The U.S.A Woman's Hockey came up 1 goal short of losing by 1 goal, so congratulations to the Canadian Hockey team. Well done. I also like the chugging beer and Champagne on the ice afterword. I HOPE it was not Bud or Miller. I don't care if you still had your medals around your neck but PLEASE - I hope it was quality beer.
I had homebrew club last night so I didn't see much of anything but I saw the last of the Woman' Ice Skating finals and . . . . .was it just me?? It just seemed anti climatic. WHERE WERE THE RUSSIANS!!! HELLO???
I thought of a great new event for the next Olympics in Russia (will there be Russians in Russia?)
Skeleton Cross!!!!!!
This would be an outstanding new competition. Think of the action of trying to pass on those curves going 90 mph.!! You would have to get some jumps in there also.
Why did the skeleton cross the road? To get to his outer hide.
Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
OK OK - one more
Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.
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This image was taken by James Vernacotola in Ponte Vedra, 115 miles from where the Shuttle launched February 8, 2010.
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WHO'S HUNGRY!! This site is narrated by Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld and of course Rules of Engagement).
Personally I would go with The Roadhouse as my first burger. YUMMO!!!! The Camelot looks good also. Patrick Warburton just cracks me up!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Abe - I'm so sorry I missed it yesterday. The BIG 89!!!
So what was happening in 1920 when Abe was born? The BIG news was that the United States Post Office ruled that children could no longer not be sent across the country via parcel post. I guess it was becoming a problem with their new "if it fits" campaign.
Also in 1920 a terrorist bombed Wall Street when a horse wagon exploded in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City, killing 38 and injuring 400. The President of J.P. Morgon proclaimed that the marks on the walls of the building should never be removed and you can still see them.
Ed is 2 days older then Tony Randall (who left us in 2004), and James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) who was born 7 days later (his ash's were sent into space in 2005).
Personally I would like to be buried and have an Autumn Blaze Maple planted on top of me. Then when DJ passes she should be buried next to me and another Autumn Blaze Maple would be planted on top of her. Then when the trees get older our branches will touch and we can hold hands again.
How do I go about planning for this (not that I'm planning on dieing in the next 40 years, I have a lot of things to get off my chest in this blog before THAT happens).
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How about those Americans in the women's short-track relay - U.S.A U.S.A U.S.A
So what if they were 7 laps back in a 4 lap race. They had one of the biggest comebacks ever and got the bronze medal. YEA YEA - so the South Koreans were disqualified for inappropriate boob touching with the Chinese on the last lap. We still got the bronze
U.S.A U.S.A U.S.A
Germany failed to medal in the bobsled which was a surprise and helped overall in the race for #1. Both American and Germany should win about 5 more medals while Canada will win 11 but come up short. Canada will probably win the most golds, I guess all or nothing.
However - if you are a Canadian it's all about Hockey eh? Beat USA and all might be forgiven eh?
Speaking of Left Hand Lewie! He is going under the knife today with a left shoulder operation. Obviously my photograph of him the first time I met him foretold the future of his left arm. Who knew my camera was magic in finding future problems.
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For anybody wondering around my building (1 W. Wilson - Health Services - we took the family out of Health and Family Services - too many complainers ) go up to the 6th floor where I have 12 of my pieces on display!
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And to send you on your way with smile - here is Caydence who is doing well and is happy . . .except when she is crankkwery.
You know it's going to be an exciting day when your favorite bathroom has a new towel dispenser for the first time in 20 years and you're all excited to use it.
I've been doing my taxes and I was amazed at how much of a tax break I get when I put in I was a veteran that now worked on the railroad but has black lung and was forced to own a farm. SWEET.
I'm not getting all excited over the amount of medals the U.S. is winning compared to other years in the Olympics since there are just a lot more medals to be won. But the U.S. is doing better then expected by about 3 medals. Watch out for Gernamy as they had a real good day and have a chance to catch the U.S. Poor Canada and Sweden are underachieving A LOT.
Two countries doing much better then expected are France and Slovakia.
And speaking of NBC - they are pulling out the stops with such GREAT shows after the Olympics, The Marriage Ref and that other one that seems to use a lot of toilet paper, ping pong balls and otehr stupid things - my goodness, we're watching a network go belly up in front of us.
To all my readers (well - the three of you) up there in Finland and Sweden and Norway I'm really liking Nighwish, Theatre of Tragedy, Sirenia and Epica (well they are actually Dutch . . BTW - I'm very sorry for that little problem in the speed skating yesterday - they say you guys love speed skating as much as Americans like the NFL - OUCH). Who knew you guys would be so different then your typical American rock. Well done.
I mention rock because there is news over Madison's band, Garbage. If you remember Garbage is an American/Scottish rock band formed in 1994. Garbage won the Breakthrough Artist award in 1996 and their 2nd CD, Version 2.0, topped the charts in the UK upon its 1998 release and the following year they were nominated for two Grammy Awards, Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. Rolling Stone called their 3rd album one of the Top 10 Albums of The Year. Their 4th album peaked at #4 in the charts in the U.S. after which they went on hiatus.
I took this photo of Shirley Mansion at one of their concerts.
Here is a photo of Jenny and Shirley Mansion backstage at the Dane County Coliseum
The news is that on Shirley's Facebook page she commented “Guess who I just spent a week in the studio with? Would you be pleased if I said one of them was called Steve and one of them was called Duke and another was a Grammy-winning producer?”
So it sounds like Garbage is gearing up for something.
For anybody not familiar with garbage. Here is a video from Europe (where they were much bigger).
And speaking of Johnny Depp. Were we?
It seems the biggest A-hole in the world (on TV) that was in the best show EVER (Deadwood) Ian McShane will be teaming up with our hero Johnny Depp in the next Pirates. McShane (Al Swearingen) will play Blackbeard in a tale that will revolve around the Fountain of Youth. No word on whether they will use the Crawfish river for any of the filming.
Also - check out this link to a Johnny Depp interview and great video.
This is the advertisement that will be in the Columbia County Tourism brochure. The reason I mention this is that all of those photos . . .ARE MINE!!!!
But the big news are Hot Dogs!! It seems there is great concern about all the Hot Dog deaths in America because people are choking on them. I suppose it would be children and now they want to redesign the hot dog. GOOD GRIEF!! Let's just put our children into big plastic bubbles so we don't have to pay attention to them. I was talking to Jenny about gym class in Junior High (Middle school now I guess) and how we would have fun on the trampoline. All the kids would ring the trampoline to "catch" anybody that would fall off. Although whenever you would get close they would all run away.
No tramps now - TOO DANGEROUS!!! How about the rope climb. You guys have that in school? We would climb this thick rope up to the ceiling (30 feet) with a 1/2 inch mat to break our fall. Or outside we had a jungle gym with the crushed gravel under it so when our head bounced off 4 metal bars the gravel would help soak up the blood! Those were the good ol' days.
Now there is rubber "mulch" and plastic slides (metal slides are way way to dangerous).
