"Prayer Time"

"What men want in a female partner"....

A picture being worth a thousand words, here's my response to this....

From the Oldest Living Blogger Kitchens...

The word today is Nutmeg. Add a few generous sprinkles to your freshly ground beef while cooking. It will make regular ground beef taste like ground sirloin. Serve with Mardi Gras Potato Salad for a tasty lunch that won't stress the budget.

I had become an almost-vegetarian until my specialist said that my red blood cells were lower than they should be, and I needed to eat more red meat. He said, "You don't need to go on a Caveman Diet, but eat red meat about three times a week, to bring things back to normal." I didn't have the heart to tell him that I've never been 'normal'. 'Normal' is for people who can't 'fly while you still have wings'...

Meanwhile, on the hustings....

This is beginning to look like Seniors Day at the mall. But Hillary needed this to show that she's not the oldest fogey on the hustings for 2016. Is the White House wheelchair accessible, or will it have to be renovated at huge expense?

And now.....

I'm just throwing this in to remind everyone that it's fun making your own Themes for Windows, and they don't all have to be "safe for work" as they say.

In fact, some of mine will raise your blood pressure thirty points, or get you sitting in a corner, crying over lost youth, depending on your age. But they're much more fun to look at than a standard Windows logo, or bland scenery. That much, I'm quite sure of - I planned it that way.

Updating three operating systems with several Windows updates each is another story entirely. That can take time. And while that's going on, a couple of other programs announce newer versions, adding to the whole process. But I did it to myself, so I really shouldn't bitch about it. And it keeps me off the porn sites.

The porn industry is where silicone goes to die. And if we had to use all the contortions some of those kids do, we'd probably swear off sex after about six months of back-breaking activity, and take up something more relaxing, like Lion-taming, or motorcycle racing, or being shot out of a cannon at the circus.

The biggest F-F-F-F-Blunder in B.C. Hydro's history...

And there have been some dandies in the past, like that mass-early-retirement scheme that was basically termination with bonuses, back in March, 1988 that they announced, being all heart like they are, just before Christmas of 1987... I remember that one well, because I was caught in that shit ten years before I turned 65, and lost about half a million dollars in wages and benefits in it.

But I'm digressing - sorry about that - and this is about Site 'C' on the Peace River, in northern British Columbia. It's called 'Site 'C' ' because it will be the third development along the Peace River in that area. The first was Portage Mountain, better known now as 'GMS', for 'Gordon M. Shrum' a former fearless leader of our illustrious megawatt manufacturing monstrosity. The second was Peace Canyon, just slightly upstream from the lovely little village of Hudson's Hope, better known among us locals as 'Hudson's Last Hope'. We had the only bar in captivity with a ceiling made from old egg crates. That's the kind of 'class' the town had. It had lots of class, but it was all fifth!

And Site 'C' was originally scheduled to have been built in the mid-1970s, when Hydro had already consulted with the local Buckskins, and acquired the land for it, and did all the preliminary planning. We've planned and re-planned that goddamned project so often, it's ridiculous! And if we'd built it when we first got the process going, it would have paid for itself fifteen years ago and would now be producing pure profit. Are we stupid, or what? That's today's Question Everything.

They ought to name that goddamned thing after me, because I've been bugging Dear Editor and the PR people at Hydro for over a quarter of a century to get on with the job and add its output to the central grid, because nothing's forever, and we do need the power. In part because California still owes us half a billion dollars plus interest for the power we donated to them during Governor Gray Davis' self-imposed blackouts in 2000-2001 while he was trying to re-write the rules for electricity distribution. He failed miserably, and we got stuck with the bill for being helpful. Nice bunch of guys!

So....will I actually live to see Site 'C' become a functioning reality finally producing power after more than 40 years in the planning? If they keep on planning it, electricity will be obsolete before they get to the actual construction phase of the project. We'll be producing power the nuclear way, and transmitting it with lasers, and the Peace River, thanks to global warming, will have become an alligator infested sub-tropical swamp where the only things electric will be the electric eels in the waters  of it. Because time marches on, trampling everything underfoot.

His Holiness vs The Koch Brothers

Full article here

Who is going to win this one? The Good Guys or The Bad Guys? Stay tuned!

The plane that almost got away...

By the time I got the camera and got it aiming, this had gone behind that cloud, lower left, and I just happened to be aiming where it came out above it, but by then, it was almost ten miles away, and not much to see. I think it's a Dash 8 turboprop... Doing aircraft freehand is a tricky thing, especially at 50X.

