I just realized, as I logged into Blogger, that this is the longest I've gone without posting in a while. I don't have much time to post but things should get a little better again next week (it's been extreme crazy busy season at work just recently). In the meantime, here's the Friday Feast. Happy weekend kids!!
Feast Sixty-Three
Appetizer
Name something someone has done lately that impressed you.
I was totally impressed that the pilot landed that Jet Blue plane safely at LAX the other night. We accidentally ended up watching the whole thing on KTLA. I have to say, I think that the folks at Fox news and CNN were probably a little bit disappointed that the episode didn't end in flames and massive carnage.
Soup
Do you have any relaxing rituals? If so, what are they?
I love to take a really long soak in our big jacuzzi bathtub. It relaxes me so much that I can barely stand. It's great!!!
Salad
If you could spend the winter season somewhere other than your current location, where would you choose to stay?
I wouldn't mind renting a house for a winter, somewhere with a warmer climate, near the beach. It would be kind of neat for a change and hey, no shovelling!!
Main Course
When was the last time you had dinner out, and what was the name of the restaurant?
Yikes, I think we were at the Red Lobster on Wednesday night.
Dessert
If you had a boat, what would you name it?
goodness, I have no idea...sad huh?
Friday, September 23, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
nuts
Listening to the radio all day while I'm working is making me crazy. As I've mentioned before, I stream Air America whenever I am at my desk. The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy at work, so busy in fact that I sometimes forget (until I'm urgently reminded) to pee or to stop for lunch. Sometimes when I get busy like this, I can't listen to AA as it's too much for my brain to cope with. I'm thinking that I need to take a break from it for the next few days. Every once in a while I do this, take the break and listen to music instead of the talk, the talk makes me think too much, get angry too much. It's good, I'd rather be angry and informed than blissed out and ignorant.
One of the problems with the listening is that it makes me want to read in the evenings, read blogs, news sites, that sort of thing. Again, the more I read and hear, the more my brain spins and the harder it is to shut down at night. The other night I actually had a dream that Al Franken and I were traveling together for work and, in the middle of the airport in Chicago, I helped him and his wife Frannie, paint their kitchen. Don't ask me why their kitchen was in the airport, or why Al was on a trip with me an a colleague. I've been working in my dreams a lot recently, either on office related projects or I'm helping rescue folks from the flood. I dream about the flood, a lot. It's really graphic and scary and I can't imagine what kind of dreams that the survivors are having if I'm having the dreams I'm having just from watching the tv and listening to the radio.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that when I'm overwhelmed like this, by work, by the world, by life, I stop writing. It is exactly at times like this that I should be writing. Unfortunately, my brain just shuts down, well the writing part of it does. Maybe if I listen to some music tomorrow, my sad old noggin' will have some down time and be able to process everything and I'll write something that is a little more interesting than this. Time will tell.
One of the problems with the listening is that it makes me want to read in the evenings, read blogs, news sites, that sort of thing. Again, the more I read and hear, the more my brain spins and the harder it is to shut down at night. The other night I actually had a dream that Al Franken and I were traveling together for work and, in the middle of the airport in Chicago, I helped him and his wife Frannie, paint their kitchen. Don't ask me why their kitchen was in the airport, or why Al was on a trip with me an a colleague. I've been working in my dreams a lot recently, either on office related projects or I'm helping rescue folks from the flood. I dream about the flood, a lot. It's really graphic and scary and I can't imagine what kind of dreams that the survivors are having if I'm having the dreams I'm having just from watching the tv and listening to the radio.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that when I'm overwhelmed like this, by work, by the world, by life, I stop writing. It is exactly at times like this that I should be writing. Unfortunately, my brain just shuts down, well the writing part of it does. Maybe if I listen to some music tomorrow, my sad old noggin' will have some down time and be able to process everything and I'll write something that is a little more interesting than this. Time will tell.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
more sad news
rest in peace, Maynard G. Krebs... we'll all miss you, little buddy
Bob Denver, known to generations as TV's Gilligan, dead at 70
JOHN ROGERS
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy castaway Gilligan on the 1960s TV show Gilligan's Island made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died. He was 70.
He died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, said Tuesday. His wife, Dreama, and children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with Denver, who also had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.
"He was my everything and I will love him forever," Dreama Denver said in a statement.
Denver's signature role was Gilligan, but when he took the role in 1964 he was already widely known to TV audiences for another iconic character, Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963.
Krebs, whose only desire was to play the bongos and hang out at coffee houses, would shriek every time the word "work" was mentioned in his presence.
Gilligan on the other hand was industrious but inept. And his character was as lovable as he was inept. Viewers embraced the skinny kid in the Buster Brown haircut and white sailor hat. So did the Minnow's skipper, Jonas Grumby, who was played by Alan Hale Jr., and who always referred to his first mate affectionately as "little buddy."
