Random Thoughts on A Rainy Afternoon

I do believe that America has talent.  I just don’t think very much of it shows up on America Has Talent.

American Idol now has plenty of contestants but no judges.  Hey this could improve the show a hundred percent.  Here are a few names that are popping up as the new judges, Judge Judy, Judge Reinhold and Judge Doom, from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”
As always the biggest problem will be getting the nominees through the Senate confirmation hearings.
        

After seeing the line up for this season’s Dancing With The Stars, I’m thinking they should change the name to Dancing With People Who Are In The News A Lot Or Want To Be.

In the world of Apple, there is Ipods, Ipads, Ipod touches, Itunes and Iphones.  In my world there is I don’t have it and I don’t care.

Oh boy football season is about to crank up and to get you in the mood, here are some pre-season scores.  21 to 6, 19 to 13 and 11.  As I get older, watching sports has dwindled considerably in my daily life.  I don’t know, watching extremely over paid, constantly pampered whinny athletes has lost a lot of it’s appeal. It could have something to do with the fact that I don’t drink anymore.  I’m not sure.



My good read for today is 61 Hours by Lee Child. This is another in the Jack Reacher series. One of the best characters in American crime fiction today.




Stay tuned for future adventures.

TV or Not TV

Something funny happened to our TV this summer.  Now that we have thought about it, we can’t remember the exact date it happened because we didn’t think too much of it at the time.  But sometime in early June of this year, we turned our television OFF.  Now here is the kicker, we haven’t turned it back on. Why the TV Police haven’t shown up at our door demanding that we act like good Americans and watch seven or eight hours of television a day is a mystery.

I haven’t seen a single newscast, local or national and guess what?  I pretty much know what’s going on in the world and feel damn good about it, downright morally superior you might say. The difference is I’m not walking around angry, tense or uptight as if I could change anything the boneheads in Washington are up to.  They have yet, after forty some odd years of voting, to ever call me up and say “Rod, what ya think we ought to do?” 

 I surf the net and if a story appears that I might be interested in, I check it out.  If the story starts pissing me off, I click to the next one.  There is something about just reading the story, instead of hearing it told to me in the slant that the news people want to give, that makes a difference.

 I’m sure at some point we will turn it back on. There are a number of programs we like to watch and when the new season starts back up, we will probably check them out.  Maybe……  I think there was a pretty good reason someone named television The Boob Tube back in the early sixties.  It really is a brain drain.  Instead of being zoned out in front of the tube, we have spent most of that time, Reading. 

I know, we could be spending the time looking at the soaps so we could compare our selves to fictional people who have scripted lives that are a never ending drama or letting Dr. Phil tell us how screwed up we are.  Or watching Oprah show us how many fabulous friends she has or Simon Cowell berate some poor dippy kid in front of millions of people but we just read rather than shrink our brains down to zombie land.

All in all it has been a great summer and I don’t feel like I have missed a single thing.
The more I think about it, we may have to continue this good life right into the fall. 

The Famous and Not So Famous

It just dawned on me the other day that we haven’t heard of an Elvis sighting in years.  I think maybe he’s sick.

Now that Lindsay Lohan is out of rehab they say she is not addicted to drugs and alcohol after all, she’s just a idiot…

Word is that Angelina Jollie just adopted two more kids, a highway and a bad attitude.

 
Billionaire Paul Allen is suing Apple, Google, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube.  I’ve been pissed off at my computer before but that seems a little excessive.

It seems that not much is real about reality tv star Heidi Montag.   Just ask her plastic surgeon. He performed 10 procedures on her in one day.  That gives a whole new meaning to Slicing and Dicing.

There must be some truth to the rumor about the health North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-il.  He is now being referred to as Kim Jong-sick.

After spending 45 days in jail after a 2007 an alcohol related offense, she said the experience caused her to re-evaluate the role partying played in her life.  Paris Hilton got busted for possession of cocaine this week.  It’s good to see someone find their role in life and go after it.

I'm not sure if Glen Beck can read or write but it obvious that he can't count.

Today's good read is The Lost Wife's Tale by Marion McGilvary.  My wife recommended this book to me and I have to say that I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.  If you only read it for the writing, it would worth reading.  However, it is a great love story told by a compelling main character.

It's All About Houston

• I was wondering one day just who would fly Stuebner Airline?  Then I realized Kirkwood.

•  When is NASCAR going to come to Buffalo Speedway?

