Lundy Says-Amusing Info from Lundy Wilder

Today would have been Miller's 26th B'Day. Here are some birthday photos from his 11th and his 15th birthday and a few others. In one he has on some of his Grandaddy's vintage Lily Pulitzer pants. In another he was so proud of the size of the catfish that he caught that he was holding the cat for size comparison. He only bleached his hair once. He walked into the room with the cat and put it on his head, but it didn't work out as planned and I always thought it was one of the funniest photos of him I ever took. Miller was the most brilliant, funny, charming, thoughtful, & loving person I have ever known. He was finishing up Grad School and had every pilot's certification possible for his age when he died. There is no telling what he would be doing today had he lived. We all miss him so.

From USAToday: Looking for that special gift for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's last official visit to the United States, President Bush decided to invite the self-described Elvis "maniac" on a guided tour through Graceland. Koizumi is to step down in September. He will leave as Japan's longest-serving prime minister and, perhaps, the only leader of Japan to wear his graying hair in an Elvis-like mane. He and his brother, Masaya, have been members of the Elvis Presley fan club in Tokyo for more than 30 years. Last year Koizumi crooned to Bush his favorite Elvis tune, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You at Bush's 59th birthday party at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland hosted by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. During a 2003 meeting at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, the two men were talking for several hours by the pool when Koizumi started singing an Elvis song. In 2001 a Japanese record label produced a charity CD called Junichiro Koizumi Pres...

Structure and Strangeness Read about it

A woman living in Germany is auctioning off her red Ferrari Enzo sports car and including a little extra in the package -- herself. The 26-year-old has invited bids on Internet auction site ebay starting at 1.25 million euros ($1.6 million). She said she was rich herself, liked her car and was looking for a man who could foot the bill for such a luxury. "Only a millionaire could afford such a car," said the woman, who gave her name as Leila and said she once worked as a singer in Syria. "I want a man who doesn't like me just for my money." Leila said she would meet with interested bidders but would need to see the bidder's passport and proof of capital. No bids have been made yet in the auction which ends in a week. Package Deal

Click to See From a British Website

About 10 a.m. I heard his chirp from inside the house. He was in a tree I had never seen him in before and it closer to my house than his usual perches. Guess he knew I was concerned. He stopped chirping when he saw me. It was hard to take his photo as the sun was almost directly above his head. I went back in and got the binoculars that I bought from my friend Keith, the birdwatcher, yesterday. Keith has since moved up to $1000 binoculars and these were his 3rd pair back and he wasn't using them so he sold them to me.... Extra to him and a bargain for me. They will be handy for all sorts of wildlife watching on and around the water. Hereis what they are for those who know about this sort of thing: Eagle Optics - Eagle Optics Binoculars 10x50 Platinum Ranger Osprey didn't hang around too long....He flew on off to the east after a fairly short time.

This site can entertain you for hours. Lots of photos of animals and some sweet stories of animals raising other species as their own. A baby hippopotamus, swept into the Indian Ocean by the tsunami, is thriving thanks to the love of a 120-year-old tortoise. Owen, a 300kg, one-year-old hippo, was swept down the Sabaki River, into the ocean and then back to shore when the giant waves struck the Kenyan coast. The dehydrated hippo was found by wildlife rangers and taken to the Haller Park animal facility in the port city of Mombasa. Pining for his lost mother, Owen quickly befriended a giant male Aldabran tortoise named Mzee - Swahili for "old man". When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise which has a dark grey colour similar to grown up hippos The pair are now inseparable. After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise a...

I have not seen my osprey in two days ! :o(

Willard Wigan--The world's smallest and very odd works of art. Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham, England in 1957 and is the creator of the smallest works of art on earth. From being a traumatised and unrecognised dyslexic child, he is now emerging as the most globally celebrated micro-miniaturist of all time and is literally capable of turning a spec of dust into a recognizable figure (with the help of a looking glass). Shown is Henry VIII and his Wives in the eye of a needle. www.willard-wigan.com

Designed in Hungary, the Kenguru is a car specially designed for wheelchair users. The car’s interior space has no front seat – just a space built to house the driver’s own wheelchair so all he/she has to do is simply roll in through the extra large car doors and into position. The wheelchair locks into place, Looks like the English portions of their site aren't ready yet. How's your Hungarian?

