Every time my dad says the daily prayer, he gives the same one:
"Our Father in Heaven,
We, two of Thy children, humbly approach Thee in prayer.
We ask for forgiveness from our weaknesses, and pledge to overcome them.
If there is anything wrong with our lives, please point it out to us, gently, and we will try to overcome them.
We ask these things in the name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, amen."
"Here is a supplimentary bulletin from the Office of Fluctuation Control, Bureau of Edible Condiments, Soluble and Indigestible Fats and Glutinous Derivatives, Washington D. C. Correction of Directive 943456201, issued a while back, concerning the fixed price of groundhog meat. In the directive above named, the quotation on groundhog meat should read ground hogmeat."
-- Bob and Ray
quoted in "The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said," selected and compiled by Robert Byrne.
The following are a few of the lies I heard about the eclipse. I don't remember who said what, and I guess it doesn't matter. But I was convinced it would be a horrible experience. I'm not sure why, but I went anyway.
Lies about traffic: I kept hearing that traffic would be a mess. It wasn't. I took off at 1:30 AM to get in and didn't slow down the whole way. Someone said they were going to turn both North and South bound lanes one way to get in, then turn them back to get out. They did not. Getting in was easy. Getting out would have been tough, but more on that later.
Lies about gasoline: I kept hearing that there was no gas in all Idaho. When I got to Pocatello I noticed the gas guage on the car was getting close to half empty, so I stopped at a station. The attendant hadn't heard the rumors. The whole time I was there I didn't find one station that was out of gas.
Lies about bathrooms: This was the worst. I was so paranoid I bought a 5 gallon bucket, one of those seats you can put on it, the expensive deodorant garbage bags to line it, a deodorant brick for the bottom of the bucket, a bag of garden lime to sprinkle in the bag, a tree shaped air freshener for the car, and Depends for me (just in case). I didn't have to use any of that stuff. (Thank goodness, 'cause I forgot TP) Every time I had to stop in a convenience store or gas station there was a reasonably clean restroom. I always feel obligated to buy something when I use a public restroom, but I didn't even have to do that. The people in Idaho are very friendly, and don't mind letting you use their bathrooms.
Lies about crowds: Idaho is a big State. 'Nuff said. Like I said, getting out would have been tough if I hadn't gotten out right after totality hit Idaho Falls. As it approached it got cooler and darker. I was behind a store called Tobacco Connection on the corner of W. Broadway St. and N. Skyline Drive with two other cars. There were two people in one who had gotten out some lawn chairs and were watching it when I got there. The other car was just parked where the guy could watch it without getting out. There were people in all the stores around that had come out to watch it. When it hit they all whooped and hollered.
I have to say that seeing it live was thrilling. All my life I've seen pictures of it, but seeing it in person was like nothing else. I could look at it without my brother's welding glasses. It only lasted a minute and a half in Idaho Falls, since it's on the southern edge of the line of totality, but it was enough to hook me. I'm already planning my next eclipse trip. As soon as totality was over, I sent a text saying "saw it!" and took off.
Next time we have an eclipse I'm going to plan on getting there earlier, then staying an extra day to let traffic clear up. There will be a large band of totality and it will go from Texas all the way to New England, so I can check the weather for a few days before it hits and pick the best place to see it. After the eclipse I'll have a relaxing meal, see whatever sights there are, and stay in a nice hotel, then go home the next day.
These are mostly guilty pleasure videos, rather than important stuff.
10) Political Videos: This means opinion and commentary. I feel guilty sometimes that I don't have this higher on my list. It's certainly more important than most things on this list. But I easily get tired of sociopolitical topics, and I go entire weeks without watching any videos of this type.
9) News Videos: And by news I mean BBC and CNN. I probably agree with FOX more, as far as editorial content, but I like the other two better. Fun fact: American reporters used to be the best in the world, despite all the nastiness coming from the White House. I think the BBC has passed them up. In most cases RT has passed them up.
8) Music Videos: I like old music videos, and there are a lot of them on YouTube. Some are authorized, some are bootlegs, but they are almost all watchable.
7) Harmless Stunt Videos: dude perfect is the best produced. Too many stunt videos are of people getting hurt, though.
6) List Videos: WatchMojo is one of my favorites. There's also the lists made by Simon Whisler, Hank Green, all those top ten programs, and others. Two that I don't like are list25 and the "danger dolan" lists. The list25 narrator sounds like a know-nothing punk who doesn't know how to pronounce the big words on his lists, and the dolan guy just sounds like a punk.
5) Cat Videos: no comment. (Do I really need to?)
4) Science/Space videos: all of them, as long as they are not also conspiracy, phony science or false religion junk. (Those can't seem to leave genuine science alone. I have to include flat earthers videos, especially since they are always posting "proof" videos that don't prove anything.)
3) Recipe Videos: there are a few that I like best. They are Food Wishes, Cooked by Julie and Allrecipes, with an occasional nod to Tasty. Food Wishes is good because chef John is a professional instructor in the art of food preparation and he teaches you techniques as well as giving you excellent recipes. Cooked by Julie is done by an amateur and is about 40% Chocolate Cake recipes, but I love watching her videos. On second thought I love watching her make chocolate cake most. More chocolate cake, please, Julie. The others are kind of hit-or-miss. I'm sure they are great recipes, but I don't watch them all.
2) Guitar/Amp Gear Videos: this is what I've subscribed to the most. Out of the 60 to 120 or so subscriptions I've had over the years, I think 15 to 30 of them have been Gear channels.
