Saturday Pictures

Some of my pictures from the Seattle area.

Progress

I am sure you are all waiting with bated breath to see how much weight I have lost in the last week. one pound! Lets dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKcY75LIkRw&feature=related

What to talk about tonight

Time: quotes from the Farscape finale The Peacekeeper Wars
Einstein: Time
Crichton: Flies
Einstein: Time
Crichton: Bandits
Einstein: Time
Crichton: Wounds all heels
Einstein: Time
Crichton: Rosemary and...
Einstein: Time
Crichton: Time ends

What is it about the human condition and perception regarding time? When you are young, time seems to stand still ... almost. The speed is almost imperceptible unless you only have a couple weeks before school starts again.

However, as you grow older, time seems to take its rightful place and exercise a greater degree of control over your life. The demands of adult life seem to accelerate and amplify the control time has over you until weeks seem to be no more than days and the seasons fly by.

You stand around in the mid point of your life (for me at least) and your children are nearly grown and hopefully well adjusted, you have acquired some possessions so now what do you do? You soldier on until you die or retire (can be the same thing for some) waiting for the sunset on life.

I hope I can just break even.

Lightning!

I love lightning pictures. This one is courtesy of NASA.

A new me ... maybe

Ok, I always gain weight in the winter. Something about the short days, lots of food and crappy weather tends to put the pounds on. So here I go again, time to remove what I added and it looks like 20 pounds in 2 months. I will keep everyone here updated with my progress and we will see where it goes. No, I didn't gain 20 over the holidays but it is where I would like to be again.

And now for something completely different

I love the movie The Princess Bride. It has all the classic elements. Good guys, bad guys, side kicks, a heroine and a happy ending. No, not that kind of happy ending. So, here is an exchange between the hero and one bad guy. Very entertaining if I may say so myself!
Man in Black: All right. Where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is right... and who is dead.
Vizzini: But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
Man in Black: You've made your decision then?
Vizzini: Not remotely. Because iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.
Man in Black: Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Vizzini: Wait til I get going! Now, where was I?
Man in Black: Australia.
Vizzini: Yes, Australia. And you must have suspected I would have known the powder's origin, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
Man in Black: You're just stalling now.
Vizzini: You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong, so you could've put the poison in your own goblet, trusting on your strength to save you, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But, you've also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal, so you would have put the poison as far from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
Man in Black: You're trying to trick me into giving away something. It won't work.
Vizzini: IT HAS WORKED! YOU'VE GIVEN EVERYTHING AWAY! I KNOW WHERE THE POISON IS!
Man in Black: Then make your choice.
Vizzini: I will, and I choose - What in the world can that be?
Vizzini: [Vizzini gestures up and away from the table. Roberts looks. Vizzini swaps the goblets]
Man in Black: What? Where? I don't see anything.
Vizzini: Well, I- I could have sworn I saw something. No matter.First, let's drink. Me from my glass, and you from yours.
Man in Black, Vizzini: [Vizzini and the Man in Black drink ]
Man in Black: You guessed wrong.
Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line"! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha...
Vizzini: [Vizzini stops suddenly,his smile frozen on his face and falls to the right out of camera dead]
Buttercup: And to think, all that time it was your cup that was poisoned.
Man in Black: They were both poisoned. I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.

Saturday Pictures

Here are a few pictures I took awhile back. Enjoy the view!

Bored Beyond Belief

Steve Martin wrote this on a fogged window in LA Story. I feel his pain tonight. Part of the problem is that at some point in the past, everyone needed a dog. We couldn't just share one. So, now I have 4 dogs in the house which creates all kinds of headaches. Mostly because the kids won't take care of the ones they wanted when they are actually here and because now I get stuck with the dogs when they leave. What a mess. On top of all this the weather here in Kansas still sucks and I would love to be outdoors. Blah blah blah time for a picture! This is my vacation destination and I can hardly wait. Harney Peak, South Dakota

Poop or get off the pot

Ok, my significant other and I have been separated now for two months, not in the legal sense, just living apart trying to decide if this is the way to go. Tonight, I was given the choice, total support or hit the road. I guess I will be hitting the bricks tomorrow. Except, I already have a place and she moved out :/ ... Half of my life with my folks or alone and the other half with her. Must be time for a change again.

Unmotivated

I don't feel like writing tonight so instead we will look at pictures.
This is what I really want some day!

Yuck

As most of you have been able to surmise by now, I grew up in the south. I love everything there is about the south, south La. in particular. I love the good and the bad. This is what makes it unique. I set here tonight before my computer and look at the temperature. It is 3 degrees in Leavenworth, Kansas on its way to -5 tonight. Times like this really make me miss home.

A Philosophy on Life

Fear accompanies the possibility of death. Calm shepherds its certainty.

Farscape Series

Family Ties Episode

“Do you suppose a man has to be a miserable son of a bitch all the time just to write a good song now and then”.

A quote from Kris Kristofferson in Songwriter

Images From the National Geographic Archive

A New Year?

You know, I understand the need for humans to measure the passing of time. We as a collective group have been doing so by some means for as long as we have been around. Primitive man used many ways to measure the passing of time from marking the winter and summer solstice to following the changing moon cycles. We as a society have developed much more accurate and sophisticated devices today but it all really comes down to the fact that we need a anchor in time. A way of pegging events to a reference point for our comfort.

So here I set, looking inward at past events and outward to the future, with a weather eye for this new year. I reflect on where I have been and wonder about where I will go. Some will disagree with me on this next supposition but that is ok. I believe I am on a track from which there is little deviation in my life. The beginning and ending of my life has already been set, I am only capable of slight variation in the stops along the way. I have learned that the harder I push for a certain outcome I believe to be correct the more distant it becomes. That is why I now take events in my life at face value. I do not try to read into others actions and the effects they have on me and I do not force actions. I make my decisions based on how I want to be treated and treat others the same. Some call this the "golden rule".

I am however constantly amazed at where I am now and where I thought I would be five years ago. This is why I feel things are set and even when offered a choice in an outcome the path was already set. The comment at job interviews is where do you see yourself in five years is not so much about where you actually plan to be but a point to judge you and your desire to succeed.

This is quite a ride I am on right now. I will enjoy the telling of my story over the next year and we will see where it ends!