February 2009 Archives

My truck's inspection sticker expires today. I'm heading into town in a little while to have it inspected. It will surely be rejected because of the crack in my windshield. There was a time the sticker would have been issued anyway but the State of Louisiana has pretty much put a stop to that. Flat tires and broken windshields are fairly common in Louisiana post-Katrina but I won't rehash that. Because of that, I've been waiting until the last possible moment the last couple of years before having the inspection. I want to keep the damaged windshield as long as possible because the chances of debris hitting it are so great. If I had replaced it even just a week ago, I'd have a chip in the new one already. There has been another advantage to my strategy but I'm going to wait a while before I reveal it.

Quote of the Day

I get this feeling I may know you
As a lover and a friend
But this voice keeps whispering in my other ear
Tells me I may never see you again

The Eagles, Peaceful Easy Feeling

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Might be one of those rare instances where the movie is better than the book."

I can think of a few. The Harry Potter movies are better than the books. The Exorcist and The Godfather are at least as good as the books. -Rob

I am going through CDs deciding which ones to have on the new PC when I run across Three Dog Night Captured Live At The Forum. I have this one on vinyl, too. It was released in 1969. It's 40 years old this year. I remember when it came out. That part is kind of revolting. A few of my friends had it. I didn't have a turntable then that could play LPs but my friends always had it on and I knew all of the songs by heart long before I owned it. Three Dog Night is on the casino circuit now and I'd bet anything they sound a lot now like they did then. There isn't a lot of techno-wizardry to their music. This is still one of my favorite albums and I get a kick out of the announcer who introduces them (See QOTD). They were considered "heavy" in 1969. Metallica, Rammstein, Three Dog Night ...

Quote of the Day

Would you welcome ... one of the heaviest groups in America today ... Three Dog Night

Announcer, Three Dog Night - Captured Live At The Forum

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "I listed some 60s rock songs I like. You can sample and buy the MP3s of them. They are all on my must hear 60s songs list."

I've been transferring files and programs from the expiring Windows XP machine to the new Windows Vista machine. There are some quirks I've noticed in iTunes, Firefox, and Corel Office Suite that are puzzling and a bit inconvenient but nothing major. I'm very pleased with the pace of the transition and I should be able to get the XP machine off my desktop this weekend. I had almost forgotten how much I liked having a computer that responds to me. I had kinda gotten used to computers that take forever to load anything. When I got the expiring XP machine, I transferred files and programs from the Windows 2000 machine with a similar amount of effort. The problem? What to do with the old computer.

When I used Norton Speedisk back in the day, one of the available options, when defragging, was to write zeroes over the free space. Deleting files doesn't delete information. It just makes that space available for other files. The info is still there. Writing zeroes over it was not a bad idea if you're privacy/security-minded. On the Windows 2000 machine, I found a utility somewhere that was supposed to do something similar. It didn't work. I ended up removing the hard drives and throwing the rest away. I am facing the same dilemma this weekend and I think the same solution is the only way for me to go. Not only do I not trust software to do this, I don't trust the expiring XP machine to complete any task that takes time.

Just for curiosity, though, what do you do with your old computer once you have a new one?

Quote of the Day

When FEMA fails, everybody loses. The whole country loses.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "The Embarrassment Level: I don't think a Scott Caan crush is anything to be embarrassed about, but it does make me feel creepy to say that I watched Ready to Rumble and Boiler Room almost exclusively because he shows his ass (you have to go to the deleted scenes on the Boiler Room DVD to see it, but it's there). Mitigating factor: it is one hell of an ass. Give this a 4 out of 10."

From the Houston Chronicle:

Lawsuit accuses bank in 'dead peasant' case

It's a short article so I won't bother summarizing but I'll offer some free, unwanted legal advice for that bank: Let the plaintiff keep that money and settle that case. I don't think you want it in front of a jury.

By most accounts, the Greater New Orleans area had a successful Mardi Gras season. It ended last night at midnight.

About today's QOTD: We have one government bailout recipient talking down another government bailout recipient.

Quote of the Day

In an e-mail to clients over the weekend, Citigroup auto analyst Itay Michaeli said, "We cut our target price to 50 cents from $3." GM shares closed Tuesday at $2.22, up 45 cents, or 25%.

James R. Healey, USA TODAY

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "It's going to be interesting to see just how much detail gets released about the make-up of both the $306 billion being ring-fenced and guaranteed by the government, and the rest of the $2.95 trillion for which Citi retains full responsibility."

Happy Mardi Gras.

It's just a day off at CrabAppleLane these days. I'm certain I'll catch the Mardi Gras spirit again one day but I haven't yet.

I mentioned a cool use of FlickR the other day here. I forgot all about it this weekend but had the day off today to tinker around so I broke out the tripod, set the camera on it with the widest aperture and the slowest shutter speed, went outside and snapped three pictures. I uploaded to FlickR as per instructions and then went about my business.