So, how do you get your message across and get people talking about your product? Or your Nerve? You do what Papa John's Pizza did. Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, Peru , this clever, yet simple idea in promoting Papa John's Pizza won gold at the recent Cannes International advertising awards. Brilliant!

It is believed Harriet was one of three animals naturalist Charles Darwin brought back from his trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1835. The world's oldest animal in captivity has died on the Sunshine Coast at the ripe old age of 176. Giant Galapagos tortoise Harriet has died of a suspected heart attack. She was a star attraction at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo since the 1980s and even features in the Guinness Book of Records for her longevity. Read the AU newspaper article. Doesn't say if she will be buried, creamated, pickled, cooked and eaten, stuffed, etc...I'd be interested to know.

Organic foods have moved into the rather upscale Gulf Shores Wal-Mart. The manager I spoke to said the organic stuff had been flying off the shelves. He was showing me organic bottled pickles as an example. I bought some butter labled organic at $5.50 a lb. compared to $2.49 for Land of the Lakes per lb. so I wonder if the fears of some may be unfounded about W-M driving the price of organic foods down. What is true about W-M and the manager even brought it up himself, is that they will go with the 'fad' of the moment as he described it. He mentioned 'low carb' as the previous fad. So if they drop the organic products in favor of some other trend, that could impact many growers who many have been growing exclusively for W-M.

Hokey Spokes are transparent "blades" that attach to your bicycle spokes. As these blades spin during riding, a computer inside the blades modulates the internal LED lights so that design images and custom text appear. The user can decide how many spokes in a variety of colors they want to place on the bicycle wheel. The spokes can display messages and even promotional advertising and run on 3 AAA batteries. http://www.hokeyspokes.com/

Lulu's really had some outstanding music last night. The Sauce Boss and band played long sets with kick-ass Fender guitar the whole time making a huge pot of gumbo which was served up to the audience for free about 11 p.m. If you ever get a chance to see this seriously good guitar player, don't miss him. Watch him in ACTION !--- broadband ACTION !--dial-up

My brother Stephen and his friend, Robert Lea, have been working on this bike for a year and he came down from Greenwood on it this weekend---his first real distance ride on it. He has dedicated it to all the folks that he has been close to in his life that have passed away.....including my boys and my sister's son, Hutt. He has a plaque w/ their names on the rear fender.

Grey skies due to much needed rain. He and I chatted for a bit and then he flew off. I saw a second osprey do a fly by while I was out there. Maybe they were flirting. I got a phone call from a friend who says he can facilitate me getting an osprey nesting box which would encourage them to nest by me. Maybe I can set up an BirdCam. That would be cool. Starting next week, I will only do weekly Osprey Pix, unless something unusual happens.

On Thursday the osprey was up in the trees eating, a fish I suppose, since Keith says that is all they eat. I didn't see him fly up there, he was already there. But I could see him bend forward and eat at something.

I was walking into a store today just as it started and the people in there started to applaud ! You could hear it on the roof. I even got a phone call from B'ham while i was in the store from my Hardwood Dr. neighbor---"I heard it was raining, a mile away, is it raining on our places?" ---It was like an episode of Little House on the Prairie w/ cell phones. And speaking of cell phones, it has finally dawned on me why the newer cell phones are so bothersome to use. All that stuff that you have to wade thru to get the actual telephone part is the stuff they make extra money on. And my new bill came and i had all these tiny extra charges, lots of 21 cent charges that happened while I was trying to figure out my old LG phone that I hated. Every time to sent me baseball scores when I was trying to put it in mute mode, that sort of thing. It all makes sense to me now. The paper copy of the phone bill came , even tho I have it on auto-charge, and it was full of 4 color print a...

