Soft Taco

 And we are having another chilly morning here in Central PA with the temp being a cool 61 (F) when I crawled out of bed.  Once again our temps are predicted to only climb into the mid 702 (F),though the skies are predicted to be seriously overcast for much of the day.  No rain, but cloudiness galore.  We have the same forecast for the rest of the week.  I'm not wild about the cloudy days, but there are things that do need to get done around the house.

I worked yesterday and it was boring.  Since there was no business, I caught myself up on all of my training, which was tedious to say the least.  I have to take refresher classes on bias, security in the workplace, proprietary information, and cyber security, you know/  Phishing, smishing, and vishing?  These classes are not that bad the first time you work through them, however I have to take these refresher course every 6 months or so which is horrifically boring.  And, unfortunately, you can not test out.  I also know that not everybody has to take them.  So, maybe I'm cursed because of my former position in HR.

My new printer arrives tomorrow.  I was going to put it by my desk, but because it's going to be bigger than the laser printer that is now in the garbage, I'm going to relocate it to another part of the writing room. 

One of my Navy friends posted this on Facebook.  For some reason or other we all had nicknames.  No one ever called me Dave, occasionally I'd get a Snyder, but usually I was called Oz.  Now you know one of my deep dark secrets.  When we were at sea there were 3 shifts working either 8 hours on and 16 off, or 6 on and 12 off.  We had an artistic guy in my shift who drew up this group caricature of my team.  Honestly, I don't remember being quite that tall.

And instead of having a hard shell TACO yesterday, we got one of those soft, floppy ones, and the entire world was watching.  Orangie's blow bro Vlad thought this between his pet and Zelensky was going to be a dunk and score, but then Europe decided to show up.  And Vlad got zippo.  Well, that's not exactly right, halfway through this meeting Orangie had to excuse himself and go call Vlad for advice.  Holy Crap!  You see, Orangie is not a skilled negotiator.  That ability is not in his extremely limited skill set.  And while Orangie was just on Fox Entertainment saying he didn't tell the European Leaders about his phone call because it would have been disrespectful to Vlad, the entire world knows all about the call.    Basically, the European leaders depantsed hm in front on live television.  Wait!  Stop! Do not think about that!  I don't want you going through your day visualizing Orangie being depantsed... even though, verbally, that's what happened.  Yep, yesterday we got the soft taco shell, and all Vlad got out of this was a more unified Europe... make that world.  As of this morning 30 countries from around the world had signed onto security measures for the Ukraine.

Falling Down

 So, I went to bed early last evening.  As a result, I got up earlier than my usual 0600.  I have no problem with that.  More time to get things accomplished before I head off to work.

And, speaking of work, I volunteered to put in some extra time this week.  Rather than have Tuesday and Wednesday off, I will be working 5 hours each day.  As I'd said, one of our associates gave his notice - well, he's gone.  Yesterday, when I got to work, I discovered that another associate had a bit of an accident.  He fell off a roof... and lived.  He sent pictures.  I didn't ask to see them.  From what I've been told, his face is all stitched together, and he now has numerous pins in his shoulder.  He told management that he would be back to work on 8/18.  I doubt if that date is any good.  Maybe September 18, and even then, he'll still probably have his arm in a cast.

Otherwise, yesterday was slow, not a day of accomplishments.  John Fetterman did Tweet out this pic of one woman's opinion of Dr. Oz.  Notice the finger.  He's sort of falling down in the polls.

Of course, the Senate voted yesterday on the Inflation Reduction Act.  Filibuster proof.  Republicans are pissed because the Democrats are doing something that doesn't include tax breaks to corporations and to the wealthy.  They're terrified.  The Roe v Wade decision put them on a very slippery slope.  They're losing traction everywhere. Can't maintain their balance and keep falling down.  A little over a week after Kansans voted against a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, the Indiana legislator approved an extremely stringent anti-abortion bill because...  These men are running down a hardwood staircase in their stocking feet.

