Home

Argh, man where does the time go? Tons o’ stuff to catch up on here and I’m way behind and most of this, unfortunately, is kinda old news. They say one of the key things to having a successful blog is frequent updating.  They’re probably right. 

However, since I’ve mentioned some things in previous posts, it’s only proper that I follow up with the conclusion of the latest Colbert shenanigans, even if I’m weeks late on it.

Stephen didn’t get his portrait into the Smithsonian. But he did get it into the National Portrait Gallery….which is still part of the Smithsonian.

It’s hanging in a true place of honor. Check it out here: Colbert Exhibit. I don’t want to spoil it by telling you here. Also, if you happen to be in the Washington DC area, check it out in person as it’s only there for a limited time!

Meanwhile, A Colbert Coincidence MAY be in the works as I write this. Check this out…

Back on Tuesday January 22, Stephen had Ambassador Aaron Young (former Mayor of Atlanta) as a guest on the program. Ambassador Young is one of the original of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Inner Circle and in 1969 helped negotiate a settlement between striking black hospital workers and two Charleston, South Carolina hospitals. As I’ve mentioned before, Colbert is from Charleston and come to find out, one of the hospital administrators at the time that Ambassador Young worked with to settle the strike was none other than Dr. James Colbert. Stephen’s dad. Yes, really!

The best summary of what went down on that particular Colbert episode can be found at the Huffington Post .  Additional reading can be found at the Atlanta Journal Constitution  and Wikipedia.

Anyway, after getting the history on that, Ambassador Young came on and he and Stephen talked a little about the current writer’s strike and the Ambassador suggested that perhaps Stephen could do something about all this. Given the family history, ya know…

Hmm… On Wednesday, Jan. 23, talks resumed between the writers and the producers. As of yesterday, February 8th, it looks like the strike could be close to ending.

Coincidence?

In all seriousness, this particular episode of the Colbert Report was serious in it’s acknowledgement of the strike and support for it’s writers and was especially poignant in the connection to a part of history that involved Stephen’s dad and was an excellent tribute. (His father, along with two of Stephen’s brothers, were killed in a plane crash in 1974.)

It’s obvious this strike has gone on much much too long. I’ve bitched and complained about the strike on another blog. As much as I’ve sympathized with the writers, I have a hard time supporting the “Guild” in it’s decision to strike. Yet, I’m not fan of the producers either and they way they handled this. People who aren’t even writers, are out of work. This thing has just gotten ridiculous.

In fact, it’s now come to the point that perhaps the WGA is realizing it’s about to hang itself. A recent article in the NY Times put it quite well and speaks of a possibly cold reception awaiting the writers once this strike ends. It kinda echoes some sentiments from Brian’s blog a month or so ago.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Okay, that’s all I gotta say about Stephen….until I catch up with this past week’s episodes.  In the meantime, additional news to catch up on will be forthcoming.

None of those three things are related other than having an S at the beginning of each word. Heh heh! Just a handful of things here to comment, rant and rave about.

First, commentary:

I spent my Sunday afternoon with Stephen and caught up on last week’s episodes of The Colbert Report (now pronounced with the hard Ts). Stephen just ruled his show. Seriously! Granted, the bulk of his “material” is talking about the elections and all but he kept the pace going well and he was funny as ever. He even danced. Twice. And boy can that guy move! Heh!

Ahem. Anyway, the media has also graded his performance as excellent as well, citing of course his background in improv. (Did I tell ya? Did I tell ya? Huh? HUH??). Obviously there’s some degree of preparedness on his part (somebody’s gotta find all those vid clips he refers to in various discussions) but otherwise, he’s going out there confident and ready to change and fix the world. He feeds off the energy of the audience and they happily give as much as they can to keep him going. WOO! His first broadcast they gave him a near three minute standing ovation. He could NOT get them to HUSH! =)

On that same first broadcast he referred to the strike several times (each broadcast has had a reference to the strike) and his character boasted about not *needing* any writers. Stephen himself would never say that, and I’m sure preparing for a 30 minute show and not being able to write a damn thing before hand is not a cake walk and it’s nice to have several writers with several different ideas and input but ya know what….he really *doesn’t* need any writers! (Take that WGA! Pthpbhphtpt!!)

