Future Trends?

As the father of a 3-1/2 year old daughter, I occasionally think about what the future might hold in store for her. I mean, back in 1958 would anyone have predicted long hair on men? Leisure suits? Suburban teens playing with illegal narcotics as if they were wizened, old blues musicians? And worse of all, et cetera?

These were things that were all the rage when I was a teenager. (I haven't even mentioned disco music, streaking, CB Radios, Pet Rocks, T&A television shows, platform shoes, punk rock, and even more of that et cetera!)

So here are my predictions for my daughter's teen years, circa 2020:

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High Fashion Amputations. Sorry, losers! Tattoos are now removable. Piercings and ritual scarring just aren't permanent enough. The callow youth of the future will insist upon actually amputating parts of their bodies. "But, Da-a-a-a-d! (Insert name of future bad role model media star here) cut off her whole left hand! I just want to nip my pinkie finger off at the second knuckle. That way I can get some of that super-hot stump bling that all my girlfriends are wearing! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!!! You're the worst Father ever!!!"

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IV Party Bags. Yep. That old-fashioned "beer bong" just didn't get you drunk enough, fast enough. And don't get me started on those clumsy, inefficient, lip-burning crack pipes. The smart substance abuser of the future will wheel around those hospital IV coat-rack-thingies with a catheter permanently stuck into his or her arm.

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Pop Music. Well, forget about it! There is no way to predict this, history has shown us that much. Will there be a strong reaction to decades of "gangsta rap" that yields gentle, articulate songs about being polite to one another? Will there be a further degradation wherein the hit parade will consist of sound files constructed from individual words sampled from "old skool" raps? Will people be inserting audio-frequency-activated pneumatic jack-hammers into their ears because there just isn't any way to make 18" bass speakers louder than they are now? Will people only listen to music if it is available as a cranial-implant cell phone ring tone? The magic eight ball is mum on this one, folks!

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Bouquets!

Here are a few well-deserved virtual bouquets!

1. To The Baumans: Congrats on the birth of your healthy baby boy! Bonus points for naming him after the sheriff from "The Rifleman!"

2. To Melissa at JW Benefits: Thanks for making Well Path see the light!

3. To Michelle: My long-suffering wife deserves some real, actual roses, don't you think? I mean, when you consider what she has to put up with on a daily basis and all...

Reasons to Celebrate

1. Well, gang, it looks like my Health Insurance provider blinked! Yes - they have accepted my wife's recent surgery as being non-exempt from their "pre-existing condition" clause. WOO HOO! We'll now owe only thousands of dollars instead of tens of thousands of dollars.

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2. Can you believe it? The Internet is good for something other than downloading porn! Who knew? Yes, thanks to the Learning To Share blog I found a link for The American Package Museum.

Well, finding that website was reason enough to get excited. Go there and see great, classic packages from the shelves of grocery stores gone by. (Broadbanders should go to the index and click on the "3D" modeling links. You won't be sorry!)

Here is the icing on the proverbial Hostess Sno-Ball: The site is curated by one Ian House. Ian is a great guy I met back in 1980 during a period of my life where I ran away to join the circus, so to speak. It turned out to be more freak show than carnival and maybe I'll post about it some time. But right now I'm so stoked about finally locating my old pal, Ian, I'll save that for another day. We have some catching-up to do...

C&W Budget Beatles Bonanza!

OK! The heck with my totally awesome insights into the scriptures and current events, let's get back to what I know best...

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I just came across this on-line and it is my new favorite album of the moment!

Looks like the Design record label decided to create a new Country-Western/Brit-Beat hybrid for the budget bin crowd.

The phony group is named "The Fabulous Beats" which is genius itself. They recorded ten C&W "standards" in what they considered to be the style of The Beatles. That is to say, lots of Liverpool harmonies, Harrisonesque guitar signatures and quirky Ringo-style drumming.

Well, almost. But it really works for me!

(Note: I took some liberties is "flipping" the cover photo so that guitars are all right-handed. Yeah, I know McCartney was a lefty, but that doesn't mean Lennon & Harrison have to be! I'm just that much of a nerd!)

Find out more HERE!

Go Read Dirk_Star's Blog Today

1. THIS kind of post is why we all love going to Dirk's blog!

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2. This is a screen capture from the Google "news" page:

2.a WHY IS THE VA-TECH MASSACRE CONSIDERED "ENTERTAINMENT?"

2.b This pretty much mirrors the front page of my morning newspaper. That is, color pictures of Cho Seung-Hui with excerpts of his media-ready "manifesto" along with a color photo of this Sanjaya guy and the shocking news that he had "finally" been voted off that "American Idol" show.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this juxtaposition, but here we have "marginalized" people fighting for media air time as a way to make up for all the bad things in their lives. Have you ever seen the movie "THE KING OF COMEDY?" Rupert Pupkin has gone mainstream.

Sorry about the non-goofy posts, folks. I don't do them very well. With any luck there'll be a "return to form" soon...

Fun Blog: Learning To Share

Check out the new blog I found!

LEARNING TO SHARE

There you'll find lots & lots of great pop culture artifacts.

I mean, check it out:

1969 Corgi Toys

Batgirl Photo Spread

The Double Deckers

Reasons to be Cheerful

So let's be nice and learn how to share!

Reasonable Thomas

Yep, it was the Sunday after Easter, so the traditional Gospel reading was about "Doubting Thomas!" Here's the English Standard Version of John 20:19-29:

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Jesus Appears to the Disciples

19On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld."

Jesus and Thomas

24Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."

26Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

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It's been bugging me the last few years that history has been ragging on Thomas.