You know the REAL reason there are holes in donuts right? It's not so they cook easier. It's because American sailors would stuff a whole donut in their mouth and choke. We had a box of donuts today for a birthday but I didn't see any HAZARDOUS CHOKING WARNING on the box!!!
Did you know that the #1 emergency room kitchen accident is bagel cutting? That is why they ask you at Einsteins if you want your bagel sliced. They are afraid you could kill yourself and they would lose a repeat customer. Perhaps if they redesigned bagels to be square this would help. And don't even get me started with bananas and carrots! DEATH FOOD!
Perhaps we could redesign food at home with a knife instead of creating a commission to investigate this phenomena.
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I heard this morning that Operation Iraqi Freedom will soon be renamed to wait for it . . . . . Operation New Dawn! OH MY GOD!!! Operation New Dawn? Can they get any more Testosterone Deficienct? I bet the Pentagon spent 30 million dollars to come up with that one. They probebly got it while washing the dishes.
With Operation Iraqi Freedom, you know the ultimate goal. Operation New Dawn - what?
Here is what Robert Gates, the Defense Secretary writes, what a bunch of bureaucratic BS.
“It also presents opportunities to synchronize strategic communications initiatives, reinforce our commitment to honor the Security Agreement, and recognize our evolving relationship with the government of Iraq.”
So I'm sitting here on hold for . . .19 minutes now. My buddy Elweed who is in the Badger Care Core program had his cleaning company purchased by another one and he has to report this. Since he only gets 60 minutes a month on his trak phone and I'm his "helper" I do the calling. This is unreal. Last time I was on hold for 56 minutes. Then since in his last correspondence he said he had a new company they discontinued his food share program because his company was different and he did not report it.
Then they said "in approximately one month" he would get a form for his company to fill out. 7 weeks later he gets it and he has 7 days to complete it and get it back. WTF
I hung up after 74 minutes. FU!!
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On a lighter side - Just having fun!
OK - I have to devote all my time to surfing the internet on how to mend my phone hold ear.
Man - the Olympics are starting to wear on me eh? I feel I should have trained harder at staying up late and waking up early. Last night I was up late to hear how the victorious U.S. team helped their cause. It sort of like winning the Division in football. It's now a single elimination tournament. Canada has to win 4 games and will have to play powerhouse teams like Germany, Russia while the U.S has to win three games against Jamaica, Madagascar and the Baffin Island's (or something like that).
I watched more curling this weekend then in my entire life. I mean how can you not take this sport seriously eh?
Yesterday DJ, Blake and I took a drive to Madison because I was worried that the "predicted" big snow storm (which I did not see but the experts did) was going to force Hoofers to take down Lady Liberty. So we got there and the torch was down but she was still up.
DJ was not really excited about going on the ice and Blake was not enthused about walking on water the big dogs didn't help) but I got them to pose AND smile next to the aging Lady.
As they exited the lake I walked around and took a few photos.
Here is Gritty Lady Liberty
and one more head on.
There were a number of people from The Netherlands taking photos and looking around. Actually to me more corrector it is The Kingdom of the Netherlands. Which is also called Holland which is populated by a bunch of Dutch people that wear wooden shoes.
Did you know that 20% of The Netherlands is below sea level?
And before I forget - one of the best sites for looking at amazing photos is called The Big Picture at Boston.com. They have some fantastic Olympic photos up now. This is just one.
I was doing my tax's last night and came to the 1098 Mortgage Interest section and found I did not have this form. hmmmmmm So I called US Bank and asked them about this and they said they sent it with out mortgage statement in January with IMPORTANT on the envelope.
Oh yea - IMPORTANTreally makes me go on alert eh? When I see an envelope with IMPORTANT on it, 90% of the time it's for life insurance. It's also like TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL on the envelope which is typically car insurance. You might as well address it to FRIEND eh?
Columbus is getting a lot of historical (not hysterical) stuff going and it's about time. Alice Schmidt has established The Alice L. Schmidt Charitable Trust for the Preservation of Columbus, Wisconsin Memorabilia. (also called the ASCharTruPCbusMem).
There is so much history in Columbus including the largest Brewery and Malt Operations in America (at one time) and the Largest Canning operations in American at one time. There is a lot of work going on in regards to a museum at a secret location (at the moment . . . secret because I'm not sure I may speak of it yet but it's a perfect location) and if I can get my Historic Columbus Photographs Face book site going (I suppose I should have actually HAD some historic Columbus photographs first) things will take off.
Anyone is interested in helping form a Columbus Historical Society (with the emphasis on starting a museum)contact Kim Bates. We are going to have a meeting to see if we have enough people interested- I have the details at work and I'm at home today- I'll post them tomorrow. Call me at work six two three - five three two five if you are interested.
That's it for today!
Have a great day - artic cold front coming but a late February artic front only means in the low 20's! Not a big deal eh?
So residents of Columbus - do you know what YOUR Senator is doing? What are his views?? You voted for him right? Do you even know who he is? It's Scott Fitzgerold (R)!
Well next week Tuesday they will be taking a very serious vote in the Wisconsin Senate - SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 60 proclaiming that the ancient Macedonians were Hellenes and that the inhabitants of the northern province of Greece, Macedonia, are their Hellenic descendants.
MR. FITZGEROLD WHERE DO YOU STAND!!!
I urge you all to email Mr Fitzgerald and ask him where he stands on this important resolution and just how will this "control government spending" and "create jobs".
I'm just glad to be alive today. As I was leaving the building a person came around a corner and made me put the breaks on JUST FOR A SPLIT SECOND. By back goes "twing" and I say to myself "well, that's annoying".
A 45 minutes drive later we get home and I can't get out of the car!! LOL I spent a lot of the night bent over like a 90 year old. Seems much better today but this morning I look at my hand and my palm is all bruised! WHAT? Where did THAT come from. I have a hand tumor or something.
America has a large lead over the Canadians but the website fivethirtyeight tells us that this lead will deteriorate. We're doing better then expected BUT it's all about timing and Canada has a lot of metal on their horizon as their best sports have not come yet. So if you are looking for excitement it's goign to be a race for medals with Canada. The U.S. is 3.3 medals ABOVE projections and Canada is 1.7 below. Canada is projected to win 10.5 more Golds to the U.S. 5.7 Golds.
The country really doing poorly is Germany as even though at the moment they are 2nd place they SHOULD be in 1st as they dominate in only a few sports. Right now projections are
U.S. 32.9 medals
Canada 31.0
Germany 27.4
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I have officially started my campaign to stop the use of RETARD in our language by posting something on my golf forum after someone was called a retard. This is what I wrote:
I know many people will laugh at this but until you are the parents or know someone with a disability you will understand.
Believe me - I have used it in the past so I am as guilty as anybody else. But I said it out of ignorance.
Calling someone a retard is hate speech that reinforces negative attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities. The word “retard” is used to describe someone or something you think is bad or stupid. The prejudice to people with intellectual disabilities is bad and wrong! It is hurtful to people with disabilities and people who love them.
I have a daughter with down syndrome and she is the happiest most helpful and kind person you can ever imagine.
