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Showing posts from August, 2006

Glorius Passion Fruit Flower in Foley

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There was a huge vine on a fence covered w/ blooms. Click to see it big.

CONGOO

Get to web content that you usually can't get to with out paid subscription thru Congoo.... http://www.congoo.com/

Free Printable Mini-Gift Boxes

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See what Heather and I have been working on all week (amongst other things). We have a several styles and few more in the works, but we have enuf to go ahead and publish. Now we will send out a newsletter to the mailing list, about 25,000 last time I looked, to give them links to this page on www.PackageTech.com and several new scrapbooking sets at www.ScrapbookScrapbook.com It takes a whole day to email our list, the emails fire off one at a time and sometimes the browser jams up and stops, so we have to monitor it pretty closley. The addresses are in a-b-c order and we try to send to two letters of the alphabet at a time since that is all the program can handle.

More "learn from my mistakes"

So I had this little growth on the back of my right knee. I've had them before, rough little patches of skin that the Docs say are Seborrheic Keratosis spots. I have had a few frozen off over the years, including the one on the back of my knee, but it came back. So I figured why spend the time and big $ going to a doctor about this and I bought a Dr. Scholls Freeze Away Wart Remove kit and decided to see if I could just freeze it off myself. Since it was in a difficult-to-reach-myself location, I asked a scientifically minded friend, who will remain un-named so no one gives him a hard time, to assist. We read the instructions and did the deed. I think I have an area of frostbite about the size of a quarter, it is about 5 days later and the skin is now red all around my wound and it hurts. I have been putting Neosporin on it and now a large bandage. I have started on antibiotics. I only hope the scar that I end up with is no worse looking than the pea sized spot of rough skin that

Guitar Wiz

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Sister Cary in Knoxville sent me this: Who is this guy? with nearly 7.35 million views — and a spot in the site’s 10 most-viewed videos of all time .... funtwo’s guitar performance . From the perch it’s occupied for months on YouTube’s “most discussed” list, it generates a seemingly endless stream of praise (riveting, sick, better than Hendrix), exegesis, criticism, footnotes, skepticism, anger and awe. Read about it-NYT. See it.... YouTube FunTwo See it.... The Original--The Great Jerry C Damn, I love listening to a great guitar player. Here are two. Listen to them both. if you don't have broadband, this alone should motivate you to get it. If you liked the above, ck these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixy-H_5cukY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDoc-SPgePY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EMZSOAqqDk Then, watch Trace Bundy's acoustic guitar version

Tigers & Piggies

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Sent to me by my cousin Elise Warner: How sweet is this? In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, died shortly after birth. The mother tiger started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only "orphans" that could be found quickly were a litter of wiener pigs. The

Engineer Speaks Out

"A Lockheed Martin engineer with concerns about the safety and security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats turned to YouTube in order to publicize concerns he felt were being ignored by his employer and the government. From the article: 'The 41-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer had complained to his bosses. He had told his story to government investigators. He had called congressmen. But when no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.'" Michael De Kort's video on a Coast Guard cutter project had been viewed more than 8,000 times as of late yesterday.

The Weekend Report

We have finally gotten some rain. Not tons, but a decent shower for an hour or so each of the last two days. It is enuf to keep the grass alive. At the lagoon house, I have a well, so keeping the grass and bamboo alive during this drought doesn't cost a lot, but the Hardwood Dr. house has only city water. And, as I have found out, city water is real expensive. I have tried to not water any more than necessary to keep the grass from dying, but still have had water bills between 200 and 100 every month. Here, we get water on a separate bill from electricity or any other utilities. The trouble with letting the centapede grass die is that bad, fast growing weeds quickly invade. I'll have to say , that even with spending as much as I have on water, the grass is about half dead. It is very spotty. My kind neighbor on Hardwood Dr cuts my grass and even edges the place for me. He is a sweetie who lives up near B'ham and comes down about twice a month. His name is Charles, and he a

Fido, Call Home

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It's simple. Dial your phone and call your pet. Talk to him. If he/she gets lost. Track them, online or on your PDA or 3G phone. The PetsCell™ is the first voice enabled waterproof GPS cell phone optimized for animals.

Pedal Boat back in Commish

Thanks to my kind neighbor who disassembled my rudder, took it home to B'ham, fixed it and then remounted it on the boat. I can use my peddle boat for the first time in ages. A friend came over yesterday afternoon and we had a fun Little Lagoon excursion. Considering the pretty strong wind, we managed w/ just a few mishaps. We also go to see Osprey #2 flying back and forth across my yard w/ a big fish. We startled hi when be bounded out the door and he took of, but eventually landed in a tall tree on the adjoining property with his fish.
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A whole site of paper guns. There are zip files that must be the pages to print to make your very own. Click my photo to see big version.

