With the retirement of our Motorola v120 several weeks ago, and the subsequent acquisition of an LG VX-3300, we are now officially an LG family. Elder Daughter and I both have the VX-6000, Younger Daughter has the VX-3200, the Missus has a VX-4500, and the house phone is a VX-3300. I learned just the other day that “LG” stands for “Lucky Goldstar.” Hm. Anyone else think of “Mister Sparkle” when they hear that? Which reminds me: have any of you stopped wearing a watch since acquiring a cellphone? I haven’t worn a watch since…1999, I think.

Wanna talk about the stuff that nightmares are made of? Then take a look at this, but be warned: if you are freaked out by large insects - specifically, a large preying mantis killing a bird - then you might want to just skip this link and go on about your business. (via MeFi)

Come, gaze in wonder at my new hat! Actually, it’s my first “real” hat. I bought a straw-like hat in Texas about 4 years ago that I would occasionally wear for festive occasions, but it wasn’t good enough to keep the sun off of me…so I took the opportunity of a workplace picnic last week to buy a new hat. I think that it needs a name, or a title…you know, like Homer Simpson has a “conversation hat?” So…do you like the new hat? And any ideas for a name or title for it…? EDIT: odd - like Jen said in the comments, the picture doesn’t seem to appear in IE, but it’s showing up fine in Firefox. I don’t know why…

One of my favorite features over at Laurence’s place is “Ask The Cats.” In the latest installment, he invited guest-kitties to participate, and I’m humbled to note that he included The Cow Cat!

Oh, and speaking of cats…I had to give a briefing to some folks at work today…and when I finished, I asked if anyone had any questions. One of the guys asked, “Why don’t catfish have kittens?” Corny, yes - but funny.

We all know the names by now: Ishtar. Howard The Duck. Gigli. Heaven’s Gate. The Alamo. North. The Avengers. These are movies that are forever (for now, anyway) tagged with the phrase “box-office bomb.” Yes, there are worse movies, and there are movies that made less money…but these movies are remarkable for topping both lists: creatively bad, and financially bad. There’s even a formula for such a disaster:
1. Misguided concept? Check.
2. Over-reliance on lead actor’s star power? Check.
3. Faulty script attributed to a dozen or so hack writers? Check.
And the #1 box-office bomb is…Eddie Murphy in space. Haven’t seen it, probably won’t. And frankly, ever since Murphy sullied forever the good name of “The Nutty Professor,” this dis-honor is just a drop in the bucket.

First seen over at Chaos Theory, and subsequently at several other sites…I don’t know who created it, but it just *kills* me. (more…)

My younger child, Sassy, was telling me yesterday what kind of vehicle she would like to drive when she reaches The Golden Age in two years. Something cool, obviously; no way will she accept a hand-me-down Ford Taurus from Dad. Other options:

Sassy: “I don’t know…maybe a truck.”
Me: “Those are OK.”
Sassy: “But what would I do with the back part of it?”
Pause.
Me: “Haul stuff?”
Sassy: “What on earth would I haul? Ass?”

All content on this website is © Copyright 2000-2010 - All Rights Reserved The content on this site may not be reused or republished. Website template powered by VooWeb.com Website Templates

I was never a big fan of the Big Three newscasts: Tom, Peter, and Dan just couldn’t compete in the news market that I have been raised in. I became a news-junkie in 1986, when the Challenger exploded, and by 1988 I was glued to CNN most of the time. I never understood how ABC, CBS, and NBC newscasts continued to garner a huge amount of the viewing audience, especially once FoxNews and MSNBC jumped into the 24-hour news market. Still, it is odd to know that Peter Jennings is dead; although I rarely watched him, and was quite aware of his foibles, he was far less annoying than Tom Brokaw, and way less off-balance and biased than Dan Rather (but biased nonetheless). There was a civility about him that made him at least pleasant to watch. With Brokaw, I just couldn’t stop listening to the his weird style of speaking, so aptly captured by parody on “The Simpsons.” And Rather…well, the last year has pretty much (justly) tarnished his legacy, and most people knew that he was nuts anyway. Jennings, on the other hand, just seemed like an OK guy…a bit pompous at times, but in a low-key way. RIP, Peter Jennings.

I have always been fascinated by sharks. I suspect that the release of “Jaws” when I was 8 years old may have something to do with that. Whenever I had the opportunity to choose a subject for a report in elementary or junior high school, I always turned to sharks. My favorite: the Great White. It is The Ultimate Predator. Runners-up: blue, because they are sleek and beautiful; mako, because they have that wild look in their eyes and look ferocious - they really look psychotic; and maybe thresher, because of their incredibly long tails. Do you have a favorite type of shark?

