Have a Heart

In a room not far from where Dick Cheney got his new heart this week;  Joe Plummer had a heart transplant operation as well.  Mr. Plummer, a resident of Bavaria, Kansas had been waiting almost two years.  When the news came, he and his family flew to Falls Church, Va. Overnight. 

Mr. Plummer is the first beneficiary of the “Used Hearts for Underprivileged Americans” program.  This new lottery based program gives folks who can’t afford the operation a fighting chance to live just a little while longer with a used heart.  Joe is a special patient, though.  He has received Mr. Cheney’s old heart.

“Yeah, I’m real glad to get this thing,”  Joe remarked.  “Hell, I was gonna die before June anyway.  Now maybe I can see the fireworks show one more time in Junction City.”  Joe will reuse Mr. Cheney’s heart pump, wired too his chest.  It’s not known how long the used heart will keep ticking.  Surgeon Rich Cutter said, “We don’t know how long this thing will work, but the price is right.”

Some complications, which are normal, have set in.  “After 2 days with this contraption I’ve been having these weird, dark thoughts and desires to take over the hospital and just go on down there and run the place my own way.”  Said Plummer.  “Damnedest thing too.  I’ve never wanted to secretly run things.”

Joe also asked for his shotgun and wanted to “blast a few things ta’ hell”.  With this new ticker, he just might have that chance.  Lookout, central Kansas.

My God, it’s always something…….

Quieting your inflammation

This is the end of my first week on the “Abascal Way” diet.  “What the hell is that?” you ask.  And, I have to say, I’m really not sure I can explain it.  Being from Kansas I can’t say I’m one to be up on my diets.  One goes on a diet in Kansas only when the front bench seat of your ’87 Buick cannot be further moved back to accommodate your girth.  Oh, there are other ways to get to the grocery store, I mean you can always have uncle Ernie come over with his flatbed, but It’s nice to maintain your independence.

This “Abascal Way” diet is quite fascinating really.  Better to look at the web site than to have me try to explain it.

http://www.toquietinflammation.com/

It’s about “quieting inflammation”, whatever that is.  I still don’t understand it.  I DO know that after an initial struggle I am beginning to feel better.  The point of this diet is to eliminate foods that are typically not good for your system and therefore ‘inflame’ you, such as whole milk, bread, corn, fatty stuff, sugary stuff, you know, stuff you really like.  There is really a better way to eat, with high protein foods, fruits and vegetables.  I’ve been doing this, and have found that I didn’t really have a craving for Crosby Stills Nash & Young. 

So, yeah, ok, I have been feeling better.  Lost some weight, all that.  I’m still in the process of eliminating foods that maybe, perhaps, just possibly have been causing my body to rebel, feel bad and just generally be out of sync.  Like that total crap feeling I always used to get pulling out of a McDonalds or KFC.  I’m sure you can think of something that does you in as well.

I was thinking today, this is fine for my body, but what about my mind?  Could one eliminate bad information that comes into it and thus force it to function out of sync?  Could what I have been listening to on a constant basis, all the bad things barraging my mind …… - then it dawned on me.  Politics, Current news events,  World news - on and on with all the vitriolic bombast from every cretin on Facebook for instance.  FB is chocked full of vitriolic cretins.  What yammer!!  Just shut it off!

I long to stay connected, however.  Shutting yourself off from this, yet staying connected is a bit of a conundrum.  I have decided that it is about choice.  MY choice.  A choice to not internalize the bemoaning’s of the cretins and letting it eat at you.  It will be challenging, but I have decided to choose to filter it out.  Easier said than done, however, I think I’m on to something. 

What was that you just said about Obama?  Sorry, I wasn’t listening.  

It's always something

Trash truck pac man

I spend more time in my art studio these days.  It's in back of the house, by the alley.  Retirement of sorts is one reason for this.  Having no work is the other.  It's a blended combination caused by old age and The Great Recession.  I'm so glad this now has a name.  I preferred The Great Depression II, but it didn't catch on.  

