Sunday, December 31, 2006

On the final day of 2006...

Hello Readers, and happy LAST DAY OF 2006!

So... On the last day, I decided to do a "sum up the year" in a weird Meme sort of thing that I've adapted from Chris Cope, who originally discovered the idea from his friend Crystal. If you're wondering WHY I'm doing an "adaption" as opposed to the original "meme" idea, well... It's 'cause I realised that if I actually did the meme, it would resemble:
  • Gah!
  • Crap
  • Shit
  • Well readers
  • I have a thing that I have to say
  • sonuvabitch et al.
So... I adapted the meme for ME to be: Take the first 'understandable' sentence/paragraph from the first post of every month in 2006 and I hope you enjoy the results. I should warn you, they still really don't make that much sense. On that note, here's the list:

January 2nd, 2006
Okay, after my rather cynical and depressing New Years message, I've sort of recovered. Well... A bit.

There's still a tonne of things to get over, and do, and I admit to being a bit frightened by them all. You see... I've done this before.

February 2nd, 2006
Man, was I a MESS yesterday. Grandfather of all hangovers. Gah. Man. I'm okay today, though... Thank all the gods.

March 3rd, 2006
Happy Lent, everyone. Gah.

All right... Why do I read the The City Pages Blotter every day? Because of wonderful little links like this one: If Microsoft packaged the iPod video... (Link not available anymore.)

April 1st, 2006
Okay... So, if you're vaguely internet-savvy, or if you just troll around occasionally... You've probably heard/seen/watched the Saturday Night Live "short film" entitled "Lazy Sunday" or "Narnia Raps" or the "Chroni-WHAT-cles of Narnia."

May 1st, 2006
Seriously... A "quick" one... "A cheese sandwich blog" today...

June 1st, 2006
I actually AM profoundly tired. I like that description. It's so much more than just "very" or something... The word profoundly just seems to carry so many connotations, that go beyond the simplistic adjective.

July 2nd, 2006
Okay, most of you "regular readers" know that I'm an artist. And I have characteristics (or clichés) that are endemic to many OTHER artists: My brain tends to wander quite often... I find myself daydreaming, or planning out a composition of a scene that is unfolding right before my eyes, all whilst my friend is discussing the latest fresh produce at the farmer's market.

August 2nd, 2006
Well... The heat-wave is over, at least for us "Midwesterners" and only for the moment. Typically, August is our worst month. But with 19 days of above 30°C (90°F-sorta) weather in July... I can't say that I'm looking forward to August. For the record, it hit 38°C (102°F) on Monday, but my back garden reader DID actually hit the "BBC" forecasted 42°C (107°F).

September 2nd, 2006
Hi folks... Well, I just had my FIRST day at work yesterday (Friday Sept.1). I am really going to like this job. Yay! It was a bit of a whirlwind day... And I have a big learning curve that I have to overcome. However, the people are amazingly nice, and I feel rather confident that all will be great after about a month. Yeah... I know, but there's SO much to learn about this job... But I KNOW I'll be a really good addition to the already great staff.

October 1st, 2006
Occasionally... Well, pretty much all the time... Others say things so much better than I, that I get nauseous.

November 1st, 2006
Yeah, Okay. I know I should be goin' off about the mid-term elections that we have coming up in a week here in the States. I should be saying: "Get out and vote!" or... "Dems 2006" or... "Down with Bush 2006" or something of that nature.

However, at least at the moment, I'm not going to do a post like that. Most of my readers know where I stand on the issues.

December 3rd, 2006
Hello fine readers. Tuckmac here, with a characteristic rant about my Minnesotan government. For the duration of this rant, the Minnesotan government will be called: The Fuggers.


If you're wondering... My New Years Resolution is to not only Blog Better but also to actually write a real sentence at the beginning of each blog!

Have a very happy New Year readers, and I will see you in 2007, only two more years of "The Shrub."

To end the year, a clip from MSNBC from last August. Unfortunately, it's not getting any better...


Happy New Year?

