An Affinity for Divinity

If you yearn to return to the days of Odin, Hera, and Astarte (and Hamilcar does), you'll be happy to know that we have a bona fide goddess living among us. Indeed, Taleju (the deity) just jumped into a new body last week, a three-year-old girl from the Shakya caste in Nepal. You can read Msnbc's article on it here. . The article implies Hindus and Buddhists alike worship little Miss Divinity, but that's misleading. Actually, it's just a cult that attracts a hodgepodge of whackos of various religious persuasions, mostly in Nepal. Thankfully, the Tibetian Buddhists, with whom I was involved with briefly in my 20's, have nothing to do with this silliness. Interestingly though, the cult is also encouraged by the Nepalese monarchists and Maoists. . The whole thing is rife with goofiness. The 3-year-old girl (who first had to pass a series of bizarre tests) is taken from her parents to live in a monastery. She's treated like a ...well... goddess until she reaches puberty, at which point Taleju dumps her like damaged goods and takes possession of another body. She gets sent back to her village with a small stipend (from the government), and a gold coin, and a piece of cloth from her royal robe (from the monks). Oh, she also gets a curse - the man who marries her is prophecied to die within six months from coughing up blood. It's not nice to take up with someone spurned by the gods. . The Wikipedia article is here. And you can order a book written by one of these former goddess-girls from Amazon here. It's titled "From Goddess to Mortal", and you can purchase this 152-page book for the low, low price of $58.26. If you read it, you can write the first review at Amazon.

(Sigh). Well, it's nice to know religious ignorance and superstition are not something that Western religions have a monopoly on. BTW, the pics here are not of the present 3-year-old Kumari.

From my family tree...

This is my great, great, great - (insert 160,000 or so "greats" here) - grandmother. Her name was Lucy. She lived in Africa. I am very proud to have her in my family tree. The phrase "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle" doesn't bother me at all. I think she's beautiful.

The Ayatollah McCainey

Well, that's the vision I get anyway. Which is pretty disturbing.

RIP - Nick Reynolds

Nick Reynolds

b. : 27 July 1933

d. : 01 October 2008 .

2008's been a rough year for Kingston Trio fans. John Stewart passed on last 20 January; now news arrives that founding-member Nick Reynolds passed away last week at the age of 75. . For the record, Nick is the "short guy" in any Kingston Trio pic. In addition to playing guitar and singing "third" high harmony, when you hear any bongo drums or congas in a K3 song, that's Nick doing the percussion. . Of the original Trio, only Bob Shane remains now. He lives here in the Phoenix valley, and I got to see him last year in a cameo appearance when the present-day, third-generation Kingston Trio came to Arizona. Dave Guard, the other part of the original K3, died in 1991. . The Kingston Trio will always be my favorite folk group, being most famous for Tom Dooley and M.T.A. Alas, they chose in the 60's to shy away from politically-themed songs. They were in good company in that decision. Popular (at that time) singing groups like The Lettermen, The Association, and The Vogues went down the same road. Ultimately that turned out to be a career-killing dead end.

Debate Tonight!

A quick post, so I can watch the presidential debate tonight. Or parts of it at least. Liz says more than 15 seconds in a row of McCain makes her nauseous. . McCain's in desperation mode. The polls are trending Obama's way, and the Dow Jones dropping 500 points today didn't do him any favors. He needs to score zinger after zinger against Obama tonight. He'd like to cop an "in your face, suckah!" attitude with Barack, but that cost him big-time with independent voters in the last debate. . Anyhoo, here's a couple of takes on last week's Veep debate.

As for Failin' Palin, the rumor at MSNBC.com today is that she's going to appear in an upcoming Saturday Night Live show. Before the elections. Hmm. Do you get the feeling she wants a night off from the trainwreck called the McCain Campaign?

