Muscle Cars Forever

I don't get US postal stamps very often, but was pleasantly surprised recently at the selection.
The Muscle Car stamps are fabulous.



Muscle Cars (Forever)

1969 Dodge Charger Daytona
1966 Pontiac GTO
1967 Shelby GT-500
1970 Chevelle SS
1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda

Motortrend article

(Googling images will get you more large size pictures of these car stamps.)

I also liked the Bonsai stamps but they seem difficult to get locally now.



Bonsai (Forever)

Sierra juniper in semi-cascade style
Trident maple in informal upright style
Black pine in formal upright style
Azalea plant in multiple-trunk style
Banyan in cascade style

Binder Clip Love

Wrap Headphone Cord on Binder Clip
I wonder about wrapping the headphone cord because a lot of times what wears out on my headphones is the wires break inside the cord and then no sound on one side. Although I haven't had that problem with my JVC headphones which I LOVE. I usually drop the cord inside my shirt so it's out of the way when I exercise. (Video demonstrates earplug type headphones, but would work with my headphones as a cord shortener.)

9 Binder Clip Uses
Yes, I use the clip on the toothpaste tube.
I also have a clip on my keys. Used mainly when I exercise outdoors. Either secure the keys to a pocket so they don't fall out. Or if I don't have a pocket, I clip them to my pants waistband.

I hadn't thought of removing the ends and combining the clips in the ways shown in the link (binder clip dock) so this was interesting.

9-11 At The Newseum

I thought it would be interesting to see what the newspaper front pages look like today.

newseum

I like uncluttered presentations the best.

Winners (of the ones I looked at):



Sun-Times
Chicago, Illinois

Sioux City Journal
Sioux City, Iowa

Letting Go Of God

Another ShowTime freebie that I liked.
Letting Go of God (2008)
Julia Sweeney.


To me, it wasn't *overly* negative or *overly* exaggerated for comedic effect. More of an honest personal story told in a sometimes funny sarcastic way, sometimes touching way. I could relate to it in a lot of ways.

My favorite part was where she was talking about how the stories in the Bible are not literally true, but psychologically true. And she kinda talks and thinks that through for a while.
Of course, psychologically true...etc...
And then pause.
And then...
What does that mean?!
LOL
That cracked me up.

There were other moments like that, but can't recall more.

She liked Karen Armstrong's, History of God, and that's where she got the thought about psychologically true. Sweeney kinda raved about how much she liked Armstrong's book. But I didn't like Armstrong's book much. Mostly because the references sucked, as I recall. It's been quite a few years since I've read it.

The show is long, a little over 2 hours. The Psychologically true part is about 45 minutes into the program.

The entire thing can be found at YouTube.

Part 1 of 7
YouTube - Julia Sweeney, Letting Go of God Monologue: 1/7

Part 5 of 7
"Have you READ that book?!" (Bible) LOL
Then at about 6:11 She talks about Armstrong and Psychologically true.

Another interesting thing about Julia Sweeney is that she quit public storytelling around March 2010.
Her blog post about that:
I plan to stop being a public, personal, storyteller.
Dated Tuesday, March 09, 2010.
"I no longer wish to be so naked and bare."
"I began to look at the darker side of telling stories about my personal life."

More on that and how she met her husband in a couple of Chicago news items.

chicagotribune
Julia Sweeney, suburban housewife
Former “Saturday Night Live” star has let go of Pat, God and the urge to explore her foibles in public
March 07, 2010|By Mary Schmich

"The letter-writer had seen 'Letting Go of God,' her show about becoming an atheist after a lifetime of Catholicism. He told her she should marry his brother, Michael..."

