Black Stealth 3-Channel R/C Helicopter from ThinkGeek

Man has always lusted for the power of flight. Yes, we have planes and helicopters; but like everything else; we want no help doing it. We want to be able to do it ourselves at our will. That's one of the many reasons Superman still lives in the hearts of old men just as he does in those of children. Meanwhile, this is cool enuf.

WOW art: Wacom Cintiq 12WX

The digital age is not going away anytime soon. I would have been the first to argue in the great debate between tradition vs digital for the true esthetic and skill belonging to the traditional discipline of the the intimate connection between the artist and his art; but its hard to argue with progress. Just because its digital doesnt mean it doesnt require skill, talent, discipline and vision.

How to Make Baked Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

Friday Fixin's



How to Make Baked Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

Judgement Day Women's Cap Sleeve T-Shirt Judgement Day Big Funky Chicken

Judgement Day Women's Cap Sleeve T-Shirt Judgement Day Big Funky Chicken

World Without End: Maybe

How To Survive an Alien Abduction on Howcast

Solitude - 2010/2011 - A work in progress on the Behance Network

Solitude - 2010/2011 - A work in progress on the Behance Network

This is some extremely nice work that is beyond fantastic discipline and talent!!!

PRICE vs Cheap!!!

Many things have been said about price vs cost. Sure everybody is touting having the cheapest prices these days and it would seem that cheap is on everyone's list of frugal behaviors. But I submit to you that an initial price may; and often does, cost one way more than that initial price. It takes no large sum of discipline to notice an average casual cheap enthusiast walking or driving by. Sure everybody wants to save money or at least be wise with what they have.

Frugality without wisdom is a dish with no bottom or handle. I am a believer in you get what you pay for. Yes, I too once preferred and took the cheapest deals. My college days are littered with days of quick fixes and frugal survival tactics. But I can count on one hand the number of times that cheap panned out. I have often wondered about our pursuit of cheap. Would you want the cheapest heart surgeon, lasik surgeon, financial planner or mortician? (yes, I see some of you shaking your heads up and down) Have at it. I've noticed over the years that I dont really care what the price is if its worth it.

Though cheap is often associated with dirty; which is not necessarily true or a bad thing — and thats another completely different blog) why even take the chance. Well I heard is said once that smart people are bored and stupid people have lots of stories. I can see the truth in that wisdom. Their stories all start with "you won't believe this or watch this." Meanwhile being cheap should not be confused with repurposing. Now thats extended life to a whole lot of junk. We are surrounded by things that can easily be "repurposed."

Meanwhile, the debate is best settled with real wisdom so true you have to laugh.

Friday Flickerings and Fridaku Fascinations

© ScienceDaily

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What a great week of exploration emotionally and professionally. The weather has been fantastic and very agreeable to getting outside and trapesing around. The hint of Spring looms dauntingly just above our bulging to-do-lists and a long-courted love affair with Home Depot, Lowes and HGTV. The renewal of Spring brings many opportunities for collective enrichment and family gatherings. What a great time of the year.

Despite being slammed at work; I have managed to learn some new InDesign and Photoshop tricks! Its obvious to me that I am happiest exploring and learning new things. Luckily I have an environment that allows such freedoms and liberties. Despite self-inflicted prisons, the freedoms just beyond my reach or cadence are beautiful to marvel. Its ok if I dont get there today and far better that I remember to never completely yield to the idea that never is also possible. Armed with hot coffee, great chocolate snacks and wide-eyed defiance, I embrace the coming of the weekend.

As one ages, it is always noted of the things that were that arent now. St. Patty's Day marks the passing of a well-missed friend and fan, Alfred; my wife's father. Such times are awkward — do you point out the elephant in the room or just ignore him, hoping he walks quitely beyond? Nonetheless, I treasure memories. It lies there in the pages of memories of past moments where infinity is bookmarked if only for a finite moment as the generations trod onward into future chapters. We sat out back once in the setting sun as I remarked about the shadows cast by the dying day. He responded with a chuckle and noted that the reason we are all different is that there are too many things for one person to see or think about. In a society obsessed with youth; will we sacrifice the wisdom of age in the process? Will we discard the elderly for our vain ambitions? or discount them like some last year's Christmas toy left to hope for purchase at some Fred's or Dollar General or yardsale as someone else's problem?


