Oh Horrors! It's Octomom again.

And if Mad Cow disease in California wasn't enough, the Octomom, owner of the worlds largest uterus, is going to star in a horror film where she has a demon baby. Is this perfect casting or what? While I've enjoyed a really bad (old) horror movie on TV once and a while for the sake of it's bad acting and obvious plot, this is one I plan on never seeing.  The thought of even glancing at her home videos makes me cringe.
How low can the movie industry go?

Mad cow disease confirmed in California

Mad cow disease confirmed in California

I guess the price of grass fed beef in Oregon will be on the rise as well!  This is a good thing for me, but my bulls are getting worried.

Starbucks to phase out bug extract as food dye

Starbucks to phase out bug extract as food dye


I want to say something about that but I’m not sure what.

Remnamts of my jug band days

For sale cheap.

I've been cleaning out the place here in Fla. to cut down on the amount of stuff I have to ship back to Oregon

A fine guitar & banjo chair

I wish I could bring this one with me!

mobility-awareness-month

This is a request from my brother that I wouldn't usually make, but this is truly a good cause .   Please watch the video and vote. It doesn't cost anything but a minute of your time and might make a big difference in a life, and a life style for a friend here in Oregon. If you are feeling generous, post this on your own blogs as I have very few readers. Click anywhere to go to the URL. or, here it is: www.nmeda.com/mobility-awareness-month/local-hero-contest

Thanks. Shannon's a friend of the family. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Kind of like buying a lottery ticket mixed with a bit of begging combined and run by a business's marketing dept. But how do I say no when asked? So,if you are feeling kind. fill in the following: State: Oregon

Name: Shannon Thomas

I've done my best!

I found some graphic art with a message

I found these amusing. They are are from The Looking Spoon blog.

This one is not amusing. It is only too true.

For Easter

Here are a couple of windows I built and installed over a number of years  in Dade City Florida.

These are in a very warm and inviting church and probably my favorite.

Click here for the rest of them

Thomas Kinkade, Artist to Mass Market, Dies at 54

I was just talking to a friend about Mr. Kinkade. Here is a man who made millions annually with his "art". While there are talented artists by the hundreds if not thousands that we will never hear about, and who produce really fine works, how is it that these mass produced works have sold so well? Perhaps it is because he sells to the 'common' man. The Home Shopping network played a big part. In any case, he was a marketing genius.  MATT FLEGENHEIMER of the New York Times says it really well.

While I have thousands of people view my art every week, Mostly on Sundays and they are somewhat of a captive audience, I never was able to get wealthy  from any of it. But no sour grapes here, I avoided the personal problems that plagued Mr Kinkade and am more than satisfied with my life. I was never much good at marketing and only did commissioned work.

Virus hits half millions Macs!

Virus hits half millions Macs!  
Nope, not the hamburgers!
I don't know if this is true or not, but it appears to be.  If so, I find it somewhat amusing.  In my experience, Macs only play well with other Macs, and a lot is lost in the translation when trading files with a PC. They will probably blame it on the fact that a Mac can now have a dual operating system and it was the Windows side that let in the virus.  Somebody left a window open?
I have PCs and only had one virus many years ago before I discovered Zone Alarm and AVG. Both free programs that have never let anything bad through. 
Here's a good blog about the problem if you are a Mac user:

Fructose

Science evolves and it's a good thing!  Years ago they said that we needed to cut back on the amount of fat we are eating to combat the trend towards a high rate of obesity. Thirty years of nutritional policy and behavior based on a faulty premise! Funny thing,  the rate not only didn't go down, it went up, not only in adults, but children . Why? Perhaps because fat makes food taste good, and the food industry needed  replacement. So they used fructose! Our sugar intake in has exploded.  Remember when a coke was a small 6.5oz bottle? Now we have "big gulps" at 44oz's. High fructose corn syrup invented in the 60's by the Japanese is also in the rising trend towards sweeter foods and is found in almost every processed food you can buy. Including bread..  In any case, this guy's lecture, if you haven't heard it already, is something I think everyone should hear. It relates to not just obesity, but the rising high rate of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other things.
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods
You can agree with him or not, but you owe it to your selves to hear what he has to say before agreeing or dismissing his theory. Stick it out at least through the fructose part, or watch the 60min. clip for a synopsis. .
Here is the clip on the 60minutes site if you missed it last Sunday.
I for one, am going to do my best to limit my fructose intake. I've gained about ten pounds since quitting smoking ten or eleven months ago, and I can't seem to lose it.  I've pretty much cut out soft drinks, now I need to watch out for fructose in the foods I buy.  We'll see what happens.

Pink Slime?

Pink slime? well, evidently some people actually want it in their hamburgers.  Hy-Vee to sell beef with and without pink slime  .   Too bad the people making it are going out of business. Pink slime bankruptcy 
I wonder what they will replace it with.

Ape wars?

RoboBonobo: Giving Apes Control of Their Own Robot

And here in a "gee why didn't I think of that app" story, we find people teaching apes to shoot a (water) cannon using an ipad.  Are we getting worried yet?

McMinnville restaurant clerk beaten by robbers

McMinnville restaurant clerk beaten by robbers   Yet another robbery. And were they wearing disguises?
You guessed it!   Hoodies. I see kids wearing them every day. While this time the incident takes place in  a cold climate, so there may be another excuse, but why emulate the class of people known as hoods unless you are one, That goes double for the belt-less, pants halfway down, look. When did it become cool to copy the appearance of a convict. Where are they getting their role models from? Visits to Dad in the big house?

Money on the highway

So it has happened again. This time a tractor trailer crashing and spilling millions of dollars in coins. The headlines:  "Brinks crash spills millions in coins"  Unlike this other crash last month  "a snow globe of cash.",
in which some thirty cars stopped to grab what they could, sanity prevailed, despite the ground being covered with millions of coins to the point of needing a front end loader to pick them up,  I wonder why? Was it the Canadian ethics, the fact that there were injuries, or simply that coins are heavy and not as portable as bulls? The truck in Maryland didn't crash, and simply dumped the money. What are the thoughts that went through the minds of the people that stopped to grab what they could? Surely they knew that the money wasn't theirs. I'll bet that if any one of them were to lose his or her wallet and some passer by found it and kept the money, their sense of justice would return. What's with our sense of morality today? Gorges Grouse hit the nail on the head today!