Stephen and I went down Mobile St today to have a look at the beginnings of Mary and Jerry Nasello's new DAC-ART house under construction. The first load of DAC-ART blocks has arrived. The footing and foundation is finished. I took photos and will document the construction, on www.ConcreteCottage.com . The alligator swamps were completely dried up. I have never seen them like that before. Some of the grassy clumps now looked like creatures out of Dr. Seuss books. This is the 500th post on this blog !!!!!!

On Wednesday, my osprey looked like his normal self in the morning. But, later on, in the late afternoon, he looked pretty rough ! My guess is that he had been diving after a fish and this is what he looks like wet. But at first glance thru my 10X lens, he looked like he had been out partying all night.

On Jay Leno Yes indeedie, Gulf Shores and B'ham's favorite American Idol, be sure to tune in.

ZeFrank's site has long been one of the most creative on the web. He was doing stuff with Flash that was light years ahead of anyone else, years ago. A while back he started doing these daily mini-movies. I tend to forget about them on and off. Here the day before yesterday and today. They are pretty funny. The second one is about a letter he got from Delta airlines. Notice this about him: he never blinks. ever. the show with zefrank the show with zefrank

Like me, I know lots of girls who stick their cell phone in the top of their bra or swimsuit top real fast when they run outside or are working in the garden because they can feel the vibration mode even if they can't hear the ring or have no pockets or for whatever reason....Well, a couple days ago when I had my dramatic Cingular encounter, they popped my only 45 days old phone open and turns out it has a special strip of some indicator paper inside that indicates moisture, and they pointed it out to each other and me: "This phone has been exposed to moisture !!!! " Well, let me tell you that it has not even rained here in G.S. in like FOREVER....and that phone had not been near any moisture except perhaps my slight sweat and our local high humidity. And I do not think they are making a special Southern Seacoast model, as indeed they should (as window and door manufacturers do). So Ladies, watch out...If you are in the habit of sticking your phone next to your skin.......

From PCWorld Magazine: Disguises itself as pictures from nonexistent 'Naked World Cup.' Soccer purists can breathe a sigh of relief: There is no Naked World Cup. Read Article

Now 'my' osprey chirps until I come outside if I am inside or come around to the side of the porch where he can see me and then he stops chirping. He always faces this way, he never faces to the East. You may think that I just pick out photos of him facing me, but no this is not the case. He always faces this way. It is becoming a very interesting thing. If he is out on the water's edge and chirping, and I come out there and photo him, he will become silent when he sees me. If I go back inside, sometimes he flies into the thicker center part of the property and starts chirping. If I come out and walk the property line until I find him and whistle (he is still always looking this way), he stops chirping. He is trying to train ME. He is the only bird who's chirp is loud enuf for me to hear thru my DAC-ART walls. Now , this is one huge bird that is WAY up in the tree tops. Remember that I am using a 10X zoom and cropping him out of a MAX megapixel photo. Click last phot...

When I was way into horticulture I read all the great classic garden writers and they frequently titled their articles names like "On Conifers" or "On Groundcovers"....so today , as it was my third straight day of mowing...and I was pondering many aspects of mowing, I kept returning to the terms, "On Mowing". (Side note: Remember SNL's skit about "On Golden Pond, it was titled "On Goldie Hawn") Now, needless to say, i would not have been mowing atall, except that....my Hardwood Dr neighbor did not end up mowing my Lagoon house grounds. He did come over for a social visit ( I think he was scoping out the size of the project), and once he saw, he didn't bring up the subject of mowing ! I kept waiting ! So that left me with no alternative but to call a lawn service or get some exercise , which I really need, and do it myself....which I decided to do. There is a big, fast rider lawnmower here, but I am not going to use it myself until ...

