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Showing posts from April 20, 2008

Nick...Nick....Nick

So....the autism thing

Since April is nearly over and it's autism awareness month, I suppose I should talk a bit about it. I guess the best way to start is to rehash the story of How I Got Here. My oldest was born in 1999. Healthy, happy and so on. One peculiar thing he did as an infant was to avoid eye contact. Our doctor assured us it was because he was so young and his eyesight was undeveloped and he was probably focusing on something in the background that was more interesting. Besides, babies don't recognize faces for a few months after birth. Only later did we find out that our doctor was an idiot. He was 16 mos. old when his little brother was born and he was walking and making wishes known by pulling me or my wife by the hand to whatever he wanted etc. He was fascinated with the wheels on toys. If you gave him a truck he'd turn it over and spin the wheels and smile. Only later would I find out this is a major warning sign. This was our first born and what the hell did I know?

One of my favorite Brits

Jeremy Clarkson. If you're a car nut automotive enthusiast you probably know him. If not, witness his scathing wit . Personal favorites in bold 1. [On the Enzo Ferrari] “I rang up Jay Kay, who’s got one, and said: “Can we borrow yours?” and he said, “Yeah, if I can borrow your daughter, because it amounts to the same thing.” 2. [On the Mercedes CLS55 AMG] “It sounds like Barry White eating wasps.” 3. “That [Pagani] Zonda, really! It’s like a lion in orange dungarees. Kind of fierce, but ridiculous all at the same time.” 4. “Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... that’s what gets you.” 5. [On the Porsche Cayman S] “There are many things I’d rather be doing than driving it, including waiting for Bernard Manning to come off stage in a sweaty nightclub, and then licking his back clean.” 6. “Owning a TVR in the past was like owning a bear. I mean it was great, until it pulled your head off, which it would.” 7. [On the Alfa Romeo Brera] “Think of it as Angelin

Final Cylon revealed!

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h/t: Everyone

A Really Inconvenient Truth

Inconvenient Untruth There is new evidence of misleading information in Al Gore's Oscar-winning global warming film "An Inconvenient Truth." ABC News reports one of the most famous shots in the movie — of Antarctic ice shelves — is a fake. The film's visual effects supervisor says the film took the shot from the fictional movie "The Day After Tomorrow," which created it from Styrofoam and scanned it into a computer. "Yeah, that's our shot," she says. "That's a fully computer-generated shot. There's nothing real in there." ABC wanted to ask Gore whether it was wrong for a documentary to use a fabricated shot to make a point, but says he did not return their calls. I can hear it now. "It doesn't matter if the footage is fake! He's trying to make a point you dolt! It speaks to a larger truth even if he's using footage from an alarmist Hollywood thriller."

How Hillary can win

You say LA I say Hell-a

Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study. Becoming? Welcome to the party but you're a little late. A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found. Let alone the native born anglos who can't speak English properly. It said this left immigrants ill-equipped to fill California's fastest-growing occupations, such as computer software engineering and nursing. The organisation added that as the so-called baby boomers reach retirement age, a similar pattern will spread across the US. 1. Boomers aren't going to retire any time soon. 2. That pattern will be most pronounced in border states. Ernesto Cortes Jr, of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a think-tank that specialises on social change, claimed Los Angeles was at a crossroads. "The question is are we going to be a 21st century city with shared pr

Poem of the day

Mordred's Lullaby Heather Dale Marsh Child, the darkness will rise from the deep, And carry you down into sleep; Child, the darkness will rise from the deep, And carry you down into sleep. Guile, my son, I'll shape your belief And you'll always know that your father's a thief And you won't understand the cause of your grief But you'll always follow the voices beneath. (Loyalty...) Guile, my son, your spirit will hate her: The flower who married my brother, the traitor; And you will expose his puppet behavior, For you are the proof of how he betrayed her. (Loyalty...) Marsh Child, the darkness will rise from the deep And carry you down into sleep, Child, the darkness will rise from the deep, And carry you down into sleep. (Loyalty...) Guile, my son, each day you'll grow older, Each moment I'm watching my vengeance unfold: The child of my body, the flesh of my soul, Will die and return the birthright he stole. (Loyalty...) Marsh Child, the darkness will ri

Corporate greed

These guys are always raising hue and cry about corporate greed. Somehow they missed this one: Unable to say exactly how it happened, DFL Senate candidate Al Franken acknowledged Friday that his personal corporation wrongly failed to provide employees with workers' compensation insurance in New York for nearly three years. According to campaign manager Andy Barr, the accountant for Alan Franken Inc. (AFI) who investigated the case for five weeks was unable to figure out "the exact circumstances that led to the oversight." However, the accountant "has determined that, in fact, AFI was not in full compliance during the period in question," Barr said in a statement. "Therefore, no further attempt will be made to contest the resolved judgment." New York state officials said Friday that since Franken had paid the $25,000 court judgment entered against AFI last year, they also considered the matter closed. Not so state Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey,

Why did Romney drop out?

Top 10 Reasons Mitt Romney Dropped out of the race: No. 10: There weren’t as many Osmonds as he thought. No. 9: Got tired of the corkscrew landings of his campaign plane while under fire No. 8: As a lifelong hunter, I didn’t want to miss the start of varmint season. No. 7: There wasn’t room for two Christian leaders in the presidential race No. 6: I’d rather get fat, grow a beard and try for the Nobel prize. No. 5: Got tired of wearing a dark suit and tie, and I wanted to kick back in a light colored suit and tie. No. 4: When his wife realized he couldn’t win the GOP nomination, my fundraising dried up. No. 2: I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair. No. 1: His campaign relied on a flawed campaign strategy that as Utah goes, so goes the nation. h/t: Malkin

War on Nature II

So.... After losing the Battle of Pencader Manor, Mother Nature continues the fight. Friday I had to vacate the Manor for the Battle Bridge * as a play date was imminent. It was a beautiful day so I had the windows open. Zipping along merrily on my way when a wasp Satan's Own Winged Minion entered the cockpit of the Duffmobile. He began his assault and I began defense. I started defense with the standard yelping and swatting. Somehow it didn't occur to me to slow down. Chalk that up to panic. He got me on the palm of my hand. It started to swell and itch almost immediately. Finally I gave one good swat and out the window he went. The upside of not slowing down was that he was very quickly behind me. Ha! You better bring a better air assault than that baby! Once at the Battle Bridge I logged in and started working. It was cool so I thought I'd sit in the sunroom. I opened the door to the sunroom and was met by volcanic heat that was so voluminous it practic