I'm Having Christmas at George Clooney's House

This is probably the most beautiful Christmas tree I've ever seen for sale. I truly wish I had one for a special corner in my room.



It's that beautiful time of year. Shame I've been stuffed up for most of it so far. Sucks that the weather change is taking all season to get here at the last moment, but I guess that's Texas for you.

I learned how to play Oh Christmas Tree, and Little Drummer Boy on guitar. I love learning to play carols on my guitar.. playing them slow, listening to them like half forgotten memories and beautiful briefly remembered dreams.

I've been celebrating with egg nogg, and hot chocolate, and I even made some wassail already this season, extra warm and soothing. A good hot happy beverage is always important when contemplating the mixed blessings of Christmas commercialism and the machine that somehow generates togetherness via large dollar amounts. That and they just make you feel warm inside on cold nights with a blanket and the only lights on in the house are the christmas tree lights while the cats hide in the branches.

Have You Been Half Asleep...

I didn't think I was going to be able to get a Christmas Tree this year, things have been pretty tight because of medical bills. Matt's brother was getting a new tree this year and so this one was available for me. It is a wonderful tree, and I am proud to have it. The ornaments came from Matt's family, they are glass ornaments that they bought while they were living in Germany. It is a good year, and it is a good life.

I've been spending some more time over at my dad's house. Enjoy the product of our labors:

Behold, the ribs are finished and we have begun planking the ship! One on each half so far, and more to follow till she has a beautiful wooden hull! Well.. a wooden hull! Well... a glue hull with some wood flecks in it! The ratio of glue to wood really remains to be seen. Guess we'll know after a few more planks are attached.

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side
Rainbow's are visions
They're only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some chose to
Believe it
But I know they're wrong wait and see

Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

Thank you Pandora for making holiday music for my living room easy.
Thank you Netflix for putting so many holiday specials in one place.

It's going to be a Merry Christmas.

Cranberry Sauce, It's not just for Thanksgiving Anymore

It's criminal.. I had never made home made cranberry sauce before. I had no idea how delicious it could be. Crazy and sweet and tangy and robust and just downright amazingly delicious. And easy.

12oz Cranberries
1 1/2c Sugar
1tsp Allspice
11oz Can of Mandarin Oranges
1c chopped pecans
1/4c Port wine

Mix all the ingredients except the port wine together in a sauce pan and cook at medium low heat till all the cranberries have burst in the sauce. More sugar can be added for a sweeter sauce, less for a tarter sauce, though 1 1/2c will be pretty tart, so more sugar is a little more likely. Once the berries have popped, remove from heat, stir in the Port, and chill till ready to serve.

It was one of the real highs of my thanksgiving. I really wanted to share it.



I hate people. Especially friends. Know what a friend is?

A friend is someone who puts a portal over an acid pit and then waits till you're standing still on a portalable surface to put the other portal under your feet and drop you to your death. That's what a friend is.

Fuck friends.

Sometimes...

Sometimes... I think about contacting complete strangers via instant messenger in the exact method and style of porn spam bots. Copy and pasting their dialog, and then passing it on, refusing to respond to people.

I was never really meant to pass a turing test, so it really seems like a waste to even try.

Uploading Life.

Lions. Always on topic.

Kittens that will sleep on your lap: See Lions.

A little bit of this years thanksgiving. I will never ever ever eat cranberry sauce out of a can again. It's cheap, easy, and about a million times more delicious. I spent the early afternoon at my dad's house, my grandparents were there, my aunt Karen, and even my sister showed up. My step brother was there, and even brought his daughter. I showed off some origami to her and made her a tiny rose.

I was honestly surprised that I remembered so precisely how to make the rose.. it's been a long long time since I made one. But it was really cool and I plan on making more in the future. My step brother brought 2 of the coveted butterscotch pies.. there was much joy. After dinner at dad's house I went home and finished cooking dinner for my mom, and zac, and my sister came over to join us. Kayla was out with her family.

