Blogging In Plain Site

TV Land

I was a latchkey kid and watched a lot of TV.

I grew up in a world with fewer than 30 channels. There was a station we watched in Florida called "WTBS" now its called "TBS" but at the time it was a catchall for all the shows that weren't on the networks.

The shows that were on were shows like Sha-na-na, Hee-Haw, Lawrence Welk, Star Trek reruns, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, WWE cage fighting, Land of the Lost and assorted Japanese monster movies.

This range of programming partially explains my bent disposition toward the world at large.

Random Thoughts For a Friday

Play ball!
Today is Liam and I's first baseball game together. We're both very excited. I predict we'll make it all of two innings.

Rounding 2nd Base
Marie Osmond got a boob job? What the hell? When I saw them last night, the 12 year old boy in me was somewhat aroused and curious but that thought was immediately replaced by the realization that a) she's now a cougar and b) even though they look spectacular in a sweater, they are still on Mormon soil. If only she'd done the augmentation when she was in her 20's. She could have been a super star.

Sliding Into Home   
The office is back! Last night's episode was especially cruel, taxing and uncomfortable. Nice to have the writers back I may not throw a dinner party again for a long time.

   

Why...

Why are business cards just a little bit too long to ft in your credit card slots in your wallet? Why are tortilla chips just a little bit wider than your mouth?

A Shift

I drove up to Easter Sunday dinner in our new Prius. My dad (who is politically somewhere to the right of Darth Vader) wanders out there looking it over. I could tell what was in his eyes:

"You bought yourself a little green scooter and you're voting for Obama....'the FUCK's wrong with you, kid? Next you're going to tell me you didn't really like Regan...or Family Ties when you were a kid."

Travel Rant

Hey Dude, When I have to log into the Internet in the cube farms of the Crown room during my travel and you set up shop next to me, I don't want to hear your heavy sights and loud breathing. We're all miserable. Try not to puncture my bubble, fucker.

Maybe Now You Can Understand Seattle's Commute From Hell

This is for all of you out of towners that are, I'm sure fascinated with All Things Ted.

Blow this picture up and look at it. This is Seattle proper. 40% of the greater city population runs on this isthmus that runs north to south in an area about the size of West LA. Look how dense it is. And, notice you can only get across the humongous Lake Washington (right) on two bridges. The one you're looking at is the "big" one. The populations in this area (plus north/south) and east across the lake constitute 80% of the State's population.

Try to imagine 80% of the area's population trying to squeeze north and south on either side to get to two bridges that aren't very big. That's why my 15 mile commute from the west side (pictured here) to the east side (right) where I work took 1.5 hours.

Ayers Surrendered Immediately!

This falls into the "Should have stayed in bed" files. You wake up one morning to steal copper wiring from a commercial building and you drop smack dab into a pit of snarling German Shepards and angry cops on parade....

Men Break Into Building Full of Police Officers

ANTIOCH, Calif. - Two men who police said broke into a building to steal copper wiring got more than they bargained for: a room full of police officers. Police said 26-year-old James Ayers and Frederick Guilliee, 38, broke into the 40,000-square-foot building at about 6 p.m. Tuesday.

What they hadn't planned for is the Antioch police K-9 unit who was holding a training session there.

At the time of the break-in, an officer was hiding inside the building in a training exercise. Shortly thereafter, a K-9 officer announced that a dog was about to be released and that anyone inside should give themselves up or risk being bitten.

Ayers surrendered immediately, police said, and the K-9 officers found Guilliee hiding inside.

Police arrested the men on suspicion of commercial burglary.

Pit Bulls Bite Mount Baker Man, Kill Dog

Ran into this article in the Times....here's a snippet.

Bob Walston saw the two pit bulls just as he rounded the corner in his quiet Mount Baker neighborhood early Tuesday morning, but it was too late. The pit bulls were on him and his dog, Margaret Thatcher, within seconds. Margaret Thatcher yelped in agony as the pit bulls tore into her tiny body despite Walton's efforts to shield her from the attack. Walston, 70, screamed for help and in pain as the pit bulls bit his arms in their frenzy to reach his dog.

Walston's injuries were minor, but his "Schnoodle" — a mixed poodle and schnauzer he and his wife had nicknamed "Maggie" — died shortly after the attack.

As I thought about poor "Schnoodle" I couldn't help but wonder if the Pit Bulls decided they just couldn't take the idea of a little Poodle/Schnauzer named Margaret Thatcher living on the same street (much less the hideous human moniker of Schnoolde); that it simply must die.

BTW, this photo comparison of the dog, her grieving "Mother" and her namesake speaks for itself, i think.

The victim, mother.

The namesake.

Pet Peeve Sound-Off: Slow Cross Walk Walkers Beware!

Pet peeve of mine: slow ass cross walk walkers. Seatte is the epicenter of the universe for slow cross walk walkers. Why?

Seattle is very pedestrian friendly. Redmond, where i work, is considered the (un?) official bycicle capital of the world. Everyone bikes and rides 11mph smack dab in the middle of the road. If you so much as throw too much draft on a biker trying to pass them the fuzz will give you reckless endangerment. Pedestrians are king in the Emerald City. But why?

Picture a bloated , peevish law enforcement community, engorged by funds from excessive sin and gas taxes, being pushed relentlessly by revenue hungry state, county and city officials to work over a population in a city that has as much proclivity for crime as a small sized, upper country Norwegian town. So, they trap you in ticky-tack, chicken shit tickets. Many of which give pedestrians the confidence that they can walk in any street whenever and how ever they like and there's not a goaddamn thing you can do about it.

The only benefit of this bizzare system is that the revenue-hungry borg turns on its own, not unlike the female black widow and devours its mate in the chicken shit revenue ecosystem and preys on the very pedestirans it protects with excessive j-walking tickets. That, at least, is a blessing.

But it doesn't keep those Soy Late drinking, tree-hugging, Harry Potter hoarding bastards from walking at a snails pace in front of your car through an intersection while casually staring at you like Sasquatch on the Patterson film (how's that for a NW reference?).

I Know I'm Twisted and I'm Going to Hell, But...

I was reading Liam a story and saw this picture. I tried not to go there but I couldn't help thinking back to rush week.