Stupid dog :/

It's Better Up There - and finally a Summer flick Leamur can look forward to

TMI: Leamur luvs orange cars...

...and this Ghia is a babydoll (for $30K, she'd have to be):


Here, he talks about how to choose a vehicle to convert:


Choosing a motor & etc:


Brakes & shocks and they offer a hands-on workshop! They're about 2 1/2 hours up the 5 from Sacramento. So for $500, plus airfare & rental, lodging, and meals, Leamur could hang out with a bunch of (other?) middle-aged hippies, greening a car. Just wow. :)


Mounting the adaptor/coupler, flywheel, clutch, your basic dry-run before installation:


Dr. Richard, where do batteries come from?


Battery installation considerations:


Soup to nuts:



http://ev4unow.com/index.html

Callie Khouri did it

Leamur has mentioned before that Country music is not her fav. And yet, Tate Stevens and some of the songs on Nashville "got" Leamur. But so far not one with Hayden Panettiere, although Leamur was certain they would come up with one.

Well, they were saving it for the Season Finale, of course. (duh)

So, here it is, Nothing in this World Will Ever Break My Heart Again:



This is the best YouTube could do right now. It'll do.

The Douchebag Section at Goodwill - bwahahahahaha!

If I owned anything from Abercrombie & Fitch, or even knew anyone who owned anything from Abercrombie & Fitch, I would totally do this:


But of course, I'm not one of the cool kids, just an old hippie, I guess. Honestly, I thought Hollister had killed and replaced A&F ages ago. You know, like that thing from "The Thing"?

Of course, for me, the best use of that particular nightmare-meme was Gene Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus". A must-read, seriously. It's like that Emily Bronte quote:

I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.

Gene Wolfe is that kind of awesome. And it seems unlikely that he has ever worn anything made or sold by A&F. Coincidence?

TMI: Leamur has moral "tastes"

In graphs! Graphs, people!

Leamur has a moral foundation, and can now prove it with a graph:


Leamur is more satisfied with life than most Liberals or Conservatives:


Leamur is less psychopathic than you are, but just as deviant anyway:

The idea behind the scale is that psychopathy is thought to be continuously distributed in the population so that individuals have varying degrees of psychopathic traits which can be measured. In addition, the concept of psychopathy is often separated into two factors, each with emphasis on a different aspect of psychopathy.

The first type, primary psychopathy, more closely resembles the prototype description of a psychopath and emphasizes a lack of emotion as well as other personality features. Primary psychopaths are often described as glib, superficially charming, grandiose, lying, conning, manipulative, lacking empathy or guilt, emotionally shallow, and callous.

The second type, secondary psychopathy, describes individuals characterized mostly by deviant behavior. Features include a need for stimulation, proneness to boredom, impulsivity, irresponsibility, risk-taking, and poor behavioral control. Overall, psychopathy is often thought of as the epitome of immoral behavior....

Please note that psychopathy has been found to correlate positively with other personality traits such as extraversion, adventure-seeking, and other traits which are often valued in leadership and competitive environments, so higher scores may not necessarily reflect deviant or immoral behavior, but instead reflect more outgoing personality styles.

Leamur has a stronger preference for furniture over drugs than either Liberals or Conservatives:

Positive scores indicate a greater implicit preference for Drugs relative to Furniture, and negative scores indicate an implicit preference for Furniture relative to Drugs.

Your score appears in the graph below in green. The score of the average Liberal visitor to this site is shown in blue and the average Conservative visitor's score is shown in red.

[If I could digress for just a moment here: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAA!!!!! Cripes that's probably true. I am so effing OLD. OK, back to the graphs.]

Leamur is less Hedonistic and more Benevolent than you are. (But not more modest.)

The idea behind the scale is that there is an internal order and structure to values. Using various statistical techniques, Schwartz has found that the ten basic human values show a pattern of relationships... Political liberals have been found to endorse the "openness to change" values, while conservatives are more likely to endorse the "conservation" values."

The values are described by Schwartz as follows:
POWER: Social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources
ACHIEVEMENT: Personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards
HEDONISM: Pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself
STIMULATION: Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life
SELF-DIRECTION: Independent thought and action - choosing, creating, exploring
UNIVERSALISM: Understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature
BENEVOLENCE: Preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact
TRADITION: Respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide
CONFORMITY: Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms
SECURITY: Safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self

That was fun. But seriously, this article about what this all means in the context of The Culture Wars in the U.S. is excellent reading and has the links in it to the fun & games above.

[Yes, Leamur really is making you click through to the article to get to the fun & games. Such a Puritan!]

TMI: Leamur's "Nashville" Favs

I don't know if my imaginary reader will remember my saying that the post about Tate Steves (the guy who won The X Factor) would likely be the only time Leamur ever posts country music to her blog...

