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Ask eloisel, or not

BitchSlapSmitty said:
Which road should i take?
Years ago I felt the need to leave Texas. I was supposed to go to New York and live with my sister. There had been snow on the ground for a couple of weeks and it was snowing the day I was leaving. As I decided I really didn't care for snow that much, I went to California instead. Took out the map and drew a straight line from where I was to Los Angeles, CA, because, don't you know, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. That trip to California proved that old saying is a truism that does not apply to real life. Was an interesting trip, though. Stopped for gas in a quiet little town late at night. The station was one of those pay with a credit card at the pump kind. The sign on the pump said not to pick up hitchhikers because the entire town existed to maintain a maximum security institution for the criminally insane. As I left that town, it started to rain. My windshield wipers quit working but I was afraid to pull over to the side of the road because I kept seeing strange movements along the tree line. So, I tied one end of some string to the windshield wipers and threaded the other end through the little side window. When I pulled the string, the wipers came up, then I'd let the string go and the wipers would go back down. I drove for about an hour that way, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, seeing Jason on the edge of the treeline waiting for me to give it up and pull over so he could hack my brains out. The road took me way up in New Mexico where a light just above the tree tops followed me around the mountain for several hours. All I could think of was Barney and Betty Hill's story of their abduction by aliens in the 1960s. By morning I was headed down out of the mountains on a 12% downgrade - burned up my brakes and had a flat. People that lived on the mountain came zooming down that road on their way to where they went during the day. Finally a nice police officer that looked like he'd been abducted by aliens and possibly escaped from the mental institution stopped and changed my tire. I made it to a mechanic that fixed the brakes fairly cheap. Then, as if things couldn't get stranger, I wound up driving through miles and miles of white sand, without a road turning off the one I was on. After about 50 miles I came to a cross road with a stop sign and a traffic jam. The wind was blowing so hard it literally pushed my car off the road while I was waiting for the jam to clear up. There was a little store/gas station/restaurant/out post at that corner in the middle of nowhere. I got out of my car and blew into the Twilight Zone. The place was filled with the grizzliest looking old geezers I've ever seen. Old prospectors never die, they just go to that place in New Mexico, drink coffee and watch the wind blow white sand. From that experience, you would think I might suggest avoiding the high roads, the winding roads and the straight roads. Not at all. In this life it is better to have strange times to reflect on in your old age than to look back over your history and wonder why you haven't bored your self to death long ago.
 
why does it take a guaranteed 15 minutes after waking before my coordination kicks in and the urge to go back to bed passes?
 
Virginia said:
why does it take a guaranteed 15 minutes after waking before my coordination kicks in and the urge to go back to bed passes?
There are few reasons to get up out of bed these days - work, work, or more work. My body is having issues, too, and I don't sleep very well. I'll sleep a few hours, up a few hours, back asleep for a few, etc., except for those 9 hours I'm at work and the half hour travel time to and from work. Most of the time I'm tired and it is hard for me to get going some mornings. So, I've had to develop a routine where I get some attention, some reasons for getting up and out of the house every day. There are the sweet young women that run the coffee shop where I stop every morning for coffee. I drive up, they all three come to the window and give me my coffee, chat for a minute or so, smile a lot, they are always so friendly and pleasant - sets the tone for my morning and off I go for work. Then, after work, I stop by the store with the drive through window and visit my cutie pie guy because he flirts shamelessly with me. He smiles at me alot, tells me jokes, calls me sweetheart, and makes me feel cute too. Then, I go home and pet and socialize for a few minutes with the neighbor kitties that spend a lot of time on my front porch, then go inside and get lots of "welcome home, we've been missing you" loving from my own dogs and cats. About eight days a month I have school or some little group function to attend - about an hour or two each time - where I get to be with other like minded individuals with a common purpose. I also visit a local diner frequently to keep in touch with "cronies" - people that are like me - fixtures in our little corner of the planet, interested in what is going on, willing to do a thing or two to alter our circumstances, remember the days when folks got together to clean up the family graveyard, help a friend do some major yard work and outside repairs on their home. The internet is a wonderful thing. I've talked with some very interesting people I might not have talked with in real life because we don't live near each other, we're of different race, gender, age, or seemingly have nothing in common. Still, there is something about sitting around a table, drinking coffee, and having a deep discussion about things in general with people I can see and hear.
 
