Why buying new isn't always the best answer

There was a story, years ago, that asked why getting something repaired was so much more expensive than just buying new. The answer went something like this...

That product that needs repairing was probably made on an assembly line - *this* part has to be installed before the other part because another part has to connect to it. And so on, ad infinitum. To *repair* that same item, essentially 18th century craftsmanship must be employed to disassemble it and put it back together.

While it's more economically feasible to just replace a broken item, one should really embrace the talent needed to perform the repair. Only then can one appreciate why some stuff just can't be bought for the lowest price.

AWE vs. AWW

It's not rocket science, folks.

Tom Judd's Birthday

The Epitome of Mondays

Why Mitt Romney Is Speaking At The University of Utah

I figured out why Mitt Romney is speaking at the University of Utah tomorrow morning (3/3/16). Is he going to endorse a candidate? Not likely. Is he going to enter the race? Close sources say no.

The Salt Lake Tribune said "Insiders say Romney, who is no fan of Trump, will have something surprising to say."

What then will he say, and why here in Salt Lake City?

OK, I'm going out on a limb here. And this will (likely) be the last time I comment on the whole process because I'm tiring of the whole circus act.

I've lived in Utah now for thirty years, I've seen what partisan politics can do to the well-being of folks who aren't of the dominant political party and of the dominant religion (there, I said it).

Utah always votes Republican. NO MATTER WHAT. But this election cycle is different. Way different. And it has a certain demographic scared shitless. And, for all intents and purposes, they cannot say anything about it. But Mitt Romney can.

He's going to suggest that the people of the Great State of Utah parts ways with tradition and not vote straight Republican. And definitely not for Trump. Anyone but Trump.

Mark my words - you heard it here first.

Don't Believe The Media Hype

Every Way You Look At It You Lose

I've never much been interested in Presidential politics until this year. And rightly so, of course, what with the current field of Republican candidates. It's laughable when one considers how all these damn debates have devolved into shouting matches. No matter who you might vote for, you'd lose....

The dialog trails off there because it would make for a great song. Too bad it was already written almost forty years ago. FORTY YEARS AGO.

In a similar vein, I created a meme-y image to go along with this epiphany. Feel free to use it as you wish - standard disclaimer: I take no credit for the lyrics.

One must wonder... did Simon and Garfunkel have some sort of sixth sense to be able to foretell the future?

I Don't Know Who Nathan Fillion Is

THIS is Nathan Fillion. I'm not really concerned about who he is. Apparently he's an actor. But this post really isn't about HIM.

For some time, I've been a fan of animated GIFs, ever since Compuserve first created the specification in 1989. One such GIF is from the movie Hancock, played expertly by Will Smith. The GIF in question is of Jason Bateman explaining something to Will Smith's Hancock; not getting the point across, he simply does the following:

But wait a minute. IF you try to find THAT animated GIF using enough keywords relating to Jason Bateman and the movie Hancock, it's nowhere to be found. WTF??

I love the movie Hancock; I'd watched it a bunch of times on cable, and when it left the rotation on whatever cable station it was on, I still wanted to watch it - it took quite a while for it to go to DVD, but when it did, I snatched up a copy.

This morning on Facebook there was an opportune time to use the Jason Bateman GIF. Having recently had to do a full OS reload on my ageing HP laptop, I unfortunately lost a lot of my bookmarked links to online GIFs - as you may well know, Facebook only allows *links* to GIFs; you can't (yet) upload a GIF and have it work. Hell, only yesterday Facebook released its bastardization of the dislike button we've all wanted forever. Upload a GIF? In your dreams.

Anyway...

So I couldn't find a link to the damn GIF. As luck would have it, though, for some reason I'd downloaded a copy of the GIF to my hard drive - THAT was recoverable from the backup before the OS reload. Still couldn't find it via a file search, so ended up poring over all the GIFs on the drive. And there it was... with a weird-ass filename of "reaction gif firefly funny lol wtf meme trolled.gif".

Firefly?

Yeah... you guesses it. "Nathan Fillion Firefly" finds the damn thing at reactiongifs.us.

OH HELL NO.

I distinctly remember that scene from Hancock.

But wait, there's more. Maybe it's a case of mistaken identity. The two actors - Bateman and Fillion -  do resemble one another. My bad?

I'm watching Hancock yet again. More on this later, I'm sure.

Violate the Verbal Morality Statute

...a few times.

It always begins as a joke...

Well worth the read...

What, exactly, did she spill?

This is the original...

THIS is time-cropped to what comes out of that container. Pills? Powder?

Just another image that needs a home...

Fnord

Henry Fnord and I have been trading GIFs back and forth for the last few months. This one's payback for one he played on me earlier today...

My Brain Hurts

Happy New Year 2016!

You May Kiss My Ring

Catwoman Shocks Trump

Sometimes I surprise even myself.

Donald Trump isn't the best choice, for anything, let alone President of the United States. That he's the frontrunner for the GOP is scary shit. He's got to be stopped at any cost. But electrocution?

Maybe that's not too bad an idea.

But who would be up to the challenge?

BTW, IMHO, Julie Newmar was the BEST Catwoman.

Infinite Loop

Husky Types on the Keyboard

Found this during a conversation of Facebook. Of course it was on another website which unfortunately has some sort of Javascript wizardry that made it impossible to link to directly, so thought it's be easier to upload it here and link to THIS copy. Let's see how it works!

NEVER Wait Too Long

Protip: NEVER wait too long to contact someone, no matter how distantly related you are. Blood doesn't matter. If there's a connection, no matter how slight, contact them.

Tonight I found out I'd lost a friend of the DeLong family. In 2013.

I didn't know him; maybe when I was much younger, but I don't recall exactly. Considering his parent's ages, he was likely a few years older than I. His name was Bill Dahn.

Years ago, while I was doing some Google research about my uncle, Edward Grover DeLong who was one of the original PT boat captains just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I'd happened on Bill's blog during one of my searches. He'd referred to my uncle as a cousin, but I'd never heard of him. But that last name...

(Forgive me if the following seems a bit foggy, but it's been a good thirty years or more since I heard these stories.) My dad and most of my uncles were born in Springfield, South Dakota. The family farm was, if I recall family stories correctly, rather large, so when conditions permitted, my grandparents took in boarders. As it is, I cannot remember if Miriam and John Dahn were boarders as a couple or it was only one of them and they got together as a couple later. Can't remember. Anyway, they grew "into" the DeLong family, and were basically "cousins."

Years after the family moved "out West," to California, so did Miriam and John. If they'd had kids at that time, I have no recollection. But what I do know is that on several occasions after I was born, we went to visit them. Was Bill there? Again, it's a bit foggy.

So there I was, back in about 2007, finding Bill Dahn's blog. Reading what I already knew about my uncle. Reading about Bill, and his family. And thinking to myself that I really should contact Bill if only to say Hi.

Never did. And now he's gone.