I don’t often listen to music using ear-buds or headphones. I usually enjoy a more encompassing sound from some good speakers. But, since I now have music loaded on my nook reader, and I hate the tinny little speakers on it, I am using some good ear-buds. Have you ever noticed that when wearing these, the singer and band are in the middle of your head? Interesting effect, at least for me. I could plug the nook into a set of speakers, but then it just isn’t as portable.

The past couple of mornings have been a bit chilly. Funny how just a few short weeks ago, we would have considered the same temperatures warm.

I’ve always wondered why food tastes better when you are in good company. Eating alone can make for bland meals, even when made exactly the same. For me, eating outside always makes the food taste better too. So great big picnics with good company should have the very best food.

Sometimes I like to say things just to get people to think. It works well with my children, and people I know well, but not so much with the greeters at Wal-Mart.

If you have a glowing blue-tooth device in your ear, and say something to someone, do they assume you are talking on the phone?

I remember liking so many different candies as a child. Why is it that most of them don’t satisfy in the same way? Of course I was eating all that stuff before I was introduced to ‘Good’ Chocolate. My taste in chocolate got expensive. But I still like Good and Plenty. 😉

Back in the summer of 1983, my future wife and I were trying to decide what music to have at our wedding. We picked a song that we both liked, and had some meaningful words. For years that song reminded us of our vows and our love for each other. Today when I hear that song, I can be brought to tears in one second and laughter from happy memories in the the next. I never know which will occur until they do.

There is another song from the same performer that reminds me of my relationship with my parents. Kind of puts life in perspective for me.

I’m not a fan of country music, and I’m not a fan of bars. So why is one of my favorite songs a country song about a bar?

I was strolling around the internet (I don’t surf, that just goes too fast), and I found a few interesting things.

On this site, I found two t-shirts I liked. The first was with Bela Lugosi as Dracula holding the head of a more recent movie vampire (yes, just the head). The saying was “Dracula never sparkled.” Struck my sense of humor today. The other shirt on the same site was “Meat is Murder. Quick eat the evidence.” So today, I guess my humor is heading toward the violent stage. “Here’s Johnny.” 😈

Ok, I knew somebody had the list of what emoticons actually works here. Ok, I found them, thanks again Derek!! Why can’t all of the various chat area, blog sites, bulletin boards, social networks, ect. use the same symbols. Why do they work sometimes and not others. Even being a technical person by trade, I get sick of technology… 😡

Are we headed for a new form of the WWW? Kind of discussed this last night with a friend or few. Mostly about if Facebook would start charging for use. Currently that is just a malicious rumor floating around, but as was said in the conversation, Facebook and other sites like that need some cash to exist. Now this article is more about premium content, but I wonder what premium content is. I already pay for my web access, about as much as I would pay for Cable/Satellite TV, Cell Phone usage ect., so I wonder how much more this would eventually cost. Like most people in the middle class, my budget is strained from all angles. I don’t have pay TV for a number of reason, but one is I really don’t want to pay for TV.

If it ever comes to the point that I have to pay for TV, I’ll stop watching. I’ve said before there isn’t much I want to watch, so it doesn’t make any difference to me. I have internet access to keep up with friends, family, work and news of the day. I pay for that access to offset other areas I no longer use or pay for. If the outlets I use start charging me, on top of my access charge, I may stop using them. Unless I become independently wealthy. I can always go to the library to pick up newspapers and magazines. My taxes go to keep those organizations functioning, so I will use them. I can use other means to contact friends and family. But then as I said earlier, sometimes the technology bugs me….

In what may be a good use for Ebooks, I found this article. Textbooks that can be modified or commented on by the professors/teachers. Cool stuff. I remember in school carting around a lot of books. And then in college pay tons of money for lots of books. Of course the teachers would always comment or add to the material present in the book. This forced the student to carry even more. I like the idea of getting this all on an E-book level and allow the students to carry around less material. Save trees and backaches. Now if they would only come up with a way to make that stupid textbook cheaper.

