Archive for Life - page 26

I write about anything that happens to be of interest to me, and the subject matter is varied.  The posts are  in chronological order, the newest at the top – you can keep scrolling down to the bottom of the page and keep going back to view older  posts, all the way back to the beginning of time…err.. when I started this blog in February of 2014.  If you like what I write about some subjects but don’t care for others, look on the sidebar to the right.  You will see “categories”.  All my posts fit into one or more of these categories.  Click on the category you are most interested in, and you will see only posts in that category.  Simple.  Within my posts I often link to additional information and/or another blog or article that inspired the post.  When you see a word in red text, that is a link to additional information.  Click on it and the link will open in a new tab.  Any pictures within a post can usually be viewed in a larger version by simply clicking on the picture.

Please comment! To the left of the title you will see a box with the date and below it a box that says comments.  Click there and a dialogue box will open where you will be able to write comments on the article. This is how I know you’re reading and I welcome all feedback on my writing. You will be asked for your name and e-mail adress but don’t worry!  You can use an alias if you don’t want to disclose your name and your e-mail adress will not be displayed, nor will I spam you.  I moderate all the comments so I will see your comment.

Thanks! and Enjoy!

This is all over the internet right now.  A little boy is playing outside his house – a neighbor’s dog is loose and attacks the little boy.  The kid’s cat comes flying out of nowhere and chases off the dog!  The family’s home video surveillance system catches it all:

It is a happy ending, but the boy was bitten and required stitches – mom apparently was also bitten. It could have been much worse.  That is one awesome cat!

If you  have read much here you know that musically I am stuck in the 70’s.  If you haven’t read much here, congratulations on not wasting a lot ot time on the internet.  Now go tell all your friends and acquaintances that might be  disposed to wasting a lot of time on the internet to read this blog.  Thank you.  Now back to our program – in listening to my 70’s playlist today up comes ” Aquarius” by The 5th Dimension, a song that gained popularity in the late 60’s (ok, not 70’s) as one of the songs from the musical “Hair”.  This was at the peak of the hippie movement and the lyrics are all about how the dawning age of Aquarius will usher the human race into an era of perpetual peace, love and understanding.

Still there? OK, I’ll get to my point (finally!).  The song was released about forty years ago and the human race is just as screwed up now as it was then, if not more.  So what the hell happened?

I looked up “Age of Aquarius”; follow the link if you have some time, but I’ll give you the short take:  Various astrologers and philosophers have competing theories about what it actually means and when it will arrive (or did arrive) based on differing astrological calendars (though Robert Zoller’s summation seems to fit the current times very well).  Of course it helps to have some belief in astrology, which I don’t, but this is a thought exercise.  Oh, sorry I forgot to tell you – this is a thought exercise.  So The Age of Aquarius  may or may not have dawned or have yet to dawn and if so, there is no guarantee that it will usher in an era of “sympathy and trust abounding”, “mystic crystal revelations” or “the mind’s true liberation”.

My question is: if the earth’s relative position in the cosmos were able to influence human behavior, is the human race even capable of achieving that level of enlightenment?

The short answer in my opinion: NO.  Let me expand that somewhat:  Can A Human Being achieve that level of enlightenment?  Most likely YES;  Can the Human Race as a whole achieve that level of enlightenment?  Most likely NO.

Magical rays of love from the universe are not going to change human nature.  There will always be warmongers, sociopaths, haters and idiots with too many items in the express lane.  No, the only thing that can change human nature is one human – who can change his or her own human nature.  One person cannot change the world – only themselves.  One can only influence what is outside one’s self.  If you want to change the world, change yourself first – clean up your own act.  Tidy up your own metaphysical house and yard and before trying to reach outside your borders into someone else’s territory and change other’s behavior.

What do you think?  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

A normal person suggested I post more recipes on this blog.  Up til now I have only posted one recipe and that was for the perfect Manhattan.  So let me think…hmmm… I don’t think  it’s a good idea to turn this into a cooking blog since I can only “man cook”.  But I will post a recipe this time as a personal favor.  You owe me now!  Note that this is not my recipe – if it were my recipe it would likely be inedible.  And actually it’s not a recipe at all – it’s a link to a quiche recipe from a celebrity chef.  I won’t tell you who it is but I will give you a hint – he is f*cking famous.  Plus I liked the name: Rocket, Mushroom and Bacon Quiche.

