Lloyd Price Ain’t got Nothin’ On Me

Your Brain is Yellow

Of all the brain types, yours is the most intellectual.
You crave mental stimulation, and your thoughts tend to very complex.
Your thoughts tend to be innovative and cutting edge, though many people don’t understand them.

You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about science, architecture, and communication.
You Are Rain

You can be warm and sexy. Or cold and unwelcoming.
Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you.

You are best known for: your touch

Your dominant state: changing
You Have A Type B+ Personality

You’re a pro at going with the flow
You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer
A total joy to be around, people crave your stability.

While you’re totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity.
Get into a project you love, and you won’t stop until it’s done
You’re passionate – just selective about your passions

10 Worst Pennant Race Collapses: The Mets weren’t #1

Hyphenated Words: A Guide

You’ve probably heard that, starting a week from today, the writers and management are going to start talking about ending the writers’ strike. Here’s hoping for a quick resolution. Meanwhile, check United Hollywood for some entertaining and sometimes thought-proviking videos and discussions.
ROG

ROG

The Real Forrest Gump

I’ve been always been rather so-so about the movie Forrest Gump. It was a technological marvel, yet it often felt at arm’s length away emotionally. I guess I never bought Sally Field as his mother either, especially after having seen her and Tom Hanks as contemporaries in the movie about comedy, Punchline.

I don’t know what I was looking up when I discovered that there was a guy named Sammy L. Davis, no relationship to the late entertainer, and that his military heroism that took place 40 years ago today was, in part, the inspiration for the movie character.

He doesn’t look at all liker Tom Hanks.
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This was on Evanier’s page a while ago, but I do so love this video about waterboarding with a Beach Boys beat.
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I’ve decided that Nancy Grace’s very existence is a test of my Christian faith. I hate Nancy Grace. OK, I don’t hate her exactly, but her brand of “journalismm” where she pronounces people guilty before all the facts are in offends my sensibilities; she’s often parodied for a reason. She also has an annoying voice.

So when she, at the age of 48, gave birth to twins this month prematurely, and developed blood clots in the lungs, I had to fight, with all my strength, getting a feeling of schadenfreude. So, I (choke) wish Nancy Grace well so she can go annoy me again.
***
CNN distorting a story big time:

ROG

ROG

"The Place That God Forgot"

That’s the pet name that one of my best friends has for our old hometown of Binghamton, NY. I think it’s a bit harsh, but I do know where she’s coming from.

My sister Leslie flew from San Diego to Albany on August 10, and my mother from Charlotte, NC to Albany on August 12. One doesn’t fly into Binghamton from hardly anywhere; it cheaper to fly into Albany or Syracuse or New York City, then rent a car or take a bus.

Leslie, my mom and I drove down to Binghamton that weekend for my sister’s XXth high school reunion; my mom and I saw friends. I was hanging out with another one of my friends from grade school when three very drunk people approached us about going somewhere on foot at 7 pm; there just isn’t very much to do in downtown Binghamton most evenings, though there are pockets of improvements.

Binghamton is an odd place. Where I grew up in the 1960s, in the First Ward, the housing stock is much the same, and therefore deteriorating or vacant, mixed with these incongruous pockets of yuppie houses with Beemers in front.

But it’s my hometown. More specifically, it’s my mom’s hometown, and she gets joy visiting our old church, her old friends. We’ve done that trip three or four years n a row now. Binghamton’s only 150 miles from Albany, but it feels like a half a lifetime away; for my mom’s sake, it’s worth the trip.

Happy 80th birthday, Mom.
ROG

ROG

Golden Compass QUESTIONS

I was having a conversation online with someone about an upcoming movie, suggesting a backlash against it. I’d just received this e-mail:

THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a new movie targeted at children, will be released December 7, 2007.
This movie is based on the first book of a trilogy by atheist Philip Pullman. In the final book a boy and girl kill God so they can do as they please. Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “My books are about
killing God.”
The movie is a watered down version of the first book and is designed to be very attractive in the hope unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the the movie and that the children will want the books for Christmas.
The movie has a well known cast, including Nicole Kidman, Kevin Bacon, and Sam Elliott. It will probably be advertised extensively, so it is crucial that we get the word out to warn parents to avoid this movie.
You can research this for yourself. Start with this article on Snopes.com, then go to Google.

This letter went on to distinguish it from the Harry Potter books, which were derscribed as having a Christian subtext(!).

I was vaguely familiar with the Golden Compass books, but haven’t read them, so I’m trying to find out:

1. Whether you think the books are anti-God/anti-religion, and if so, how did that affect your enjoyment of the books?

2. Do you plan to see the film? Does a potential boycott make you want to see the movie more or less? Given the limited number of films I see these days, I wasn’t planning to see it at all – it’s just not my kind of flick – yet a boycott somehow makes it somehow more intriguing.

ROG

ROG

Smokin’


There was this front page story, below the fold, a couple months ago After tobacco ban, where there’s smoke there’s ire; As hospitals prohibit smoking, employees begin puffing away off-campus, irritating neighbors. I was thrilled to see this piece, because I experienced the same thing. I even wrote a letter to the editor in response, which didn’t get published. But I DO have a blog:

I walk past the cigarette-smoke gauntlet that is St. Peter’s Hospital regularly. Ironically, the best place to walk to avoid the poisoned stench is through the St. Peter’s New Scotland Avenue parking lot, right past the area where the smokers used to be able to congregate. Of course, I have to negotiate past the moving cars, but that beats walking out onto the busy street.

At least one St. Peter’s employee regularly uses the bus kiosk at the corner of New Scotland and South Allen Street as his personal smoking emporium. I’ve also seen Albany Med employees smoking in the bus kiosk across from the hospital, at New Scotland and Holland.

I appreciate the hospitals wanting to make their campuses smoke-free, but personally, I’d rather let them go back to the designated locations.

I discovered subsequently that St. Peter’s has torn down a building that was behind the hospital where people used to smoke. Alas.

I have my bona fides as almost virulently anti-smoking. Yet why is it, when someone comes up to me and asks if he or she can “borrow” a cigarette, almost inevitably I say something along the lines of “Sorry, I don’t smoke” or “I’m afraid I don’t smoke”? I’m NOT sorry that I don’t smoke; moreover, I’m HAPPY that I don’t have the means to shorten someone else’s life. So, why do I often sound so damn apologetic? Maybe it’s some Piscean need to please.

Anyway, today is the Great American Smokeout, where people are supposed to quit smoking. I hope they do, but failing that, please keep that cigarette away from my family and me.

ROG
Ramblin' with Roger
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