Open Blog - Weekend

That computes.

"Founded by Geniuses, Run by Idiots"

From Milwaukee County Corruption:

"Founded by Geniuses, Run by Idiots"

http://milwaukeecountycorruption.blogspot.com/2014/01/founded-by-geniuses-run-by-idiots.html

Funny, sad, and poignant comments on our government.

Murmuration

http://www.islandsandrivers.co.uk/

That's beautiful.

Condom Our New National Symbol

From Racine Community Media:

http://racinecommunitymedia.tumblr.com/post/74396248200

Old Man Winter

Useless Information

Did you know:

On 22-Nov-63 the morning John F. Kennedy was shot it was raining in Dallas, TX.

While it was raining, the roof on the Presidential Limo was on.  Just prior to the start of their procession through Dallas the rain stopped and the roof was remove.

If the roof would have been left on, the shooter would not have been able to see him in the limo.  With it off, JFK was an open target.

Open Blog - Friday

Do the chicken dance!

"Badass Hockey Stick Recovery"

I'm not a hockey fan, but you don't have to be to appreciate this. Nicely done.

What Can I Do To Earn More Money?

I need to earn more money and I’ll take any advice I can get on the subject.  I’m 62 and have a BA in English.  I also have a number of certificates and took courses in horticulture.  My major job experience has been in auto repair and landscaping.  I’m fat and half-blind and mentally ill and have horrible gastrointestinal problems and bad kidneys and arthritic hips and no stamina.  My kidney problems have left me permanently weakened.  I’m also losing my hearing.   I also don’t work well with others.  Other than that, I’m in great shape. 

Here are some of the jobs that I’ve already considered:

Wal-Mart greeter – I’m not sure that I have the disposition for this job.  I’d guess that within an hour, I’d choke a customer.  It’s all I can do now to keep from choking one when I shop there.

Journal Times deliveryman - Forget it.  The hours are insane.  You can never take a night off.  You work outdoors in blizzards and heat waves.  I don’t have the strength.

Gleaner – You know, one of those guys driving around in a beat up pickup truck overloaded with metal junk, leaning precariously to one side.  These guys get into fights over junk and defend their territories.  I knew a guy who did this.  To do it in any volume, you need somewhere to unload and sort the junk.  I don’t have that.

eBay entrepreneur – By used stuff low, sell it high online.  I don’t think I have the disposition for this, either.  You have to scour thrift shops and rummage sales for items to sell.  I’m not good at recognizing collectibles or what is “hot.”  Left to my own devices in a secondhand store, I’ll buy a ton of junk of no interest to anyone but me.  I filled and emptied my mother’s garage with junk three times.  None of it was anything I could sell on eBay.

Pimp – What the hell.  I live in a senior housing complex.  Women outnumber men 5 to 1 here.  I should be able to round up a few working “girls” and make some bucks off of them.

What do you suggest?

Send job offers to orbscorbs@jtirregulars.com

Supernova in M82

I have been busy and not had as much time to do any astrophotography recently. Fortunately, I had some good luck and timing yesterday.

Wednesday morning, I woke up to news of a supernova in M82. Fortunately, I saw this before I went to work. I was scheduled to work with some students at Tohono O'odham Commuity College in Sells last night and thought I might get a chance to try to catch the supernova from there. The college site is nice and dark so it was worth a shot throwing my equipment in the car. Fortune also smiled with clear skies when I got out there.

I was using my Canon 60D, EF 75-300mm zoom lens and iOptron Skytracker, my usual setup. Although there are people with larger, better setups out there that will no doubt take more spectacular pics, I can at least purse the record for the person who imaged the supernova with the smallest setup!

I took some pics of M82 and the nearby galaxy M81 a few weeks ago before the supernova. Here is one of those pics. I took this one on Christmas Eve and believe I used my 250mm lens so the scale is a little different.

Okay, now here is the one from last night. The two lines point to the new little point of light that is the supernova (I did not crop the pics the same and they were taken with slightly different lenses so the scale is different). Click the images for larger versions.

Hopefully you can see the new little dot of light. It's position matches up with the position of the supernova.

This supernova is interesting for many reasons. First, M82 is undergoing a rapid burst of star formation due to a recent pass by the nearby galaxy M81 (also seen in the pic). Increased rates of star formation lead to higher rates of supernova. Second, M82 is a relatively nearby galaxy (only 12 million light years away or so) which means we can study it in greater detail than more distant supernova.

Finally, this is a type 1a supernova. Type 1a supernova form when a white dwarf star sucks matter off a nearby companion star. White dwarfs have a maximum mass about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun. If you add more matter than that, you get a huge explosion which destroys the star. This white dwarf suffered that fate leading to the supernova we are now observing.

Since type 1a supernova always happen when the mass hits 1.4 times that of our Sun, they are always about the same brightness. If you know the brightness of an object, you can figure out its distance. Type 1a supernova are very bright and can be seen in distant galaxies and are very important for astronomers to determine the distance to other galaxies. The more we can study nearby ones, the better we understand them and the better we can measure the distances to other galaxies. Therefore, astronomers are training lots of scopes on this supernova right now!

