Let the hype begin

Here is a new This Page is Under Construction Symbol


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Nice little storms this morning. We had 1.08 inches of rain and wow is it muggy out. Dew point is 62 and temp is 62. Drove the car out of the garage and the car instantly fogged up.

Although the first thing I had to do was rescue some mammoth earth worms and toss them in the garden. They always want to crawl into the garage. I'll probably get worm flu!
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Well here we go, what most are calling the game of the year and the hype is starting. FOX has reported that they will have one camera permanently trained on Brett Favre as soon as he steps out of his personal SUV at the stadium, 100% of the time. O'Boy. I believe Channel 4 you can watch nuttin but Brett.

I was surprised that Driver came out and was talking about how the Brett WE see and the Brett the players see is different. I had heard this a number of times. The players think Aaron is more of a team player while Brett seemed to just do his own thing, never did anything with the rest of the team (according to the players).

ANYWAY - not wanting to get into the whole Brett thing there is also a game to play which is the biggest game of the year for the Packers. Win and I feel the Packers have a good chance to finishing 1st, lose and "we're" struggeling for a playoff spot.

Football Outsiders, the Gods of REAL stats (not the garbage the newspapers have, these stats take out the luck factor and factor in the defense and offense's they have played against) have the Packers as the 4th best team in the NFL and the Vikings #7.

The biggest reason for the Packers being so good is they have the #1 Defense in the League when adjusted to WHO they have played. #2 vs. the Pass and #10 vs, the run while Minnesota is #17 vs. the Pass and #5 vs. the Run. The biggest problem is Special Teams Defense which is ranked 30th.

If you take out luck the Packers should be 5-1 and the Vikings 5.2-1.8.

If you look at the upcoming schedule the Vikings will play the #1 hardest schedule the rest of the way, Packers 19th hardest.

I feel both Minnesota and the Packers are very balanced teams with one major problem. The Packers have problems protecting Rogers and the Vikings give up a TON of long plays up the middle with no CB's.

It'll be a nail biting game, for sure.

BTW - A question to any Direct TV people. When watching football do you
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WheresGeorge.

Ever get a bill with a WheresGeorge link? I always go online and enter the serial number to see where the bill has traveled. Normally bills stay within a few miles. BUT, whenever I get one I save it and spend it in some place where it might get some miles under it.

So here is my idea. If you get a WheresGeorge bill, send it to me and I will spend if for you and we can start racking up some George miles!! Sound like a plan?

On the same light and somewhat seriously - we should get a group together and pool our McDonalds or Subway or whatever game pieces we get and split the winnings somehow.

I'm not sure how the logistics would work but how much have you won in Monopoly? I never go more then 2 or 3 times per event but if we have 100 people goign 2 or 3 times . . . . . . get my drift???
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I was in the State Capitol after work getting some fill in photos and realized I had my long lens which is no good in the Cap. I had to stand like 1000 yards away from a subject to get the photo. In fact this photo was taken a few blocks down East Washington. It was crazy!

I really like this bell, it calls to me. I'm thinking I'm connected some how with it in a past life. Maybe not, who knows, it does get my attention though. I think next time I'm in the Cap I'll ring it a few times, see what happens.
The next time you are in the Cap really look in places you normally don't look. I was in some hallways trying to get farther away from subjects (not the police) and looked at the ceiling and saw all sorts of murals I bet 95% of visitors don't see.
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LOL - I was looking at the Pawnee Fire Department Website

Fire Department

Welcome to the home page of the Pawnee Fire Department. The Pawnee Fire Department is here to provide safety from fires, natural or man made disasters and medical emergencies. Eighty five per cent of the staff is volunteers and the remaining fifteen per cent are certified firefighters. There are six stations that have a total of two fully operational trucks with an eye on purchasing more.
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I'm trying to get prints into Ancora Coffee. I'm moving my way down the ladder of corporate coffee places. Some day I hope to be infamous.
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News you can use - The Columbus Athletic Booster Club is holding a Vendor and Craft Fair November 21st at the High School.

I was invited to attend and was thinking about doing some fairs but then when the woman said I could set up my booth . . . . . and then coffee came out my nose. booth?? my booth? I'm fresh out of booths! I had THOUGHT of fairs but had not really thought of the logistics involved. I have to look into what booths are made out of!

I think I'll donate something anyway to help out the Community.

BTW - this blog was written to the the tune of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade written in 1888. I might be a high Octane rock and roller (Linkin Park, Disturbed,Slipknot,Korn etc . . )but I do love Russian Classical Music. Actually I THOUGHT I had Má vlast by Smetana but . . .oops!

Have a great weekend

Rod

Black Thursday, Maybe Just Gray

I've already had my first uncomfortable moment of the day. There was a death at DOJ last week and I was in the elevator with a elevator friend and I mentioned "WOW - you look pretty dapper today" and he said "Today is the funeral" . . . . . . silence . . . . . . door opens and as I'm walking out and without thinking say see ya "have nice day"!

DAMN ME!!!!!

You get into a rhythm and are screwed. I did this when I was being robbed at gunpoint at a liqueur store. The guy has a gun pointing at me and says give me all your money (yea they actually say that . . how else would you say it.) So I open the drawer and start taking all the money out and paused when my hands are full. "Would you like a bag?"

DAMN DAMN DAMN!
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I was informed my weather station is now being picked up by NOAA and is listed on their Daily Hydrometeorological Page - They call me WCB01 COLUMBUS-1 S-COCO.

OH and before I get into this tedious go nowhere blog - Captain Morgon, email me if you would like RodMelotte (no spaces) at Photo dot net
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It seems one of the reasons Trick or Treat was so crazy Sunday was because other towns (Fall River, Reeseville, ect) were in Columbus taking our candy! We gave away ( . . .when I say "we" I really mean DJ) 125+ pieces of candy. Well, this is going to stop. Milky Way and the other companies are making a huge profit.

NEXT YEAR we are going to give a way pencils and stickers and cocktail weenies and little bags of homemade brownies!

Just say no to candy!
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I heard that AT SOME POINT, Columbus residents will be able to commingle their recyclables. Let me tell you how this whole recycling thing works.

We put our recyclables into separate containers right? Then the recyclemen come and put each container into it's "like" BIG container on their truck. Then it's all collected and taken to, I believe, Portage(??) at which point all the separate bins are poured into ONE large bin. A conveyor then takes all of the now commingled stuff to a group of people who separate it.

Makes sense to me. How about you?
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Charlies Grill is open. It's where the old Hard Heads use to be. I stopped in there for a peak last week and while the right side is still a bar and smokey the left side has been completely gutted and is really nice looking. Bright, clean and cheery! I also heard that they have all the soup recipes from the Fireman's Tap which I have heard were amazing soups.

Check it out, support Columbus.
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The Holiday Parade will be November 27. I was never a big parade guy. Never went to a parade when I was in Madison. But I am always amazed at the turnouts for the Columbus Parades. Last year it was FREEZING!! Serious cold and there were a LOT of people on the streets.
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OH - If you received a Citizen Survey (I did - insert evil laugh) make sure you fill it out. I must have missed a page though as I don't see ANY of my ideas on the yellow sheets.

