A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE...
...come in and dine at my blog smorgasbord. Eat hearty!
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So you don't think Global Warming is For Real: The countries of India and Bangladesh have fought for ages over which country controls New Moore Island, a piece of rock located just off the India/Bangladesh coast, and Mother Nature has stepped in to solve this dispute: The Island, which had only about 10 square miles to begin with, is Gone. Kaput. Finito. The End. It is (well, 'was') located a few miles off the coastal area where the India/Bangladesh border is. Experts say if the sea rises by three more feet, much of the Bangladesh coast will be underwater, and 20 million people will be deplaced. The only positive thing I can say about this situation is that Snorkeling will become a way of life in that part of the world. And that's not very positive.
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The case of the Magic $2.3 million dollars: Maybe I should've been a college football coach. Some coaches look like they've never played football in their lives. One such coach is Mike Belotti, who coached the University of Oregon's team. Well, he's no longer the coach. He's gonna be providing color commentary on ESPN soon. Congratulations to him, eh? And to ease the transition, the UO is gonna pay him $2.3 million dollars. For what, no one knows for sure. That amount is the result of a Verbal, not written, agreement. The University of Oregon will pay him $600,000 dollars by May 1st, and he'll get monthly installments of $25,000 until the $2.3 million dollar total is met, which means he'll be getting more per month than a lot of people make in a year for a very, very long time. A solid, 24-carat Golden Parachute, that.
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Is this how Coach Dennis Erickson got started? You know, the guy who says he's gonna be in one place forever, then quits to go someplace else the next day, negotiating new wage deals all along the way. Who knows how much money Erickson's getting from who knows how many different sources? Back to Belotti, though. He gets to quit undergoing pressure from rabid UO fans, he gets a nice cushy job at ESPN, who'll pay him at least hundreds of thousand--or millions--of dollars per year. Plus he'll still be getting all that University of Oregon money. This is an issue that ain't gonna go away soon. It's getting a lot of press these days. Me, I still keep thinking of students paying ever-increasing amounts for tuition and then I think of Belotti and how overpaid he's becoming by the minute. It ain't right.
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Seems like Politics ain't very politically correct: The big Health Care bill passed. It'll soon become reality. It had a lot of adjustments made to it, by the House and Senate. And a lot of people are griping about it. I don't know how the Health Care Bill is gonna affect us all. But I do know that President Obama was elected in part because he said way back then that Health Care was one of his biggest concerns. I'm positive that the bill underwent many, many changes and revisions in the giant political mouse-maze that is the House and Senate. Remember the Clinton administration, and how Hillary's proposal of Health Care got all blown to smithereens? But Obama got it through. Maybe he's liked better than Hillary, who's serving as an ambassador mainly so she'll stay out of Obama's hair. Health Care is Here, I hope. This government needs to do more for its people. If it takes adjusting to, we'll adjust. Here's to the future.
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Our fragmented, dysfunctional society: This next lil' tidbit makes me think that I Don't Know How Things Work Anymore. Seems a High School canceled its High School Prom, because a female student wanted to bring her girlfriend. That's right, the exclusion of two lesbian students was too much for the School to deal with, so it canceled the prom instead. Way to go, rah-rah-rah, what a bunch of school administration lamebrains trying to put their stamp on society. Sure, I'm confused by the existence of same-sex couples, but to cancel a prom over one such couple? So even though I am uncomfortable with the idea of same-sex relationships, yes, I guess I'm defending them. How about that! Sometimes society confuses me more than ever; this is one of those times. All because the poor little school adminsitrators couldn't endure a little controversy. This happened in Jackson, Mississippi, by the way. Be sure and write the administrators about this as soon as you can. They'd love to hear from you.
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Why does my computer do that? This happens more than I'd like it to. Sometimes, when I'm posting e-mails, blogs or whatever else, I'll need to "go back in" and make revisions, and when I'm putting new copy into a paragraph, my cursor will begin gobbling up what I typed before, instead of pushing the words back. So I find that first I have to find the errant phrase, single-space it down, then go back up and type my revision, after which I go back to the half-eaten copy and move it back up to where I made the revision. Why does that happen? Computer users, does this happen to you? I've used various computers over the years, and this has happened with each. Maybe it has something to do with me being online waaay too long, which has been known to happen from time to time.
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Ugly Record Covers, Forward March: I recently found a book in a thrift store which pictured The Worst 100 record covers of all-time. Most of the records were instructional-type records, or cheap Religious records for sale at a Church Revival Near You. I suppose this record is an instructional record, but it's not pictured in the book. How could a record like this be ugly?

