A Question for Email Spammers

Why?

Seriously. I can see - just barely - being duped by Viarga[sic] ads, and things like that, but this?

(click to embiggen)

Am I supposed to think, "Oh, wow! Something in (presumably) Mandarin! It must be important!"

WTP?*

(*as ever, thanks to Mama Shakes, via her daughter Liss)

Science is Seriously Cool, Innit?

Awesome photos of Phobos, the smaller of Mars' two moons.



Phobos is only 13.5 miles in diameter.




Article here (Discovery News).

A Saturday Photo

The trees are starting to green up around the Secret Lair (aka '73 Winnebago). In just a few weeks, that house in the background will disappear until next fall. If I remember, I'll take more photos from this same spot to show the progression.


Oh, there's a chance of snow showers here tomorrow night and Monday morning.

/rolls eyes/

More on Mending Building Fences

It was back to Gentleman Farmer's yesterday for more fencing. And this time, I remembered to take my camera!

A section of the old fence. Seriously, there's fence leading to that barn,
in amongst all those vines and stuff on the right side of the flat area.
(oh, and that white lump on the ground is a sleeping - but very much alive - dog)

Looking back down the hill at the work we have accomplished.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Looking up the hill at the new fence.

Look for future installments of this riveting work!!

Remember the Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur?

Quaker Dave does. Go here, and take part. Now, please.

Thursday! Python! Random!

Pheaux Phyre Phorum: The Clarinetist's Dream Edition

Greetings, y'all!

It's another Wednesday, which means Phydeaux's Phriendly Phorum is on the air!

The creek is running cold tonight, so the beverages are extra chilled. I went to the store this morning, so munchies are plentiful. And the discussion is .... waiting for you!

So, have at it!!!!

A Note to All My Phriends

If you're on my blogrolls, I do read you. But I've been using Bloglines lately, which, unless I click through to your site to comment - which, I freely admit, I suck at ... but then "You said it!" or "Yup." don't really add much to the conversation, anyway - your stats don't show a visit from me.

It's nice to have all of you there in one place though.

And, I'll try to be more comment-y.

Also?...

READERS! CHECK OUT ALL THE AWESOMENESS ON MY BLOGROLLS!

But Was it 18' or 18" Tall?

Whilst doing my morning reading, I come across the fact that archaeologists in England are doing a dig inside the confines of Stonehenge - for the first time in almost 50 years. The first thing that made me think of was this:

In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history. There lived a strange race of people...the Druids. No one knows who they were, or what they were doing... but their legacy remains... hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge...

Anyway, after that, I went to the BBC site, to read all about the dig. Complete with video for each day, and an awesome interactive panorama.

Cool stuff. UPDATE: The BBC link is dead, but here's a good replacement.

Observations on a Tuesday

I spent the day today working with Gentleman Farmer. For several years now, he has wanted to redo a fence line that runs by his house, and today was the day to begin tackling it.

The people who lived there before GF and his family had the idea of raising beefalo (a cross between a cow and a buffalo) to sell to restaurants. So, they put up a four stand barb wire fence, with the lowest strand about 5" off the ground (apparently the beefalo were tiny?), and the top strand at about 3'.

The beefalo jumped this fence (they may have been tiny, but they could jump!), so they added chicken wire on the pasture side, to make it 4' tall. Then for some reason they added chicken wire to the outside of the fence as well (makes no sense to have two layers of chicken wire, but there it was.

Apparently none of the chicken wire did any good, because they then strung two lines of electric fence on the inside (which has long been disconnected). So the fence has four layers of wire to it.

[As an aside, GF's neighbor, who was born and raised next door, said that the beefalo continued to 'escape' and would have to be chased down and herded back regularly]

Oh, and then they planted English Ivy along the fence line, which has had at least ten years to grow and intertwine through all that fencing.

Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it was to tear all that down? If you don't, picture the distance from your shoulder to the tip of your hand. That's easy. Now, picture the distance from the Earth to the Sun. About that hard.

Digging the postholes for the new split rail fence, which is absolutely not fun, was a comparative breeze.

Bob be a sore puppy.

Why Don't We Give Him the Keys to the Country?