Where can we vote for putting a dome over Columbus!! Remember March 9th?

Columbus To Get New Glass Dome Over City

Still waiting!

Or what about the Columbus Space Port?? July 10th??


Yea - what is Steve Sobiek (Economic Development/Energy Sustainability Director - The Edesd as many affectionately call him) doing anyway! (actually he is doing a freaking LOT, the Space Port must not be a major priority).

OK - I have now bored myself - let's move on.
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Today is Black Tuesday the beginning of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 which was the most devastating stock market crash in the history.

There is also a Black Thursday, Black Friday and a Black Monday. BUT NEVER, a Black Wednesday! Wednesday is hump day! Of course you all know that the Quakers refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day". They have issues with "Wednesday" because "Wednesday" comes from the "Wednes dei" which comes from the Old English "Wōdnesdæg" which means the day of the English god Wodan. . . . . but I digress.

In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, the disagreeable nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day". sorry sorry! I have a Winnie the Pooh on my desk, he reminded me!



OH - that plaque? I received that for 20 years of participation in State Service. There is a BIG thumb print in the paint of the frame from the prisoner that made it. SWEET!

DJ got one for 30 years of participation but they spelled her name wrong LOL.

You can see I'm really searching for a thought here.

ENOUGH!

Have a great Wed . . Thursday!

Rod

Call Can Not Be Completed

I'm sitting here conflating my thoughts for the day and realized

I AM THE LUCKIEST MAN IN THE WORLD!!

I won the Irish Promo and am 750,000 Pounds richer, YEA BABY!! I have won so many European Sweepstakes it's almost unbelievable! You would not believe how many times I've had to send my SSN overseas to claim my winnings. I run to the mail box every day looking for my checks (or would it be cheque's?). There must be a lot of paper work at the Royal Columbia Board of Commissions, the France Payment Center and the European Monarchies Lotteries! Still waiting.
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OH - I better say this before the angry throngs start pounding on my doors - the location of the latest Where In Columbus photo was the corner of Charles St. and Franklin Street. Now stand down and turn off the flames on the tar vats!

Sheesh!
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Like the fog yesterday? I noticed that the freezing temps have started to drop the leaves on Maples.


The above shot was taken in the American Parkway Business Area yesterday which I consider one the the best landscaping miracles I have ever seen. I wish I knew who was in charge of this area as I would like to say thank you. It is just an outstanding landscaping job. I wonder how many people drive past this on the way to Sun Prairie and have never noticed it.

I remember this area as being a huge corn field and was disgusted when American decided to move into the field. But they have done a fantastic job of creating a very beautiful area.

DJ remembers when East Town was all field. Not so beautiful now though.

BTW - does that photo remind you of a cell phone commercial?? (Moron cell phones in a bit - pun intended).

On a little more foggy note, these were taken in Columbus yesterday. The first one I pulled over in a no parking area and was standing in the middle of the road dodging trucks and one of Columbus's finest drove by and gave me "The Look".

So I moved forward a block and took another shot and he drove by again (probably disappointed I moved).

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OK on with yesterdays adventure.

Y'all know about my cell phone problems in the last year or so, right? If not, let me remind you.

Cell phone #1 - golf bag tips over dumping phone on course. Phone get's mulched into 1000 tiny pieces. I find pieces and take all 1000 into store as they said they fix cell phones. I say "Can you fix my cell phone" he says "Yes we can what is wrong" and I pull out my baggy of 1000 pieces, he says it is not fixable. I buy new phone.

Cell Phone #2 - is launder-ized in the washing machine. She's dead Jim.

Cell Phone #3 - stolen from my car that was in the basement of the Department of Justice. Police, in a miracle, capture the perp, and hold my phone as evidence, but then lose my phone (WTF! must be in that big Indiana Jones Warehouse).

Cell Phone #4 - is actually working fine - however - I'm not fond of it and DJ's dad has a new phone and I liked his Razor (Cell Phone #1 and #3) and I switch phones and use the Razor (now Cell Phone #5).

Cell Phone #5 - is worthless.

Friday I get a call from the Asst Attorney General (two worlds colliding) about buying some photos and I'm forced to hang up because the phone is about to lose power. Have not heard from him since.

This brings us to yesterday's adventure.

I was suppose to take photos of that Porsche but logistics were not working out well. Having only 65 miles on the car it has to be trailered everywhere and since it is in a underground nuclear bunker 10 stories under the Gusty Wind River and we only have like 6 hours a month for good weather, THAT photo opp is being rescheduled.

ANYWAY - I was invited up to their house on the Gusty Wind River area (near I90 and Devils Lake and so forth) for some photos of their rather unique house. The problem was it's way in the country and has an address like County Road Q W37514 turn left at the big hill with trees and I was told by a woman I shall call "Suzanne" " don't worry, I'll talk you in when you get close". "Not a problem" I say, "I have a Tom Tom".

I'm driving along and following my Tom Tom and the roads keep getting smaller and names like Deliverance Lane, Cannibal Road and other names that may or may not have been those but in my mind they could have been, when my Tom Tom says in that girlie better then thou tone GO LEFT 300 feet.

I crest the hill and turn left and stop. Before me is this.



What happened to pavement????? Does this look a like a road I want to go down? My brain is screaming, Dachau Dachau, and a dog is barking in the distance.

I stare for a while and backup hoping that bitch in the Tom Tom is having a good laugh!

I go up the road for a ways and decide to call. Suzanne's friendly voice answers and I explain where I am (leaving out the fact that I thought I was in Germany for a few seconds) and she is explaining how to get to her place which is many more turns away( 1 turn, 2 turns, many turns) and I remember the first two beep beep beep.

And hang up, confidence is high!

As I turn on the 2nd road, beep beep beep, my phone is telling me something. It's telling me it's batteries are about to die!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Don't panic, wait until you HAVE to call. Replay emails and your last phone conversation. Black Mail box . . where? Lots of black mail boxes in this area - WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BLACK MAIL BOXES! She has a dog, how can I use that to help, what kind of dog, a black dog, yes, a big black dog. I think she has a big black dog.

I call and the phone says "Call Can Not Be Completed" WHAT?? F U Phone!!

OK relax. I have no idea where I am, the Tom Tom is laughing at me "Ha Ha You are Lost" and I can only remember the woman's first name and that she has a big black dog and my phone is dead. SWEET!!

Confidence is low.

Look for a black mail box and a large black dog. I drive into a place with a black mail box AND it has a big black dog which is barking at me . . . .but . . . . was that a banjo I hear playing in the distance? The dog barks in not the most friendly manner as I'm walking back to the car after not even FINDING a house trying to look innocent. I think this is not the right place when a woman comes out with a pitch fork (not really but there was probably one in the barn which is close enough) and I explain and get better directions once I say the word Porsche (a key word I guess in these parts)!

I'm one road short.

Slightly more confidence enters my veins but I see a group of terradactyl's starting to form a hunting party on a hill waiting for their next supper. You could poke your eye out with one of those guys. I lock the doors.


All ends well - I find the correct place and a Suzanne with her small white dog (oops) wave at me and I'm saved.

