Faster

OK, it's slower. But I'll bet it's *much* cooler.

I'll take a mulligan

What an odd place for a mini-golf course.
From roadsideamerica.com, which was new to me. I dunno, it *looks*
like a pretty big, pretty well organized site. Maybe just the thing
to bookmark if you were doing a Travels With Charley thing.

Boing-Boing-Boing

U.S. troops practice "war-hopping" [a tactic designed to disorient the enemy]

Iraq

Two quotes, from the WSJ, just representative of many.

"It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."--Senator Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.), June 27, 2005, U.S. News & World Report.

"And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire. Our troops are dying and there really is no end in sight."--Senator Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), June 23, 2005, Armed Services Committee hearing.

And I have to wonder. Will an American kid be blown up a month from
now because an American senator gave a pep-talk to boost the morale
of a dispirited bomb maker?

Why don't you just send them the detonators senator?

monkey time

Organic

A cute Star Wars take off with vegetables.
(about 5 minutes long, and with sound)
Punfuly funny.

Yahoo cute

Looking through some old posts last night, I noticed quite
a few of these images had broken links. I guess Yohoo doesn't
keep images up forever anymore. OK, so if a year from now you
see this post and wonder what the image was, it's just a picture
of me, helping the downtrodden in Dafur.

More cute

A dog cleaning up his own pile of richard durbin. Har.

Reading the News

Yahoo wins hands down when it comes to intsy-animal-uber-cute
photos. Don't images of baby penguins make you wish for a
bowling ball? Yeah, me too.

And in other news-- From a Yahoo story about somebody using
Nicolas Cage's old email address:

Andrew Briney, publisher of Information Security, a trade magazine for information technology professionals, said Cage's doppelganger likely is operating with insider info--the person would have to know, for instance, that the email address once was valid.

But once that one bit of information is confirmed, watch out--spoofing an email address, Briney said, is "painstakingly easy."

In plain terms, an email spoof, Briney said, "means you're impersonating or masquerading as somebody else."

"Painstakingly easy"? Huh? What is painstakingly easy? I'm adamantly confused.

Have a happy day.

Happy Ending

Isn't it nice that one of these stories has finally ended well?
Seems like forever since we've had a happy ending. So I hope
this kid is sitting behind a ginormous bowl of ice cream right
now.

Handsome plumber calls French tourists to Poland

Ad campaign poster from the Polish Tourist Office(PTO). In a tongue-in-cheek dig at the French fear of eastern European competition, the Polish tourist board is using the image of a handsome plumber to promote Poland as a holiday destination.

Me, I'm just wondering how they got hold of my picture.

Where did I put that chainsaw?

I *knew* it was only a matter of time before this latest e-mail address
got onto someone's spam list. It isn't bad yet but I expect it will
get worse with time -- as the Viagra peddlers share their lists with
the refinance-now crew.
And now I have to wonder if the 'remove' url's and procedures are worth
doing. At least on the semi-legitimate sites, you'd think they'd want
to really remove your address.. lest they tick off someone who has chainsaws
and poor anger management skills.
Ah well. I better get out there and make some money.

Sunset

100_1261, originally uploaded by lumberjack.

So this is the last sunset of the vacation.
Good one it was. You can't hear it, I hope, but in the background
was a band doing Jimmy Buffet covers. I think they were doing Volcano
when this picture was snapped.
So now we're back and I'm no longer using the internet connection
of Mr Default. (I just turned on the laptop and there it was, waiting
to be used.... so I used it, all the while feeling slightly criminal, like
I was using someone's phone or cooking in their kitchen only they didn't
know I was there)

Tired feet

100_1288, originally uploaded by bob15.

and they have to be back in the forest on Monday [darnit]

Insane-150 foot-Swing

100_1278, originally uploaded by bob15.

The breeze up there was nice, well, I imagine it was.

On the Beach

100_1257, originally uploaded by bob15.

[Dancing the hokey-pokey]

Golfing Frustration

100_1090, originally uploaded by bob15.

It keeps rolling back down,and it's just not fair.

Look out fish

100_1247_edited, originally uploaded by bob15.

Where is that stinkin white whale?

Sunset

100_1202, originally uploaded by bob15.

And every night at sunset the people below us sing God Bless America. No lie, they really do.
We joined in the first night but several people complained that my voice was scaring the ducks
so I just do my church-lip-synch thing now.

beachgirls

100_1148, originally uploaded by bob15.

Some of them are shy.

sunny day at the beach

100_1130, originally uploaded by bob15.

and I'm making new friends

Beach

It's off to the beach for a week Saturday.(though I'm not sure I can
last a week in a place with no trees to cut down)

It's the kid's last day of school today so the beach will be a good
distraction from the end of school-friend blues. Their field day was
yesterday; a Portugese picnic in which the seventh graders lead teams
from the lower grades in competition. Our team came in third out of
eighteen though we could have done better "except for my first grader kept
throwing-up" Ah well. Wishing first place finishes to everyone. And no
throwing-up. [Have a good one]

Scholastic Also-rans

OK, you wouldn't have found either of these guys partying with me. But the guy on
the right looks like he might have thrown the frisbee back. I know the guy on the
left. He's the one who would call the parking narcs on you for an expired sticker.

Danged ol Dean

Oh I hope this guy stays around for a long, long time. (I didn't
even know there was an election coming up)

Ingenious Immigration

When you've gone to this much trouble and shown this much
creativity in order to get here, I say you should be allowed
to stay.

Harassing Hat Huggers

Bad Boy?

Seems like this guy just can't keep out of trouble. Still, a Crowe's-hit-somebody-again
story is better than Michael Jackson imbroglio or the latest Koran nonstory.

Not Sure

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite highly publicized charges of U.S. mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, the head of the Amnesty International USA said on Sunday the group doesn't "know for sure" that the military is running a "gulag."

Executive Director William Schulz said Amnesty, often cited worldwide for documenting human rights abuses, also did not know whether Secretary Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved severe torture methods such as beatings and starvation.

Schulz recently dubbed Rumsfeld an "apparent high-level architect of torture" in asserting he approved interrogation methods that violated international law.

"It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea," Schulz told "Fox News Sunday."

Huh? Not sure? Great googily-moogily, he's not sure. I know what it was, the wing-nuts have gotten away with any and all allegations for so long that the truth no longer matters to them. If it sounds like it could be true, well, then lets get it out there. How can they ignore the fact that their constant running-down of the US effort is giving hope to those who would destroy us? (and costing American lives)

Women Drivers

It's so hard to believe that this is *still* an issue in
the islamic world:

“Driving by women leads to evil,” Munir al-Shahrani wrote in a letter to the editor of the Al-Watan daily. “Can you imagine what it will be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men.”

Or, maybe have to call her husband, or brother, or father so that
*they* can come out, raise the hood, and pretend they know what
they're looking at while they wait for the tow truck to come.

It's About Time

Good news: Amnesty International is finally going to investigate the
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's capricious use of the taser.