Bullying is a hate crime. Calling people with intellectual disabilities “retard” is a form of bullying. Silence isn’t always golden. Silence means agreement. If you hear bullying, say something!
Words have power. People with disabilities and their familiesknow that negative language leads to harmful actions; like isolation, abuse and violence.
I really like that new Olympic event, Woman's Downhill Big Air Ski Jumping. The winner is the one that can walk away from the event. Anytime you can see someone fly 200 feet in the air out of control and is not named Shaun White it's exciting.
Speaking of Shaun White. He is so far better then anybody else in the world. The Micheal Jordon of halfpipe. It was not even close! He had no reason to do his 2nd run and just for giggles did a trick no one has ever attempted before in competition and crushed it!! He beat the best in the world which is himself!
And I'm not even going to talk about Denny Morrison the Speed Skater and what was in his pants. Was he wearing a codpiece or was he just happy to be on ice!!! YEW!!!
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Facebook people - I have a new place for you to become a Fan.
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Remember the Columbus Pioneer of which I wrote for and never got paid (not that I was expecting to get paid). Seems many people complained to Consumer Protection who in turned did nothing. But when pressed they said the case had been solved. Of course no one ever got their money back.
The Consumer Protection Agency is nothing but BS. They do nothing but still get paid for it! Jenny sent a video from WKOW and that last part is AMAZING. Gordon Hintz, a Representative for the 54th Assembly District (Oshkosh) and the Consumer Protection-Chair is doing nothing about the problems. DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS JOKER!!! Email him Rep.hintz@legis.wi.gov and ask him what he is doing about Consumer Protection and why he is sitting on his but doing nothing!
Sort of like when I had a dispute with eBay. I never got my book. So I complained and signed papers and a month later it was reported that I had won my case but would not get my money back! WELL LAA DEE FREAKING DAA!! thank you.
Sorry - I see an elected politician doing nothing to help his people and get angry. ----------------------------------
Back to the Olympics . . .actually The Marriage Ref where I think we have seen the first 2 shows with all the advertising. Man this show looks REALLY bad. Forced laughter and people taking marriage advice from Alec Baldwin? Is that a good thing?
I'm dry - Have a great Thursday - I have to get my Survivor list ready for a contest!
Rod
Pandora's box is actually a large jar carried by Pandora that, when opened by her, unleashed many terrible things on mankind – ills, toils and sickness – and hope. Contrary to popular belief, in the original story, Pandora's "box" was not actually a box at all, but rather a jar. Hence, the historically correct term would be "Pandora's jar"
But this has absolutely nothing to do with my blog.
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So you all know I'm pissed at DIRECT TV for taking away my good stations on Sirius/XM and I let them know about it. Their response was that they were sorry "XM" caused me to be mad at them.
OK!
ANYWAY - I continued to complain in a popular Golf Forum (85,000 members) and a guy asked if I had ever used Pandora. I replied I still had all my hair and my memory was decent (although I did find out yesterday while I cozyed up to my favorite urinal my zipper was already open which explained few things . . I thought I was just having a particularly dashing day but perhaps it was my zipper).
ANYWAY - In Pandora you enter a song or group and it searches and creates a "station" with "like" music. The first thing I tried was Pink Floyd (1st thing that popped into my head) and Dark Side was played, then Led Zepplin then Beatles . . . SWEET so then I typed in Shostakovitch and something by my buddy Dimtri was played (oddly his good stuff was written at about the same time Dillinger was around Columbus), next was some other Russian Composer. COOL!!
I tried " Disturbed" and I found a new button "Why did we pick this song?" so I clicked on it "We're playing this track because it features hard rock roots , a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, repetitive melodic phrasing and minor key tonality"
Well yea - of course, I should have just typed that in instead!!!
NEW STATION - I typed in Lacuna Coil! Hard rock root, heavy use of vocal harmonies, use of a string ensemble, a clear focus on recording studio production and a mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation?
AGAIN - I should have just typed that in. Now I hear two new groups I have never heard before Sirenia and Nightwish. Nightwish is GREAT!!!! more mild rhythmic syncopation (what the hell is that anyway!!), acoustic rhythm piano and intricate melodic phrasing - I REALLY like these guys - I need to buy their CD . . . .wait - how easy is this! - I can buy it right here!!! What luck!
I guess I really like goth-influenced symphonic heavy metal bands with female leads and dorky looking Russian composers that look like one of my high school math teachers.
So check out Pandora and just try to get work down after that!!
I'm trying to get a Historic Columbus Photograph Facebook page going. Getting some positive responses and I'm looking into legal issues with the guy that runs the Historic Madison Photographs site which is GREAT.
Anybody have an interest?
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I have been looking at water and the amount of precipitation we have been getting and then I read that America is basically drought free. Only a few times in the last 200 years as the U.S. had so much water and such a lack if drought! 92% of America is drought free compared to 2007 when it was 50%.
In Columbus we have had a dry winter except for December and this month there is nothing in the future that will hint at ANY snow for the next few weeks. Perhaps a butterfly will sneeze in Zimbabwe and create a storm but until he sneezes were free of snow until March.
Winter temperatures are lower then norm. November we were 7.7 above average for the average high (who cares about the Low, I'm sleeping then) December1.5 below avg and January 1.5 below. Right now we are 4.1 below average in February.
Yea - what do I remember NOAA saying? warmer and wetter then average? Still - this has been a good winter, meaning it has not been a BAD winter. Any winter that is not a BAD is good.
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Columbus will not lose it's Amtrak Station for the High Speed Railand as it seems Amtrak wants nothing to do with High Speed Rail (HSR). One problem is that if they rerouted the HSR to Columbus this would change the schedule more then 1 hour behind on the Empire Builder and that would be a very bad thing. Amtrak LOVES Columbus as it's a money maker station for Amtrak. If you have not noticed the Columbus Station is PACKED every train.
This is why it is important for the downtown to get it's act together and embrace Amtrak somehow and get those people to travel a few blocks to the city.
Plus - many communities along the HSR path are not real happy. THEY have to provide their own station and many roads along the way will be blocked with train crossings. Plus they will lose business as now potential customers will zip past going 150 mph. There are a lot of strings attached and while I'm not anti HSR it's not ALL wonderful as it's being made out to be. We already have a train going to Chicago and Milwaukee is not THAT far is it? What are the benefits? I believe it has many hidden financial problems.
In Madison there was a thriving area now called the Atwood area but when they built Atwood avenue it sped people PAST that area and it became blight for many many years. This is what High Speed Rail can do to communities. Move people past towns.
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Anybody hear of the Flower Game for PS3s? A co-worker turned me on to this and I'm interested. Flower was primarily intended to provoke positive emotions in the player, rather than to be a challenging and "fun" game. I've been reading reviews and man, for $9.99 it gets rave reviews from everybody. The audio and video are breathtaking.
Gamespot reviews "The idea behind Flower is to collect petals by steering a gust of wind through idyllic pastures. You guide the wind using the motion-sensitive controller and use any button to accelerate, which lets you take the game at your own pace. In fact, you're encouraged to lose yourself in this digitally created nirvana, and the time slows down to help you take it all in whenever you're not accelerating. There's no incentive to collect every petal in each level, but key flowers return the environment to its natural vibrancy. It's a serene experience, and though it's engaging, prolonged play will lull you into a deep state of relaxation.
