The Lydster, Part 136: Award-winning photography

Stormy.20150530This spring, the local Hannaford supermarket had a contest to determine the best pet photos in a variety of categories. The Daughter decided to submit a couple of our felines, taken on The Wife’s iPad, then emailed to me so that I could print them out.

Frankly, I have no idea how many other participants, if any, there were, but the Daughter won with the picture of Stormy, shown above. She received various pet treats, food, cat litter and the like.

BTW, Stormy, who just turned two, has become much more affectionate to me, sitting on my lap – only when she wants to, because she IS a cat, after all – and rubbing her head on my feet.

midnight.20150530I’ll admit I prefer this photo, if only because it’s SO goofy, rather like Midnight, who’s about a half a year older than Stormy. He has always been affectionate to me, but, for a time, it got to be too much.

Quite often, at 4 a.m., he’d come into our bedroom and start licking my arms, and chewing on the hair on the top of my head and even on my mustache. I would get up and usually write. Then I had to get him down from the file cabinet next to the office desk, lest he jump down on the laptop and accidentally screw up some settings; he’s done it before.

But then he started his routine at 3 a.m., and I can’t function on that little sleep. So I would get up, put him in the basement and go back to bed. This seems to have (mostly) broken him of this annoying habit.

For a time, we thought Midnight was becoming too aggressive towards some strangers – he utterly freaked out at the vet’s office – and wondered how we could even go on vacation for more than a day or two.

We got a new child watcher (FKA babysitter) named Maxine and he was very affectionate towards her. Now, SHE can come in, feed the cats, change the litter box, and give them some love.

The Giveaway: The (Delayed) Results

Funny thing….a dollar coin dropped out of the pages when I opened it up! Was that suppose to happen? 🙂

You know about the best laid plans. Way back on May 5, to inaugurate my new blog, I decided to have a giveaway of five items for anyone leaving a comment of five words or more, the rule designed to eliminate those who might leave a comment like, “Nice!” or “Thanks!” Besides, it was my FIFTH anniversary, so I wanted FIVE words, OK? At least one smart aleck left me a comment something like “So: Five words then, huh?” Hey, that qualified.

The entry period was May 3 through July 3, inclusive. I picked the latter date because one of the items, the Billboard book was supposed to ship in early July. Well, it didn’t; I didn’t receive it until mid-August. By this time, we were the throes of busyness around the Pakistani wedding, followed immediately by the buyness of back to school.

Then, I misplaced two of the items for a couple weeks, then it totally slipped my mind for a couple weeks until I cleaned the work desk and said, “Oh, nuts, THAT’S still here?”

I went into the comments section for the new blog and noted 372 comments. Then I picked the random number generator for six numbers. Frankly, I didn’t bother to check if they all qualified – and at least one was mine, which would NOT qualify. But if the post was unacceptable, I’d skip it for the next choice, which proved to be necessary.

I contacted the first person who got the choice of any of the prizes; once selected, the second person got the choice of any of the remaining items, and so on.

I wrote You may select ONE item from the following:
any one of the three items listed in this post, or
the complete Dick van Dyke DVD set
the CD -The List by Rosanne Cash
the CD-Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits
the book – The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg
(later, when I found it, I added to the list)

1. Joy from A Raft of Apples requested that I send her something not on the list. “Send me a picture postcard. On the plus side, still only one trip to the post office, on the minus you may not have convenient postcard availability.
“I’m a collector of postcards and also a Postcrosser (random people from around the world send each other cards). I’m fascinated by the countries of the world and the cards are little moments of time and places complete with messages on the back.”

Well, how could I turn THAT down!

She received it and wrote:
“Hi Roger
Thanks for the Albany Skyline postcard, your home town beautiful in the setting sun. And also thanks for the UK way date, LOL, it also came with a nice clear US Mail cancellation, which leaves me in no doubt as it had Nov on the date so us Brits don’t get confused:-)
I agree with you, blogging is a great introduction to the citizens of the world.”
Well, of COURSE, I dated it day, month, year; it makes sense. The only reason why I don’t do it always is the possibility of confusion, such as on my work timesheet.

2. LisaF of peripheral perceptions asked for Beyond words: daily readings in the ABC’s of Faith.
She wrote:
“Just wanted to let you know the book arrived today! It’s much thicker than I expected it to be. The timing is perfect as I just finished my other book and plan to start reading it tonight before I fall asleep. Funny thing….a dollar coin dropped out of the pages when I opened it up! Was that suppose to happen? :-)”
Oh, yeah, that was in the rules too. One Presidential dollar coin of whoever’s coin was out most recently on May 2 and that turned out to be Millard Fillmore, the 13th and one of the least regarded Presidents. But at least the coin was pretty.

3. Scott of Scooter Chronicles requested The Heart of Christianity” by Marcus Borg. I’ll get back to him presently.

4. Amy B of Amy’s Miscellany also wanted Beyond Words, which I could accommodate. She said nice things about me – blush – in her blog.

5. Now here’s where it gets strange. I tell the next person, but I’m clearly not being understood, because she has never made a selection, despite e-mails back and forth. The opportunity is still open to her. But I didn’t want to wait too long; I wanted to ship them all at the same time.

6. As it turned out, Scott, a frequent commenter, got ANOTHER pick. This time, he took what I thought he’d pick in the first place, the Billboard book. He thanked me and noted that his son Nigel was impressed. “He said, ‘That’s a lot of stuff, Daddy!’ after I piled everything on the table. He especially liked the coins.”

So it’s not entirely resolved yet, but I wanted to write this during the calendar year.

June Ramblin’

From the Monty Python movie “Life of Brian”, What have the Romans ever done for us?

Just a reminder that you have only three more full days to enter my giveaway. Rules are on the sidebar, but basically, from now through July 3 at 11:59 EDT, every time you comment to a post, assuming you haven’t commented already to that specific piece, gives you a chance at some prizes, including a complete DVD box set of The Dick Van Dyke Show and a Michael Jackson greatest hits CD.


Speaking of Michael Jackson: in honor of the anniversary of his death this past week, the full-length video of Thriller, performed with Legos.


I KNEW there was a way to post something on Twitter and have it show up on Facebook, but couldn’t suss out the instructions. This really helped me. And, in fact, it was one of my Facebook friends who provided the link.


Author Rebecca Skloot has interesting info about her best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on her website, including audio, video, and an excerpt.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.

Here’s a link about the book being discussed on PBS Religion & Ethics Newsweekly

Nice tribute to 7’7″ Manute Bol, noted as a basketball player, but noteworthy because of his humanitarian causes, who died last week at 47.

I’ve always liked U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), who died this week at the age of 92. Even as his politics evolved, from his brief flirtation with the KKK to civil rights supporter, from Vietnam hawk to Iraq dove, his love of the U.S. constution remained steadfast. He died at 92 this week, and here is an appreciation.

This may make sense only if you know football; I mean, American football: Unsportsmanlike Conduct Jesus.

A singalong version of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, a song originally from the Monty Python movie “Life of Brian.” That always reminds me of my favorite segment of the film, What have the Romans ever done for us?

Neil Gaiman defends libraries.

visit4info – The Place for TV Adverts and Funny Video Clips from the UK

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