Stupid Cell phones! you would THINK that charging for 18 hours would give me more then 5 minutes.

That's my day! I have lots of photos but I think they should seen them first!

Cheers and hugs to all and have the best Wednesday you can have!

Rod

A Quickie!

Not sure what or if I'll be blog-able today as I'm ON ASSIGNMENT!! I have to take photos of a 1955 Porsche Spyder. It was the very first sports car that Porsche created . . . .and it has 65 miles on it!

This was the make of car that James Dean was piloting when he fatally collided with another car.

A couple wanted some images in the woods during fall color season.

And speaking of fall colors - I gave a home brew class Saturday and as I was racing down the 151 Speedway from Columbus to Sun Prairie I managed to get this image.

Do not ask how I got it - just go with the flow. This might help - close your eyes and read on.

Just imagine you are Buz and Todd racing down Route 66 on another adventure (although they had a Corvette and were not in Wisconsin)but while working at the Columbus logging camp, you meet a girl from Italy, who insists she has inherited the state of Oregon from a local man and for some reason it all makes sense!

Or you are Chuck and P.T in your Whirlybird flying way way to low or or you are SKY KING and your teen age niece Penny** landing in your Cessna T-50 twin-engine "Bamboo Bomber" catching criminals, spies and lost hikers.

ZOOM

BTW - good photo for your desktop.

** Penny is referenced in a Jimmy Buffet in his hit song "Pencil Thin Mustache" singing the lyrics "I remember bein' buck-toothed and skinny, writing' fan letters to Sky's niece, Penny".

For your entertainment - I bring you "Pencil Thin Mustache".

I'm OK and feel good!

I want to give a heart felt condolences to M for her loss. I'm truly sorry.
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OK OK - I have to give credit where credit is due. The EARLY Halloween in Columbus was a smashing success. It was just CRAZY yesterday with people showing up at our door. I have to think it was the most trick or treaters EVER that I have seen in my ENTIRE LIFE.

Luckily I had enough "non-trick waiver forms" for them to sign before I gave them any candy or else there might have been a bottle neck at our house.

So whoever decided to have Halloween early - well done.

I have heard that Thanksgiving will be Tuesday November 17th this year in Columbus so plan accordingly. The City Council will be voting on the Christmas date tomorrow at the open meeting so maybe people should show up. I'm pushing for Monday December 18th as it is farther away from my birthday . . . no more saving a Christmas present for my birthday.
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Sorry - I don't mean to be so loquacious, although at times I can be loquaciousticically challenged.
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Hey - fun day on football. I won't say what happened because I know many of you TiVo all the football games for later viewing.

I can talk about Survivor and as you all know "I" was suppose to be on Survivor (if I would have sent in my application and IF they would have picked me) but my place was taken by "Good Russell" and as you all know Good Russell came real real close to actually dieing.

In an interview he said he never FELT bad but obviously when you pass out multiple times and your heart rate goes from 95 to 60 in 3 seconds you are in bad shape.

I mention this just to let you know that even though I was living my life through HIM - I'm OK. I also survived and actually fared much better then Russell. Personally I feel a little cheated with my Survivor Experience as his body let me down! But the stories I will be able to tell once I think of some will be awesome.
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Congratulations to the Columbus Marching Cards who took 2nd place in Class "A" in the WSAM State Marching Competition.





I see "WHO'S" once again had to payoff somebody just to get his picture in the paper. That is just so so sad!


Here is today's -

WHERE IS THIS IN COLUMBUS!

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I've never heard of a sand animators before. When Kseniya Simonova's business went belly up in the Ukraine because of the credit crunch she took up sand animating (something I have never even considered doing). She had been doing this for less then a year and entered "Ukraine's Got Talent" (I don't know why that seems funny) . . AND WON beating put some of the best comics in the Ukraine with pee your pants jokes such as:

I handed the conductor 50 kopeks on the Ternopil trolley. She took it and turned away. "Where's my change?" I said. "Haven't got any," she said. "You'll have to ride two more stops."

and

An Ukrainian immigrant goes to the Department of Motor Vehicles to apply for a driver's license. He has to take an eye test. The clerk shows him a card with the letters:

C Z W I X N O S T A C Z

"Can you read this?" the clerk asks.

Read it?" the Ukrainian replies, "I know the guy."

BA BOOM!

Anyway - if you have 8 minutes you really should check this out. I sort of blew it off but then out of boredom watched it and it's pretty good. If you have sound it helps but it's not totally necessary. The Sand animation portrays life during USSR's Great Patriotic War against the Third Reich in World War II. (I would have opted to the 1982 World Series between the Brewers and the Cards but that is just me). Kseniya won 1,000,000 Hryvnia's for the contest.





A Russian wanting bread waited in a queue for so long that he announced that he was leaving and was going to kill Gorbachev. After a while, he showed up again. When asked if he had killed Gorbachev, he replied, "No, the wait in that line was much longer than here."

Interesting - that is a Metallica song near the 7 minute mark! I keep seeing more and more things the more times I watch this - what talent amazing.

this joke was actually told by Gorbachev to President Bush and Barbara Bush on one of their visits.

Имейте чудесный день

Rod

Cuban Missle Crisis begins - 1962

WHAT!!!!!

They took my Welcome to Columbus Sign down?? The whole thing?

THE HORROR! THE HUMANITY, WHEN WILL IT STOP

Yet another great idea put forward by the City Council goes bad. Who knew that a gas filled balloon should not be tethered up to the new Hard Heads outdoor smoking area! So much for a smoke free Columbus - back inside everybody!!
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Getting some comments on a photo I posted yesterday. Odd how sometimes something that I consider a "filler" is what get's the comments.

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I see our favorite House of Rep Jeffrey Wood was arrested AGAIN. Three times this year and 5 times total for drunk driving?? They tried to expel him after his 2nd arrest but the Democrats were pushing for a lighter sentence, like he was a victum or something. Yea!

I guess he fell over when taking a sobriety test which is never a good thing.

Speaking of dumb people, did you see the winner of Big Brother 9 was arrested for selling 2000 Oxycontin to an under cover dude? Seems he took his $500,000 winnings and was trying to get rich by starting an illegal drug cartel selling Oxycontin. BRILLIANT!! NOW THAT is the American dream right there. I would have taken my $500,000 winnings and gone to Ho-Chunk and played craps trying to double it!
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A photo from the Civic Center from that glass boat looking thing in State Street.

And while I was looking for this photo on my hard drive I found this - not sure why it was on my computer but how can I NOT post this!

As I was looking on youtube I found Bob Ross putting a tattoo on some woman's butt. I'm now having to rethink my thoughts on this guy and am wondering maybe he smoked a little dooby on the side before each show???

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Anybody that went to JT Whitneys and thought there beer was starting to taste a little skanky, now we know why.

The new people that purchased this brew pub and are fixing it up found that the cooling coils that cool the wort down had 10 leaks and was leaking skanky water into the brew!!

YUMMO!!!

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So I was looking at what happened this day in history and one of the big things was "President Benjamin Harrison extends borders of Nebraska". OK - first of all, who was Benjamin Harrison? and WHY did he want MORE Nebraska?