I'm trying to figure out how to get this into my common everyday language.
Maybe if I'm just sitting here quietly and yell it out!
Triple Lutz Sow Cow Triple Spin Toe Loop Camel!
That would be awesome. Of course not being an ice skater and actually afraid of skates (I had a horrific accident as a child when I was a goalie and fell backward and stabbed my butt with the back end of my skates and when I say horrific I mean it hurt a lot and drew blood!) I have never tried any of the above moves on purpose.
I have done a few Sow Cows (officially known as Salchow's, invented by a Swedish skater named Ulrich Salchow) in my life but purely by accident. A salchow is when you jump with a takeoff from a back inside edge of your skate and land on the back outside edge of the opposite foot after one or more rotations in the air. Yea - I've done this several times when I was a goalie. This might have been the move I was attempting during the horrific incident.
So my career as an ice skater came to an abrupt end.
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Here is a photo I took this morning. I loved the sun. A typical February morning in Wisconsin.
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New business in Columbus - these guys are always sneaking in without fanfare. We all know about Mama Mia's on 112 E James St with Vinnie (a New York native) bringing his family's old world Italian recipes into town.
We also have Just the Numbers a new tax and accounting firm on 146 E Mill Street. I have heard they are giving away free samples of random numbers.
In other news Columbus will be the COVER STORY on the new Wisconsin Builder magazine in March and I heard we have a water problem. Yea, seems with a few larger businesses leaving the town who were major water users AND with Columbus residents being frugal the Columbus Water and Light are not making enough money. I think I heard that in order to save tax payer dollars every third Tuesday will be "dry" day in Columbus with no water being pumped.
Or maybe I'm just making that up, I'm not sure (I'm a little Olympic sleep deprived).
OH - and before there is an entire page of complaints in the Columbus Journal . . . the new police station WILL get a flag. They are not becoming communists or anything. I'm sure if Nancy Osterhaus was still Mayor she would be getting blamed for the lack of flags and some fire fighters would be let go for some reason.
And I know 95% of you do not care but Moody's (who perform financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities) grilled the powers that be about the financials of Columbus and while the C-bus credit rating stayed the same (a healthy A3) they are looking at trending UP to a better rating perhaps in the next few years.
For those still awake there are 21 grades in the Moody's rating system with A3 being #7.
A3 is a "upper-medium grade", subject to "low credit risk", but that have elements "present that suggest a susceptibility to impairment over the long term".
The "susceptibility to impairment" I think would be the TIF* areas.
TIF = tax incremental financing which is a tool to use future gains in taxes to finance current improvements. You borrow money now knowing (hoping) that this money will go for improvements in the TIF area which will bring future gains.
Sounds good but one of the criticism is that many communities borrow TIF money on things that will be built up ANYWAY on their own. I'm not saying this is what will happen to Columbus but if not done properly TIF can be a problem in the future and this is why Moody's was concerned.
To be honest I do not know the exact nature of the Columbus TIF projects but will keep my eyes open. I'm not a big fan of TIF personally because studies have shown that commercial TIF districts reduce commercial property value growth in the non-TIF part of the same municipality. Which is logical, help one store in a TIF district and it will hurt the stores NOT in the TIF so it's a break even.
HOWEVER - if you use TIF money for industrial areas you do not get this trade off because the industry sells to outside forces not taking away from other community sources.
HOWEVER - I do not know the nature of the Columbus TIF projects (I closed my eyes just for a couple seconds and woke up when I was falling backwards).
There is one area that I believe TIF could be very useful and eminent domain could be used to capture a certain area of town which is sort of blighty (which is fun in SIM CITY but in reality could piss some people off). Instead of trying purchase this blighty area JUST TAKE the DAM area!
Just an idea.
So that is my take on TIFs. Hopefully I can get a better handle on what the Columbus TIF projects are all about. I just love this new SIM CITY Columbus game. It's sort of creepy how real life and a real computer Simulation all come together.
If I was a cow
being lead to the slaughterhouse
I would try to kiss you on last time
before my lips were mulched into wieners.
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OH - another one - I want to kiss you so bad I want to cut off my head and throw it at your lips! But maybe that is crossing the line and sounding creepy.
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So I didn't know that when I said I was going to watch all 835 hours of the 2010 Olympics that the first 300 hours would be the opening ceremonies.
I mention Shane Koyczan (a Canadian Slam Poet**) because he had a fantastic poem in the ceremonies about being a Canadian which really made me want to be a Canadian. Yet - everything thing is blocked on youtube.
A Slam Poet is a person that enters a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.
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I have a "F" day today as government employees are forbidden to think about work and to not get paid about not thinking about work.
My lower back stiffened up yesterday and is still twinging me a little. So I was sitting in my pen at work wondering where THAT problem came from and then I remember - 6 rounds of Wii tennis the night before. Had to be it. So now I'm looking into Winter Olympic and thinking I should get a Wii snowboard but I'd probably fall off of it and break an ankle of something. That might actually be worse then explaining how I sprained my ankle riding a shopping cart.
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I'll try not to give away any big spoilers for Survivor but the big news is actually what happens NEXT week. Looks like Boston Rob is down for the count. When you have medic's opening his eyes saying "Rob can you hear me" it's never a good sign! BUT - for some reason I don't think he will leave the game.
I read that Rupert squealed like a pig as they were trying to reset his broken in three places toe!! Also - that opening was pretty amazing as it looked like a military exercise, then I find out it WAS a military exercise.
Seems in order to use the Royal New Zealand Air Force Huey's CBS had to cut a deal saying that the RNZAF could use their island for mission maneuvers IF they could be filmed on the last practice with the Survivors.
I tell ya - I was watching this and it was pretty darn cool. Also the RNZAF went up against the Survivor Dream Team in one challenge for practice. The Survivor Dream Team is a group of people that do all of the challenges to see if there are any problems. The do survivor but without the cameras. Awesome summer job!
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I'm ready to sit down at watch all 835 hours of Olympic coverage!! The big news seems to be the weather with temps in the 50s for the next 10 days but I looked and Vancouver's average high is 46 so while it's warm it's not THAT warm.
Perhaps they should have the winter Olympics somewhere with a winter? Just thinking out loud.
NBC (owned by General Electric) has already said they will lose $250 million televising the games and they are worried about the weather but say they have plenty of indoor events in case of heavy rain (rain is forecast throughout the weekend).
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RIP Charlie Wilson! One of my hero's is Charlie Wilson. Many people who do not know the whole Charlie Wilson story blame him as the guy that created Osama Bin Ladan but in reality he was the guy that WARNED the powers at the time (Reagan) that if they did not do something to rebuild Afghanistan they would create thousands of Osama's(which is what happened).