A great weekend lies ahead. If we lift our eyes and our hearts, we will encounter someone needing our smiles and encouragements just centered in our paths. Hopefully we will neither be too busy or self absorbed to pass along such a glittering treasure. The cohort, Andy has been faithfully banging out his photoblogs and haikus much to my pleasure. It really is the people around us that hold us up from sinking in the mire of self/vanity. Sharing laughter and never taking ouselves too seriously might just be a saving grace.



©Andrew Stanfield

Wooden Guardsmen

Sentinal looming,
Tall, old and mighty—guarding;
Fallen soldiers' rest.

©hamedical

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Orange Warm Hunger

Orange, warm glowing,
Making bronze damp skin glisten;
Hungry for more flesh.

Friday Free'rs: Liberty of the Bugs

Spontaneous Quote: You cannot buy wisdom at the drugstore; only prevention....©maximusdoom 2011

The media is piping with things people are talking about. Needless-to-say, the watercooler is empty. As a kid I always wondered if I would listen to someone who knew more than I did or if I would listen to me if I came back from the future to give me some insight. Obviously I cannot truthfully answer that; only speculate. Our morning was a fluster of conversations. In all of them existed some content that would lend itself to several blogs from each topic. BYU is the easy one; but not as easy as Charlie Sheen — which is too easy; so I'll pass.

The other end of the box. Every now and then you see a roach big enough to rid you of any transportation expenses should you strap youself to them like a cowboy or rope them to the back, front or bottom of your vehicle. Today was one of those such days. I saw a cohort get up suddenly out of the corner of my eye. I see his mouth moving as he rolls up a magazine. With my iPOD deep in Prince classics; I dismiss as an extended bathroom embarkment and keep working on my layout. Then he comes back to his desk still looking somewhere ahead. Removing one earplug, I hear instructions to look ahead. As some of you know, I HATE bugs; particularly ones that might crawl or land on my face or chase me. There it was. A bionic roach half the size of our convertible VW Beetle. He appeared to have the power of flight as well. After some scrambling and mobilization, an office of 4 men; really 3 cause I was only going to be taking pictures, came up with the plans of removal.


The pensive recycler Andy decided to use a long box. To my horror, his great plan was to capture and release! Whatever happened to all the great lessons in history — kill them all! In his most statuesque Statue of Liberty pose, he does not use the closed end of the box to crush the guts out of the behemoth but the open end to capture. Of course it was on the ceiling. Of course it made a run for it. Of course it never occurred to him to smash it with the closed end. YES, Im a smasher! I not only kill them for this life but any possible ones after this one. In fact, you can work up quite a sweat stomping a good bug. I know some spiders, snakes and bugs are good for us; but I dont waste time interviewing them to find out. He who hesitates is lost.


Apparently I will refresh some memories about survivors and what to do with them.

Real Life
The Alamo, The Battle of Thermopylae, and several other Last Stands where the defenders were so effective (and/or annoying) that the victorious attackers finished off whatever survivors, wounded, or captured noncombatants they got their hands on afterward.

The Massacre of Glencoe was ordered by King William of Orange with the line:
"You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds (sic) of Glenco (sic), and put all to the sword under seventy".
The part about leaving those over 70 was not mercy; in those days it was rare to find anyone much over 50 and the understanding was that anyone 70 or over would probably die on their own without someone to provide care for them.
This is frequently applied by a force that manages to defeat one much larger than them - they can't maintain so many prisoners, so the logical thing to do is to kill them all.

Famously happened during the Albigensian Crusade against Catharism in southern France. Asked by a soldier how to tell the difference between Cathar heretics and good Catholics, the Papal legate Arnaud Amalric replied:
"Kill them all. The Lord will recognize his own."
Though it's debatable if he said any such a thing, as there doesn't seem to be any record of him saying those words until about 50 years afterwards.

