"I’m too sacred for the sinners/And the saints wish I would leave." - Mark Heard
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Yahoo couldn't find it. Neither could Google. Even the local PBS station listings had a mysterious blank spot at 11 pm. I KNEW (or hoped) that I wasn't imagining this odd little show that I would watch with Tessa in the late night hours. You see, it had this computer animated from and a live host. A live host in a goldenrod yellow T-shirt. And an orange face. A jet black hair. And magenta lipstick. And drawn-in eyebrows. A live host that makes these "I love you but I'M GONNA FRICKIN' KILL YOU" faces at the frog. I'm fairly certain they weren't going for the crazed lunatic look but that's exactly what they got. It's also named "Ribert and Robert's Wonderworld". Not Ribit.
More research shows that you can go to the show's official site or even click over to host James Bondy's official site where you can see him without the orange makeup and order an autographed photo or his CD, Songs of the Heart which is chock-full of showtunes! Don't bother to click on the fanpage link - that MySpace page is closed.
If you're really up for a good time click here for the show's closing song! Embedding disabled by request.
This post is to publicly state my idea so if it get's stolen I'll sue! Either way, implementation of said idea or lawsuit, I make my millions!
Soon to become a trend in fashionable Hollywood circled - spray tans in colors other than orange. Imagine showing up on the red carpet sprayed a lovely teal or perhaps cornflower blue. Saffron yellow, anyone? I've yet to work out the kinks on spraying stripes or paisley but soon the fashion world will be my oyster!
Gotta go... I've got to take a call - I'm working on getting one of the Obama kids to get sprayed purple and appear on the Disney channel.
It must be tough to be a liberal/Democrat and look yourself in the mirror these days.
The most recent straw was having your anti-war president agree to send 17,000 troops to Aphganistan.
Earlier that same day your enviro-friendly president took an unnecessary trip to Denver to sign the "stimulus" bill. Whenever the President of the United States travels it isn't just a single private airplane, which is bad enough if you're truly concerned about the environment. First there is an airplane with his armored limo. Then there's Air Force One. And there's also an identical airplane that flies at the same time as a decoy. Talk about a giant carbon footprint every time he flies on an airplane whether it's to Denver, Russie, or the Circle K! This one trip, just because he felt the need to "get out", emitted more of those pesky greenhouse gases than my entire family will emit in an entire year.
But of course the liberal motto is always "Do as I say, not as I do." Hey Gore - wink wink.
And he had to sign this emergency bill because emergencies are great for pushing through legislation that otherwise would make people's eyes bleed. Which is why I don't think O'Bomberman is all that concerned about preventing another terrorist strike. You read that right. I really don't think the current acting President of the United States cares if innocent civilians die as a result of a terrorist attack because then it's another emergency and another opportunity to grab more power. I didn't care much for Bush (Jr. or Sr.) but at least it can be said that he kept this country safe for nearly eight years.
One more time on the "need" for this stimulus package. Under Clinton (Democrat) there was the Community Reinvestment Act that was used by ACORN to pressure banks to make bad loans to people who would not normally meet the requirements for said housing loans. But they got the loans because they were minorities and there were quotas to meet. The banks were eager to get these extremely risky loans off their books and sold them to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, a government institution that mascaraeded as a private institution. The Republicans tried SEVENTEEN TIMES to get some regulation, oversight, or auditing on the issue but were consistently blocked. By Democrats. Democrats who received millions of dollars from Freddie and Fannie. Republicans too were on the take, though only a small percentage compared to the Democrats (and shame on them that any of them took any money... shame on lots of things).
Guess who received the second most money in all of Congress even though he was only there a handful of years? O'Bomberman.
Freddie and Fannie then bundled these bad loans into high-grade securities and sold them on the stock market. A very good explanation of how this all worked is here. Eventually the banks were full of bad risky loans, Freddie and Fannie were full of bad risky papers, and the stock market was full of bad risky securities, all as a result of the forced quota system. A house of cards. Topple topple topple as soon as these loans, which any actuary would tell you would have an extremely high default rate, began to default.
But at least we can sit back and watch the trailer for Blood Freak, the world's only Christian Slasher Anti-Drug movie. And kids, that's not a paper mache turkey mask... it's a mutated turkey-guy. Warning - it's a bit bloody.
Oil yesterday was $35.94 per barrel. According to my feeble records it's not been that low since I started keeping track. But when I went to get some gas yesterday it cost me $1.969 per gallon. That's what I paid when oil was $62.41 per barrel in early November, nearly double the price. Why isn't gas $1.25 by now? Why does the cost of oil get cut nearly in half and I pay the same for gas but when the price for oil doubles I pay more than double for gas? Must be that new math or something.
D'y'all remember years ago when eggs were declared bad for you, like eating them was akin to ingesting large amounts of arsenic-laced automobile engines? Then, after the egg industry suffered horrible losses it was suddenly okay. Eggs weren't as bad and they thought.