For those who do not know him he was a little known congressman who waged the biggest, meanest and most successful war in U.S. history. Many people do not even KNOW America was in a real war with the Soviet Union army. The largest Army in the world.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan the mujahideen had like rocks and branches to throw at the Soviet 40th Army. They were slaughtering the Afgans and Jimmy Carter who many people think was a dove said "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its own Vietnam War." It's often called the Soviet–Afghan War but in reality it was the Soviet–American War.
At the very least you should watch the movie Charlie Wilson's War and you will be amazed at what this guy did. You can't make this stuff up as no one would believe it. But as one person says The movie is "a cutesy-poo movie filled with likable actors, it completely omitted the good parts of the story and didn't even scratch the surface on what really happened." Read the book.
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If you have not seen this check out The Onion sports Network
Sometimes I put an image on photo.net and it just flops! This is one of my "isn't my baby cute?" "No your baby sort of sucks" photos!
This was taken with a 1 meg camera which is 5 meg smaller then most people's cell phone cameras. In fact most peoples cell phones have more memory then my Nikon! In order for me to make this into something larger then a 4x6 photo I have to do some digital darkroom processing.
This was taken at -10F-ish staring into the sun as Lake Monona was "Giving Up the Ghost".
It seems people are disliking this image when they rate it. There are three things I look for in ratings. The number of times it's rated is one thing. If no one rates it, that's the worst, it means it's not even worthy of looking at. With this one people clicked on the image as it is interesting and then say "I hate this" LOL Which is not really a BAD thing because it get's their attention but . . . . .
People don't like my Merry Go Round photo either but then people love my photo of the Argus Bar in Madison which I took under my arm behind the back without looking or focusing or even knowing what was behind me.
One image that really gets high marks is from the Overture Center in Madison.
ALL-STAR Survivor starts tonight and this is a REAL All-Star group. Survivor #20 is 10 years old and if you have never seen Survivor this should be the one to watch. I read that before the night is over there will be a dislocated shoulder, a broken toe and a topless finish.
This Survivor started filming 3 weeks after the last one finished so Evil Russell did not have a lot of down time to regain his weight. I also read that Jeff Probst beat out Phil Keoghan (Amazing Race dude) 10 years ago for the chance to host the show.
Richard Hatch (jail) will not be on the show and other Season #1 Survivors declined (Susan, Colleen or Elisabeth Hasselback from The View). It's a two hour episode.
We need more drunks in Wisconsin. My job of late is to find out WHY our counties are not reporting more alcohol related problems. Without these drunks the fed will withhold $$ from the State.
WE NEED MORE DRUNKS!!!
I've probably said to much and HIPAA will come after me. I was involved with major HIPAA programming for the state (not sure why I mention that but . . )
Milo has been predicting the earthquake we had earlier this morning for two years! He would walk around the house looking out the windows meowing. The 4.3 quake has been downgraded to only a 3.8. I bet if this was on the east coast it would be closer to 5.5 but since it's in Illinois they downplay it and would rather talk about an upcoming snow storm (been there done that).
Speaking of snow storms in Washington DC. Seems many sidewalks are not being shoveled because residents think it is the cities responsibility to shovel the sidewalks. Also there have been many complaints that when a person digs his car out from the street he feels THAT spot belongs to him now and no one else should park there.
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Who wants in!!! A Mr. Yan contacted me and has a proposition that "involves exportation of 35,000 barrels of oil daily from Kirkuk, Iraq." So if you have any spare barrels or something laying around the basement look for them tonight. Once I get enough people "in" on this I'll contact him asking what needs to be done next.
I don't know who he is but he called me "friend" so I must have talked to him at some point and don't want to let him down.
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The opening of Mama Mia's Restaurant is on hold. Seems mother and daughter were involved in a roll over accident in 151 Monday. This blog would love to help them out in someway to show support from the wonderful Columbus residents. Any ideas?
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So what is all this wearing red thing. I now see ad's on TV touting red and how we should all wear red for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women campaign. But if a person wears red does that mean they are dissing males? Like who cares about the men? it's all about woman? And how long will this last. Are they going to just take over the color red? What if I want to wear my red blue jeans but I DON'T want to support the woman but would like to support the men instead.
This is like rainbows and pink triangles. What if I LIKE rainbows and want one on the back of my car. Now I can't because the gays (not that there is anything wrong with it) have a copyright on pink triangles and rainbows! I bet this was something "for a day" and now it's like forever!
PINK!! We just had a breast awareness month or something didn't we? Now when I see a woman wearing pink should I come up to her and say "Excuse me, I am aware of your breasts".
HONK FOR PEACE - What if I HONK because you are in my freaking way with your stupid signs! I want to run over all of those Honk for peace people - not that I'm anti peace but I'm anti noise pollution. Does a LONG HONK mean you are REALLY for peace? If I DON'T honk does that mean I'm anti peace?
How about a Brown and Black polka dot shirt day showing support for Malignant Melanomas.
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Caydance has her G-tube inserted today. Check out Jenny's blog - she duct taped Caydence's socks to her hands because she would keep taking off the socks and then would want to take out her feeding tube. NO MORE FEEDING TUBE!!! YEA!!
Yet another use for duct take - taping socks to a babies hands! Didn't see that one in the book.
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Brett Favre’s Offseason Daily Planner
Jan 24 – Throw inexcusable pick to blow Vikings Super Bowl chances.
Jan 25 – Announce that “It’s highly unlikely” you’ll come back to play again in 2010.
Feb 1 – Get interviewed for Peter King’s MMQB column. Tell him “no decision” has been made, but “Deanna and I are going home to Mississippi” and give it some thought. Fish for compliments by telling King how banged up I am. Be sure to mention that this gets harder every year.
Feb 1-9 – Quality time with family. Also monitor the web for speculation about my future.
Feb 10 – Leak to John Clayton I’m retiring.
Feb 11 – Deny reports about my retirement.
Feb 15 – Formally announce my retirement in teary press conference. Don’t forget to say “I don’t have anything left” and “I gave it everything I had.”
Feb 15-19 - Keep schedule clear to watch “Brett Favre Tribute Week” on ESPN. TiVo same on NFL Net.
March 1 – Call Adam Schefter to start “second thoughts” rumors.
March 2 – Deny second thoughts.
March 15 – Dinner with Chilly.
March 16 – Call Minneapolis Star Tribune. Say “This is the best I’ve felt in 10 years.”
March 20 – Call in with “Mike & Mike.” Insist you’re not coming back but if you did you could compete at a high level.
April 22-24 – NFL Draft. Encourage Chilly to draft a QB because you’re done.
April 30-May 3. Skip mini camp.
May 30 – Have agent call Zigi Wulf re: new contract
June 1 – Tell Jason LaCanfora “I’m not sure” about coming back.
July 24 – Training camp opens. Go fishing in Lousiana.
Aug 24 – Sign record contract.
Aug 25 - Report to Vikings camp. Tell press “I’m here to win.” Say you don’t want the focus to be on you”. Cry.
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NOTE about yesterdays blog - I have been contacted by the organizers of the Columbus Sleigh Rally and there was a miss-communication between people and the event organizers do not support suppressing photos. All is good and no hard feelings. It seemed some people thought I was going to try to sell MY photos directly to the carriage owners and of course that is not how I do things.
it's all good.