Note - My views on Nebraska can be found on our trip across America Blog (which I see I have to fix)- here is en eggs-zerp! "If I was a settler in the old west I would have put a bullet through my head half way across Nebraska." Pretty much says it all.

Yesterday in 1934 Pretty Boy Floyd was gunned down and in 1962 JFK announces a blockade of Cuba (remember fall out shelters)?

This is the actual speech which put the country at DEFCON 2 (never mind - I deleted it, move on). Normal DEFCON is 5, we're at DEFCON 4 right now. We went to DEFCON 3 after 911. If anyone wants to watch a real good movie about the next 13 days in 1962 check out the movie THIRTEEN DAYS - you will not believe how close we were to all out nuclear war.





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Have a nice weekend!!

Rod

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

.
I want to to thank Deppfan for informing me of this trailer! Thank you Pam - it looks AWESOME!! A must see movie. Very Terry Gilliam-ish.



In a nut shell from Wiki . . . .

The film follows the leader of a traveling theatre troupe who, having made a deal with the Devil, takes audience members through a magical mirror to explore their imaginations.

Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, and Heath Ledger star in the film, though Ledger's death one-third of the way through filming caused production to be temporarily suspended.[3] Ledger's role was recast with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell portraying transformations of Ledger's character Tony as he travels through a dream world.



Wonderful morning today - rain, dropping temps and like an idiot I decide I want to take photos of the Capitol as it is pink because it is breast awareness month and people must think the State Cap looks like a giant breast with something sexy on it's nipple.

So here I am with an umbrella that is having equipment failure of 3 fronts, (might as well just wrap it over my head like a water proof burqa), a tripod, a camera that I'm trying to keep dry and a backpack that for some god awful reason I decided I needed two more brewing books and weights 20 pounds AND a USA Today which has somehow turned into a Milwaukee Sentential which is useless to me after I put 4 quarters in the freaking box.

I STILL took a photo!

And as I was getting my paper and trying to struggle with my dag blasted umbrella I took this.


In other news - I have reports that there are big cranes up near the grain elevator - sounds like they have finally taken one of my ideas and are starting to up the big Columbus Welcome U sign!! YEA BABY!!!

I'm having second thoughts about suspending Udey Dam over the highway. It would be like the dam was STILL being held over our heads!

BTW - speaking of US 151. Since I travel this cement river every day I'm starting to see the the same wide loads traveling south and I wonder where they are coming from.

What I have seen almost every week this summer are HUGE round tubes that seem to come in pairs (two trucks caravans with chase vehicles). Like what would be going to NASA or maybe bridge supports? ANY clue what these are or where they are coming from?

Also I've see a lot of trucks carrying banks of lights. I'm thinking there is some ET event going on in ILL or something! I wonder if the two are linked together??

And last I've seen some HUGE gears (or would the correct work be sprocket?) - like one BIG sprocket on a truck or one HUGE tread for some ginormous earth digger thingy. My curiosity is killing me!
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Back to photos - for any other photographers out there. I am trying very hard to . . take more photos. How many times have you seen something and then a minute later WISHED you have taken a photo once the image has had a chance to percolate into your brain. You turn around and - GONE, you can not recreate it.

Last night we were driving through Columbus and the lighting was perfect (meaning it was not raining) and some of the streets in Columbus were just awesome. We drove on and I commented about the beauty and vowed that once we got home I would change from work clothes to photo cloths - go back and take some photos!

TOO late!! The sun was not perfect anymore - another lost opportunity! So my goal is to stop being lazy and take photos AS I SEE THEM!!

Thus - the two shots I took this morning.

Here - I had to boost up some faux sunlight a little !


OK - who can guess what street this is!

Have a dry Thursday!

Rod

Mercury Marine, 10 foot Poles and TEXTing

Here is a new one - some one from King Abdulaziz City For Science And Technology Saudi Arabia is reading the blog.!

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I was at a meeting the other night and the topic of Fond du Lac came up and I was surprised to hear comments from people saying they were boycotting everything Fond du Lac. The reason was that they gave in to Mercury Marines strong arming business tactics.

I had heard what was happening but was not really listening to the specifics so I decided to look into this a little and WOW - talk about a company that likes to bully people. On a very basic side every man woman and child in Fond du Lac (and the county?) has to pay In Mercury Marine $33,000 so they will not go to a different city.

They pressured workers to accept large concessions and then got tax payers to dish out an extra $53 MILLION so they would not leave the State AND, the company has not paid one dime in state tax's since 2000, even though it has successfully sheltered a billion dollars in profits.

They basically blackmailed its employees and taxpayers by threatening to leave the state. Of course CEO Dustan McCoy has received $10 million but I'm sure he was worth every penny.

One comment I found was from an ex-Mercury dealer who said "I can vouch for the fact that Mercury Marine uses stronghanded business tactics and are not interested in dealer or customer support."

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Before I became infamous with Blackjack and the internet I was a sports tout. I was even a partner in a 1-900 service and had ad's that ran in Collage and Pro Football Weekly. We would pick winners in the NFL and if people were smart enough to spent $50 to hear our picks they would have won a lot of money. I was good. In fact I have to think I was the best tout money could buy at the time (seriously).

Problem was I was honest in an industry that was dishonest! I would say I will win 60% of the time against the spread. Now if you are a REAL handicapper you will know that that is close to impossible. Many say it IS impossible. But if you are a tout you will advertise you will win 75% of the time you or get next week free. OH BOY! Of course their actual records were tweaked and falsified.

Of the hundreds of pay services I will guarantee that 95% are winning 50% of the time. The ones you really hear about are some of the worst! The funny thing is MOST 1-900 services win LESS then 50% of the time but will tell you they are 80% winners.

So I would plug along year after year after year winning my consistent 60% but who cares because there are so many GOOD handicappers.

The problem was my system always picked the VERY unpopular games. The games people HATED to play. So they would spend $50, get the picks, play the games they liked and then call and ask for their money back because they lost money.

I would say LOST? How could you lose?? They would say they played 3 of the 6 games and only won 1 of them. I would say what about the other 3 games games and they would say they could not possibly play because who in their right mind would play them." I would say - THOSE games WON, you would have won 4 and lost 2!!! Not good enough I guess.

So anyway - this comes up because I have one of my Triple "A" 10 Star Game of the Decade Drop Dead Gonna Win Bet the Farm games this week.

Pittsburgh will cover the 4 points they are giving Minnesota! (remember I won last weeks anti Minnesota game . . . by 1/2 point). In my lifetime the Triple "A" 10 Star Game of the Decade Drop Dead Gonna Win Bet the Farm game has a record of 48 - 14 and is 1-0 this year.

Just thought I would tell ya!
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I found out that the Hiney Flu bug (also called the H1N1) can only travel 10 feet in the air so I have devised a way to not catch the flu.

If I'm ever in a meeting I will whip out my 10 foot pole to keep people away. I will instruct them not to touch my pole as this would just contaminate it. I was thinking I could just walk around with my 10 foot pole out but people might stare so maybe I'll just keep it pointing straight up out of the way until someone gets a little too close.

I was thinking I had come up with a great idea but - - - it had already been done. During the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 these guys had figured it out already!

