wasted time

During an unexpected moment of clarity Tuesday, open-minded man Blake Richman was suddenly struck by the grim realization that he's squandered a significant portion of his life listening to everyone's bullshit, the 38-year-old told reporters.

truly

quick storm

temperature has dropped 10 degrees in the last hour or so ---

hear, hear

There’s a new article in the Washington Monthly making the point that we need federal bureaucrats to manage spending, including spending on private contractors, and that under-staffing the government — which we’re doing already, and will do more of if the right gets its way — actually increases the deficit. I agree. And with perfect timing, we have a new report finding that tens of billions have been wasted on undersupervised contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

that's from krugman --- all of that comes out of the mindset that gummint can't do nothing right --- contractors can do a lot, but just as in the private sector, somebody's gotta be riding herd since there's no getting around the fact that there will always be slackers ---

recycling is for sissies

Today the House cafeteria switched all the containers back from compostable and/or recyclable containers to styrofoam as another spit in the eye. This shit can’t be recycled, we are basically forced to throw Styrofoam in a landfill if we want to eat in the cafeteria.

i just don't understand this level of stupid, but for republicans, it seems, we have a god-given right to be as wasteful of resources as we want to be --- i think it goes back to the origins of recycling in the 1970s --- those damned environmentalists/dirty fukn hippies, don't you know ---and styrofoam! gah

just can't complain about the weather today --- the red oak across the street is already budding

condo flora

the orchids are always a surprise --- this oncidium has not bloomed for me before, but it is now ----

sliding into spring

the chinese redbud are really great right now --- forsythia just beginning

the homosexual agenda

hawaii just authorized semi-marriage, and maryland may go the whole way --- now obama is dissing doma and hiring a gay homosexual social secretary, who is also some "top fundraiser," for the homosexual agenda I'm sure? --- this is gonna tear the republicans up --- or not --- either way is a good thing ----

america 2011

The line of the day: “A rising tide raises all boats, but when the tide goes out I want to make sure I drag you down with me. Shouldn’t everybody live a sh*tty life?”

too close to the truth

another sign of the season

my favorite bird is back and singing: orpheus polyglottus --- it's nice to see and hear something besides shivering sparrows in the morning

we are all idiots

signs of new commercial life in midtown

all the empty retail space around has been sad, but arden's garden, for your fruit juice and smoothie needs, is finally open on p'tree place at crescent --- and nickiemoto's is gone along with half of its building, but something else is on the way --- there are also building permits for one of the storefronts on the west side of p'tree north of fifth and in the spire ---

spring blooming

as they do every year, people talk about how early things are blooming here --- it's actually a week or two tardy this year, i think

wisconsin

dawg pictures

signs of spring

mahonia japonica on eighth street

battling the servants of mammon

do all the idiots that voted republicans into office last fall really like what they're doing now that they are in office? they will kill the epa, the consumer protection agency, planned parenthood, and nearly every other protection and service so laboriously gained for working americans if they can get away with it --- wisconsin says maybe they can't ---

The rallies in Madison and other cities are about whether working people have any protections against the moneyed interests that bought the last election, not about wages and health insurance premiums. While the rich get richer and middle class prospects diminish, they've seen every opportunity to level the playing field crippled by the same people who supported Governor Walker’s election.

the retarded south

andrew spends far too much time on the computer, i feel sure, but i appreciate his sending me gems like this

my late winter garden

dex is checking out the hyacynth, the buds of which are showing --- don't know how the square of muscari and freesia will work out ---

a day in the country

the dunlap house (1856) at ocmulgee national monument, scene of minor earthworks and skirmishing during the "battle of dunlap's farm," sometimes wishfully known as the battle of macon --- the so-called dunlap mound, one of the several smaller mounds in the park, is the slight rise at the center of this image --- the dunlaps plowed over one of the nation's great archeological sites to grow cotton, although at the time they didn't necessarily know what they were doing --- last week's fire destroyed one window, sash and casing, and one sash on another; two doors and casing; maybe 10' of baseboard and a foot or so of flooring --- walls and ceilings intact except where the firemen chopped through to make sure something wasn't burning above --- functioning smoke/fire detection, rapid fire dept. response, and total disaster averted ---

another step forward

hawaii legislature approves civil unions

signs of spring, cont'd.

the maples on p'tree place are starting to blossom and the color of the tree canopy over midtown is starting to change --- a little less wintery every day

the wonders of infrared photography

 