"As silly as it seems to all of us, it has made a difference in a lot of children's lives," Dawn Wells, who played castaway Mary Ann Summers, once said. "Gilligan is a buffoon that makes mistakes, and I cannot tell you how many kids come up and say, 'But you loved him anyway.' "
TV critics were less kind, dismissing the show as inane. But after it was cancelled by CBS in 1967, it found new audiences over and over in syndicated reruns and reunion films, including 1981's The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. (It also led to the recent TBS reality series The Real Gilligan's Island.)
One of the most recent of those films was 2001's Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History, in which other actors portrayed the original seven-member cast while three of the four surviving original members, including Denver, narrated and reminisced.
Gilligan's Island writer-creator Sherwood Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."
Denver went on to star in other TV series, including The Good Guys and Dusty's Trail, as well as to make numerous appearances in films and TV shows.
But he never escaped the role of Gilligan, so much so that in one of his top 10 lists - "the top 10 things that will make you stand up and cheer" - Late Show host David Letterman once simply shouted out Denver's name to raucous applause.
"It was the mid-'70s when I realized it wasn't going off the air," Denver told The Associated Press in 2001, noting then that he enjoyed checking EBay each day to keep up on the prices Gilligan's Island memorabilia were fetching.
"I certainly didn't set out to have a series rerun forever, but it's not a bad experience at all," he added.
Bob Denver, known to generations as TV's Gilligan, dead at 70
JOHN ROGERS
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy castaway Gilligan on the 1960s TV show Gilligan's Island made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died. He was 70.
He died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, said Tuesday. His wife, Dreama, and children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with Denver, who also had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.
"He was my everything and I will love him forever," Dreama Denver said in a statement.
Denver's signature role was Gilligan, but when he took the role in 1964 he was already widely known to TV audiences for another iconic character, Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963.
Krebs, whose only desire was to play the bongos and hang out at coffee houses, would shriek every time the word "work" was mentioned in his presence.
Gilligan on the other hand was industrious but inept. And his character was as lovable as he was inept. Viewers embraced the skinny kid in the Buster Brown haircut and white sailor hat. So did the Minnow's skipper, Jonas Grumby, who was played by Alan Hale Jr., and who always referred to his first mate affectionately as "little buddy."
"As silly as it seems to all of us, it has made a difference in a lot of children's lives," Dawn Wells, who played castaway Mary Ann Summers, once said. "Gilligan is a buffoon that makes mistakes, and I cannot tell you how many kids come up and say, 'But you loved him anyway.' "
TV critics were less kind, dismissing the show as inane. But after it was cancelled by CBS in 1967, it found new audiences over and over in syndicated reruns and reunion films, including 1981's The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. (It also led to the recent TBS reality series The Real Gilligan's Island.)
One of the most recent of those films was 2001's Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History, in which other actors portrayed the original seven-member cast while three of the four surviving original members, including Denver, narrated and reminisced.
Gilligan's Island writer-creator Sherwood Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."
Denver went on to star in other TV series, including The Good Guys and Dusty's Trail, as well as to make numerous appearances in films and TV shows.
But he never escaped the role of Gilligan, so much so that in one of his top 10 lists - "the top 10 things that will make you stand up and cheer" - Late Show host David Letterman once simply shouted out Denver's name to raucous applause.
"It was the mid-'70s when I realized it wasn't going off the air," Denver told The Associated Press in 2001, noting then that he enjoyed checking EBay each day to keep up on the prices Gilligan's Island memorabilia were fetching.
"I certainly didn't set out to have a series rerun forever, but it's not a bad experience at all," he added.
Friday, September 02, 2005
just do it!
fyi folks, what a great idea! Spread the word!!
Air America Public Voicemail - 1-866-217-6255
Air America Radio's Public Voicemail is a way for disconnected people to communicate in the wake of Katrina. Here's how it works:
Call the toll-free number above, enter your everyday phone number, and then record a message. Other people who know your everyday phone number (even if it doesn't work anymore) can call Emergency Voicemail, enter the phone number they associate with you, and hear your message.
You can also search for messages left by people whose phone numbers you know.
Air America Radio will leave Public Voicemail in service for as long as this crisis continues. You can call it whenever you are trying to locate someone, or if you are trying to be found.
Obviously, for this to work, people need to know about it so please forward the number to as many people as you can. You can find out more about Katrina and the affected areas at www.airamericaradio.com.
Air America Radio brings you Emergency VoiceMail in conjunction with VoodooVox.
Also, if you’re looking for a way to help personally, MoveOn.org Civic Action, formerly known as MoveOn.org, launched a new web site yesterday, http://hurricanehousing.org/ asking its 3.3 million members and the public to post any available housing for the thousands of people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. The organization will directly connect evacuees with volunteer hosts, and also provide the housing information to the Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Air America Public Voicemail - 1-866-217-6255
Air America Radio's Public Voicemail is a way for disconnected people to communicate in the wake of Katrina. Here's how it works:
Call the toll-free number above, enter your everyday phone number, and then record a message. Other people who know your everyday phone number (even if it doesn't work anymore) can call Emergency Voicemail, enter the phone number they associate with you, and hear your message.