Oh, I got so excited about the pics, I should mention that we saw it visually as well. We were using a 6" Celestron Nexstar SE and could see a little bright spot in the galaxy right where the supernova is. I am always nervous showing objects like this to people as you sometimes get the disappointed "Is that it?" reaction. The students last night, however, were happy to be able to see it and I didn't have to deal with that common reaction. So I can tell you it is visible with a 6" or larger scope...wouldn't surprise me if people spot it with even smaller scopes.

This supernova looks like it was discovered before peak brightness. It will probably get brighter for another week or two before starting to fade. How much brighter is an open question and hard to predict. We don't know how long it took after the explosion for us to discover the supernova (several pre-discovery images have already turned up) and there may be intervening dust that dims the supernova. Worst case scenario, it will not get worse for a week or two. Best case scenario, it brightens another couple of magnitudes.

My sympathies to the northerners who have to brave the cold to see it...I was out in just a sweatshirt last night!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

Open Blog - Thursday

Have a good one.

Bed Bugs: Pests from Hell - The Saga Continues

Guess what I found on my pillow last night?  That's right: Cimex lectularius, a.k.a., bed bug.  This is two weeks after the "final" chemical application.  I called the pest control company to report it.  They're supposed to call me back, but I guess not today.

The bed bug was small.  That makes sense.  It takes four weeks for a bed bug to fully mature.  If the exterminator missed some eggs two weeks ago, they'd be half-grown now.

Bed Bug Poop

I didn't mention in my original blog (see below) that one week after the first chemical application, Charlie found a (mature) bed bug in the bedroom.  I caught it and called the company.  The sales rep called back and said I must've caught the one last desperate bed bug in my apartment.  He called the incident "highly unusual."

He said he'd stop by the next day.  The next day he called to say he couldn't make it because of the weather, but he would be here the next day.  That day (a Friday) the company called to say that the sales rep was taking a vacation day and a technician would be sent to my place on Monday.  The final chemical application was scheduled for Wednesday.  I was a little exasperated with the runaround and said forget it, I'll show the bed bug to the tech who comes to spray on Wednesday.  That technician didn't seem too impressed with it, but he did want to know where it was found.

I knew I shouldn't blog about them.  There's been a nagging voice in the back of my head for weeks.

I never completely finished unpacking because of the bedbugs.  Management didn't want me putting items in my storage bin downstairs for fear of contaminating others' belongings.  They didn't want me taking out recyclables, only tightly sealed garbage.  They wanted me to limit my movement in the building to what was absolutely necessary.  There's a bicycle and an air compressor in my living room, amongst boxes of cassette tapes, photographs, and other junk.  Last Monday I was given the "all clear" to move my stuff.  Still, I waited . . .

What if I had followed their advice?  What if I caused an outbreak?

The exterminator at the old building told me it was safe to move, but it wasn't.  The exterminator here said the bed bugs were eradicated, but they weren't.

When the building manager first spoke to me about the pest control company, he said they had done two other bed bug exterminations in different apartments.  Then he said, "Well, they've been here three times."  I said, "Three times?"  He said, "They had to come back and re-treat one."

That's been stuck in the back of my head, too.  I'm so sick of this shit that I could vomit.

Previous blog:  http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/bed-bugs-pests-from-hell.html 

Why I Didn't Get Hired !

Submitted by legal stranger:

 Job Interview: 
 
Human Resources Manager: "What is your greatest weakness?"
 
Old Man: "Honesty."
 
Human Resources Manager: "I don't think honesty is a weakness.

Old Man: "I don't really give a shit what you think." 

"Pattern Or Practice Movie Premiere 'Reactions'"

From Racine Community Media:

 

PatternOrPractice.com - http://patternorpractice.com/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PatternOrPractice

Previous blogs: http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/pattern-or-practice-reaction.html

http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/tomorrow-nightt-pattern-or-practice.html 

http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/film-premiere-pattern-or-practice.html 


Update:

Papercutt Productions Announces

Film festivals that the film Pattern or Practice is currently being submitted to:

Julian Dubuque International Film Festival  Dubuque, Iowa

Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Film    Atlanta, Georgia

Vancouver International Film Festival   Vancouver, Canada

Little Rock Film Festival  Little Rock, Arkansas

Note: Sponsors have been secured for another showing at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee date to be announced, in addition local sponsors are looking for a venue in the Racine and Kenosha area with the ability to hold up 300 people.  Smaller venues will be considered.  Contact: www.patternorpractice.com or facebook.com/patternorpractice

It's good to be back.....

...Although I never really left. Just lurked alot and posted a few comments here and there. Mind blowing how a small group of pissed off bloggers is now this legacy of excellence. Glad to be a part since day 1!

Dickert's trip to Mexico....something is missing in the JT's article.

In the discussion in the JT of Mayor Happy Hair's trip to Mexico on the No-streetlight-having-taxpayer's dime it mentions one person who went along as "a Unified High School Teacher". Not once but twice in the same story. Why name all who went on this little vacay except the teacher? Did the teacher use vacation time? Were they still getting paid by RUSD? Why the secrecy?

