Friday, December 26, 2008

I'm A Tinker

Your result for The Pop Culture Archetype Personality Test ...
The Tinker
Ninja, Robot, Punk, Cowboy
Whatever that means.


Here's the link to take the test.
http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-pop-culture-archetype-personality-test

Utah Savage has a post on this test. I wasn't able to find a link on her post, so I googled the test and found it. This is the result of the test that I took.

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Tree

Yesterday we put up the tree. While out on the patio trimming branches and cutting off a couple inches from the butt to prepare it for the tree stand, it didn't feel quite right. Here it was the first day of Winter and I was outside doing this in jeans and a t-shirt. (Today it is cold enough where I will need to wear a shirt and jacket when I got outside.) That had me remembering what Winter is really like. Below are a couple of Winter Scenes.
This picture was taken UP on the tundra 4 years ago give or take a few days. The road grader plowing the driveway belongs to the county road commission. It is one of the few places UP on the tundra where the county will plow private driveways for a fee. We paid for driveway plowing for this Winter even tho nobody is living there because if you get off the list for plowing you won't get back on it. In a couple of years we may be back there and we want to make sure we don't have to plow the driveway ourselves as I have done that in the past and with a small plow on a Jeep it is a hassle.

This picture was taken in the Spring. It was March 23, 1997. That mirror sticking out of the snowdrift is attached to a 1970 Ford pickup. It was parked there for the Winter and looks like it would be awhile before it could be driven again.


Friday, December 19, 2008

'Tis the Season

Except his birthday was in the summer. But the Xianists needed something to celebrate when they stole the Pagan holiday of Winter Solstice.

H/T to YellowdogGranny for the picture from her Stumbles.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Shoe toss at aWol

At Sock and Awe you can play a game by throwing a shoe at aWol. After playing the game you can send it as an e-mail to others so they can have fun too!! I thought maybe I could put the game up as a post, but looks like the link will have to do.

Isn't modern technology wonderful?? It didn't take long for someone to come up with a game and put it on the intratubes.

H/T to WTF is it Now?? for the link!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Coffee Pot

A couple of months back the switch on our coffee pot died. The Old Lady said to go buy a new one which I did. She wanted me to throw out the old one, but because it only needed a switch, I said I'll hang on to it and take it with me next year when I go UP on the tundra again. It was the same model coffee pot as the one in the camp UP on the tundra and I figured it could be fixed if the other one died.

This morning I had to go for a stress test, so I couldn't have any coffee or anything except a little water. The Old Lady turned on the coffee pot as usual and had her coffee before leaving for work. When I got back home and went to have a cup of coffee and something to eat, the coffee in the pot was barely warm even tho the light on the switch was on. I nuked a cup of coffee and later determined that the pot was indeed dead. I put some water in the reservoir and turned it on. It just sat there with the light on and nothing happened. I dug the old pot out of the closet and took the two pots apart to get at the switches. I put the good switch in the pot with a bad switch. Then I put vinegar in the pot and ran that thru to clean it. After I rinse it, it'll be ready to go in the morning. The ironic part is that now I'll throw out the newer coffee pot.

Usually I have good luck with cheap coffee pots. Many years ago we had a pot with a clock and you could program it to turn itself on so the coffee would be ready when you got up. It lasted a couple of years, so when I went looking for a replacement, I got one that only had an off-on switch and it lasted for almost ten years. Not bad for a pot that I paid 6-7 bucks for. I haven't had as good luck with the recent pots, but the one at the camp is still going and I may still get a few more years out it.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Life Is Not A Box of Chocolates

This was sent to me a few months back and today I ran across it again. It gave me a chuckle so I thought I'd post it.
Or you can have ice cream for dessert and the next day sit and holler, "Come on ice cream!!"


ACLU, It's Not Just For Commies

Found this article on the MSNBC website about a Baptist minister that got bailed out of jail by the ACLU of Michigan.

After being convicted and sentenced to probation in 2007 for paying people to vote in a Benton Harbor recall election, Edward Pinkney wrote an article in a small Chicago newspaper saying the judge who handled the case could be punished by God with curses, fever and "extreme burning" unless he changed his ways.

Another judge considered the article a threat and sentenced Pinkney to three to 10 years in prison for violating his probation. Pinkney, who says he's a Baptist minister, and his attorneys say he was only paraphrasing some Bible verses from the book of Deuteronomy.

"The court properly recognized that serious constitutional questions are raised when a minister is thrown in prison for predicting what God might do."