CrabAppleLane Night Sky - February 24, 2009
Less than 15 minutes later, I got a response on this one that reads:

astrometry.net says:

Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center92.3657322745, 31.5703696947) degrees
(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S)069:27.776, +31:34:13.331)
Orientation:72.57 deg E of N

Pixel scale:75.80 arcsec/pixel

Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
Field size :68.72 x 51.54 degrees

Your field contains:
The star Capella (αAur)
The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
The star Pollux (βGem)
The star Bellatrix (γOri)
The star Elnath / El Nath (βTau)
The star Alnilam (εOri)
The star Menkalinan (βAur)
The star Alhena (γGem)
The star Castor (αGem)
The star Alnitak (ζOri)
NGC 1499 / California nebula

View in World Wide Telescope (Requires install)

If you go to my FlickR site (Just click on the picture), my image will have little squares all over it identifying the objects listed. Coolness times 1000.

CrabAppleLane Night Sky - February 24, 2009 - 2nd upload

This one took a little longer to get a result but here it is:

astrometry.net says:

Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center92.1846782404, 31.5523572596) degrees
(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S)068:44.323, +31:33:8.486)
Orientation:71.47 deg E of N

Pixel scale:75.52 arcsec/pixel

Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
Field size :68.47 x 51.35 degrees

Your field contains:
The star Capella (αAur)
The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
The star Pollux (βGem)
The star Bellatrix (γOri)
The star Elnath / El Nath (βTau)
The star Mirfak (αPer)
The star Alnilam (εOri)
The star Menkalinan (βAur)
The star Alhena (γGem)
The star Castor (αGem)
NGC 1499 / California nebula

View in World Wide Telescope (Requires install)

-----
If you would like to have other images solved, please submit them to the astrometry group.

Quote of the Day

Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver.

astrometry.net

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Perhaps more important is the joint recognition of both the University of Texas and Texas A&M astronomy research groups. Modern astronomy research requires ever-more collaboration among institutions, and Texas astronomy is much more than just the group of us here in Austin."

The top-ranked LSU Tigers opened their brand new state-of-the-art baseball stadium in Baton Rouge this weekend with a sweep of Villanova. It's named for Alex Box ... same as the old stadium. It was a tough ticket. Season tickets ate up most of the 9200 seats and most of the single-game tickets went to students, former players, and other assorted VIPs. The few left over from that were gobbled up quickly. I settled on tickets to one of the LSU-Illinois games in a few weeks. I really wanted to go see Ole Miss but the games I could make were sold out. Most of the early-season SEC games are sold out. Say what you will about big-time college athletics but it works at LSU. Many of LSU's athletic programs make money. Football makes the most, by far, but basketball (Men and women) and baseball contribute, too. The baseball team almost always leads the nation in attendance. 9200+ fans this weekend doesn't sound like a lot if you're used to football or MLB numbers but two ranked teams (Florida and Louisville) only attracted 3483 fans at Florida's McKethan Stadium Saturday. Done right, athletics benefits not just itself, it benefits the university and it surely benefits the mostly homegrown student-athletes at LSU. There is almost always a surplus in Baton Rouge. In a state where money doesn't grow on trees, it's not a bad thing. And the joy the teams bring to the citizens ... what's that worth?

Quote of the Day

This game is all about hustle.

Leon Landry, LSU Tigers

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "No. 23 Florida (2-0) clinched its weekend series with a 10-4 triumph over eighth-ranked Louisville (0-2) on Saturday afternoon in front of 3,483 fans at McKethan Stadium."

George Washington's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mr President.

I offer one from the CrabAppleLane front yard this glorious Sunday afternoon. It's a gorgeous day for picture taking, bike riding, walking, whatever. I plan to do some and/or all of that. More productive undertakings will have to be postponed.

CrabAppleLane Pileated Woodpecker - February 22, 2009 Shot this through our living room window. The window, itself, is fairly clean but it happens to be the nearest one to the wood pellet stove so there is some wood smoke between us that I couldn't quite clear up. Wish I could have gone outside to take this but these magnificent birds are very skittish and this is the closest I've ever been with a camera. Confirmed as soon as I opened the door. It flew off. I'm not sure you can appreciate the size of this bird from this image but I think this one is larger than a crow (The Cornell Lab link says "nearly as large as a crow". I think this one was larger.). Very colorful. I think he/she is scrounging for worms in our Chinese Tallow tree because I can't imagine what else might be there.

Quote of the Day

We need leaders to help us through our crises, not provide us with crude evaluations of our character. And we don't need sermons from liberal virtuecrats, anymore than from conservative virtuecrats.

Maureen Dowd, New York Times

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "I've been aching to paint something just for me, from my head, for a while. It feels so good to do that! It's a bit of a dragonfly-butterfly-leaf creature, hence the name, Drabulea."

From my sister-in-law:

R.I.P. Snooks.