You're wondering "what the hell has this got to do with a trash truck?"  

Waste Management has a schedule.  They pick our trash up on Tuesdays.  All morning.  I noticed this since I too have been here all morning.  First pass - about 8 AM.  But it's just a fly-by.  Just a go-through, as if to see if trash is still here.  It is.  The truck rumbles through at a pretty good clip for a Tyrannosaurus Rex, not picking anything up, but disturbing the gaggle of crows smorgas-boarding on my neighbors overflowing trash.  I wonder if this maybe is a time trial run.  You know, just to get the 'feel' of the track conditions or something.  Or to lay claim to indeed having the 'baddest truck on the circuit'.

Time trial is over and 15 minutes later the truck comes down from the other direction, picking up my other neighbor's trash, and disturbing the crows again to the south.  10 more minutes and the truck speeds down the street, not turning down our alley.  Then moments later, the other direction down the street.  I'm wondering if Rex has found some prey and is perhaps chasing it down before feasting on the caged meals awaiting in their green bins.

Silence.

Then Rex comes stealthily from the other alley's direction.  The crows scatter and Rex devours their meal, leaving few remnants as he leaves the alley - and, MY trash.

Then, Rex returns from the street this time down my alley and stops at our bins.  "Aha!  thought you would be spared, eh?"  He devours our bin of sacrifice.

Then up and down the alley twice more, and the street.  I can hear Rex in the distance now, feasting on neighbors south.  It remains a mystery.  I have to take out more trash...talk later.

It's always something

Newt-Cicle

A fellow blogger ‘The Voice of Reason’ posted this on Facebook today.  He took the photo and was asking around if anyone knew what it was.  I guess it was kinda like ‘Encounters of the N’th Degree’ or something like that movie.  Well, I looked closer and did a spectrum analysis on it and found the likeness of Newt frozen inside. 

This “Newt-cicle” must have come from another dimension, nearest thing I can figure.  I know we’ve been seeing this guy a lot lately.  Maybe this is a future thing sent back to the past, or, like, now.  Like in Back to the Future.

So what the hell happened in the future to cause this Newt-cicle to land in a residential cul-de-sac here in the northwest?   I just have no idea.  His expression looks like he’s surprised, turning and saying, “Hey, don’t freeze me into a big popsicle dick and put me into space!” 

Maybe he was elected president.  Wow. 

I know that tricky Dick got kicked out of the White House and sent home on a helicopter.  Clinton too, well, almost.  And God knows what’s going to happen to Obama.  But just imagine – the first president to get sent into space as a big frozen phallus.  Wow.  I can hardly wait for the future!

It’s always something…

Nation's designers unveil a "peek into the Grey"

Designers in New York showcased today a "peek into the grey" for 2012, based on Benjamin Poore's new colors.  Shown in the previous article, the new colors have arrived in the nick of time to give designers a pallette of non-color destined to dampen even the most obnoxiously cheery spirit for 2012.

"With the new presidency of Mitt Romney and the Republican takeover of Congress this year," explains Mr. Poore, "We will see the disappearing middle class in need more than ever of depressing colors to help them ease into darkness."  

It is thought that with ever increasing numbers of Americans stepping up into that coveted 1% that there will be more employment and indenture opportunities for the middle class as they enter into the robust and competitive servant class.  "People will be working more than one job and won't have time for grousing." says Mr. Poore.  "Moreover, they will be able to see the lives of the 1% more closely as the indentured class takes its role in society, most certainly providing the inspiration one needs to succeed in serving."

Mr. Poore declined to muse on the destiny of the Democratic Party, "...but with the ever increasing power of the 'SuperPac', it seems certain we're headed for a one-party system."  He added.

Nation's designers welcome in the new 'economy-inspired' paint colors for 2012

Benjamin Poore Introduces 8 New Hues

For the New Economy

Already offering you designers more than 3,000 shades, Benjamin Poore says its new 8-strong Color-less Stories collection not only reflects your clients' zero options for a bright future but also introduces a whole new concept in paint science by doubling the number of failures in each formula to create a full spectrum of color-less hues. 