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my friendsicles!  How are you?  I said, how are you?  If you take off the five layers of hats, scarves, ski masks and earmuffs on your head, you might be able to hear me.  If you can, here’s the news: bundle back up.  We’re going down below zero again.  How low can we go?  Please, no record attempts.  As the winter has hardened me, I now accept temperatures in the single digits below zero as tolerable, at least for a short while.  However, I can’t tolerate teens and twenties below zero.  That belongs in arctic regions.  “Polar vortex,” indeed.  Our country is polarized enough.  Some would say too much.  So swirl your vortex down the toilet bowl.  We’ve had enough of this.

I attended the premiere of Pattern or Practice on Monday night.  The glitterati and beautiful people were everywhere.  It was a little chilly outside, but the warm crowd inside more than made up for that.  I love the Oriental Theatre.  It was the perfect venue for the showing of the documentary.  It’s a terrible shame that things have to deteriorate to the point that people feel their only recourse is to make a movie to expose the racism in city administration.  We shall overcome this, too.

Welcome back to Mr. Mayor Dickert, who recently returned from Mexico.  He should return the favor by paying for the citizens of Racine to fly to Mexico and back during winter.  I’d love to visit Cancun again.

Mr. President Obama admits that he inhaled.  He says marijuana is not good for you, but it’s not worse than alcohol.  Hurray.  The worst thing about smoking marijuana is the damage done to the lungs and cardiovascular system.  Drinking alcohol, on the other hand, attacks every organ in the body.  I’m just waiting for legalization to come to Wisconsin so that I can market my new product, Madame Zoltar’s® No-Frowny-Brownies™, made from the finest “herbs” and chocolate.  No smoke, no poison, just pure enjoyment, plus gaining 50 pounds or more.

If legalization does come, I’ll applaud it, but we must come up with a way to readily detect marijuana-impaired drivers.  I don’t want to be the victim of someone’s midnight munchies run.  Like alcohol, use it responsibly, or lose your right to drive.  We should toughen our laws on impaired driving in general, but the Wisconsin Tavern League and liquor lobby see to it that they remain lax.  Oh my.

As if we don’t already have enough to worry about, along comes the news that the Milky Way is forming “inside out:” (http://natmonitor.com/2014/01/21/dont-panic-but-the-milky-way-galaxy-formed-inside-out/) No wonder everything is screwed up on Earth.  We’re doing it backwards.

Thank you, thank you, my dear, dear friends and readers.  Thank you for stopping by to spend a little time with me.  I crave company and visitors.  I love you.

If the Milky Way is inside out, should you wear your underpants on the outside of your clothes?  Ask madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com

Take the necessary precautions in the perverse cold.  You know the drill.  Be careful.  Minor annoyances can become life-threatening situations in the arctic air.  Valetudinarian!

Open Blog - Wednesday

Enjoy your day.

"8 Common Anxiety Dreams And What They Mean"

From TheFrisky.com:

"Let's talk about anxiety dreams, shall we? They suck. But we all have them, no matter how much we have our act together in real life. Anxiety dreams happen when the stress, fear and worries of daily life infiltrate our unconscious mind. Or conversely, when there's some crap we're not ready to deal with, the anxiety will express itself through dream imagery. After an anxiety dream, we often wake up in the morning, or drenched in sweat in the middle of the night, with heart-pounding fear, feeling exhausted, like we didn't sleep at all.

"I like to think of dreams as clouds of mental, emotional and spiritual energy. And really, the only way to make the clouds go away, is to let them rain. So yeah, the only way to make anxiety dreams stop is to get to the bottom of what's causing them and deal with the issues.

"I subscribe to Carl Jung's method of dream analysis. So, basically, I think that dreams are a reflection of the individual dreamer. Meaning, if you have a specific association with spiders, like you had a beloved pet spider or something, your spider dream means something totally different than mine does. In addition, I think it's important to consider context of a dream. Meaning, it matters what's going on in your life and the world when you have the dream. Point being: dream analysis is both deeply personal and highly complex. That being said, there are some common anxiety dreams that most people have had at one point or another. Click through to see what these dreams might be trying to tell you."

See the dreams:  http://www.thefrisky.com/photos/8-common-anxiety-dreams-and-what-they-mean/

I had a recurring anxiety dream about the auto repair shop where I worked in Chicago.  I had it for years.  Details varied, but in the dreams I was super busy and unable to keep up with the customers' demands.  That dream was replaced by a recurring anxiety dream of a much more personal nature early last year.  That dream was devastating.  A few months ago, the recurring dreams stopped altogether.  Now I have occasional dreams on the same subject matter, but they're just the usual nonsense. 

"Cyclist: Driver didn't see me stuck in windshield"

Submitted by legal stranger:


"MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man who became lodged in the windshield of a car that struck him said he turned to the driver and said, 'Hello, I'm the guy you hit on the bicycle.'

"The driver did not respond, but continued on, running a stop sign and hitting another vehicle before he arrived home, the cyclist, Steven Gove, told HTR Media about the Saturday incident (http://htrne.ws/1bI58jh )"
 
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/21/cyclist-driver-didnt-see-me-stuck-in-windshield/4718857/

"Difference Between Cats And Dogs"

That about sums it up.