One final note. I went to the oriental restaurant on Sunday with my daughter. My taste buds were so messed up, I left the fortune cookies in the truck. Since my taste returned today I ate the cookies. The first fortune I had was “Everything will now come your way.” The lucky numbers on this fortune just happened to be the birthdays (day of the month) of my four daughters, myself and my late wife. That is six numbers. The estimated jackpot for the Mega Millions jackpot is now 83 million for tonight’s drawing. I met my late wife in 1983… Is that a sign? I’m not sure I believe in stuff like that, but I bought the ticket anyway. I used my late wife’s birthday as the powerball and put the rest of the days in the regular numbers. One final little note: that combination of numbers never won the jackpot….

Today was an eventful day, and deserves a long involved post. It will take a bit of time to set the correct tone.

So on to more trivial things.

Baseball season: All I can say is I hope things turn around for the Tigers. 1 game out of 4? Ouch! The Cubs are doing better, so that is something. But there are a few things more important than the scores of games and who is in first place. jamiahsh puts the whole thing in perspective. I don’t think there is much I can add.

Friends: It is good to have them. They help in many ways. Sometimes they don’t realize how much they do help. But I guess sometimes I don’t realize how much I help them. It goes both ways doesn’t it?

News: Pirates should only be discussed in Baseball terms, movies and plays. Hearing about pirates attacking merchant ships and having world governments bargaining with them is not right. That type of ‘handling’ of the situation only gives them reason to keep doing what they are doing. So I guess crime pays. Something isn’t right here, but then life is not fair is it?

Movies: Soon the summer block buster season starts. I’m looking forward to seeing a few good ones.

I’ve written about many things. Family, friends, food, pets, acting, theater, movies, books, blogs, computers and other things I can’t remember. Today I think I will write about something else, Politics.

Most of the time, I will avoid the topics of religion and politics on this blog and in real life. I’ve seen more friends almost come to blows when discussing these topics, so I generally keep them out of my daily conversation. Recent events just beg for some discussion.

I’m very concerned about the number of Obama nominees have trouble paying taxes. Not to just pick on them, this started me wondering how many Federal politicians have the same problem. The nominees didn’t pay their back taxes and penalties (if any) until after they were nominated. If they knew about the tax problem, they should have paid as soon as they knew, or at least filed paperwork to get this taken care of. From everything I’ve read, this has not been the case. And the politicians doing the approving didn’t think this wasn’t enough to keep them from serving in their appointments. Heck, one has already been approved.

It seems to me, if these amounts had been owed by a ‘normal’ citizen, that citizen would have been on trial at least, and maybe even thrown in jail. And the politicos in Washington don’t think this is anything big. Could it be that they also have something to hide? What would we find out if their taxes and backgrounds were scrutinized? This is a very troubling condition in Washington. They are the ones that pass all the tax laws, shouldn’t they be the most careful in filing their taxes.

I guess this is one more reason to try to get a flat tax or even a national sales tax to replace the income tax. Make it real easy to pay your taxes, and even easier to find out if you didn’t pay the taxes you owe. That is probably the reason we don’t have an easy tax system, it would make it harder for all those politicians to hide there missing payments.

Grrrr… Can you tell I’m filling out my tax forms… 🙁

Various thoughts have been attributed to many comedians and authors. But a did a random google search for some odd thoughts. Like:

Why to we drive on Parkways and park on Driveways?
Why do they put braille on drive up cash machines?
Do man-eating sharks eat women too?
Why do irons have a setting for permanent press?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Why do we call something sent by car a shipment and something sent by ship a cargo?
Why do we sing “Take me out to the ball game,” when we are already there?
Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?
Why was Evelyn Wood in such a hurry?
If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

Now why just cut and paste these from various web sites? Well, just the way I was thinking today. It started when someone brought of the Parkways/driveways on the radio this morning. I remember reading/hearing a lot of these. I found a lot more, but most didn’t seem funny today. These were the best of the lot in my opinion.

Look here for others.
Dumb Questions
Things—Hmm.
And a Song?
More Hmmm
More serious Hmms

And of course there are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those that don’t.