Sunday - June 14, 2015

too hot to dig

Another morning spent out in the greensward. Another call of “enough” when the mercury started touching 90.

Got plenty done. Got half the phlox bedded and planted. All the wildflower watering. We prepped a whole baggie full of marigold seed heads. The whole perennial garden went in yesterday. I’ve got about 8 phlox left to plant, and as many painted daisies. And that will be it. Except for laying in some marigolds over the tulip garden so the soil won’t be bare. And that will be it. Oh, and I want to just throw a few thousand foxglove seeds down on some good dirt on the uphill end of my wildflower embankment. And that will be it. Oh, and I can clear a space about 3 x 8 on the right side of the garbage corral up in the parking lot, and plant the rest of neighbor Carol’s marigold seeds. And that, finally, WILL be that.

This year’s grow is at least twice the size of last year’s. The good part is that almost all the new area is run amok zone ... just chop down the weeds and throw down some seeds and let it run amok. I am getting some great exercise in, going back and forth with a 2 gallon watering can every day. At least 7 trips.

I need to look into getting some Milorganite and a cheap spreader.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/14/2015 at 12:24 PM   
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   Friday - June 12, 2015

Open For Debate

Cosplay or Steampunk?

Wait, it’s harder than you think ... cosplay, because she’s in character as one of the crew of Captain Robert’s airship HMS Ophelia ... but that’s from a RPG called Airship Pirates ... so, pure fantasy, right, and thus cosplay ... except the RPG is sold as a steampunk RPG and is based on the real music from an actual band called Abney Park ... who considers themselves a steampunk band. Well, at least when they sing about Captain Robert. And Dear Ophelia.


Sometimes when the lines get blurry, it’s good to have a well armed redhead around. In or out of the corsets.



Gosh, I’m really liking this Abney Park group. Trippy stuff. All sorts of “world instruments” in their music.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2015 at 03:25 PM   
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Jihadi Steve At Your Door

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2015 at 09:57 AM   
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Playing In The Dirt, Fishing In The Dark

See Rich? Toldja it was fun!  (this is an extremely bright soundtrack, so be ready to turn the treble down a few notches)

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2015 at 09:17 AM   
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   Thursday - June 11, 2015

planting day

Worked like a dog yesterday getting the soil ready in the new garden extension. Guess I’m getting old and weak, as it took a lot longer than I thought it should have. Whatever, it’s done. And now to get some plants and seeds in. Lupine, astrilbe, dward lillies, phlox, and a couple others.

Busy busy, playing in the dirt.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/11/2015 at 10:31 AM   
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Trounced ‘Em

We were up against the 1st place team last night. I know their anchor from Greed League. With our noob team member, we wound up getting 45 pins handicap. Hot damn. And away we went.

They lost the first game by 165 pins. They didn’t come out hot, or even warm, and we opened with 5 strikes and 2 spares for our team of four in the first 2 frames. We kept that lead going and growing, as they never caught fire. Wipeout. I threw a 198 so I put a couple dozen points in for our side.

They lost the second games by 114 pins. Their anchor E was having thumb problems. Actually, he was stressing out, and squeezing the daylights out of his ball. And no matter how hard you squeeze, at the end of your swing that 16lb really, really wants to come off of your hand. So he tore his thumb up a bit. Too tight a thumb hole and too much pressure. And they’re one of those teams where the anchor is the savior and MVP every game. So when he’s down, they’re pretty much out. I threw a 209, another nicely over average game.

We won the third game by 6 pins. We were tiring out, and probably socializing a bit too much, while anchor E switched to a lighter ball with a bigger thumb. So he rallied, and they rallied a little with him. But we held on, and my turkey in the mid-game gave us a little margin. They finished well in the 10th, but we di too, and stayed just a few pins up. Good enough.

Early in the third game the lanes really broke down and everyone but me started throwing really ugly splits, and the 1 pin leave gremlins were out in force. I used the situation as a teaching moment for our new guy G. See how X on their side has thrown 9-0 for the last 3 frames? [swish, klunk] 4 frames? Two lessons: first, you need to get accurate enough so that any one pin leave is a total gimmee. Every time. Learn to see the line from anywhere to that pin, and then throw it. A one pin leave should be an automatic spare. Second, you know what the definition of insanity is right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Right. So if you throw a 9, and everything in your throw felt right and looked right, then have confidence in your throw and make an adjustment for the next frame. Half a shoe forward if it’s the 10, half a shoe back if it’s the 7, or if it’s a middle pin, move your target a board depending on how you ball is hitting the pocket. Two 9 is excusable if you weren’t sure if your first frame’s throw was good, but a third 9 with the same leave means you’re being stubborn: make the adjustment. And really, really learn to pick up a single pin leave from anywhere, with either your straight throw or your hook throw.