Narrow Escape--Death by Cow

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Woman at the beach and cow lands where she had been moments before. Sally Brown, 51, of Cowes, had just picked up her body board when she heard a loud noise as the animal hurtled down a cliff to its death.

Mis-Fortune Cookie

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Cookie sings the Blues

Chicks & then there are Chicks

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My web helper, Heather and i were emailing sample graphics back and forth. The filename is "baby-chick-seals" and anyone who uses Gmail knows that you get ads in the margin from Google. They present ads based on the content of the text. Here is what my screen showed :o) How To Pick Up Women by John Eagan -Rated #1 by Men's Fitness Magazine- Dates Guaranteed www.4-secret.com Heidi Klum Bikini Shoot Free full-screen broadband video. Heidi models a swimsuit. www.heavy.com Build a 200-Chick Brooder in 2 hours for $20. This and more in my baby chick book. Order now! www.nortoncreekpress.com Baby Chick Find great deals and save! Compare products, prices & stores. www.Shopping.com more sponsored links »

Free $12 Razor

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Rebate form for this razor .

The more audience, the better the send-off

Police in China cracking down on StripTease Funerals.

LightSpace

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Lightspace® provides cutting edge interactive lighting and entertainment products to Nightclubs, Family Entertainment Centers, Theme Parks, Fashion Shows, Special Events Stage Lighting and Sound, Health Clubs and Architectural Lighting & Design. The system is capable of storing and running a potentially limitless variety of games and interactive programs that can be used by any number of participants simultaneously. Lightspace® Play includes an interactive floor surface comprised of 16” x 16” programmable LED lit and pressure sensitive tiles constructed to fit a 10 foot square space. Each tile consists of sixteen 4” x 4” pixels that can display any color, pattern or image. The surface is able to detect location, movement and density of players to give a realistic gaming experience. Reactions to player movements are displayed on the surface and are accompanied by sound effects. Engaging way for people of all ages to play, dance, design, get fit and have fun. Trippy Video

Hobo Nickels

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Hobo nickels , carved by yesterday's homeless, were traded for meals, a place to sleep, a ride, or other favors. Some were carved with images of loved ones as mementos of better times, or to honor those lost to time. The Hobo Nickel Society has the history and tons of pictures and links. Some of the nickels done in the last 10 years or so were done by professional engravers, as a hobby. Those, of course, are incredible but the early ones, although somewhat crude, are pretty impressive considering they were working with tools like a jack knife and bits of broken glass. Showcase of mostly modern ones.

Snakes in the Movie

Movie chain AMC Entertainment Inc. said pranksters at one of its Phoenix theaters released two live diamondback rattlesnakes during a showing of the film "Snakes on a Plane" last Friday. No one was injured.

Weird Al

Slashdot says: "Known geek and comedy singer/songwriter Weird Al Yankovic has released the first song from his new album 'Straight Outta Lynwood' for free on his MySpace page. The track is entitled 'Don't Download This Song' and tells of the dangers of illegally downloading music from filesharing sites." It is pretty funny. Two lines: "Don't download this song, you'll burn in hell before too long."

Flowers Today !

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I came home this afternoon to the prettiest bouquet of fresh flowers on my porch chair. Each stem was in its own water resevoir. I trimmed the stems and put them in a vase. Our nearby florist, Flowers by the Shore, does a wonderful job. The roses are even fragrant,....unusual in this day. Thanks G.P. Now I am hooked on fresh flowers weekly, so if any of my readers need to call Flowers by the Shores, here is the number: 251-968-8033 I think it is your turn next week. ...........................

New York in LEGO

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Click to see the larger version of this Lego Building....unbelievable. See all of New York Here. Can't make it to Venice this year? See St. Marks Square (Lego) w/ snow

Roman Numerals

Why do we still use roman numerals? No practical reason. Our society tends to be rather worshipful of the Romans, and to consider Latin to be the language of scholars. So anything that wants to look impressive has traditionally used roman numerals, because that's what they used in latin. Read all the facts about ROMAN NUMERALS on Good Math, Bad Math

Fun Store

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This cute Squid Wisk is among the colorful household items from France available on this Fun Website.

The Thing makes contact.

