babbling blue

L’shanah tovah to my Jewish friends. May you have a good year 5768.

Just some little tidbits to let you know I’m alive and still sporadically blogging.

Luciano Pavarotti died of cancer at the age of 71. He was one of the Three Tenors. This is sad news. There are now only two tenors: Placido Domingo and the other guy.

NFL Football starts this weekend. Go Pack!

I’m hot. My part of the office is not adequately air-conditioned. I had a desk fan but the cheap piece of shit stopped working a couple days ago. And do you think you can buy a fan this time of year? Well certainly not around here (the Loop). I’m fucked. Sweaty and fucked.

New iPods and an iPhone price drop. Neat, but I’m still not going to buy an iPhone. Probably not an iPod Touch either. It’s an ironic name since you can’t control it by touch like you can a classic iPod. Now I can just reach into my pocket and adjust the volume, pause or move to the next song by touch. The iPod Touch requires you to look. Perhaps it should be called the iPod Look.

The state government has still not given the CTA the money they are asking for. The fare increases and service cutbacks are 10 days away and counting. The measure has yet to pass a single house of the Legislature. And if it does, our illustrious governor has vowed to veto it. So either Governor Ratface has to get a clue or the Legislature has to pass it by enough votes to override his veto.

Updated 1:15pm: As it turns out, I did find a fan. I stopped into a Walgreen’s as I was passing by during my lunch break, and they had 6 fans! Not 6 models, mind you–6 actual fans. They now have 5 (or fewer). The new fan is bigger and noisier than the old one, but at least it moves air. We’ll see how long this one lasts. It seems I’m no longer sweaty & fucked.

I added the missing posts back. Most of them survived, but any links were lost (lack of foresight on my part) and I am not sure what the title of the last one was, since I missed it in my copy/pasting.

I noticed some problems with single and double quote marks, especially in nested quotes. I’ll see what I can find out about that. But I’m about to leave on vacation (tomorrow) so I wouldn’t count on that getting fixed any time in the next week. Otherwise, everything seems to be going well with this upgrade. I enabled the spam stopping feature and turned off moderation. . . I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Ideally it means I won’t have to wade through hundreds (literally) of spam comments trying to pick out something that might have been posted by a real person.

I most likely won’t post again before the holiday, so Happy 4th to all! [Deity/Nothingness of choice] Bless America!

Well, I’m back again. I’m on a new server, with a new registrar on a new version of WordPress, my blogging software. There may still be some wrinkles to iron out, but I expect things to go smoothly. This site was created from a backup taken in April, so I will need to re-add anything I posted after that (I have copies, but they are at work). Any comments between then and now are lost forever, though I’m sure I’ll get plenty more spam for viagra and phentermine and all that shit (or not. . . this version is supposed to have improved spam prevention, I just need to figure out how to use it).

(click for larger pic)

According to my blog (who knew it would turn out to be a reference source?) the first snow of the 2005-2006 winter was on November 16th, 2005. The first snow this “winter” (2006-2007) was October 12th, 2006, but it was really just flurries. The first real snow of the season seems to be bearing down on us right now, with up to 10 inches (ooh!) predicted by noon tomorrow. While I wasn’t happy with the snow on October 12th (it shouldn’t snow in October, dammit!) I am kind of excited this time.

Let it snow!

The date is October 12th, and it’s snowing.

Now that I have your attention, I’m going to talk about. . . sex.

People frequently and incorrectly refer to horny men (I mean really horny men) as nymphomaniacs. This is wrong since a nymphomaniac is, by definition, a female. According to our good friend Mr. Webster, nymphomania is “excessive sexual desire by a female”. This makes particular sense when you consider that nymphae is Latin meaning “inner lips of the vulva”.

You’re probably wondering what you should be calling all those slutty friends of yours. While there are many things you could probably call them (and be correct), there is a male equivalent of nymphomania. Some would say the male equivalent is simply “being a guy” but that’s not it. The term is satyriasis. A man with this condition would be called a satyr. This isn’t frequently used terminology, but I think it should be. I’m a firm believer in using the right word for the write porpoise. So next time a buddy of yours takes a trick home from the bar and then returns later that night to pick up another one, don’t call him a nympho. Call him a satyr.

You may also be tired of calling your friends lushes, drunks, alcoholics or alkies. I know I am! So to shake things up a bit, try one of these alternatives: dipsomaniac, sot, tippler or souse.

This has been your English lesson for today. I now return you to your regularly scheduled quest for porn.

As a follow-up to the previous post on crazy Mormon pedophile polygamist, Warren Jeffs:

He was caught.

I’m not the only one that talks about underwear on his blog. Some famous people do as well. Like Scott Adams, recently-married creator of Dilbert.

Now sometimes a pair of briefs – for reasons I cannot understand – have the most annoying characteristic you could ever imagine: In the course of normal walking and sitting, the wearer’s weinershnitzel ends up poking halfway through the flap hole like a turtle coming out of its shell. And before long, the most sensitive part of your body is wedged between your briefs and the harsh denim material of your pants.

I actually have some briefs like this. In fact, I’m wearing a pair of them today! Currently all bits & pieces are properly tucked away, but that could change at any time.

It’s nice to see someone as accomplished as Mr. Adams has the same problem as we regular people. I won’t quote his entire write-up here, but it’s worth a read (as are most of his blog posts). So go read it.

For historical purposes, my earlier underwear-themed blog posts:
First Second