So this defeat will knock the first place team down as much as 4 places, and we could bubble right up to first from fifth. I doubt that will happen, but I’m pretty sure we’ll both move at least 2 slots in the standings. Summer league. We’re going to win this one this year.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/11/2015 at 09:32 AM   
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   Wednesday - June 10, 2015

yes indeed

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2015 at 07:17 AM   
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Not Animal Friendly

So I’m standing in the kitchen a few minutes ago, trying to get my eyes open. Trying to kick-start my brain enough to figure out how to get a cup of coffee from a Keurig machine. Machine on, filtered water goes in the reservoir here, lid goes back on, coffee goes in the DIY k-cup, level it off, cap closed, under the press, cup underneath, lower lever, press button ... it’s complicated!

So I look out the kitchen slider and see the sun is coming up nicely. Not raining. And I can see that the wildflower seeds that I put down in the new area I cleared are sprouting already. Nice. And oh look at the size of that great light brown lump. I wonder if that cat is around? WAIT A SECOND! I don’t have a great brown lump in this garden. What the Hell is a light brown lump? Anthill? Patio umbrella? Part of a rotting tree trunk? No, it moved! It’s a deer. Deer!! Instant RCOB moment, like dropping the clutch in Formula One. From Sleeping to Kill in less than a heartbeat. “Not in my garden you don’t! You get out of here! Scram, or I’ll saw your face off and hang it on the wall!” And there’s a spastic explosion of ears and tails and hooves and elbows (knees?) going every which way, and the dopey doe spazzes herself down the hill into the jungle.

I’d caught her in the act of climbing over and through the cleared brush I’d piled up, and she had her head down and ears back facing me as she was coming up over the crest of the steep hill. Probably nibbling something dainty off the ground. Like my expensive seeds. So all I saw was the pointy shoulder; head legs and neck blended into one in the bracken. Great light brown lump. NIMBY!!

I’m not the horse whisperer. I’m the deer shouterer.

Bastiges.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/10/2015 at 06:55 AM   
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   Tuesday - June 09, 2015

just a bit overwhelmed here, that’s all

Ive been frightfully busy this past week, and it looks like I’ll stay super busy for at least a couple more days.

I haven’t even been in front of my PC for more than a few minutes every day. Or is it every other day? Working like madman. 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/09/2015 at 09:39 PM   
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   Monday - June 08, 2015

‘How long will it take to get to London?’ asked a migrant.  the future demographic

This is what is making the news over here, and I imagine it’s covered somewhat back home.
In not too many generations, this is what europa and the the uk will look like.

One of the headlines from a paper today. Big question is will the EU let them?

Is Italy about to shut the door on the Mediterranean migrants? Northern towns are ordered to stop accepting them because situation ‘is like a bomb ready to go off’

3,500 are plucked from Mediterranean in ONE DAY
· Pregnant women and children among the desperate migrants rescued 30 miles off the coast of Libya yesterday
· Those helped were given bread and water by crews onboard HMS Bulwark while security checks were carried out
· Royal Navy Merlin helicopter spotted the overcrowded boats yesterday morning on radar before launching rescue
· Up to 500,000 refugees are still waiting on the Libyan coast for migrant boats despite thousands drowning

By Larisa Brown On Hms Bulwark For The Daily Mail and Kate Pickles For Mailonline

Huddled in their hundreds on the lower deck of a warship, these are the desperate migrants who claimed the Royal Navy had ‘saved their lives’ after being rescued off the North African coast.

Children as young as two and heavily-pregnant women were among the 1,200 migrants rescued by HMS Bulwark at various points along the Libyan coast yesterday.

They were plucked from nine vessels – six of them rubber dinghies – set adrift off the coast as ministers fear half a million more people are waiting to make the trip, all hoping to be rescued by the military.

As those rescued clambered aboard HMS Bulwark in the Mediterranean, many took the opportunity to disclose the harrowing journey they had faced since fleeing the country.

One of those rescued said: ‘It was no problem.’ Others said they felt like they had been in hell.

Yasin, 29, from Islamabad, Pakistan, summed up many of the migrants’ feelings. She said: ‘The Royal Navy has saved my life. I want to live in Europe because I feel safe here.

It is thought that human traffickers launched the boats from the North African coastline knowing that naval ships would intervene and give the migrants safe passage to the European Union.

