Thoughts of Blargg

Really? They Said THIS In the Bible?

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. At least that's how the story is supposed to go. But when it comes to learning the basic facts about the Bible's Old Testament and New Testament, it seems that our children are missing the point. Big time.

Following are REAL test answers and excerpts from papers assigned to students in middle school and high school that were collected by the very funny people who staff RinkWorks.com. Read this, test your kids, and look for the nearest remedial Bible story class.

It Happens Only In America

1. Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
2. Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating ring.
3. Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
4. Only in America......do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet coke.
5. Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
6. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
7. Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.
8. Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
9. Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.
10. Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.
11. Only in America......can a homeless combat veteran live in a cardboard box and a draft dodger live in the White House.

Al Gore Snowjob

Personally, I believe Al Gore's venture into climatology from the political arena & his 'belief' in global warming is nothing more than a politically motivated fear tactic, and of course so his book & movie will get more attention. The surprise to me is that so many people actually believe him.



Another video link I think is pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRSOkHU2ZcQ

Budgie Parakeet & Two Lutino Cockatiels

..Sounds like an order at a restaraunt. Actually it's a couple of pics of my budgie (budgerigar) parakeet & two cockatiels, I had an earlier post about my parakeet and dog but that wasn't an actual pic of my parakeet, just one I found on the internet that looked very similar. He looks a little concerned in this picture because of the camera in his face, "do I fly away or wait to see if it's going to kill me."
I've had him for eight years, got him when he was about two months old. Very vocal & active, says a few words and whistles the Andy Griffith tune (fishin' hole). They have a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years so he's getting old. Likes to play peek-a-boo from behind his little mirror, & play attacking your finger, never bites to hurt though.



The two cockatiels I raised from hatchlings almost, they were about five days old. Ugly little critters at that age, they make screaming/crying sounds to be fed. We had to use a formula mixed at just the right temprature with water, and a dropper. They are completely tame and basically just spoiled babies. I've had them for about seven months.



They have completely different personalities though, the one on the left is much more vocal and says a few words, but slightly more high strung, the one on the right is fairly quiet but more gentle. Both are males. The parakeet is also a male but he and the cockatiel on the left are buddies while the one on the right wants nothing to do with him. The parakeet actually fed the one on the left when he was still not quite grown, and still feeds him today every now and then, when he's not obsessed with looking at himself in the mirror and trying to feed his reflection.

Bill Cheathum



From left to right: Wyatt Rice, David Grier & Kenny Smith.

This clip is an excerpt from the Kenny Smith, Wyatt Rice, and David Grier "Live in Concert" DVD release by Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and FGM Records. Here Kenny, David, and Wyatt are trading solos on the flatpicking standard "Bill Cheathum." The entire concert DVD is available at www.flatpickingmercantile.com.

Wyatt Rice is the younger brother of Tony Rice, perhaps the greatest innovator in acoustic flat-picked guitar playing today. See an example here.

Back & Neck Pain

I've been having a lot of pain from neck and back problems for a while now, hopefully going for a MRI in a couple of weeks. The neck trouble causes a lot of headaches & the back trouble causes problems while lying down, walking, bending, etc.

I have been diagnosed as having sciatica (over a year) from degenerative disk disease, and have arthritis in my neck and back (& I think in my knee). I feel pretty old & worn out sometimes for a 41 year old, and to think I used to come in second and third place in track at school (many moons ago). No real point in this post, just airing some brain matter fodder before I get better and run next year's 30 mile marathon (joke).

The Silent Scream



Whoever has viewed today’s video, will probably never contemplate abortion again.

This is a pro-life educational video of a twelve week abortion narrated by former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson.

Critics for abortion who might object to Dr. Nathanson calling the fetus a child in the video need to ask themselves why no one seemingly objected when the media called Laci Peterson's unborn fetus a child and even called him Connor over and over again, after the name Laci had chosen for her unborn child, and why her husband, Scott Peterson, was guilty of the murder of his wife's unborn SON, and not unborn 'fetus'.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/11/12/peterson.verdict/index.html

If he was guilty of the murder of his unborn child, then that same guilt should also apply to every woman who has chosen to have an abortion instead of taking responsibility for the consequences of her actions. Women upholding the practice often use the phrase 'it's my body', but that life living and growing within certainly isn't her body, its the life of a seperate individual human being. Killing that life is murder.

Li Jie - Classical Guitar Virtuoso

Li Jie - Sunburst by Andrew York



Li Jie was born in 1981 in China and is considered a classical guitar virtuoso. She's about 14 years old in this video which was made about three years after she first began playing. She began studying the classical guitar at the age of 11 under Professor Chen Zhi.

I'm not a big fan of classical guitar, but she is very good. The only complaint I would have is that I think she doesn't play with quite enough feeling, in that respect I think Andrew York, who wrote Sunburst, does a little better job. But I also consider that in this video she's only been playing about three years, she's barely a teenager, and she's now about 26 years old and her playing might have matured a lot. This is her in 2006 at Alma Guitar.

Another thing I noticed is that the sound is overdubbed on the video, but people do that so it's no big deal. I wouldn't have noticed except for one little mistake. She's tuned in double dropped D tuning, which means the top E string is tuned down to D, and so is the bottom E string. At 1:20 on the video the top E string is a F when she should have had her finger down two frets up but didn't, then at 1:15 the string suddenly is D again, without her finger ever touching the top string! ;)
To see where her finger should be on the top string at 2:17 see Andrew York making the same chord at 3:57 (if you click on the "Sunburst/Jubilation" link at the end of the embedded video on this page, it'll be at 1:48). I think he plays the tune with a little more feeling although I don't really care for the first part of it at all. I don't really care for classical guitar much really because I think they're mostly into playing by note rather than putting a lot of feeling or personal style into the playing, but that's just me.

Another female chinese guitarist who is good on the classical scene is Xuefei Yang, who was born in 1977 and began playing the guitar at the age of seven. She also studied under Professor Chen Zhi as Li Jie did, and was the first guitarist in China to enter a music school.
I think she does Cavatina, the theme from the movie "The Deer Hunter" (1978) very well.

Humor..

I have a twisted sense of humor (I am told). I saw this pic on the Drudge Report today and it just hit me the wrong way I guess and I had to laugh. The story it was attached to was serious ("Stocks Rebound..."), but I couldn't keep from noticing that while the guy in front has his hand on his head, it actually looks like it could belong to the guy in the middle.. stupid, I know... :-)