•  I feel sorry for the sport fans around here.  The last time Houston came out on the winning side of anything was the Battle of San Jacinto.

• Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell grew up in Houston.?  I believe he lived on Telephone Road.

•  When studying Houston Politics, do you take a Long Point or Westview?

• Somebody said the strongest road in Houston, was the Hardy Toll Road.

• The next time a Comcast salesman calls you at home during supper, tell him you will sign up for cable if they carry the Houston Ship Channel.

• The people involved in the Sharpstown Scandal were dull.

• At the Texas Children’s Hospital, do all the doctors look like Doogie Howser?

Moonlight Special

The night of the two moons is coming up this Friday night.  They claim it is a once in a life time event. I guess it is if you have a really short memory because according to the internet, this is the third time it has happened in the last seven years. Do I smell hoax in the air?

Speaking of the moon, we made nine trips to the moon in four years. Six times we landed on the moon and three times we couldn’t find a parking space, so we just drove around it and came home.  The last time we went to the moon was 1972. That was 38 years ago. Surely a parking space has opened up by now.

Think of the technology and the incredible precision timing it took to pull off a moon landing.  I mean what if they had gotten there and it was a half or quarter-moon.  We could have missed it completely.

But we will always have moonlight, moonbeams, moonshine, moon pies, moon river, blue moon, harvest moon, new moon, half-moon, quarter-moons. Don’t forget the man in the moon, by the light of the silvery moon, paper moon, moon dance, moon walk, moon shot, moonstone, moon shadow, moonlight serenade, Moon over Miami,  Moonraker, Moonstruck, and quit mooning me out the school bus window.
.
When was the last time you were hit up at the airport by moonies?  They must be in a really long eclipse. If Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon, why does Michael Jackson get credit for the Moon Walk?


Today's good read is The Siege by Stephen White.  A small town cop gets caught up in a hostage situation where the hostage taker is playing by no known rules.



Stay tuned for future adventures.

Politics Make For Strange BedWetters

I'll admit I don't care much for politics but I absolutely can't stand politicians.  It seems to me the elected officials in our country can't quit running for office long enough to run the country.

Most politicians can carry on a three-way conversation.  They can talk out of both sides of their mouth and their ass at the same time.  Many politicians I have come across are just Snake Oil Salesmen without the oil or the salesmen.

A famous Republican politician was asked recently if he was familiar with Lincoln's Gettysburg address and he replied that he was unaware that Mr. Lincoln had ever resided in Gettysburg.

A well known Democrat was asked if he felt FDR's New Deal policy was good for the country.  He said he couldn't comment on classified material but was confident that the FDR, FBI and CIA were all working together to keep our country safe.

There are a little over 300 million folks in the United States and all the laws that govern us are made by 541 people (Congress).  Doesn't that ratio seem a little out of whack.  Of course we have 34,750 good, trustworthy, honest registered lobbyist to help them out by actually writing the laws so that the congressmen can do their real job.  Running for re-election.

Did you know that our Government has a money back guarantee?  It's in the fine print of the Constitution. It states that the Government guarantees that anytime they are tired of our money, they will send it back.
Stay tuned for future adventures.

Internet or Internut?

Ya'll know that I'm not quite up to speed with all of this new technology but I am pretty sure the reason our computers have gone from floppy disc to hard drive is because of all the porn.

When I really think about the internet I don't know if it is really new stuff or just the same old stuff repackaged.  Amazon is the 21st Century version of the Sears & Roebuck mail order catalog.  Ebay is simply the world's largest garage sale and now we don't have to wait to go over to our Aunt's house to be bored silly with home movies, we have You Tube.

URL, HTML, and RSS are much more secretive, mysterious and powerful than the F.B.I. and C.I.A ever thought about.  eBay, eTrades, eTravel, emusic, etc....I'm leaning toward Enough.  I know for a fact that I am through with Enron and Exxon.

You can usually tell if someone is not really savvy with the social media stuff if they keep referring to their My SpaceBook page.  I can remember when a twit was someone you DIDN'T want to have conversation with.


The very first internet message was sent on Friday, October 29th, of 1969.  For the life of me I can't imagine what it said since it wasn't until March of 1998 when the FDA approved Viagra.



For today's Good read, I am recommending 13 1/2 by Nevada Barr.  Nevada leaves her Anna Pigeon series for this stand alone psychological thriller that will keep you up until the exciting finish.





Stay tuned for future adventures.