Minesweeper

    I'm pretty good at Minesweeper.  I only play the "100 mines" layout and I can beat it maybe 5% of the time.  Not bad, considering the layouts aren't rreally random - every one of them has a "dead zone" where you have two squares with one bomb in them, and it's strictly a guess as to which one is the deadly one.

    And I still make some miscalculations.  But the majority of my "tilts" are exactly as indicated in the graph - the farther you get, the faster you go, and the more likely you are to miss the square you wanted to click on.

Gay Marriage

     From one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Nigel was complacent about his future.  It held neither interest nor challenge and would be populated by the same sort of people who comprised his parents', and his own, circle of friends.  He did not think he was destined for anything else.  He had no wish to explore the Amazon or be the first man on the Moon.  Far from it.  The prospect of lifelong comfort was much more appealing.

(from Darling Brenda, by Richard Herley)

  8*/10.  The full review is here.
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What will it take?

    From the fertile cartooning mind at http://farleftside.com/   And yes, I am a strong proponent of gun control.

RIP - Stevie Ray Vaughan

    Lost to the world 22 years ago today in a freakin' helicopter crash.  One can only wonder as to how much fantastic music was still in him.

Punny Sunday

Book Excerpt for the Day



    "You told them it was out of their hands," Eddie said, "but they didn't ken that any more than they did the business about all those gray horses.  And you didn't press it."

    "Only would have distressed them," Roland said.  "There was a saying in Gilead: Let evil wait for the day on which it must fall."

    "Uh-huh," Eddie said.  "There was a saying in Brooklyn: You can't get snot off a suede jacket."

(from Wolves of the Calla, by Stephen King)

8*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Kleenex Police

    I never post about my job.  I keep my personal life and my professional life separate, and frankly, most of the latter would be boring to others.  But we'll make an exception just this once.

    I went to get a box of Kleenex today,  They're kept at 2 or 3 places in the office, and I was surprised to not find any anywhere.  I figured they'd been moved to some new place, so I went to the office manager to find out where.  And I was updated on the situation.

    Kleenex boxes are now kept under lock and key.  You're allowed one box at a time only (no keeping a spare), and if you do get a new box, the date they gave it to you is marked on a list alongside your name.  The office manager pleasantly noted this was my first box since the new protocol.  The program's been in effect for some time now, and I apparently am not a heavy user.

    My company is not normally a Dilbert zone, so there is a rational explanation.  It is suspected that employees have been taking boxes of tissues home for personal use.  Been there.  At the previous place I worked, it was toilet paper.  Employees would take rolls of it home by the dozens.

    So I understand the need to do something.  But seriously, folks?!  Monitoring employees' Kleenex usage seems a bit draconian to me.  And no, I'm not one of the perps.

Happy Birthday, Tori Amos

    Ms. Amos turned 49 today.  Wow.

    I confess I have not listened to her a lot.  What little I have heard was more or less meh.  But over the weekend I got to hear the above double-LP for the first time.  And it is absolutely stunning.   Methinks I'm going to have to spend more time with her albums.

Anagrams

   DID YOU KNOW :

    That if you anagram "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan", you come up with "My Ultimate Ayn Rand Porn"?

    One cannot over-emphasize the mystical significance of this.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    He liked the noise that a newspaper made when you folded it.  It was the only thing he liked about newspapers; he had to read them through spectacles, and spelling mistakes annoyed him because as a clerk he felt that bad spelling was one step away from bad speech, which was within hopping distance of being Welsh.

(from Alt Hist Issue 2, edited by Mark Lord)

6*/10.  The full review is here.
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Star Wars Sunday

    Once upon a time, it was planned to have a third trilogy - Episodes 7 through 9.  That got scrapped.  I for one would welcome it being reconsidered.

The drawbacks of Time-Travel

    And just try using your cell phone in the Mesozoic Era.

Reading is Fun !

   Open up your mind this weekend.  Read a book.  Any book.  Any genre.  Read a book by an author who has passed on.  Bring his voice back to life.  Charles Bukowski, for instance.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    He was too tired, too old, too weary of wandering from place to place.  He had seen his own and all the other nomad tribes destroyed: the old way of life was finished for ever.  Its freedom and plenty, its grinding hardships, its terrors and grandeur, everything he had lived for, everything was gone.  Even had there been enough people to make a spirit group, there was nowhere left for them to go.  The trees were gone from vista to vista, cut down or ring-barked and left to die.  The ancient territories of his people had been laid waste, and still Valdoe's blades were at work.  Once he had been angry; recently he had begun to fear that, one day, he would view it all with indifference.

(from The Earth Goddess, by Richard Herley)

  7½*/10.  The full review is here.
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Happy Woodstock Day !!