The airplane: the Enola Gay. The commander: Colonel Paul Tibbets. The date: August 6, 1945. The event: Special Bombing Mission #13 (caution: reading that MetaFilter thread may bring your blood to a boil). The world changed. (more…)

They say that as long as they spell your name right, then there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, they got my NAME right, but didn’t quite get the DOMAIN name right. Eh. But since it happened, I went ahead and bought mscdavid.com a few hours ago and forwarded it to davidmsc.com…shoulda done it long ago. Read the whole article - the journalist did a good job of talking with numerous mil-bloggers and presenting different sides of the Leonard Clark case.

The bottom line, from my perspective: military bloggers are no different than most other bloggers - if a blogger says negative things about his employer on his blog, then the blogger can expect repercussions. It’s happened often enough to became almost hip and has even spawned a verb: dooced. And when your employer is the US military, the repercussions can be significant. It’s part of the deal when we raise our hand and take The Oath: yes, we have freedom of speech, just like all other citizens - but there are a few limits on such speech, and criticizing the President or otherwise disrupting “good order and discipline” definitely crosses the line. Phil, also quoted in the article, has some good insight explaining why this policy is necessary.

Over at Chaos Theory there’s a link to a newly-posted screed against the entire blogosphere…er, blog industry…well, all bloggers and everything that bloggers do, say, write, etc. And not just bloggers: other elements of the web-based community are targeted, too, such as “iPodders.” I’m sure that some of my friends and co-workers will read it and say, “Ah ha! Dave, you really DO suck - this stuff is all true! Blogging is just as stupid and lame as I told you it was!” Pshaw. I could write a similar rant about any of THEIR hobbies, and it would be just as accurate in its sarcasm, bitterness, and humor. Perspective, ya know? And besides that, this diatribe is meant as humor (mostly). Anyway, to give you a small sample of what this humorous anti-blog article is about, consider this definition:

Webmistress: You’re not a webmistress, shut up. It’s a word used by uppity women who, in spite of a woman’s inherent flaws, has been able to land a job as a webmaster. Then they have to go and piss all over years of civil rights they’ve wrestled away by calling themselves “webmistresses.”

Heh. And wait until you see the author’s definition of “metrosexual.” And being the blog-snob that I am, the definitions for Xanga and LiveJournal ring pretty true to me. It’s quite a funny article.

This reminds me: Ted Nugent is here in Great Falls to perform at the Montana State Fair tomorrow night, and he paid a visit to Malmstrom Air Force Base this afternoon to meet the troops and sign autographs. Very cool, and typical of his support for American forces. One of my co-workers thought it would be funny to wear her PETA t-shirt and ask for an autograph. Heh. Don’t know yet if she actually followed through on that idea.

It’s been way too long since we had a good old-fashioned Better Living Through Blogging contest, so let’s go: the first person to correctly identify all fifteen movies referenced below will win a Big Sky Blog item of their choice, OR a Tiny Plastic Hut playset. Honor system (no Googling) in effect; e-mail your answers to davidmsc @ hotmail.com, or you can leave answers in the comments, if you don’t mind other folks seeing them. Ready…GO!

Abe Froman; Leloo; C.K. Dexter Haven; “Gary? Who’s Gary?”; Arch Stanton; Ilia; Mortimer Brewster; Al Czervik; Beatrix Kiddo; Catcher Block; Roger Murdock; Charly Baltimore; Amazing Larry; Jack Napier; Cosmo Brown.

Winner announced on Friday.

Sam - better known as The Real Sam Johnson - has a pretty cool deal if you’re a movie buff and like movie paraphernelia. See what he’s selling over at e-bay. I’m in it for the Brady Bunch gear!

Imagine that you’re, say, about two years old. You’re kind of fascinated by the this thing called the “potty,” but at the same time you’re also a bit apprehensive. After all, it’s bigger than you are, it makes loud noises, it smells weird, and other people sit on it and don’t look too comfortable. And your parents keep plopping you on top of it and insisting that you do something, but you don’t know exactly what they want, and they get a little frustrated, and that worries you, and then you lose track of what they were telling you in the first place, and you want to get down and go back to your toys, but they firmly hold you in place and keep telling you that “you can do it!.”

OK. Pretty weird situation, isn’t it? So what could possibly make this scenario any more bizarre? You tell me: will this make a child more relaxed, or is it possible that it might backfire, a la “Can’t sleep…clown will eat me?” And the names: Poo P. Bunny and Ca Ca Cow - come on, that’s just nuts - the humor is lost on the ones being potty-trained, and it’s too juvenile for the adults to find humorous. (more…)

Julie wrote an essay about the now-abandonded nuclear missile sites in her state, and she has pictures, too. Julie is an excellent writer. Just thought you all should know.