It was really messed up, though, later that night we found out that Zac's parents escaped their home burning down. Even if insurance pays everything that it was all worth, which is unlikely, it will never replace the photos and memories.

After that, though, my sister got both Zac and I invites to play in the weekend long Star Wars The Old Republic beta.. which we did all weekend when not busy with family.

I spent a lot of time at dad's house later working more on my boat. So much work, but it is really shaping up to be very beautiful.

This morning I went to pick up my new guitar. My new beautiful baby. So pretty, and she sounds like a dream. She is the first new guitar I picked out for all the features I wanted, and Scott bought her for me. One of the most generous gifts ever, and it really felt good after the crappy months and debts I had over my broken arm. That and a small computer upgrade are two of the things that those debts stopped me from being able to do.

Anyway, the replacement after the dud I had last time arrived at Guitar Center... last wednesday. I would have known that if I'd bothered to call or something instead of just assuming monday. I could have had her and shown her off to all my family. Oh, well. C'est la vi. After I picked her up, I swung by Larry's Hobbies on the way home because I was inspired by all the model building with my dad this weekend. They have a sci fi section that is filled with star trek, star wars, doctor who, and all sorts of other cool models. I should maybe have taken more pictures, but these seemed like enough. The ceiling is covered with complete models. THey've been around since as long as I can remember and I remember going there with my parents as a kid after church to look at the model trains.

Their model train is plagued by Godzilla, btw.

Now, this cool little treat is a character I had thought was completely forgotten.. but is painted on the wall of the taco bell between guitar center and home. This is actually from the trip to turn in my damaged guitar to get the new one, but I didn't think it was worth posting by itself at the time. It was just super cool to be surprised while I was eating with a hand painted picture like this from some random local artist.

Passionflower

It's been a mixed holiday, in some ways very very blessed, and really sad in a few others. Thanks and prayer, prayer and thanks. Maybe I'll talk about it later, but for now, I just wanted to share something extremely beautiful.

I'm Probably Gonna Go Food Nuts Tonight

You know, at first I was thinking I was just going to fry some nice spicy potatoes tonight.

Now, though... I'm thinking that I'm going to dice them and fry them together with some italian sausage, onions, maybe a few other things. Sort of like my peppers and sausage dish, but with potatoe cubes for a starch blended it, maybe add in a little extra cayenne for a kick. That's definitely what I feel like cooking tonight.

But if I add the potatoes in, instead of cooking them on the side.. what do I cook on the side?

Are You Aware of Omegle's New Feature?

You're now watching two strangers discuss your question!

Question to discuss:

Do you often feel like the stranger you're talking to is fondling their genitals while they type to you?

Stranger 2: You want me to tease your [Censored] with the tip of my tongue, while i slide 2 fingers deep into your tight wet [Censored].

Stranger 1: ...

Stranger 1: I definitely feel like they are right now.

Stranger 2 has disconnected

You're now watching two strangers discuss your question!

Question to discuss:

What really worries you about your future?

 

Stranger 2: Squirrels.

Stranger 2: I fear their beady eyes.

Stranger 2: They look upon my works with jealousy and hunger.

The Only Place I Long to Be

I haven't posted in quite along time... guess I've been letting my arm make me lazy, or guess I've been using my arm as an excuse to be lazy. I hope it's the former, because I'd like to think that now that it's feeling much better I can be a lot more productive again. I like being able to do all the wonderful things I can do with my arms and hands ;-) It's been a very very sad two months not being able to indulge and explore.. as much.