And I saw that the alumni of Rhodes College in Tennessee have have sent a signed petition to college leadership asking that Amy Cony Boney's name be stricken from the Honor Roll.  This is because Amy's "adherence to an originalist interpretive methodology of constitutional textual analysis appears to be at odds with the statements she made" during her Senate confirmation.  In other words, she lied.  She is one of the reasons the reputation of the Supreme Court has fallen so low in the court of public opinion,

Breaking the Mold

 Can we have a happy hello for Friday?  I know some of you five-day-weekers will be heading into your office, or shop, or cube for the final day of the week.  I did that too, for oh so many, many years, which is why I can say there is a part-time light at the end of that tunnel.

I did work yesterday, and it was very slow.  I did manage to get a measure, which will please the higher up, but it's only for a staircase.  Not a lot of revenue there.  The store, itself, has been popping off daily fireworks when it comes to business.  Ironic, isn't it, how a certain group of individuals can't stop their taught little whisperings about inflation and then go out and a $3000 gas powered lawn tractor.  Perhaps it's because the price of gas has begun to finally go down.  Has anybody else noticed how that group of people who have been complaining about the prices at the gas pump are suddenly quiet?  

There are 5 of the super-sized cookies I baked still left to be eaten.

Lyrics from Alice Merton's 'Same Team' have made it into The Body Under Ice.  Even though there is snow, and wilderness, and possibly a hint of a bloody murder in the video, there's none of that in the story.... well, there is a bit of bloody murder, otherwise there'd never be a body under the ice.

I've been hearing a lot of chit chat regarding Dr. Oz's candidacy for Pat Toomey's soon to be vacant Senate seat.  Mostly, people are wondering where in Hell the charlatan has been for the past... oh, two months or so.  Except for dropping the occasional commercial filmed in New Jersey, he hasn't been spending much time out stomping for votes.  Fetterman, however, running as an outsider Democrat is constantly releasing snarky commentary about the bad doctor.  For those who don't know Big John, here he is breaking the mold.

Finally, many are wondering if the IRS audits of McCabe and Comey were in actuality attacks by Trump.  I don't know about you, but that's the first thought that popped into my mind.  The former 'I wannabe the first Orange Anus dictator in American history' has so far in his life demonstrated little if any respect for the law.  Perhaps this is why so many conservatives are enamored with him.  he does have that... je ne sais quoi... appeal to those who so desperately want to say "shut up!  I'm in charge!"

Lie and Cheat

 Sometimes my weekend begins on Friday, and sometimes it's just another day off for me.  Today, my weekend has already begun.  I slept in.  I enjoy that.  So do the dogs.  Around 0600 Lily had to go potty outside, but after that we both went back to sleep.  Today might be busy.

While back at work yesterday, I told several people how I had said "shut up, you old bitch," to a fellow associate.  Every response was the same.  They all laughed.  Not one person chastised me.  No one said, "wow, maybe you shouldn't have done that."  This says more about the person I yelled at, rather me, which is a shame.  We should all try and respect everybody's opinion, however that's difficult when they have no respect for any opinion but their own.

My new mouse came yesterday.  In case I hadn't mentioned it, I bought myself a new Razer gaming mouse.  It's nice.

I also bought a copy of Elden Ring.  It's a video game written by George R. R. Martin, the same guy who wrote the Game of Thrones series, which means it's probably all the same violence with all the same sex.  Most of the trailers are 'age restricted' on YouTube, this is the only one that wasn't.

And here in Pennsylvania we are heading into a recount among the Republicans.   If you remember backto the General Election of 2020, recounts were never kind to the Moral Degenerate, Trump.  He always lost votes, never coming close to gaining all the votes he lied about losing.  Yesterday was the 2nd day he advised Dr. Oz to cheat.  No surprise there.  This doesn't say much for those Christian Nationalists believe the Orange Anus was sent by God.  Ouch.  