--Tuckmac

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

I love Linky Day Wednesday, don't you?

Yeah, I know... I should talk about Christmas/Holiday stuff or something.

First, I received many wonderful gifts from My Lady and from parents, in-laws et al. I'm happy. But that's boring to write about in a blog.
So... Links:
  • Found this one on the City Pages Blotter, but it's worth spreading around. So... Peter Sellers and Kermit on the Muppet Show, a must view (if you have the bandwidth.)
  • The Daily Show, with John Stewart. Man... Here he is, making fun of the 2006 TIME Magazine's "Person of the year" and frankly... He says all the things that I wanted to say about how stupid the whole TIME magazine thing was... But he did it so much better than I would be able to do, so... I'll leave it there.
  • Bill Hicks, a comedian from a while back does a pretty good rant about the Religious Right, and the really freaky thing about this clip, is that he was talking about Reagan and Bush the FIRST, not our latest dildo in the White House. Gah. Why can't things get better once and a while? Huh?
  • Britain is just as weird as the United States, just in different ways. Strange Pets in Britain says it all... Weird brits...
  • Sticking with Britain for a minute... Okay, this was funny. Disturbing. But funny... Dumbest Call Centre Callers. A delightful romp throught some of the dimmest folk in Britain.
  • Finally, a wonderful, yet rather long test/survey I found on the BBC. The "Sex ID Test". Take this test when you have about 10 to 15 minutes. It tests for visual acuity, memory, spacial organisation, etc... And it tells you whether or not your brain is "female" or "male" in it's profile. For the record: I'm Here:
    Female10050050100Male
      X    

    So... I don't know how I feel about it. Obviously, I need to go home and talk with my wife about the fact that she married a woman trapped in a man's body. Of course... I sort of told her I was a bit "feminine" in my habits, thoughts, and feelings. So... It shouldn't be a surprise. I guess there's a reason I do the house-work and cooking a bit more than My Lady does. I wonder what HER score will be on this test? Edit 12/28/06 1:45pm:She got a "0" or completely "androgynous" were her words. As "Androgynous" means:
    I'm not so sure she's right. I mean... MENTALLY she's both/neither male nor female, but I'll attest to her rather obvious "Feminine Charms" any day! Hmm...
By the way, before I go... No, I'm not planning on having a "Linky Day Wednesday" be a real thing... Or anything. I just thought that sounded good for a title.

Have a good one!
-Tuckmac

Friday, December 22, 2006

It's the Friday Before Christmas,

And all through the blog,
not a true thought was stirring,
My brain was a fog.

My thoughts were stuck on the posts with care,
In hopes that readers soon would be there.

I was going to try to do the whole poem. But I'm actually rather knackered, and attempting to keep up a dippy rhyming scheme is killin' me. Sorry. Any takers on finishing the rhyme?

Okay, so... I don't know about anyone else, but... I'm in a definite "Scrooge Mode" this particular year. I'm looking forward to this crazy time finally being finished. Gah. It's probably a mixture of My Lady working at the significally horrific, illogical, terrible, hideous, over large, edifice... Also known as the Mall of America, and in so doing, has very little of the "Holiday Spirit" herself, thus infecting me with even more disdain for my "fellow human" during this season. And the second ingredient to my discontent? The lack of snow. The weather-folk keep saying, "Well it's a white Christmas, I mean, it DID snow." This is bull-caca. It's vaguely 'slushy' outside. I can see lawns. It's brown and crappy outside. That's not a White Christmas, it's at best a "yucky Yule" or some such thing. Och weel...