"...she discovered a new desire. To be quiet and alone. No parties. No dinners. No big public life."
"'I'm not an activist," she said. 'I'm trying to get off the whole atheist racket.'"
"She also claims she's done using her life as her art. One reason is her daughter."

chicagomag
You Should Know ... Julia Sweeney
It’s Pat!—with a new husband, a new North Shore address, and a new comedy series at the Lakeshore Theater
By Bradley Lincoln
Dated July 2009.
"'I got an e-mail with 'Desperately Seeking Sweeney-in-Law' as the subject line,' she says. 'It was from a fan who thought his [Chicago-based] brother would be perfect for me,..."

Power Outage

Snow storm and power outage.
(Camping equipment comes in handy at a time like this. Coolers, cook stoves, lighting, etc.)

Power outage was from about 1p.m. Good Friday 'til sundown Sat.
I got a kick out of the symbolism of that, Easter weekend and all.
I even read the resurrection stories.
Lots of drama and emotion.

Read side-by-side here:
The Four Canonicals
Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20
(RSV)

The storm was thick heavy wet slushy stuff which disappeared from the roads the next day. The parking lots and sidewalks still showed signs of what it was like.



Thousands in the dark this Easter due to storm

Here's a pic of a snapped power line pole near where I live, taken Easter Monday. The snow is just about all melted already.



I also found some good detailed storm damage photos from the Flasher area:
Facebook home page
photos

Good Housekeeping Vintage

I picked up a Good Housekeeping Magazine (April 2010) and they had an old 1919 cover pic in there.
Can see more online.
I thought it was fun to look at.
Vintage Cover Art
(Link there takes you to art.com)

AND/OR
vintage

Anti-virus Software

I just found out about Microsoft's free anti-virus software.
Yay!
AVG is a sluggish resource pig.
I didn't like Avast's interface.
So I was wondering what to do.

Get Microsoft's Security Essentials here.

Release must have been 28 Sep 09.

I'm a little late to the party.
I guess I should check my tech links more often, huh.

lifehacker
Stop Paying for Windows Security;
Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough

engadget
Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus software is now live and free

I just installed it with no problems and seems pretty clean and fast.
Yay.

Mt Lion Shot in Bismarck City Limits

Mountain lion shot in Bismarck
(Larger pic at site.)

Wow.
There have been other close calls within the state.
Search Bismarck Tribune archives for "mountain lion" and there are more articles on the topic.
To name a few:
Dawson and New Salem in Nov 06.
Washburn in Oct 06.
Maah Heeh Day Trail, Medora in Jun 05.

When
Friday, 27 Nov 09
Sighted 6:30 pm
Shot 7:30 pm

Where
Near the former Home Depot Building in north Bismarck.

If you google map
Stan Puklich Chevrolet
3701 State St, Bismarck, ND
you'll be looking at the East Calgary Avenue area where the mt lion was.
(Hwy 83 and Kmart exit off I94, then North.)
There are a lots of residences out there. A big trailer park. Yikes.

What
100-pound full-grown male mountain lion measuring six feet long.

"the first time in NDGF history that a cougar was taken out in city limits anywhere in the state."

NDGF = North Dakota Game & Fish

"What happens on the scarce chance you meet a cougar on foot?
"Don't run away from it. Don't go towards it. Just stand your ground and face it."

Telescopes, Astronomy, and Birds, Oh My

Google Excursions.

I returned to the American avocet "pond" site and took a bunch more photos and have some birds to id.

I was looking thru my bird books first.
Birds of the Dakotas,
and
Golden's Birds of North America 1983 Ed.,
(now 2001 Ed.)



Found this little tidbit on page 108 Behaviour of Shorebirds:

9. Dunlin standing on one foot, a typical resting posture of shorebirds.

Googled: one leg resting posture birds.

Found:
Sleep behaviour and sleep postures.
Interesting read.

Followed link to two of his friends.
Found out Matt just started an
astronomy blog.

He uses Stellarium, a free open source planetarium software and links to
deep astronomy.

Deep Astronomy recommends
Dobsonian Orion SkyQuest Classics 8 inch telescope ($330.00)
OR
Meade LightBridge 8 inch telescope ($399.00).