The first section (vs. 19 & 20) relates that the disciples were hiding out from the Jews when Jesus appears out of nowhere and shows them his nail holes, gashes, etc. It is then that they recognise him as The Lord.

Unfortunately for him, Thomas was out on a donut run and missed the whole thing.

In the second section, the ten other disciples are trying to relate this amazing story, and Thomas is said to have made the statement about, well you guys got to see the nail holes, I'll believe it when I see them, too.

About a week later, Jesus reappears in the same fashion and, once again, shows off his marks to the last disciple, just as he did for the other ten.

Here's what I think people are missing: Jesus was actually snapping on the other ten disciples when he said, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Think about it! We don't know the exact body language or tone of voice our Savior used. Imagine him standing in front of Thomas, but looking over his shoulder at the other ten guys with a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

"Yeah, Thomas, some people won't believe me unless I magically appear in front of them and show off my nail marks. Some people made it their life's work to walk with me, observe all my miracles, listen to my teaching and then still doubted that I would fulfill my Father's prophecy. Some people would even desert me in my hour of need. Gosh, I hope you're not one of those people, Thomas! Oh, I'm sorry, Peter, is there something you'd like to share with the group? Does the phrase 'cock-a-doodle-doo' jog your memory?"

Hmmm. Or maybe he was talking to me?

Doodles by Lee

Lee left a comment at my other blog, but her doodle blog is so much fun, I thought I'd share here. Click on the link below and enjoy!

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Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

Friday The Thirteenth? I Got Off Easy!

Not a bad day, on the whole. For a change the whole family had the day off, so it was a Father-Daughter-Mommy Day. Rare!

Mariel pulled the rear-view mirror off of the van's windshield and she knocked my glasses of and messed up the nose pads. No biggie, though.

One of the few things I know how to repair on a car is the rear-view mirror. For $1.77 plus tax I got the two-stage adhesive and glued the whoozis back on the windshield.

The glasses required only a quick trip to the LenseCrafters. There was no wait and I was on my way in 15 minutes. Gotta love those free adjustments!

The cherry on top? We got our first-ever dividend refund check from our car insurance agent! Yep, fifty-six sweet, sweet dollars. It'll pay for our tag renewals, which are due this month.

I guess you can't lose 'em all...

So how was your Friday the 13th, hmmm?

Budget Beatles Quickie

One Recording Session + One Photo Session = Infinite Budget LPs!
OK, this is really only TWO LPs. I know of at least 2 others for which I don't have photos readily available.

UPDATE: I found a third variant 04/30/07!

Also, one of these group photos (the one with the guy sitting on the bass drum) was used for a LOU REED bootleg back in the 'seventies! Speculation was rife that the drum-sitter was Lou, himself! I don't think so...
Somebody must've thought there was a "Yesterday And Today" butcher cover underneath the BEATS!!!! artwork. Can't blame a guy for trying, I guess.

Craigtown Round-Up

1. How's the struggle going with our Health Insurance?

Well, the Hospital statement ("this is not a bill") arrived and it's a whopping $12,000-plus. Of course, this is twice as much as we were told it would be. My last phone conversation with a drone at the Insurance Company was so dismissive and unsatisfactory that I have been working with the agent ("insurance pimp") that services our company.

I actually have a contact name there (first and last!) and have been working with her to provide doctors' records to show that my wife's condition was, in fact, not diagnosed in the six months prior to our joining the plan and should not be dismissed as a "pre-existing condition."

In fact, this kind lady phoned me at work to verify that she received the records, they are being reviewed and she will keep me informed of the progress.

My only nagging worry is that the agent is a shill for the Insurance Company and will glad-hand me as long as it takes to use up my window of opportunity to appeal the denial of benefits. I plan to contact the Department of Justice in the Sate Capital before the 180 day deadline expires, though.

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2. The Wife's Recovery

She is on the mend but is still sore and can only do restricted lifting. She can pick up and hug Mariel, which she could not do during her first week of recovery. She is also able to drive again.

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3. Ants in The Bathroom!

I don't think I've mentioned that we've had an on-going problem with ants in our bath tub. Yep, since October, folks! We're on our second exterminating company. The consensus is that these are ants that like dampness and because of the rotten shower retrofit job, there's dampness behind the existing tiles.

This isn't a picture of OUR bathroom, but there are similarities. The window, for one thing. The tiles haven't (yet) started falling off the wall, but they're getting there.

We've been going nuts with the various options, none of which are really super-satisfying. Tub surround vs. new tile? Install a new window while we're at it? Brick up the window? Can a tub surround be made to work with the window where it is, or will it cause a worse problem?

Oy! Dorky Dad, a little help here!

You know, I think it's just about time for another "Budget LPs From The Sixties" entry...

A Quickie...

It is generally a safe call to say that you should close the magazine and walk away if you ever read the following opening:

"Dear Penthouse Forum,

One day in Teletubbie Land..."

Just sayin' is all...

I Went Fishing & Caught A Horse!

Yes, my recent shut-out from the "WIZARD'S HAT" awards
caused me to wage such a passive-aggressive, self-pity fueled campaign that I was mollified by the much-appreciated (and, perhaps, more prestigious) "HORSE-LAUGH AWARD!"




To quote the awards committee:

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Wizened Wizard said...

Too long unsung and unheralded, you, Craig D (sometimes even doing business as "The Nameless One"), deserve an award of some kind.

Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I bestow upon you The Hearty Horse-laugh (which, if you think about it, is the better end of the animal to be awarded).

You always put a smile on our faces!

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A big "Thank You" to everyone who made this possible. Things are pretty tense these days in "Craigtown," so I really appreciate the props!