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.

WELCOME PAULINE!

who's your idol, originally uploaded by vacationtime.

I'm headed to the airport to greet Pauline's plane! I'm so excited she's coming today! This will be her 2nd trip to my home state. I can't believe it's been almost a year since we met on eHarmony. (No, we aren't on an ad...yet).

Don't want to be late...

$1 POSTCARD

Sister and Brother, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

I picked this one up at an antique's store today. Styles sure have changed a lot this century, haven't they? I wonder what their lives were like.

HGTV DESIGN STAR

Been keeping up with HGTV's Design Star this season? I've caught a couple episodes. My niece asked me to help rally votes for her friend Alice; they are from the same hometown. It's down to the final two: Alice Fakier and David Bromstad. Not familiar with the show? You might want to watch Alice's bio video.

My niece was able to watch episode 4 of the show (Designers' Challenge: $10,000 Kitchen Makeover) sitting on the couch next to Alice and Alice's mom at Alice's mom's house. Even though Alice knew the outcome (of course), she wouldn't tell her mom how that episode turned out. She just sat on the sofa and let the drama play out without giving away any backstage secrets. Talk about being sworn to secrecy! That would be so hard not to tell your mom all about it.

You can vote online or via your cell phone (text B to 44881) - voting up to once per day until noon on Wednesday. Remember, your vote decides who gets the title and their own design show!

GRANDE GALACTICA, EXTRA HOT

I love you Mr. Starbucks, originally uploaded by Rude Lovers©.

I happened to catch a rerun of Battlestar Galactica, and I was surprised by how familiar the show seemed. I thought I'd never seen it before, but I must have caught an episode or two as a kid. I'm normally pretty good at remembering TV shows, so it felt kind of eerie seeing one that I'd forgotten. Has that ever happened to you? It's kind of like remembering a dream.

When I saw Lorne Green, I knew his character's name was Ben. (Oddly, he played a guy named Ben on Bonanza, too.) I recognized Dirk Benedict the minute he came on screen, but I didn't remember his character's name. When I heard it, I laughed out loud. Can you believe he was called Lieutenant Starbuck? I wonder if that's where Starbucks Coffee got its name. Maybe the founder was a big sci-fi fan.

Speaking of Starbucks, Pauline sent me one of their gift cards in a greeting card today. ¡Muy romántico! (THANK YOU, PAULINE! I love it!)

HIPPIES AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

1974, originally uploaded by reddirtrose.

She asked me, "Do you think we'll always be hippies?" Pauline and I were talking about forsaking the trappings of the American dream to pursue dreams of our own. Do the two have to be mutually exclusive? Can you be artistic and live in the suburbs? Are we really hippies, anyway? Will we end up living in a tent out in the woods, spending our days painting and writing books? I don't know if I could get used to the red bugs and mosquitoes.

Soon after our conversation, I ran across this flickr photo from my birth year. Look at them. They seem to be the definitive hippie family. I wonder if they are still hippies. I wonder if their dreams came true.

Being a dreamer, I often encounter people who want to help me out by dashing my dreams to bits. They see my dreamy nature as a sign of immaturity and want me to join them in reality - that place where all your dreams are dead and you've settled for becoming somebody you never wanted to be.

That's the thing about the American dream. There's no place for individuality in it. There's no place for my dreams in it. It's a picture in the Sears catalogue - one size fits all.

I'm not sure the answer is being a hippie, but I'm not interested in being a yuppie, either. I tried that. I listened to everyone who convinced me that hard work would pay off. And after working myself to a point of mental, emotional, and financial exhaustion, that tent in the woods is looking mighty comfy right about now - even with the bugs.

Christianity has to tie into this discussion somewhere. But I'm confused about how. I'm not asking for advice; I'm just trying to be honest about where I am. I know that I'm tired of letting other Christians tell me what to do and who to be. I want Jesus to do that for a change.

WORKOUT

I've come face to face with a personal weakness - one I've been trying to ignore. It's not like I don't try to keep physically fit, but I've been neglecting strength training in favor of cardio. I just prefer running, and I don't like to think about my weak arms - much less work them out.

Now, after this weekend, I think it's time to add some weight training to my routine. Why the change of heart? Ryan and I worked on his shed. Katrina knocked it down, so he's starting from scratch. We concentrated on jobs requiring an extra set of hands - framing and surfacing the roof (remember it's August in Mississippi). After two days of heavy lifting, my arm muscles are complaining a lot. Looks like Ryan's shed isn't the only thing that could use a little work.

FAMILY PORTRAIT

Mom, originally uploaded by Patrick Q.

She's camera shy, so I was happy that I managed to get this snapshot of my mom today on her way to church. Isn't she cute?

Here's my Dad in his truck. I took this one yesterday out at the farm.

BROOKERS UPDATE