76%

A NY Times poll just found that 76% of respondees support a government backed healthcare option.

It seems hard to believe that 76% of the folks polled were black, homosexual, communist Jews.
Perhaps all of the Southern white guys were too busy masturbating to internet porn, while watching Fox News and listening to Rush to respond,

Or, perhaps, they were busy at some insurance company sponsored dinner party at some golf club just outside of Washington.

Either way, it seems like our representation might not be hearing those they represent.

Wompin' Wagon Wednesday

So stumbled across some pics of the Wompin' Wagon.
I think we'll have Wompin' Wagon Wednesdays for a while.









I don't know the story of the Wompin' Wagon, beyond what that little newspaper clipping gives up.

There are a whole mess of pictures though, so just be satisfied with that.

News

My last post mentioned the current events in Iran.

It is big news, no denying it...

I think the larger story, if that is possible, is the shift we are all witnessing in news and media.


We are at the moment when technology overtakes our current information media structure.


If you have been paying attention to the events in Iran then you have likely been introduced to Twitter, assuming that you were not already dialed in.

News channels are struggling to keep up with the information and misinformation being spilled out of Iran.
The din of reports from a channel that has been the domain of techies and early adopters is, nearly, the sole basis of reports of the events from a country largely secluded from the west for more than two decades.

Protests of the election results have been almost entirely coordinated with a micro-blogging platform designed to let self-involved associates connect.


I have been watching Twitter develop for a bit now.
At work, we have been setting up Twitter feeds for conferences. They are typically only at meetings dealing directly with technology and almost entirely ignored by attendees.
Myopia excludes audience interaction, it seems.


Yet the story of this mentionable upheaval in a closed society brings things to the fore...


Typical information and news outlets are at a loss as to how to discern truth from fiction, as noted by thousands of eyes on the ground.


This is the second bit of revolution that has been a product of the micro/macro-blogging phenomenon, if you have been paying attention.
This just went down in South America, as well.


I have not even begun to digest the rotations of heads at CNN, the NYTimes, et al...
The game has changed.
Push media had posted me on the Iranian election death toll long before I picked up my first paper for the day. At least I think so, though it is as impossible for me to know as it is for the "experts" at any news channel.

I am equally at a loss as to how I filter all of this.


Maybe this seems too abstract to be concerning, but what would you have thought of the vote counts between Al and W, in Dade county, if you were exposed to a thousand messages of concern?
What would you have heard on CNN?
Where would the world's press have put out in response to voters being turned away, if they heard it was happening - as it happened.


Our understanding of current events in Iran is almost completely based on the reports from Twitter, and the thousands of RT's from everybody else. Information from people at the ends of clubs, as well as mis-information from those holding them, along with a concerted effort to cut all of it off.
Reports of violence, of disruptions of service in cell coverage, cuts in internet access and violence continue to pump out of Iran.


Who do you believe?
Who is Anderson Cooper getting his information from?
Where is the truth?
What is your perception?

Are You Paying Attention?

'cause the shit has hit the fan over there...





I can honestly say that this is the first news story that I am consciously viewing in a manner different from any in the past.

Technology has provided me with a whole other perspective.




It has provided Iranians with a means to communicate and organize.

I got the pics over here. You should take a look

Still Thinking about BBQ

Yeah, still thinking about BBQ.

I need to have the Authwhore out sometime soon, as well.

I think he would prefer that I just go to Vegas, to join in the fun of his bachelor party.

That would involve my being social and around people, far from the comfort of my garage, so that is just not happening.



As a compromise, he has insisted upon a weekend of ugliness in my neighborhood.

My neck of the woods is ugly, but not in a Vegas way.
It is ugly in a sun scorched, boring, suburban way - which is I guess kinda like Vegas, now that I think about it.
Only without so many cameras, exposed titties and doormen.


I think that weekend might involve some bar-b-que.

Ford Picnic 34

Oh, isn't this a lovely one?


Every spring (well, spring there) there is a Ford picnic/car show around Seattle. I made it to one and was amazed by some of the stuff that turns out.