The series premier episode of Dollhouse last week was only so so. However, last night's episode was excellent. There are at least four distinct storylines now. The first storyline is the depiction of the organization of ethically questionable practices called "Dollhouse", the second is a about the FBI agent who is unofficially trying to uncover it and find the star doll for reasons still unknown, a third is that said star doll is becoming self-aware and each "treatment" is less complete than the last, and the fourth is about the escaped killer doll named "Alpha". Dollhouse was developed by Joss Whedon, who also did Firefly and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I'm saddened that it's on Fox. The network hardly lifted a finger to promote it and the ratings reflect it. If it weren't for Whedon fan sites, I doubt anyone would have tuned in. I heard about it from a fan. Looks to me like Fox is repeating the Firefly mistake. It will probably be yanked before it finds an audience but I will surely watch it until then.

Upgraded my Paint Shop Pro software this morning because my original version won't work on Vista. It was time anyway. In the instructions, I found the following:

Please note: due to the wide variety of Corel software, you might see the terms "Purchase Key", "Unlock Key" and "Serial Number" used in installation instructions for some products. They all mean the same thing and describe the same activation procedure.

Note to Corel from CrabAppleLane: Why? Decide on one, use from this day forward, eliminate need for this note, and eliminate needless potential confusion all in one move. No charge.

Quote of the Day

I agree that concentration is a bad thing, but that's what capitalism brings with it. The animal wants to keep eating and growing larger and larger. We could have easily prevented these massive mergers, but our free market philosophy prevented that from even being an option. And now we're seeing what happens when banks are "too big to fail."

Justin Gardner, Donklephant

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "We're churning out quality television for you lovely people!"

Not quality internet, though. That entry is the latest. It's from August of last year. -Rob

Tracey has a delightful entry posted about Signage. It made me think about a sign I remember from my youth and going downtown to visit my colorful, bedridden aunt. She was a bookie. We passed the sign every time we went. I then implored the Gods of Google to find an image of said sign. Thar she blows. I love the internet.

Really, really cool use of FlickR. Think I'll try it this weekend. I was kind of down on FlickR at one time. I have an entry stating so around here somewhere but I can't find it. More about that in a moment. I was wrong, wrong, WRONG and absolutely love it now.

Movable Type really could use a better search engine. The one here brings up all sorts of entries unrelated to the search term entered. The more content you have, the harder it is to find anything. If the owner of the blog can't find something, how is the reader supposed to? A thought occurred to me not long ago. Yeah, it happens sometimes. I went to the place I remembered someone writing about it and performed several searches. Sheila's body of blog work is about a hundred times larger than mine and she categorizes better than I do, which would help here, as well, but I was told a larger number of categories puts a larger strain on the server and I don't ever want to see another "internal server error" message again. Anyway, I don't remember what I was searching for but I apologize to Sheila for the bizarre, obscure searches. She talks about that sometimes at her place. It freaks her out when she sees them in her logs. Not me, though. I never look at my logs.

Quote of the Day

Don't Cuss
See Gus

Gus's Auto Glass

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "So, I'm sitting in bed with the laptop this muggy Thursday morning and wondering how on earth that giant blowfly has managed to hurl itself against the window so many times without concussing itself."

Fi is blogging again. YAY. -Rob

About a year and a half ago, lightning struck CrabAppleLane. It did a lot of damage. The surge hit our two computers but it didn't go through the power cord. It went through our network cables and fried the network port on both machines. Our insurance company asked us to have them examined to determine whether they should be fixed or replaced. The ports on both machines are integrated into the motherboards, which had "spots" all over them. Replace. Patsy chose to replace her desktop with a laptop and that ran a little more than they gave us so I decided to wait on mine for a while. My computer was working fine except for the network port so I just went wireless through a USB port. Over the last year and a half, I've noticed some erratic behavior from my PC. It doesn't always boot all the way up, it doesn't recognize things that I plug into the USB ports until I plug and unplug several times, it loses the printer, etc. It is dying.

The replacement arrived yesterday. First time I've ever replaced just the CPU and not the complete system. It has Windows Vista on it. So far, I haven't had any trouble except finding some of my software disks. One old program I own, Visual Page, doesn't want to install. I think I'll be looking for a new HTML program. Any ideas that won't break my very fragile bank?


Patsy and I both had the afternoon off yesterday. Decided to watch a movie instead of immediately getting to work on the computers. Fool's Gold was the choice. The first half of the movie was fun. It was funny and interesting and Kate Hudson is just fabulous. It has a very underused Donald Sutherland and a very overused Alexis Dziena but I could have forgiven that. It's a treasure hunt movie. Kate and Matthew McConaughey, newly divorced but still in love, are searching for the same treasure that Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset searched for in The Deep. Both films built a nice story around what they think happened. Unfortunately, at about the midway point, Fool's Gold goes way off the rails. What started as a light-hearted adventure comedy turned into a shoot-em-up killfest. What a disappointment. What a waste.

Quote of the Day

Hey, boats sink. No one knows why.

Finn Finnegan, Fool's Gold

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Sleeve art by FG's own Dust La Rock ain't too shabby either! Cop and enjoy."

Spent a few minutes updating the CrabAppleLane Forums this morning. I wish all upgrades went as smooth as this one but I suppose those who streamline their upgrade process so well get more practice than maybe they should. The forum was developed by phpBB and is the predominant forum type on the web. Every one you see looks just like mine with maybe some minor modifications or "mods" as they are known.