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A week ago Friday, I was on my way up to the Chamber and I pulled out of the nearby shopping center parking lot between Rite-Aid and Burger King, making a left onto Ft. Morgan Rd near the Ft. Morgan/Hwy 59 intersection. Unfortunately, a big ole GMC SUV decided to pull out of the rt hand turning lane and whip around a car that had slowed to turn. The turning lane he was in is new this summer and is not marked as a turning lane, so people who come off Hwy 59 are confused and not sure what lane to be in. That is what this guy had done, and he failed to see that I was coming out of the parking lot, since to me it appeared to me that all visible cars were turing in the driveway I was exiting. He pulled out quickly around the car in front of him and was close to being past me when I caught the last foot of his car. I was breaking with all my might, but I only had a few feet in which to stop. Crunch.... Just made me sick. The bumper was mashed into the tire, so I got the policeman to give me

Sailing

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On Friday afternoon Allan Lameier took me sailing on his cute little yellow sailboat on Wolf Bay. It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze most of the time. Allan is retired, lives in Foley, and had an interesting upbringing. He was raised in Saudia Arabia and went to high school in Italy.

People WANT to give me money !

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Today is Sat and I am home doing domestic duties. Last night was a fun and interesting dinner at Tin Top and today is cleaning, organizing, weed-eating, blow-up swimming pool cleaning, sweating, billpaying, reading, and seeing that I have gotten my first donation from a thankful scrapbook website visitor for $27 ! This week, I finally got around to signing up for an Amazon donations account and a PayPal donation account and putting the links on ScrapbookScrapbook.com . People regularly write me thank you notes, occasionally they call and thank me, so I figured it might bring in a bit of extra cash if I give them a way to make a little donation to the site as well. My very first one is larger than I expected. Reading other people's experiences with Tip Jar links on their sites and blogs confirmed that there are people out there who will slip you a tip if you make it easy for them to do so. I know that I have done it. I have clicked 5 bucks to software writers when I was grateful fo

Today's Miracle

Workers at candy company see form of Virgin Mary in chocolate Workers at a chocolate company have discovered a 2-inch-tall (5-centimeter-tall) column of chocolate drippings that they believe bears a striking resemblance to traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary. Since the discovery of the drippings under a vat on Monday, employees of Bodega Chocolates have spent much of their time hovering over the tiny figure, praying and placing rose petals and candles around it. Wonder if the Chocolate Madonna's presence increases productivity. Read More

Whats Up...

Greeting friends and family, I have just been too busy to play with the blog. Today I have been faxing and taking phone calls from the UK. It seems that a crook has stolen and used my scrapbook graphics on a graphics CD that she is selling online and on a British TV home shopping chanel. I have gotten emails from my own site visitors to alert me and calls from other designers who she has ripped off. One artist in the UK is willing to take her to court and she needs my cooperation. What this rip--off girl does not realize is that if she will not cooperate, then I can make a website that outranks her own site on search that alerts consumers to her dishonesty and warns then not to buy her products. I have done this in two other cases. It gets their attention ! Last Friday I had a small wreck in my adorable VW Thing. It was no ones fault. Just a result of lack of signage associated with a new turning lane that Gulf Shores has added. The out--of-towners just dont know the traffic patterns

Funny

I'll have to make new entries tomorrow...just been really busy. Meanwhile, a good quote: People often write me and ask how I keep my wood floors so clean when I live with a child and a dog, and my answer is that I use a technique called Suffering From a Mental Illness. - Heather Armstrong

Today's Miracle

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Holy Water ? SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- Is it an artesian spring, a broken water pipe or an abandoned well? Lucille Pope's red oak tree has gurgled water for about three months, and experts can't seem to get to the root of the problem. Pope, 65, has sought answers from the Texas Forest Service, the Edwards Aquifer Authority and nurseries. Lucille Pope has started to wonder if the water has special properties. Her insurance agent dabbed drops of the water on a spider bite and the welt went away, she said. "I just want to know if it is a healing tree or blessed water," she said. "That's God's water. Nobody knows but God."

Skateboard Ramp

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Cool skate ramp in PA was set up in 2005 temporarly...I think it is looking for a new home. Various sections painted by different artists. Is your yard big enuf ?

Something You Need

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Heinz is offering Ketchup w/ personalized labels. My Sugestion Order one with "This Stuff is Poison" on it and place in your icebox. See how many people even notice...

People having a heyday w/ AOL data

"A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749" See NYT article to see what Mrs. Arnold has to say about the world seeing all her searches. Even tho AOL has removed the data, it is mirrored all around the web. One of the WMW forum posters wrote this: " Nope, not too difficult at all for some users. I identified a poster on another another forum I frequent pretty easily by noticing searches for that forum, where his kids to to school, where he went to high school, the neighborhood he lives in, sports related searches, and a cruise he went on. It was pretty shocking to read through the search history and realize "that's so-and-so". And to stress the huge violation of privacy this is, I also know where he banks, who he has his mortgage through, what types of porn he likes, and when he likes to look for it." This info will be of interest to some: Compiled from the millions of searches on AOL by WMW forum members who have the capacity to crunch huge datab

Need a Concert Ticket ?