That’s a quiche?

You’re Welcome!

It’s more Latin!  This phrase meaning literally “to infinity” or loosely “without end”.  In conversation and writing it is used to describe a process that continues without a foreseeable conclusion or resolution, not to describe a person physically moving toward infinity.  If one were moving toward infinity what would that mean?

Ad Infinitum…Et Ultra!

Since infinity is not a physical object, one could never reach infinity much less move past it.  Even if given all of eternity (I assume).  Infinity is defined as the quality of being infinite, or without end or limit; or a space, amount or period of time that is without limit or end.  Well, that clears things up…not!  One thing is known – this post will not go on ad infinitum.  The End.

…Aaand that’s the good news.  It appears to some observers that the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) may have wanted to obscure that fact from the public.  The San Francisco based engineering firm URS corp. was tasked with preparing a revised cost estimate, and complained that they had been “instructed” by the CHSRA to hold estimates to a baseline established in 2012.  URS said in their March report that the new estimate of $7.13 billion, an increase of $.94 billion was accurate and that “in their professional opinion” CHSRA was incorrectly assigning cost increases to a contingency account.  In response, the Rail Authority sent a letter to the firm asking it to revise it’s report, stating that the estimates were “misleading and not accurate”.  That settles it then.

“The  ultimate cost of the Central Valley segment will be determined by many factors not yet known, …which may explain why URS produced a higher estimate”...”It is noteworthy that over the life of a project, as design progresses, there will be several estimates,” the authority said. “A change in one estimate does not necessarily result in a change to our budget.” – CHSRA Statement

Ahh…the “Living Breathing Budget” theory.  The California taxpayer may now rest easy.

…to my Mom and all moms near and far, past and present!

Close enough.  “Massive Tunneling Machine Stuck Under Downtown Seattle, Fix Could Cost Taxpayers Millions”

Seems that there is a large construction project in Seattle for which the contractor purchased one of those giant machines that bores tunnels – like the English Channel Tunnel* – and the gizmo has broken down and is stuck.  A lot of cash is needed to free it.  The question is, whose cash will it be?  So far the State of Washington says the contractor should pay, the contractor says their not paying.  Could there be a lawsuit on the horizon?

The repair is likely to cost $125 million, which is $45 million more than the machine cost to begin with.  The project has already incurred cost overruns of $190 million due to “unforeseen problems”:

“Among the issues the project has encountered are: too much groundwater; a labor dispute involving the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; and a well that Bertha ran into, damaging her massive cutter head and main bearing.”

By the way, Bertha is the boring machine, that is the machine that bores the hole not the boring machine.  Anyhoo…who could possibly have foreseen a labor dispute?  I mean..c’mon.  That never happens.  And when there’s a labor dispute nothing bad ever happens at the worksite.  Nice giant boring machine you have there…be a shame if something happened to it while it was in the middle of a tunnel 1000 feet under ground.  Oh, wait.  Something did happen to it.  Never mind…move along…nothing to see here.

*The English Channel Tunnel  passes under the English Channel and connects England and France via railway.  The Brits call it “the chunnel”.  The French call it “le chunnel”.

…so more music!  Let’s go for something with broad appeal like…The Eagles.  Who doesn’t love the Eagles?  Except you, you commie.  Take a hike.  Now for everyone else…this was the only version of this song I found that had (the original vocalist) Randy Meissner doing the vocal.  Though it was shot in 1977, at least it wasn’t recorded on someone’s phone so video and sound are pretty decent.

“…put me on a highway, show me a sign.  Take it to the limit one more time…”

I blogged awhile back about a few music performance shows that I found on cable and one of them was Guitar Center Sessions.  You can guess by the name it’s mainly guitarists or bands where the guitarist(s) are prominent, so if you like some guitar playin’, this is your show.  Anyhoo…I happened to catch an episode a few weeks ago with Peter Frampton.  Yeah, you know “Frampton Comes Alive” Peter Frampton, though he was well established before that came out in 1976 (38 years ago! Sh*t!).  He played a song I did not expect – not one of his.  The song was played as an instrumental – no vocal (except the voice box solo) and it was…awesome.  I would have never expected him to play this song, coincidentally one of my favorites:  Soungarden’s “Black Hole Sun” (I know!):

Though the hair is gone, the jam is on.