Death Magnetic - Metallica

Album : Death Magnetic (2008)

Artist : Metallica

Genre : Thrash Metal

Overall Rating : ***** ** (out of 10*)

. This Week I'm Listening To... Death Magnetic is Metallica's latest release and will probably earn the laurel of Thrash Metal Album of 2008. Metallica Maniacs are raving over it, calling it their best effort in more than a decade. . What's To Like... 75 minutes of high energy. Some fantastic guitar work by Kirk Hammett. There are some great tracks here : The Day That Never Comes, The Unforgiven III, The Judas Kiss, and Suicide & Redemption. That latter track is an a mind-blowing 10-minute instrumental that really shows what Metallica can do if they want to. . What's Not To Like... The rest of the tracks are standard Metal mishmosh. You could do a mash-up on them and not tell any difference. The lyrics are the usual Metal themes - suicide, betrayal, angst, etc. . The singing is so-so. I guess I shouldn't complain since at least it isn't grunting. The drumming is high-schoolish. . Don't Forget To Take The Thrash Out... My Metal tastes trend towards "applied Metal" such as Folk Metal, Symphonic Metal, and yes, even Polka Metal. For the most part, Thrash Metal to me verges on being garage-band stuff. It's what teenage bands play before they become adept at playing musical instruments, writing coherent songs, and learning to sing. . I have to admit Metallica does an excellent job here. Unfortunately, it's still Thrash Metal. It's kinda like Vladimir Horowitz (who?) playing Chopsticks on the piano. It may be superbly done, but it's still Chopsticks. So we'll give Death Magnetic seven solid stars, recognizing that if this kind of Metal is your thing, you're likely to rate it a lot higher.

Sunny Sunday

First of all, we having positively gorgeous weather this weekend (highs in the mid-80's), including a rare cloudy-all-day Saturday. Second of all, my Redskins went into Philadelphia and plucked the Eagles 23-17. Look out, Dallas and New York. There's a new Beast of the East.

Thirdly, our hometown Arizona Cardinals demolished the previously-unbeaten Buffalo Bills 41-17. We don't talk much about the Cardinals because frankly, there usually is little worth mentioning. But they were out for blood today. Starting with Trent Edwards (above), the Bills' quarterback, whom we sent packing with a concussion. And for the record, there was no foul on the play.

Well pimp my goth

It never ceases to amaze me what the pros over at www.worth1000.com can do with the American Gothic painting.

More Chemistry Humor

From the zanies over at www.toothpastefordinner.com. Where you can even buy a t-shirt with this image/message.

He ran circles around her!

But then, we kinda expected that. Biden repeatedly tied McCain to Dubnutz, while all Sarah could do is evade answering the questions and reciting her memorized lines. Which usually included "by heck" and "main street". In fairness, it has to be said she exceeded expectati0ns. She improved on her cretinous performance in the Katie Couric interview. But Biden was suave, intelligent, well-versed, and obviously the class of the two. BTW, I got to watch this because my racquetball partner, on point #3 of the first game, smashed his head forcibly into the front wall. Which would've been okay, EXCEPT he was wearing safety goggles. The frames of the goggles tore a gash into his scalp, which bled profusely and probably needs stitches. So the racquetball session was over by 5:30.

Veep debate tomorrow!

Doonesbury ran an excellent series on a "Sarah Palin" doll last week. You can access all of them via MSNBC.com or any number of comics websites. Shown below is my favorite. I really should watch Palin-Biden, if only for the entertainment value. But Thursday night is racquetball at the gym for me. And there's playoff baseball to boot. Besides, I think Fox News has already written an article, declaring Palin the winner of the debate.

Just Wrong #3 - Electric Football

I had forgotten about this childhood vexation until I recently read Bill Bryson's "The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid", wherein he spends a couple paragraphs telling about his Electric Football frustrations. As shown, you set the pieces up on a rectangular metal sheet, then turn on a switch which vibrates the 'playing field'. The little figurines actually rest (IIRC) on a pair of stiff bits of plastic. In theory, the vibration causes them to "run" (a lot of imagination is required) in the direction they point.

In practice, they moved in any old direction. But mostly, they just fell over on their sides from the vibration, and laid there like dying cockroaches, in turn impeding and knocking over still other pieces.

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If you're fascinated by random number generators, I suppose you could find some entertainment here. For the other 99.9% of us, the whole shebang got put back in the box within 10 minutes. I don't know if any toy companies still make Electric Football, but if they do, for the love of all that's decent, don't buy it for your kids.

Redskins 26 - Dallas 24

I've been a Redskins fan ever since Vince Lombardi coached them for one season and forever changed their mindset. Today's game was a brawl, with the margin of victory being an onside kick that Dallas very nearly recovered. This was a fun one to watch, admittedly because the 'Skins won.

In honor of last night's debate...

...which I have to admit, I didn't see. Liz watched snippets of it and said McCain was pathetic. Instead we flipped channels between CSI and WWE.

I'm Beside Myself!