I blame T-Bone Burnett. Here are Leamur's Nashville favs (so far).

Starting from the beginning of the season, If I Didn't Know Better:


No One Will Ever Love You:


And last week just blew me away, Pour Me Something Stronger:


I'm loving Hayden in the show (so glad they saved the cheerleader), but they haven't yet given her a song that really got me... I expect they'll fix that by the end of the season.

TMI: Leamur's Christmas present will make her cry

Still makes me cry every time:




*Sigh* Only 2 months to go...

TMI Confession: Leamur watched the X-Factor

I blame the late start to the fall TV season and Britney Spears, the dorky-cute-est superstaahh ever.

Despite my love for bluegrass & folk, I tend to avoid pop country music, so this may be the one and only time you ever see country music here on RFoRC, but I really really liked this guy. Great voice, great performer, just wow.

Here's Tate Stevens (great name for a country star, too, right?) singing at a farewell party:


And here's his X-Factor debut:


Diamond and Panda were adorable, too.

TMI: Leamur is not a morning person

Background: Quick video summary of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's stages of grief.



I travel this journey every morning.

Denial:
bzzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz What the eff is that? No. Already? No, it can't be that time yet.
bzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz I do NOT have to get up yet. I need Snooze. Oh, shit, which one is snooze? Green? Yellow? Right, it's the yellow one on the bottom, that's snooze.
[snooze activated, head hits pillow with a thud. Tink sighs. I reach over, figure out where her head is & rub her.]

Anger:
bzzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz DAMmit! Already?! That so did not feel like 10 minutes. I hate this, it's still dark out, just when you get into a good sleep this happens, where's the effing snooze? bzzzzz...bzz...bzz..--
But I hit snooze already!!!..--oh, alright.
[burrow deeper into covers, snuggle Tink, she gives a little groan]

Bargaining:
bzzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz Aw, crap. Can I afford to do this once more? Maybe if I use the all-in-one instead of the shampoo and conditioner in two steps...Did I put my clothes in the bathroom already? Do I have a micro-meal, so I don't have to--- bzzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz I'll make it work. Snooze, snooze, there it is.
[thud, snuggle, Tink sighs pointedly and with emphasis this time]

Depression:
bzzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz I can't face it, I can't. I'm going to be late. Again. It's not like anyone cares. The inevitable snooze owns me.
[roll over & rub Tink a little. She rolls onto her back because I'm supposed to rub the belly already. I do for a bit & then stop & start to nod off again. Tink licks my face to tell me I'm not done yet. I rub her belly some more then turn away so she can't get to my face to make me keep going.]

Acceptance:
bzzzzz...bzz...bzz...bzzzzz Oh, man, I should've been up a half hour ago. Green is dismiss. Right. Done. OK, Tink, yes, more belly rubs. Yeah, sure, scritches there, too. Mmm-hmm.
[rub Tink a bit longer, get vertical, drink some water & take some vitamins, think how nice horizontal was, yearn for horizontal, fall to horizontal again with the excuse of scritching Tink some more, realize that she knows what I'm up to and that this is scritching as an excuse to stay horizontal, finally get up and stagger to bathroom.]

So now you know too much about my mornings. And why I can't ever get married. No one but Tink would put up with all that.

An Open Note to Andrew Sullivan

Not helping.

PS: On the up side, I hadn't heard of you for what? Something like 10 years? Here's hoping for another 10.

Friday Rant

Does everyone have people like this in their lives?

I'm talking about the person who makes an irritating but by no mean heinous mistake, and when it's pointed out to them, they can't just say "oops" or "yeah, that was a mistake, sorry for the inconvenience", they have to make up a not-even-believable lie to explain how they were right all along and didn't make a mistake. Such as "no, I didn't mistakenly include you on the distribution list of that threatening email, I 'blank' cc'd you, so you'd know to do something about it". So not only does this person not know that it's blind cc, not "blank", this person also does not know that Outlook does not include someone who is blind cc'd in the distribution list, that's why it's a blind cc.

This person also does not know that blind cc's are somewhere in the range of awkward to rude, depending. If you want to send a third party a copy of an email without the email's original recipient knowing about it, you don't blind cc them (and run the risk of the blind recipient using "Reply All" and outing you), you go back to your Sent box and then forward the email to the third party with a note of explanation of why you wanted the third party to see it.

So what to do with people who can't acknowledge a mistake and don't realize that they are incompetent liars? It's tempting to point out the mistakes in the lies, too, but if the person's a supervisor (or a parent), that's not likely to be politically correct.

Maybe this is one of the reasons blogs are so popular.

It IS Friday, after all...