AND also uses this little handy dandy
Edmund Scientific Astroscan 2001 which actually looks most appealing to me.

The Astroscan is still available here for $199.00.
Full review here.



From birds to sleep patterns to astronomy to software to telescopes.
Now where was I? lol
Oh yeah, got some birds to id...

Neologisms + Aves = wordbirds

Oh these are great!
Birds and words at wordbirds.

Via MeFi

My Favs (pictured above):
NOSOH
Aplorable
Contryst
Cancellelation
E-quail

A few recent are good:
Smoove
Shaftling

Also checkout David Attenborough's The Life of Birds at YouTube.
Part of YouTube's Shows Section
Also via MeFi.

Lisa Marie Presley - Now What - Music

So I was reading some of the stuff on Michael Jackson and came across
Lisa Marie Presley's post on myspace.

What she wrote about MJ reminded me of that movie, A River Runs Through It, because it had that similar theme of watching someone self-destruct and feeling powerless to stop it.
(See wikiquote.)

I ended up listening to LMP's songs while I was there and really liked
"Now What." A sad slow goodbye song.

It's been a l-o-n-g time since I've found a new song to listen to.



Song lyrics snippet:

"...When I left and I said goodbye
Did you know that I meant it that time?
And damn it if I didn't try to do
Everything that I was supposed to
And now - what do I do now?
Oh, I don't know
Oh, I'm leaving..."

Soap Bubble Photography

Wow.
These are beautiful.

akindofmagic.eu

Via ColourLovers.com

I adore the one that looks like a dolphin.

Mashable Logo Design Contest

Mashable Logo Design Contest
(More contests at that website, also.)

These are fun to look at.
They are really pouring in fast.
Interesting to see what people come up with.
(Some of my favs to the right.)

Spell the word wrong?
Don't follow guidelines?
Play on the Mash TV show.
Play on the McDonald's big M arch.

More Info at Mashable.
Contest open March 10th until March 24th.
Designs must include the words “Mashable” and “The Social Media Guide.”

Comet Lulin

I found this at Yahoo news.



What struck me was the 300mm lens to take this picture of the comet.
I don't know about the six minute exposure time?

I found the photographer's blog and he has more pics with details, which is interesting. Pics have the EXIF.

I'll have to do some night sky photography this summer with my XSi camera and 300mm lens just to see what I can get.
I'm pretty lazy about setting up the tripod. So much work. And I think I need a sturdier tripod for my XSi setup. The one I have works fine with my S3.

Direct links pertaining to Comet Lulin:

Comet Lulin, Saturn and a satellite tonight…

Says:
"the comet was 38 million miles away."
"300mm lens brings objects about as close as a pair of binoculars."

Comet Lulin closes in…

Comet Lulin in the sky and online

Comet Lulin last night…
Says: "Nikon D300 digital camera and a 300mm telephoto lens for the 3 minute exposure."

Nice Desktop Calendar

So I was reading about square root Tuesday (3/3/09) and pi Saturday (3/14/09) when, wait...

I LIKE that nice little calendar he posted with the article. lol

I put it on my desktop.



I wonder how he made the calendar. Would be nice to create something like that every month for my desktop.

My wallpaper is: wallcoo bamboo.

Venus

So that had to be Venus in the western sky about 8:30 p.m. CT tonight.
Yup.



So bright, hard to ignore.
The stars were really bright (no moon).
I wish I had an observation deck with telescope and camera ready for moments like this.
It's about 6 degrees above zero outside.

Feb Night Sky
Venus
Venus Image

How about some tunes to go with that...

Venus by Shocking Blue
Google it

#1 Billboard Hot 100 Feb70

Bananarama covered the song in 1986.

Songfacts

"A goddess on a mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
A summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name..."