New Windows Theme...

If I have to look at background images, then I intend to enjoy it. I can't show you the other seven in this series, because she took off the suit.... so you'll just have to use your imagination...

Rachel today...

While these intellectually-challenged Republicans are doing their obstructionist thing at every opportunity, probably encouraged and financed by the Koch brothers, we need to be reminded that Israel, while practising a policy of ambiguity on its nuclear status, is reliably believed to be in possession of between eighty and two hundred nuclear weapons, some of which are gravity bombs, and others designed for delivery by medium-range missiles.

It's a reasonably well-known fact that the best nuclear deterrent is to have your own with which to fire back should you be attacked. On that basis, it's quite understandable why Iran might want its own nuclear weapons. It might balance the forces in the region, and make others think twice before making war on the Arabs of the Middle East. And Israel has been killing Arabs for at least 67 years that I'm aware of, and possibly longer. How long must we tolerate this behaviour before someone stops it?  That's today's Question Everything.

More of Cole Porter's music

From today's Globe and Mail

Back in 1950, when I first began training as a Operator for their hydro-electric plants, we were taught that our founder was Sir Adam Beck, and that the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, as it was then known, had as its motto "Power at cost for the people of Ontario".  Where did we go wrong? - Everywhere!

Every time I read another article like this, I feel really good about quitting that outfit, and moving out west to one that does it better. Not a hell of a lot better, but some better, and progress is our most important product... and if you ask us what "60 cycles" means, we will not tell you "five dozen bikes!" We will tell you it is classified as an ultra-low frequency, from which you cannot receive any cancer-causing radiation. We've checked. I've personally been closer to 500 Kv than you have to the love of your life, and I'm eighty-two and a half, and still cancer-free. And that too has been checked as recently as last month. Any questions?

Please Note:
For those who would like to hear about radiation from the people who literally wrote the book, here's their website....

Please click here to go to it...

From The Moscow Times...

Continued here...

Continued here ->

Mixing religion with politics is never a good idea because the one may overpower the other, and a dog cannot bark for two masters.

Russian dancing....

"Dance of the Snowflakes"

"Take me to church"

Co-operation between Russia and China ?

Continued here...

We had a similar design of helicopter here for search and rescue and coastal patrol work, but it had a problem. The engine air intakes iced up and starved the engine for air, causing it to land in the wrong places - like in the ocean.
So yes - redesign  it, and make the air intakes better. Maybe put heaters on them... Or make it so it can float.... or all of that.

Xavier Cugat Orch. - Greatest Hits / Grandes Exitos [HQ Full Album]

Brazil by Xavier Cugat & Orch. on 1958 Columbia LP.

Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra - Tea For Two Cha Cha Cha

All about earthquakes in our Pacific northwest...

TOMMY DORSEY Orch Tea For Two Cha Cha, arr cond by Wa

Ray Conniff - Concert In Rhythm (Full CD)

Broadway Baby- Addison Moffett Age 7/8

The inmates have taken over the asylum...

The problem is, Americans can't grasp the historical context of that Second Amendment. They continue to insist that it means any nutcase can run around loose with semi-automatic weapons "for self defence". Self defence my ass!

The Second Amendment was to make it legal for citizens to possess weapons with which to defend the nation against invasion by foreign military forces.

The NRA and its leadership were all born stupid, and have been steadily losing ground ever since. If brains were dynamite, they wouldn't have enough to blow their own noses! Those bastards ought to be locked up to protect the public from possible injury or death. 

Windows Theme: Bernadette

Bernadette in concert...

What can I say?

Simply: "Wow!"

Windows Theme: Sundown...

Beginning about 5:15 p.m. and ending at 9:17 p.m., tonight's sundown.

Today's Top Ten

У российских читателей теряют интерес к загнивающего Запада?
The Russian readers lose interest in the decadent West?

Fun with Windows (and PhotoStudio)

Ever tried making your own Windows Logo wallpaper? It's not as easy as it looks. Getting that cross in the middle the right width is damned difficult....
I'm close, but close only counts in horseshoes... But it was fun, anyway.

Feds latest budget: help for seniors...