Here's the thing: Spammers sign up for posting accounts. Because of the security built into the package, I suspect they're doing it manually. Unfortunately for them, registration is a two-step process. Registration is the first step, administrator approval is the second. They have no privileges until an administrator approves their account. That keeps them from posting. No one even knows they've attempted to register until they've been approved. That keeps other users from clicking on their name and being taken to their website. At CrabAppleLane, new users I don't know just get deleted and it's only a minor nuisance. At bigger forums that allow for automatic registration, it must be a major nuisance. FWIW, all CrabAppleLane readers are welcome to join in.

The goal of these spammers is to post their stuff in as many places as possible so that search engines will find and index them. That moves their search rankings up. They want to be on the first page of just about any search because that will direct the most potential suckers customers to their site. It's very effective. See this story on Wikipedia-Google-Obama. Wikipedia had an article up for only about two minutes but Google found it and reflected it in their searches for an undetermined length of time but my guess is people were finding it for a day or more if MSNBC found out about it. Spammers don't have to be that successful major nuisance for long to be effective and it is no wonder they are so persistent.

The Saints released Deuce McAllister yesterday. It was no surprise but it's still a sad day for Saints fans. Deuce is a class act and will be missed. I can't imagine what kind of market the NFL has for him at age 30 with a four-game suspension on the horizon and two recent reconstructive knee surgeries on his resumé. He had another arthroscopic procedure done last month and has admitted he couldn't pass a physical right now. He says he thinks he can play another three years but I think he's off by two. I think he has one year left if he can find a team willing to offer him a contract. If he does, it will surely be a small incentive-laden contract. I think the Saints could do that still but both parties say it's unlikely. I wish you AllTheBest, Deuce.

Quote of the Day

It's extremely tough, because Deuce has been the heart and soul of this organization ever since he got here. Deuce and I came in together, so it was fun to follow his career. Then all of a sudden in 2006 I signed here, and we became teammates. I can definitely tell you that Deuce is one of the best teammates I ever had.

Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "It's getting colder out there, and you're not the only one who feels it! North Shore Animal League America would like to offer you and your pet 10 winter tips for when the temperature dips!"

From our local newspaper, the Times-Picayune:

Today was the day that broadcast-TV analog signals were supposed to go dark in favor of sparkly digital pictures with ground-pounding audio.

It's a good read. Hopefully, we'll no longer see that message constantly scroll across our screens.

The QOTD comes courtesy of Jack Del Rio and he's talking about my former fantasy football albatross, Fred Taylor. Taylor had a great rookie year back in 1998. I saw him play in a preseason game the following year where he broke off two breathtaking long touchdown runs the week before our fantasy football auction. I wanted that guy and paid big auction bucks to get him. He had decent numbers the first week and then got hurt and was in and out the next few weeks. AFTER my team was pretty much eliminated from playoff contention, he started putting up monster numbers. That was enough for me to tag him as my franchise player the next year. That cycle repeated the following season only he put up even bigger monster numbers toward the end once again AFTER my team was eliminated. Because I'm an idiot, I gave him a third try. He got hurt in the first game that following season and I swore him off forever. After three years missing the playoffs WITH Fred Taylor, I won the championship the first year WITHOUT him. I've had him once since then but he was way down my depth chart and not someone I was counting on for anything except backup duty. Hard for me to imagine that Del Rio is talking about the same guy.

Quote of the Day

I know Fred's done a great job taking care of his body and has been a complete stud in the time we've been here.

Jack Del Rio, Jacksonville Jaguars

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Its not fair for me to tell you the events I've been party to in the last little while. They wove separately around the distinct Valentine's fun but have an altogether different outlook. "

As of today, I have a year for every card. One might say I'm now playing with a full deck. Also, Happy Birthday, Levar Burton.

Quote of the Day

Among other things, if the charges are true, I think it's fair to say he's failed at his job.

Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Jon Stewart takes down John Sununu on the recovery bill and government regulation."

There is a huge market for HD programming. There is simply not enough of it. Enter HDNet. As a bonus and a pretty good selling point, HDNet offers their subscribers sneak previews of some, mostly small, independent films for free ... in high-definition. This works for everyone. HDNet attracts subscribers, subscribers get first-run HD movies, and the film makers get something out of people who aren't likely to go see their films in theaters. We've seen two of their offerings now. We saw Mr Foe, whose trailer was far superior to the actual film, a few weeks ago and Two Lovers last night.

I'm not a big fan of Joaquin Phoenix and will never understand why he's a star. I find him difficult to understand. We had to back it up and go over what he said several times, sometimes with subtitles. In Two Lovers, he has one girl (Vinessa Shaw) who is attracted to him while he is attracted to another (Gwyneth Paltrow). Just me but if I were to go on looks alone, I think he outkicks his coverage by a couple of miles in both cases. The story from there is fairly standard. It's obvious why he's attracted to Gwyneth. She's an exciting, classic beauty. She's also a mess. He likes Vinessa, too, but she represents stability and his parents' approval. He knows Vinessa is the safer choice. The ending is just about right. I liked the film.