Arguably the result of any protracted siege in history. The soldiers, after watching their mates getting killed in various horrific fashions over a period of weeks or months, work out their frustrations on the defenders and civilians inside.
The Jolly Roger. In real life, the Jolly Roger was a good thing (assuming you were being attacked by pirates), as it meant that the pirates would accept prisoners. However, a blood red flag meant "death to all".
Both flags and their respective meaning are used in the flashback segment of the Tintin book The Secret Of The Unicorn.
In Roman Conflicts, once the battering ram was deployed, it was the signal that no prisoners would be taken, even as slaves. The Rome episode The Ram Has Touched The Wall explains this.

To extend the explanation: when a (Roman) army approached a hostile city and the city surrendered before arrival, the city's inhabitants and possessions were sacrosanct, and there would be no (official) looting or pillaging. If the city held out, but surrendered before the siege engines were in place, the citizens who fought (those of fighting age) were taken as slaves and the city looted, but no (official) rape or other destruction would take place. If the siege continued to the full, and the city overrun, the invaders could do as they pleased, and the commanders either looked the other way or actively encouraged their troops. This even applied to Roman cities, such as those on Sicily, after they rebelled. There are accounts of Legionaries who expressed the hope that the city would not surrender, so they could get some good looting and rape in.

The city of Carthage was completely destroyed by the Romans at the climax of the Third Carthaginian War. The Carthaginian citizens were either slaughtered or captured as slaves; none were spared.

Roman deserters were always killed if captured by Rome. There were accounts of ex-Roman soldiers at Carthage building a great bonfire in the Basilica before it fell, and leaping into the flames to avoid mandatory crucifixion for their desertion.

Shown in Spartacus: Blood and Sand: The Thracians who deserted the Roman forces were killed or taken into slavery, along with those of their villages.
The Battle of Little Bighorn.

Well that's a lot said in very little. Yes, opinions are like ...; everybody's got one. Like the release of said gasses; weighing before the release is paramount.

..and what is Friday without a couple of good haikus as a send off. Perhaps good is being presumptuous of me. Today's subject is one I hold near and dear; bubble baths! It is invaluable for creatives to revive themselves by escaping and harmonizing the internal energies. Failure to do so always results in the most conflicting of emotional and collateral of damages.

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Photo from adnamaotupac

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Fridakus — haikus on Friday

Below the Chaos
Deep breath in, breath out;
Hot bubble bath, smooth jazz, rain;
Stressless incense burns.

Bubble Talk
Popping bubbles shhhh,
Burying me in warm pleasure,
Unity and peace.

Self Therapy
Rain, jazz and bubbles
Alone, candles, insence, bath
One person, one soul.

Folly, Frolic and Fridaku

courtesy of Mother Nature Network

I must confess upfront of my embarrassment over not regularly blogging this year. I plan to change that shortly. Its not from an abundance of stimuli. In my location, it is the nexus of everything possible and did you see that. It keeps the weeks pretty interesting. We like that. No two days are ever alike and a great conversation is always just around the corner with our group. Thats another thing to be thankful. It is rare that you can enjoy what you do surrounded by who you like. There are very few ways to make it better sans a crystal blue ocean, a distant sea gull, efficient waiters and a great wi-fi.

What a wonderful time to be alive. I cannot imagine being able to see Alexander G. Bell or Tessler beholding what they discovered having become so much more. It must appear like magic or witchcraft. Imagine trying to explain that a cellphone needs no wires; that people oceans apart could see images of each other in real time talking as if there was no distance or the harnessing of electricity in so many avenues, including solar energy. That would be worth a million conversations. In my short lifetime; I think back to the first black and white tv we owned, the first cellphone in a huge bag that was more like weight-training than technology or the first fax machine (and lets be honest-they were horrible) transmitting images from one place to another or the old polaroid camera that could snap a picture and develop before your eyes. Those were the days. Days of a pleasant memory that would allow you to appreciate the present technology and its advancements.

