OCT 31

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, originally uploaded by Neato Coolville.

No trick-or-treaters came by tonight. I was a little surprised, since the house is in town. Maybe word got around that we didn't have any good candy. My experience with the whole trick-or-treating thing is limited. Growing up in the country, I think maybe we got a couple of kids one year, and that was it. I only went trick-or-treating once; I was Humpty Dumpty at age 4. My parents would have let me if I'd wanted to, but I wasn't into it. It just never has been my thing. I'm much more a Christmas kind of guy.

That said, I have to say that I love those little corn candies. You know, the white, orange, and yellow ones? Maybe tomorrow I'll go buy a bag half price.

MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE

Savetheinternet.com and Free Press are sponsoring a Media Reform conference Jan. 12-14 in Memphis to jump start the issue of Net Neutrality before the new Congress convenes. Thought you might want to check it out.

SPOOKY SWEET SPOOKY

E.L.F. Scott (sepia), originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

This old portrait of my great-great grandmother, and a few others like it, used to hang in my grandmother's attic. The life-size oddities frightened a generation of grandchildren, not only because of their stiff expressions and odd fashions.

It's their eyes! I don't know why, but their eyes seem to follow you no matter where you are in the room. My mom says they did the same thing when they hung in her grandmother's living room. She and her brother Bob used to lie on their stomachs and slide on the wooden floor while their ancestors eyes followed them.

My nieces and nephews don't like them at all - declaring them creepy. But I think they are cool, in a Ripley's kind of way. I was pretty sad when they were destroyed in a house fire a few years back. I'm thinking of framing life-size duplicates made from the scans I have of them. It just doesn't seem like home without my dead ancestors hanging around staring at me.

GERMANY FOR CHRISTMAS

Weihnachtsmarkt, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

This morning I booked my flight through ORBITZ. I leave December 13th and return January 13th.

So, the countdown begins: 54 days until I leave for Germany.

BILL MOYERS AND SAVE THE INTERNET

Hope you caught journalist Bill Moyers on PBS last night. He produced a documentary called, "The Net at Risk." Following the broadcast, PBS.org hosted a live Internet debate between Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott and the phone industry's Mike McCurry.

Even if you missed it, please check out Moyers' essay "Against An Imperial Internet." Try to imagine an internet that is exclusively programmed by companies in the same way that TV and radio are programmed. If we don't speak up to congress, that could be the new face of the Internet in the 21st Century.

KIAWAH

Kiawah Island, 1979, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

In '79, my parents and I visited the resort community at Kiawah. Dad was in business meetings during the day, so Mom and I had time to ourselves. She was a shutterbug back then.

I have three distinct memories about the trip: (1) I thought we were in a foreign country (2) We saw a "haunted house" on a walking tour of what I thought was the Rain Forest (3) We had a jeep ride on the beach.

Those are some of my earliest memories.

ROTOGRAVURE

Dad, Mom, Pat 1979, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

I'm posting a lot of old photos to flickr today, so if you need a laugh, check them out.

MUSEUM

Dumpr offers a new tool that lets you place any flickr photo into a museum setting. I tried it out on 3 of my photos. What do you think?

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CUPCAKES

Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcakes, originally uploaded by buzzville.

Saw this photo on flickr and can't wait to try the recipe. I'll let you know how they turn out.

NOBODY'S WATCHING BARATS AND BERETA

A while back, I posted the NBC/WB pilot of a failed TV show ironically called "Nobody's Watching." Well, Derrik and Will have launched a website and a viral video campaign to resurrect the show (and their acting careers). Here's an example of the stuff they are posting to YouTube (for an extra dose of fun, read all the comments on their videos - it's amazing how few people commenting realize Will and Derrik are paid actors:

They might just have the formula for success, if they can follow in the footsteps of Luke Barats and Joe Bareta. Remember them? I've been following their YouTube Vidoes and post them here occasionally. I was surprised to see Joe this week on late night cable TV as a spokesman on a technical college ad (not too great an ad since I can’t recall the name of the college). The ad left me wondering what else was new in the fellows' quest for stardom, so I checked out their MySpace and found out that they have sealed a deal with a network - NBC Universal Television Studio - at the end of a bidding war that included MTV and HBO! Here is one of their new videos they've put on YouTube:

Speaking of Youtube, I guess you've heard about the whole "GooTube" Google $1.65B acquisition thing? Will Google ruin YouTube by plastering it with ads and making it all google-fied? What do you think?

THE REAL THING

Clearly Coke, originally uploaded by koduckgirl.

I'm posting a lazy-man's blog today: just copying and pasting an email forward that my brother Dan passed my way, but it's worth thinking about -

WATER: Drink Life!
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half of the world population).
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the compute screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, ;lus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Have a COKE and a Smile (aka "I Love Liquid Candy")?
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "Real Thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. Citric acid in the Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coke over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coke to the rusted bold for several minutes.
7. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coke will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
8. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
9. To carry Coke syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the hazardous material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
10. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Interested? Then check out the "Unauthorized history of Coca-Cola" and "Sugar Wars."

I WON ON BLINGO!

Danni won on Blingo, and since she signed up through my link, I won, too! For prizes, Blingo gave us each a choice between a Fandango movie ticket for one adult admission, or an iTunes gift certificate for $10. I chose the iTunes certificate and downloaded episodes of "Lost" and "The Office."

I would have chosen the movie ticket, but there's nothing out in theatres I want to see. I caught "School for Scoundrels" and it was a bomb. It was such a yawn I won't even bother to elaborate on its many fatal flaws. Jon Heder needs a new agent.

So, hey- If you'd like to sign up for Blingo and win cool prizes, too, then click this blue box.

napoleondynamite, originally uploaded by Hot Rod Homepage.

1934-2006

Uncle Robert, Jr. High, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

My Uncle Robert passed away on September 21st, just a couple weeks after his birthday on the 3rd. I've been slow to blog lately, but I wanted to make a note somewhere about this photo I found while cleaning out his house. It's the only time I've ever seen him smiling. It was great to find it - comforting to see him happy and in love.