Bump: Don't forget that the "Miracle on 16th Street" Spaghetti fundraiser for Racine children takes place in two days, on Monday, Dec. 13, at Dino's Restaurant.
Originally posted Tuesday, November 30, 2010, 7:16 PM:
"MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 13TH FROM 4-9 P.M. After reading the stories about the homeless children of Racine, I felt that community needed to do something. I had an idea but didn’t know if it would work. Well, there are miracles that happen in Racine and we can thank Dave from Dino’s Restaurant for it!
"No child in Racine should ever go without the basics to keep warm during these winter months, they should never go hungry or without a pair of socks.
"Dino’s Italian Restaurant is pleased to announce the “Miracle on 16th Street” pasta dinner fundraiser. It will be held Monday December 13th, from 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. located at 1816 16th Street.
"Delivery/carryout will be running the same special until 11 p.m. (delivery charge not included). There will also be raffles and coupon offers along with a special guest waitstaff. Dino’s is also running a special the entire week until December 19th. Any pasta dish ordered. $4.00 will be donated towards this effort.
"All proceeds are going to be donated to SafeHaven and Cheryl Holewinski at Julien Thomas School to get the necessary items that the children need." http://racineuncovered.org/?p=25390
Uh-huh. Now all they have to do is train cats to feed themselves and to go to the store and buy their own food. My cat, Charlie, already likes "water sports." His water dish is kept in the bathtub because he likes to play with it so much. He stretches out on his side and repeatedly taps the dish with his paw to make it spill. If I leave it out by his food, it will be overturned. He also likes to drink/lick directly from the bathroom sink faucet. When it comes to the toilet, I don't want to encourage Charlie to "go there." Pretty soon I would have to rent a two bathroom apartment.
It's that time of the year to go out and look at Christmas lights. On the western side of Racine, we a subdivision that we affectionately call Independence Road. On this street and the other surrounding ones, EVERY house is all decked up for the holidays. Dazzling! Should've worn my sunglasses!
Hello, my merry elves! How are you? Racine finally got its first snowfall of the season. Oh joy. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was also the last? Ha ha, I tease. (Not really…) Of course, after the snow came the freeze, and then appeared the patches of ice and frozen snow on the streets and sidewalks and stairs. Oh my, all of a sudden I had to remember how to take little baby steps again. Winter has arrived. Let the trudging begin! Onward through the snow and ice, slowly but steadily, we will make it. Up ahead is the warm glow of Christmas. Let us enjoy.
Our mesmerizing and stupefying Green Bay Packers replied to the previous week’s loss with a convincing win against the San Francisco 49ers this past Sunday at Lambeau Field. Because of the spectacular playing by the Packers, there was no need for me to take any, uh, special interest in the game. Weren’t they cute in those old-time uniforms? (If I was a little younger, I might be a Packer’s groupie.) I cheer on our courageous Packers in their quest to vanquish the Detroit Lions this coming Sunday. May victory once again greet your glorious efforts, o mighty warriors of green and gold.
I am a big fan of the Christmas season. I enjoy the decorations and songs and various traditions. Junior and I put up a tree and decorated the rest of the house, including the outside. In an effort to get others into the Christmas spirit, I’ve selected a couple of videos to post this week. I hope that you enjoy them. The first is “Christmas Canon” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra:
The other video is the ending to Frank Capra’s classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life:
“Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.” How true. And I have all of you dear, dear Irregulars and regular readers for friends. It makes me feel warm inside. It makes me feel like Christmas, every day of the year.
Thank you one and all for reading my blog this week. I hope the holidays bless you with peace, love and understanding. May you and your families experience the magic and joy of this time of year. Kakistocracy!
More fun at the expense of the TSA...a tribute to Rocky Horror.
I flew out of Nashville today. They have the sub-millimeter scanners at the airport and exactly zero of them were in operation. Saw plenty of groping going on. I checked in on Foursquare and thought my status should have gotten me their groping badge, but it didn't. Try again next flight.
As I was going through my music collection, listening to stuff that I haven't heard in awhile, I came across some interesting music. Jethro Tull's Rock Island is one of them. Rock Island, their 17th studio album, was released in 1989. The band was continuing their hard rock movement following their successful Crest of a Knave album in 1987. Here is a video from that album that probably should have been banned from MTV.
