I’m moving my home PC over to 64-bit tonight.  I’m pretty excited about it.  I’ve been using 64-bit at the office for a while, but I’ve been nervous about doing it to my home machine. I’m also considering moving to Windows 7… Not quite sure.

In other news I’ve got some pork chops in the slow cooker that are just calling to me. I’m salivating already.

The wife and I found a cookbook called Shakespeare’s Kitchen that has some wonderful recipes in it almost a year ago.  I’m finally ready to cook something from it.  I’m almost embarrassed that it took so long. 

It’s not that I haven’t had the desire to do it.  The problem is that some of the ingredients are difficult to find in the local markets.  The recipe that I’m using requires some currants.  Unfortunately I can’t seem to find them.  I’ll be visiting another market in the next day or so to keep up the search.  I have to do it soon or I’ll have to freeze the chicken.

The recipe is for chicken with artichokes.  It sounds absolutely delicious.  I can’t wait to prepare it.  Yum.

I think the title says it all.  I mean, really.

I think I just want to use this time and space to say: I’m tired.  Not just a little tired, way tired.  And I can’t figure out why the dryer is still running.  I should probably go check it, but I don’t want to get up.

I’m all caught up in my Google Reader. Sure, I just skimmed the headlines for most of it, but really, who has time to read 2 thousand articles a day.  And why do they still print news papers?  And when are they gonna start putting grocery store coupons in RSS feeds?

Good night, and good luck.

Sometimes, I say things or do things to be funny and it ends up hurting someone else.  I’m definitely not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings.  It just seems like I don’t think about that when I’m in the moment.  It’s really hard to look past the end of a gag to see what the unintended side effects may be.

Noun

Singular
maverick

Plural
mavericks

maverick (plural mavericks)

1. An unbranded range animal.
2. One who does not abide by rules.
3. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought): One who creates or uses unconventional and/or controversial ideas or practices.
4. (poker slang) A queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/maverick

The McCain/Palin campaign has been using the term “maverick” quite a lot lately.  They’ve said that both McCain and Palin are mavericks.  I assume that they are trying to distance themselves from the current administration without using any of the democrat’s buzzwords. 

Mavericks are cool right?  Tom Cruise was Maverick in Top Gun. James Garner and Mel Gibson were Bret Maverick the well dressed poker player and con man.  Who wants Maverick as a president?

Let’s start with the first definition.  We can all probably agree that there are no “unbranded range animal[s]” in the race.  Sure, the childish folks out there might name call, but in reality it’s not happening.  I think I can safely ignore that definition.

The second definition is where it get’s interesting.  The McCain/Palin campaign surely can’t mean that the candidates will not abide by rules or should I say “laws.”  This definition clearly works for the current administration.  The Bush regime has no problem breaking the rules and ignoring those pesky laws that obviously don’t apply.  The campaign may defend this usage by saying that they mean the rule of corruption and garbage that has infested the government.  The problem with this argument is that you’d have to say McCain does not follow the rule because he follows the rules.  This does not work for the common usage of the term.  I think they want to say that he’s not afraid (to use a cliché) to think and work outside the box to solve the country’s problems.  I don’t think that works for me.

Number three doesn’t sound very appealing either.  I don’t want any surprises from the next president.  I don’t want to worry about an unpredictable cowboy with his finger on the trigger.  I’m not saying that McCain/Palin are all that.  What I’m saying is that the term “maverick” implies reckless, unpredictable, careless.  Is that what the M/P campaign thinks American wants?

The 4th definition, like the first, doesn’t really apply unless you want to do some name calling.

It amuses me to no end that this is still my number one picture on flickr. It gets more views than anything else. I don't have any other pictures that get anywhere near as many views.

Only 5 days left until the Carousel

It's always amazing to me when I find myself listening to a song that I've heard a "million times" and the lyrics finally creep into my brain.  It's funny how I can hear a song over and over and the words might not make it through.  Then one day I'll realize he said that?

As an example, I was driving down the street the other day and Shaggy's It Wasn't Me burst out of my speakers. I found myself singing along with Rikrok and Shaggy.  (This isn't unusual for me.) The funny part is that it was the first time I heard the story in the song. 

I knew the lyrics.  I was perfectly able to sing along.  Why is it that I never caught the story?  There has to be some psychological or neurological explanation. What's it called when you can retain information, but you never process it?  I've found that I will often realize that there's language that's not okay for the kids right before it comes up in the song but I don't remember the bad words before the song starts.  I think that is related somehow.