A Ms Trinitie, who I must assume is from this very same blog site, posed me the question thus (paraphrased) "Why don't you blog more?" And Trinitie, I have given this some thought. I have seen that some use blogging as a sort of way to get "famous" in a given pool of fish. This is not the reason I do it. I do it because I tend to think of obscure ideas a lot, and since I know my fellow humans are usually all succeeding quite nicely at thinking of the same things (and I cite reality tv s...

I had a brush with greatness today and I just wanted to share it. It's that season folks...Christmas shopping season. How I loathe it. Consider that I am a San Diegan displaced for a number of years to Rhode Island, and that my shopping just HAD to be concurrent with the first snow of the year, and you can see the picture of an unhappy camper. But, life is funny...I had an experience, and I wanted to share. When we arrived at Walmart to buy presents for our _high_ class friends (pause f...

I have 5 cats. Don't even start with me, because I couldn't defend myself if you came at me intent on knowing "for god's sake why?" I just do. As a result, cat box technology is often at the front of my mind. Have you seen these electric auto-scooping cat boxes? Fantastic little devices...almost. You can get exactly 1/4th inch of litter in the bottom before it will clog the mechanism when it goes into its scoop routine. What good is that? Have you ever seen a cat in action in a cat...

When I got to Naples 2 years and a few months ago, one of the first persons I met was a guy I'll just call MH. I'm just calling him that, because what I'm about to describe is illegal, and I don't want to dime him out for his service. MH deserves a blog entry all his own. He's a thinker - very astute. He's absolutely hilarious...a wit faster than greased lightning and sharper than a razor. But perhaps I'll save that for another time. MH and I became friends immediately, and he told me...

Dharmagrl, there are parts of the following that might seem a bit "heavy handed," or maybe they won't, but I'm gonna play it safe. I apologize in advance and only enter this in the spirit of healthy debate. Since I know samma-kammanta and samma-yayama to be important to you, I am sure you will understand. </disclaimer> I began this post as a commentary on dharmagrl's post entitled Ranting and Raving which I noticed has received a rather large number of comments. I post the ...

I was just reading a forum post by imajinit regarding a little problem he is facing with a recovering roomate . Normally I don't like to flash my credentials in a blog. It just seems a heavy handed way to establish onesself as an authority, but since imajinit's particular post is about a subject near and dear to my heart, I'm going to. Now if you've read the post he made, you might be guessing I'm a social worker, or that I work with recovery patients. Well, the latter is partially...

There isn't much I get upset by or spooled up about anymore no matter what the topic - terrorism, presidential elections, or the importance of the use of real cheese and not just cheese food products in school lunches. I have sort of hit a point of acknowledgement. Acknowledgement and acceptance that largely it is something I can not change. In a presidential election, I have my one vote, but I don't seriously believe that it's all that important because the voting system does not represe...

Just a quick blog to emphasize a point that I'm sure we all agree with.  It's very important to teach our kids what to think about a lot of stuff.  After all, they aren't born with the ability to reason, so things like religion and political affiliation and other various belief systems need to be put into them while they're young. That's the great thing about having kids.  You've already got it all figured out, and so it saves them a lot of trouble if you just tell them what to...

Just for kicks I'm going to put up several quotes. The subject, as you will see is religion. Don't let that bother you. I'm not out to debate the statements made by the authors of the quotes, they just happened to be on my mind recently. Play the game. Try not to cheat by googling them and guess who said them. 1. I don't try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it. 2. The...

I have proclaimed that 31 January is Inanity Day in Ock's World. Next year it may be a different day, or there may not even be one next year - such is the nature of such a holiday. At any rate, I wanted to warn people to be especially careful in their lives today. I plan to divide 6.23 by 0 later, so if anything bad happens to you, you can blame me. Of course, if anything good happens, I get the credit. Cheers.

Yeah folks, the title is not a ploy. Apparently having a white asshole is now important, so Anal Whitening™ is becoming the latest rage among a really insecure species. Here's just one article about it. Anal Whitening I don't know what else to say, really. In fact, I'm just not going to say anything. Except maybe "God dammmnnn" But that's all I'll say. Really.

Someone, somewhere, had an idea one day. They said "Hey...what if...just what IF! NO no no...hear me out. WHAT IF we actually helped some third world countries take care of themselves so that LATER they didn't become a breeding ground for all manner of ne'erdowells?" It's a pretty good premise. I can attest now, first hand, that security, at least in the seas that surround many West African countries, is in a sad state of disrepair. Here's what that causes to the West Africans. There...

Naval tradition. The two words are often synonymous in the US Navy. Particularly for a musician, hereafter referred to as “MU.” Much of what MUs do is so wrapped up in ceremony that, for us, the line between tradition and the Navy is a very thin, very fuzzy one. One look at non-MU sailors at work (which you’ll never see on the 7 o’clock news) is different from one look at an MU (which you just might see on the news). Coveralls are well named if you’re referring to paint and other unknown...