Stolen Target data used

Pair arrested with 96 fake cards; larger ring suspected

Associated Press

McAllen, Texas — Account infor­mation stolen during the Target securi­ty breach is now being divided up and sold off regionally, a South Texas police chief said Monday after the arrest of two Mexican citizens who authorities say arrived at the border with 96 fraud­ulent credit cards.

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodri­guez said Mary Carmen Garcia, 27, and Daniel Guardiola Dominguez, 28, both of Monterrey, Mexico, used cards con­taining the account information of South Texas residents. Rodriguez said they were used to buy tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise at na­tional retailers in the area including Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us.

“They’re obviously selling the data sets by region,” Rodriguez said.

Garcia and Guardiola were both be-ing held Monday on state fraud charg­es. It was not immediately known whether they had retained lawyers.

Rodriguez said he did not know whether they were the first arrests re­lated to the Target breach. Target did not immediately return phone and email messages left Monday, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a fed­eral holiday. The Minneapolis-based company said last week that it has stop­ped more than a dozen operations that sought to scam breach victims by way of email, phone calls and text messages.

McAllen police began working with the U.S. Secret Service after a number of area retailers were hit with fraudu­lent purchases Jan. 12. The Secret Ser­vice confirmed that the fraudulent ac-counts traced back to the original Tar­get data breach from late last year, Ro­driguez said. Investigators fanned out to McAllen-area merchants and reviewed “miles of video” looking for the fraudsters, he said. From that, they were able to iden­tify two people and a car with Mexican license plates.

A message left for the Secret Service on Monday was not returned.

With the help of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investiga­tors confirmed the identities of their suspects from immigration records of when they had entered Texas in the same vehicle. Police prepared arrest warrants last week and waited for them to return.

On Sunday morning, federal officials alerted police that their two suspects were at the Anzalduas International Bridge trying to re-enter the United States. They were carrying 96 fraudu­lent cards, Rodriguez said.

Investigators believe the two were involved in both the acquisition of the fraudulent account data and the pro­duction of the cards, but only part of what must have been a much broader conspiracy. Rodriguez said investiga­tors suspect Garcia and Guardiola were singling out Sundays for their shopping sprees hoping banks would not be as quick to detect the fraud.

With the amount of electronics and other merchandise purchased on Jan. 12, Rodriguez said the two would have needed an “army” to move it all.

Rodriguez also alluded to a link with Eastern Europe or Russia but did not provide additional details. He said he expected Garcia and Guardiola to even­tually face federal charges.

South Texas authorities have seen large-scale fraudulent credit card schemes before, including one in which they seized machines used to up­load information to the cards’ magnet­ic strips.

The Target breach is believed to have involved 40 million credit and debit card accounts and the personal infor­mation of 70 million customers.

"Pickles"

http://www.gocomics.com/pickles#.Ut5E1ftMGHs

Open Blog - Tuesday

Bee good.

Pattern or Practice - Reaction

Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen.  Nicely done.  This documentary is professional and persuasive.  It's an important resource that brings together the individuals who the city has treated unfairly and their stories.  It's a unifying force.  Hopefully, it's also the starting point for discussions about what kind of city we want Racine to be, and who do those in power represent?

Another showing was mentioned, but no firm date yet.  "Copies" of Pattern or Practice were also mentioned, which I take to mean DVDs and/or Blu-ray discs at some point.

I highly recommend it.  I give it 4 (****) out of 5 stars.

PatternOrPractice.com: http://patternorpractice.com/

Related blogs: http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/tomorrow-nightt-pattern-or-practice.html

http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/film-premiere-pattern-or-practice.html   

Snowy Invasion!

The invasion spreads...  From the Eastern coast spreading over the Great Lakes region and into Minnesota, they are coming and they are here! The Snowy Owl.... Hundreds of reports have been flooding my e-mails since December of Snowy Owl sightings across this region as well as far south as Jacksonville, Florida and Bermuda! (So far, not much in west). The latest report I have was being in the area in Bruan Rd, Hwy H and Co KR with THREE sighted! If that is the case, that will make FOUR Snowys in the Racine/Kenosha area including the one I discovered on the North Pier last month.(Picture taken below on 12/14/2013) Plus FOUR more at the Milwaukee lakefront (mostly at the Metro Pier under the Huan Bridge and the Coast Guard Impoundment). As of this standpoint, there are over 200 Snowy Owls in the state alone! There is an extremely good possibility there is even more!

Why are they here? Owls don't migrate normally like waterfowl and songbirds do. Much of it depends on the food supply. Experts say there has been a lemming explosion in regions of the Arctic where the Snowys are from. A large food supply breeds larger families and a better survival rate among the Snowys, thus creating an abundance of these beautiful creatures. When the winter arrives, the youngsters will spread out to find new territories to hunt. My big question is how many will make it BACK when spring arrives. Starvation, rodent poisoning and vehicular collisions are a reality, among other perils.