Their flimsy boats – described as ‘lilos with sides’ – were spotted by radar and two Merlin helicopters. They also had a huge wooden craft.

Not all the refugees came from failed African states. Some are Pakistani, proving that the trip across the Med is an established route for economic migrants.

Many more migrants were waiting for a ticket to Europe.  it’s reported 500,000 more.

Already this year, over 76,000 migrants have made the 260-mile crossing to Europe – 40,000 of them are now in Italy. Over the weekend at least 4,000 people were rescued by 11 different European vessels.

continues here with 50 more pix

Posted by peiper     on 06/08/2015 at 10:49 AM   
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   Sunday - June 07, 2015

ROLLING BACK TIME. IT’S 1937 AND YOU ARE READING THE AMERICAN MERCURY

Even in his day, this guy was very controversial.  Some folks are still upset and they aren’t even of that generation.

Well what the heck.  Truth to tell you, I just could not wait for July 4 or some other meaningful holiday. Or another election.

Welcome to the world of H.L. Mencken, 1937.

A Constitution for the New Deal

by H.L. Mencken

The American Mercury, June 1937

THE PRINCIPLE cause of the uproar in Washington is a conflict between the swift-moving idealism of the New Deal and the unyielding hunkerousness of the Constitution of 1788. What is needed, obviously, is a wholly new Constitution, drawn up with enough boldness and imagination to cover the whole program of the More Abundant Life, now and hereafter.
That is what I presume to offer here. The Constitution that follows is not my invention, and in more than one detail I have unhappy doubts of its wisdom. But I believe that it sets forth with reasonable accuracy the plan of government that the More Abundant Life wizards have sought to substitute for the plan of the Fathers. They have themselves argued at one time or another, by word or deed, for everything contained herein:

PREAMBLE
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish social justice, draw the fangs of privilege, effect the redistribution of property, remove the burden of liberty from ourselves and our posterity, and insure the continuance of the New Deal, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

ARTICLE I
The Executive
All governmental power of whatever sort shall be vested in a President of the United States. He shall hold office during a series of terms of four years each, and shall take the following oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will (in so far as I deem it feasible and convenient) faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will (to the best of my recollection and in the light of experiment and second thought) carry out the pledges made by me during my campaign for election (or such of them as I may select).”

The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, and of the militia, Boy Scouts, C.I.O., People’s Front, and other armed forces of the nation.
The President shall have the power: To lay and collect taxes, and to expend the income of the United States in such manner as he may deem to be to their or his advantage;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States, and to provide for its repayment on such terms as he may fix;
To regulate all commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and within them; to license all persons engaged or proposing to engage in business; to regulate their affairs; to limit their profits by proclamation from time to time; and to fix wages, prices and hours of work;

To coin money, regulate the content and value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to amend or repudiate any contract requiring the payment by the United States, or by any private person, of coin of a given weight or fineness;

To repeal or amend, in his discretion, any so-called natural law, including Gresham’s Law, the law of diminishing returns, and the law of gravitation.
The President shall be assisted by a Cabinet of eight or more persons, whose duties shall be to make speeches whenever so instructed and to expend the public funds in such manner as to guarantee the President’s continuance in office.

The President may establish such executive agencies as he deems necessary, and clothe them with such powers as he sees fit. No person shall be a member to any such bureau who has had any practical experience of the matters he is appointed to deal with.

One of the members of the Cabinet shall be an Attorney General. It shall be his duty to provide legal opinions certifying to the constitutionality of all measures undertaken by the President, and to gather evidence of the senility of judges.

he’s on a roll and continues HERE

Posted by peiper     on 06/07/2015 at 08:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Heroes • History • Humor • USA •  
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   Saturday - June 06, 2015

American Pharoah - TRIPLE CROWN WINNER!

It’s official.

After 37 years, we again have a real champion - American Pharoah has won the Triple Crown!

It was a beautiful win, American Pharoah lead from wire-to-wire and won going away with an 8 or 10 length lead on 2nd place.

Nice video and details at Yahoo:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/american-pharoah-wins-the-triple-crown-190615384.html

Posted by Dr. Jeff     on 06/06/2015 at 06:30 PM   
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just like the plague. they are everywhere

None of this is surprising. 
An earlier headline covering a different story read, Romania is top of the EU fraud league. 