Here they are all getting ready to go to the local dance.

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So the law makers have oppressed us yet again by passing bill 27-5 saying we can no longer TEXT while driving. What other rights are they going to take away! What next!!!

These laws are STILL on the books!

Did you know there is a law in Alabama that says " It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle." I see this all the time in Wisconsin driving to work!!!

In Arkansas "No person shall sound the horn on a vehicle at any place where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9:00 P.M" Well yea - daa!!!!

In Utah "It is illegal to have sex in a moving ambulance." AND "No one may have sex in the back of an ambulance if it is responding to an emergency call." I guess there were problems ????

In Tennessee "It's illegal for a woman to drive a car unless there is a man either running or walking in front of it waving a red flag to warn approaching motorists and pedestrians. " I ain't saying nuttin.

Have a Wednesday!

Rod

Has Hell Frozen Over?

If it has seemed cold this year you are correct. Here are the newest numbers for 2009 which shows plus or minus the average temp compared to the last 30 years.

Jan -5.7
Feb +1.0
Mar +1.9
Apr -0.1
May -1.7
Jun -2.2
Jul -7.1 Coldest ever
Aug -2.7
Sep +3.1
*Oct -8.6 2nd Coldest ever - so far

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Getting a little frustrated at work. The problem the State Government is having is that 33% of the work force is either at or nearing retirement age which means many skilled people are leaving and not being replaced, AT ALL. This comes up because I've been running into requests which nobody has a clue where the original reports came from because so many people have retired. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. A report comes from Bob who retired but when I find that an input file is needed from Joe how retired and when I track down THAT program it needs an input file from Dean who is no longer here. They let people retire without having any back-up plan because they do not want to hire a replacement to save money. So I spend a week looking just looking for computer programs that have not been run for 4 years!

I won't go into how frustrated State Employees are.
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I attended the CCDA meeting last night which is SIM City for adults! Once again I left feeling pretty good on the direction that Columbus is moving. Lots of things going on that are just not ready to really go public yet. I'm just glad that real life SIM City has their natural Disaster switch turned off finally.

Every time I start a new SIM game I forget to turn off the Disaster button. Notice when I moved to Columbus we had floods, yup!! for got to turn it off again! My bad! Sorry. At least we did not have the Monsters! That would totally suck.

One noticeable thing that happened at the meeting was the very first LED Street light went on in Columbus JUST as the Columbus Energy Czar, Steve Sobiek pointed to it (sort of creepy if you ask me but I was not going to say anything because his finger obviously as some sort of powers that I did not want him to test on me). The LED street light was also held up my recycled street poles (perhaps made of old milk cartons??) Columbus is making a name for itself as being a very very GREEN town and perhaps one of the greenest towns in Wisconsin.

There is optimism that the MaySteel plant will have a new occupant in the coming months and there has been progress on the Grocery Store front (perhaps one and the same??)

Heck - I feel the biggest news is that PERHAPS Columbus will be the host city for SAGBRAW. The 2nd largest bicycle tour in Wisconsin (some say #1 but it's the little sister of GRABAAWR) but is is the oldest bike adventure and limited to 1000 riders (there is always at least 1000 riders). I've been on both rides for a total of 6 tours and this is a pretty big deal. People from all over the WORLD go on these week long 500 mile tours! I guess there are still negations going on with the school showers and the massive amount of toilet paper involved.

Being the "host city" is not THAT big of deal as in reality it's only 1 day bikers will be here. The final day is more of a "let's get out of here I'm sick of being on my freaking bike and man my ass hurts" day. But that first night people are active, antsy and looking for things to do and spend money on. CHING CHING!! You can sell 2000 pounds of pasta with ease and a LOT of beer will be consumed! I LOVE these rides as it is a carnival atmosphere, a moving city where each person can consume 7000 calories a day and lose weight!

In fact my first real writing came from doing GRABAARW as I wrote my experience daily for BikeWisconsin and their website. In 1992 we started in Boulder Junction and woke up in our tents to 22 degrees and frozen water lines (this is also the year I had my photo taken with Tommy Thompson), in 1995 we rode 90 miles in a 125 heat index and three other days in temps over 100, and in 1993 we had major floods to deal with. Awesome fun stuff.

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Seems the movie "Where the Wild Things Are" is creating a stir. Children are getting scared to death and many people are saying this is NOT a child flick but very grown-up with a lot of talk that involved death and threats of violence to children. Some kids are OK but others are freaking out when One Wild thing has his arms ripped off. Well - that is to much for me for sure! What is this, like ET meets Private Ryan??

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Back to the CCDA meeting . Seems we're looking at putting up a big monument between the to Columbus Ramps onHwy151. 19,000 cars pass that area every day and most do not even know there is a town nearby. So they want a big WELCOME monument. I suggested this would be the perfect place to put Udey Dam with COLUMBUS THE DAM CITY painted on the side. OR OR - hang it OVER the highway!!! A giant guitar was talked about or maybe a giant carriage proclaiming COLUMBUS THE CITY THAT REFUSES TO MOVE INTO THE 20TH CENTURY! but I think that idea was scrapped also.

Of course the answer is right in front of their eyes but, no, no one seems to take me seriously anymore!

I keep coming up with the good ideas but I'm just poo pooded and my ideas are just shoved to the back of the refrigerator like old pie.

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Speaking of old things. The meeting was held in the $1 Anchor Bank building and we had a tour of the complex (can I call it a campus??) I know where I will go when we have the nuclear threat like on Jericho (another town of 5000). There are places with 1 foot concrete walls in the basement (I looked but found no money laying around, Anchor Bank did a good job of cleaning I guess).

It's nice to see the building in use.

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Movie Star Wife is having a flu shot clinic at 10-2 Tuesday at Pick N Save Columbus in the Cold and Flu aisle (I just sneezed . . . hmmmmmm I find that disturbing). Actually the real wording was a "Flu Clinic" with nothing about shots at all! So if you HAVE the flu go check it out (Clean up in aisel 7).

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I have thoughts about giving the City Council pay raises. Perhaps I would agree to a pay raise if they could justify what they have done. One thing is that I believe is IF they get pay raises then our Mayor is REALLY underpaid as he does a LOT more then the rest of the City Council, but I do not know the complete facts so oddly I'll be silent on this (which is odd because normally I don't need no facts to back my opinions!).

Have a good Tuesday!

Rod

I'm not on Survivor 20 either!!

It looks like Survivor 20 will be an ALL-Star Survivor - Villains vs. Heros and was filmed right after the currect Survivor in teh same place. Tthe males are rumored to be Rupert, Boston Rob, Coach, Colby, Tom Westman (the NY Firefighter that dominated) James (Grave digger) Randy Bailey (played the fake Immunity Idol . . oops), J.T (Survivor’s most popular winner) Tyson (Coach's right hand man) and Evil Russell from this year (hmmm) Shaman was asked to play but did not want to do it again (double hmmm).