Some love advice I found at MSNBC a couple of days ago while they were in Valentine's Day frenzy:

Offer money, love and dependability

Gals want looks and smarts. While you men can't control those two characteristics much, take heart: Money and character are also important to women.

What? You were expecting useful insight?

I offer two from the CrabAppleLane front yard on this dreary Sunday. Spring and its yardwork are right around the corner here and some early blooms are in the works.

CrabAppleLane Redbud - February 15, 2009

CrabAppleLane Azalea - February 15, 2009

Quote of the Day

Years ago, one casting agent told me that the only roles I could play were lesbians and aliens.

Allison Janney

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Wow. Klimt, Dr Suess, Hundertwasser, Audrey Hepburn, Marie Antoinette... crazy beautiful/ugly."

Happy Valentine's Day

Got plans?

There are so many interesting tidbits about Valentine's Day that I thought I might share a few. My favorite tidbit comes courtesy of Wikipedia:

In Slovenia, a proverb says that "St Valentine brings the keys of roots," so on February 14, plants and flowers start to grow. Valentine's Day has been celebrated as the day when the first works in the vineyards and on the fields commence. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day.

I think that last sentence a bit fanciful but who cares? It's harmless fancy and I like it. Another tidbit comes from The History Channel:

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today.

Also a bit fanciful. When I was a kid, people used to route their Valentine cards by mail through Valentine, Nebraska so they'd have a Valentine postmark. I don't remember how to do that and I'm not sure that it can even still be done.

They celebrate it a bit differently in Saudi Arabia. Had to include that because it contains a committee with my all-time favorite title: The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Watch out for these guys and have a Happy Valentine's Day. Have a red Rose on me

About the QOTD: Like most companies, Panasonic is struggling through the tough economy. They're forcing some of their employees to buy "£1,000 in products".

Quote of the Day

Management insists that staff buy their Panasonic goods -- whether they need them or not -- by the end of July.

Leo Lewis, London Times

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "It got me having African lust and when I started seeing commercials for Tanzania I instantly knew that was where I had to go."

Cool name for a blog. -Rob

I'm finding the hoopla surrounding the Alex Rodriguez scandal a bit boring already. ESPN's Jayson Stark's headline reads

A-Rod has destroyed game's history

A mite too strong there, Jayson. Ease up on the caffeine.

The outrage is coming from my favorite people in all of sports: Baseball's snobs purists. Yes, those paragons of baseball's virtue who put an asterisk on the Roger Maris home run record, who never fail to mention how many more at bats it took Hank Aaron to pass Babe Ruth, who have no problem with ridiculously dirty, nasty players like Ty Cobb and Enos Slaughter, who oppose the designated hitter and interleague play (I was one of these. I've changed my mind about interleague play but not the DH). Baseball players have been trying to get an edge since the game was invented and some will do anything to win. That goes for every level of the game all the way down to Little League. Owners encourage it, managers encourage it, parents encourage it, players encourage it, and fans encourage it. That's a lot of pressure. There will always be some who succumb to it. It's disappointing that players as talented as Rodriguez gave in. By all means, report it, frown on it, and take action to prevent it but stop acting like the world is coming to an end. The real danger to baseball is a work stoppage but that only applies to the Major League game. Enough of this crap. Play ball.

About today's QOTD: I couldn't agree more. I'm not a big fan of baseball's fascination with stats anyway. It is impossible to compare players over a career and even more so over an era. Some played the majority of their career in a park that was suited to their game, some never played at night, some played most of their games on turf, etc.

Quote of the Day

Bonds set his records under the rules baseball handed him. So did McGwire and Clemens and A-Rod. The numbers are absolute, accomplished with the approval and applause of all. To go back and decide you no longer approve is worse than wrong. It's hypocritical.

Mike Celizic, MSNBC

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "There are 63 players due in Yankees camp, only one named Alex Rodriguez."

The latest photograph of President Lincoln - taken on the balcony at the White House, March 6, 1865 (LOC) - Henry F Warren - photographerAbraham Lincoln's birthday, St Valentine's Day, and Washington's birthday were always easy for me to remember because my birthday is in February. I always remember February birthdays, especially the 4 neighborhood kids from childhood with the same birthday as me. I've always had more than a passing interest in the Civil War. Happy 200th, Mr President.

Quote of the Day

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Abraham Lincoln

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Quite simply, the performance was brilliant. The combined choirs of the Lexington Singers and Children's Chorale (one of the largest community choruses in the country), the University of Kentucky Chorale plus the University of Kentucky Symphony opened with a medley of Civil War era folk songs, including an absolutely haunting rendition of "Shenandoah," one of my personal favorites. The chorales were superb."

One of my faves, too. Hope it will show up on YouTube in a few weeks. Wikipedia has a nice version of it by Sissel. -Rob

Marine parachuting at Parris Island, S.C. (LOC)Been tooling around the Library of Congress FlickR site. Just amazing how great all of those photos are. The one above is by Alfred T Palmer. I chose it for its blue sky. It's a color transparency from May 1942. Here we are 67 years later and even with modern technology, I can't imagine how that shot could have been done any better. Wish I'd have known about the site sooner. It's going to take a while to sift through 300+ pages. I keep stopping. The BOTD via Marie is also maintained by the Library of Congress.