I think the point of this British site is to sell you a cell phone, but you can have some desk demolition fun ....Several models to choose from. reminiscent of the toy called Clyde's Car Crusher which my boys actually had.

Today my Osprey had a nice big fish. I noticed that he was acting a little different. He kept flying about, circling my yard, then the tree tops next door. He'd land in the tree tops, sit for a while and then take off again. I made a point to see which tree he was landing in since my friend, Keith, a major bird knowledgeable person said he bet there might be a nest. But I saw that it was a different tree every time. Then finally I saw the fish. And as one of my books said, he flew holding the fish head first. Now I notice (of course this might be my imagination) that my Osprey does his bird call in late afternoon until I get out there (or move around the porch to where he can see me) to watch him and photo him, he stops and is silent. How 'bout that. If you don't believe me, come by, any late afternoon, an hour or two before sunset. He is around on and off all day actually, in mornings too, but almost always, always in late afternoons. And ck this. His call is so loud th...

This site is so odd, first off, the photos are tiny. Second, who knows if they really play chess or just want their photo online ? Oddly too, I notice that they are all women. Since the creation of the site we have succeeded in achieving rather significant results: the number of participants has gone up to almost 100, that of registered users has exceeded 2,500 and that of daily visitors varies from 500 to 600, on average. We believe that this is not too bad for a project which has so far developed owing exclusively to the enthusiasm of its participants. Fortunately, we, who believe that chess can be not only serious and tiresome work but also just fun, are not two few, indeed! Meanwhile, we would like to reward the winners of our contest in a worthy manner and also to put the project on a solid and permanent footing, involving a continuing supply of new pictures, interviews of the participants, interactive polls, etc. All this obviously implies that there should be a serious titled s...

But pretty interesting read, nonetheless: How to Help a Friend Who Gets Arrested in the Middle of the Night

Today I could take it no more....I had tried so hard to learn to both use and love my new LG cell phone but I reached my breaking point. My Gulftel ground line had been down since last week, and the LG cell phone had gone into bizzarr-o mode. I tried turning if off, to re-boot it, hoping it would wake up in a better mood, but it refused to turn off, and was caught in a loop of endless reboots each time exhibiting the same problems-- as in: I could not make an outgoing call nor receive an incoming one... ...I sat with my book for about 45 min, reading and trying things, but finally decided it was TIME for a DIFFERENT PHONE. I had purchased it at W-M originally because the Cingular place is way up on the north side of Foley and always really crowded, so I went back to W-M first. I got no where there, even after I got the dept manager involved because it had been 45 days , not under 30 days as their policy states. They kept saying only the Cingular store can do anything. I got back in...

Kathy Kramer sent me this scanned panarama photo of the incredible bridge in France. Click to see the big version of the photo--it is worth the load time. The Millau viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connecting Paris and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever constructed. Sara and I took an overnight train/hotel from Paris to Barcelona so we did not see it. Next time !!

I photo my osprey every day. Today is a cloudy day and thank goodness we are getting some rain. We need it so badly. These photos are from yesterday. Two close ups of him flexing his wings while in the tree and one showing the tree that he always perches in--i drew a circle around him on the branch.

The well known Aaron Wall (SEO Book) , whom I have had the pleasure of hearing speak at conferneces, has posted an excellent in depth article comparing the current state of G vs. M vs. Y on his blog...a very good read for anyone interested in SEO and web rank. Something one would expect to have to pay to read for free !! Thanks Aaron.

Whoever thought this out and put it in to practice nationwide initially is shear genius. It has all come together for me tonight. One of the American people's many shortcomings is the fact that we usually speak only one language. Solution below: So what If every consumer label, set of warranty or written instructions, was a mini language lesson for those hard headed, ingrown-eyeball Americans? IN one single manufactured item, like my new $26 Squirrel=proof Stop-A-Squirrel Feeder I have, the First grade level of 'Hello and thank you for purchasing", then I have the " Intermediate" section of " "Bird Feeding Tips", moving on to "Senior Level" "Assembly Instructions" and finishing off with "Post Grad Level w/emphasis on Law Especially"Level....the Warranty ...so there it is, in 3 columns, across on every page, 2 foreign languages, start to graduation ENGLISH FRANCAIS ESPANOL So after this revelation, I will no longer be i...