Margaret Wente and others are noting the buzz around the federal government's tax breaks for seniors and others in the latest federal budget. But this above article rightly states that the really important issue here isn't getting a higher tax-free limit on a non-existent savings plan, it's the too-high debt levels that are swamping most families in the country. Improving the rules for savings isn't helping those who can't do any of it. The trick, like the man says, is to learn to live below your means, so that your back isn't constantly to the wall financially. It took me too much of my lifetime to learn how to do that, but better late than never. The best finance plan in the world is "100% down and nothing left to pay."

Weather update....

This looks more like the end of April in Lotusland! The birds are singing and the temperature's up to 69 F, at last!

From The Moscow Times....

 

Continued here Продолжение здесь

President Putin says: "Western leaders would like to see Russia begging with its "cap in hand". "

"It's not the things we don't know that get us into trouble", said Will Rogers,

"It's the things we do know that ain't so!" Nobody wants to see Russia begging anyone for help. But neither does anyone want to see a revival of the old Soviet Union. Those who refuse to learn from History are condemned to repeat it, and we don't want that to happen.

Russia can and should take its place among the world's greatest nations, but to do so requires it to play by the same rules others do, and not make your own.

The world of today is not like the world of the past. We have problems of survival which will require all of us to work together to reach a solution, and building walls or being confrontational with your neighbors is not the way.

It puzzles and dismays those of us in the rest of the world to see what looks like Russia trying to regress to the bad old days of Stalin, when there is nothing to be gained from it, and much to be lost. 

Today's Weather...

It may be the second month of summer in Egypt, but this isn't it, for sure!
We're still enjoying the monsoon season here on the Wet Coast. But even so, it still beats the hell out of living on the flatlands near Horsebuns, Alberta, or around Buffalo Jump, Saskatchewan, or Snows-In-August, Manitoba, or in northern Ontario, where there's nine months winter, two months bad skiing, and one month's summer. Rain is easy to shovel, makes the grass grow greener, cleans the air, and helps to sell umbrellas. It could be worse.

Margaret's latest....

Continued here.......

'Seniors' may be a horrible word, but it's infinitely preferable to 'Golden Agers'.

Whoever coined that 'golden agers' crap has never been retired from a middle class income's career, from which you were separated ten years before you were ready, by an 'early retirement' scheme. That's a nice term meaning that you were 'terminated without specific cause, just because we didn't like you and your unionist beliefs'. The good news is, I've now been retired from that outfit for longer than I worked for them, and I'm still alive and well.

News of the bizarre and ridiculous

Insanity is contagious. We catch it from our spouse. This is the proof.... and these two idiots obviously never heard the expression 'Agree, for the law is costly.' They also apparently aren't aware of the old story about the cow. The ownership of a certain cow was being disputed by two farmers. While one pulled on its ears and the other pulled on its tail, the cow was milked by a lawyer. And a lawyer is a guy who gets you what is coming to him. 

The latest revision of this theme...

And through the magic of technology, it's once more 3,300 years ago, and Ra is crossing the heavens in his fiery boat, the several morning religious ceremonies are concluded, and the weather forecast is for hot and sunny with light breezes from the north. 

The beginning of the year, (New Year's Day) is generally considered as being the first day that the star Sirius rises at dawn with the Sun, and is usually on or about July 20th.

That would mean we're now in the second month of Shemu, which is Payni.
Each month is divided into three decans of ten days each, but I don't know which decan of Payni we are now in. There are 36 decans in a year, and these have their own constellations around the horizon, but again, I don't have details. We need more information on all of this. Most readily available books about ancient Egypt go into great detail about their gods and goddesses and religious beliefs and myths, but neglect a lot of the nuts and bolts of everyday life in that country in those times. So details of things like the calendar are rather sketchy. But they had one, and it formed the base for ours.

Their twelve 30-day months, with five and later every fourth year six 'extra' days to balance it out with astronomical data, still form the basis of our calendar.

Please note: The correct spelling of that first month is 'Thoth' after the god...
(keep doing your homework, Kids!)

Today's Top Ten...

Da Prez is enjoying himself...

The frightening thing about all that is that a couple of spoiled brats who inherited their daddy's fortune and businesses are able to buy their own choices of politicians for the leadership of the country. And it doesn't say much about the process when politicians who are willing to be bought actually believe we ought to love them for their charm, wit, and personality. I find that insulting, because I think the average voter is smarter than that, and can see when we are being manipulated by two-faced lyin' bastards. And there's only two kinds of people: Lion Tamers, and Lyin' Bastards. So be careful which ones you join.