Ten Thoughts Tuesday

I haven't participated in this very much, but I think I probably should do this today.

1. I need a new car. The Victor/Victoria, while she still runs, has many issues and is beyond me financial resources to properly repair. That, coupled with its copious gas consumption, leaves me with very little choice as to a vehicle. I am going to go into the city tomorrow and see what I can see concerning getting a new car. I have settled on either a Chevy Cavalier Coupe, or a Ford Focus ZX3. I want to still get my CNG car eventually, but that will have to wait as I probably could not afford to get it from the out of state locations where they are available. Financing is going to be my most formidable obstacle. However, given the present climate of auto sales, I am hopeful about getting some arrangement provided I can use the Victor/Victoria as a trade in. I have my eye on a wonderful Copper colored Cavalier and failing that, a blue one or a silver one. I am more concerned with reliability first and am seeking a low mileage one, but a reasonable price so I don't have to make lengthy payments.

2. My best friend Stephanie called me today. Her daughter wanted to talk to me. Seems she wanted to know what her mom liked more, Hearts or Angels. I told her hearts, but when I asked why, she said she was getting a tattoo and wanted something her mother would like. I suggested that if she was going to get a tattoo, get something like the cancer survivor ribbon since that is what she is. I didn't try to stop her and I know Stephanie will be mad at me, but at least her daughter is thinking about her and talking to her again. I don't know what will happen once she finds out she is getting a tattoo. I would have thought I couldn't talk her out of getting one anyway. I just hope she appreciates the sentiment.

3. More bad storms moved through the area. Seems like we are gettin to be a magnet for that stuff lately. Its raining too much although, our rain guage shows us fairly normal for the year., even below, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the river and looking outside. Its raining now and its severe to the south, although that mess is moving out of the area.

4. Mall is looking interesting lately. We have gotten a new store (Francesca's) and a couple of Kiosks, plus some other smaller stores opening up. We recently got someone to move into the old Disney Store space. San Francisco Music Box Co. was there for a bit, but reset itself as Go Toys. Go Toys was in the mall before but it was more of a seasonal store, there for Christmas and then closing down after the shopping season died down. Go Toys promises to be permanent. Jimmy'z closed. Jimmy'z was an edgy experimental brand of clothing promoted by Aeropostale which apparently didn't work out as Aerpostale decided late last year to close the entire division. We not have another dead store in the North End of Death as I have come to call it since the closing of Mark Shale has left an enormous blank area in the mall now. We now have three empty spaces in the noth end not counting the old Mark Shale space, plus the Houlihans space which has been vacant for over a year and a half, maybe longer.

The financial problems for GGP are no better. However, the plan of the company seems to be shedding itself of properties to make it a lean, mean retail machine. I don't see that happening anytime soon since the real estate climate makes such a deal difficult. Melven Simon, which is one of the major mall owners in the country other than Westfield, is raising capital for a possible takeover of some of those properties. However, the debt load of GGP makes it hard to achieve liquidity again since the assets almost equal its debts. I have serious doubts, but then miracles do occur.

5. Which leads me to my next item which is getting a new job. Getting a job is probalby one of the hardest things for me to do and given this climate of unemployment now, however, if things don't work out at the mall, I will need to have a plan "B" to be sure I can afford the vehicle mentioned in item 1. While I don't propose to load myself with debt to get a car, I do want a nicer one than I have at present, at least past the year 2000, so new and gainful employment is a priority. I have looked at several convenece store locally and maybe those will offer something. We will see.

6. My little computer is a constant companion now, but I use it very rarely. I use it to keep myself from playing with our office computer on the weekends since I can get in trouble for surfing the net there. On the weekends I am stuck in the Camera room and one the theatre crowd leaves, there is really nothing to do except answer the phone. So I have loaded the little guy with stuff to keep me entertained. Unfortunately, I have almost maxed the HD and I don't want to overload it so I have been buying memory cards which are wonderful and convienent since carrying around the External DVD ROM is somewhat awkward.

7. I have spent the past couple of days on a Nuclear War kick. The who prospect of planning Armageddon that this country did during the Cold War fascinated me to no ends and still does. Several people share this obsession considering the videos posted on YouTube. There was one movie that approached the level of accuracy I believed the SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan - essentially the guidebook for the nuclear Holocaust) would have called for and that was "By Dawns Early Light" which was an HBO movie in 1989. Probably the last such move that could be conceived since the level of war probably would not be to that level today. (Although, if we are not careful, we can resume that level of war quite easily). The movie is posted on YouTube for all to see, but I have a feeling, not for long since its copyrighted. There were also some homemade dramas and one that was interesting that combined a propaganda film called First Strike (some footage from First Strike also appeared "The Day After"). There is also a wonderful (if one can call the end of the world wonderful) film made in Britain called "Threads" which was made around the same time as "The Day After". "Threads" like "The Day After" was a very dark and depressing film and after this I think I am all nuked out. I have a wonderful idea though for a sequence to depict the wonderful 30 minutes of the agonizing holocaust by combing the films, editing them together to make a seemless film. But that is a depressing project for another time.

8. My mother and I are having an air conditioning duel. Now I understand that when you get up in years, controlling your body temperature is problematic. However, sweating while you are sleeping does not make rest comfortable and I have not been getting sleep as Mom shuts the AC off to make the temperature more comfortable for her. The room I sleep in gets agonizingly hot and I wake up and its in the upper 80's and I have to go in to turn the AC back on. Thus we duel with the AC while I try to keep it off as much as possible to help her out and to keep the Electric bill low.

