We're halfway through the year and these are the three snapshot moments from sports this year that are stuck in my memory banks.

Korie Lucious




Armando Galarraga



Landon Donovan

A former female co-worker just might have been the worst movie watcher of all time. She once asked me if I had seen The Postman with Kevin Costner. I hadn't seen it and didn't really want to, but I knew it was a post-apocalypse story where a man tries to rebuild American society by, of all things, restarting postal service. (Sounds like an early Woody Allen movie premise.)  When I described the movie to her that way she said "No, it's about how the post office got started." She honestly thought it was set in colonial America and was based on the story of how the United States Postal Service got started. When I pointed out "They didn't have automatic machine guns in the 1700's" she still wasn't buying it.

Another time she mentioned Fried Green Tomatoes and i brought up the point that "the two young women in the book are lesbians."  She gave me the craziest look and wouldn't believe me. It turned out she thought I was talking about Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy and she had NO MEMORY of the characters played by Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker.

Then to top it all off, when The Blair Witch Project was released she went to see it and then asked me if I thought it was real. I ran through a whole list of reasons why it wasn't, beginning with the fact that the three actors in the film were making the talk show circuit for a few weeks. Not to mention why would they release to commercial movie theaters a film that depicts the possible murders of three missing teenagers? When I got done listing off all the reasons she just looked at me blankly and said, "Whatever. I think it's real."

I've never met anyone else who was that bad at watching movies and figuring things out. Jessica's biggest problem is not remembering if she's seen a movie or not. I'll suggest a movie and she'll be sure she hasn't seen it and suddenly with about five or ten minutes left she'll blurt out, "Oh! I've seen this before!" This hasn't just happened once or twice. It's happened dozens of times.

Then there's my dad...He pretty much hates movies unless it's Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson or others of their ilk. But anytime a movie discussion starts he will inevitably say, "I'll never forget that scene in The Sand Pebbles when that guy hits that other guy in the stomach with an axe. I'll NEVER forget that."

The Vovat Music Meme: Country Edition
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Instructions: List 10 musical artists (or bands) you like, in no specific order (do this before reading the questions below). Really, don’t read the questions below until you pick your ten artists!!!


1. Johnny Cash
2. Alison Krauss & Union Station
3. Hank Williams
4. Dwight Yoakam
5. Roger Miller
6. Wayne Hancock
7. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
8. Roy Acuff
9. Willie Nelson
10. Loretta Lynn

( The QuestionsCollapse )

 

( An Important Question Is Answered...Collapse )

 

Early this week we had a new customer from Laos seek our services. This is nothing new since there is actually a sizeable Laotian population in Holland. It was told to us that no one in the home spoke English. Our first delivery seemed to bear this out when one of the ladies in the home tried to ask our driver for a cushion by saying, "Squishy squishy?"

One of our customer service representatives tries very hard to be helpful, but makes some head scratching decisions. In an effort to try to communicate with this family she typed a message into a translation program. The message was to inform the customer that they needed to speak to their doctor before we could distribute a cushion to them. There was only one problem; the translation was in French. Why? Because the girl sort of remembered that in school she learned that "France occupied Laos during World War II." This is the sort of B-minus history lesson that most Americans (myself included) are famous for giving. Actually, I give her some credit for even being in the ballpark. My knowledge of the history of Southeast Asia is pretty dim.

Laos was once a "French Protectorate," but gained full independence from France in the 1950's. But why she thought they would speak French as their primary language (and over 50 years since being associated with France) is beyond me. When I told her that I went there and, as I suspected, they didn't speak French she was flabbergasted. I informed her that, believe it or not, they speak a language known as "Laotian"

It also turned out that one lady there spoke and understood English so we didn't need a translation anyway.

It is completely unnecessary to suffer several days' emotional devastation when your team loses some big postseason deal like the Super Bowl." - George Carlin

There was a time in my life when I would be inconsolable right now. I'm talking about the kind of emotional distress that would have me locked up in my room most of the weekend, staring at the wall, and trying to find something, anything to take my mind off the fact that a group of 20 or so guys that I've never met had just ruined my life.

Obviously I'm talking about the Red Wings losing the Stanley Cup. I've followed them pretty closely since cable television finally made them accessible in the early 1990's. They've been contenders/champions that whole time. Six Stanley Cup finals and four championships is a pretty impressive record.