I was searching to see if Blogger allowed the inclusion of foreign language symbols, and ran across a poor woman's cry for help from today. Someone has hijacked her Blog on Blogger which Google owns, and is pushing triple X porn on thru as a instantaneous redirect....She has deleted the blog thru the owners user-interface, didn't stop it. And she doesn't know how to do the things that would get her some instant attention and help. I put a reply in her forum discourse and gave her the scoop on a lot of the places where Google employees would see it or catch wind of it and probably shift the info over to the right dept and the thing would stop on the spot , or it would become good news fodder and a lot of people would be hearing about it and it would stop for damn sure. The ball is in her court to get in touch w/ these sources, I can't do all the work for her...but it will be interesting to see what happens........Google with egg on its face is what we have now. Read abou...

Something to do with your morning coffee. Not as sinister as it looks in this photo. It is about glue. Not sure how they acomplish this but it is you shooting actual tennis balls at a hanging crash test dummy that is hanging by its feet by some super strong glue that the site is promoting. First you make up a user name. You can see how many other players are online at the same time as you are. You will be in rotation with them, Actual humans continuously gather the balls and reload them to be shot by you and your fellow shooters again and again as you watch the real-time results ! You can change the viewing angle, and some other variables. Takes a few minutes to figure out, but the programming is rather clever. Don't know if it operates 24/7....seems like these guys who gather and re-load the tennis balls would get tired ....really ! Let the ball blasting begin ....probably broadband only.

I got the same bad news letter that numerous other web publishers received. My account was canceled due to one of four listed reasons. One was poor quality traffic. I know that was not it. The only one that made any possible sense was for international traffic. Yahoo wants only USA folks to see its ads. Most of my traffic to the 6 pages that I had YPN ads on was USA traffic, very little from outside the States. BUT...my site is hosted in Vancouver....so I believe that triggered a filter. Too bad. YPN is still in Beta, so there is some hope that once it comes out of Beta that I can get back in, but since I am not a programmer, it would be outside the scope of what I am capable of doing myself to serve one page to visitors with a USA IP address and a different page to non-USA visitors. And actually, that is a type of cloaking, so not something I want to go into lightly. So tonight I replaced my YPN ads with Google Adsense ads....one just hates to have all of one's eggs in one basket...

Promising Vaccine shows just good results in mice. eliminating the bad swelling in 6% of previous attempt. Scientific American Article

No phone service all day, DSL was working, altho very sluggishly....now, no DSL, no phone. This is why I keep both DSL and cable service into this house. Problem is not in my property but somewhere out on Ft Morgan Road I am told. But of course, it is Friday.....so it will probably be next week since Gulftel doesn't consider weekends work days. And, at the moment I have both cable and DSL at teh Hardwood Dr house, so that is a good thing, I have not been over there today to see if phone/DSL is working, but Heather works tomorrow and I'd be mad if we had no connectivity. I had intended to have cable turned off once we got the DSL & wireless network all set up, but maybe not a good idea.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urged his impoverished people on Thursday not to sell their possessions to place bets on the soccer World Cup , saying it was probably a bad idea. "Go ahead and watch it, but do not sell your cows, motorcycles, cars, homes and land to bet on the games," Hun Sen, a one-eyed former Khmer Rouge soldier, told farmers at a provincial hospital opening.

He was sitting out there chirping at dawn. As you can see, he was grooming himself, or at least ck'ing his armpits to see if they needed attention. He came and went throughout the day, sometimes circling and landing in the stand of trees next door---can you see him ? Look closely. At 7 p.m. he seems to really enjoy the breeze and lovely colors and is usually hanging around.