Where can we find these magnificent creatures? Think tundra! In almost any wide open spaces. Airports, open fields, beach fronts, harbors-anywhere void of trees. Look for them perched on fence posts, utility poles, hay bales, rock outcroppings, buildings, silos and even on the ground.

Before anyone goes out there searching for Snowy Owls, I do want to bring up some important matters. Remember, Snowys come from the farthest and most remote regions in the Arctic, therefore many of them have never seen a human till now. They don't know how to deal with us and that makes them appear tame. For the love of all creation, DO NOT get too close them! If fly they away, you were too close! DO NOT chase after them! In the long winter cold, they need to conserve their energy to stay warm and hunt for food. DO NOT bait them with mice or anything else! Some photographers are known to do this to get those great action shots you see. Weather baiting is illegal is a grey area, however to many birders it is unethical. While feeding a hungry owl seems to be a good idea, it can cause more harm than good. First of all, pet store bred mice may have contaminants (shots, etc.) that may be harmful to an owl. Two, owls have a tendency to beg. What happens when photographers that bait owls get enough pictures and move on? The owl waits and waits for a handout and none arrives, it will likely starve to death. You really want that to happen? Three, let's keep the owls "wild" as Mother Nature intend them be. Observe them from a distance and enjoy!!!

Zumbaaaaaaa Class

Oh, yes, this is an accurate visual of that class!

Local Loyalty - Copacetic

Today's edition brings us to  -

 Copacetic

409 Main St, Racine

Mon-Fri 10-6

 Sat 10-5

Sun 11-3

The name drew me in. I had never been there, and I've heard the word for years and have always liked it, I just had to stop in and see what kind of place it was. 

I was promptly greeted by Stetson, the gorgeous, accommodating greeter pooch, who I fell for immediately!

  Copacetic is a hat store and much more. There are men hats, ladies hats, casual, fancy, seasonal, you name it. MANY name brands, dozens of styles, trying out new looks could be a blast! 

A lady came in looking for ear mitts. I never heard of such a thing, but they had it right there! They're like ear muffs but no bands, just one for each ear, small enough to stash in a pocket and warm enough to keep your ears toasty. What a neat little invention!

They also carry the Life is Good collection - T-shirts, hats, socks, accessories, neat stuff!

They've been in business for 10 years. 

They have another store in Waukesha. 

The 3 words chosen (yup, still a good question!)
1. Optimistic

2. Positive

3. Quality

If you're looking for a new look, or looking for something unique, stop in and check them out! I'm glad I did!

Tonight: Pattern or Practice

Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee, Jan.20, 2014, TONIGHT, 7:00-9:30 pm

Tickets: http://tinyurl.com/lkyden8

PatternOrPractice.com: http://patternorpractice.com/

Related blog: http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/film-premiere-pattern-or-practice.html

Open Blog - Monday

Have at it.

"Fishing Isn't For Everyone"

Just go to McDonald's and get a Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

"Ex-Wisconsin medical examiner pleads guilty; took body parts to train dog"

From Reuters: 

"(Reuters) - A former Wisconsin medical examiner who took a piece of spinal column that had been removed from a corpse to train her cadaver dog, pleaded guilty to felony charges on Friday, according to court documents.

"Traci England, 46, will be sentenced February 10 on two felony counts of misconduct in public office. Theft and obstruction charges against England were dismissed as part of a plea bargain, the Forest County Circuit Court records showed.

"The criminal complaint said England took a piece of bone from a corpse's spinal column after another medical examiner removed it during an autopsy on September 5, 2011.

"She told fellow employees she planned to use the bone to train her cadaver dog, the complaint said.

"Investigators wrote in the complaint that England 'made a comment on how lucky she was to have gotten this section of the spine because it was hard to come by.'

"During a search of her Town of Newbold home on January 4, 2012, investigators found what appeared to be brain and liver tissue along with a piece of bone in bags on a shelf in her garage, the complaint said."

Read more:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/18/us-usa-bodyparts-wisconsin-idUSBREA0G1QG20140118

Open Blog - Weekend

We wish.

"Devil Baby Attack: Evil baby prank terrifies innocent people in New York"

Submitted by lrgal stranger:



That's hilarious.

"Blaze Loves His Kennel (ORIGINAL) Husky Says No to Kennel - Funny"

Aw, poor Blaze.

Four for Fridays

Hello everyone and welcome back! It's a tale of two extremes within one week. The week started off slow then sped up like insane towards the end. Why can't things be steady? Anyways, your questions...

1) What do you think are the characteristics that make up a good pet?

2) What is your favorite knock-knock joke?

3) Have you ever been in a food fight?

4) Can you fake any accents?

Enjoy your weekend!

Angel of Clean Sheets

Angel of clean sheets, do you know bedbugs?
Once in the madhouse they came like specks of cinnamon
as I lay in a choral cave of drugs,
as old as a dog, as quiet as a skeleton.
Little bits of dried blood. One hundred marks
upon the sheet. One hundred kisses in the dark.
White sheets smelling of soap and Clorox
have nothing to do with this night of soil,
nothing to do with barred windows and multiple locks
and all the webbing in the bed, the ultimate recoil.
I have slept in silk and in red and in black.
I have slept on sand and, on fall night, a haystack.