Since I haven't been able to give them as much as I'd like, to begin my return, I begin with flowers for you:

Last weekend was really tiring, but pretty amazing. I can't wait to post some pictures from it, Sean took most of them, so I will share his. By far the most exciting part? Meeting the astronaut Dr. Stanley G. Love. I was incredibly unprepared, and sadly I was unable to visit his panel. When they said the astronaut was coming down the isle to shake hands and answer questions at the con promo tables, I really had no idea what to expect. Maybe someone in an astronaut costume, maybe someone nicknamed the astronaut.. when a real life actual American hero walked up and shook my hand I was blown away. I even shoot his hand with my broken arm and it hurt like hell, but so worth it.

The second really great highlight was dancing my little heart out to Bohemian Rhapsody when the Earthbound Papas performed it during their concert. It was completely out of left field for me and it was both amazing, well performed, and a little funny. I went back and forth from waving my hands and pumping my fists and jumping wildly to laughing occasionally at the surprise of it all.

Time for lunch, now.

Le Sigh

Good bye new Kindle. I guess I will not be buying you this year as I hoped I would when you came out when I decided to wait for 1 generation to upgrade. Maybe next year wont suck so much.

Nothing Much

"The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well." -Horace Walpole


And for a man to succeed in life with a name like Horace, he HAD to know the secret. So, my kindle chose to break at the most inopportune time of all, during my stint as a stumbly wumbly. Playing games for a length of time hurts my arm, though, I can do it more and more often. I can't really go anywhere. It hurts to drive, etc, etc. Having my kindle around gave me plenty of good reading opportunities till it fried out. Thanks to their awesome warranty, though, my new kindle is on its way and will be here thursday. Amazon is incredibly diligent in supporting their hardware and I am very happy to have such a pain free and immediate response to any hardware failures. Can't wait to be reading comfortably in bed again, though, this last day or so I have been feeling so much better. I think the term of this infirmity is near an end.


My gaming time has been split pretty evenly between Borderlands and Bastion. The former is excellent because it is so much fun to play with people who I am close with. I have even been able to play it quite a bit with my sister. The latter is an excellent and extremely well done action RPG with beautiful music, art, and narration.

Not being able to cook dinner or do a any of a million other things is driving me nuts, though. I just want to make some twice baked potatoes, or cook a chicken, or whatever. Hell, serving ice cream is a major pain. Anyway, I'm hungry and I'm off of work, so I will be going. Back again to write another day.

P.S. The new Muppets Movie looks AWESOME.

P.P.S. I keep wanting to paint Tobias blue.

P.P.P.S. Yeah, that's right.

Something Something Nathan Fillion Something Squeeze Cheeze

Swamp Ass PSA Starring Nathan Fillion - Watch MoreFunny Videos

*sigh* I miss my cat.

Menil Collection with Zac and Lucy, then later waiting for Othello to start at Miller Outdoor Theatre 

Watermelon sorbet taken a little too literally:

My dad's guitar recital, vocally accompanied by his wonderful wife:

All the fajitas my new skillet can cook at once:

My splint at the minor emergency clinic for my fracture:

Good company for healing, Tobias Funke on my lap and kindle by my side:

Sometimes I want to paint him blue.


"Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are." - Soren Kierkegaard
"The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future." - Eric hoffer(Poetically said and flamboyantly not true)
"We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve." - Sallust

There's a Fire in My Heart that Can't be Put Down

"The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future." - Jessamyn West



Lament for a Syllable

Some days it builds up,
a stirring from within me,
to spew out Haiku

In a little while,
faster than you'd even think,
it feels natural.

Every new sentence and its syllable structure find a sweet balance.

Once it's effortless,
the careful counting of words,
then you start to play.

After all, what is the meaning of a[n] Haiku? What's a single breathe?

Though you still may hold to twelve syllables at once, your thoughts will run wild...

It's not just a game, every word you hear whispered, considered with care...

No longer interchangeable as grains of sand. They are diamonds!

And still you hear them.
You hear the soft whisperings.
They sound like longing.

Longing for meaning.
Words demand to have purpose.
They beg to be heard.

As important as the sound each word will create, the silence after.