With the Super Bowl over people are blaming the Colt loss on The Who's halftime show as it seems the extra long half time show stiffened up Feeney's ankle. Yea - OK. Of course, that was it for sure.
Speaking of The Who. . .BTW - did anybody have someone say "Who?" in the last two weeks? I did. Yea - that one just never gets old does it! Too funny! Did you know there are only two season in Wisconsin? That one cracks me up every time, it's like a whole new joke every time I hear it.
ANYWAY - it's on to the Olympics and I can't wait. Seriously, I look forward to the Winter Oly's. It's going to be a tight race this year between Canada, USA and Norway. I think Canada with it's home field advantage will win with 26 medals.
The neo-cons are all up in arms about the Sports Illustrated cover and it's blatant sexual theme. It seems the cover is "objectifying" Lindsey Vonn who could be Americas greatest down hill skier ever.
This is almost the same cover that was in SI in 1992 which was not talked about.
I'm just glad I am not going to be there in Vancouver as I would be kicked out because they probebly have an official photographer.
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A number of people have asked me if the new High Speed Rail will effect Columbus and I had no clue. However I now see that it will have no effect at all at the time being. While at the Tyranena Brewery in Lake Mills I was talking to a guy about this and mentioned my "excitement" when a freight train whizzed by me going 60 mph and how I believe they actually grow in size the faster they go (something the Rod that is not me at the Amtrak station has never mentioned). OR, maybe it was the fact that I was literally only 5 feet away from the speeding train which seemed like a good distance just before it passed me and then it seemed like a ridiculously small distance as it was trying to suck me in.
Think what a high speed rail train going 200 would do!! Although they won't go 200 between Madison and Milwaukee. They do go that fast in Japan.
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Mama Mia's opens tonight at 112 E. James Street and I have heard that the former James Street Dining has been or will be sold?? Also, seems Charlies Grille has been sold and has had a change in chef's. It's all I'm going to say. They had really good food with the old chef.
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I donated a poster size image of Mr. Ed's Magical Midway Merry go Round to The UW Children's hospital last night. They will put it a child proof frame and put it on their 2nd floor and seemed to really appreciate the gift.
I'm also donating a canvas print for the the Columbus Club House, the before and after school program at the Middle School. This will be on the 13th at Kestrel Ridge. Check out the Black Eye Susan's and read the story that goes with the image.
Did you know each one of my prints come with a story? I'm ALSO donating a ton of stuff to the Columbus Carriage Classic. In fact you get a sneak peak at the June Collector post card of the month featuring The Fireman's Pavilion. I'll have to make a web page of all my postcards. I'm going to make my million one dollar at a time. In case you are wondering I'm creating a new postcard every month featuring Columbus. You can find them at Sharrows, West James Gallery and Julies Java House. I'm trying to get Dan Amato (Columbus Antique Mall) to put in a rack but the guy is like the wind. OH, he's around, you can just never see him!
If anybody actually does see him tell him I'm looking for him.
YES - I will make a web page - stay tuned. Well . . .you may move on to other things today!
HA!!! I JUST got a call from Walgreens telling me I have to sign a copyright thingy for a print because it looks too professional. That's crazy! I guess it's a compliment. I would post it but the model has not seen it yet and I SUPPOSE I should wait.
K - nuff said!!! I gotta run,
Should not be a REAL bad drive home tonight - snow plows should be able to keep up with the snow - Should STOP snowing about 4:00 tomorrow morning. This is a long lasting snow event.
Become a fan of Melotte Photo Imagery on Facebook and receive random photos I'm working on from time to time.
One of the things I always hear about when it comes to Columbus and it's downtown area is the business attitude. If a new restaurant moves into town it's treated like the enemy that will take money away. We don't want you. A new antique store? OH MY we can't have a new store as it will ruin business for all other stores. Go away. Let's not have any NEW stores because all they will do is take away from us.
Vibrant communities such as Cambridge encourage arts and craft stores to come to town because they understand that more stores actually bring in more people. The business owers embrace new stores and help them.
I bring this up because I've sort of fallen victim to this old small town type of thinking when it comes to photography.
I paid my $10 for the opportunity to view beautiful antique sleighs at the Columbus Sleigh Rally. I thought this would be a wonderful occasion for some fantastic photos of people in period outfits and a great way to spread the word about Columbus. I love Columbus and want to help in anyway I can. However I get there and after 10 minutes I'm approached and told my camera is not welcomed because thay have an "official photographer" and I should respect her and stop taking pictures and . . .basically . . go away.
This ticked me off a little along with the four older people I was talking to (who had small pocket cameras and quickly hid them) and talking to other professionals on forums they have never heard of this kind of attitude.
Well, geez - I paid $10 and didn't see signs saying "no cameras allowed" but since I was on private property I respected that. Didn't like it and did not understand it but . . .what can ya do.
This is an anti-business and anti-Columbus attitude. If this is an actual rule you should not associate "Columbus" with the event as it's just rude. I feel the more people taking photos the better the event will be advertised. This type of thinking went away in the 80s. Rock groups realized that people taking photos in concerts was a GOOD thing because it helped spread the word.
I was also told to put my camera away at The Columbus Carriage Classic.
Furthermore the one "official" photographer has access to all the emails and address of all involved and the inside track for selling photos and contacting carriage people and where is the assumed competition here anyway? Who is trying to compete? Any other photographer could have publish photos of this event in magazines and the Columbus Sleigh Rally would get a LOT more free advertising. Are they afraid of success? It's this kind of small town thinking that keeps Columbus stagnant.
sigh!!!
With THAT little tirade out of the way . . hey . . you know me, I say what is on my mind and then it's all good, nuff said. Once I hit enter it's forgotten and in the past. I won't fall into the holding a grudge thing. I just hope next year they have a No Cameras Allowed sign before I pay to get in.
Here are a few photos I took before I was booted out. Yea - you don't want any of THESE kinds of photos floating around as free advertising.
and here is an old postcard look. (could have been a postcard advertising the event but . . . . although I would need a model release then and they probably not want me to talk to any of the participants).
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Last Friday I took my mom to Madison for a DR appointment and on my way back from Fort Atkinson I happened to be near Tyranena Brewery so I stopped in. While there was talked to a Solar Power dude (did you know solar power panels have dropped 50% price in the last year?) and had a some stout.
Then the bar person put up a little sign saying they had a few cases of there unreleased Chocolate Oatmeal Stout for $17 which had had a catastrophic labeling event. Well, I like stout so I purchased one of the four cases and while its pretty funny looking it is it is sure tasty.
While there I was I talked to the Brewmaster for a bit and took a few photos of the inside of the bar.
Here are a couple. Extreme beer . . .extreme photos :-)
Snow storm coming . . .well, not really a "storm" more of a long drawn out snow event - I'm looking at maybe 6ish inches slowly accumulating over the next 36 hours.