More than a third of probes into alleged corruption involving EU cash centered on Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.
Romania had 36 investigations opened against it last year, Hungary 13 and Bulgaria 11, according to OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office.
Then of course there are the gypos, I call Europe’s cancer.  We have some close friends just up the road, we visit often having what Brits call, coffee morning.
Just friends staying in touch on a fairly regular basis. Anyway, this particular couple travel a lot, and have shared a number of horror stories about travel in Europe, being confronted by gypsies.  An old story. Been going on for years but made worse by the open borders as enacted by the members of the EU. A bad idea made worse by the kind of people you do not want in your country, much less next door to you.

Folks in USA can’t have no idea how bad it can get in some places. No reason why you should know with so much going on at home and other higher concerns re. isis etc.  Just be thankful these creeps haven’t discovered America.  Yet. 

Romanian gang arrested for robbing female tourists at Alicante and Murcia airports and even following holidaymakers back to their accommodation

· Spanish police arrested nine people in connection with robberies at Murcia and Alicante airports
· Subjects had even followed holidaymaker to accommodation to rob them
· Part of a wider programme to catch criminals who prey on tourists
· Travel advice is to stay alert and keep your valuables close

By John Hutchinson for MailOnline

Holidaymakers are being warned to be on their guard after a spate of robberies in Spanish cities and airports popular with tourists.

At the end of last month, Spanish police arrested nine people in connection with a series of robberies at Murcia and Alicante airports.

The group had targeted foreign visitors, with the crimes being committed at the airport and even claims that some travellers have been followed back to their accommodation.

Alicante is a popular summer destination for British tourists, yet they will have to be on their guard following a spate of recent robberies
Spanish news agency Murcia Today report that the nine were Romanian nationals.

The arrests are part of a wider clampdown on stolen goods in the provinces of Almería and Granada and the region of Murcia.

Police officers arrested 20 people in connection with 35 robberies last month, with 13 searches discovering a raft of stolen goods.
Computers, jewellery, cars and money are just some of the items recovered.

A spokesperson for ABTA told MailOnline Travel: ‘We are really pleased to see that the Spanish authorities has brought this group of thieves to justice. Airports can represent rich pickings for thieves as they know that there will be large numbers of people carrying valuables either on their person or in their luggage.

‘People may also be distracted if they’ve arrived in an unfamiliar airport and are trying to find their bearings. So although it is incredibly easy to let your guard down particularly after a long flight, keep alert, place your wallet, passport etc in an inside jacket pocket and keep an eye on your luggage.

source

Posted by peiper     on 06/06/2015 at 07:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • International • Travelers/Gypsies/Squatters •  
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   Friday - June 05, 2015

Live Imitates Art. Sort Of.

Back in the days when ethnic humor was both allowable and funny, I knew this Polish joke about a fish.

Various ways to annoy or frighten the federally protected aquatic mammals into leaving have failed. So some bright star figured that they could make a big fiberglass orca, a fake Killer Whale mounted over a little power boat. And they could motor it around the bay, while playing orca songs, like the ever popular Lunch Is Ready in C########. They even made a baby orca to tow behind it, to look like a whole family of the attack whales had moved in. Surely that would scare away those lazy sea lions.

The motorized fiberglass orca was brought to the seaside town of Astoria on Thursday as a sort of maritime Clint Eastwood called upon to deal with ne’er-do-wells, in this case sea lions crowding onto docks and making it difficult for locals to access their boats.

...

About 1,000 people cheered as the dummy whale — with its human operator inside — took to the water Thursday night. Jim Knight, executive director of the Port of Astoria, said sea lions that were crowded onto the docks became “deathly silent.”

But as a cargo ship passed by, the phony orca started to list from the vessel’s wake. And then the bogus orca capsized.

“Our crew from the port had to go rescue the operator so he didn’t drown,” Knight said.

So what did the sea lions thing about this spectacle?

“They probably think it’s dead now that it’s belly up,” Knight said. “You can’t make this stuff up.”

That was not the first fiasco for the dummy orca. The replica whale, loaned by a whale-watching business, was delivered overland on Thursday from Bellingham, Washington. After arrival, the orca’s outboard motor flooded and a replacement had to be found.

...

The fake orca was outfitted with recordings of real killer whale calls, especially the “call to dinner” — usually emitted in the wild after they kill a sea lion or seal.

The orca capsized before the recording could be tried out.

As of mid-Friday, the fake orca was still submerged in water at the Astoria docks, while hundreds of sea lions congregated and barked nearby.

Finally, these ace scientists crossbred the Cowal and the Walskie, and came up with the Kowalski. This gave them the best of both worlds. It’s a big mean fish that fights like hell and is wildly aggressive.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/05/2015 at 04:51 PM   
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