Bill Moyers has been awarded the Ridenhour Courage Prize, "in recognition of his fierce embrace of the public interest and his advocacy of media pluralism, and for contributing an unyielding moral voice to our national discourse."

The complete transcript of his acceptance speech is here, and is definitely worth a read, but I'd like to quote a part of it here:

Temptation to co-option is the original sin of journalism, and we're always finding fig leaves to cover it: economics, ideology, awe of authority, secrecy, the claims of empire. In the buildup to the invasion of Iraq we were reminded of what the late great reporter A.J. Liebling meant when he said the press is "the weak slat under the bed of democracy." The slat broke after the invasion and some strange bedfellows fell to the floor: establishment journalists, neo-con polemicists, beltway pundits, right-wing warmongers flying the skull and bones of the "balanced and fair brigade," administration flacks whose classified leaks were manufactured lies - all romping on the same mattress in the foreplay to disaster. Five years, thousands of casualties, and hundreds of billion dollars later, most of the media co-conspirators caught in flagrante delicto are still prominent, still celebrated, and still holding forth with no more contrition than a weathercaster who made a wrong prediction as to the next day's temperature. The biblical injunction, "Go and sin no more," is the one we most frequently forget in the press. Collectively, we don't seem to learn that all it takes to transform an ordinary politician and a braying ass into the modern incarnation of Zeus and the oracle of Delphi is an oath on the Bible, a flag in the lapel, and the invocation of national security.

Would that we had more like Mr. Moyers.

Sunday Video

For the past few weeks, I've been reading John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany and participating in the ongoing discussion over at Jen's place (this week is the last chapter, btw). Those of you who have read the book know that Owen has ... THE VOICE. Since I first read that description, I've had this song in the back of my mind....

The Moody Blues, "The Voice":

What A Difference....

... 32 years makes.

Yesterday I posted my 8th grade class photo, with me in my overalls.

Since I still wear overalls occasionally, I took a picture of me now (okay, I actually took the pic yesterday) wearing my Tradesman clothes [Carhartt's].

NOTE: This is for comparison purposes only!

ALSO NOTE: My beard is not Gandalfian (glowing white), the sun came out just as the timer went off on the shot, and I had the camera set for cloudy.



(I'm still awesome, though)

W-w-w-w-hat?

Created by OnePlusYou

(h/t to BlueGal)

Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Farmer

That would be my 8th grade yearbook photo.

Just how awesome am I?

Family News

I mentioned this last night in comments at the Phyre (see below), but for the benefit of those who weren't there, and don't wish to plow through the 500+ comments (btw, my blog phriends RAWK), I'll say it here in its own post....

I got an email from my Dad on Monday informing me that my Mom has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

As I said early-stage. And she's already been put on Aricept, which is supposed to slow the progression of the disease.

I knew what Alzheimer's was, but, since I've never had a close family member or friend who has it, I didn't know much more than what everybody knows. So I went here to find out. There's a link there where one can donate to research, if one is so inclined.

Also, Jen found a way that we can all help with research, as long as you have a computer (which, if you're reading this....).

Thursday! Python! Random!

Pheaux Phyre Phorum: The Lyle Lovett Defies Categorization* Edition

Greetings, Phriends!

It's Wednesday, which means time for the Open Phorum Phyre!

Who's gonna show up this week? Only time will tell, I guess.

Beer and mixers? In the creek, chilling.
Munchies? On the picnic table.
Jug of Mtn. Dew (the real stuff, not the soda)? Behind that tree over there.
Comments? Waiting for you....

(*see my previous post for more on Lyle)

If I Had A Boat

Linda mentioned this song in comments on the Sunday Video that didn't get posted 'til Monday post. It is a great song, innit?



Also, this video can't be embedded*, but was the first Lyle Lovett song I ever heard. I saw it done with Steven Wright doing the speaking part once, hi-larious!


(* thanks to my [beautiful] editor for correcting me on my spelling)

Wherein The National Weather Service Plays an April Fool Joke*

UPDATE FOR CLARITY: I do not for a minute think that the NWS was playing a joke. I think they were just WRONG.

Today's forecast (just screen capped):



Current conditions (same):



Gee, thanks, NWS. Those of us who earn money outdoors, and therefore didn't work today because to the overwhelming chance of rain, are so bloody grateful!