This stuff comes with a warning tag! (Well, sorta)
'Legend of the Mistletoe
Kissing under the Mistletoe is an old European tradition. It is believed that the Mistletoe holds magical powers from the 'Soul' of the mighty Oak tree. It grants strength, peace, health, fertility and love to those who kiss beneath it.'
I was fine with the strength, peace, health and love, but that fertility thing gave me the heebee geebees. That would indeed be 'magical!'
Hello everyone! Sorry for no 4fF last week, I was Up North with my folks. Anyways, snow is coming this way, therefore this week's questions are about snow.
1) Are you prepared for the winter?
2) What do you like the most about snow?
3) What do you dislike the most about the snow?
4) Have you participated in any winter activities like skiing, ice skating, sledding, etc.? If so, what?
This is a wonderful service. Xerox has a site which allows you to select a postcard designed by a child, personalize it, and send it to one of our troops deployed overseas:
"The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women.
"The postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.
"All you have to do is click on your favorite design and either select the message that best expresses your sentiment or draft a personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops®.
"Xerox is committed to helping people across the nation express their gratitude to our troops overseas. The launch of this program is aimed at reminding them how much Americans appreciate their service."
Please take a listen to my sister in law that played on the radio to day. There is a button that you have to push that says something like Livemusik i P4 morgon med Catharina Hultman. I am really proud of her, she is really developing a great music style.
Hello, my wise winter owls! How are you? I hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I ate so much that I just had to do it again on Friday with the leftovers. Oh my, it will take me weeks to work off that binge. But the important thing is gathering with loved ones to give thanks for our blessings. We live in a country of plenty and thus we are fortunate. There are so many, many others who have so little, if anything. Gratitude is the attitude that succeeds where others fail. Thank you, Creator, for all of your gifts.
Unfortunately, our beloved and besieged Green Bay Packers lost last Sunday’s game to the Atlanta Falcons. I am so heartbroken. I was watching the game, but had to answer nature’s call in the final minute. Oh dear. If only I had been watching, I might have been able to put the kibosh on Mr. Bryant’s kick. I feel just awful. It’s all because of my digestive problems. Shame on me. I promise to stay riveted to this Sunday’s upcoming game against the San Francisco 49ers. I’ll watch every second that they broadcast, just in case my undue influence is required. Rise again, o most exalted Green Bay Packers, and vanquish your foes!
Speaking of digestive problems, today (Tuesday) I underwent a procedure which involves that most intimate and invasive inspection of all: a colonoscopy. I will spare everyone the details, other than to say that such things are often recommended for people who reach a certain age and/or suffer related symptoms. And not to give away too much about my age, but this was my second one. That, however, did not make it any easier or more pleasant. Sometimes we have to do the unpleasant things if we want to keep enjoying the pleasant ones. (And sometimes we have to do them because the doctor refuses to renew a prescription until we undergo the procedure. Humph!)
In any case, I’m keeping my blog short this week, my dears, so I can rest. Since it is December 1st, I consider this to be the start of the Christmas season. I thought I’d post a classic performance to kick off the joy:
Thank you, sweethearts, for reading my blog. I am so grateful for my wonderful JT Irregulars. I look forward to the holidays with my online family of irregulars and regulars and everyone in-between. Madame Zoltar loves you all.
The infamous “they” are saying that it’s going to get colder. (Duh, it’s December.) Bundle up and prepare for winter, my dears, for it is on its icy way. Juramentum!
As you start thinking about sending Chrimahannakwanzstice cards to your friends and family, the Hubble Space Telescope is offering a free set of holiday cards for you. You can print them out at a photo shop or even on your own printer at home. Many designs to choose from. Here is one of my favorites
.
Each card has a link to the original press release so you can find out what you are looking at and why it is significant. The cards are blank on the inside, so you have plenty of room for personal messages or to tell people about the image!
There are a couple of dozen designs to choose from...just don't wait until the last minute!
Yes, this REALLY IS my big guy. Are you in the holiday spirit yet? Are you ready for Christmas? The decorations and all the fun, or do you put it off til the last minute?
