Random Wordplay for Wednesday 8/6/14

Present fatalist.

Used in a sentence:  "After seeing it in the Sunday paper, I decided to take the 'time orientation' quiz ... as it is supposedly connected to my financial health ... and it turns out I'm a 'present fatalist'."

Maybe.  I mean it was less than two dozen questions that led the little online quiz widget to draw this conclusion ... so I'm left to wonder if maybe a more exhaustive collection of questions would lead to the same result.

What I like, though, is it has turned me on to a whole new classification system (this on the heels of just completing some strengths-finders analysis at work [4 of my 5 are in the strategic category ... including the one that encourages you to be an intellectual hoarder] and after a long ago dip into MyersBriggs for some personality typing [I *think* I might be an INTJ ... or, I *think* I might have been an INTJ once upn a time?]).

And, after all, who doesn't like an opportunity to talk/think/write/post about oneself (exhibit A ... this blog, and its double publishing to a captive audience on the Facebook) ... even if that analysis does doom me to a life lived in debt, over which I feel powerless to take action (which one is the happy category in this anaylsis?) ...

I'M POWERLESS TO CHANGE (MAYBE):
http://www.magnifymoney.com/timeperspective//index.php/eequiz/results

THIS IS A WHOLE MOVEMENT ... WHO KNEW?:
http://www.thetimeparadox.com/2008/08/03/an-overview-of-time-perspective-types/

GOOD NEWS ... MONEY PROBLEMS ARE ALL IN MY HEAD!:
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/spending/T031-C000-S002-your-worst-money-problems-are-all-in-your-head.html

Random Tune for Tuesday 8/5/14

It's time for track 6 of 39 (well lookie lookie ... we're 2/13 of the way there already ... and guess what else ... I know me some fractions) ... which seems like the perfect spot for ... oh, I don't know ... a 10+ minute meg-track with the kind of instrumental that befits a long drive after midnight (which is when I used to love to listen to this authentic college mix tape from the early nineties).

The fact that there's a history lesson entwined in the lyrics ... and a Phil Collins drum solo midway through ... and that it came from the modern masterpiece "We Can't Dance" (on which every song was an insta-classic) ... those are all just bonuses.

And, seeing as how this tape represents the tunes playing as a bunch of folks were going through the whole coming of age Americana thing (with just a few tweaks, this could be a movie, ya know ... with these songs as the soundtrack), it just may be that there was a certain affinity toward these lyrics:

"Showing no fear of what lies up ahead ... They'll never see the likes of us again!"

And dare I say ... they never did!

CAN YOU HEAR ME?  CAN YOU SEE?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHGqGmzzQaY

Random Memorial for Monday 8/4/14

Gone but not forgotten:  allemanding, promenading, circling left, bowing and other things all square-like.

So ... my 25th high school reunion is coming up in a few months ... which led me to yet another countdown on the blog (because, you know, that's my creative outlet ... and because I do so love a countdown).  Since the concept is 25 fond memories, I had to brainstorm before I committed to it to make sure I *had* that many fond memories of high school.

I briefly put square dancing in gym on my list ... and then realized that *that* exquisite experience was actually in junior high.  Therefore, I had to move it out of that series ... and my random Monday night memorial seemed like a perfect place for it to land.

Forced awkwardness and dance steps that I've never used again in my adult life (although, if a recent episode of Nurse Jackie is to be believed, all the cool hip kids might be doing this again in secret NY clubs [ironically, I'm sure]) ... you are missed.

SQUARE DANCING STRESSES PANDAS:
http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/03/panda-stressed-after-grannies-practice-square-dancing-in-front-of-his-cage-4819756/

THE INTERWEBS WONDER WHY WE DID IT IN THE FIRST PLACE:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101121195206AA7WRCT

SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF IN ONE OF THOSE SECRET NY CLUBS:
http://acme-corp.com/teamGuest/R/2_426/sd101/Square%20Dancing%20101.htm

Bonus Post: Fond Memory 17 (LHS Quadranscentennial Celebration Edition)

Fond Memory 17

on this, the Quadranscentennial Celebration of 

my Lebanon High School Graduation: 

We're just 68 more days away from the 25th high school reunion for the LHS class of '89, and so I went digging around in the bins that house the detritus from my youth to uncover this collection of royal blue and red (our school colors).

From right to left, there's the tassel that once hung around the rear view mirror of my 83 Ford Escort (because, for a time, graduating high school was the biggest accomplishment in my life) ... and the "medal" that hung around my neck during the graduation ceremony ... and the other item ... well, that's today's "fond" memory ... because it's from when vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle stopped by the high school in late October 1988.  

Regardless of one's political orientation (although this was central PA and not Philly or Pittsburgh, so if you weren't Republican, people were whispering about you), it was still something special to have someone so nationally known stop by the gym (I had to get bused over to Millersville University four years earlier to see sitting president Reagan on the campaign trail).  I believe this was during the height of his "you spell potato, I spell po-ta-toe" press, but still ... it was good times.

[Whilst fact-checking today on the interwebs, I discovered this article, which summarizes the whole experience "nicely":  http://articles.philly.com/1988-10-29/news/26269381_1_dukakis-weather-dan-quayle-bush-quayle , which confirmed my memory and included this quote from a classmate:  "Tailback Alphonso Apple, a muscular 17-year-old who sported a mustache and stood with Quayle on the podium, said the candidate was 'a nice guy'".]