Of the females, Jerri from Australia, Sandra Diaz-Twine who I think was one of the back door under the radar winners(??) Stephenie LaGrossa who was the last remaining member of her tribe and was a hero on her first season and one of the biggest villains in her 2nd season Danielle DiLorenzo who Probst said was a casting mistake on Pearl Island, Cirie (remember she was afraid of leaves?) Parvati, Candice Woodcock (unknown LOL) Amanda Kimmel who has made it to the final two twice and lost both times, Courtney Yates who had never ever seen or even know what Survivor was but came in 2nd, (she was sort of a skinny goth chick) and Sugar who never wanted to win at all but was only on the show to further her career!

I have to say that this is an outstanding group of players and while MOST All_Star Reality shows sort of suck this will be a GREAT cast. February. The show was filmed right after the current Survivor and had to go through a tsunami but it seems everything worked out.
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Whats with all the explosions in Columbus!! I live in Madison for 30 years and only a house here and there and a softball field exploded!

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I can't believe I have so much work on a Monday morning - WHAT is the world coming too! Who is in charge here!! . . . . And I'm sure he would not make me work so hard on a Monday!

My boss is back from his month long "vacation" in Afghanistan which is low on my list of 1000 places to vacation in before I die! Which would seem to be more like number 1000. I hope he brought us some "I heart Afghanistan" tee-shirts!

Cheers
Rod

Rainbow Bridge 2

NEW Public Enemies DVD news

Blu-Ray will be in the $36 range and falling to $27 after the first burst of buyers is over and will be on sale December 8

Here is a list of extras

An extensive array of bonus features take advantage of Blu-ray technology including an iPhone app. The complete list is as follows:

• U Control - Interactive Timeline
• U Control - Picture in Picture
• Larger than Life: Adversaries
• Michael Mann: Making Public Enemies
• Last of the Legendary Outlaws
• On Dillinger's Trail: The Real Locations
• Criminal Technology
• Gangster Movie Challenge
• Feature Commentary with Director Michael Mann
• BD Live
  • Gangster Movie Challenge
  • My Chat
  • My Movie Commentary
  • My Scenes Sharing
• IPhone APP
• Digital copy

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It was twenty years ago that I went to the Doctor to get a mole removed from my "back pack" shoulder. The nurse was scraping away and I remember her saying to the Doctor (who was dozing off) "Doctor, could you look at this?" He woke up and then both were poking away.

A little while later I was told to come back tomorrow morning, I was going to have surgery on my shoulder.

I went to the UW Hospital and had MOHS chemo surgery performed and a few days later learned I had a malignant melanoma, the most dangerous kind of skin cancer. Geez - it was just a mole. They asked if I had ever had a sunburn! Well . . . . yea!!

Anyway - without going into details like how they scoop out your skin down to the muscle and how I could actually SEE my muscle fibers until they put this black tar stuff (zinc chloride) in a hole the size of . . . . an ice scream scoop. I said "aren't you going to stitch that up?" and they said it would heal fine "It's A HOLE!!!" I said. But you can not even see where the wound was now, everything grew back.

ANYWAY - it's been 20 years and I seem to be fine.

I mention all this because yesterday I went in for a FULL BODY EXAM and man - talk about feeling a LITTLE self conscience. I mean those guys look at EVERYTHING as they look for moles and so forth. Between the toes, running their magnifying glassed through your hair, the underside of your lips asking questions like "Have you seen this before?" Yea - like I noticed that pin size dot on my back!

Back to 20 years ago, during the procedure I actually had Dr. Mohs in attendance. They said he was the guy that invented MOHS chemo surgery. The guy was like 100 (actually 79 at the time) but I see that he invented his invention in 1938 when he was still a medical student at UW-Madison. As a student he had been trying to find a way to treat melanoma's in rats. A breakthrough came when he discovered that treating the cancerous and surrounding rat tissue with zinc chloride, allowed it to be removed surgically and examined under a microscope.

His procedure is considered the best treatment for skin cancer and if found early enough is 100% treatable and is taught to Doctors all around the world.

I love the UW-Hospital. Any teaching hospital is wonderful. The Doctors all have to stay updated on the newest breakthroughs because they are all teachers. Sure the place is crowded and perhaps the bedside manners are not 100% great but I would rather have 20 Doctors and students on my case then one Doctor with good bed size manners.

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Lots of talk about Aaron Kampman being traded. Actually not a bad idea. Here is my thoughts which have been thought about for like 4 minutes so there could be a flaw.

The Vikings really went after Kampman before he sign a contract in 2006 with the Pack. He is in the last year of his contract and Minnesota still want him. So - The Packers can keep him and probably lose him next year to a team that will use him correctly (Minnesota) or we can trade him for a good 3-4 type end (which normally is a BIG guy but the 3-4 the Packers use confuses me . . and Kampman).

Food for thought.
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Columbus is going to do away with separating the recycle stuff. Soon you can put it all into one big container. NO MORE SEPARATING!!! You don't gotta keep it separated I (apologies to The Offspring).

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As I was going to my dermatology appointment yesterday I drove past Tenny Park. This year, in my view, has been rotten for taking fall color photos. Cold, rain and wind, but I drove past the park and it was like a light turned on. I stopped and got out and walked around for a little and managed to get this shot.


Have a nice weekend.

Rod

I started so nice and turned into a rant! But ends nice

I think I'm the only human on earth that has no problem with my computer and Vista! Actually I believe MOST people have no problem with Vista but as always - you never hear the people with no complaints - only the 0.5% that complain.
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Speaking of complaints - I see we have a brand new bar in the Columbus Main Street area with a brand new back-lite sign. This is against some ordinance (no back lite signage in the historical district) and I've been told it is up to the building inspector to police this. Well - he ain't doing his job so someone should contact his superior.

I find it strange that a small town has no say in what can go into the buildings in a historical district. I know you can't have a strip club but anything else can go in. I'm not saying Columbus should make certain laws on what and what can't go in but what surprises me is that no one seems to really know what is going in. You could open any shop you want and not tell anybody and there is nothing we could do about it.

What do other small towns do???
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I must address something LHL mentioned in a comment yesterday (thank goodness I said SOMETHING controversial) and I fear he got me going.

I mentioned my angst against the Republicans and the NFL for passing a bill that is impossible to be regulated and put 100,000 people out of work and put bankers in a pickle.

The bill he mentioned was/is called the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006). This was sponsored by Robert Goodlatte , Bill Frist, former majority leader of the Senate, and Jon Kyl, and in basic terms prohibited the transfer of funds from a financial institution to an Internet gambling site, with the notable exceptions of fantasy sports, online lotteries, and horse/harness racing. This did NOT make online gambling illegal. it only stopped people from using a bank to transfer gambling money to other safe banks overseas.

Why the exceptions? Because "gambling" is not a game of skill and those three ARE games of skill. They say poker and sports gambling are NOT a game of skill. Also, one the major sponsors (Bob Goodlatte) owns MANY race horses and online lotteries are huge money makes for States.

Now I said Republicans because, well, all the sponsors were Republicans. Although all were neo-conservatives and oddly ALL were voted out of office in the 2006 elections.

In fact I guarantee that because this bill was passed, the Republicans lost the majority in the House and Senate in the 2006 elections. They angered so many gamblers that NEVER vote but now they were having $$ ripped out of their hands, they voted. In one article I read over 80% of online sports and poker "gamblers" voted Democrat and 60% of those had never ever voted before.