Have a great money - way to go Saints. Weird Superbowl. I liked both teams and would have been happy no matter what the outcome.
So I had a 20x30 framed print at work delivering and a woman said she really loved it but she also loves black and white flower photos, and if I had any. What? Black and white flowers? Honestly - I've never considered it.
So I was looking around for a test victim. I know you just can't strip out all the color in a B &W and it's impossable to tale a digital B&W photo, so you need to apply filters and so forth.
Here we go - my first B&W flower. - I'll have to look into this to see it B&W flowers are something to take seriously - I do love B&W and wonder if there is a market.
The big news this weekend will be the HUGE storm hitting the east coast - forecasters are being very conservative with their predictions because if they are wrong they will sound stupid but 2 feet of snow in Washington DC is not a stretch at all.
OH - if anybody has my Superbowl numbers can yo email me? I forgot them at work. I know I have 2 and 2 (BIG YIPPEE on that one) but can not remember the other ones.
No blog tomorrow - I'm traveling and will not have a chance to put anything down on words.
Have you guys seen this sidewalk chalk artist? Julian Beever is amazing. Not like any chalk artists I've ever seen.
Space Shuttle Endeavour starts it's countdown today for a lift off Sunday. No one even notices when one of the Space Shuttles takes off and this is sad. The mission (STS-130) will take two modules to the International Space Station. One module, Tranquility is the most advanced life support system ever flown in space and will recycle waste water for crew and generate oxygen AND, a new toilette! It will be used for exercise, storage, and robotics work in connection with Cupola, the other module being flown into space.
Coupola will provide an observation and work area for the ISS crew giving visibility to support, the control of the space station remote manipulator system and general external viewing of the Earth, celestial objects and visiting vehicles.
I'm not real pleased at Obama's plan to abandon the moon as I feel it is important to get there again. The advance's in technology and the "going forward" I feel are important for the earth. Many of the "green" industries we currently have are in reality very bad for the earth with their by-products and one of the visions of the space program was to have "green" industry being built off world. At some point if humanity wants to survive this will have to happen, it's not like we getting less industry.
This will be Endeavours 2nd to last trip, it's last being late July. Atlantis will make one more journey into space and Challenger will have two more including the very last shuttle lunch in September.Then the Space Shutle program will be tanked and there will be three used Space Shuttles on ebay.
I hope that last voyage has a lot of food in it for the Space Station dudes. Actually they will be using the Russian Space program which I'm sure the astronauts are all excited about.
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We were talking about our favorites artists and one coworker was a big Jackson Pollock fan while I love Claude Monet. I have a calendar in my cube with city scenes by Kinkade and another co-worker, when she found out I liked Kinkade said I was now dead to her.
I think the reason I like Kinkade is how he uses light, yet - there is a side of Kinkade you might not know.
OK OK - perhaps that is only funny to anybody that knows Kinkade art. OK OK - Kinkade is great for one photo but after seeing more then one they remind me of Harlequin romance novels. All sort of the same, just different colors . . . or maybe he is like Taco Bell, same four ingredients just mixed differently.
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I lived through my CCRider photo shoot. That's all I'm going to say. Am I happy with the results? I never seem happy when I'm finished. I never seem to get exactly what I wanted so it takes a while to formulate a plan on how I'm going to process these images.
As Ansel Adams says. The photo in the camera is like the score of a symphony. The darkroom is the performance. Man I hope I have good musicians for this one.
Milo is like the large slow lumbering hawk and Sierra is one of those birds that are always flying around pecking at the hawk. Milo will take it for the most part but gets annoyed at Sierra's constant hiding and SURPRISE pecking!! So about once a month Milo just can not take it any longer and all hell breaks loose and the many clawed and much larger Milo will beat up little innocent Sierra. Sometimes Sierra will be so frightened she will poop herself and we have to break them up.
Once they were play wrestling and Milo was on his back with his paws out. Sierra was goign to pounce on him but then Milo got this look on his face. ENOUGH! and as I was watching all 20 claws slowly showed themselves and Milo stared at Sierra. Sierra back off and walked away. Milo looks straight at me and they all slowly go back into his paws.
The other day we came home and walked into the living room and saw this little scene.
BUSTED
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On the way to work today I was listening to DEEP TRACKS on Sirius Sat radio and some Queen music came on from Queen II. Brought back some scrambled memories from 1974. There was a "truck in" in Indianapolis and all I can remember is the drive down wit ha van full of long haired hippies (regular friends but I'm sure we were looked down upon), the drive back and beer drinking competitions through straws (which is wrong on so many levels). At least I remember the driving part. On the way home we were in a caravan of over 600 tricked out van's. We were the cheech and chong van but there were probably many of those type.
Speaking of Indianapolis. Who ya rooting for in the Super Bowl. DJs dad will be wearing his Colts jersey. 14 years ago we attended the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, DJs dad is a living survivor and the owner of the Colts gave each survivor $1000 and a jersey with his name on it.
The Indy suffered the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy. It is a seriously amazing story and a great read! Three ships heard the SOS but on one ship the captain was drunk, one the captain had orders not to be disturbed and the last thought it was a Japanese prank.
The USS Madison was one of the rescuing ships 5 days later.
My dad flew a PBY Catalina, the same type of plane that rescued DJs dad.
1,196 never made it off the ship (torpedoed by a submarine) 800 made it off and of those 800 only 317 were rescued (the others were eaten by sharks and so forth).
A photo of Mel with his customary huge grin (his eyes are grinning) showing off his 1945 photo at the reunion. He was a Marine guarding parts of Little Boy the Nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
ANYWAY - sorry - I got carried away.
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On this day in 1959 the music died as Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minnesota.
Waylon Jennings was suppose to be on the plan but had the flu. Jennings was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
That's right ladies and germs - Steve Peta might have called me to endorse Jimmy the Stick as he believes Groundhog day is cruel to groundhogs (along with Ben & Jerrys ice cream should use breast milk as cow milk is cruel to cows . . .don't get me started on PETA). Of course many of you do not know who/what Jimmy the Stick is.
Seventeen years ago a colleague (who has since gone to the dark side of management) and I were talking about Jimmy the Groundhog and how we felt a stick could tell if there was a shadow just as well as a groundhog. And in fact a stick would take less care then a . Thus - Jimmy the Stick was introduced to the world.
Groundhohgs can also be called a woodchuck or whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver.
It's been an interesting seventeen years as Jimmy was kidnapped and held for ransom in 2002 and took a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in 2006 (although he never got out of the trunk of the car) and he was almost held by F16 pilots from the Truax Air National Guard (we were so so close to getting that photo). Along his seventeen year journey he has lost a few limbs and gotten brittle, batted around the living room floor by cats and chewed on by a dog but he is doing well.
This year he was in the Capital of Wisconsin hoping for a lake view but as luck would have it it's winter and certain sections of the Frank Lloyd Wright Convention Center is closed so we turned around for a photo op!
As you can see he did not see his shadow and along with the horse people that I know who watch the manes of horses I'm pretty sure we will have an early spring.
