DT
Tunes For Tuesday – Bambi Lee Savage “Darlin”
A sample of some obscure – and some maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.
Today’s selection: Bambi Lee Savage "Darlin" 1995
Don't forget the milk.
"Darlin" may be familiar to those who've seen "Slingblade".
Continue reading →It’s Not Aging
and it's not every Boomer either.
Those same people were useless, noisy, and annoying in their 20s as well.
Continue reading →Sylvie
Transiting the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul.
A LPG tanker built in 2007 and registered in Hong Kong. 570 ft long, 92 ft beam, 34 ft draft
The Bosporus Strait (İstanbul Boğazı), connecting the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea, splits the city of Istanbul (pop ~17million). It lies on the continental divide between Asia and Europe. The strait is about 20 miles long and ranges between a bit less than ½ mile wide to 2 miles wide at the northern end. It has an average depth of about 200 ft extending to 360 ft in places. There is a submarine river through the strait - current can flow in either direction but the primary flow is south to the Marmara.
It is speculated - with some evidence - that at the end of the last ice age, the strait was formed by a deluge of water flowing north, breaking through into the then fresh-water Black Sea. This could be the foundation for Noah's boat ride during the Great Flood of the Bible.
Who?
"The suspects have not been identified because of their age."
This protection of violent "children" past puberty- call it 12 for those that want firm lines in the sand - needs to stop . The suspects in this case were 15 - old enough to commit felonies. Big difference between a 15yo and a 5yo. I can see not releasing juvenile names for "crimes" such as obtaining under-age beer but when said juvenile commits violent felonies, they are not juvenile anymore and the public should be aware of potential danger in their midst. And said juvenile should be treated as an adult in the court system.
Old enough to do the crime? FAFO.
Tolerance for the sake of tolerance is no virtue when tolerance ignores that which is being tolerated.
Continue reading →In The Name Of Equality
A father rushed to the ball and grabbed it before giving it to his son, who was celebrating his birthday at the park. But one woman wasn’t going to let the young boy have that ball and began harassing the father and son until they caved and gave her the ball.
In a viral clip of the confrontation, the woman can be seen grabbing the man’s shoulder, startling him, and screaming at him before ultimately making the confused young boy give up his home run ball.
The father should have punched her lights out as soon as she grabbed him. Battery at least if not assault.
Though I understand his hesitation - as I probably would have done the same.
But damn! this type of behaviour is getting too far out of control with no consequences.
Continue reading →The Far Side Of Infinity – Sacrilegious Sunday Musings
I - who know nothing.
No offense intended but some of you may not approve or agree. That's OK ... I don't know enough to disagree with you - or to even suggest you're wrong.
As I see it, humans - not just humans, life - were either made or just happened. I find either theory highly improbable but here we are and I have no other ideas. I suppose I lean toward "made" which implies a belief in a maker - aka "God". Whether the trinity monotheistic god, or one of several other "gods" is beyond my knowledge - one must lean on belief ... which is not the same as "truth". The alternative is that our world "just happened". I find the string of that argument more unbelievable than "we were made".
But by either thought, what's on the other side? The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe began with an incomprehensible explosion ... but gives no idea as to what existed before the explosion. Us - humans - came about by a series of improbable events lumped together as "evolution". Evolution is a poor explanation of race; an even poorer explanation of non-optimal adaptation to our environment(s). Very few humans run around completely naked as do the animals. Why not if we evolved to our environment?
I like the God theory better. But not by much.
Isn't it funny that most peoples have some sort of tale of creation?
Sometimes I think all gods exist - even the Devil is a god. They sit in some room playing heavenly poker for souls - may the best god win. At this time, Christianity and Islam represent the largest faiths in the world, but those religions - including Judaism - all theoretically worship the same god; are offshoots of the same core belief. They play poker at the big-boy table (a family argument - like WWI. Who did Abraham sacrifice?).
But who's to say the god of the Oingo-Boingos is not the one true god? Or who's to say there is only one true god?
But assume the existence of a neutral god or gods. Where do these gods exist? Assume the rightfulness of evolution: In what space did the Big Bang occur? And if not a big bang, what? Some say the universe is expanding. Expanding into what? where?
Who's to say we're not just quarks on a larger scale atomic structure?
What's on the other side of infinity?
Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."
