I Doubt Anyone Gets a Refund

Pour ice water over your head, or give some money for ALS research......or not. According to this news report, 28% of funds to the ALS Foundation are used for research. The rest go to something else.

Charitable giving is one of the things U.S. folks are known for. It's a good thing, but many give without doing a little research on the organization they're giving their hard money to for support. Considering how huge the ice water challenge has affected the country, I'm thinking many will feel a little betrayed when they realize only 28 cents of every dollar they donated actually is used to find a cure for a horrific illness. If they're like me, that seems like a paltry proportion to use for what the money is actually given to accomplish.

Let's Go To The Beach...

...or not.

Not is it only ugly, it stinks and the stench is noticeable for miles inland.

I'm thinking some tourists are wishing they didn't go to Galveston this year.

As I was taking these photos, a Houston news station was setting up for a remote broadcast.

Should I Be Surprised?

A billboard for the tribute of Nelson Mandela, mistakenly used a picture of Morgan Freeman.  I guess I should be surprised, but I'm not, and I'd really be surprised if more than a few dozen people would know the difference.

OMG, the BS is a BFD

During a short telephone conversation yesterday, the person on the other end didn't say "oh my God", they said OMG. I was amazed. Texting, Facebooking and other social network abbreviations are permeating our conversation. While this is probably an ever day occurrence for many, it was a first for me and I didn't like it. If someone is so busy they can't say three short words (and nobody is that busy) they need to find some relief.

New Math

According to the President: raising the debt ceiling doesn't increase the debt of the United States.

I don't make this stuff up...although I'd feel more comfortable if I did.

Just In Time For Summer Vacation

Human breast milk lollipops.

"... I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but it seems like all of my friends are having babies these days," Jason Darling, the owner of Lollyphile, said in a statement. "Sure, the kids are all crazy cute, but what slowly dawned on me was that my friends were actually producing milk so delicious it could turn a screaming, furious child into a docile, contented one. I knew I had to capture that flavor..."

I know there are some that are curious about the flavor; they may even buy some. Personally, I find it a little creepy.

Tree Cutting and Lunch

Right after high school, my brother, and a friend went to our friend's mother's house up country to cut some trees. We were offered lunch and it was a fair exchange for helping. After all, that's what friends do for friends.

Most of the trees were sweet gums, that were making a mess of the yard. None were really big, so the work wasn't nearly as hard as I originally envisioned. We had the trees cut and the rest stacked for burning before lunch.

Our friend's mother called for us to come eat. The aroma from the kitchen was intoxicating. She'd made a squirrel gumbo and we were hungry.

We lined up at the stove, placed some rice in our bowls and scooped our gumbo from the big pot sitting on the burner. Judging by the color, it was near perfect. I was hungry and anticipated a good feed.

The gumbo was excellent. The squirrel was cooked fork tender, so it was easily removed from the bones. The side dish of potato salad only embellished an already fine lunch.

As I ate, I worked my way around a piece of meat I didn't recognize. I usually don't place anything in my bowl that doesn't look familiar, but avoided the practice when I filled my bowl. The cook was watching and I didn't want to break some unspoken rule.

Eventually, there was nothing left in my bowl, except the unknown piece. Glancing at my friend's mother, I realized she was watching closely. She must have known I was confused and spoke: "It's the head."

I just stared.

"Here", she said, handing me a nutcracker, "You crack it open and eat the brains."

My mind was racing. I've never eaten any type of brains; had no desire to eat any type of brains - much less a squirrel's - and there was no honorable escape.

"Okay" was all I could say, as I reached for nut cracker, opened the head and scooped out the brains. They tasted like liver, which I don't like.

"The jowl meat is good, too."

It helped remove the taste of the brains.

"The tongue is good."

I quickly spoke, which was probably impolite, but a line had been crossed.

"That's where I draw the line."

She laughed. Everybody laughed. I looked around sheepishly and realized I'd been played.

She explained how her mother wouldn't cut up the squirrel the way she did, and I would have known immediately what I'd placed in my bowl.

We finished, helped clean the kitchen, drank a few beers and eventually headed home. All, in all, it was a good day and we had some firewood for my dad's fireplace.

I haven't had squirrel gumbo since that day. Next time I do, I'm going to look more closely.

BSOD

If you've ever tinkered with a computer that has one of those before Windows ever loads....and it tells you of a corrupted registry.....you know you're having a bad day at work.

I found the fix, but it's just another task that I really don't have time to do.

Bleh

Bolide or Satellite?

I was outside and something caught my attention. Looking to the south, I saw what looked like a fireworks rocket about 15 degrees above the southern horizon. Within a few seconds, it grew larger; it now appeared to be the size of about 1/10 of the size of a full moon. It was a bright orange, and lasted about two seconds longer. I figured a thin band of cirrostratus clouds were obscuring the object, or it went back into space. It was small, either due to distance, size, or both.

I continued watching. Looking overhead, it reappeared and it was now obvious it was falling apart. Several pieces broke away and continued streaking across the sky. The colors of the objects ranged from orange to white. Some almost immediately burned out and the speeds were random.

Eventually, only one object was left, which continued to the north and eventually disappeared; a bright orange; about 20 degrees above the northern horizon. After a long time, I heard some dim thuds, which were the objects breaking the sound barrier.

Bolide? I don't think so. I'm thinking a satellite; probably military or foreign, considering the polar orbit and various colors of objects burning up in the atmosphere. I'm betting we'll never know.

This happened at a little after 3:00 am on 2-28-2013, in case someone is interested.

update:  It was a Chinese rocket. My suspicion of a man made object was confirmed. If you've never seen such a thing, it's damn interesting to watch.