1) Butthurt Leftist Videos: These are my guiltiest pleasure. I don't subscribe to any of these like I do guitar gear. There's too much foul language on these types of videos.
I've said before, I didn't vote for Trump, couldn't vote for him, in fact. But watching all these people crying, moaning and carrying on made me laugh more than I have in years. I was so glad that Hillary didn't win. I think I wrote before how she and her husband remind me of Richard Nixon. During his first term he got a little full of himself, thinking "if the president does it, it's legal." He came to regret that when he was impeached. The Clintons have been like that since Arkansas, except they never regret anything. They keep getting caught and you're thinking, this time they're finished, except that they're not. What's worse, the Democratic party, as well as most Democrat voters don't seem to care. It's damned hypocritical of them to crow about taking down Nixon when they endorse either Clinton.
I would go so far as to say that Clintons are worse than Nixon. At least Nixon admitted everything and accepted the public scorn. He also never appears to have lined his pockets with other people's money. The Clintons started doing this way back, first with hundreds of thousands, then millions and finally with tens of millions of dollars. There are books full of stories about this.
Donald Trump isn't much better, as a candidate. I think you should have at least 2 terms as a governor, congressman or senator behind you before you seek the highest office.
I would include honorable mentions: religious vids, writing vids, investing vids, except these aren't really guilty pleasures. These are the videos I feel guilty about not watching.
https://youtu.be/nllZrOoxpzc
This is a video by Alux, which apparently has a website and a YouTube channel. It's a top ten list about the difference between rich and poor people.
I'll talk about some of the features:
One and two are about eating fast food and watching TV. I agree, and it's interesting that you're more likely to be fat than thin if you're poor. I think they should have said something about this during the video. It's an absurd fact, and it's only recently been true. I don't think it's ever been true at any other time in history.
Eight, nine and twelve are about spending habits, and I have to agree with them.
Three, five, thirteen and sixteen are the ones I disagree with. Three says the rich don't buy stuff that's on sale. I think the way people become rich is to shop wisely. Their kids might not, but the people that make the money have to, and that would include looking for bargains. They might also really like sports (5), even owning a sports franchise. And of course they need to surround themselves with poor people (13). Who else is going to work for them? Lastly (16), the rich people I know are from my church, so of course they are religious.
Kirby, Jose and Vidal quit. I'm in charge of the belt now, and I think I'll document all procedures for the new guys. Everything was explained to me verbally, which is the worst way to do it. When I was in California working for Dawson Electric, we dealt with a company that distributed notepads to all their employees with "avoid verbal orders" pre-printed at the bottom of each note. Since then I have wanted to document everything I do at work.
I probably should have noted this earlier. I apologise for the delay.
Jose is the guy who taught me my current job. He's faster than I am. Steven works at our position in the afternoons. Vidal works the wrapper. All of them are temps, just like me, and I think they are better than me at these shipping jobs. I think I am a detail oriented worker, but I wonder if I'm just too slow. I try to be methodical, but maybe I'm more methodical than I need to be.
Then there are the regular employees. Jay and Tracy have offices inside and they are both exceptional at their jobs. Jason, J. R. and David are, I think, on another shift, maybe the mid-day shift. They are very smart, the kinds of people who don't have to look up anything when you ask them anything. The immediate lead for our shift is Gary. He's a lot smarter than he seems. Very sarcastic too. Then there's Kirby. He's one of the best warehouse workers I've ever worked with. He's super fast and accurate about everything he does. I want to grow my hair really long and get a bunch of facial piercings just so I can be more like him.
https://youtu.be/gfOob-36OEo
This is a link to the video by Carl Benjamin, who posts as Sargon of Akkad.
I saw a chart a while ago and I think I should post about it. It's on a YouTube channel called Sargon of Akkad, published within the last year. It has the political spectrum from left to right, just like you'd expect, but a vertical aspect has been added making it a two dimensional chart. The vertical part says "libertarian" at the bottom and "authoritarian" at the top. He describes himself as a libertarian liberal and the chart shows a dot in the lower left quadrant of this chart.
I came to realize that the authoritarians at the top include communists, socialists, Nazis, social justice warrior types, antifa members, ku Klux Klan members, etc. These are the people who are not satisfied with getting their own way in an election. They also want to force everyone else to accept their way.
These are the enemies of democracy. The first thing these people need to do if they get in power is to secure that position by going after all other authoritarians. Then when they have done this they can start bullying the rest of us.
Everyone I know is in the libertarian quadrants, and I guess most everybody would be. I go to church with liberals and conservatives. We get along just fine because we aren't authoritarians we're all libertarian people.
It's been four months since Donald Trump was elected and I guess I should get a few things off my chest. First of all I didn't vote for him, even though I come from a Republican family. I couldn't vote for someone who talks about women like he does. A few weeks before the election someone released a tape of him talking with someone and saying all these nasty things about women he knew, and it really tore me up. I didn't know guys like that since high school, and I shunned them then. No one I knew since then talked that way about women, and I never did myself.
I also could never have voted for a Clinton. They remind me too much of Richard Nixon, during his first term as president. He admitted that he began to think that the president was above the law, that if the president did it, it must be legal, and it led to his impeachment. He obviously regretted it and said as much. The problem with both Clintons is that they've been that way since Arkansas. Scandals have followed them for a long time. It doesn't look like they will ever regret them, either. They may regret the consequences of their actions, but I don't believe they'll ever change. And I also don't believe serious people will ever fully trust their daughter.
About a week before the election I decided that I can vote for everything except the president. I finally felt at peace about this election.
Go to karljseely.wordpress.com. I'll be transferring all my good posts there shortly.