Actually there is a small amount truth behind Jimmy's predictions although you have to take a 300 year average to see it. The theory is that if there is a cold air mass from Canada there is normally sunshine. If clouds the air masses are not from the north but from west and south which means winter is losing in the battle for seasons.
WAY TO GO JIMMY!!
BTW - the clearing of American woods has helped the groundhog - there are more now then when America was first settled.
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Columbus wins in the Grammys . .well sort of.
Kurt Elling won Best Jazz Vocal Album (seriously - I'm not even sure what that sounds like). Henry Helling has connections with Columbus and is on the Columbus Development Authority.
Congrats!!!!
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OH OH - I have Wii news.
As you know Dj and I decided to pull the trigger and purchase a Wii. The sad thing was that you can not FIND a Wii ANYWHERE!!! DJ was goign to order one on Amazon for $199.99 but we waited 1 day and SOLD OUT!!!
There was an article on MSNBC about the world wide lack of Wii's are helping other game consoles because no one can buy one. The dude at Shop-ko , when asked when the next shipment was due said "2 months". Best Buy had a line Sunday for their 6.
So while I was watching Burn Notice DJ was on the internet scouring every store in THE WORLD looking for a Wii. One bag of prunes (a story in itself . . don't ask, don't eat a bag of prunes as yummy snack) and 2 hours later - VICTORY!! She should have her Wii in her hands Friday at $199 and no shipping charges from DELL!.
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I have to say something about facebook and becoming fans.
Wait - first I have this. BECOME A FAN of Melotte Photo Imagery on facebook.! Why? not a clue but when there is news I'll post it there. Here is my gripe on Facebook things. Just because you can create pages does not mean you should.
There are "Fan" pages for EVERYTHING that get created and then forgotten about. One has people asking all sorts of questions for an event but they go unanswered, why even have a page if it is not taken care of. I'm a fan of Dug - the cute dog in the movie UP. WHY WHY WHY!!! (he has 46,000 fans).
Also - I'm creating an email list. Members on this elite list will receive my latest low res image that I have been playing with. Some are nice some and some can be deleted but I feel maybe someone would like to get a little photo surprise every 3 or 4 days. If you are interested on getting on the list ULTRA elite list and meet the the stiff requirements (living with an email address) email me Rod Melotte with I CAN'T WAIT in the subject line (or anything actually). No names will ever be sold for a large amount of money.
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The end of LOST starts tonight and I'm still 7 episodes behind from last year so shhhhhhhhh!! My goal is to be all caught up by the finale'.
First it's the Asst to the Attorney General. Then it's the Madison Mounted Police. And now I will have the opportunity to be escorted into a biker gangs secret clubhouse. Seems members of this organization (hell, I don't even want to mention the name LOL) won a billards tournament and want a great photo. So I'm the guy. I suppose I won't wear my flowered pink shirt and instead look to borrow someones leathers so I can be a bitchen bad ass and chill, hoping I don't get hosed by some big dude named Lug Wrench.
Be watching for Thursdays blog. I hope there is one. -----------------------------------------
So what up with Wii. We decided to pull the trigger and buy a Wii and wouldn't you know there are zero Wiis for sale in the Norther Hemisphere. DJ was disappointed. Buy More had an ad in the Sunday paper selling them but . . . they only received 6 and they were gone in like 1 hour. . . . . . why even MENTION you have them!!! Almost like a bait and switch spam. So we bought some Wii games instead and will wait. ------------------------------------------
The one thing you do not want to be around is a Toyota. If one is behind you you never know when you will get rear ended and if one is in front of you they are probably driving with a 7 car length gap and slowing everybody down.
Just an observation. ---------------------------------
The Grammy's. Not sure how many people watch the Grammy's. It's the only music award show I'll watch because it seems most of the others shows are 90% Hip Hop. Not that there is anything wrong with Hip Hop (I like the Black Eye Peas (also called black eye beans, a subspecies of the cowpea)) but not all the time. But the Grammy's are different.
What is different is well . . . you have Lady Gaga which always makes everything interesting and of course a woman I respect, Pink.
I first started to respect Pink in the 2007 or 2008 Grammy's when she sang Acapulco . . . . .OK OK cappella (I'd get dozens of emails correcting me if I did not say it right) and was just floored.
So now I enjoy her music and her "Cirque Sol a" talents. I'm also am amazed that she does not ever lip sync in concert and can sing upside down 20 feet off the ground.
But what sticks in my mind about last nights show was the Micheal Jackson song. I now feel Jackson was probably one of the most misunderstood entertainers ever. It seems almost that he wanted people to totally misunderstand him and for people to think he was whacko. OK OK - he was whacko but seriously - for good reason and the people around him made him that way. Too bad his doctor killed him.
ANYWAY - this is an outstanding song he wrote. Hauntingly beautiful. Well done Micheal from a guy that never really appreciated you.
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Of course many of us guy guys watched part of the Pro Bowl Flag Football contest where the front lines would tickle each other and then fall if they accidentally got near the quarterback. Good Grief, and they wonder why only 37 people watched the game? ----------------------------------
Driving around Saturday, Elweed and I went to The Bell for burgers and they have a $2 meat raffle. Huge stakes, 1 in 20 chance to win with proceeds going to the Waupun Animal Shelter. Goes on until Easter, every Saturday, starts at 1:00. As we were driving back to Cbus I took back roads, always looking for photos and one popped up.
Well a tree popped up and I liked it's starkness. I have this database in my head for all sorts of locations waiting for perfect lighting or whatever. This has been there a while and I had to stop.
I love Oaks.
Speaking of brain databases. If you were a Battlestar Galactica fan you really have to watch Caprica. It tells the story of how "Colonial humanity first created the robotic cylons, who would later plot to destroy human civilization in retaliation for their enslavement." (wow - is THAT dry). The 2-hour Pilot can still be seen and while it starts slow ends GREAT!!
For Deadwood fans one of the stars is Trixie.
The show is shot in Vancouver (is EVERYTHING shot in Vancouver now??) In fact most of the scenes in the movie are real. Caprica is actually Yaletown and there really is a skytrain exactly like the one that blew up.
OH one last thing - (you can see how my mind is working). The new high speed rail. People in Sun Prairie are complaining as their land values NEXT TO THE TRAIN TRACKS will drop in value.
WHAT? Did they not know of the rail road tracks in their back yard? HELLO? This is like people living next to air ports complaining about air traffic noise!! ----------------------------------
A funny joke - I don't post many - bear with me.
Sitting together on a train was Obama, George Bush Jr., a little old lady, and a young blonde girl with large breasts.
The train goes into a dark tunnel and a few seconds later there is the sound of a loud slap.
When the train emerges from the tunnel, Obama has a bright red hand print on his cheek.
No one speaks.
The old lady thinks: Obama must have groped the blonde in the dark, and she slapped him.
The blonde girl thinks: Obama must have tried to grope me in the dark, but missed and fondled the old lady and she slapped him.
Obama thinks: Bush must have groped the blonde in the dark. She tried to slap him but missed and got me instead.
George Bush thinks: I can't wait for another tunnel, so I can slap Obama again.
