Well, I didn't get an iPod for Christmas; instead I got another stinkin' cold.
Uh, thanks, Santa! Really, you shouldn't have!

Whatever you celebrate, (Miss) Billie, Simon and I wish you a wonderful day!

NOW GROOVIN' TO: Time To Move On from the album "Wildflowers" by Tom Petty

Technorati Tags: holiday cheers

We're having a strong winter storm blow through. It started late last night/early this morning. By 4:00 a.m. Simon was batting the window blinds by the bed so I'd open them and he could watch the leaves blow off the big Chinese Elm in the back yard (it's his favourite pastime).


I had nearly got back to sleep when the planes started coming in. When the weather turns nasty, the incoming flights to San Francisco International get re-routed right over us (so, whenever you're flying into SFO and the weather's ickey, be sure and give us a shout hello as you drift over Alameda).


Adding an exclamation mark to the morning, we've just had a thunder storm pass over us. Being ever the sensible one, Billie sheltered herself against the coming armageddon by crawling under the bed. Simon stayed with me, partly because he didn't know if it was thunder (which he's terrified of) or just another plane, but mostly because I was munching chips and salsa (at 10:30 a.m.!) and he wanted to be sure he got a couple of chips before the sky fell on us.


It's comforting to know that if/when the nuclear holocaust pays us a visit, Simon will remain by my side to the bitter end...just as long as I have a bag of chips and, hopefully, some chocolate. Such loyalty!

Technorati Tags: cats, furkids

I'm getting close to a relaunch of Thinking Out Loud. There are other parts of the site that also need an update, so I want to nail those down before I switch over.

There will be a new url; when I decide what it will be, I'll link from here to the "new" TOL.

I had hoped that I could go in through Text Wrangler and do some GREP to migrate the old blog posts to the new style sheet, but the fungus is too thick. What it comes down to, basically, is the way I had originally learned CSS was, well, crap. With the new design, I've had to un-learn the bad CSS habits and drum better ones into my head. It's still not perfect and there will be some tweaking even after I relaunch. But there will be no table formatting*!

So, stay tuned. If I can get the other pieces into place today, I'll relaunch, otherwise, it'll happen over the holiday weekend.

In the meantime, a certain furkid is of the rather loud opinion that playing with him is a much more worthy pursuit than clacking away at this keyboard. (And, this time, he's right.)

(*That is to say, I won't be using tables to format...and I'll try to stay away from "badges" that use them, but I won't promise that one won't sneak in.)

Technorati Tags: site updates

Shame on me.

NOW GETTING BLIND-DRUNK' TO: Shit Fool from the album "Medicine" by M99

Technorati Tags: broken heart

The beauty of the natural wonders we have available to us in Northern California, like the moon rising behind the Bay Bridge, still takes my breath away.

I had one of the most amazing encounters I've ever had in my life a couple of weeks ago. I had to drop by my school to straighten out some paperwork. I parked my car and got out, only to hear this enormous crash in a nearby tree. I looked up and there was a huge brown bird sort of swinging upside-down from a branch. I knew it couldn't be one of the resident Canadian geese, so I was really curious to see what was going on.

By the time I got to the tree, the bird had righted itself on a sturdier limb. I looked up and found myself face-to-face with a hawk! I'm used to seeing them soaring high overhead, but I have never in my life been within ten feet of one. I tried to get some shots with my camera phone, but, unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to see it in the photos. When I first saw the hawk, it had a tiny (dead) bird in it's beak. Of course, that tugged at my soft heart and I suggested that maybe it should pick on someone it's own size. The hawk looked back at me as if to say, "I wasn't THAT hungry...and mind your own business, human!"

Until that afternoon, I had no idea how big and solid--and truly beautiful--a wild hawk is. I feel so lucky that I got to see it (and also that it didn't decide it was hungrier than it thought and have a go at me).

So, yes, it does reassure me that, no matter what kind of day I'm having, I can still get excited over the beauty of my environment.

NOW GROOVIN' TO: Rollin' Stone from the album "The Best Of Muddy Waters" by Muddy Waters

Technorati Tags: San Francisco Life

(**a bit of Celtic wisdom)

Thinking Out Loud received its first comment, recently. And it was damn near the last comment. However, I managed to repress my Inner Hothead and made myself cool off before responding. The comment was in response to this post a few weeks back. Of course, you can read "Anonymous'" pithy comment at the end of that post, but I'd kinda like to break it down for him right here in THIS post.

So here is what "Anonymous" had to say:

there are better street photographers out there... search the internet not flickr. he is a racist antisemite. anyone who likes his work is basically telling the world they hate JEWS!

OK, my turn:

1) I'm sure there are better street photographers roaming our world, so what's your point? AnomalousNYC's work, particularly "American Betrayal", really resonates with me. That's why (with his kind permission) I posted it to Thinking Out Loud.

2) Flickr IS part of the internet, Sunshine. Specifically, it sits in that bit called the World Wide Web.

3) I am aware of AnomalousNYC's sympathies toward the Palestinian people. I haven't seen any credible evidence, however, that he is a racist Anti-Semite. Sympathy for Palestinians is hardly synonymous with Anti-Semitism, you know. But, if you have credible, verifiable evidence of such, bring it!

And...

4) Who the fuck are YOU to come onto MY blog and insinuate--based only on my taste in photography--that I hate Jews? Oh, wait...I know who you are. You are someone who is so sure of yourself that you cloak your righteous indignation in anonymity. And you are someone who uses your company's computer to cyberstalk AnomalousNYC and go onto goodness knows how many people's Web sites and post your slanderous drivel. And don't even get me started on your grammar!

Seriously, "Anonymous", it's time to let go of your little grudge against AnomalousNYC and move on with your life in a more positive, less poisonous way.


NOW GROOVIN' TO: Earthquakes from the album "Thornhill" by Moxy Früvous

Technorati Tags: ranting