To attempt to get myself out of today's funk... I decided to do a linky day thing...
  • My favourite cartoon when I was a teen, was Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin was a delinquent child in such a wonderful over the top sort of way... And since I was a geek and a nerd, and never drove my mother to distraction... (unfortunately a true statement. Gods was I boring.) I found a fun "release" in reading about Calvin and his imaginary friend Hobbes the tiger. Okay, long lead-in, sorry... Anyhoo... The LINK is a wonderful collection of some of Calvin's best snowmen/art. It's fun, trust me.
  • For those of you who would appreciate something "edifying" to view, I offer this: The History of Religion in 90 seconds, a flash movie.
  • And to finish, something in between those two extremes... Art/Animation and a rather sharp concept, if I do say so myself! It may take a bit to load, but it's worth it. Doll Face. Please believe me.
  • 'Cause I'm fairly certain many of my readers may actually faint, if I don't put something political in my blog entry today, I'll stick this up. In the NY Times this morning was a redacted opinion-article by Flynt Leverett, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation; and Hillary Mann, a former Foreign Service officer, participated in the United States discussions with Iran from 2001 to 2003; wrote an Op-ed piece about the U.S. government's relationship with Iran's government in the past few years. Long story short: They wrote an opinion piece based on their own experiences. The CIA publications department "Okayed" the rough draft, and then suddenly, illegedly, the White House gets a bit pissy, and... It's suddenly chock-a-bloc full of "Classified" information. Hmm... Well, read the comment, and the original "redacted" piece here: What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran
Ger. Stuff like that just gets my ire all riled up.

Well, I'm not sure what's going to be happening the next few days leading up to Christmas, and it's aftermath. I hope to see you all here again soon!

-- Tuckmac

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

You ever just want to cry?

Okay, so... Here's the issue.

My fellow Twin Cities' citizens elected a Muslim Congressman.

I was quite chuffed, as the guy seems to be a wonderful spokesperson for minorities, immigrants, democrats, urban dwellers, et al.

Well, he's Muslim. You know, like... He's NOT CHRISTIAN!

And lately, many of the right-wing blow-hards have been angry over his decision to "Swear his oath of office on the Quran." There's been a tonne of stories on this one, so I'm not going to go there right now. Most of the issue is "Why doesn't he swear on the Bible like everyone else?" or "Even Jewish Congress-people have sworn on the Bible" or... You get the drift. Forgive my ignorance here, people... But wasn't the entire point of "Swearing on the Bible" sort of a 'fear' thing? I mean, you swore your oath, and then supposedly you'd burn in eternal hell-fires if you broke the oath. Isn't that why one swears on a Bible?

I don't know... Anyhoo... Okay, so there's been controversy. Whatever. I would prefer Mr. Ellison to take his oath on the Quran, as that would lend a certain solemnity to HIS personal oath. He prays to Allah. Not to Christ. Therefore, SWEAR to Allah. Sort of makes sense, don't it? I mean, just how seriously would a Christian take his or her oath, if they were made to swear on the Torah, or some other book/religious item?

Well, it's still "hotting up" as they say in Kent, England. Yep, more fun... Virginia Congressman, Virgil Goode stuck his foot in his mouth, and wrote a letter to his constituents saying:
    "The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran," Goode wrote.
Brilliant, no? Gah... What a freaking GOOMBAH! Well... Muslims are demanding an apology.

Jeez, you think he should say sorry? Uhh uh... Nope. The bastard should get tossed out of office, is what should happen. However, we all know that the guy's going to give some "half-hearted" apology with a bit of a smirk on his face, as he does so... His constituents are going to laud him as a protector of their rights as Americans and the right to live WITHOUT immigration... And the whole hoo-ha is going to continue ad nauseum.

It's just fricking annoying! Gah!

-- Tuckmac

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Awww... Shucks.

Yep, it's official. I'm a midwesterner.

What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Inland North
 

You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

The Northeast
 
The Midland
 
Philadelphia
 
The South
 
North Central
 
The West
 
Boston
 
What American accent do you have?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz


Smiles,
T

Hey, the damn iMix thing on iTunes is working.

So, on that note:



I did this damn thing, like FOREVER ago, but it although it had a "publish to web" link, the link didn't work.

Till Today.

Yay.

The reason that I was iTunes-ing it, is because of the new Nizlopi 'Mini-album' that was just released.