Hitler disagrees:



"I mean, go figure. You prepare your home for an assault and you don’t take zombies into consideration. I’d fallen victim to one of the other classic blunders, along with not getting involved in a land war in Asia and never going in against a Sicilian when death was on the line." - Harry Dresden

Come writers and critics who prophecize with your pen

"I've had these scars since the dawn of existence... They symbolize my pain."

The Healing Chimes

With gentle effort I avoid frustration,
the healing clink of minor failure,
steady and soothing the chimes sing,
only to cease with a deafening ring.

To feel the healing,
the rolling waves,
sweet angelic choir,
halting with a clack!

Apparently if you search for Chinese health balls in the health and personal care department at Amazon you may also find a quality selection of ball gags.

Broken Bones and The Nature of Rock

"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."
— Thomas Jefferson



Fracture in my right elbow from a fall on friday night. Man, that stings, but it's so minor that it wont even need a cast. So, no guitar for a little while. And I'm dead broke at the moment. Living poor will fix things, but, man, I am glad I have my cushio normally because that is all gone. Breaking my arm ate up my entire savings cushion and I need to rebuild it. 950$. That's going to make it a very very rough few months. Very, very rough. So, to the bank to deposit checks today, after going to chuck's to pick up monies and do some more technical work.

It was a huge relief to be told that I wouldn't need surgery, and my arm is already starting to feel a lot better. And I will count these all as things that are far better than the alternatives and possibilities.

I got invited to google music and have been playing around with that. It's a very cool service, but it may really be obsolete considering how I use Pandora and youtube. It just feels a little wasteful to actually save and store and maintain a music collection. Time, space, money, and energy. Plus, rellying on that makes me miss out on all kinds of new music in a number of areas that I would have missed completely. Though, sometimes it is very awesome to discover music before even pandora has it available. Mammalian Locomotion.

Anyway, I also wanted to include Peppers Amadeus Bond in this post. He passed away last week and will be sorely missed. When he died, I lost a piece of myself, because I loved him dearly. He was an amazing cat who lived an epic life, from a kitten who purred every waking moment, to a giant lion like cat that was royal and brilliant in size and behavior. From 2008-2011. RIP. You will be sorely missed.

I will end this entry with a contemplation on the nature of Rock:

- "And they took my mood ring! And I don't know how I feel about that."

The Future

Growth in wisdom can be measured precisely by decline in bile.
— Nietzsche

This rings particularly true to me, anger and resentment seem more and more to be entirely rooted in a lack of understanding and empathetic vacuum. Everyone universally struggles with their pain, and pain is a relative but very real thing. In any situation there is death to the soul, and absence of something. Even the absence of adversity is an source of great pain as it is adversity under which the soul grows and glows brightest. THe human soul doesn't just need pain, it is able to find it anywhere, and always has and always will.

Oh, and by the way.. fuck yeah, the 80s:



A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.
-Roald Dahl

Deuce Sex

I haven't blogged in way too long and it's about time I changed that. Honestly, I think I may have been spending far too much of my personal time playing games, which is not a normal thing for me. Normal to play games, but it is usually in some form of moderation. However, Deus Ex is just too crazy good for me. It does have flaws and in a lot of ways it is lacking compared to the original, in other ways it outshines it, but unlike the second Deus Ex, this one caters to the way I like to play games in the same way that the original did.

It's a very special kind of game that lets me feel and put the effort into being a stealth computer hacking sniper ninja. The original is one of the only games that ever captured that feel for me, it was like Thief, only if I got caught I could whip out my rocket launcher and play Bad JC if I hadn't saved in 6 hours and didn't feel like giving up that chunk of my life to fixing a dumb mistake. Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a lot of this same feel, and a really well developed structure and beautiful environments. For all its flaws, I do consider it a modern classic, and it is good enough to overshadow the orignal, which, for all ITS flaws in some ways is a far supperior game. Examples include the ending, where your actions in the game moved the plot forward. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame feels that the new game is just find the fastest way to the end and then go back and loot all the other routes, but then, I could have sworn he said he played the original, which was the exact same game. It's one of my favorite games of all times, but the level structure is not inferior, and in many ways is very superior, though, most of his other criticisms are dead on acurate.