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Generate one here ...oh wait, it only makes a ticket STUB. Remembering the Atlanta Pop Festival ...26 yrs ago. The 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival held in Byron, Ga. marked the end of the large-scale festival era. This historic event produced three live albums, a Jimi Hendrix movie and one of the most sought after concert posters ever produced. The artwork used for this lithograph is from Version 3 which had the finalized band lineup. In addition to the bands listed on the poster, the festival featured Poco, Rare Earth, Bob Segar, Mott the Hoople and Grand Funk Railroad which had made their debut only one year earlier at the 1969 Atlanta Festival. I remember seeing this poster in shop windows on Highland Street in Memphis and thinking....I need to go to this !!!!! So I did.

God and Shrimp

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Today's Miracle: Man in Calif sees Jesus in his shrimp. There is a slideshow and a video of it ! A California man believes he has seen the face of Jesus Christ on a shrimp tail. Two photos of the tail were e-mailed to the San Jose NBC affiliate, KNTV.The man wrote that he wanted to share with viewers a smile and a sense of hope. He claimed that when he finished his first shrimp, he disregarded the tail, but then looked at it again and saw the face of Jesus.The writer said he believed it was a sign, as he's currently going through a nasty divorce. But, obviously he is not familiar with THE God Hates Shrimp WEBSITE

Good Gas Milage

My VW Thing does not have a gas guage. I had been running around in it for a few weeks and had no idea how much gas I had left. Pulling into the Chevron, I figured I'd add gas until the nozzle shut off to get some idea how much of the 10 gal tank I had used. It shut off at 42 cents worth of gasoline. I wondered if that were accurate, so I adjusted the position of the handle and tried again, I could only add 6 more cents worth for a total of 48 cents. I think I will be driving the Thing more and more now that it is proving to be reliable. I stayed pretty close to home in it at first. Remember the old VW Bug TV commercial where the guy hollered out the window "2 pennies a mile"?

Read Audubon's Observations of Ospreys

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From Birds of America

11 Egyptians missing in US

Check their names; • El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20 • Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El Dessouki, 21 • Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20 • Mohamed Ragab Mohamed Abd Alla, 22 • Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi El Laket, 19 • Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 21 • Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed El Moghazy, 20 • Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa Abdou, 22 • Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa El Gafary, 18 • Mohamed Saleh Ahmed Maray, 20 • Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, 17 Certainly seems like Mohamed and Elsayed are a popular names in Egypt !

Compact Car

Thanks Carol !

All Things Considered---Ospreys

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My mom left me a phone message telling me about this episode of ATC . It is about ospreys nesting in a fellow's property on Chesapeake Bay. Listen to the nice guitar at the end too. Check the size of the fish my osprey had on Sunday. I know it is my original bird since he didn't mind me getting close.

(tight) Wet T-Shirt

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Writing above the billboard says "Guys, Pray for Rain" Playboy billboard promoting its online services in Germany - self explanatory.

Is It Just ME?

Two odd phrases keep popping up in print that just seem weird to me. Here is one: "I am absolutely appalled that another computer containing the personal information of veterans has gone missing ," said Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican. Why not say "is missing" ? Doesn't "has gone" imply some action on the part of the computer? And our local newspaper recently had headlines that said: "City looks to buy land on Ft. Morgan Road" Is "looks to buy" an accepted English phrase for "considers" or similar? Maybe it is, but both of those phrases sound rather like Granny Clampett to me. Your opinion?

Once Again, Blogs Bring Acountability

According to CNN , Several blogs, including a number which accuse the media of distorted coverage of the Middle East conflict, said photographs from Reuters had been doctored. Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after a review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The two altered photographs were among 43 that Hajj filed directly to the Reuters Global Pictures Desk since the start of the conflict on July 12. An immediate inquiry began into Hajj's other work. It established on Monday that a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon and dated August 2, had been doctored to increase the number of flares dropped by the plane from one to three. Reuters ended its relationship with Hajj on Sunday after it found that a photograph he had taken of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on suburban Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop so