Anyway, despite the strike, Stephen is attempting to instigate some new shenanigans. His latest? Trying to get the Smithsonian to accept the potrait of him that hung over his fireplace on the set, recently replaced with a new potrait. (Each year since the show started, a new potrait has been done of him standing by said fireplace with previous potrait behind him. If he’s on television for the next ten years, that painting is gonna be really bizarre looking!). He went to Washington DC at somepoint in the last 10 weeks, the painting strapped on his back and he was shown walking around the Mall with it. He looked like a Hobo Picasso. In a Brooks Brothers suit.

It looks iffy at this point if the Smithsonian will accept the painting (Part Two of the saga aired last night, I don’t know what happened yet). But they have a Prince display, complete with one of Prince’s guitars and a selection of music (this was one of those dancing Stephen segements. He had to press one of the buttons) so I really don’t see why they wouldn’t take the painting!

One of the other items on display that he looked at was Lincoln’s top hat. Yes, really. Stephen, in commenting on the fashion of the hat, said something to the effect of “If I am ever caught wearing a hat like that, somebody better shoot me.”

This coming from a man who once described himself as “Lincolnish.”

Anyway! Moving on to the rant:

It’s snowed again in New England. Again. AGAIN!! Ten freakin’ inches of White Death once again covers our landscape! We had a mini-January thaw, which got rid of some of the 40+ inches of snow that’s already on the ground from December. Are we gonna have another 30 inches of snow before January is up?

Mother Nature, look, I know you’re mad. Really, I do. BUT NONE OF THIS IS MY FAULT!! I don’t drive a Hummer or an SUV! I know my Firebird is 22 years old and is probably not the most fuel effecient or cleanest vehicle out there but there’s worse! And I don’t drive it really all that much. I recycle! I–

Okay. Yes, I know, we’re all responsible in some way shape or form. And short of packing up and moving South, I should just shut up, put on the big girl panties and deal with it. Gotcha.

When’s spring?

And now, the rave:

I was so excited to post my DOH slideshow yesterday that I forgot to post this post that you’ve been reading! Previously in this blog I talked about making slideshows set to music. In the summer of 2007 I made a DOH slide show and it basically took me the rest of the year to figure out how to save the file in a correct format so the quality would be good when I uploaded it to YouTube. Also, the rest of the year was spent finding time to do this as it took 20 minutes for my computer to save the file and another 20 minutes for the file to upload to You Tube. But I made it! Check it out in the post below!

Hey y’all! I made a Dukes of Hazzard slide show showcasing the Georgia locales used in the first five episodes. Check it out!

Interesting to note, on December 30th, 2006 I did a stat check of this site and reported on some of the different search strings that were bringing folks to my blog. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a stat check, so let’s see what we got going on a year later…

“resetting pad entry ford from outside”

“hazzardnet.com”

“is it legal to carry a concealed weapon into a bank in south carolina”

“glenn miller computer wallpapers”

“the mary anne pirate ship”

“avacados bad”

“get lost doormat”

“maxi pad print advertising”

I see the avacados and the maxi pads are still bringing ‘em in. Glenn Miller desktop wallpapers, yeah I got ‘em. In fact, if you click on the link to Serenade In Blue.net over on the right there, my tribute site to the swingin’ Mr. Miller, you’ll find several desktop wallpapers to chose from in the download section.

Now…this particular search string has me a bit concerned…

is it legal to carry a concealed weapon into a bank in south carolina

Now I realize that this search string garnered a hit to my blog here because I carried on about some chick carrying a concealed weapon into a bank in that TV mini-series “The Kill Point” and I mentioned South Carolina when Stephen Colbert had kicked off his short-lived run for the presidency.

However, I hope that the answer to that particular question is no. Especially after my diatribe on that particular Ten Minutes of the Worst Television I’ve Ever Seen back in September. Because if you’re so dumb as to carry a concealed weapon into a bank and then you happen to be there during a robbery and do something even dumber like start shooting at the bank robbers, I really have to wonder just how much grey matter you have in your head?! Because obviously it’s been replaced by black powder!