jack said:
How many licks does it really take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
Zero. To get to the center, one does not need to lick a Tootsie Roll Pop at all - one can just smash it with a hammer and be there right away. Of course, that takes all the fun out of it and renders the treat inedible. Personally, I don't understand the reasoning behind hard candy. If it isn't chocolate, why bother? If it is chocolate, then it should be ice cream, which is very lickable on a cone but better in a bowl or scooped on top a fudge brownie, which is lickable but makes people look at one very strangley if one does so. Why are you asking me this? Do you have chocolate ice cream and you aren't sharing? Is it Schwann's double fudge frozen yogurt with chocolate chunks?
 
Conchaga said:
Why are freckles so damned cute?
I remember summer days when I was young. We'd play outside all day digging in the garden, painting fences, swinging in tires tied to strong tree limbs, eating watermelon and strawberries, going swimming - every day was a big play day. Before the summer was over we'd have blonde streaks in our hair, freckles across our noses, and be brown all over. Then it was back to school, very little play, lots of work, and we'd all get pasty again. Freckles remind me of when playing was the order of the day, when if we felt bad we didn't seem to know it because we were too busy having a good time. In short, freckles equal happiness and happiness is always cute.
 
BitchSlapSmitty said:
Why am I so damn cool?
That is an easy answer, though multi-reasoned.
1st - because you are a big brother. Big brothers are born with a coolness gene.
2nd - because you can gear your conversation to the person you are conversing with. That is an art. Also shows you are interested, which makes you interesting. Interesting is always cool.
3rd - because you are okay with people who aren't so damned cool which makes you cool.
4th - because
 
eloisel said:
That is an easy answer, though multi-reasoned.
1st - because you are a big brother. Big brothers are born with a coolness gene.
2nd - because you can gear your conversation to the person you are conversing with. That is an art. Also shows you are interested, which makes you interesting. Interesting is always cool.
3rd - because you are okay with people who aren't so damned cool which makes you cool.
4th - because

Ahh, cool.

You've got good answers. You should do a column in Ouch. and if you ever record any of your violin/string samplings please don't hesitate to send them my way.

Have you ever watched the t.v. show "Angel"? It's got an awesome opening and I've been trying to track that score down.

other scores or tracks of note? Anything by Grahamn Revelle and Carl Orloff sp?
 
Robert J. Kral is the composer for the Angel Main Theme - The Sanctuary. I've heard Darling Violetta's extended remix which is all fine and good but doesn't have the haunting, lamenting sound of the TV show's cello piece.

Some of my favorite composers are Antonio Vivaldi, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Samuel Barber and Edgar Meyer. One of my favorite CDs is Hilary Hahn: Barber & Meyer - Violin Concertos. Here is a link with some samples. Ms. Hahn is still very young and extremely gifted. I have recently discovered Bobby Yang. Here is a link to his site with several samples and a couple of videos. He is also extremely gifted. He's also very young and somebody I hope to be hearing alot of one of these days.

Here's another interesting artist I caught a clip of on Launch the other night. In the clip, she was on stage performing live. She started out with a little drumming on her guitar. I thought - okay - this is going to be slow. Turns out she was recording that little bit. Then she did a couple of backup singer type vocals and recorded that little bit too. Then she added a little tambourine. Then she played her little mix while she got busy on the guitar and singing her little song. Wish I could find that video. Found the one linked below instead. While it is a regular production it is quite interesting. Hope to see more of her work in the future too. KT Tunstall - Black Horse & the Cherry Tree.
 
eloisel said:
I remember summer days when I was young. We'd play outside all day digging in the garden, painting fences, swinging in tires tied to strong tree limbs, eating watermelon and strawberries, going swimming - every day was a big play day. Before the summer was over we'd have blonde streaks in our hair, freckles across our noses, and be brown all over. Then it was back to school, very little play, lots of work, and we'd all get pasty again. Freckles remind me of when playing was the order of the day, when if we felt bad we didn't seem to know it because we were too busy having a good time. In short, freckles equal happiness and happiness is always cute.

I'm freckled all over. They're EVERYwhere. ;)
 
Conchaga said:
Why are freckles so damned cute?

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