I always like to set up Thanksgiving night or at least the next day. Winter gets so drab, cold and depressing, that I can't wait to see it more festive. I do not rush taking it down and prefer to keep it up thru most of January, usually the last in our area to cave.
Racine Uncovered's current Open Blog lists a number of local schools and programs that are in need and how to help. You can read it here: http://racineuncovered.org/?p=25317
The Six Million Dollar Man is one of those cheesy '70s shows that I never missed as a kid (and I am surprised that I was able to understand as much as I did seeing as when it came on when I was only six!) I had all the toys including Steve Austin with the bionic eye, arm and all the little bionic modules you could see when you too off his clothes AND the rocket.
Recently the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast featured on show on the Enterprise, the space shuttle that never flew in space and was used for testing. Surprisingly, the host (Steve Nerlich of Cheap Astronomy) talked about the Six Million Dollar Man intro. Specifically, that they used real footage in the intro. The intro featured a Northrop HL-10 being dropped from a B-52. The HL-10 was an experimental lifting body that flew both unpowered flights and powered flights. It would be taken up to abotu 45,o00 feet on a B-52 and then released. The HL-10 is reference in the Six Million Dollar Man as being the craft Steve Austin was piloting when he crashed.
The crash used in the opening sequence of the show is also real. This crash is of a Northrop M2-F2 in 1967, another lifting body craft. The crash occurred on its last flight, an unpowered glide.
I love it when science fiction shows use real footage like this and I kind of geek out just a little bit when I find out a beloved show from my childhood did that.
Here is the Six Million Dollar Man intro so you can see the two clips for yourself (sorry, embedding is disabled)
I just got back from celebrating Thanksgiving in the northern woods of Wisconsin. I had a great time with family and friends! Musta gained about 20 pounds on the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet corn, the casseroles, stuffing, chairs, ice cream and I'm stuffed!
The weather? It was blustery cold when I arrived at my folks place just south of Crandon. Temperatures hovered around seven degrees. There was about two inches of snow that covered the ground. The lakes and rivers were starting to freeze up there giving it a more of a surreal landscape.
After 4½ days of constant snow fall this is what it looks outside our door.. Yuck, it's going to be a terribly long winter. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Yep, Adbusters promotes the day after Thanksgiving as Buy Nothing Day. In this, the biggest day of conspicuous consumption, a small band tries to get us to stop and think about our overconsuming lifestyles on a day when consumers go off the deep end.
I have not really celebrated a traditional Christmas in a long time. My family treats it the same way as the rest of the year: if we see something that inspires a gift to be given, great. If not, no big deal. As a result, there are not always presents given on Christmas but you might get something randomly on June 18th if I happen to see something that makes me think of a person on that day. What about Christmas? Well, we know we love each other and show it all year long so we just don't worry about stressing ourselves out during an arbitrarily selected season.
Now I don't expect large numbers of people to suddenly skip Christmas shopping due to this campaign...but if it can get some people to think about our lifestyles and/or how we celebrate that season, more power to 'em!
If Sarah Palin did not exist, we would invent her. She is a product of our media culture. Crass, superficial, ignorant and proud of her ignorance, unaware and unconcerned about the existence of real people, Sarah Palin floats on a media cloud that does not at any time touch the ground. She is the type of politician who can't name a Supreme Court decision, or explain how the legislative process works, or knows anything about the Constitution (but she totally loves it). Palin is the perfect Twitter user. Her mind was made for Twitter. Anything she thinks or says usually can't survive beyond 140 characters. Don't be annoyed by her. She is simply the evolutionary product of our culture.. Vickie, It's easier now than you think to get a job. Many employers go online now to list good paying jobs so you don't have to waste gas and money driving around. You can see all the available jobs in your city and what they pay. Go to YouGetWork.com
Notice how they.lead you along with you going yes, yea, yes, then BAM they smack you? An experiment in psychology had a large cage with monkeys in it. A banana was placed on top of a ladder for any monkey to grab that wanted it. BUT if a monkey did go after it, ALL monkeys got sprayed with water. After awhile they started swapping out the monkeys. When a new monkey started for the banana, all the rest pounded on it. Eventually there were no original monkeys left. The researchers found that the most ruthless monkeys were not the originals but later additions. None of the later monkeys knew why they weren't allowed the banana, just that they weren't and they would leave it alone.