About the QOTD (Via The Daily Irrelevant) and the title of this entry: I think the bankers are probably entitled to the bonuses but the human rights part made me laugh.

Quote of the Day

Legal experts today warned that plans to stop bonuses may be a breach of bankers' human rights.

Danny Brierley, The Daily Mail

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "The general webby reaction to our pilot project with Flickr, which launched "The Commons," has been rather Oliver Twist-like: "More, please!""

Yes, absolutely. More, please. -Rob

Patsy had a flat tire yesterday afternoon. This is the fourth time we've had to change a tire since August 2005 (Katrina). I've had several other tires repaired but was able to drive them to the repair shop. Add that to the 3 or 4 windshields we've replaced and you have one of the by-products of that life-changing event. Before Katrina, I hadn't changed a tire in 20+ years and was getting pretty decent mileage out of tires. Louisiana roads are hazardous not because of Katrina, herself, but because of the thousands of work crews, mainly in pickup trucks towing trailers with unsecured cargo, dumping debris all over the roads.

The Not-Safe-For-Work laugh this morning comes courtesy of The Onion. This kind of humor doesn't always get me but it did this morning. Love the bus stop ad.

Quote of the Day

According to this late-'60s Philco-Ford Corp. documentary titled "1999 A.D," the future will be a technological boon for misogyny. In the world of tomorrow, women will be able to use computers -- but not credit cards.

Helen A.S. Popkin, MSNBC

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Here are the tracks that I was thinking of putting on the first Song A Day album:"

Writing a song a day and posting it. -Rob

I think the desktop PC that I'm using right now is on its last legs. It was struck by lightning a while back and that burned up the network connection. I've been using wireless since but now the USB ports are erratic and not everything loads every time at startup. I'm tempted to leave it on after a successful boot. I know it's going to crash one day and I'll be weeks recovering. I have fairly current backups but I keep them for the same reason I keep a good spare tire. I hope the presence of the spare will keep the four tires on the ground in line. I don't want to use the backups, either.

From ESPN:

The officer went into the restroom, heard the same sniffing and peered over the stall door. He saw Jamal Anderson and Mark Hudson sniffing two lines of powdered cocaine off the back of the toilet.

If these guys needed convincing that perhaps they have a drug problem, all they need do is read that again and again and again ...

Quote of the Day

I'm disappointed that I'm a scumbag, disappointed that I couldn't get along with the quarterback, because I live my life through the quarterback. Mike Clayton has his own opinion, and I respect it.

Jon Gruden, Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Head Coach

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "The Weekly Worst Name of a Person That I Actually Met. Myluv. Yeah, her first name was Myluv."

Moonrise near CrabAppleLane - February 8, 2009 My sister-in-law called and said I should go out and take a picture of the moon. I have to go out to the main highway to see the moon when it's close to the horizon. I think it was worth the trip. Good night and have a great weekend from CrabAppleLane.

2007's AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem was last night's entertainment. This is the sequel to 2004's AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Going by the titles, you'd think these films take themselves way too seriously but that's usually a good thing when you're looking for CME and I find myself looking for it a lot these days. The first one was fun CME. It was set in Antarctica with just a small human crew and a handful of Aliens and Predators. That was a blast. The sequel-makers, as they so often do, figured they'd just multiply everything. I can't think of a single time when that strategy has ever worked. They set this one in a small town instead of a remote location. It just wasn't very good.

I'd like to thank the BOTD for informing me that the first Alien we see in AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem was actually a ½ Alien-½ Predator cross breed. Even in HD, the action was so fast and so dark that I didn't notice the dreadlocks. When I learned that, I immediately jumped to the same thought she did. I wonder why that only works with Predators. Aliens spawned by human hosts aren't ½ human.

I offer some images taken this morning on a gorgeous CrabAppleLane Sunday.

Clouds - CrabAppleLane Sunday - February 8, 2009 - What I thought of when I saw these clouds

Buffy the nectar slayer - CrabAppleLane - February 8, 2009 Blame my wife, Patsy, for that name. Buffy is a buff-bellied hummingbird that has been hanging around CrabAppleLane since late October. He/she has endured snow and freezing temps. Normally, I'm done with hummingbirds, almost all ruby-throats, in early October. This development has been a pleasant and very welcome surprise. Buffy is quite the charmer. Just chatters up a storm. More pictures of Buffy below the jump.

Quote of the Day

Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
She can ill afford the chances she must take
In rowing toward the grasses that she eats.

Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, Turtle

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "I'm not sure why the sequel to the first AVP has the added subtitle "Requiem." Sure there are a lot of dead but no one mourns or pays tribute to any of the deceased humans or aliens."