*Hockey is the best sport on a purely entertainment level and even more so during the playoffs. It's fast moving, tense, violent, and the score is usually close.. So when  you add all that up and then put it in the context of a "do or die" final game it's even more entertaining. It's a shame that it doesn't translate better to television. I've yet to see a game on HDTV, but imagine widescreen HD vastly improves the television hockey experience. And above all other sports it is the best game to see live.

I've had my share of juvenile dejection at the end of "important" sporting events, but It was actually after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997 that I became aware that my relationship to sports was changing. I was watching with five other guys and one of them was so intense and fanatical that when the game ended he jumped up and began high fiving everyone and screaming his head off like a maniac. It was embarrassing to watch and all I could think was, "Wow, is that what it looks like?" Since that time I've never gotten too up or too down about "my teams" and their end of year results.

So it's not the end of the world for me, my friends. I like the Red Wings and it would be nice if they won again, but oh well. It doesn't have a thing to do with my happiness. I'm just glad I have a job.

"Kiss of the sun for pardon. Song of the birds for mirth. You're closer to God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth." -- Dorothy Frances Gurney

The garden is coming along nicely. We've added several plants (rhubarb and peppers) given to us by a neighbor, but even the things we planted on our own have taken root.

We had to pull up some lettuce plants because there were so many that they were crowding each other out. One bean plant didn't make it, but I talked nicely with the rest of the plants this morning and hope a little love will bring them along.

Each time we are out working; watering, weeding, etc. the wren who lives on our neighbors fence perches above us and twitters (not *that* type of Twitter) at us. Delightful.

We also added sunflowers, cilantro, and oregano to the mix. Eagerly awaiting the harvest and a chance to make meals from food that we brought along on our own.

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, no culture comparable to that of the garden ... But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.” - Thomas Jefferson

And so it begins. The garden box and soil have long since been prepared, but now comes the seed.

We have unadvisedly decided to try to grow directly from seeds instead of placing plants that have already begun growing in a greenhouse. Before placing our first seeds (lettuce, scallions, beans, and broccoli) we said a little prayer for our humble garden. That's what it will probably take for us to be successful in this noble endeavor.

Photo archiving of the task has again taken place. The newest group of photos begins right here. Join us on our journey into the unknown realms of providing food with your own soiled hands.

Oh, yeah. We've also started our own compost pile as well. We're awesome.

Happy Birthday to the_ass_doctor 

Now go get your friggin' shine box!!!

I’ve broken down the “final” list into sections.

Disney used to like to refer to ALL of their animated films as either classics or masterpieces. But I’m going to use these terms to describe them; The Classics, The Near Greats, The Goods, The O.K., and The Throw Aways.

I ’m going to go ahead and classify the Top 10 as The Classics. These are the cream of the crop. The MUST see films. If you want to break it down further then I would say the Top 4 are the absolute summit.  

  1) Beauty and the Beast
  2) Pinocchio
  3) Bambi
  4) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  5) Peter Pan
  6) Lady and the Tramp
  7) Fantasia
  8) Dumbo
  9) Cinderella
10) The Lion King

The Near Greats.

11) Aladdin
12) The Little Mermaid
13) The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
14) The Jungle Book
15) Tarzan
16) Sleeping Beauty
17) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Good

 18) The Rescuers
19) Robin Hood
20) The Emperor’s New Groove
21) The Hunchback of Notre Dame
22) The Great Mouse Detective
23) Meet the Robinsons
24) Bolt
25) Fantasia 2000
26) Hercules
27) The Black Cauldron
28) Brother Bear
29) The Fox and the Hound

O.K

30) Mulan
31) 101 Dalmatians
32) The Three Caballeros
33) Fun and Fancy Free
34) Melody Time
35) Oliver and Company

And lastly we have what I call “The Throw Aways.” You could pretty much dump these and I wouldn’t really miss them at all. (There are few segments of Alice in Wonderland and Make Mine Music that are okay, but not enough to save the movie.)

36) Pocahontas
37) The Aristocats
38) The Sword in the Stone
39) Alice in Wonderland
40) Make Mine Music        
41) Saludos Amigos
42) Atlanis: The Lost Empire
43) Home on the Range
44) Treasure Planet
45) Lilo and Stitch
46) The Rescuers Down Under
47) Chicken Little

BIGGEST SURPRISE: The Emperor's New Groove   I was sure I was going to hate this, but I thought it was really, really funny

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Alice In Wonderland  Great book, but a nearly unwatchable movie.