Benjamin Poore says it's re-created the can with its new Color-less Stories paint line. The collection's nine palettes contain 240 hues of what the company calls an incredible array of dull-spectrum non-colors, which are achieved by omitting five to seven pigments rather than the usual three and celebrating the more depressing black and gray tints as filler. The company claims the paint is richer and the darks have more depth, emulating our less than vibrant economy and the deep despair our government is providing us, especially with elections coming up in 2012. 

The pigments being blended to create these nuanced hues have no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Because the company makes its own colorants it can ensure that when pigments are mixed into low-VOC paint the total VOCs remain under 50 grams per liter. This has less meaning considering a quicker death nowadays by starvation instead of breathing in fumes but is progress nonetheless.

The overtones generated from careful blending of no pigments will be readily apparent to builders, architects, designers, and homeowners who have all but lost everything they ever owned.  Natural versus artificial lighting will affect dynamic changes in the paint's otherwise drab characteristics throughout the day. "With Color-less Stories there's a complete lack of complexity and compromise to the color experience that is amazing," states Jay Romez, Benjamin Poore's director of color marketing, in a release about the new line. “This new color line accurately represents what our Congress and House of Representatives is truly providing the country now – a total lack of leadership and a total failure to act fostering a complete lack of trust and hope for any kind of even dismal future for this country”  he goes on to say, “the colors are right on target”.   

 The palettes assembled to debut this new paint mixology include an array of un-inspired shades of grey with individual colors ranging from a muted gray called sea salt to the vivid grey of the certain approaching Great Depression II . Each palette evokes a different place or mood to give the collection a personal feel—earthen blackish hues, elemental light greys, fiery blacks, fluid black-greys, black dead fields, naturally neutral, shades of gray and 'forclosure pewter' an uninspiring hue of a sickly national grey.

"And after all..." says Jay,"....the country WAS only black and white during the depression."

It's always something...

Big Ben Leans - but which direction?

Big Ben is leaning.  I’ve heard about this too and decided to look into some British history to see exactly which way it might actually be leaning.

With some help from Wikipedia, I fount that prior to the mid-19th century politics in the United Kingdom was dominated by the Whigs and the Tories. These were not political parties in the modern sense but somewhat loose alliances of interests and individuals. 

The Whigs included many of the leading aristocratic dynasties committed to the Protestant succession, and later drew support from elements of the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants, while the Tories were associated with the landed gentry, the Church of England and the Church of Scotland.

By the mid 19th century the Tories had evolved into the Conservative Party, and the Whigs had evolved into the Liberal Party. In the late 19th century the Liberal Party began to pursue more left wing policies, and many of the heirs of the Whig tradition became Liberal Unionists and moved closer to the Conservatives on many of the key issues of the time.

The Liberal and Conservatives dominated the political scene until the 1920s, when the Liberal Party declined in popularity and suffered a long stream of resignations. It was replaced as the main left-wing party by the newly emerging Labour Party, who represented an alliance between the trades unions and various socialist societies.

So it seems that it’s really leaning in the direction of your point of view.

From the bridge the Conservatives claim Big Ben is leaning to the Right.  From the other side, the Labour Party claims Big Ben is certainly leaning to the Left.

It’s not leaning much yet.  Experts say 1.64 feet (9 mm per year)  this is 1/16th the lean of the Tower in Pisa. They conclude:

"Our resident expert believes it will be between 4,000 and 10,000 years before it becomes a problem. They don't know what's behind the acceleration, however, and say that there's "No real proof what has caused it"."

An American entrepreneur has suggested moving Big Ben to Washington DC to solve the problem of which way it’s leaning and, hopefully someday to fix it.  

This was not approved, however, since experts estimated that the Administration, Congress and The House would not be able to agree on this for at least 15,000 years.  Big Ben would then share the Mall Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in its horizontal resting place.


It's always something...