Man, is that ever true. The way to respond to the father/husband being viciously attacked by an Alien is not to help but to run. -Rob

Casey the kitten The first thing I noticed about this photo is the date. May 9th is our anniversary. 1995 marked 14 years. I was looking for an album. Casey, our almost 2yr-old kitten, stepped right over me, got in there, and looked around. We're in the house three months in May 1995 and we still don't know where anything is. I will never forget the mountain of junk stuff in the living room the day we moved in. The first goal was to get everything out of sight and then sift through it at night and on weekends as time permits. It took a long time before we were settled in and, then, the table...

That table is part of a five-piece set of overpriced pecan furniture that we bought from Kirschman's right after we got married. It was the square end table pictured above, a hexagonal end table, a desk, and two shelf units. All of it was damaged when our ceiling caved in. Our pipes had burst one day after a hard freeze. So overpriced was this furniture that our homeowner's insurance, after seeing the receipt, thought it better to restore all of it at considerable expense rather than pay us replacement cost. We still have all of it but we hate it now. We're going to someday bring it all to Habitat for Humanity but we'll have to figure out what we're going to do with the things we're storing in them.

Do you recognize any of the albums? Those with a FlickR account can see more in the original size. I only recognize about 4 of them. I'll reveal my somewhat uncertain answers below the jump.

Via the BOTD, I learned the Library of Congress has a FlickR page. Awesome. I'm there.

No idea what book Ambrose was talking about in the QOTD but I know I've read more than my share of books like that. I know how I will describe them from this point forward.

Quote of the Day

The covers of this book are too far apart.

Ambrose Bierce

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "But this really takes the cake: the Library of Congress has just created a Flickr page, on which they've posted nearly 2,000 color slides -- many of them hauntingly beautiful."

The word extraordinary is getting a workout these days. We had an extraordinary pilot make an extraordinary landing under extraordinary circumstances. Thats' a mouthful. We had an extraordinary gathering a few weeks ago. Extraordinary rendition has been in the national debate. The QOTD provides us with extraordinary work and extraordinary payouts and I don't think anyone will dispute that executive performance in those bailed-out companies was extraordinary but Cwirko-Godycki thinks it was extraordinarily good. He should seek a second opinion.

Quote of the Day

We've always been a society where extraordinary work led to extraordinary payouts.

Alexander Cwirko-Godycki, Research manager at Equilar Inc.

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "We're too much retreating into isolated liberal and conservative enclaves, and it's not doing us any good, either as individuals or as a nation."

LSU Tiger fans are pretty pleased about yesterday's signings. The Tigers didn't play well down the stretch last season. Problems at QB and in the defensive secondary caught up with them. They appear to have them straightened out now. They've settled on a quarterback who doesn't throw games away and they've got a new defensive coordinator. They have some talent. That's almost all the Georgia Tech fans could say when the favored Yellow Jackets were mauled in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Looking forward to next year, particularly that Florida game in Tiger Stadium. Talk about a hot ticket.

GEAUX Tigers

Quote of the Day

If we put it all together at LSU, we're going to win a national championship. Watch out SEC.

Sam Montgomery, LSU Tiger recruit

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Remember yesterday's Robin? Well, he was nearly a gonner today."

The ESPN headline says:

Retested Bonds sample positive

Just keep testing it until you get it the way you want, guys. Barry Bonds is an easy guy to not like. He's been a jackass since he got to San Francisco. I liked him in Pittsburgh but that was before he became mega monster home run hitter. Still, I like him way more than the prosecutors and judges that have handled this matter. I don't know if I believe Bonds when he says he didn't "knowingly" take steroids but if the prosecutors are relying on tested and retested samples and testimony from scumbag witnesses who have deals to save their own asses, they don't want me on their jury.

About the somewhat ironic QOTD: Someone really gets paid to keep track of that ... in this economy?

Quote of the Day

Eva Longoria wore elements of the same outfit twice. She was spotted the morning of Jan. 27 sporting the same jeans, bag and scarf she'd worn to dinner in Hollywood the night before.

Courtney Hazlett, MSNBC - The Scoop

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Last week, the always present and oft self-promoting Curt Schilling showed some rare humility over the Boston radio waves and downplayed his chances at one day ending up in baseball's Hall of Fame. Now some will believe that Schilling only understated his case in order for talking heads (and typing hands) to do what I'm doing right now: make a pitch on Schilling's behalf."

Confirmation - May 2, 1971 When I first saw this picture, I thought graduation. May 1971 was when I graduated from Our Lady of Perpetual Help and this looks like a graduation gown to anyone with a fuzzy memory of that time. Written on the back of that photo, as people used to do in those days, in Mom's unmistakable handwriting is "Confirmation - May 2, 1971". I remembered being confirmed in 8th grade but I didn't remember it being that late in the school year. A lot of us were pretty upset that it took so long. 8th grade, that is. A new nearby church called Our Lady of Divine Providence confirmed their parishioners in the 4th grade. Many, many of my classmates lived in Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish even though they went to school at OLPH with me and they had already been confirmed for many years.

Left the "May 71" and Fox Photo logo in the scan intentionally. I think it's kinda neat. Remember Fox Photo? Can you imagine anyone willingly manning one of those one-person offices now?

That's Dad's company car behind me and a brand new fence on the neighbor's property.