I think that thing that irked the over 1 million poker players was how shady the deal got passed.

There was no way the UIGEA was going to pass the Senate. It was not even close to being passed so what they did was they stuck the bill inside a HUGE 1000+ page anti terrorism bill that would be passed AND it went in a 12:45 in the morning, one half hour before Congress adjourned.

So Congress had a choice of canceling their vacations OR passing the Security and Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006 and anything else that was hiding inside and going on vacation.

The next day, 30 online poker sites were closed to Americans locking their accounts, Neteller, a HUGE safe bank in Europe froze all American accounts with over 70 million dollars. American magazines that dealt with poker saw their advertising drop to zero and went bankrupt and thousands of small business's that sold all sorts of poker related stuff went belly up.

Full Tilt, a magazine that was about to actually PAY me to write for them closed.

WHO's will tell you that the banks were sort of screwed. How were they going stop funds going to poker sites. That is like saying stop all funds that are used to buy dog food. HOW???

So with Neteller closed, a very safe bank, us poker players were forced to find other ways to fund accounts. This is not a big problem but instead of a safe haven for money we have to go through el Presidante' in the Republic of Godonlyknows and hope there is no coup in the next 5 years

On a side point - Americans were crushing Europeans and bringing in a ton of money from overseas.

So when I said Republicans I was just including ALL of them because if this anal herding instinct that BOTH parties seem to have. Not many free thinkers in either party.

I'm not anti-Republican. I'm anti neo-conservatives. It's good that people question the other side. Checks and balances are a good thing.

And don't get me started with FOX news (who has joined with the Taliban denouncing Obama's Nobel Peace Prize) which is calling DOW 10,000 a "Bush recovery". "If it was not for George Bush we would not be having a recovery."

HELP STOP ME!!!!!!

on to better things!!

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I normally don't post other peoples photos (copyright and all that) but I found an exception this time. This was taken by Koushik Ray with a Nikon Cookpix.

It's called

Give Peace a Chance

Sorry for getting carried away!

Rod

Warmer or colder then average this winter

I watched "Defiance" Monday and thought it was a very good movie! One of those movies that was not exactly what I thought it was going to be. Yea - a war movie but more about living then killing.

I could write a review but it would be like reinventing the wheel after reading this review. It's what I would have said . . .uncanny!!!

Part Schindler, part Robin Hood, and part Moses, Tuvia Bielski (D Craig) slipped into the vast Belarusian woods with his two brothers in 1941 to avoid being captured and executed by the Nazis. Over the course of the next three years, the bothers Bielski collected, protected, cared for, and ultimately saved 1200 of their fellow Jews from the gas chambers. It's one of the most uplifting stories of the century, but few have heard of them until now, and for that reason alone, Defiance is worth seeing.

I watched the extras and one of the things I remember was when the children of the Bielski's (who lived and moved to America with their wives and lived happily ever after) told the story's of strangers always coming to their house in America and greeting and hugging their parents "I thought they were always relatives" one said.

Here is the trailer.




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So the Viking-Packer game has been moved to 3:15 to get a bigger national audience shoving the Giant-Eagle game to noon. Sure the official reason has to do with the Phillies maybe having a World Series game at the same time and they share parking lots but . . . . come one, I believe the NFL has more power then MLB (remember, it was the NFL and the Republicans that banned online poker and cost me $10,000 a year). It was an easy way to get more people to watch the Packers.

I like what this one news article said.

Though Giants-Eagles is still a great game, it's not as if Eli Manning has talked about retiring for five years, retired, unretired, retired, unretired, was spurned in his attempt to return to the Giants, was traded to a team out of the conference, played a year, retired again, was released by the team in the other conference, hinted at unretiring again to play for the Eagles, told the Eagles no after weeks of anticipation, changed his mind again after training camp closed, and then helped lead the Eagles to a 5-0 record.

Pretty much sum's it up.

OH - I see Favre said he has never played for a better team! Not so sure about that. I suppose 5-0 is good but best team ever? Forget about the 1997 Packers? I guess he does not count the Defense when I talks about "team".

BTW - Vikings lose this week! What defenses have that played against?

Cleveland ranked 27th
Detroit ranked 32nd
San Francisco ranked 12th
Green Bay ranked 13th
St. Louis ranked 30th
average defense - 22.80 - Next up
Baltimore ranked 3rd

OH - Green Bay???

Chicago ranked 6th
Cinci ranked 16th
St. Louis ranked 30th
Minnesota ranked 7th
average defense 14.75

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Check out this DWI bust!!


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What's up with Courtney Cox - does she look different to you then she did in Friends? Something is slightly different. Just less make-up??

My two new shows that have caught my attention this year are Modern Family and FlashForward and, oops, this is three, StarGate Universe. Plus Parks and Recreation had it's best episode yet, it keeps getting better. Watch it on Hulu - just check out the first 5 minutes.

And finally - you are wondering about the temperature and how we compare to the last 30 year averages.

Here is 2009 + or - compared to the average

Jan -5.7
Feb +1.0
Mar +1.9
Apr -0.1
May -1.7
Jun -2.2
Jul -7.1
Aug -2.7
Sep +3.1
*Oct -8.6

The Farmers Almanac forecast (totally worthless but entertaining)

The NOAA 3 month out look Nov-Dec-Jan


Cheers
Rod

Odds and end and a "art" vent

There is a headline in the USA Today (a paper that Columbus does can not get and I will refuse to say Columbus is in the 20th Century until it gets here) that reads.

How do you brace for death?

Hey - I'm sorry, I choose to brace for life!! Move on.
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I hope some of you stayed up to watch the 4th quarter of the football game last night. WOW! Five lead changes, 35 points and some of the most exciting plays I have seen out of two teams I could care less about.

Actually the Dolphs are a pretty interesting team. In their last drive they used 3 Quarterbacks, not because of injury but because each brought a unique talent to the table. Although in a Wildcat formation is the guy behind the center actually called the QB?
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I hope everyone in Columbus takes a drive through Main Street Sun Prairie (but not all at once). I took a real good look at what they did and while it looks pretty nice now (for a strip mall-ish Main Street) in 10-15 years it will look amazing. Once all of those Maple trees (?) get large that area will look utterly beautiful. I hope Columbus has it's act together to make our downtown Main Street destruction/redesign look half as good.
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I hope every one saw Good Morning America Saturday - there is/was a link behind this sentence to the Circus/Columbus show.
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We went to the Madison Center for Performing Arts . . . or the Civic Center art place or what ever it's called Sunday. I had to take photos of the Bartell Theatre for a client (yea - that sounds weird don't it (I was going to say "doesn't it" but that sounds to formal for a proper English Tuesday and notice the use of double paren's to finish this sub subject)) so we thought we would check out that art place on State Street.

We walked in and were looking at what someone must think is art but I think it was . . . . well . . . I would not pay a dollar to look at it again, I mean come on, really?

It's OK I guess but is it a major museum piece? And there were like 20 of them. I guess if you have 20 then you can talk someone into making a semi-permanent collection.