AOL releases search data

AOL Search Data Shows Users Planning to commit Murder. http://research.aol.com released a list of 20 million + searches by 500,000 AOL users. Contained in this list are social security numbers, credit cards and other personal information. There are some truly scary things in this database. There are hundreds of searches from people looking to kill themselves and even more scary are searches from users that seem to be looking to commit murder. Check out the search history for user 17556639, most recent search is at the bottom of the list.. Does this look like the search history of a user wanting to do something bad? 17556639 how to kill your wife 17556639 how to kill your wife 17556639 wife killer 17556639 how to kill a wife 17556639 poop 17556639 dead people 17556639 pictures of dead people 17556639 killed people 17556639 dead pictures 17556639 dead pictures 17556639 dead pictures 17556639 murder photo 17556639 steak and cheese 17556639 photo of death 17556639 photo of

Alabama Home Security

HOME SECURITY SYSTEM 1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots. 2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo magazine and your NRA magazines. 3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazine. 4. Leave a note on your door that reads: Hey Bubba, Big Jim, Duke and Slim, I went for more ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell from all the blood. Anyways, I locked all four of 'em in the house. Better wait outside.

Trade Your Old CDs

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LaLa.com the best online service we've found for trading music CDs... You can't beat the price... - PC Magazine, Editors' Choice I have joined and listed some rather common older CD's. So far no email has arrived saying anyone wants them. Guess there are too many copies around. They claim to have 1.8 million titles listed now. If someone wants your CD, and you mail it off in the provided envelopes they send you ahead of time, then you get to go pick one that someone else has. Also, my free T-Shirt has never arrived even tho I got an email saying it was mailed .... When I get around to it, I'll list more CD's. You just have to remember where they are in case you get asked to mail one out.

Photos from Carol

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Being Jackson Pollock

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Carol McCaul sent me this fun URL, try it

Al Gore's Penguin Army

At over 333,000 showings by Sunday nite, this controversial YouTube video is one of the most viewed. A tiny little movie making fun of Al Gore, supposedly made by an amateur filmmaker, recently appeared on the popular Web site YouTube.com. At first blush, the spoof seemed like a scrappy little homemade film poking fun at Gore and his anti-global warming crusade. In the movie, Gore is seen boring an army of penguins with his lecture and blaming global warming for everything, including Lindsay Lohan's thinness. But when the Wall Street Journal tried to find the guy who posted the film "Al Gore's Penguin Army" — listed on YouTube as a 29-year-old — they found the movie didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement. The film actually came from a slick Republican public relations firm called DCI, which just happens to have oil giant Exxon as a client. A separate video covers the Misuse of the Linux Mascot

Ocean Street

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Sunday afternnoon I participated in a call for extras in the filming of an Ocean Street music video at Lulu's. Fun. The Atlanta band is made up of some smart fellows, a Vandy grad, one from Rhodes (Memphis) , and one from one of the Ivy League schools (I forgot which), an AA baseball player. They were good. I chatted with a guy my age from Atlanta who was putting them all up in his Perdido beach house for the weekend. Look for me in the crowd on MTV I suppose, turquoise top & black sun hat. They played the same song over and over, and it was play-acting, the microphones were just props the director kept reminding the band. The music really came from a little walkman looking CD player that one guy turned on and off over and over, that youc an see in the photo. They filmed w/ the band on the outside stage in the Lulu's kids sand play area. The director wanted lots of clapping, hooping and hollering, and hands in the air. The mini-crowd was cooperative. It was kinda hot,

Star Wars on Banjo

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This is good ...& watch the eyebrows at the end.

Bad Site Alert

Google has begun alerting users whenever they click on a search result that may take them to a dangerous Web site. The new feature, which had been spotted earlier this week, goes live officially Friday, according to an announcement from The Stop Badware Coalition , which is collaborating with Google on this effort. When users attempt to click over to a Web site considered to be potentially dangerous, Google shows users an alert page that informs them of the possible risk and gives them the option to click back to the results page or continue on to the questionable Web site. Read More PC World

Two Opsries or is it Ospreys

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I had wondered why the last couple of days that the osprey in my tree would take off flying when he'd see me approaching at all...usually he'd let me get really close. I saw this morning that there were two ospreys in the tree ! One took off when I approached, camera in hand, the other one stayed put,eating his fish. That explains it....it has been the 2nd osprey in the tree the last few days,not 'my buddy'. My osprey is still out there eating, as I type this, but he other one is flying figure 8's along the coastline of Little Lagoon. My osprey stops eating every once in a while and CHIRPS at the other one (or me :o) Photos taken in the morning are back-lit and look like silhouettes.

My Osprey

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Well, he has been around a lot lately. First photo he was in his favorite tree but took off flying when I walked too close. Second set of photos, early in the morning, he was eating in a tree very close to the house. Last phootos are from about 6 p.m. tonight. He was in his favorite tree but flew off to a piece of property a couple acres away.