Omigosh! I just found out one of my multiple personalities is a solipsist! Imagine the internal conflict! For the record, this most excellent cartoon comes from www.toothpastefordinner.com . Which I'm sure everybody but me already is acquainted with.

There goes the Wiccan vote...

Muthee also prayed that she'd get lots of money to finance her campaign. Yeah, like I'm sure God contributes lots of $$$ to right-wing political causes. Muthee, you're a joke. One thing to keep in mind. The rest of the Pentecostal denominations view the Assemblies of God as sort of having half-strayed from the Fundamentalist path. In their eyes, the AoG'ers are too worldly because they allow their women to wear make-up, wedding rings, and (gasp!) even pants at times. I spent 10+ (combined) years in the Pentecostal Church of God and the AoG. And Liz is a Pentcostal PK. Oh, the stories we could tell.

, , , , , chameleon

!To-day is; "National ^Punctuation: Day;". ?Really it'is. Check it, out here : link. . Oh yeah, about this post's title. That would be the most-famous line from Boy George's biggest hit, appropriately punctuated for today's holiday.

There in this Dali-esque world...

The surreal decapitated sculpture from Saturday resides in stodgy, old Frankfurt, Germany. If you google-image something like "Frankfurt Head Sculpture", you'll find at least one more photo of it (on someone's Flickr page) buried there a couple pages back. With some comments in German indicating it is very close to this more-famous and less-interesting Euro sculpture. If you google-earth Frankfurt, Germany; by default it will plop you down almost exactly on top of the Euro statue. Just look for its shadow, and/or a cluster of photo icons. I've found several statues nearby - one of Goethe, one of Tillich, etc. But I've not yet been able to locate the head-&-torso.

700 Billion Dollars

That's the price, in taxpayer dollars, for 8 years of an idiot in the White House, and the unregulated practices of his financial Rasputins. Don't worry too much about them though, they all have golden parachutes. You and I don't. But hey, we have Dubnutz's "stimulus tax refund" from earlier this year to tide us over.

Suffer the little children, for they shall inherit this deficit.

Where in this Dali-esque world?

No, this isn't photoshopped. It's actually sculpture(s) in ...erm... well, that's the challenge - name the city and country where this is. For extra credit, name the building it's in front of. The only hint we'll give is - this is somewhere in Europe. So good luck with your Google Image Searchwords skills. First correct answer gets ...let's see now... how 'bout a copy of George Carlins's book, "When Will Jesus Bring The Porkchops?". Absolutely free. If you pay the postage. ;-)

The Economy - Lesson #3

You can expect to see some serious flip-flopping by McSame over the next couple of days. He has opposed any oversight of the banking industry for years.

As for you, Dubnutz, thanks for losing my retirement fund for me. You jerk.

Next up - what Dubnutz's "bold" plan to fix all this means to you and me. And to his millionaire buddies.

White to play and draw

There are times I feel this way in a chess game.

What's Wrong With The Economy

In two easy lessons.

Oh yeah, there's also the criminal negligence of the Dubnutz administration in not overseeing the practices of AIG, Lehman Brothers, etc. But that's a rant for another time.

Just Wrong (part deux)

Burger King "Ketchup & Fries" Flavored Potato Snacks

. These really do taste like french fries with ketchup on them. Extra greasy. Extra smelly. Extra messy. And the gas you get an hour later stays with you the rest of the day. . I'm sure when the marketing shirts came up with this, it seemed like a good idea. It is - if you're trying to give up eating nutritionless snack foods. One bag of BKK&F, and you'll be reaching for an apple or a celery stick.

RIP - Richard Wright

Richard Wright (center, b. 07/28/43), longtime keyboardist for Pink Floyd, passed away today of cancer. He joins Syd "Madcap" Barrett on the other side of the veil. This is a real loss for music, and kinda puts the kibosh on any PF reunion possibilities. Not that those were very likely anyway. . So long, Mr. Wright. You will be missed. All we can say is, "Shine on, you crazy diamond".

Weekly Cuteness

Many years ago, my roommate had a dog that I swear listened to music with us. We had four speakers; one in each corner of the room. When Jessie (the dog) liked what we were playing, she'd plop down midway between the two speakers by the turntable. She was especially partial to Pink Floyd. . When Jessie didn't like the music, she'd go lie down in the kitchen, away from it and us. I'm hard-pressed to remember the stuff she didn't like - my best guess now would be things like Incredible String Band. . Yeah, we were skeptical of this, just as you are as you read this post. So on different nights, we'd play the same albums again. Her reactions were consistent. So here's to Jessie, a Pink Floyd-loving German shepherd from the early 70's. You were unforgettable.