9. I have discovered Apocalyptica and I can't get enough of their adaptation of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters." I simply love that song and its simple beauty as played by these 4 cellists with a taste for Heavy Metal music.

10. Solving my space problem here is going to be a priority for the next two weeks I have contemplated getting some shelving at Target tomorrow to get my DVD's put away which will solve most of my space problem in the back here. The next is moving all Mom's tubs which she never gets into in our rental storage unit and getting some space created in the living room the where you can actually walk around. I hope that I can get this done and my natural laziness doesn't kick in.

I am amazed that I actually got 10 thoughts. I didn't think I had it in me. Hope all is well for you all. God Bless.

Interesting political comic

Just for yucks.....

By the by, Ben Sergent, the political cartoonist who drew that particular picture is in retirement. Forced out by a shrinking and dying newspaper system, the art of political cartooning may die, along with the papers that publish them. They may live on, thanks to the internet, but in the end, the death of newspapers means a cornerstone of democracy may die as well.

What dows FEMA stand for

Find Every Mexican Available.

I really have a yen to go back to my home town

Women Sought In Daring TV Theft From Mo. Wal-Mart

Daring TV Heist: Woman Poses As Wal-Mart Worker While Another Plays Role Of Customer In Theft

(AP) Police are looking for two women who pulled off the daring theft of a high-end television set from a Wal-Mart store. Police on Monday said one of the women posed as a Wal-Mart employee and the second played the role of customer Sunday night. The duo made off with a 52-inch, flat-screen Samsung TV worth $1,300.

Police Cpl. Chuck Niess said that by the time any real Wal-Mart employees became suspicious, both women were gone. He said the phony employee was dressed as a Wal-Mart worker in tan slacks and a blue shirt and wore a communication device on her belt.

She recruited some true employees to help her load the TV on a cart.

Niess said Pittsburg, Kan., police reported suspects matching the same descriptions staged a similar theft at a Wal-Mart in that city.

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Information from: The Joplin Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Derecho

Several weeks ago we got hit was some storms that caused a lot of damage to my friends in SW Missouri and so forth. The Weather Service has completed damage surveys and concluded that what happened was a progressive derecho event or a book-end Vortex. In any event, the system had several characteristics which were hurricane-like including an eye!

I have heard several TV meteorologists classify this as a "Land Hurricane" and indeed, this type of formation is unprecedented. However, the Weather service has chosen to classify this as a derecho. What is a derecho you ask?

According to the NWS a derecho is:

A derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho" in English or pronounced phonetically as "") is a widespread and long lived windstorm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.

Click here to hear how the word "derecho" is pronounced.

Because derecho is a Spanish word (see paragraph below), the plural term is "derechos". In this case there is no letter "e" after the letter "o".

See the website "Facts about Derechos" for further information.

Derechos are typically gust fronts, characterized by "bow echos" on the radar. However, this formation differs from classical derechos in that it it displayed several characteristics indicative of tropical cyclonic type systems.

One of the indicators of so-called "Global Warming" (which is a misnomer by the way -.it should be termed Global Climate Change, but I digress) is that extreme weather events will become the norm. Formations like this may be in our future.

Images and Words - Bad Day

The New Star Trek

Well, I just got through watching the new Star Trek movie. This is such an iconic franchise that most purists like myself have reservations whenever anyone tampers with the universe. I really stopped watching Star Trek after the "Berminization"of the whole thing after the death of Roddenberry. There are things that you just don't tamper with. Rick Berman ruined the whole thing with his "take" on Star Trek. The ideals that Roddenberry had were compromised in the pursuit of ratings.

However, it can be argued that the franchise needed something fresh, a new approach. I can't say I am a fan of J.J. Abrams. I have gotten lost with "Lost" which is so convoluted that I could not follow it anymore. So I approached with some trepedation this "re-imagination" of the franchise. My disapointment is tainted with my experience with the "re-imagination" of the Battlestar Galactica franchise which was totally messed up. While that take on BSG was more "realistic," I eventually was turned by the constant violence and lack of humanity, heroism and nobility in the characters. I want to watch something that uplifts me, not brings me down and BSG depressed me. Therefore, I was prepared not to like Star Trek.

There are still some aspects in this one I don't like. For one thing, Dr. McCoy should be much older than Kirk and not go through the academy with him. The characters are united much too early, but I suppose one must get all the principals together in order to jump start the franchise. Also, there is a romantic relationship implied that really turned me off and was definately not a part of the original franshise.

However, the new re-imagination is a fresh approach to the Star Trek universe that is filled iwth action. The movie is like a roller coaster ride. Star Trek was never really a roller-coaster. It was a more an allegory that told us stories about how we delat with each other using the Science Fiction as a backdrop. It told stories about how we deal with rascism, war, genocide, love, hate, etc. It was a drama that, at times, delved into the action adventure genre, but did not remain there. It was limited by its budget and technology and yet still managed to entertain. Given the new franchise's nearly unlimited budget, we are going to be treated by more action-adventure stories in the future. Given its box office take so far and fan reaction, we are likely to see more of these in the new franchise. Time will tell if these new stories will be any different than the old ones.