I know it wont be long before kids will have no idea of what a phone booth, fax machine, light bulb, gasoline, walking in public parks, skipping rocks or personal conversations in public. The smaller the world has become through technology; the farther apart we have become. I barely know my neighbors, let alone anyone on the street. I can hardly be completely where I am for answering or sending a text message or taking a call. I can hardly enjoy a good movie for being disappointed in the special effects or some other seduction of technology. We live in great times; great good and great sad. To preserve our humanity, we may well have to retreat to the past someday when noone remembers what it once was.

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Well its Friday again. That means that the cohort and I have a long honored tradition of haikus on Friday. Its a fun thing and somewhat an enjoyable activity. So without more rambling; on to the feat!

View Into Spring
Hot coffee now warm;
Cool sunshine soothing warm;
Watching people live.

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Have a great weekend.

And Two Shall Become One

Another lovely day passes with its special reasons for existing. February 14th is Valentine's Day. Aside from all the commercially steeped sentiments, I enjoy this holiday more than most. It reminds me of a kinder, gentler time when little boy and girls played together in the school yard watching bugs and eating dirt. As we are ushered into adulthood, we are forced to believe dirt is a bad dietary habit and playing is useless without motives; as for bugs, eat them or kill 'em if you even have time to notice one near that hasnt been splattered on my just washed car.



The wifey and I did a great painting class Friday night. We each had a canvas but the instructor suggested we each painted half to create a cool whole. Sounded interesting enough; so we did. Aside from the subject matter, there was more than enough room for the creative/artistic to exist even squeezed into two hours and a bottle of smooth wine. I ofter wonder about God's artistic nature; how He takes things that might seem completely unrelated, very dissimilar and from completely different worlds and creates something singular from that diversity. Two can be much stronger than one. Two allow one to rest at intervals while the other regenerates. There's nothing like a couple of peas in a pod — how cozy.

And just for those who thought I had forgotten; a belated Fridaku just for love's sake.
Melting Together
A single burning kiss,
Two become one in spirit;
a melting vapor.

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The Smoldering Kiss

Antagonizing pleasure
Placed upon my lips
Where dreams come true
In just one kiss!

Sharing an afternoon of ecstasy
Closing the door on reality
Not even the thickest iceberg
Could melt the lust I feel inside!

I shed my fears faster than my clothes
The anticipation begins to unfold
My heart begins to pound faster
As you come closer

Just one look from your eyes
And I become hypnotized
A river of sins, to which I concede
Just one kiss, caused the undoing of me!

Your lips gently pressed against mine
A silent submission of tongues intertwined
My mouth tenderly pressed against yours
My voice trembles as you start to explore

Electric shocks as your tongue touches mine
An erotic dance of passing time
My heart's racing as fast as yours
My body's craving for something more!

Starving and Craving
For an evening
Of erotic bliss
Where dreams come true
In Just One Kiss.

Unknown

New Year; Same Gear?

It seems that 2011 is finally here. As a kid, I remember thinking of times that were so far in the future that I couldnt imagine how things would be. Well, actually they are very close to the same. No cars are flying as a daily commute. No robots inhabit every household; aside from smart phones. Food still has to be prepared after its is obtained from another location. Meanwhile, every year we aim to improve our lives by taking stock at the turn of the new year.

There's no question that its the first of the year. Business at fitness clubs and diet/weightloss clinics are at their peak.




There are many ways to combat the mood swings that accompany testy weather and challenging traffic conditions. YOGA Photo courtesy of fitnessgoop.

Cross Dressing
Snow, sunshine, heat, cold;
Seasons change places daily,
Dress warm, now undress.

Snowy Fridaku for the New Year

Its Friday and its the new year. Both of those are great circumstances to be enjoyed. The new year always sparks an assessment of the previous year, one's life direction, hopes, goals, and priorities. There is no crime in changing directions; only running in circles hoping to see something new. But before I ramble too far; I'll simply begin with a Friday haiku — a Friadaku about snow for which I affectionately call The Kroger Stimulus Package.

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Frigid Romance

Romantic dandruff,
Thickly falling from chilled skies;
Painting white beauty.