Antioxidants in Coffee

antioxidant - too broad/general
polyphenols - still too broad

Try:
caffeic acid
ferulic acid
p-coumaric acid
chlorogenic acid

cosic.org
Antioxidants In Coffee

pubs.acs.org1
Absorption of Phenolic Acids in Humans after Coffee Consumption

pubs.acs.org2
In Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Coffee Compounds and Their Metabolites

Plow thru that verbiage until your head hurts. LOL

In The Deep Freeze, Sundogs

Outdoor temperature at 6 am 15 Jan 09.
I couldn't believe it.
Had to take a pic.
That's taken from inside the house, all lights off, thru the window, with a flashlight and DSLR set to tungsten WB.



Current Temps for North America
(I like this view.)

I wonder if there will be any sundogs this morning.
One of the beauties of a cold winter's day.



"Halos near Longview, Alberta Canada imaged by Cally Coman. Frozen Alberta extends to its skies for the halos tell us that there are low level "diamond dust" ice crystals in the air. The tall bright sundogs appear in front of the hills because the crystals forming them are closer. Tall sundogs are made by large plate shaped crystals wobbling and fluttering markedly in their downward drift (at some stage, tall pillars become difficult to separate from 22° halo fragments). Smaller plates are more aerodynamically stable and deliver squatter dogs. The same unsteady crystals made the upper and lower sun pillars and the parhelic circle passing faintly through the sun and extending more brightly beyond each sundog."

Sundog Image Gallery at Atmospheric Optics.
A fascinating place to visit.

Via MeFi

A Question We Were All Wondering About

Why are there two-hole outhouses?

Different sizes.
If you were a little kid you wouldn't want to fall in.
Makes sense to me.
But I don't have any outhouses to actually look at, so I couldn't tell you if that's really true in all cases or not.

Googling tells me very few pictures of INSIDE the outhouse.
Hmmm.

Some Flickr groups on outhouses:
Outhouses
our world of toilets

Outhouse FAQ

Clipart Source

Ambient Intimacy

I thought this NYT article on Facebook and Twitter was an interesting read.

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy
Dated 7 Sep 08, By Clive Thompson

I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, but I've been curious about them.
It sounds like Twitter is now more popular than Facebook.
The article brings up some interesting topics for conversation, like privacy issues and relationships being different today and whether that's a good thing or not.

I'll include some snippets/quotes from the article, which is quite long, but very worth the time to read.

But first, a link to a blog post I found when googling on the topic of facebook vs twitter.
Facebook vs Twitter
Dated 19 Nov 08
Quote from blog: "But there is one thing i can say about twitter that is different from facebook, no one i follow or no one who follows me is from my past."

NYT ARTICLE QUOTES/SNIPPETS:

"Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it 'ambient awareness.' "

Or "ambient intimacy."

"...each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting."

"awareness tools aren’t as cognitively demanding as an e-mail message."

“It’s so hard to make plans and have an active social life...
But it’s easy to tweet all the time,"

"unless we spend enough time doing social grooming...
chitchatting, trading gossip...
we won’t really feel that we “know” someone well enough to call him a friend."

"deep relationships are still predicated on face time"

"This rapid growth of weak ties can be a very good thing."

"I outsource my entire life"
"I can solve any problem on Twitter in six minutes."

"though you feel like you know me, you don’t...
They can observe you, but it’s not the same as knowing you."

"She needs to stay on Facebook just to monitor what’s being said about her."

"with more than 90 percent of their peers using Facebook, it is especially difficult for them to opt out."

"It brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business."

"Young people today are already developing an attitude toward their privacy that is simultaneously vigilant and laissez-faire."

"it’s identity-constraining now...
"Oh, right, ha-ha — I know you, and you’re not into that.' "

"privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools"

"stopping several times a day to observe what you’re feeling or thinking"

" 'What are you doing?' — can come to seem existentially freighted."

"perhaps the person you see most clearly is yourself."

Image Creation Notes:
Filter Attack, Pfauenfeder (peacock feather)