I have known a crib. I have known the tuck-in of a child
but inside my hair waits the night I was defiled.

--Anne Sexton 

"Anne Sexton (November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die. Themes of her poetry include her long battle against depression and mania, suicidal tendencies, and various intimate details from her private life, including her relationships with her husband and children."

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sexton

Bed Bugs: Pests from Hell

Until recently, I lived in an apartment building on the near south side of Racine.  I had a ground floor unit.  I lived there for 7 years.

About 2-1/2 years ago, a young woman and her toddler son moved into the apartment above mine.   She was a very nice person, always concerned about the noise her son made while running around in their apartment.  And I always told her I didn’t mind it.

The rear entrance to the building went right by the laundry room.  As I was leaving one day, I saw my upstairs neighbor and her son there.  She was near tears.  “Bed bugs,” she said, “My apartment has bed bugs.”  She showed me her son’s back.  He was all bit to hell.  She told everyone who went by.  She moved out within days and the rumor was that she left all of her furniture behind and successfully sued the owner for its cost.  I don’t know.

Shortly thereafter, a pest control company brought equipment into the building.  They had portable furnaces, fans, cables, and computer controls for heat treatment of the bed bugs.  Heat treatment is considered the most up-to-date method.  The area to be treated has to be brought up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and held there for four hours.  The heat first attracts the bed bugs, and then kills them.  It kills all four stages of the bed bug lifecycle. 

They treated the apartment above me, and one next to me.  The guy in the one next to me had seen bed bugs that I didn’t know about.  The exterminators left and I didn’t hear anything about bedbugs for awhile.

Early last year, I started to hear more and more about bed bugs.  A pest control company was coming twice a month.  It was obvious that some apartments were being treated with insecticide, but I didn’t know how many or which ones.

Over the course of the spring and summer, two construction debris dumpsters were brought onto the parking lot for the disposal of infested furniture.  Still, nothing was said by management.

In April, I spotted my first bed bug; in bed, of course.  I would come to see many, many more.  I would come to hate them for what they did to my life and the lives of millions more.  Bed bugs live on the blood of warm blooded animals.  They’re little vampires.

I don’t react to bed bug bites.  I’m told either 30% or 40% of people don’t.  (Information from two different exterminators.)  I didn’t show physical signs of their bites, but my sheets became pockmarked with little blood stains where they bit me.  They also became stained with bed bug shit.  Bed bugs crap all over the place, tiny little spots of poop.  I never even considered insects pooping until bed bugs infested my apartment.

My apartment went on the list and an exterminator came twice a month to spray.  The man sprayed the bed and surrounding area very thoroughly, but no place else unless you told him you had seen bed bugs there.  It was idiotic.  95% of the apartment was not treated.  I was once state certified as a pesticide applicator for turf and ornamentals (lawns, shrubs, gardens).  I never dealt with bed bugs, but I dealt with other insects.  I knew what they were doing wasn’t going to work. 

In June, I was hospitalized with kidney failure.  A pesticide application was done to my apartment while I was in the hospital.  I distinctly remember it, because when I returned to my apartment, the infestation appeared three times worse.  It didn’t make sense, and still doesn’t, but I couldn’t even sleep on the bed anymore.  I slept on the floor, but the bed bugs get wise to your new location and go after you there.  I was sleeping fully clothed ever since the bed bugs first appeared.  I was trying to limit skin exposure.

In September, an exterminator arrived who knew what he was doing.  On the appointed day, he went around to the apartments.  When he got to mine, he told me he couldn’t spray my closets and other areas because they hadn’t been properly prepared.  Other tenants had been forewarned of what to do.  I hadn’t.  I complained, loudly.  In response, I was handed a notice of non-renewal of my lease.

Legal stranger and BLB helped me toss a ton of junk from my closets.  The next time the exterminator arrived, my apartment was prepared for the application.  They were now treating the entire apartments.  We had to leave our apartments for two hours after they sprayed.

Around this time, I noticed that my cat, Charlie, had some bumps on his ears that would appear, heal, and then new ones would appear.  The pads of his paws were also cracked and bleeding.  I finally deduced that Charlie was getting bit on the ears by bed bugs.  Unlike mosquitoes, bed bugs have to hit a vein.  They normally don’t bite animals because the fur is too dense.  But if you look at a cat’s ear through light, you see tiny little veins.  The damn things were biting up my buddy. 

A visit to a veterinarian confirmed this, though the cause of his pad problems was less obvious.  The vet said maybe Charlie needed more omega fatty acids in his diet to soften his pads.  She sold me a supplement that Charlie won’t eat.  I was thinking that maybe all the chemicals sprayed on the carpeting and furniture in my apartment were affecting his pads.  I’m 210 pounds and Charlie is 12.5.  The poison must be much more effective on him.  And he walked through it all day long, and licked his paws.