The same is happening with ethanol. It's not as efficient as they thought. Actually it's worse than regular ol' gasoline. And gets worse mileage per gallon. Plus it drives up the cost of food. But at least it's green and renewable!
Next up: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs! Oh wait... I think that was last month.
Less than one month in and Obama is out of ideas. First his self-touted transparent campaign that vowed never to hire lobbyists hires a few lobbyists and throws up some unusual media roadblocks (links available but right now I'm too lazy to look them up again) but his uber-ethical candidates for high-ranking positions in his cabinet keep getting nailed for not paying their taxes. One self-professing liberal stated that they would like to think it was just an oversight on their part. On the parts of MANY of these Democrats. Something just smells funny.
Then I read this where Obama is hitting the road to sell his mega-"Put your grandkids into slavery"-"Stimulus" plan and all I could think about is how some had characterized him as someone who never really had to work all that hard in life. His college was paid for by a Marxist group, his grades were, well, we don't really know what his grades were but we do know that he's way smarter than that dummy Bush who only has an IQ of 129. I digress. Obama doesn't need a single Republican vote to get this passed through the House so why try to drum up public support? Why try to get Republicans to vote for it? Could it be that it's a giant load of festering pork that won't stimulate the economy but might very well cause a huge implosion? If that's the case then let's make sure the Republicans are in on it so when things go south the Media can blame the evil Republicans for the mess.
The other thing that I thought about, and this ties in with Obama's "spoiled frat boy" personna who has really passed any legislation, is that he doesn't really know how to work with people to get things done. He's used to smiling and speaking and people wet themselves with glee and do whatever he wants. Suddenly it's not so easy. So what does he do? He goes back to what he knows how to do and steps back on the campaign trail!
But at least he paid for gas in that lady's tank and her February mortgage.
When we were growing up my grandfather would mark our height on his wood paneled wall. In permanent marker. He was that kind of guy. Years later my grandparents moved into a nursing home and someone else bought the house, someone who surely didn't care and didn't care to see how tall Pete was at age nine or Joel at age three. Gone.
I had been marking the heights of my children in pencil in the doorway of the kitchen, knowing that it could be painted over without much trouble, even though reading the competing height so four kids was becoming a challenge. Then we bought a new house. Hmmm. A burst of inspiration birthed THE HEIGHT STICK!
Rip one 2X4 in a 2X2 about six or so feet long, longer if your last name is Tennepal or Hollman or you think your kids might one day play for the NBA. I transferred their heights to the stick, boys on one side, girls on another, adults on #3.
Which is all to say that every six months I measure the kids and am always surprised that they consistently grow about an inch every six months. We've GOT to stop feeding them. But this time around my oldest grew a whopping 2 3/4" in six months. YIKES! Is that even possible? Well, dorky me kept records of my own growth and I recall a similar "inch every two months" spurt around his age. Someday I'll chart and analyze their growth. That's just the way I roll.
In case you're wondering, using the attached height chart they are all still on track for how they measured six months ago. I won't spoil the fun by telling you how tall each is predicted to grow... you'll just have to check back in ten years.
Also yes, the photo above has been professionally photoshopped to remove red-eye, a few pant stains, and peeking underpants.
THIS JUST IN: Tessa just blew away the competition with a full FOUR INCHES of growth in the last six months.
Finally available for the 'net community is "When The Sun Fades", an amazing song with an even more amazing bass line.
The "At The Foot of the Cross" project was created by the two founders of The Choir to be a new kind of worship album, created before worship albums made by Contemporary Christian Music had come into vogue. Always the trailblazers this incredible album inspired many lesser quality albums. Should you find a copy of the entire album you'll discover that it is very liturgical in format and scope. Be warned that the follow-up is, in my opinion, um, not all that good. The series is meant to be a three-parter and one day The Choir boys vow to get Christ out of the tomb.
I've had a couple of people talk to me about my earlier Frost* post so I thought I'd post more. Below is a fan-made video of an excellent song, "Toys". There are lots of in-jokes within and I'm nearly enough of a fan of this band to catch them all.
Next up is Jem Godfrey talking about making this song. To me it's interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that he strips away the tracks and you get to hear the individual parts. For an amateur studio/recording like myself it's like having a quick lesson in studio-ometry. The second reason is Jem himself... he's just a bloody nutter! I consider myself too serious most of the time and would love to be more carefree and unrestrained, like this bloke. He's simply entertaining to watch!
Remember the good old days when Woodrow Wilson imprisoned around 50,000 American civilians who dared to speak against him? Surely you remember them telling you that in public school in the middle of their glowing chapter on the man? How about all the Japanese put into detention camps during World War II by FDR, you know, one of the greatest Presidents this country has ever had?
Get ready 'cause it might happen again. By the way, in case you're keeping track both of those Presidents, and the current one, are generous, peace loving Democrats who are only in it for the little guy.