More memories ... number 16 is up next ... in four days on Thursday the 7th ...

Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 8/3/14

What southern Florida is talking about this week:

Actually ... it's not commenting on the content so much this week as it is commenting on the commentators.

I've been here now for almost half a year, and I finally found the closest substitute to Chicago's CLTV (the nearly 24 hour local news channel extraordinaire that was my go-to background during the twelve years living there ... so much so, that it was also my go-to "tell me a bedtime story so I can go to sleep" device) ... it's the local channel 7, which runs local news over and over again throughout the day (ten hours of coverage between 5am and 11pm ).

And I know it's sunny Florida where people are beautiful (by genetic lottery or doctor bill) ... but the morning newswomen seem like they walked in off a night's work on the Orange Blossom Trail, got into hair and makeup, and then got poured into a dress (the image above somehow failed to capture the decolletage traditionally on display).

Don't get me started on the weather women across all the channels ... I swear someone did market research and suggested that lecherous old men are the primary customer base and the way to get ratings.  Of course, knowing what I know about the demographics down here ... maybe it's all starting to make sense.  Regardless, they do give the *breast* news coverage around!

THE STORY OF THE CHANNEL 7 NEWS:
http://ftvlive.com/todays-news/2013/3/18/how-local-news-saved-a-miami-station

BECUASE FOX NEWS BASHING IS FUN:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/09/christian-group-fox-news-_n_67693.html

WARNING ... OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN AHEAD:
http://www.mandatory.com/2012/08/07/the-20-hottest-news-and-weather-girls-on-tv/

Random Soapbox for Saturday 8/2/14

I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...

I had a quick chance to have a one-on-one conversation with God this past week and she said (yes, I've gender identified God as female ... and no, she's not Oprah) ... "Please tell people to stop using my name to justify their killings."

I know there's no prophet Neidermyer amidst the books of the OT ... and I also know that the message in the quotes in the last paragraph has fallen on deaf ears for as long as people have been twisting the whole religious concept to justify their over-inflated state of righteousness for centuries AND that the crusades never ended, despite what the history books have said.

But I don't care if you're waiting for Jesus to come for the *first* time, or for his return, or if you think that he's been back many times already in new lives in new bodies ... and I don't care if you're still hung up on whether Abu Bakr or Ali was the proper successor to Muhammad (please no fatwas ... ain't nobody got *time* for that).  Let's start calling war what it is ... blood lusts and power quests and self-righteous attitudes and the kind of hatred that fuels evil incarnate ... and let's stop hiding behind the name of God.

War is a business ... and all sides in all conflicts use whatever means necessary to win market share (even if that's done by killing off the competing customer base) and to advance the leadership's selfish goals, at any cost.  Let's stop with the playground taunts of "my God's bigger than your God" and try to establish some kind of peaceful coexistence before we've destroyed all sense of right and wrong and loosed evil into all four corners of the world.

And the sooner, the better, eh?  I think we're running out of time, with the extinction of basic humanity in my lifetime now looking possible.  'Cause you know what else she said?  "If you don't start behaving, I'm gonna sic the Ebola on all y'all and start again (with a rainbow over the last human standing's funeral, because, you know, that's how I roll)."

You've been warned.  Thus sayeth the Lord.

CRUSADES ... SINCE 1095 AND *STILL* GOING STRONG:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history/art-history-400-1300-medieval---byzantine-eras/the-crusades/a/the-when-where-and-who-of-crusading-3-of-4

BECAUSE I DO SO LOVE A TOP 10 LIST:
http://www.top100arena.com/news/1111/top-10-mass-deaths-caused-by-religion

ON THE GOD GENDER ISSUE:
https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=1165

Random Flashback for Friday 8/1/14

What's summer for ... if not to spend it with good friends.

So as this one in 2014 races to a close ( how can Labor Day possibly be right around the corner?) ... here's a twenty year old photo from a summer night in my hometown of Lebanon PA from 1994 with Mr. and Mrs. Flowers (well, they were just dating back then ...), and Jarrod S (I'd need a whole 'nother photo dedicated to his curly hairdo of that time).  [Attending this impromptu shindig but not in this particular picture -- Kyle K.]

Oh ... and clearly, a bunch of inexpensive beer (this predates Guinness as my go-to for gatherings). And a makeshift candle -- more about that in a moment.  My life has taken me many miles away from this spot over the years ... but the best part about best friends is that, any time I'm back home to visit, we just pick up where we left off this night, except now the makeshift candle is usually a fire pit ... and instead of Mrs. Woodward's upper deck, it's usually in the back yard of Mr. and Mrs. Flowers.

As a reminder that no matter how far away I roam, I'm always welcome back home to these people  ... that same candle has traveled with me across the country (the below picture is one taken moments ago in my back room -- the headless Cancun gaucho being something the Flowers brought back from their honeymoon ... [well, he wasn't headless when they gave him to me ... but, he's traveled those same miles and was slightly more delicate than the candle ...])

My wish for you ... friends like them ... and a place to which you can always return from your adventures!