Does this make the world and all in it simply someone's lab experiment? Did the dinosaurs die off because the lab manager decided that experiment was a failure? Is "the rapture" just a prediction that the humankind experiment is also a preordained failure? Will humankkind even leave as much behind as the dinosaurs?
Why is it humankind as we know it only came into existence since the last ice age? - 30 thousand, 50 thousand years ago; a trivial time ago if geological theory is even close to correct. Or only 5 or 6 thousand years ago???
No one explains the time between "human" bones millions of years old in Africa and the time of "cavemen". Or between the time of cavemen and the Sumerians. If mankind evolved from origins in central Africa, why is it no major civilization occurred there? Lots of "empty time" there for PhD students to speculate upon.
How is it that "technology" - steam power, reapers, cotton gins, oil - was never of much use until the last 200 years or so? I can track my family back to before Watt's steam engine. The Chinese, the Romans, the Egyptians, etc - never discovered or utilized such things?
Everlasting life? A heady promise by the priest class to keep the sheep in line? Is "everlasting life" a curse? When you've done everything to boredom, what's left?
I have a neighbor that truly wishes to save my soul. Believe in Jesus, she tells me. I believe Jesus was a historical figure but what does "Believe in Jesus" mean? His existence, his beliefs? ... or just worship the man himself? Or better yet, worship his mother. Is this not idolatry Moses warned against? Is not idolatry simply the worship of a different god?
And are we not all children of god?
Jesus the peacemaker?
Matt 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Was it not a reformed tax collector (Paul) that actually began the Christian religion some years after Jesus' death?
What if a former IRS agent today started a religion?
History records the tragic fact that men have gone to war and cut each other’s throats because they couldn’t agree as to what was to become of them after their throats were cut.”
Walter P Stacy 1895 - 1951
Why is it I can't get over the idea that when we die, we simply "turn off"? There is no more.
Genesis 2:7 "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Genesis 3:19 "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Ecclesiastes 3:20 "All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
But what do I know?
Continue reading →The Homestead
Way out in the back country. Eastern Oregon if I recall correctly. I was on a less than optimal dirt road myself when I saw this place. Cattle country.
A long way from nowhere.
What toil to build such a home? What hopes and dreams? What tales? Did they raise a family? Did they have ranch hands? Did they grow crops? Hay at least seems likely. Vegetable garden?
No signs of any of that but plenty of time for such to have disappeared "back to nature"
One didn't settle this land for the sake of just finding a place. There must have been water, grass ... a place within reasonable distance for supplies. A typical homestead was 160 acres - ½ x ½ mile. Several plots could be obtained or free-range* for cattle.
The building is old; made of logs ... perhaps from the hills in the background. I would suspect late 1800s to 19-teens. A well with hand-pump sits by the right front of the main building. The roof shows signs of red tarpaper covering what appear to be the original shingles. The extension at the rear looks to have had corrugated tin roofing - again, over what appears to be the original shingles. One of the windows appears to have glass remaining. It looks like a large groundhog hole - or some other critter - in a corner of what I'll call the mudroom.
There is slight evidence of what must have been a road coming from the left to the house. there appears to be a foundation to the left of what is presumably a barn or simply a large shed . A single post of some sort - bigger than a fence post - appears to the left and some distance away from that. Barely visible some distance to the right and rear of the house is what appears to be a barbed wire gate - fenced off now with another fence running along. Far to the left is another cluster of fence posts enclosing an area perhaps 10x10 or 15x15.
There doesn't appear to be any electrical connections; there is nothing to indicate any vehicle having visited the site for many years. No tire tracks, no bare dirt. No old tires or rusting car bodies as is not unusual for homesteads dating into the 40s. The construction appears older than that.
I find these places occasionally. A place to stop and wonder about lives and times past. What a different world these people of not really all that long ago must have lived.
*Side note: I've not seen them back east but out here in open country, one may see signs stating "Open Range". The practical meaning is that if you hit livestock in open range territory (no fencing required), you are responsible for damages. I happen to live in open range territory even though I live in a "subdivision (of sorts).
Continue reading →Communication Breakdown
The Dear Mrs DT
Honey, how many burgers do you want for dinner?
Two sounds good.
But you're having corn and salad and some leftovers from last night. Isn't two too many?
Then why do you ask?
You'll have to eat it tomorrow.
Wouldn't give her up for the world ...
Continue reading →