Does this mean the guy has a direct line and can predict what "God" will do?? He is probably as good at predicting as all the other skypilots are. Has anyone actually seen a prediction by a Bible-Banger ever come true?? The guy sounds delusional to me. This shows that the ACLU will work for anyone, no matter how much of a nutjob they are if it looks like there is a case.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Robo Calls

We didn't really have a problem with political robo calls back during the run-up to the election. We have had a problem with robo calls for many months now that have nothing to do with politics. The robo calls I'm talking about are from collection agencies. One of them is from an agency trying to collect for a hospital in Ohio. Another is for GMAC. We don't owe money to any hospital in Ohio and have never had any dealings with GMAC. When the phone rings, if you pick it up you get a recording with no way to talk to a real person to let them know they have the wrong number. I've tried calling the number for the one in Ohio with no luck in actually talking to a person. I have been on hold waiting for the next available person for up to half an hour before giving up and then have left a message that they have to wrong number. Still the calls keep coming, "Hi this is Mandy, give me a call at ..................." How the fuck do they expect to get people to agree to send them money if a person can't get through to a real, live person????????????? I may be a dumb shit from so far back in the sticks that they have to pipe in daylight, but I know enough that when you leave a message to call, have enough people there to answer the phone if they are dumb enough to call you back!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Car Ads With Big Red Bows

Last month DCup did a post that mentioned car ads for Lexus, Volvo, Infiniti etc.... Then later she did another post about SUV's and the auto industry bailout. Last week I found a picture that may explain the ads for the high dollar vehicles.


A thought just occured to me. And some people complain when you park a motorcycle in the living room!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

My Digital TV Experience

The last post was a video on Digital TV. Thought I'd do a post on my experience with DTV. Back in April I went online and applied for the coupons for converter boxes. About five weeks later I got two coupons that were like credit or ATM cards in the mail. I left one here and took one with me when I went to spend the summer UP on the tundra. I discovered that finding a converter box would not be easy. Not every place that sells electronics were selling them and the ones that were were sold out. After checking several places in person with no success, I phoned around and found a couple of places that had them in stock. At a Pamida store 50 miles away I got a converter box. There was one 10 miles closer, but it cost $20 more. After getting the converter, I hooked it up to my TV as the instructions said and hit channel search. After going through all the channels I got a message that said "no programs found". Next time I went to town I went to the library and got online. I checked the website for the local TV station that we call "With Luck U C TV". They had info on DTV and had a link to a site where I could find the exact compass heading to aim my antenna. Also found out they had been broadcasting in digital for the last four years. After checking to see that my antenna was pointing in the right direction, I hooked up the converter again with the same result. Next year the TV station will increase the power of their signal and add 150 feet to their transmitter tower. To make sure that the converter worked I brought it with me when I returned to the land of Kudzu and tried it. With the little rabbit ears on the little portable TV I was able to get a bunch of channels with the converter box. Of course being only a few miles from the transmitter vs 40 or so miles helps.

Next year when I go back UP on the tundra I will find out if I can get a signal then or maybe I will need a new UHF antenna and a signal amplifier. If that's the case I may have to get along without TV and play tapes in the VCR or listen to the radio and read.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Digital TV

Here is a funny clip on the switch from analog to digital TV.

Nisu or Pulla?



When I was a kid everybody called these Nisu. About a decade ago I learned that they are called Pulla in Finland. Nobody there knows what you mean when you say Nisu because that means wheat in Finnish. Anywho, I've been baking these for a decade now since I got the recipe at the FinnFest in Maine. Who knows, one of these days I may get it right.

Change.Gov

Here is Change.gov ,Obama's website. Here are yesterday's posts.

Thursday, December 4, 2008 3:28 pm EST
American Moment: Fixing our health care system
Since we launched our website, thousands of people have joined the discussion about health care – as well as submitted their stories directly to American Moment. We wanted to share some of those stories in this post. read more...
Thursday, December 4, 2008 2:36 pm EST
Inside the Transition: Health Care
We sat in on a meeting of the Transition's Health Policy Team to introduce you to some of the team's members and give you a feel for how they make decisions -- and Senator Tom Daschle, the leader of the team, sat down to tell us how he plans to tackle health care. read more...

There is too much info there for me to list here.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

There has got to be a Silver Lining somewhere in this ShitStorm!


The run-off election is over and Saxby Shameless has won re-election. At this time all I can think of to explain this is that in GA They Likes Their Stupid!!
After thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that there really is a Silver Lining somewhere here. This means that that Quisling Joe Lieberman doesn't have the power to swing things in the Senate. If Shameless had lost and if Franken were to win in Minnesota, in theory that would have given the Dems 60 in their caucus. That would have given Quisling Joe way too much power, he would have been the 60th vote and could have controlled a lot of the agenda in the Senate. Now the Dems have to get several Repukes on their side and if they are smart, they will get one more and not bother with Lieberman.
Someone once said "It is always darkest before it goes totally black"!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New Post

Last weekend the Kid said that I hadn't done a post on my Journey's and Wanderings in awhile. Well, now there is a new one. I'll have to remember to continue to write about my adventures as a wage-slave.

Atheists in Alabama??

While driving thru Tuscaloosa, AL yesterday, I noticed a license plate with a letter A and then some numbers. I thought, how nice, the Atheists now have a license plate just like the Bible-Bangers do. Some are so proud of their Atheism that they have a flag with the letter A flapping in the breeze on their cars. I have seen the red letter A on some blogs, but seeing it on cars surprised me.



Here's a song for the season by Willie. I like the way that even the animals are smoking the sweet weed!!