I also hope the person searching for the answer to that question wasn’t planning a robbery themselves.

Also, I’ve gotten a couple of hits recently from a website called stockleaf.com. This is a financial RSS feed site, with links to articles and such from all the big financial players like Kiplinger’s, the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, The Street, ect. Now, I’m guessing my response to Brian’s Mortgage Meltdown post back in August (Panic at the Piggy Bank) got picked up in a feed by this website. Heh heh! Is it possible I could be inspiring financial gurus somewhere?

Probably not. But if I were to do some kind of financial/economic themed blog I’d want to do it the way Jim Cramer does his program “Mad Money” on CNBC. I’ve only seen the show once, but it’s worth watching just to see him have an on air conniption fit over something in the stock market or whathaveyou. With the current state of economic affairs in this country, between the so called “credit crunch” and the sub-prime fall out and the stock market having more up’s and downs than a Coney Island roller coaster ride, Mr. Cramer is his own high flyin’ trapeze artist. He’s totally nuts, but damn if he doesn’t make it interesting to pay attention to the economic news. Let’s face, it’s usually pretty dry and dull stuff, lots of numbers and percentages nobody can phathom unless they have a degree in this stuff. He simplifies it so that no matter if you’re novice and a beginner investor, or you’re a seasoned long haul survivor, you understand what’s going on and how things are shaping up. And armed with such information, you can make the right choices for your own investments.

About the only financial advice I can give is to buy low and sell high. Or buy high and sell higher. Remember to diversify. Take risks, but don’t risk it all. Stable sources of return can be a foundation in a well diversified portfolio. Past performance does not guarantee future results. If you’re young, start a 401(k). And…pray.

There you have it. MaryAnne “Cash On the Barrelhead” Coltrane with your investment tip o’ the day.

Now, there was one more search string I wanted to mention. The Mary Anne pirate ship. I have no idea what that is, but may I say….

YAARR!!

Ya know, I really really need to stop and realize a few things:

1. I’m not 19 anymore.

2. I’m not 19 anymore.

3. I’m not 19 anymore.

Okay, now that we’ve established that, I don’t think of myself as old, but I’m starting to realize that when I over-do things physically, it really hurts. And it’s either because of my age, or because I sit on my ass too much.

The weekend before Christmas, with the threat of Immeninet Doom in the Form of Rain to go ontop of the two feet of White Death we received over the past three weeks, I was helping my father to clear the snow in the yard, driveway and the roof of the house. He did the roof detail and I helped with running the snowblower, clearing the snow that came down from the roof. Apparently I was subconciously fighting with the snowblower (and it won) as on Sunday I was a hurtin’ puppy. I pulled a muscle in the upper thigh of my right leg.

Man, lemme tell ya, you don’t realize how important a muscle in your body is until it hurts and you discover what important function it does. In this case, this muscle is the one that allows me to actually lift my whole leg. It’s a good thing I’m not a dog, where lifting a leg allows for answering nature’s call. Sorry Nature, you’ll have to leave a message.

Of course, in true Coltrane fashion I proceed to aggrevate my leg further on Monday, trying to step over a patch of ice in the driveway. Remember that Imminent Doom in the Form of Rain I spoke of? We didn’t get a lot of it. It rained yes, but they had predicted it would be a lot of rain and there was concern that with all the snow on roofs, and then the added weight of the rain would spell disaster.

The only disaster was me nearly landing on my tush on a patch of ice not even two feet wide. I didn’t go down but I did pull the muscle in the same leg.

Then Tuesday was Christmas and…I can’t sit around and do nothing! There’s presents to open! Turkey to cook! Food to stuff in my face! A DVD player to hook up! C’mon!

So I aggrevated it even more. So much so that when I went back to work on Wednesday, I hurt. I could hardly walk.

I’m mostly recovered from it now, although still a little tender, but there’s an important lesson here: If you pull a muscle, don’t pull it two or three times again after initialy pulling it! It really hurts! Trust me, I’m now an expert on this.

Which means you can forgo setting up the DVD player for a day or two.