"Facebook is just a payment away from trademarking the word 'Face.' As of today the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has sent the social networking site a Notice of Allowance, which means they have agreed to grant the 'Face' trademark to Facebook.
"All Facebook needs to do is pay the issue fee within three months of today and the 'Face' trademark will be issued and be published in the official USPTO gazette and everything."
That's right, they'll own the word "Face." I don't know if it has to be capitalized. I have a difficult time understanding things like this. I think I have some grasp of intellectual property, but I don't comprehend how someone can trademark a common word. Are they going to trademark "book" next? Can I trademark "the" and make a gajillion dollars? Why am I posting such a great idea online?
Hello, my tornado survivors! How are you? Oh dear, oh my, oh dear. What an awful thing to happen, again. Tornadoes for Thanksgiving? Well, I never. I am very grateful that no one was seriously injured in the recent storms. We should count our blessings and help those who have suffered from the weather. That is the best way to give thanks.
Our illustrious Green Bay Packers once again vanquished the Minnesota Vikings and their cur quarterback, Brett Favre. That’s the second time that we’ve beaten a team so badly that their head coach was fired. If this continues, perhaps the Packers will literally destroy their division. The next opponent is the Atlanta Falcons, this Sunday. May you clip their wings, o mighty Packers!
Like many of you, I am busy getting ready for the big holiday tomorrow. Rush, rush, push, push, hurry, hurry. There is no way I would join the throngs going out on Black Friday to spend and consume, but I still feel a sense of urgency about Thanksgiving. I feel the same about Christmas, and that’s over a month away. Maybe it’s the result of the commercialization of the holidays. Maybe the hype just works me up. I don’t know, my dears, but I get anxious. I have found that the right music can calm me down, and even set a nice mental tone. As Christmas approaches, I start playing some of the holiday music that I like, not that jingly, nerve-fraying muzak they blare in the stores. So I looked for some appropriate Thanksgiving music and found the video below. It is a slideshow done to George Winston performing “Thanksgiving.” It is short and soothing.
And here’s the late, great Johnny Cash singing a “Thanksgiving Prayer” on an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman:
I’m thanking the Lord for the JT Irregulars and all my other friends here. Thank you for being you and thank you for sharing some time with me today. I truly am grateful for such wonderful friends. Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you!
The weatherman is saying it might get a little slippery for Thanksgiving, my dears. Please be careful in your holiday travels, long or short. We have to re-learn every year how to drive on snow and ice. Enjoy a delectable day with family and/or friends. Pleniloqent!
Okay, so you are chatting on your cell phone, maybe sending a text and the phone goes dead. You turn it on and everything is gone...your contacts, pics, everything. Chalk it up to bad luck...a faulty circuit board perhaps.
Or maybe your employer zapped your phone. Yep, they can do that even if its your phone and you pay all the bills. If you use your phone to access your work email over a Microsoft Exchange server, they can send commands to your phone to do everything from disabling the camera to totally wiping your phone. They had a nice piece on it on NPR today.
Now this feature might be nice if your phone is lost or stolen, but having it done to you involuntarily by your employer is another story. If you don't want this to happen, the solution is simple...don't access your email through an exchange server. If your employer expects you to stay in touch using your phone to access email, well, that's tricky. Many people don't know their employers have this control over their personal phones (one company in the NPR story makes employees sign a form outlining their company policies...not all do).
Now if this was an employer owned and paid for cell phone, this wouldn't be an issue. If it's my cell phone and someone else tries to wipe it remotely, then I have a huge issues with that (for the record, my employer does not use Microsoft Exchange so the couldn't do that to my phone if they wanted).
The legality of this is not clear (although companies that make you sign a contract might have a case...my advice, don't sign and make them supply a cell phone if they want the ability to do that). Cell phones are one of those devices that have mixed personal and business uses. We pay for them, yet some employers expect us to use them for business...and can assert total control over them at will.
So be careful out there how you use your phone, especially if you access email through Exchange.
From the National Weather Service:
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