Although this one did intrigue me

What is that that the naked woman is carrying, is that a pet dog? Is it alive? What is the story behind this, did she just give it a bath in Nair? Does she know there is glass that she is stepping on? Where did the glass come from.

ANYWAY - the actual building is pretty cool and I'll show some photos this week. What I found disgusting was as we were looking about some guy above us had a big spit that almost hit us.

WHOA - that was a close one. Caught it in mid air before it hit the floor.

And yes - I asked permission before I took the photo.

One time I was walking past this place and they had a whole bunch of rope and it was tied to a boot. The rope would slowly twirl making the boot flop about. That was it, the entire exhibit! Awesome. Brilliant! Bravo! Another time there was a paint brush line across the wall. All the way around, maybe a 100 foot line and every so often there was some paint drips and at the end the brush runs out of paint and fades.

That was the exhibit. There were pamphlets explaining what it all meant. So very deep. Two pages about a painted line and how this is related to life, death and society and the certain otherness of it all.

And we tax payers pay for this.

Wait - this is not Modern art - "Modern art refers to artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s".

How about this. Is this art??

Three panels all painted white. The artist says they represent, "nothing". Odd - I see nothing also, we're on the same page on this one. Can I buy one of those to put something on it?

I see art in many things and think I have a good eye but when I see something like the above I'm thinking that someone in this museum spent a little too long in the 70's if you know what I mean.

I don't think it takes much to call something "art". If you create it and you like it, it's art. But seriously, you need SOME skill besides the ability to hold a paintbrush with your butt cheeks.

OK - Andy Rooney just tapped me on the shoulder and he wants me to stop.

Have a Tuesday and remember . . . .ummmm . . nevermind!

Cheers!
Rod

It's F-day!!!

Today is the day I'm not suppose to even THINK about work. I can not say the word work or even admit that I work for The Department of Health Services or else I will have an entry in my PERMANENT RECORD which is stored in my own personal CABINET (folder was to big, I have my own cabinet now). It's also Columbus Day, the day Columbus "discovered" America which, in reality was already discovered by the American Indians but he wanted credit.

Of course today is also the day that the world celibrates the systematic eradication of a peaceful indigenous people and their culture. But hey, who is not all for a regime change, it's what Americans do right? Who do you think invented scalping, wasn't American Indians but "we" get the credit for THAT.

Columbus Day was just ahead of hmmmmmmm Bastille Day in holidays in my book. Of course the only thing to celibate was having banks and the post office close, BUT WAIT!! NOW I can celebrate it by having a non-paid holiday as I personally try to save the State of Wisconsin from financial disaster.

So - this is an F-DAY (Furlough Day). Work and the fact that we are not making ANY money today should and MUST be the furthest things from our minds.

If I went to work these very doors that I would walk into would be locked.

And if you were a person needing help from our government with birth certificates or needing health care related papers or whatever goes on in this building.

The golden doors of DHS (or whatever it's called this week) would also be locked.


And the solid gold entrance with the solid gold clock and golden walls of DHS would be gonging to no one but the ghosts of DHS.

BUT - I won't talk about it.

That is my non-work blog today and I shall not think about it.

Rod, your humble Public Servant saving Wisconsin from going belly up!

Make sure you check out Jenny's blog and thank you for helping on their walk. The weather could not have been better!

“Good Morning America” - Columbus WI Style

.
Here is a link to the GMA show

Under the Big Top: A Life in the Circus

.
From for Daily Citizen

“Good Morning America” is scheduled to show its story about the Carson and Barnes Circus coming to Columbus Saturday morning.

The circus set up shop in Columbus’ Fireman’s Park for two shows on Aug. 13, as a fundraiser for the Columbus Fireman's Service Corp.

“Good Morning America” had chosen Columbus as a place to catch up with Carson and Barnes and tape a weekend segment on “the traditional American circus.”

“Good Morning America Weekend” airs on the ABC television network. Locally, it is scheduled to be seen on channel 27 in Madison from 7 to 8 a.m. on Saturday.

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ooo - I like the word of the day - convivial. Fond of drinking and feasting. "Rachel opened a quart of beer for herself and things soon grew convivial". You go girl!!!

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I hope everybody was up early to watch the U.S. bomb the moon. Too bad they really did not show anything! However - to me NASA control looked like some geeks bedroom and was very unimpressive. Seriously - I've seen better set ups at fantasy baseball drafts.

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So I was just told I can not get the N1H1 (also called the hynee) flu shot because I'm like too old or something. HOWEVER - if I get pregnant I can get the shot so I'm working on that.

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SIGH!!!!


MILO!!!!! We're relaxed ready to watch Survivor and have pushed Milo off the table and away from our water 3 or 4 times and he finally takes the hint. He is not welcomed drinking out of DJ's water glass.

So . . . . . he figures this is a fine place to sit!

MILO!!! RUSSELL - PUSH HIM OFF.
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OH - before I forget (again). That farm scene a few days ago. I talked to my canvas guy and with shipping and so forth an 8x12 Gallery Wrapped Canvas print will look awesome and will cost $50 (that is a bloggers special price - BTW). The same photo double matted and framed would cost probably a little more. Framing is so freaking expensive if you want matting and good glass and so forth.

This is a constant guilty feeling I have because I hate charging fair prices for something I love doing. It's like when I created websites for people. I would charge $200 when a REAL web designer would charger over $1000.

I have four projects I'm working on and all are getting good deals but I feel good and I'm pretty sure they will feel good with the finished work.

The Columbus Class of 65 will be getting something from me soon (well, not from ME actually).
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I took this a few months ago and since I had nothing new to work on did a re-due of Nancy O's front porch.

I'm not sure if it is blogger or what but the colors seem muted when I uploaded this photo to blogger.

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I forgot to mention this yesterday but MAN my driving skills are being tested. I was leaving work and was driving up Martin Luther King Blvd (there is no actual boulevard so I don't know why it's called a boulevard) when a woman caught my eye on the left side of the road. She was wearing heels and was walking like it was the first time EVER in heels. Sort of slouched with bent legs trying to balance and not break a heel.

It's not a pretty site my friends. And as I am glancing at her a parked car pulls out RIGHT in front of me. At the last second I see it and swerve but there is a huge bus now passing on my left so I have like 4 inches to squeeze my car into.

SHIT!!! I make it and stop at the light with my heart pounding AGAIN! The lady is on the phone jabbering away. So this is 3 times in the last month I've taken evasive action. A guy ran a stop sign 4 weeks ago and I had to turn INTO him to miss him (which would have been bad if he would have hit the brakes).

Come on bad drivers - BRING IT!!!
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So like whatever you know, it is what it is, but anyway at the end of the day it's exactly what you totally know dude!

I think that covers all the annoying words??
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I just noticed I have golfed with someone that is on the top of the list on IMDB in a movie!! Although he did play himself, Karlton Armstrong in The War at Home. I believe if I went through that movie frame by frame you might see me. Probably crying from the tear gas, ahh the good ol' days.

LOL - I was reading a review and I think this guy might want to step away from the bong.

"A year-by-year look at anti-war protests at the University of Michigan at Madison"

What??

Try to stay warm this weekend!

Rod