Bed bugs made me feel like a leper or typhoid Mary.  A buddy who visits me regularly came by shortly after I realized I had bed bugs.  I told him he probably shouldn’t come in.  He said just for a few minutes.  He stood in one place and talked with me for about ten minutes.  Then he left.  When he returned home, he felt something on his neck.  It was a bed bug.  Luckily, he felt it outside, before he entered his house.  He stripped and found two more.  After that, we would visit in the building’s lobby, seated far apart.  Twice while doing that, he pointed out bed bugs on me.

I would check myself for bed bugs before going out in public.  Once, while waiting for my doctor in an examination room, I saw a bed bug come crawling up my knee.  I squished it.  It was sickening.  They give off a pungent odor when squished and I loathe it.  When they haven’t fed, they have a very, very low profile.  A friend and I joked you could hit one with a hammer and it would just keep going.  That allows them to squeeze into the tightest places.  After feeding, they pop like a blood blister when squished.

I came to learn a lot about bed bugs, stuff I never wanted to learn in the first place.  The internet is full of conflicting information about them.  Their resurgence is so overwhelming that everyone and their uncle posts about them.  Studies of them done by universities will have opposite results.  I know that they can get flat enough to enter between the pages of a book.  If a host isn’t near, they can go dormant and not feed for a year or more.  People looked at my books and said I would have to toss them.  Puh-leez.

Bed bugs can go dormant, but they don’t when there’s a fat old man and his cat around to feed on.  They don’t want to crawl into a book and sleep.  They want to feed and then return to the closest possible nest (usually in the bed).  Yes, they can get into everything.  But, again, follow the warm blood.  When legal stranger, BLB and I tossed out all that stuff from my closets, I didn’t see one bed bug, dead or alive.  There’s no percentage for a bed bug buried in a closet.  He/she isn’t going to eat in there or in a book or anyplace else that isn’t close to a human.

As the date approached for my move, I grew more and more apprehensive about the bed bugs.  I was hoping that they would be eradicated before I moved.  No such luck.  I spoke with the exterminator a number of times.  He indicated that leaving behind my bed and upholstered items would be the best protection against bringing the bed bugs with me.  I think the carpeting was also infested.

As it turns out, the reason the heat treatment didn’t work previously was because the apartment where the original infestation took place wasn’t treated.  Management didn’t know about it.  Nobody did. The tenant had bed bugs and told no one.  He lived next door to the apartment above me, above the guy who saw bed bugs.  Eventually, 32 out of 51 units were infested.  It was taking months and months of chemical applications to knock them back.

My apartment was treated days before I moved.  I piled up Charlie’s cat tree, a loveseat, and other furniture in a corner of the main room, away from the moving boxes.  I had to leave those behind.  In my bedroom, the mattress and box spring stayed, as did an entertainment center cabinet that was in the room.  I took my dresser with me.

Some of the JT Irregulars came to my place on moving day and moved me to my new apartment.  It was incredible and it was very loving of them.  I didn’t have to do too much other than direct them.  I was and I am very grateful.  Another of my concerns was endangering my friends with bed bug exposure during the move.  Nobody saw any bed bugs.

A few days after I moved in, my friend who stopped by regularly at the old place came to visit.  The apartment was still filled with boxes from the move.  He asked about bed bugs and I told him that I think I avoided bringing any with me.  “Like that one?” he asked as he pointed at a bed bug crawling along the living room floor.

I was mortified.  I was dumbfounded.  I was upset.  The very last thing I wanted to do was bring bed bugs to my new apartment.  Apparently, I did.  Maybe a TV I was given by another tenant as we moved had bed bugs.  (That would be ironic as I don’t watch TV.)  Maybe not.  There’s no way to know for sure. 

I panicked and my first instinct was to lie.  (That’s why I ride lying John so hard.  I know liars.  I’m one of the best.  And that’s a lie.)  I sprayed the baseboards with Raid Maxx Bed Bug Killer.  My plan was to pretend I knew nothing about the bed bugs.  I was afraid that management would throw me out if they knew about them.

Thankfully, my AA training kicked in.  My new apartment is in a larger building than the old one.  Most of the tenants are senior citizens.  As I thought about it, I realized that I couldn’t “infect” this building and spread bed bugs to more innocent victims.  That would’ve been horrible.  I hate bed bugs.  How could I do that to others? 

I talked to the building manager and told him about the bed bugs.  He was not happy, but he didn’t blow his top.  In fact, he ended up consoling me because I felt so bad about the bed bugs.  It was a nightmare come true.  I was the villain when I had absolutely no intention of being one.  The manager told me that they had bed bugs twice before (in different units).   They used a pest control company that utilizes the heat treatment method.

A couple of days later, a guy from the pest control company stopped by to inspect my apartment.  He said he was going to give management an estimate.  A couple of day after that, a representative from the company stopped by to explain to me what the extermination process was.  They heat treat one day.  Charlie and I had to be out of the apartment in the morning and couldn’t return until the evening.  One week after that, they do a chemical application.  Charlie and I had to be gone for only an hour.  Two weeks after that, they do a final chemical application.

For the heat treatment, I had to remove all of the meltables in my apartment.  I had candles and wax stuck in various boxes.  They also want all of your aerosol cans in a box so the technician makes sure nothing explodes.  All loose papers and materials have to be stowed because of the force of the fans they use.  At the same time, every drawer, cabinet, etc., is opened for the heat treatment.  Plants have to be removed in you want them to live.  140 degrees for four hours.  It takes awhile to build up to that temperature.  Everything has to be heated to the core to 140 degrees for four hours. 