I'm sure it sold in the millions... "Teaching Your Parakeet To Talk", issued by the Hartz-Mountain people; one side features a lady saying, "Pretty Bird", "Hello Baby", "Hello, Pretty Bird", ad nauseum, so that your 'keet will hear the record and break out in a speech that rivals the Gettysburg Address, and you'll be amazed! What a dream that is, because all the while, the dumb bird couldn't care any less about what it's hearing and just sits there on the Perch of Ignorance. The record's label sports a picture of a Parakeet, just in case you get so absorbed in the record that you've forgotten what your bird looks like. I actually have this record in my collection. On the other side, are recordings of Actual Talking by Parakeets, which sound something like this: "skreep chik chik errrrk shisssh chik chik". You can hear words if you Really Listen Hard, the way you listened to The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" played backwards so you could hear the secret message surreptitiously contained in the grooves.
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I'm currently in the process of recording albums I don't really care about onto CD so I can give the vinyl to Goodwill. Have you ever heard of the new reality series, "Hoarders"? Hoarders basically buy everything they've ever wanted, several times over, and they don't throw anything away, which results in full shopping bags piled sky high all over the house, containing clothes, canned foods, electronic devices, detergent, more canned food, more clothes, and perhaps even scattered parts of a Volkswagen Transmission amongst the clutter. And if you want to go from room to room, you have to make yourself a path up, around and through all the bagfuls of stuff you'll never, ever use for anything. These people are sorta-mentally-ill, and hey, I resemble that. I have bought TONS of records for 50 cents or a dollar at thrift stores, and while that's given me the chance to hear a whole lotsa different music, the tonnage of vinyl that's followed me around for years is getting thinned out. I'm no spring chicken, and I can't haul 50-pound boxes of vinyl from place to place like I used to do. I've donated four boxes of LP's to Goodwill so far; I'd estimate that I've reduced my collection by 500 albums now. Most people never buy that many records in their LIFETIME. Among the records I've given away is this piece o' plastic which is featured in that Book of Ugly Album Covers:

Orleans: Waking and Dreaming (1976): And you thought All Rock Musicians looked good. Uhhh...if I'm in a band, I make it a point never to be this intimate with my musical associates. No thanks. Ironically, though, this was just about the most popular album they released. In spite of the cover. After all, it contains the big-boss Orleans hit single of 1976, "Still The One", which the ABC Television Network picked up and used as the soundtrack to promo spots featuring upcoming New Shows...ABC's way of letting its viewers know that Their Network is Still The One! The song was a big hit; it's got a good melody, the guitar work and the vocals are okay, but the cover IS awful, ain't it? I don't think I'd like to share a sauna with these guys anytime soon. The second guy from the left seems to be pointing at his bandmate's NIPPLE. Shiverr....I'm kinda getting the creeps now...
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While going thru my record collection, I was looking at the albums I have by Supertramp, and oh my gosh, I found what has to be one of The Ugliest Album Covers of all time, and it's not even in the Ugly Covers book I've referred to. And, no doubt, this is cover depicts an unsettling image. How could the record company have expected it to sell? I only know that if I slaved away for ages in the recording studio trying to get everything Just Right, why would I then allow the results of my musical trials and tribulations to be enclosed in a cover that looks like THIS...
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Here it is..."Indelibly Stamped", one of Supertramp's earlier albums. Ha Ha Ha, see the Tattoos...Indelibly Stamped all over this guy's (I think it's a guy...) chest. It's supposed to be a joke. Well, the cover is a joke, except that it's not funny. In short, This is one of the MOST AWFUL ALBUM COVERS I HAVE EVER SEEN. I feel my dinner coming back up now...agh. Maybe there's some truth to the theory that Musicians and Record Executives are Just Stoned All The Time. "Hey, bro...pretty good...cool album cover, maaan...hey, let me have another hit, maaan..."
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A record cover is supposed to say something about the music the record contains. I'm not really sure what this cover's saying, though. I wouldn't think an up-and-coming group (well, up-and-coming in the back in the early '70s) could afford to use such a rotten sleeve design. I've found that an ugly record jacket will steer me away from buying the record. I got this one for 50 cents at a thrift store, but I do know I wouldn't have paid full price for it. It's ugly. Butt-Ugly. Oh great. Next thing I know, I'll find an album cover with a photo of someone's butt on it. They're even throwing the word "butt" into commercials these days, like it's cool to use slang describing one's posterior. I heard the word in a ladies' jeans commercial. Spoken by a cooing female. I guess I'm shocked by that. I don't know. There are so many assaulting messages out there invading my sensibilities that I think I'm getting desensitized.

Speaking of assaulting images, I'm right now, seeing, on TV, young guys who are putting hooks into their skin and hanging from those hooks on the "Most Daring" program on "Tru-TV", the program that proclaims, "Not Reality...ACTUALITY!" which is awkward for me, because I was taught that an "Actuality" is a piece of outside material that's is used in a network newscast. You know, when a newscaster says, "...here's correspondent Joe Blow, from Hell, with a report on Global Warming..."