar. The men in black are part of the regular irregular readers of my musings here and elsewhere.

In short, Mr. Logjam, I won’t say that the Brewers will repeat last night’s win tonight, because I can’t. But I can say that, again, I wish you a very Happy Birthday. May your birthday wishes come true. (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.) May you and your family and friends have a wonderful night at the ballpark. Enjoy yourselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if everything went just right tonight.

I am always surprised and overwhelmed by the love and loyalty shown to me by my dear Irregulars. Thank you for reading my blog (even you G-men) and thank you for being you. I treasure our time together.

Send your confidential information and secret files to: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com.

Enjoy the splendors of spring. Pretty soon it will get “buggy” like it does every summer. I really dislike them. Mosquitoes, and flies, and ants, oh my! Pleochroism!

Open Blog - Wednesday

Is this far fetched or am I loosing it?

In KK’s blog about “Quarters” she mentioned “(now ask me about Brett Favre)”.

Last week, the end of it, I was up north of Winona, Minnesota, actually Alma, WI. The radio announcer came on and stated Brett Favre had an operation to remove some bone spurs from his ankle and that operation is the first indicator Brett is going to play one more year of football for the Vikings!!

Where do they come up with this shit????

Shut Up and Sing!

Okay, this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine that I have been wanting to blog on for a while: the lack of singing for fun that people do. I mean, it's fun, come on!

I am not talking about going out to do karaoke or something, that's performing which is different. I mean the sitting around with a guitar or piano and singing, learning the songs as needed. When I was on St. Croix, we would go over to Tom (the music teacher's) house and he would pull out some music, start playing the piano and everyone would join in. There was no pressure to be good and people who knew the songs taught those who didn't. Some people would belt out solos or start a harmony line. No pressure, just fun. Same thing when I was performing at the Ren fest...campfire time always had a guitar and tunes. Or my time in West Virginia at NRAO...boring rural place had lots of sing a long campfires.

When do we get a chance to sing...church or the national anthem at ball games? Both dreadful (but not for the reasons you are all thinking, that I am a godless atheist who hates America...while that may be true (I'll never tell) that's not why they are awful singing opportunities). Most churches (with some exceptions) and the National Anthem are examples of people trying NOT to sing, but sing as softly as they can and convince everyone around them they are singing. WTF! Belt it out! There are a few churches that get this right and actually encourage people to sing. I don't go to church, but at least I can see that they get singing can and should be fun and joyous.

I am trying to learn a little guitar...just enough so I can strum some basic tunes and get people singing. I want to do more musical improv but even some of the most fearless people onstage I know freeze up when asked to sing. You don't have to be American Idol worthy to just have fun. I mean, I would be laughable in the NBA but I can still play a pick up game of basketball and no one thinks anything of it. Participating in hobbies as an amateur is acceptable in so many areas but not singing.

Rebel...sing, have fun.

Whatever Happened to Milton E. Morris?

Milton Morris was SC Johnson's director of transportation during that big payoff scandal. The case has ended, though I believe the parties are still wrangling over settlement monies, but I can't find a thing about good old Uncle Milty, the one I predicted would never serve a minute of hard time.

Must be nice to be above the law.

Cooties

That gave me the courage to admit that I, too, have cooties.

Open Blog - Monday

Hope you have a nice day.

Kung Fu Bear

Yes, the bear is really doing that. He's an Asian black bear named Cloud. He lives in the Hiroshima City Zoo. Here is the uneditied video that the above clip was assembled from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_fukbvU

WISCONSIN FOOD PYRAMID

I guess the picture says it all...

Gorilla Encounter

http://www.aspinallfoundation.org/

I cried when I watched that.

Milwaukee Pedal Tavern

A pedal powered, 16-person tavern on wheels: http://www.jsonline.com/business/94547689.html

Their website: http://pedaltavern.com/

How cool is this? We definitely need one in downtown Racine. I am serious. This is perrfectly suited to our Malibu of the Midwest.

Four for Fridays

Hello everyone! Another Friday is here! It seems so long ago since the last one. I've been working too much. This week's questions are about work.

1) What was your first job?

2) What do you think of your job?

3) What did want to be when you grew up?

4) What would be your dream job?

Enjoy your weekend!