Last night I went down to Albany and didn't get home until quarter to one in the morning. Tonight I went down to Albany and didn't get home until quarter to one in the morning. Last night was due to laundry. Tonight was due to Metallica. That's a way better reason for staying out late!
Now it's time to sleep for the next three days.
Yep, an actual MS-DOS machine. With an Intel processor. The IBM PCjr was IBM's attempt at the home market. It was faster than either the Commodore or the Apple ][. It s competitors were 8 bit machines and limited to a maximun of 64K. The PCjr came with a base of 64K and an initial expansion to to 128K with more promised. But it was more expensive and not quite IBM PC compatible. Its expansion was weird and it used proprietary ports (electrically standard but mechanically different). It was produced from 1983 to 1985. Its advanced graphics mode was adopted for the Tandy 1000 series and became known as Tandy graphics.
This one I bought at Goodwill. For $5. I think the original list was around $1200. It works, well it would if I could find a 5.25" boot diskette. I have another one with an 3rd party 2nd disk drive. I had to talk a couple of kids out of it. They had found it in the trash before me. I had to explain to them that it would not ever run run Windows. After than they had no interest.
oh weels. I found the trailer and a couple more clips from Babe in YT, but VOX won't let me add them or even search for them. something about "life being cruel sometimes". whatevs.
ahem. Babe is a tale of a little orphan pig who looks for and eventually finds his life's role. not as the centerpiece of a holiday dinner, he hopes.
cute. but there's been talking animals in movies before. but not like this one, where each animal lips were synchronized with the audio, even when dubbed in other-than-English languages. that's some serious effort.
another bit of trivia: Babe, the pig himself was played by 58 genuine Staffordshire piglets in various stages of development.
Babe the pig isn't the only one who speaks: everyone speaks, Ferdinand the paranoid duck, Fly, the sheperd dog who becomes a mother-of-sorts to Babe much to the displeasure of her mate Rex, the house cat, the sheep, the barn mice... they all have more lines than the laconic Farmer Hoggett and his wife ("the Boss" to the animals).
...
Horse:
The cat says they call it Christmas
Ferdinand the duck: Christmas!
Christmas dinner, yeah. Dinner means death. Death means carnage! Christmas
means carnage! [
flies away frantically]
Ferdinand the duck:
Christmas means carnage!
Ferdinand has figured out a way to escape such fate by taking over the rooster's role. thus, dawn at the Hoggett farm is greeted with a hearty series of quacks.
but what about Babe? what will he do?
for reference, here be the unpossible-to-embed-at-this-time clips
Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myyb4FUUMwI
Babe sings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtA-FpTZOQw
make sure the kids of all your friends watch this movie. give it to them for Christmas. their parents will remember you when their kids refuse to eat bacon/porkchops/ham for at least a month.
The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "haunter". This likely refers to their large reflective eyes and the wailing cries of some species (the Indri in particular).
Lemurs are primates. There are five families of lemurs which contain 99 species and subspecies.
Quick facts:
- Lemurs live on the island of Madagascar as well as surrounding islands
- Lemurs range in size from 30 grams to 10 kg
- Before humans inhabited Madagascar, there were species of lemurs that weighed up to 240 kg
- Lemurs use their tails for communication as well as for balance when leaping between trees
- Lemurs have opposable thumbs
- Lemurs have a reflective layer over their retinas to enhance night vision
- Lemurs depend heavily on the sense of smell and have large nasal cavities and moist noses
Click each pic to embiggen and see some lesser-known lemurs.
Just got word that my son-in-law briefed President Obama last week!
I have a really amazing friend in California, she's an artist and also a practicioner of Ayurvedic medicine. When she lived here she gave me some shards of wisdom. Like drinking hot water with lemon in the morning.
Now I've become intrigued by the practice on a deeper level. I know that the practice is from India or South Asia. And they emphasize yoga.
I was reminded by Aubrey about my seasonal habits. I change my environment as the seasons change. I put away my beach photos and put out photos of old snow-covered barns in Vermont. I bust out my maroon fleece pajamas. Blankets get draped over chairs. It is very much like the moon cycles, it's quite a feminine aspect.It's quite a mystery, thought.
It's a mystery to me, though, why I have these cravings. It's not as though it's always warmer in March than it is in November. I have to wonder if humans evolved with the agrarian cycles. Or if it's even more primitive.
So I was pleased to hear that part of Ayurvedic medicine is to encourage people to tune into these seasonal cycles. They also encourage a gluten-free diet. Yay!
Here is my Greenwashing report for the week, I'm using someone else's blog because it's so brilliant. Triple Pundit has a Greenwashing Archive. There's some really funny stories in there. Like the new food labelling project called "Smart Choices".
Their goal is to point to products that are healthy for us. Among their certified cereals? Fruit Loops and Cocoa Crispies. Yeah, take that before your marathon!
And the new Republican stance on CO2: more of it will actually benefit life on Earth! Yes, you can buy back those SUVs now.
On a more practical note, here are 5 ways to green your coffee! :)
Brew Your Own: Eliminate your need for disposable cups and save money in the process by making your own coffee at home- hot or iced. Even better, take the Good Earth Coffee “Brew at Home” Pledge and Good Earth will donate $1 to The Trust for Public Land, a non-profit that works to conserve parks, gardens, and natural places.
Buy Organic, Shade Grown, and/or Fair Trade: Organic coffee is grown without the use of pesticides; shade grown coffee is grown without unnecessary clearing of rainforest, which disrupts bird habitats (shade grown is also sometimes referred to as “Bird-Friendly”); and Fair Trade refers to the practice of providing fair wages and conditions for workers. Ideally, choose a coffee that meets all three standards.
Invest in a Reusable Filter: At this point, I hate buying any product intended for one-time use. Although paper filters can be composted, there is still an environmental cost associated with their production. (Also, I just think the coffee tastes better run through a reusable filter.)
Use a Thermos: Rather than leaving the coffeemaker on “warm”, making multiple pots, or reheating in the microwave, conserve energy by making a day’s worth of coffee and pouring it into a vacuum-sealed thermos. This will ensure that you have a constant supply of hot coffee to keep you going all day.
Compost the Coffee Grounds: Finally, make sure your grounds make it into the compost bin. Or, during the growing season, sprinkle the grounds over flower and vegetable beds as a nitrogen-rich mulch.
Suggested by JM:
“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation. That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.
Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?
I've almost always completed books that I've started. Maybe because I usually read books that have been well-reviewed or maybe because I'm generally an optimist and that even after a slow start I hope that it might get better, or maybe I have a stick-to-it-iveness that says if you're going to start something you might as well finish it.
Speaking of of finishing it, that does remind me of one of the few books I didn't finish -- "IT" from Stephen King. Clocking in at over a thousand pages and at the apex of his drug-addled, no-one-will-edit-him 80s long windedness (Steve: more isn't always better) -- I plodded along in this for about 400 pages and then said, "No mas!"
Oddly, I know several people for whom this book was one of their favorites, but I couldn't stand IT.
Oh my....here are some videos of dogs greeting their masters who have been gone for months in Iraq or Afghanistan.
I am sobbing by the time I see this last one. Don't tell me that animals don't have "opinions" or "emotions". WOW.
