betty windsor throws out the first pitch

I think Cricket is like the Queen’s Baseball. I have no idea. In fact, on this topic, I am blissfully clueless. I think they have flat bats and seem to run around bases. But teams get their asses handed to them with scores like 284 to 6. I think sometimes they score 100 points at a clip, but if that is true, why waste your time getting 6? I think games go on for days, too. I know they break for tea. It doesn’t seem that strenuous so I am unclear why they take such long breaks.

I watched this film to try to understand more, but I kept it muted because sometimes I get angry. It felt like listening to the narration would not be a good idea. So mute and watch:



Did you learn anything? Yeah, I agree, it was kinda long. But when I saw the credits mention Fleetwood Mac, I was very pleased that I kept it muted. I saw FM 3 or 4 times in the late 1970s into the 1980s. Mick Fleetwood made my skin crawl. Stevie Nicks made my pants tight. But now she looks like Mickey Rooney. Go figure. Next thing she’ll be selling Medigap Insurance.

Did you notice that the credits included a copyright claim of MMXIII? Methinks someone needs to go back to Roman Number School. Someone wrote or told me that the reason Roman numerals failed as a system was because it lacked a zero. It’s a good point, but incomplete. I think it failed because MDCCCLXXXVIII is a lot longer than 1888. Plus you have to do math to figure out the number. It’s more of an equation than a number.

I still don’t understand Cricket. And I care even less to understand it now than I did just 30 minutes ago.

friedy turns 163

A well-done commercial can be worth its weight in gold. Look at how much a company image is shaped by things having nothing to do with its product – the Caveguys have nothing to do with insurance. Those characters could have been created for a multitude of industries.

Twenty-some years ago, E&J Gallo introduced the Bartles & Jaymes Wine Cooler. Two old guys that we were led to believe owned this little wine business did the commercials. They were so believable that when they said they needed sales to help with make a mortgage payment, people sent in money. Here’s their bit:



I am sure I can find something more for us common people, but if you are in the business here’s a site (fee-based) with every commercial since 1975. Seems excessive.

These are old, but free. I found another collection with a searchable database.

Why am I looking at commercials? Well, J got me started on commercials on YouTube. She sent me the first one below. I burned out pretty quickly, but did net two more.

I don’t suggest you watch this one at work if your volume travels …


Toyota comes through …


The benefit of sports club …


Onward.

If you’re playing along at home, in honor of the Cut Flowers/Viagra crack in the post immediately below, I updated Reason #3 in the Top Ten Reasons Your Wife Masturbates in the lower part of the post.

I looked up Today in History (front page – plug in your date), and after all the self-flagellation lately with the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, it turns out that today is his birthday. Almost funny. Would have been 163. Happy birthday, Friedy!

Let’s scan the day’s other events … Hermann Goering poisoned himself in 1946; pussy used cyanide two hours before he was going to hang … in 1520, King Henry VIII of England orders bowling lanes at Whitehall; this is the dude that decapitated people regularly – guess you can’t have enough bowling balls … it’s “Alaska Day” in Alaska; WTF? You needed another holiday and that was the best name you could come up with? … wanna feel old? Bob Weir is 60 tomorrow; if you don’t know, it doesn’t matter – just a long, strange trip.

Also today, in 1905, President Grover Cleveland (Democrat, if case you’re wondering) wrote an article for Ladies Home Journal, joining others in the U.S. who opposed women voters. The president said, “We all know how much further women go than men in their social rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” At least the dems have been consistent – same folks that worked to defeat the Civil Rights Act in 1964. It’s what happens when your soul is defined by having someone lick your ass then you stick it up in the air to see what way the wind is blowing. I don’t do politics anymore, sorry. Just dislike hypocritical pathetic losers. OK. Done.

I’m excruciatingly bored. Can you tell?

escape

flight instincts are wonderful. i always think of white-tailed deer that i see so frequently in my area. they're good eating, if you go for such things - i'm a veg for the last 20 years, so i don't anymore. but even before we hunted bambi and served her up with a dark sauce riddled with garlic and fragrant herbs, there were plenty of predators in the wild. (side note - the good news is that aliens stopped anal probes; the bad news, they discovered we're made out of meat.)

how did deer adapt to a dangerous environment? long legs for running swiftly; nocturnal so they roam in darkness and hide during daylight.

i have my own flight instincts, my own predators. i find that when the pressure is great i sleep hard. i create diversions when i am awake. i do anything to avoid dealing with the situation at hand. i protect those around me by letting them live their lives in blissful ignorance. then slowly God presents the problems to me one by one, usually with workable solutions. somehow He manages to show me the ram in the bush.

the frustrating part is that He shows me - as has been said - just enough light for the next step. i can see the multitude of problems out there, can understand that just this one is being resolved. i continue to feel the weight of all the problems.

sometimes i find solace in remembering the weight of previous times. i recall that no matter how heavy it felt, somehow it all got resolved. somehow, God presented the ram in the bush, however piecemeal, until all the problems went away. new problems, new weights always came, but the old ones somehow got solved.

i need to remember that more often.

even when i do remember it, i can easily defeat its comforting message. God is in charge. if He wants a major change in life, then it happens. when i look at solving problems, it presupposes achieving the status quo ante. i know enough to understand that sometimes that historical position no longer exists. so i brace myself for the unknown around the bend.

sometimes, from a well-considered, dispassionate view, life just sucks. sometimes, and this is one of those times, i wish i could get nietzsche out of my head.

mixed mood

Not sure how to proceed through the day, if at all. So let's spend time in the extremes ...

Here are the first three verses of Genesis:

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Pick any word in the first verse, count its letters, and move ahead by the corresponding number of words. For example, if you start at beginning, you'd count 9 letters and move ahead 9 words, landing on the in the second verse. Count that word's letters and continue in this manner until you've entered the third verse.

You'll always arrive at God.

Qyotes from Friedrich Nietzsche :

One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.

If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.