You can also search for messages left by people whose phone numbers you know.
Air America Radio will leave Public Voicemail in service for as long as this crisis continues. You can call it whenever you are trying to locate someone, or if you are trying to be found.
Obviously, for this to work, people need to know about it so please forward the number to as many people as you can. You can find out more about Katrina and the affected areas at www.airamericaradio.com.
Air America Radio brings you Emergency VoiceMail in conjunction with VoodooVox.
Also, if you’re looking for a way to help personally, MoveOn.org Civic Action, formerly known as MoveOn.org, launched a new web site yesterday, http://hurricanehousing.org/ asking its 3.3 million members and the public to post any available housing for the thousands of people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. The organization will directly connect evacuees with volunteer hosts, and also provide the housing information to the Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
fatigue
The more coverage of Katrina that I hear / read / watch, the more sick and angry I get. This morning, the guy's on Morning Sedition played a lengthy interview that Mayor Ray Nagin gave to a local New Orleans radio station. The poor man was so pissed off and frustrated that he, and the chap conducting the interview, both broke down in tears at the end of it. What kind of a paper bag does Bush have over his head. It's sickening that he's allowed things to escalate into the disaster it's become. Mayor Nagin should have the tools he needs to do his job. Sadly, it's a situation that, not only did they not give the man his tools, they cut off his hands to add insult to injury.
Where were the National Guard last Saturday and Sunday helping with the evacuation? Why didn't they have trucks and buses available to transport the folks who don't have vehicles? Why aren't they air dropping food, water, medical supplies, etc. into New Orleans? They can do it other places in the world, why not in their own back yard? We all know that the Bush administration doesn't give a flying fuck about the poor and that is so sadly obvious now. How many more people have to kill themselves, or be murdered, or be raped or die from a lack of medical attention in New Orleans. These deaths and acts of violence were completely preventable, had the Bush government acted last week.
It would not surprise me one bit, if this were the final straw that toppled the Bush government. People of all political stripes in the states are furious about this, after all, these are human beings we are talking about. Being poor or elderly or ill does not mean that your life is worth less that someone who was able to get out of town last weekend.
I know that being angry and frustrated isn't healthy or productive. Right now, I guess all we can do is help out in any way we can, to try to make a horrible situation better.
Where were the National Guard last Saturday and Sunday helping with the evacuation? Why didn't they have trucks and buses available to transport the folks who don't have vehicles? Why aren't they air dropping food, water, medical supplies, etc. into New Orleans? They can do it other places in the world, why not in their own back yard? We all know that the Bush administration doesn't give a flying fuck about the poor and that is so sadly obvious now. How many more people have to kill themselves, or be murdered, or be raped or die from a lack of medical attention in New Orleans. These deaths and acts of violence were completely preventable, had the Bush government acted last week.
It would not surprise me one bit, if this were the final straw that toppled the Bush government. People of all political stripes in the states are furious about this, after all, these are human beings we are talking about. Being poor or elderly or ill does not mean that your life is worth less that someone who was able to get out of town last weekend.
I know that being angry and frustrated isn't healthy or productive. Right now, I guess all we can do is help out in any way we can, to try to make a horrible situation better.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
do what you can
I'm going to leave a link up, to the Canadian Red Cross up for a while, like I did after the Tsunami in south east Asia. My heart has been breaking, watching the coverage of the Hurricane on television. Worse than that, reading the stories from the survivors that are coming out. I absolutely love New Orleans, it is one of my favourite cities in the entire world, it's just magical. Seeing the photos of it underwater is totally surreal. I cannot imagine how terrifying this must be for the thousands of people of still stuck there. I just hope that the aid agencies, relief workers, engineers, medical personnel, etc are able to safely get in there and help these folks, it's such a desperate situation.
In other news, Klaus succumed to his injuries sometime last night. He was very very weak last night but I had hoped that he still might bounce back. I think he had just stopped eating, poor little guy. Anyway, he's in fishy heaven now and the other two little fish (Feargal and Ani) are living it up in the new tank.
I'm going to leave a link up, to the Canadian Red Cross up for a while, like I did after the Tsunami in south east Asia. My heart has been breaking, watching the coverage of the Hurricane on television. Worse than that, reading the stories from the survivors that are coming out. I absolutely love New Orleans, it is one of my favourite cities in the entire world, it's just magical. Seeing the photos of it underwater is totally surreal. I cannot imagine how terrifying this must be for the thousands of people of still stuck there. I just hope that the aid agencies, relief workers, engineers, medical personnel, etc are able to safely get in there and help these folks, it's such a desperate situation.
In other news, Klaus succumed to his injuries sometime last night. He was very very weak last night but I had hoped that he still might bounce back. I think he had just stopped eating, poor little guy. Anyway, he's in fishy heaven now and the other two little fish (Feargal and Ani) are living it up in the new tank.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)