If you haven't heard this band (Yanks, mainly) then you should check them out! I'm enjoying this new 'Mini-Album' from Nizlopi, and both My Lady and I have been addicted to Nizlopi's FIRST full-length album: Half These Songs are About You.

Okay... I'm off...

-- Tuckmac

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A meme thing that is interesting.

Found on the marvellous blog: Mock, Paper, Scissors:

A weird meme:
    Per the instructions at Watertiger’s blog…

    1. Grab the book closest to you.
    2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
    3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.
    4. Name of the book and the author.
    5. Tag three people.
So... Here's mine:

Then:"I don't handle deals at that level, that's small time."
"I know, I know, but we need a guy who does handle that kind of action; a couple of names, that's all."
"You gonna fuck them over?"

Silent Prey, John Sanford.

Much like the guy at Mock, Paper, Scissors... I'm not one to actually go to OTHER people and make them do stuff, like he said: "I'm democratic" so... Also like him, I'm going to tell you all that you're TAGGED, simply for reading my blog, and you can do this meme on YOUR blog, or... Fill it in in my comment section. Cheers!

Smiles,
T

Friday, December 15, 2006

Linky Day Friday, oh, and a short Rant.

Hi me wee droogues (as My Lady) would say...

Well, it's Friday, and I'm at work. Yep... I was quite ill earlier this week, and thus missed my Wednesday shift, so... I am working today, in order to keep my "sick days" from being used. Smart huh?

Anyhooo... It's a Linky Day, so let's begin!
  • Okay, now I am sure that we're destroying the world slowly. Get this: Wisconsin man bags deer with 7 legs. I mean... SEVEN LEGS? And the poor thing seemed to be a hermaphrodite too! man.
  • Can I just say... LIGHT FRICKING RAIL NOW please? Man... I can't believe we have to wait so bloody long for the bloody thing... I want it NOW. (Especially as the flats my Lady and I are moving into in Feb. would be RIGHT next to the tracks... Quick trips to either downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul? Oh YEAH baby!
  • Okay, so... is anyone else really freaked out about this? Fifth Body Found. I mean... Britain isn't really known for it's 'serial killers,' is it? Damn... Glad I don't know anyone who lives in Suffolk. Or, I should say... I don't know any 'prostitutes' in Suffolk. Gah.
  • Okay, last item for today... Why do we bloody well CARE that Wills is an officer now? Do we actually give a rats ass that the prince is an officer now? And according to my news tracker, there's like 500 sites that are reporting this this hour. And now, of course, I'm bloody well reporting it. Damn. What the hell is WRONG with me???
Well... Shite. I guess that's it for today folks... It's been a slow day.

Oh wait... One Quick Rant:
John Sununu was on NPR this morning talking about Iraq, and the bloody "Bi-partisan Iraq Study Report" thinggummy. Okay, that's fine... Let's get yet ANOTHER bloody Senator's feelings and thoughts about the bloody thing... But... What is it with the "Republican Party Line" about Iraq? Seriously, what the hell? It's always the same: "We want Iraq to be a free democracy, and for the people to vote in their own government, be safe, share oil, etc... etc... etc..." You DUMB FREAKING BUGGER... Listen... Iraq did vote in their own government... And they don't WANT freedom of religion, and they don't WANT peace with each other and the Sunnis and Shiites will conTINue to kill each other, and that's what they bloody well WANT TO DO! Not the most "brilliant" plan, was it? You know, to let a whole buncha people that don't actually LIKE capitalism to vote for a representative government? 'Cause, like... If you wanted a "Democratic, freedom of religion, and peaceful" Iraq, you should've shipped over, like a billion Americans to "vote FOR the Iraqi people" cause... You know, they don't actually LIKE America's government!

Jesus-cluny-frog!

Stupid, bloody Republicans...

Gah!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Watch out London...

Okay, this sucks.

NASDAQ launches hostile stock-takeover of London Stock Exchange

Be ready for all sorts of foreign companies "Jumping Ship" from the U.K.

Sorry Brits. I was completely against this. All of MY savings is based in the U.K.