    Well okay, there's no such thing as Woodstock Day.  But 43 years ago, today was the first day of the 3-day extravaganza.  I wasn't there; we had moved to Lake Havasu City that summer, and I was sweating my butt off working as a carry-out boy at one of the local supermarkets there, while also doing the paperwork for transferring from Penn State to Arizona State.

    The line-up for Woodstock will never be equaled.  Bands are sponsored now, and sponsors don't like to share stage-time with other bands/sponsors.  The Coachella festival draws some nice bands, but still not like Woodstock did.

    Pictured above is one of the bands that played there, and one of my personal favorites.  So we'll make it a quiz - who are they?  Answer in the comments when you give up. 

RIP - Arnold Horshack

    Well crap.  That's two of the four Sweat Hogs that have died this year.  And neither one of them was Vinnie Barbarino.  RIP, Ron Palillo.  Your character in Welcome Back Kotter was unforgettable.

Ah yes, the Voices

    Most of them are also good conversationalists.

Adieu, les Olympics

    The 2012 Summer Olympics are over.  Despite dire warnings by our Republican dimwit presidential candidate, London pulled the whole shebang off without any security issues.

    As expected, the US won - both on total medals count and number of gold medals.  China ended up in a worthy second place.  And the host country came in at a creditable fourth.

    For me, the Olympics are generally boring.  I tend to cheer for the underdogs, and the US is hardly ever in that position.  One can appreciate that Women's Beach Volleyball is played in underwear.  And I learned that the sport of Handball is now something totally different from what I used to play back in the 60's.  And who knew that there was such a thing as Men's Field Hockey?

    So now the athletes head home, and for most, it's a return to obscurity.  Which begs the queastion - was it worth it?  I mean, if you trained your whole life to be a star Water Polo player, and even if you won a Gold Medal in London, so what?  Will it get you any endorsement deals?

    Maybe the guy who draws Blondie felt the same way.  So above is his small tribute to Water Polo players all over the world.  May your face appear on the front of the box that Dagwood brought home.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    They were looking a mite apprehensive.  I could tell - the twitchy feet alone gave them away.  Not to mention the sidelong glances at the door, oh, maybe eight times a second, like they were sizing up the escape route.  Fat lot of good it'd do them! Well, McDoul could have probably outrun Greyboar, he could scurry faster than any hunchback I ever saw.  And Erlic might have had a chance on the flat, if he could avoid tripping over his potbelly.  But Geronimo Jerry couldn't have escaped a pack of wild turtles.  The man was built like a two-legged pumpkin.


(from The Philosophical Strangler, by Eric Flint)

  5½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Demotivational Friday

    Makes sense to me.

Twister

    It's been around longer than you think.

Why is Janis smiling?

   Methinks Arlo & Janis slipped another one past the censors.

RIP Gore Vidal

    I can't say as I've ever read any of your books.  But you were a royal pain in the butt to Republicans in general and to Tricky Dick in particular, and I for one applaud that.

This is a Sikh

    Dear right-wing, hate-mongering, gun-fanatic, tea-baggers.  Above is a picture of a Sikh.  That is a turban.  Its design is very specific to the Sikh religion.  It is not a veil.  It is not a burqa.  It is not an Arabic piece of clothing.  There is nothing Muslim about it.

    Below is a picture of Osama bin Laden.  Notice his headdress.  It is not the same as what the Sikh is wearing.   If you took the time to think before you hate, you'd find that Sikhism is a religion based in India. India is not (for the most part) a Muslim country.  You freaking hate-filled wing-nuts.

    Yes, they both have beards.  So did Abraham Lincoln.  And he was a Republican.  Get over it.

    Sikhism is a very spiritual religion.  You can read the Wikipedia article on it here.  Sikhs are monotheistic (I know, that's a big word.  Look it up.).  You will find more love among Sikhs than in a Christian church.  And a lot more love than at your local Neo-Nazi meetings.

    So listen up, you psychopathic bigots!!  Please stop killing the Sikhs.  You're only showing what a bunch of utterly ignorant assholes you are.  And while you're at it, stop killing Muslims too.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "That girl will have you married and settled down as an innkeeper before the year is out," Borlan said with a laugh.

    "Let's see if we can get me some more work here so that isn't necessary," I said wryly over my shoulder as I opened to door to leave.

    "Which, being an innkeeper or getting married?" Borlan teased.

    I closed the door behind me without answering him.  "Either," I said to myself after the door had closed completely.

(from Vaetra Unveiled, by Daniel R. Marvello)

  5*/10.  The full review is here.
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OMg

Demotivational Friday

in defense of marriage

    Chick Fil-A.  Never ate there.  Never will.

YMBaL if...