The "End game choice" machine is stupid and makes the "watch all the different endings" achievement even more absurd.

One of my biggest complaints about the game is that there are achievements for pacifist playthroughs and no alarm playthroughs... but there is no counter anywhere in the game where you can see if you were responsible for someones death enough to discount the one or if that alarm that was running whenever and for whatever reason is enough to disqualify the other.. it's a whole game and not knowing is a major commitment to a decision. And on top of that, for the pacifist achievement.. the Tranquilizer rifle can KILL people on ACCIDENT... with something like a headshot which is designed to knock people out faster and quieter... is the only way to do the silent KO to use the incredibly not silent takedowns that are only available from point blank range? It's actually kind of inspiring, even though it was frustrating to believe halfway through my second playthrough of the game that I had to start over and waste all that effort on the ground that since I liked headshots with the tranq gun that I had more than likely killed with it before. It makes me want to do a 100% lethal run of the game using only non lethal weapons to kill.

But seriously, from what people are saying about that achievement it sounds like you become entirely responsible for the lives of your enemies.. if you knock them out and they fall into electrified water that you couldn't save them from, well, there it goes... if you knock them out and leave them in a room that blows up, goodbye achievement... if you arive at a level and they lock themselves in a room alone and don't let you in to save them and drink the punch just to spite you... well, you get the picture. I'm not just responsible for not killing them, but making sure that their unconscious bodies are undamaged for the rest of the game, it feels like.

Anywho. I've ranted long enough. I could go on, but I don't think anyone would be interested. I've already played the game for 85 hours, after I finish beating it this time, I am going to take a break. Hopefully it will be nice and cool outside by then.

The Hushed Whispers of the Soul, Build that Wall, to Tear it Down

"Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil." - Baltasar Gracian

"The tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual virginity of the soul." ~William B. Yeats

"To hear many religious people talk, one would think God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals." ~Don Schrader

I am fascinated by sleep, but what I dream of is an entire world without it, perpetual light and hours innumerable without rest. Not the perpetual light of day, mind you, but the perpetual light generated for the purposes of fighting the night with heart and soul. Sleeping, lazily dreaming have always been a naughty vice, a shameful human habit. Be up before dawn, work till after dark, then fill your soul with companionship and sex, and then if you absolutely must, sleep a few moments before doing it all again. No one says it, no one lets it past their lips, but it is written everywhere and in the faces of every man and woman. Sleep is for the children, to keep them from spoiling our fun. Lets say it out in the open... lets let the words ring clear... We have conquered the world, we have conquered the human genome, and the very workings of the atom. What we dream of, what we are fevered with, what we fight with every corner of our being. We want to be wakeful forever, and throw off the shackles of that thief of the night.

"Without music life would be a mistake." ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"He who sings scares away his woes." ~Cervantes

"Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it." ~Henry David Thoreau

"Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them!" ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

I'll Say This As Emphatically As I Can...

Fuck yeah, Mrs. Robinson.


"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." - Samuel Johnson



Simon and Garfunkle never used autotune.. but what if they did?

Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

Beautiful Guitar Playing

This will make you fall in love! brought to you by Videobash

Dolmades

Here is a recipe I've done a few times and like a lot.

2 lb ground meat (beef or lamb or some blend of the two, the more lamb the better)
1/2 onion minced
8 oz tabbouleh or some fine granular pasta
Mint leaves
A few raisins(optional)
Salt and pepper
1 tb oil
1 egg


Mix it all up like a meat loaf, blend it up and mix it and shape it together.