Shite.

-- T

Have you noticed something?

You know, as a blog reader, you probably have been noticing something. It's not just me...

No one is blogging lately!

I don't truly have an excuse. Anymore than anyone else, I suppose. For me it's a mixture of post-election excitement, Lame-duck congresses, and a dippy President who just received a report on Iraq, and is proceeding to ignore it.

Heard on NPR this weekend, a great Bushie quote:
    "I'll tell you how important I take the Iraq Study Group's Report... I actually READ it."
Now, seriously... If that's a true quote, and not just a joke... I'm scared. Anyhoo...

There's also the "Christmas Season Pain" that goes with December. Both My Lady and I have been decidedly "Bah Humbug" about the whole thing. It's very hard for My Lady to get into the "swing" of the season, as she's a retail-worker. That would kill even the most RABID of Holiday-Shopper folks. My feelings of this holiday season have always been a bit lukewarm, and this year, it doesn't seem to be any more exciting to me.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's a "kid thing." You know... You LOVE the Holidays when you're a kid, 'cause you get prezzies and such. And when you're a parent, it's all about GETTING prezzies for YOUR kids. But in the intervening years, of... Um... NON-parental adulthood... It's just a pain in the ass to get out and shop for your relatives, and friends. I can't say that I am enjoying malls lately. What the hell am I saying, I've never liked shopping. Hmm... Maybe that's it.

But back to the "not blogging" thing... I'm reading all of my Google news aggregators, I am reading Digg.com, I'm reading the Beeb, I'm reading my Reuters, and damn if I'm not just BORED by everything out there! Sorry... I just can't get up the energy to "rant" about anything at all!

Och weel... I will endeavour to keep writing, and such... I just need to get through the "blahs" of this holiday season. I'll try.

Love ya readers...

Tuckmac

Friday, December 08, 2006

So...

A friend of mine posted this link on her evil-Space site.

As I refuse to do anything except respond to "friends" on MySpace... I'm re-posting this link here...

Bristol-Myers-Squibb is donating a dollar for every "internet" Candle lit, to HIV and AIDS charity.

As USUALLY they are the foremost in charging WAY too much money for their life-saving and extending HIV drugs... It's only fair to get as many people as possible to "light the candle" to at least SORT of mitigate their corporate ways...

If you can... Please go HERE and LIGHT A CANDLE.

Also... Try to pass this puppy on, will ya? The more we get clicked... The more "The Man" helps people who actually need help!

The address to "link to" is: https://www.lighttounite.org

Cheers!

--Tuckmac

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Hmm... Video, cheese and politics.

Is this some kind of hoax, or is it real?



'Cause if it's "real" then I'm really confused as to why we haven't seen MORE of this sort of thing. I mean... Wow.

Well, it's a nifty dream, anyhoo.

We went over to our friends' house two nights ago... They're living in the new "nifty" artist lofts that My Lady and I want to move into. The flats are GORGEOUS, if a bit industrial. All they really need to do (or all WE need to do if we get in there) is throw a few rugs down, and paint a few walls a different colour than white. But... Beyond that... They are really great flats.

Um... Yeah. Cheese-sandwich blog is done. Sorry.

I really have nothing else to say today, which is by FAR the worst thing a blogger can admit to in a blog.

I suppose I could talk about the bi-partisan report released yesterday telling us that the Iraq War is a quagmire. But I really have to sort of shrug my shoulders and say "duh." I mean... Didn't we already freaking KNOW that? I mean... Didn't we?

Jesus-cluny-frog. Bush said that some of the suggestions were "interesting" and basically danced around the fact that the so-called "Stay the course" standpoint of his administration was denounced as an idiocy by the bi-partisan report. (My words, not the report's words.)

Och weel... Another ream or three of paper that will go absolutely NO where till we get the fugger out of office in 2008.

Have a great one, readers... I will.

-- Tuckmac

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

My "new" favourite blog...

Indexed.

I'm not a mathematician, nor a "logical-type" or anything... But this is using maths/logics/charting with marvellous results.