Four More Years!

One has to wonder why the Democrats aren't pushing this angle more. Dubnutz is a huge liability to the Repugnicans. Instead we're arguing about lipstick on a pig.

Definitely Maybe...

This posting isn't about Hurricane Ike, though that's certainly newsworthy. No, this is about MSNBC's command of the English language in making the statement that some people "... could face certain death". .

Really? Is that the same as "... certainly facing a possible death"?

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To which the answer is : Yes, for sure it's perchance an inevitable possibility. C'mon, MSNBC. This is why the Brits laugh at us.

Inspired by...

...Steve McQueen's famous motorcycle scene in The Great Escape, the pack of Jack Russell Terriers successfully crosses the border into Switzerland.

Happy LHC Birthday!

The take of www.xkcd.com on today's switching on of the LHC. When it's fully functional, the doomsdayers fear it will spawn a bunch of Mini Black Holes, which will go about obliterating all matter. Who knew that The Neverending Story would turn out to be a prophetic movie? LHC stands for "Large Hadron Collider", a rather unimaginative acronym for this particle-accelerator. Around here, LHC usually stands for Lake Havasu City, a city in northwest Arizona that's home to the world-famous London Bridge. Which we shrewdly bought from the Brits in the early 70's. Poor gits. They should've known better than to bargain with us savvy Arizonans.

Movies We'd Like To See...

Who says I can't handle "relationship movies"?? After all, I did watch Bambi Versus Godzilla several times. I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

New counters!

This... ...via this... ...became this...

...including a new sink and faucet.

College Football - Week 2

The second week of NCAA football brought two more wins for my alma maters. Both games were broadcast here in Phoenix, and I got to watch the majority of both of them. Penn State looked particularly sharp in trouncing Oregon State, 45-17. PSU's defense looks good, as does its running and passing game. Indeed, the QB Clark looks like he might be the best we've had in 10-20 years. Not that that's saying a lot about Penn State quarterbacks.

Meanwhile, in Tempe, Arizona State took apart Stanford, 41-17. This was not as complete a thrashing as the PSU-OSU game. ASU's secondary looks a little shaky, and even with Herring back in the lineup, the running game isn't scaring anyone just yet. But Rudy Carpenter had another great passing game, and both lines looked good. So there's reason for optimism when #2-ranked Georgia comes to Tempe in two weeks.

Website of the Week

This is a cool site. You can work on your vocabulary in a couple foreign languages, see how bad your English grammar and vocabulary is, mindlessly review your multiplication tables, and more. You can find it at :

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www.freerice.com

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Now I hate to sound like a cynic, but I'm really not buying that for every correct click I give, this site donates 20 grains of rice to the UN food program. First of all, who would count the grains? And secondly, would we really hear something like, "Little Mbutu starved to death yesterday, all because Terry was posting on his blog instead of clicking on answers at Freerice.com." I think not.

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By the way, I do good on the Spanish words, and kick a$$ on the French ones. But my English grammar sux.

Political Cartoon for the Day

Yeah, I'm real impressed.

Phoenix Fall Concert Scene

We generally get good concerts from September thru about March here in Phoenix.  I think our climate is a huge factor in this. Here's the highlights for the next couple months.  First up is Nightwish; on Sunday, 14 September; which is odd since they were here last November, and AFAIK are not promoting a new album.

Nightwish put on a fabulous show last year, but once again this concert starts at 6:40 PM with a warm-up band.  To wit, Sonata Arctica, said to be a Finnish Power Metal band.  That means Nightwish won't even come on stage until 9:30 or so.  Bad news for those of us who have to work the next day.   The concert I'm more excited about is Apocalyptica, who's here on Sunday, 02 November, and for only $15 a ticket.

That's almost a must-see. But wait! It gets even better.

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In December, the dynamic diva herself, Sarah Brightman, comes to town.  Kewlness indeed!

We actually bought our tickets for Sarah early this year.  It was a Channel 8 PBS promotion. I confess, I'm a huge SB fan.  Except when she sings that Andrew Lloyd Webber crap.

twofers

...in which you not only get your Worth1000 fix, but also a Daliesque "disappearing picture" of Threepio (sp?) from Star Wars. BTW, this image definitely looks better full-sized, so left-click on it.