The technician who arrived on the day of the heat treatment was nice.  He does the heat treatment alone.  The company representative who had explained the process to me said, “Watch him set up the equipment.  It’s interesting.”  He must’ve looked at my boxes of junk and figured that I’m a gear head.  Unfortunately, getting Charlie into the carrier was becoming more and more of a chore.  Once I had him in there, I didn’t want to wait around to watch.

Charlie and I spent from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM in my truck in the parking lot.  I had originally thought about taking him back to visit with a friend at the old apartment building.  His cat and Charlie are pals.  Then I thought, “No, dumbass.  There are bed bugs there.”  Charlie was a real trooper.  I reclined my seat and tried to snooze.  I turned on the engine for heat every so often.  I brought Charlie’s litter box along just in case.  That was on the passenger seat floor.  Charlie’s carrier was on the seat.  I opened up the carrier in case he had to go.  He explored around a little bit and then went back into the carrier. 

The apartment was incredibly hot when we returned.  All the windows were open, but the heat was still oppressive.  Charlie was freaked out.  I set up fans to blow in cold air.  It took a few hours to get everything to near normal.  I closed the windows.  Later that night, I woke up shivering in my bedroom.  The technician had turned the thermostat down so that the furnace wouldn’t fight the open windows.  I didn’t realize that.  The apartment was cold.  I set the thermostat and went back to sleep.

The chemical applications were no big deal.  There was no odor afterward, unlike the applications at the old place.  Charlie’s ears healed and there were no more bites.  His paw pads stopped cracking and bleeding, too, so I think it was the chemicals causing that.

My apartment has been officially declared bed bug free.  It still hasn’t sunk in.  I’ve spent so much time and energy dealing with these demon bugs that I can’t fully accept it yet.  I still sleep on the floor and Charlie has no cat tree.  Every time I have a twitch or an itch, I jump because I think it’s a bed bug.  They added stress and anxiety to my life for months.  They ruined my furniture.  They almost ruined my life.  I can smell them.  I keep waiting for the stink to arrive.

Open Blog - Friday

That sounds yummy.

"Trevor Noah: That's Racist - Tacos"

Not Rodney Dangerfield, but pretty funny.

"Dickert in Mexico for sister city’s celebration"

From The Journal Times.com:

"On Wednesday City Administrator Tom Friedel confirmed that Dickert had left for the trip early Wednesday morning. Friedel did not know what members of the Sister City delegation had also flown out."

"Administrative Assistant Greg Bach said Wednesday that he won’t know the cost of Dickert’s flight to the city until after the delegation returns to Racine on Saturday. Bach also could not say how many people made the trip to the city."

Read more:  http://journaltimes.com/news/local/dickert-in-mexico-for-sister-city-s-celebration/article_3a6bdf20-7e4c-11e3-91ad-0019bb2963f4.html


LOL.  Lying John is vacationing in Mexico on our dime, but no one knows the cost or who went.  You can't make this stuff up.  Our streetlights come down and city services are cut because lying John says we're broke.  But when he wants to party, there are plenty of taxpayer dollars available.  What an utter swine, inflicting massive damage on our city and forcing us to pay for trips to France and Mexico that produce  NOTHING for Racine.  He went to France to look at fish farms when there was one three blocks from City Hall.  Failure after failure, lie after lie.  

It's the job of the city administrator and the mayor's administrative assistant to know what is going on.  They say they're ignorant of what lying John is doing.  Then they should be removed from their positions.  If the city administrator doesn't know what's going on, who the hell does?  We spend over $200K on these clowns per year, but they know nothing.

You can contact the president of the Mexican town that Dickert is vacationing in by email: presidencia@zapotlanejo.gob.mx  Let him know what you think about lying John stealing money from our city to give to his friends.  Let our sister city know that our city is massively corrupt and we need their help in exposing the criminals in our government. 

Open Blog - Thursday

Are those Easter eggs? Already?

"God Bless America speech and finale"

Related: http://www.jtirregulars.com/2014/01/police-texting-in-movie-theater-sparks.html

What a movie.

"Meet Racine’s New Assessor, Bill Bowers"

From Racine Exposed:

"While Bill Bowers appears to brings some serious credibility to the job,  it remains yet to be seen if he, like so many other Department Heads at Racine City Hall, will morph into just another John Dickert Lap-Dog and do what he’s told instead of what is right for the Community.  His involvement with the troubled Vessels of Houour Church, Inc. must give one pause for concern. Given that influential, well connected, wealthy and Democrat candidate for Governor Mary Burke previously appointed Bill Bowers to a position as Minority Business Development during the Jim Doyle Administration, Mayor John Dickert’s motive must be suspect.  And once again – Mayor John Dickert brings in an outsider who does not know Racine intimately. Why does the Mayor so disdain locals who know the community?"

Read more: http://racineexposed.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/meet-racines-new-assessor-bill-bowers/