Fellow artists... Do NOT let the "maths" scare you with this link... It's brill!

That's all for today little ones... Oh... No, wait...

Check out some really good art here: Untitled 0.1, a performance

Yeah... You're going to need broadband speed for that above link.

I'm off kiddies... Back to work!

Smiles,
Tuckmac

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

TGFW

No... That's not a weird new "Thank gods friday wizard" thing...

No, it's for Thank Gods for Wired (Magazine).

Okay, so... Got my RSS feed... And... Discovered this:

GV TV or: Good Vibrations T.V. - Quickies. Sex education for the masses.

I suggest (especially for my male readers) the "Hunt for the Clitoris" but there's many, many more...

Edification is a good thing. So's education. So's a guy named Ed.

But I digress.

That's it for today, kind readers... You're very welcome.

-- Tuckmac

Sunday, December 03, 2006

A really big rant.

Hello fine readers. Tuckmac here, with a characteristic rant about my Minnesotan government. For the duration of this rant, the Minnesotan government will be called: The Fuggers.

Here's the gist of my rant, sure to degrade into a bit of frothing at the mouth, and swearing:

The Fuggers have discovered a Budget Surplus for the next year of around a billion dollars. (That's not counting in inflation, however, which basically wipes out the entire amount, but... I digress).

What is the topic of conversation, now that The Fuggers have discovered that they've made MORE money than they expected?

Tax Cuts.

That's right... Fugging TAX CUTS!

Our schools, our roads, our social-systems, here in my FORMERLY great socially aware state of Minnesota are in dire DIRE shape. As stated in the Editorial of today's Star and Sickle: Less than meets the eye, class sizes are out of control. Library's are closing, roads are NOT being repaired/built/maintained... All of this due to my WONDERFUL HEAD FUGGER, T-Paw... My fine state is a fugging mess! And what happens...

With the gutting of our social systems, again, DUE TO THE HEAD FUGGER, I've watched my state become a mess of Republican tax-cutting and our social-safety-net programs being gutted... Did I mention GUTTED???

Nightmarish things have been happening here. And you know what happened? After years of Republicans being in control of my state... The voters finally WOKE THE FUG UP, and elected a Dem house and Dem Senate (and strangely left the HEAD FUGGER in place, although I'm still wondering about the collective I.Q. of my fellow Minnesotans on that one) which PROVES that Minnesotans, albeit a bit silly, have realised that the things that they actually LIKE about the State of Minnesota have gone missin'...

And now, we have a budget surplus. Again... This isn't really a surplus once you figure in inflation, but still... What this means, is that when they set the budget for the NEXT two years... We have money in the coffers. We do. And what happens?

What happens? The Fuggers don't sit back and say: "You know, we suffered a crisis in our budget, so we had to cut back on important programs due to T-Paw and his 'I won't raise taxes pledge' and now... WithOUT raising our taxes, we can actually afford to HELP these programs that we've gutted. WITHOUT RAISING TAXES WE CAN IMPROVE MINNESOTA!"

No.

Unh-a...

Nope.

The Fuggers are talking about rebates (which, by Minnesota State law, they have to do... A law I find reprehensible) and MORE TAX CUTS!

MORE!

What the fugging hell???

MORE TAX CUTS?!?!?!?!?!?

I just don't get it.

Look... T-Paw can stick to his "No Raising Taxes" thing... The Dems can have their social-services FUNDED, and everyone is HAPPY!

Why isn't anyone TALKING about this??? I'm serious! The Fuggers, both Dems and Republicans are NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS!

I just don't understand!

It's not fair. Not bloody fair.

Why am I alone in the wilderness here? What are we normal, everyday people who love our state, and what to go to the bloody library on a road that doesn't destroy my car's suspension, to do?

Sometimes, I just want to give up, chuck it all... And go live in the woods like Thoreau and write stuff to the trees.

Anyone out there, reading this blog, agreeing with me?

I'm going to go cry.

-- Tuckmac