1 Jar Grape Leaves
Chicken broth/stock/bouillon

Unfold the grape leaves carefully, then take one leaf at a time and place enough of the meat mixture into the leaf before rolling it up halfway, folding in the sides, then rolling the rest of the way to form the domlade. Place into a gallon pot. If you run out of leaves form the remaining meat into small meatballs and add to the rest of the pot. Fill pot with chicken broth till the dolmades are covered, then bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 45min - 1hour. Extra meatballs on top can be a strong indicator of how well done they are.

4 eggs, 4 lemons

Whisk eggs together while slowly adding lemon juice squeezed from 4 lemons till frothy, then after letting the dolmades cool for a bit, ladle about 1/4 - 1/2 the stock from the pot into the lemon sauce very slowly while whisking it to prevent it from curdling. Drain remainder of stock, then replace with sauce, cook for additional ten minutes on low to medium heat, then serve.

Sadly, Kroger had no lamb when I cooked these and they were all beef, and they were greatly lacking because of it.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

2 Cups Desired Cheese (I used mild cheddar)
1 Stick butter
1/2 Carrot, minced
1 Celery stick, chopped
1/2 Onion, minced
2 cups shredded chicken(I roasted and de-boned 3 thighs)
1/2 bottle Frank's Red Hot sauce
1 Cup milk
1 Lb Desired pasta(I used elbow macaroni)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Prepare the pasta in boiling salt water till tender, then drain and add 1/2 stick of butter, stir till melted, then add milk and cheese, salt and pepper to taste, stirring constantly till creamy, extra milk or cream can add a creamier consistency if the cheese is still stringy.

In a separate skillet, saute the carrot, celery, and onion till tender, then add shredded chicken, hot sauce, remaining butter, salt, and pepper. Cook till tender and chicken is well coated and most of the sauce is absorbed.

Fold meat mixture into pasta, serve.

It was delicious.

I served it with a little bit of garlic bread and blue cheese sauce on the side.

Recipes!

Last week I spent an abundant amount of time in the kitchen. I posted about stealing grape leaves, and the next day I cooked dolmades with them. I'm going to break these up into separate recipe posts and just talk about the short list here and when I cooked what.

Last tuesday Zac's mom came to visit us for dinner, which I was very surprised by, because she has been talking about visiting since I first moved in but always has some kind of unforseen difficulty. So, I really wanted to cook her something special. I originally was thinking shrimp scampi, but with the trip to the vineyard the day before I decided that fresh stolen grape leaves left open a rare opportunity for a meal that I couldn't pass up: dolmades made with fresh picked leaves.

So I made a tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad, then I fixed a helping of whipped sweet potatoes, and served it with fresh lemony (though not lamb-y as Kroger did not have any ground lamb) dolmades.

A few days after that I cooked for Mike and Co., fixing a recipe I had seen at work, though, I improved it since I didn't remember the recipe. Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese. It is every bit as delicious as it sounds.

Had to Share This

Tobias Funke was sitting in my lap when his head shot up. It took me a few seconds to find out what he was looking at before I noticed that his killer kitty instincts had zeroed in on the mouse pointer. After I noticed I decided to let him play with it for a while and that it would be fun to capture it for youtube with my webcam. Hehe. Enjoy.

For Fans of Doctor Who

Doctor Who Jizz in My Pants video:

If Life Had a Second Edition, How Would I Correct the Proofs?

Toil in the Vineyards

At my graduation the speaker talked about toiling in the vineyards as though it were a bad thing, or, not so much a bad thing, but like the toil was payment for the future to come. I believe that the toil itself is where the value is, the hard work is its own reward, and you must always be working on something, and sometimes the things you work toward, when you are dilligent and thoughtful and caring, produce fruit. As it happens, on monday I got the opportunity to toil in the vineyard for about 15 minutes or so.