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Pulling men had never been her forte.  She'd always believed that an outright demonstration of her virtues would serve to establish her firmly in someone's affections.  Womanly virtues had  a longevity to them that sexual allure could never match.  And when lust and passion died the death of familiarity, one needed something of substance to take their place.  Or so she had taught herself to believe through an adolescence and a young adulthood remarkable for their solitude.

(from In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, by Elizabeth George)

    7*/10.  The full review is here.
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The Abecedarian Insult

    "Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, coprolalial, dasypygal, excerebrose, facinorous, gnathonic, hircine, ithyphallic, jumentous, kyphotic, labrose, mephitic, napiform, oligophrenial, papuliferous, quisquilian, rebarbative, saponaceous, thersitical, unguinous, ventripotent, wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte."

    A positively pedantic delight.  FWIW, spell-checker only liked the H, I, M, R, S, and Z words.  Googling found all the rest.

Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic

Artist  :  Aerosmith

Album  :  Toys In The Attic

Year  :  1975

Rating : 8*/10

- Tracks -

01. Toys In The Attic

02. Uncle Salty

03. Adam's Apple

04. Walk This Way

05. Big Ten Inch Record

06. Sweet Emotion

07. No More No More

08. Round And Round

09. You See Me Crying

    I've never gotten into Aerosmith.  Can't really say why; they play good old Rock & Roll.  Liz has a couple CD's by them - Big Ones (good stuff); Honkin' On Bobo (not so good).

    A co-worker gave me this LP a couple weeks ago, along with about 10 others.  It was in wretched shape, as was true of all his LP's.  If God is an audiophile, this guy will surely spend Eternity in Hell.  So despite not having a big interest in the band, I digitalized the album, just to see how my De-Scratcher program would do.

    The program performed quite well.  About 95% of the scratches were removed, with only the last track, which is more ballady, still sounding like a wirebrush had been applied to it.  As background music, it sounded good.  On the good speakers on the PC, it was only so-so.  Unfortunately, what the de-scratch program couldn't touch were a bunch of forward skips.  Which became quite irritating once I knew where they'd crop up.

    Surprisingly, I found Toys In The Attic to be a very solid album.  Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion were the big radio-play hits, of course.  But really, there are no weak tracks on either side.  Favorite tracks are in pink above.  You could add the two hits as well, but I've heard them too often on the radio.

    Liz says Aerosmith albums are hit-or-miss; this one must be a hit.  We'll give it 8 Stars, and probably go looking for a better copy of it at the local used-record store.  Amazon sells with - sans any bonus tracks - for $8.99, which is kind of a ripoff.

Beach Reads

    Well I'm pretty sure this is Photoshopped, but jeez, wouldn't it be sweet to have something like this at your nearest beach?

Science Friday

    It's been a long week, but the weekend is at last upom us.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "Do you realize," Elizabeth said, mumbling a little, feeling that the words came from a long distance, "that I myself have hardly ever been out of Harwich?"

    "I know," Katarina said.  "The old folks do say the railway changed the world as surely as the constructs did.  Not so destructively, though; as I said, it can't hurt you unless you stand in front of it."

    "Because it can't think for itself," Elizabeth said.

    Katarina gave her a surprised look.  "The constructs can't either.  I thought you realized.  It takes three men each to make them go."

(from Timepiece, by Heather Albano)

  8*/10.  The full review is here.
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Wednesday Math Lesson

    How can you argue with that enthusiasm?

RIP - Sally Ride

    One of the few true heroes of modern history, Sally Ride, died Monday from pancreatic cancer.  She was 61.  First American woman in space; also the youngest astronaut ever.  And possibly the first gay astronaut.

    RIP, Sally Ride.  You inspired a whole generation of little girls to reach for the stars.  And a lot of other people, this blogger included.

TV shows I'd like to see

Leo Kottke - Guitar Music

    Album : Guitar Music

    Artist : Leo Kottke

    Year : 1981

- Tracks -

01.) Part Two

02.) Available Space

03.) Side One Suite

04.) Perforated Sleep

05.) Strange

06.) Little Shoes

07.) Jib's Hat

08.) Tumbling Tumbleweeds

09.) Agile N.

10.) A Song for "The Night of the Hunter"

11.) All I Have To Dream

12.) Sleep Walk

    An all-instrumental LP from a guitar maestro who for some reason never really got his due.  Nothing fancy; just Leo and his guitars - sometimes the 6-string; sometimes the 12-string.  No drums; no keyboards; no bass.  It very much reminds me of a Chet Atkins album - just one guy making an acoustic guitar sound as good as it can get.

   I picked up the album for $2 at the local used-record store, and digitalized it last week.  There were no skips to contend with, and no major scratches.  But there were a zillion scrapes and small hisses - I suspect the grooves were filthy, and just wiping it with a cloth wasn't effective.  No matter, the DAK de-popper program cleaned it right up.  My favorite tracks are in pink., which is pretty much the whole Side 2.