Anyone else curious about how a cable television company racked up a $21 billion debt? Charter is the local cable company here. They're losing customers mainly because their service sucks but I had guessed that was a local thing. Maybe not. Love the QOTD. They "opted" not to make a payment.

Quote of the Day

It then opted not to make the mid-January payments on those bonds.

Reuters

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Until yesterday, I thought the name of the Bowie song was .... 'Sulfur Jet City.'"

FWIW, Suffragette City doesn't make much more sense. -Rob

Congrats to the Steelers on their 6th Super Bowl title
Duncan and Casey - October 1994 Duncan is the Shetland Sheepdog (Or Sheltie, if you prefer) in this picture. He is a fairly spry 12½ year old pup who thinks he's in charge. He has his younger (10½) and much larger brother, Nikki, in line. He also insists on asserting his authority over Casey, the kitten. Casey is about a year old here and is a blur to our two dogs. They are no match for her. She can can do anything they can do, only much faster. She can also jump to the moon and is totally insane. She lives to torment them. She torments Nikki by ignoring him and Duncan by laying traps like the one above for him. She'd swat him and he'd reprimand her with a couple of barks and a snarl. I think she just loved the reaction. Duncan has moved on but Casey (15 now) is still with us and has a younger feline brother who lives to torment her.

Quote of the Day

SIX-BURGH!

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Notice the New Granada Theater toting that they have air conditioning."

That was a big deal once upon a time. -Rob

Super Sunday is here but, for me, it's also tax day. Since I changed jobs last year and since it typically takes many years to get my withholding the way I want it, I'm especially curious and nervous about what this year brings. It takes me about an hour with a calculator at my side. TurboTax shaves about 30 minutes off of that time but costs about $30.

Don't bother to ask me about the commercials tomorrow. I head to the bathroom or the fridge at the commercials. I could pause the broadcast on my DVR and watch them when I'm back but I probably won't.

I'll be enjoying boudin and multi-grain crackers during the game. I prefer plain saltine crackers to the multi-grain but they're never crisp when I buy them in stores any more, probably because the stores buy them in mass quantities and store them in dark, dank warehouses. They're always, always stale. I hate stale crackers.

In case you hadn't heard, Circuit City is going out of business. They're having a typical going-out-of-business sale and there are deals to be had. We bought a few things. There are signs all over the store stating that full manufacturer's warranties are in effect and that ALL Sales are final. Of course, that included a few display models and some out-of-the-box merchandise but most of that stuff was marked way down. As I got behind a lady waiting to be checked out, the cashier left his station to find a manager and ask for information about something she had asked. There were a lot of customers in the store and a lot of them had questions. He got stopped several times and took 10 minutes to get back to his station. When he got back, his response was, "It's part of the going-out-of-business sale and we won't be able to do anything about it. Do you still want them?". I couldn't believe it. What stupid question could she have asked that garnered that response? I've been in this position, myself, and a good many of us may be in that position in the coming months. This is a difficult time for those employees. They'll be out of a job soon and we're in their store basically picking at their bones. I'm a little old-fashioned in that regard and think a little courtesy is in order. Being difficult with these people is NOT courteous.

I offer one image taken today and a couple taken many years ago for this glorious CrabAppleLane Super Sunday. GEAUX CARDS.

CrabAppleLane Birdhouse - February 1, 2009The birdhouse was a birthday present from Patsy last year. It got some curious looks from the CrabAppleLane chickadees, some disdainful looks from the CrabAppleLane bluebirds, and an if-they're-not-going-to-take-it-we-will from some brown wasps. When I took it down for Hurricane Gustav, I had to contend with them. Nothing like dealing with wasps on a 10ft ladder and shaky knees. I didn't put it back up until last weekend. We'll see how it does this season.


Angela, Christina, Rob My sister, Angela, sent me this one last night. Hadn't seen it in many years. I'm guessing that's my brother, David's, hands playing goalie for Christina. Angela and Christina are twins. I remember that green shirt. Was one of my faves. Christmas 1974, I think. Is this what people think of when they think big brother or little sisters?


Nikki - January 1990 Nikki was our Samoyed. He loved everyone. When we first bought the property on Crabapple Lane, where our house was later built and where we live now, there were horses on the property next to us. We used to like to bring our two city dogs up with us and wander around the property. It was sensory overload for them. They loved going for a ride, they loved the country and all those new scents and wide open spaces but there was something else, too. We'd bring carrots for the horses. The horses would light up when they saw us and the carrots. Nikki would light up when he saw them. Not at all sure what they thought of him. He would tap his paws, wag his whole body, and then sing to them. He would be just beside himself with joy. He gave us a great deal of joy, too. Nikki was that one pet that everyone has in their life. You know, the best ever.

Quote of the Day

My husband and I are enjoying the memories of pissing our own money away instead of the horror of Wall Street making it disappear.

Comment by Flee at the BOTD

Blog of the day via Infospigot is here.

Quote from said blog: "My employer's stock price has fallen to 12% of what it was a year ago. I'll be working until I'm 80 - if I'm lucky!"

Love the cartoon. -Rob