Told my friend I would maybe be able to be out there by the late afternoon, and I was a bit off. I left late so I could get Zac to go with me, I thought it would be more fun with him there, and I knew it would help him feel better. We grabbed our swimsuits and took off for our hour and forty minute drive through rush hour traffic to get out there. Once we were there, it had started raining in a heavy sprinkle, but that wasn't too big of a bother because we spent the first hour of the trip riding around the property in a covered four wheeler. The large are was absolutely beautiful, clouds out, and all kinds of things to see from a pin of captured wild boars to wells and to just plain old fun driving around and ramping dirt hills as we got the complete tour before coming back to the vineyards. Once we got back up there we took a look at the Blanc du Bois first, vines that were a little less than a year old.

We looked carefully at them and my friend talked about how they are trimmed and cut and trained to grow correctly on the trellis to makes sure that the fruits they produce are the sweetest, most flavorful, and most abundant possible. After teaching how to do it, he handed me some pruning shears and some twine and let me do about 10 of them while he and Zac chatted. It was beautiful work, I would be happy working at a job like that.

After a little bit of working we drove around and looked at the other vines and the nursery and took a small tour of the winery where we saw the new equipment that has not been put into use, yet. Finally, we stopped up at the pool house and went swimming in the really nice pool for a few hours, just chatting and hanging around relaxing in the absolutely perfect weather and perfect temperature water.

On the way out the gate I picked enough grape leaves to cook dinner the next night, which is another post on its own. We stopped by the vines again and I picked about 30 really big leaves. We said good bye and headed home.

Hungry as we were after all the swimming and running around, we stopped at a Jack in the Box on a lake and we ordered food and then ate it while we watched fish swim in the lake and beavers splash around and ducks and ducklings move all over the place. Even saw a tiny baby beaver. It was late, though, 11:30, so after we took off my foot was a little heavy on the gas pedal, and we got pulled over. The officer chatted with us for a little bit and we talked about what we had been doing that day and he asked a bit about it and then let me off with a warning. Man, talk about a good day. THe rest of the drive home was pretty uneventful, just conversation and company.

I am really looking forward to doing that again. I am definitely going back some other time.

Photo Dump: Vineyard and Unseen University

Hey Jude Chords

Found here. In general, though, when I want to look up guitar tabs or chords I go to Ultimate Guitar Tabs.

                              Hey Jude (Beatles)

F                C   
Hey Jude dont make it bad      
     F  C7   C7sus4      C7       F  
take a  sad   song  and make it better
 Bb                           F     
Remember to let her into your heart 
                   C               F
and then you can start to make it better

      F              C         
Hey Jude dont be afraid
      F   C7   C7sus4      C7      F
you were made    to  go   out and get her
     Bb                            F            
The minute you let her under your skin
           C                F   Fmaj7 F7
then you begin to make it better


                          Bb      Bb/A   Gm     
And anytime you feel the pain hey jude refrain
      Gm7       C/E   C            F    Fmaj7 F7
dont carry the world upon your shoulders 
                              Bb      Bb/A      Gm   
For well you know that its a fool who plays it cool
     Gm7       C/E       C      F
by making his world  a little colder

  
      F6 F7      C  Csus4  CaddG       C  F  C7
Da da da da da   Da   da    da    da 


      F               C
Hey Jude dont let me down 
     F     C7  C7sus4    C7      F
You have found  her  now go and get her
   Bb                         F
Remember to let her into you heart 
               C                F   Fmaj7  F7
then you can start to make it better


                         Bb     Bb/A   Gm
So let it out and let it in hey Jude begin 
      Gm7         C/E    C     F         Fmaj7  F7
your waiting for someone to perform with
                                Bb      Bb/A        Gm
And dont you know that its just you hey jude you'll do 
     Gm7         C/E     C         F
The movement you need is on your shoulders


      F6 F7      C  Csus4 CaddG    C  F  C7
Da da da da da   da  da   da    da


     F                C   
Hey Jude dont make it bad      
     F  C7   C7sus4      C7      F
take a  sad   song  and make it better
  Bb                            F     
Remember to let her under your skin 
                  C                F
and then you'll begin to make it better 

F        Eb         
Na na na na na na na
Bb
Na na na na
     F
Hey Jude   (Repeat and fade)

Happiness is Good Health and a Bad Memory

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." - Isaac Asimov

Saw Captain America last night. Haven't seen or read or watched anything Captain America since I was like.. 4. So it never occurred to me that Captain America is a bad idea, or that even though Captain America himself may be a wonderful person, he represents terrible concepts and undermines the Allies side in the war of ideas that was World War II.