Breaking wind (zirt, fart), like belching (itkerreh), was considered by Arab and Hindoo as an act of purification; for it sought to drive all evil spirits from the body. Zirteh, a loud discharge was highly civil and proper in the company of others; but insidious fesweh (fizzle, creeper), with stench, was regarded as an insult. Many an Arab died because of it, especially when vented in the presence of royalty. Such an individual was termed Fezwaun (Fizzler) whereas his counterpart, a man of purity and esteem, was venerably entitled Eboo-ez-Zirteh (Father of Farts). Simojeh-el-Hewweh (Breaker of Wind) was the appellation granted an Egyptian bean-eater who could break wind in tune, a favourite accomplishment of fellaheen boys.

stupid ideas

a polo shirt upholstering a dining room chair? is it supposed to be ironic or something?

another benefit of tax cuts for the rich

massive budget cuts are proposed for community health centers, the increased funding for which was a critical part of what the right wingers charmingly call obamacare --- this is a pretty good assessment of the situation:

Basic math, basic cause and effect, which apparently the GOP en masse has failed to comprehend. Or they actually want as many people as possible to get horribly and expensively ill and die. But you can't rule out the likelihood that they are actually both stupid and venal, so let's go with that. That's a culture of life for you.

i will definitely go with "stupid and venal" ---- some of these assholes would even repeal child-labor laws

the possum tree

a friend of mine sent me this image of a postcard for sale on ebay ($24) --- a quick google search turned up the 1909 annual report of the smithsonian in which the pink cherry market company in atlanta was credited with having presented the museum with nine "common opossum" for their zoo --- the market is also mentioned in sketches of atlanta, georgia: gate city of the south, a publication of which I was unaware ---- i'm purty sure the market owner's name was pink cherry.

anyway one of my ma's uncles named his son pink cherry (1907-1987), apparently after the market and/or its owner --- they farmed part of the old hart farm that was where the fifth runway at hartsfield is now, growing produce (carrots, etc.) for the atlanta market --- and used to get the family up at 2 in the morning for early delivery to produce row which was where the old world of coca-cola was located ---

st. valentine

which one is the "authentic" relic?

thnx andrew

signs of spring

 crocus are getting started, and the early jonquils, of which i counted exactly five

orchid daze 2011

 always wunnerful

the gourmands

the article here made me want to eat nothing but oatmeal for the rest of my life ---

maintaining standards

SÈVRES, France — No one knows exactly why the international prototype of the kilogram, as pampered a hunk of platinum and iridium as ever existed, appears to weigh less than it did when it was manufactured in the late 19th century.

marking the seasons

the winter sunset will soon be gone behind plaza midtown

extra-cubiclear activities

today there was snow almost to macon as i drove down to check the damage from an arson fire at an 1856 house at ocmulgee --- coulda been a whole lot worse since real damage was confined to one room and the back hall --- lotta soot everywhere else --- the alleged arsonist has been retained by the po-lice, having been apprehended in the yard while in the process of watching the house burn

yesterday it was lyons farm in s. dekalb, a county-owned property that is part of the arabia mountain national heritage area --- the house dates to the second quarter of the nineteenth century --- a great place right in the shadow of panola mountain, if it were tall enough to cast a shadow

someone else is driving us to chattahoochee tomorrow to talk about hyde farm ---

revolutionary fashion

some of the protective headgear in egypt is fairly inventive 

egypt

here is an amazing series of images from the last three weeks

craig's list claims another one

another adulterous republican, from new york, resigned three hours after this photo was published by gawker

shitty anniversaries

my brother's grave a few days after his funeral --- he was killed in vietnam on this date in february 1968

gonna-snow clouds

happy days are here again

ground broken for "a dual hotel" at tenth and williams is reported

do tell

"The church is in the early stages of another ‘the earth is flat’ crisis. I say to all religious people that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry on the subject. Or we’re going to be embarrassed in another 10 or 20 years."

guess who said that? ted haggard

educating america

can you watch 10 minutes of glenn beck? a voice crying in the wilderness for our "low information" family and friends



and, yes, i watched the whole thing --- it has an odd purgative effect on my politics, so i do that sort of thing from time to time

more clouds

sunday

the t-latrec exhibit at the high was good --- included a fabulous mucha

then back home for puppy bowl vii with r, a, and miss p ---

hell, no, we ain't fergittin'

they're touchy about confederate-themed art in gainesville, and elsewhere in the more-benighted portions of the old confederacy

groundhog night