The Animated Ocean

OK, so in TMI territory, I have no idea what made me think of this today, but back when I was in high school, maybe a freshman, I remembered my mom showing me a chain letter she'd gotten or been shown that went like this:

Dear Friend,

This letter was started by a woman like yourself in the hope of bringing relief to other tired and discontented women. Unlike most chain letters, this one does not cost anything. Just send a copy of this letter to 5 of your friends who are equally tired and discontented. Then, bundle up your husband or boy-friend and send him to the woman whose name appears at the top of the list. Add your name to the bottom of the list. When your name comes to the top you will receive 16,874 men and some of them are bound to be a hell of a lot better than the one you already have.

Do not break the chain - have faith! One women broke the chain and got her own S.O.B. back. At this writing, a friend of mine already received 184 men. They buried her yesterday but it took 3 undertakers 36 hours to get the smile off her face.

We are counting on you!
Liberated Woman

So I found it online and it's just as I remembered it. Something about the 3 undertakers needing 36 hours to get the smile off her face still makes me giggle. (So immature.)

We Don't Need No Quiet Dogmas

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.

I confess, I am wearing a single-function device (although it tells the date as well).

Here's the title ref for any of my imaginary readers interested in a brief ride in the wayback machine:



I have The Wall courtesy of Baby Brother. We saw it at The Uptown Theater on Connecticut Avenue when it came out, with his friend Greg and Greg's parents. I was a little worried about the adult content & Holocaust stuff with Greg's parents, but his mom said she liked it & thought it was well-handled. (I was a bit of a Floyd-Head in high school, but preferred the older stuff, especially Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon of course, and Meddle.) Alas, it just doesn't seem like Angelina's kind of thing, but Young Anakin should see it while he's still in high school if he's ever going to see it...

How to Make Home-Brew Beer

Ahh, the good ol' days...




My "retirement" fantasy is running a bookstore/cafe/bakery at the edge of some overpriced resort (like the bakery next to the Rio Mar, where we stopped every evening to get pastries for the next morning, except with a few books for sale or a little take-a-book, leave-a-book library). Adding a little brew-pub part is tempting, but probably too much work, alas. Maybe I can talk Cap'n Sam into taking it on. He always had way more success with the home-brew than me, anyway.


Oh, yeah: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pi Day

It's also Talk Like A Physicist Day, apparently.

Leamur will be partying with JMax & some of his other  eccentric friends.  Leamur is still stung from having been informed that she has been a staid eccentric all these years when she remarked that she has been staid long enough and that grandmotherhood is her opportunity to be eccentric.  Harrumph.  This was shortly after JMax agreed with The Fashion Consultant that cat's eye glasses are never a good idea.  Leamur's been told that khakis don't look good on anyone, and that one We believe, the evidence is abundant after all:

(Better makeup & hair, too.  Sigh.)

But Cat's Eye Glasses rule!!!!

[Disclaimer:  Leamur sto- er borrowed this random kid's pic off the internet. 

She's virtual.  And judging from her clothes & the wallpaper behind her, probably older than me by now.  No actual children were harmed in the making of this blog post.]

"Right" Thinking 8

Again, I think the thinking is more essential than the "right", but full disclosure: Leamur got a "D" in Freshman Ethics (as a Junior) from Roye Templeton. Um, and failed Philosophy of Law and the State from a lady I liked and can't remember her name now, but I seem to recall she was actually angry about what I wrote in my final exam about utilitarianism. (Fair enough, I was sleep-deprived and totally bull-shitting the exam. No clue what I wrote, even at the time she confronted me with the fact that she would fail me.) I did well in Contractarian Ethics, though, from Dr. Howard Kahane. It was the only course of the 3 that I felt had actual substance, as opposed to "you have to know what these dead people wrote, nevermind why, it's a core course". So, um, Leamur's just not good at being right & it would be only natural for her to prioritize the thinking part. (Right? ;)





[Episode 8 of 12, running here on Saturdays from January 16th through April 3rd.]

Thanksgiving in February

Late to the party as usual, I just realized that TODAY is Thanksgiving in February. Please eat out tonight at a participating restaurant so that 20% of the price or your meal can be donated to help the hungry in Montgomery County. (yes, we have them ,too)

I've decided it's a good night for a spinach & mushroom calzone. :)

Cartoon Dharma

Wherein Leamur confesses to being a 'toonhead to her imaginary readership that doesn't know her personally and already shake their heads at her incorrigible immaturity...


I love cartoons. Bugs Bunny is my hero, and I think cartoons are a wonderful art form with great potential for teaching/learning. While "talkies" are not valueless, I believe one feature of great cartooning is lack of verbal dialogue. Pixar works this nicely in their best cartoon shorts, but brevity is not always necesary to a good cartoon, as in this example. It's in two parts, and worth the time.






And I love that the Buddha seems to be GuanYin (Chinese female Avelokiteshvara), although she's sitting Buddha-style and I've usually seen her represented standing.


They shouldn't have menaced the poor mouse, tho'...