I don't know if I have seen pics of this 34 anywhere, before I saw some shots from this years show.

Now that I have seen it, I might have to change the list of cars I should own before I die.

Down here, it would probably be seen sans top. Since there are another 19 months of rain before summer in Seattle, we get to see it with the top up. I think it kinda makes it...

That Time of Year

The season when a mans mind starts obsessing about bar-b-que, grilling, cooking things over or near a fire.

Well, really, I think about it all year...

I have not even fired up a grill this season.
I am pretty sure if I don't do it soon, I will have my man card revoked.



(I forgot I put this food tag on here. I should remember to write about food. I loves me some foods, man.)

Convoy

Wikipedia can take the fun out of anything-

The song consists of three types of interspersed dialog: a simulated CB conversation with CB slang, the narration of the story and the chorus. It is about a fictitious trucker rebellion that drives from the west to the east coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting against (other than the 55 mph (89 km/h) speed limit), is shown by lines such as "We tore up all our swindle sheets and left 'em settin' on scales." (The reference is to log sheets used to record driving hours; the sheets were referred to on occasion as 'swindle sheets' as they were often created to show that drivers were getting proper sleep when, in reality, the drivers were driving more than the prescribed number of hours before mandatory rest; 'Scales' refers to Department of Transportation truck scales on Interstates and highways to verify the weight of the truck and the drivers' hours of working through log books). The song also refers to toll roads: "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."

The conversation is between "Rubber Duck," "Pig Pen" and "Sodbuster," primarily through Rubber Duck's side of the conversation. The narration and CB chatter are by Fries.

At the beginning of the song a "Kenworth pullin' logs," being driven by Rubber Duck, is the "front door" (the leader) of three eighteen-wheelers (tractor and semi-trailer) when he realizes they have a convoy. Following the Rubber Duck is an unnamed trucker in a "cab-over Pete with a reefer on" (a refrigerated trailer, hauled by a Peterbilt truck configured with the cab over the engine), while Pig Pen brings up the rear (the "back door") in a "'Jimmy' (GMC truck) haulin' hogs."

The convoy begins toward "Flagtown" (Flagstaff, Arizona) at night on June 6 on "I-one-oh" (I-10) just outside "Shakytown" (Los Angeles, California, due to its earth tremors). By the time they get to "Tulsatown" (Tulsa, Oklahoma), there are 85 trucks and the "bears" (police) have set up a road block and have a "bear in the air" (police helicopter). By the time they get to "Chi-town" (Chicago, Illinois), the convoy has been joined by "Sodbuster" (another trucker in an unspecified make of truck), a "suicide jockey" (truck hauling explosives) and "eleven long-haired friends of Jesus(11 hippies) in a chartreuse [VW Type 2|microbus]," and the police have called out "reinforcements from the 'Illinois' (Illinois) National Guard." The convoy crashes another road block when crossing a toll bridge into New Jersey, and by this time they have "a thousand screamin' trucks" in all.

The song's running gag has Rubber Duck complaining about the smell of the hogs that Pig Pen is hauling. He repeatedly asks the offending driver to "back off" (fall further behind). By the end, Pig Pen has fallen so far back that when Rubber Duck is in New Jersey, Pig Pen has only gotten as far as Omaha (a reference to the headquarters of American Gramaphone, which released the song).

Yeah, I had this on vinyl back in the day.

It was a 45 even.


I am fuckin' old school.

Fuel Cuda Friday

The Mood

No, I am not talking about that mood...

I mean the other mood.
I don't know the name for it.



The mood when the din and pace of the world surrounding one is near debilitating.

When one simply does not want to talk about that or this.

When one would rather pick up a hammer and smash through the cocoon that separates the dream life from the real life.

If only one had time to find the hammer for the smashing.



I have some parts on the way.
They should provide some antidote to the mood.
I hope.

No cure, mind you.
Only distraction.

There are some big machinations going on the the old noggin, here.
The machinations require action that I have not found the time for.

Perhaps some physical and mechanical energy will create some momentum.

Action begets action.

Hollywood Knights 3

Here we are, Project X in motion.

As featured in Hollywood Knights.