In real life we fought a war to the end against a series of nations over the idea of the creation of a superman. The idea that darwinism should prevail in every aspect of how we run our society, the elimination of the old, and the weak, and the sick, and the unintelligent is wrong, and we fought a war that ended with the use of the atomic bomb as a weapon to stop that from being the way the world was run. And Captain America represents the idea that we couldn't win the war against that idea without adopting their philosophy. That the only way to stop them was with their own superman. That premise tastes bitter on my lips.

The movie was enjoyable, and the trailer after the credits was really cool looking, too. That thought just bothers me.

And All The Joy Within you Dies

"Jefferson airplane" is slang for a used paper match split to hold a marijuana joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the fingers - an improvised roach clip. It is not, however, the source of the name for the band. Jefferson Airplane is responsible for two songs on the Rolling Stones list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.



Their lyrics are beautiful dystopian in their depiction of a world of pain and suffering and love and lies. Their bits of human need for connection and emotion stand out starkly and vividly against a world that is all too willing to take advantage of anyone for any strange or otherworldly reason. Their excellent instrumentation has created brilliant melodies, though they may perhaps have since been done by arguably supperior musicians, the vocals on these two songs have never been done so well...



But this is what it sounds like when the soul cries out because the Devil's gonna follow you e'er you go:



Running and walking for miles and miles in my bare feet...

"Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave." - Indira Gandhi

Dinner

Threw in a small package of smoked sausage after chopping it up with a package of pre-seasoned cheesy jambalaya rice for a kick ass dinner in about 45 minutes with 0 prep. I am going to do that again in the future. Was able to kick it up a notch with some cayenne pepper.

I finished reading the Dante Club today and started rereading Dune. Dune is an amazing book, even in the first few paragraphs it sets itself far and above The Dante Club in every measurable way, style, grace, and character. I'm going to really enjoy re-reading that. About halfway done with Super Freakanomics, too.

Enjoy some music:

Burn the World

Across the Universe by The Beatles lyrics

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind,
Possessing and caressing me

Jai guru de va om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they
Tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Sounds of laughter, shades of earth are ringing
Through my open ears inciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a
million suns and calls me on and on
Across the universe

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Jai guru deva

I guess if she accepted irrational realities, she'd hardly be my fantasy.

In a Related Note, Mankind is Fucked

"Never give up on anybody." - Hubert H. Humphrey

In other news, new construction has begun on a small project over at my dad's house during his vacation. Here are the first steps in production of the BB576 Bluenose:

From the billing boat website: "The schooner Bluenose has a very special place in the history of navigation and yachting. Built to fish off the Newfoundland coast, the ship soon turned out to be such a fast sailer that she won all the great classical regattas along the USA's Eastern coast. She was built in Nova Scotia in 1921, and shipwrecked near Haiti in 1946. A true copy - Bluneose II - was launched in 1964."

Models are awesome. I expect to be working on this ship for a little while, spending a few evenings over at my dad's house trying to get it done. Hope it wont take away too much time from construction on the Unseen University. The finished product wont look anything like this at all, even though the instuctions imply that it should:

Whoops, that is a cat. This is the boat the instructions imply I should end up with:

They are lies, though. And they are mostly not in English. I will be lucky if I even end up with a boat.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse or will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and
       done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won

In other news, Linkin Park covers Adele: