One legacy of my British upbringing is an addiction, affliction affection for snooker. I played it, long enough to stretch a good ways across the 12 foot x 6 foot slate. Went to halls, played for hours with friends Chris Burgess and William Lloyd, all of us over 6-feet tall. I was good enough to be happy, but it never crossed my mind to want to turn pro or even push for it.
Instead, I watched — frame after frame after frame — though never had a desire to go see it in person, which seems odd in retrospect. And Alex “Hurricane” Higgins was one of the players who caught my interest, like few others. (Here’s exactly how I remember him). It was the speed at which he played, and I think I subconsciously styled my game after him. He died over the weekend, aged 61. Seems extraordinary. Penniless and toothless I found out. You know, in a way you don’t actually want to find out. I only looked up his name because one of the podcasts I download comes from Ireland. It had Alex Higgins in the title and I, correctly and sadly, guessed it was about his death. (Other articles, here, here, and a judging personal account here – and some details here, though for an obituary it dwells too much, too eagerly on the flaws, the incidents.
It makes me wonder how some of the other players I knew then; how they’re doing now.
About every good player did catch my interest back then though. Ray Reardon I remember as the oldest. Jimmy White, the fastest. Dennis Taylor the stodgiest – yet with glasses like the ones I’d newly acquired; who somehow got them custom made to be able to see the balls better. Cliff Thorburn and Terry Griffiths are two other names that come to mind as in the mix.
Just the angles, the mental gamesmanship; I distinctly remembering admiring both of those traits in the game. It’s a far game far more centered on defense than pool, and the “snooker” comes from putting the ball behind another ball or pocket angle, so there’s no direct shot on the ball you’ve got to hit next.
Alex Higgins was the Rolling Stones.
The player I admired most was Steve Davis; cool, calm, collected. Red haired, focused. Didn’t care about hurting you on the table. Relentless. Skilled. Not as flashy or reckless. Skilled. The Beatles. The game still fascinates me; news of the game still grabs me. If it was available easily to see, I would. I can watch pool on TV; but i play a great deal more of that.
Snooker or pool, I need to play more. Want to play more. It brings me back to my roots, to my uprooted childhood.
Just that, I wore possible new contact lenses for just about four hours today. Tried to jam them in my eyes Monday and took almost 90 minutes I think to get them in. It was uber-frustrating and painful and every now and then on the edge of terrifying and giving up. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life for which I had a choice. Made my eyes swollen and sore and Lerone, who helped me the most said it could be effecting my vision after I finally got them in; that my eyes would get better after a while, after practice.
They didn’t seem to work though I think my left one was inside out. I had all week to put them in, but did not because I didn’t have time to suffer through it and then see everything in blurness.
So today, they wee in and they seemed to work better. The one in my left eye felt better, too. It seemed easier to open my eyes wide enough to get poking, and I could function with them in, but something still seemed off with my vision.
Even though I have no idea how I did it, i also got my lens out in a very short time – about 15 minutes. Replaced the water / fluid / whatever the stuff …
This could work. After today, I would like it to.
There’s no way I can contact these guys without some serious input of time and possibly cash.
But on July 4, in Payson, after the fireworks were over, I found a camera in the grass. it was dark, it was a minor miracle I saw it.
Just glancing long enough to get some ID, for anyone looking for these photos the name Nathaniel Neddon has appeared. If you’ve searched for your name, I have your 4GB card. And just looking at the date modified dates, these photos cover a few years (which stuns the hell out of me because I download ASAP in case card corrupts or I misplace / lose my camera). So they really might be wanted. By someone.
Answer these questions.
1) Canon or Nikon
2) How many children in photo
3) Name of park where found
4) The mistake I made in this post
I’ve gotten resigned to the idea that buses will whoosh past me even if I’m close to the bus stop and clearly waving at them as a passenger that I want to get on.
It’s happened a few times.
So, leaving home to go to work – and after waving to everyone in the car as they went to daycare and work – I see the Valley Metro bus pull up into the left turn lane onto the street where I wait. I’m close to e corner. i half-heartedly jog to the corner as it turns, just pretty much as a token gesture. Yet it stopped. I bowed briefly, got on, said thanks you made my day better. And when I got off later I told him I really appreciated him stopping.
I understand that buses can’t stop everywhere; I understand that certain places are dangerous or unsafe to stop. And I did note down the number of the bus, but now I’ve forgotten it.
Or something. This short article about making female masturbation “bad behavior” on par with cutting and low self-esteem, diddles around a bit before a great eye-opening climax:
Sexuality is more like a muscle, and if you don’t use it, you lose it. One reason many women have trouble orgasming in a sexual relationship is they don’t masturbate enough, and they have trouble knowing what works and what doesn’t. Indeed, the research links losing your virginity later in life to experiencing more sexual dysfunction. And anecdotally, most of us can think of times when we’ve been so busy that we don’t have time to think about sex (i.e., experiencing those lustful thoughts so condemned by Christians fundies), and so when we get home and are expected to perform, we have trouble getting aroused. Following the fundamentalist list of sex rules seems like the quickest way possible to drain a marriage of any passion, which strikes me as a bad idea if you want to hold those marriages together.”
Yesterday we went to a sushi place in Scottsdale after Carrie picked me up at work. I want to go back
Egg Omelet, Philadelphia Roll, Rainbow Roll, Spicy Tuna. All chosen to be happy for younger palates. Carrie and I ate too many bites. Eddie and Jack didn’t eat enough. And Eddie REALLY objected to the idea and quietly and stubbornly faced away from the table. When he wasn’t doing that he was playing and dunking his nigiri-sushi in soy sauce. And dunking. And dunking. And dunking. Added tension to what could have been a fun experience. We knew things weren’t going to go well when Eddie didn’t want to bite into the culinary adventure and abject horror that is … a spring roll.
Mostly there was a kid having a bad day, who stayed silent and heard no a lot. It happens, unfortunately. Jack, too, didn’t eat much though he got into the egg omelet later. But he didn’t seem to be having a whole lot of fun, separate from the food at the table.
It was complicated.
[Post-haste? Um, no. This post is post-posted. That is, I posted it July 8 for June 28, because I forgot to wrap it up then.]
So The Shtuff is a collection of blogs and sites, and news pages, I visited. Some I finished reading. Not all necessarily caught my attention but some I’m thinking others might get something out of. Started at Twitter, then my still anemic Google Reader feed – but the capillary web of bloodshot goodness exploded from there. In no particular order:
•• The Happiness Project: Eight Excellent Tips for Living That My Parents Gave Me … SLATE.com
•• The Happiness Project: Why You Should Force Yourself To Wander … SLATE.com
•• Don’t Be Fooled By Apple … The Street
•• The President vs. the Pop Star on Facebook … The Big Money …. Also, enough with the metaphorical idea that we all like to see a star fall. Try the actual. She has no style because she’s all styles. Truly a mess.
•• Fashion Victim! Lady Gaga takes a bad fall … NYDailyNews.com
•• FleeHarmony.com … The Big Money
•• When Print Becomes Precious … The Big Money (with typo in URL :) )
•• Burger King Blows Its Marketing Wad … The Big Money / Daily Bread … Yeah, juicy, dripping burger’s have never looked so good. (NSFW)
•• Let’s hope it was accidental. And she’s still a damn stunner, honestly on and off court. But the last two paragraphs don’t bode well. –> Jennifer Capriati resting in hospital after ‘accidental overdose’ of prescripition drugs … NY Daily News.
•• HOLY SHIIIIT. God Forbid, ‘My Baby Is Black’ – The Root. — A little treatise on part of a trailer to a film released in 1961.
•• Why Can’t Twitter Handle It’s Record Traffic … The Big Money
•• Airline Food Is More Disgusting Than You Know
•• Michael Jackson: The Writings On The Wall … The Root
•• The most idiotic thing I read today? — Please, Dear Lord, Do Not Let Soccer Become An American Obsession drezner: Foreign Policy …. And WTF, commentators here are verbose
•• Postcards From Hell … Foreign Policy — Um, prepare to tear up. Stunning images
•• Gun-Rights Decision May Have Limited Impact Newsweek.com
•• Why Is It So Hard To Make a White iPhone? The Big Money
•• It’s Been Such a Pleasure Working With You The Big Money
•• It Gets Worse: Apple Censors a Gay Kiss in Oscar Wilde Comic The Big Money
•• Civil Rights Organizations Call Out Kagan The Root
•• Mexico vs. Argentina 2010: At World Cup, Carlos Tevez scores twice as Argentina wins, 3-1 Washington Post
•• West Virginia’s coal country pays tribute to Byrd, who never forgot it Washington Post
•• Kagan’s Hat Trick SLATE.com / Supreme Court Breakfast Table
•• The Narcissism of the Small Difference SLATE.com — It’s hard to find in all the garbage, but occasionally Christopher Hitchens makes a point worth reading and even pursuing
•• One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists TruthDig.com
•• Presidential Memorandum: Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution WhiteHouse.gov — Seems an important milepost to the future. Potentially, anyway.
•• Broadband Availability to Expand New York Times
•• Why We Check In: The Reasons People Use Location-Based Social Networks Read Write Web
•• 21 Unique Location Examples from Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and MyTown Social Fresh
AND … AND … AND
•• Greg Sargent at a WaPO blog forgetting about his own weak-on-the-facts past. His bio is also horribly twee “(in those days people mostly did journalism on paper”) crouched permanently in the defensive position that is the charge against “old media.” As if Politico isn’t old media, as if old media hasn’t moved to the Internet. AS if they’re separate. Exactly the charge he levels against others. Yawning inconsistency or just, yawn?
Which was in response to this quick update from Atlantic columnist Jeffrey Goldberg on the Washington Post’s firing of yet another blogger (though for different reasons than others of the past, Dan Froomkin and Ben Domenech.) His previous post on the subject
•• Dan Froomkin Fired From Wa Po.com Welcome Back To Pottersville — In the way back machine related to the latest Washington Post fracas Along with the following posts: Was Dan Froomkin Fired For Declining Traffic? Froomkin Says No. (Andrew Sullivan/The Daily Dish) …… The Washington Post, Dan Froomkin and the establishment media (Glenn Greenwald/Salon.com) …… The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why? (Glenn Greenwald/Salon.com, 6/18) ……
•• Who Runs Gov. beta. Seriously Washington Post bloggers are “partnershipped” with them and it’s a fairly innocuous, pretty close to anonymous, in-house entity?
•• A series of Slate articles that I followed solely based on headline worthiness – but then read neough to want to inclue here. Happiness Myth No. 3: Venting Anger Relieves It.” (Or is that Relieves IT. Nice take, didn’t like that the studies cited were mostly not referenced or even linked to. So, “studies” get to an unsupported (to the reader) conclusion. …. Dear Prudence. The Daily Bump and Grind – about a company that makes employees dance when they get rewards / recognition? Seriously, WTF? Wish I knew which company it was. … “On game shows, female host usually lose big.” wherein “lose” wasn’t really supported but “unsupported” was. Surprised, too, that the link was from 2001. Missed shows on The Game Show Network, but the date most likely a factor there.
That one also includes a link to this “poem“:
A quiz-master I’d like to be,
But as I am a girl, you see
Perhaps I will apply to go
As his assistant on his show.
I’ll have to usher in each guest,
Persuading them to do their best:
But if they lose, I’ll have to say
“Bad luck, dear,” or “It’s not your day!”
Each night a different dress I’ll wear,
And not forget to style my hair.
Apart from this I must display
A personality bright and gay.
Won’t mother have a grand surprise—
She hardly will believe her eyes:
“Quick, Dad,” she’ll cry, “Look on the screen—
Just see who’s on with Hughie Green!”
•• No Orgasms, Please. We’re Women (Or ladies if you follow this link??
•• Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia died today, aged 92. He was, famously, still working. The Associated Press had a comprehensive and good article going. Found at the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune.
•• Wired.com, “Yo Senators: Here’s What You Should Ask Petraeus” Questions inquiring Senators could ask the shoo-in Gen. David Petraeus upon his confirmation hearings. Including, “Let’s be real. That July 2011 drawdown date is bullshit, right?”
•• A nifty Slate piece called, The Agnostic Manifesto, which won’t change my beliefs at all, but has started to make me think I should define them for myself so I can articulate them if anyone asks.
—Yes, Related Pages links works
and support and implementation is here
I know most of the features won’t be relevant. I HAD to upgrade my iTunes this time too, which I didn’t like. I did it at work, but I’m not going to be a big fan of doing that at home…
Taking a good long while ….
Don’t know for sure but this “antique” playing card listing shows pictures of cards that look exactly like crappy decks of cards you can buy anywhere for the equivalent of $3 or $4. How do I know? I bought a few when I was in Europe as a kid less than 20 years ago. They are all over.
Crappy as in no coating, paper, cheap and nasty.
“This 12.2.5 update improves security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.
For detailed information about this update, please visit the following Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190660“
And what a ______ update!. Labeled critical. Now I suppose it’s a good thing and I suppose I should be thankful (?) that Microsoft still supports Office for Mac. Oh, and this update is 200.7 MB. W T F ?
(Note: Microsoft AutoUpdate box wouldn’t let me cut and paste that. Grrr.)
I haven’t paid attention to this Colorado race much – but I know Romanoff was likely asked not to run by the Democrat Party machine. I also know after this letter he sent to supporters today that I like him. Dana Milbank I generally do like, but he’s got several agendas he pursues regularly that can get too inside the deskjockeystrap and just too political, without enlightening anything,.
Romanoff’s letter to supporters starts: “Dana Milbank got my name right — but that’s about it. Mr. Milbank’s attempt to malign my character consumed 13 paragraphs in Sunday’s Washington Post and Monday’s Denver Post. Nearly every paragraph is false or misleading. The newspapers’ decision to publish this work of fiction is disappointing enough. What makes matters worse is Mr. Milbank’s decision to discard the evidence he made a pretense of seeking.”
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Funny, someone just asked about joining a social media team for Terry Goddard. And I believe this is the second or third column I’ve printed at my site. This one is about an industry I have mixed feelings about. It does make you pay extraordinary high interest rates – but on the other hand, it’s not like they hide or try and slip in hidden fees. It’s all up front.
Obviously people in Arizona voted the industry out. My feelings are still mixed and I voted for the industry to say. It’s just another option another tool, people have to stay afloat. If used wisely – and sparingly.
Note – at some point media should stop giving Goddard “My Turn” columns since he’s running for governor and most of his columns are feel good “This is what I’m doing” turns. And he has done a lot of good – and well, my feelings are somewhat mixed here, leaning more positively. So essentially free ad space and more importantly, not giving the same space to opponents.
Making Sure Payday Lenders Don’t Evade Law’s Sunset
(Phoenix, June 14, 2010) Attorney General Terry Goddard has written the following “My Turn” column about his efforts to ensure that the payday loan industry complies with the expiration of the state’s payday lending law on June 30.
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This weekend was marked by change. And unlike so many things, none of it was change merely for the sake of change. Not shifting papers – shifting lives.
Carrie started her first day at work today, Bard Peripheral Vascular in Tempe.
Eddie and Jack started their first day in a new daycare.
I eagerly await the skinny on both. Carrie has the chance to organize and give permanent direction for a new department within the company, or at least within a division of it. I’m not exactly sure. The boys have spent their whole daycare lives in Tucson, so their change is profound. For Jack, 1, there will be confusion but not too many feelings beyond that, I’m guessing. For Eddie, 4, who has been there longer and can talk, and has established relationships with Miss Amber and Miss Elizabeth and friends, it has to be harder. But everyone adapts, and the younger you are, the easier it is – or should be.
You can’t go back; the inexorable, inescapable reality of time – for most mere mortals – is that it won’t stop for you to adjust; it won’t reverse itself for do-overs or to fix those things you really really really wish would rather have not happened. And despite everything that means, both good and bad, it can be no other way. If so, even then, people – of any age – would continue to fail to live in the moment. The push for perfection – where perfection is not needed – already holds too much sway.
There are new beds, new rooms, new stairs, new faucets, new ceilings, new reflections, new angles, new layouts, a new person more regularly in their lives – and four walls. It’s a world of change and they’re getting a big dose of it all at once.
You can’t turn around a life. You can’t retreat a living. It doesn’t do anyone any good.
Carrie moved to Scottsdale this weekend, and since Saturday has slept there; in a place well located to all that Scottsdale has to offer. New place. New job. New – me.
And I tend to downplay my own thing, but, yes, some serious adjustments going on, as well, in my peabrain. My brain has to be alert more during the off-work hours with two amazing children in the house; in my life. With a strong love growing every day; with seemingly everything equally important with equal priority, with me not wanting to screw anything up – and still figuring out what screwing up looks like in these new venues and situations, it’s adjustment that I would indeed wish on my best friends.
It means I’m neglecting some things in my own life to make sure things are going right in others. In very short summary it all means I’m learning, which is always good.
It means I’m now taking the bus on the opposite side of route 50.
So this is a photo taken at about 7pm last evening. When I looked at the cellphone screen, I immediately thought of bright light; the bright light you might see as you die or pass onto the next plane of existence. And the sign in the bottom left hand corner I consciously put in the frame so there would be a pull and a counter-pull in the photo. To me a photo that says something beyond just what it shows is art. Simply evoking a feeling cannot make it art, IMHO, because it reflects only reality. The art therefore is in the existence, not in its capture.
Saying that, composition, certain angles of reality and lighting times can turn a photo into art. This is the first time I think also, that I have deliberately used the cellphones limitations and differences to make a photo. For some reason the Blackberry Storm really takes stellar pictures of the sky and sunsets. I’m going to do another first and try and make a print out of this 3.2MP photo. (This is a scaled down version)
Two other related images at the jump.
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As I set up a Twitter account for SoundLust, I check the Terms of Service. I’m interested because I read recently Even Williams and the boys are selling the entirety of tweets to a certain date for $15 million.
Anyways, they’re below and apparently haven’t been updated since Sept. 18, 2009.
The Privacy Policy will be below the ToS, and were last updated November 18, 2009
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Let him (the White Man) be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not altogether powerless.
Please remind me to write about Chief Seattle, a celebrated environmentalist, whose words we never heeded. A speech I read solidified my desire and effort and mindset to care for the land, even without the religious baggage of having “dominion over all.”
I have a booklet I bought or was given when I lived in Seattle and I think this was the speech it contained. Sadly the account here makes it seem that some of it might have been rhetorical floursh added decades after the occurrence, much like accounts of Jesus that have warped and shaped the Western world and the Manifest Destiny destruction of so many of the the Native American peoples, and some of their ways of living with and as a part of nature.
Your dead cease to love you and the land of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb and wander away beyond the stars. They are soon forgotten and never return. Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the happy hunting ground to visit, guide, console, and comfort them. … Ever part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.
And he does it well.
Two ideas come come to mind viewing these photos. One, inevitably, is does the blog post author use these photos – and perhaps quotes – with permission? Two is, some photos are made amazing amazing by the accident of just being in an iconic place at at an iconic time. Ross Halfin and Linda McCartney photos both have that whiff about them. These Hopper photos have that air about them, though they are undoubtedly rocking photos. I really iike Hopper’s ethos of full-frame shots and the black and white natural lighting images are an important study in contrast.
