Monthly Archives: August 2006

RIP, Glenn Ford

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Glenn Ford, an actor’s actor, has passed away at age 90.

I’ve written several posts about people, celebrities, etc, who have passed on. A recurring theme of a lot of those posts was “I didn’t realize they did so much that I didn’t know about”. And so it was with Glenn Ford; Dad and I watched a lot of Glenn’s movies, primarily Westerns. I’d always thought his career was dedicated to that genre. Not even close.

Still, The Rounders, starring Glenn and Henry Fonda, remains a movie that I will watch again and again. I like the two washed-up cowpokes premise, and with Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, and Denver Pyle also making appearances in the show, it was a character actor convention. And the line I use a lot from that movie, uttered by Fonda:

Whatever suits you just tickles me plumb to death.

RIP, Glenn, and thanks for the great entertainment.

-k-

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118 Days

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118, the number of days until Christmas, 2006. SWMBO and I received our first “Christmas Gifts” catalog of the season. It gets worse every year; it’s not even Labor Day yet.

Having said that, I must admit the “Pull my Finger Santa” in the catalog was cute, in a cantankerous old wanker kinda way.

-k-

Operation Eden at one Year

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Clayton Cubitt is back, on this, the one year Katrina date. He has an absolutely beautiful picture of his Mom, and some of his great writing here. He talks about the outpouring of support his mother has received. I’ll cite one paragraph from the post:

One day there’s a moldering heap of rubble, the next day hippie volunteers from Burning Man bulldoze it and take it away. One day it’s a flat slab of concrete, the next day a pre-fab home kit is delivered by One House At A Time and New Hope Construction. One day there’s a jumble of materials, the next day a church group from Oregon shows up and builds the frame and shell. A little later a group from Pennsylvania shows up and paints it my mom’s favorite shade of green, and puts a tin roof on so she can hear the rain fall at night. And not to be outdone, a group from Alabama comes over and sheet rocks the interior, then comes back and builds her a deck for good measure.

Read the whole thing.

-k-

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Reading List – W style

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Brian Williams interviewed President Bush on tonight’s NBC news. Somehow, the conversation turned to reading habits. George mentioned that he had read some of Camus’ works during his recent Crawford sabbatical. He also read “three Shakespeares”. Brian mentioned that these were a far cry from “The Life of Joe DiMaggio” to which W replied:

What can I say?
I have an eck-u-lectic reading list.

I guess I don’t have an eck-u-lectic taste; most of what I read is subtitled The Definitive Guide, and has a picture of an animal on the cover.

-k-

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Summer Racing Spectacle

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Tonight, a half-hour hence, the Sharpie 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway. I’ve never been to Bristol, but 165,000+ people around a half mile high banked concrete track, just warms the cockles of my heart.

I hope to attend this event at some point. I’d need luck in acquiring tickets; Bristol sells out early and consistently.

I would also prefer to be 25 or 30 years younger, so I could enjoy the event with the proper breakfast whiskey. This isn’t happening, so if I really want to go there(and I do), I’ll probably buy tickets/transportation from a NASCAR tour group. Bus fumes don’t bother me. Not having to drive out of such a venue bothers me less.

-k-

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Growing Old Together

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SWMBO and I now drive each other to our respective optometrist’s appointments. This is because, at our ages, a dilation of the pupils is in order, the better for the doctor to examine the insides of our eyes.

Neither of us is comfortable driving after the procedure, so the one not being examined drives the one who is. I was the designated driver this afternoon. We both go to the same doctor, and my glasses prescribed in a previous visit were ready to be picked up today. One stone, two birds.

The good thing to report is that her eyes and my eyes have changed very little; I hope we’re going to be able to drive each other for a good many years.

-k-

Diverging

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I had toyed with the idea of attending this year’s Converge South on October 13-14 in Greensboro NC. Converge South appears, from all I’ve read about it, to be devoid of the elitist puffery that abounds in far too many of today’s conferences. And the price, being free, is right as well.

I’m also getting scheduled for some Red Hat courses in Raleigh NC. A quick Mapquest check revealed that Raleigh and Greensboro are about 80 miles apart. A stone’s throw. My plan was to schedule the training the week after, or preferably the week before CS, and go for the daily double of geekery.

Unfortunately, my preferred RH courses aren’t being offered in Raleigh during either of the above time slots, so CS won’t be an option for me this year, Greensboro being somewhat distant for a weekend outing and all. I’ll be following all the goings-on that I can via blogs, podcasts, and videos. Judging from last year’s coverage, that will be a wealth of information.

-k-

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Single Malt, Single Barrel, Single Cup

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The above modifiers refer respectively to Scotch, Bourbon, and coffee. Having written about the first two, I figured it was time to mention coffee. I drink single-cup coffee at work, made in my pretty blue Senseo, as pictured here. I love the neatness of the whole thing; no grounds to dispose of, no filters to buy, no pots to clean to prevent science projects from taking root therein. And believe me, in my college days, I believe I manufactured cures for all the world’s diseases in the leftovers in a drip coffeemaker I was too slothful to clean.

I started out with a Melitta one:one, and thoroughly loved it. The local Target, however, became incredibly remiss in not stocking the pods that fit this particular unit. I had ordered pods directly from Melitta, and that worked well; the problem was they had an auto-delivery of a six-box assortment of pods, so I was buying six boxes at a time. I had several other coffee drinkers in close proximity to my office, so that was good. Then, these other coffee persons moved to different areas of the building, or got transferred miles away, so the necessity for a stockpile of coffee became less.

Also, after about 3 years, I figured it was time to upgrade, so the Senseo is now ensconced in my work area. And it’s great. I came across a blog dedicated to single-serve coffee a week or two ago, and subscribed to their feed. A recent post there mentioned that one could get a Senseo for free. I followed the link, answered a few not-too-prying questions, and was rewarded with a mail-o-gram saying that I had qualified for a free Senseo. I provided them the shipping address over the weekend, and in 3-4 weeks, should have another machine.

Love these internets; where else can you find a blog dedicated to the world of single cup coffee?

-k-

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Extra Staff

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Here at tbbs-land, we spare no efforts to bring our small but loyal band of readers the best the blogosphere has to offer. And it is work. Here’s a picture of our new blogging staff; here to serve, they are, and to help this blog climb up the from the part of the long tail that drags the ground to that portion closest to the asshole.

-k-

h/t: Ishkur, for the artwork and giggles.