Let's be honest here.  If the deity I believed to be omnipotent had sent Donald Trump to build the socially conservative America I was praying for, and Donald Trump's advice was to Lie and Cheat in order to achieve that dream, I'd become a little suspicious of that omnipotence.  Holy Shit.  Omnipresent and omnipotent are not really as powerful as they're cracked up to be.  Or.... maybe they are, just not in this universe.

Oz should scare the crap out of your kids

Well, I went to see "Oz, the Great and Powerful," and... I liked it.  My friend Betsy, however, was not so keen.  With all the press swirling around about it's inappropriateness for younger children, she expected something more akin to the original. Walking out of the theater she actually said, "I should have realized it was going to be a prequel."  And, true to form, there were dumb shit parents who chose to ignore all of the press and take little kids.  They sat several rows behind us and I can tell you, the children were not at all happy.  Don't people pay attention to news, or are they just plain stupid?  Wait, why am I even asking the question when the answer is so obvious?  Could the answer be yes to both queries?  That don't pay attention and they are stupid? I think yes.  Still, one has to ponder if this is the true intention of the film's director:  make a film which stupid, inattentive adults will take their children to see so the children will be traumatized for life.  Or maybe the thought was something might be learned.  While that may have been true of the original, I don't know if that's true here.  Dorothy learned through her trials and tribulations and scares that "there's no place like home."  I mean, what do we learn from the new Oz film?

Take the kiddies, the scares are worth it

Let's see... Well, siblings can't be trusted, (there's nothing new there).    In times of need different people work together for a single purpose, (we've all seen this before).  You can overcome your adversaries without resorting to violence (remember 'make love not war?).  Life is scary sometimes, so just deal with it.  Wait a minute, what was that last one? The idea that life is scary?  Is this something we've actually been teaching our children?  How many times have you heard a parent say, "let them enjoy their childhood, they'll be adults soon enough?"  I think this is a big problem in today's United States.  We want our children sensitized.  Define this as our not training our children to deal with heartache and hardship. You should prepare you children for everything.  Disney knew this.  He made kids cry on purpose.  He taught us lessons our parents didn't want us to learn.  Maybe the parents I wrote about earlier weren't such dumb shits after all... Nah, they were, but by being so maybe the scares of "Oz, the Great and Powerful" taught their frightened kids a lesson or two. 

    

The adult truth about the Wizard of Oz

"Oz, the Great and Powerful" opened in theaters last weekend and, to be perfectly honest, I had to laugh at all of the hub-bub about whether it was to frightening for children.  Why was I laughing?  Because so many reviewers and critics were looking at the original film with 21st century eyes.  Today we have film ratings, back in 1939 we didn't.  That was in the heart of the depression and going to movies was a great escape from reality, more so with adults then children.  In other words, the original film was geared for a wide audience of both adults and children.  Margaret Hamilton's wicked witch of the west scare them all.  The special effects are easily equivalent to the CGI of today; too many people forget that.  It was one of two films released in color, the other being Gone With The Wind, which guaranteed it would bring in everybody.  And, amazingly, it was one of two films to use a curse word.  Again, the other was Gone With The Wind, with Rhett Butler's famous "I don't give a damn" line.  So, where was this same word used in The Wizard of Oz?  When the infamous Almra Gulch tells the Gale family "I will bring a damn lawsuit that will take your farm."  Now tell me, in 1939, was that the kind of language geared for the kiddies?

I would bet my left nut that when Louis B. Mayer green lighted the original he did not do so because he wanted to make a children's movie.  No, he wanted to make a movie that would satisfy all audiences, both young and old, because that's where the money was.  Remember, Hollywood has always been about money, and making entertainment pay.  In the 21st century movies for children have become big business, 75 years ago that would have been a losing proposition.  Financially, the studios needed to bring as big an audience into the theater as possible, which is why the scares in the most important of Oz films had scares to make everybody cringe, not just the little ones.

I suspect that Oz, the Great and Powerful, like the classic film, was designed to please everybody.  That's what makes a film last forever.  The more people it satisfies, the longer it will hang around, which is what so many people want: film immortality .