The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for June 2008

Why Would you Have a Pet Skunk Anyway

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This guy has some serious issues.

VAN BUREN, Ark. — A man accused of assaulting and tying up his mother because he was reportedly mad about the death of his pet skunk has been arrested in Waldron, authorities said.

Authorities say 35-year-old Scott Tolles Sullivan was arrested early Saturday in Waldron. He is being held without bail in Van Buren. Authorities say he hid from police in an attic and was arrested after police shot him with a bean bag gun.

Sullivan’s mother, 56-year-old Maria Sullivan, called police Wednesday night after freeing herself from duct tape and rope, authorities said. Maria Sullivan told police that her son became upset when he learned that her dog killed his pet skunk.

Soundtracks

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I ran out of time to put together the post I wanted to so instead I am going to provide a brief list/links of some soundtracks that I really enjoy. My apologies for not being as detailed about the actual cuts.

The Last Of The Mohicans– Theme
The Last of The Mohicans– No Matter Where You Go I will Find You
Theme from “Harry’s Game“- Clannad
Raiders of The Lost Ark
Narnia Soundtrack: The Battle
The Lord of the Rings – Evenstar
lord of the rings main theme
Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship Reunited
Slash – Solo GodFather Theme– Ok, that is a version of a soundtrack.

It is getting late. I’ll add more to this list later.

Firefox 3

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I upgraded Firefox 3 over the weekend. Thus far I am a bit underwhelmed by it. Perhaps it is because there are some weird issues that seemed to have cropped up since then.

More on this in a later post.

Feedback From The Shmata Queen

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Some of the 17 long time readers of this blog are aware that the president of my fan club is the semi-retired, no longer twenty-something blogger known as the Shmata Queen. Having fled the land of the burning river for sunnier parts and a brighter future she has taken it upon herself to serve not just as president but chief critic of the blog.

About once a week I receive extensive feedback about the content of this blog. She has no compunction in telling Old Jack that she finds the videos to be boring, doesn’t like large chunks of my music and wishes that I watched better movies.

Most recently she has taken it upon herself to tell me that she is bored with posts about basketball. It doesn’t matter whether it is about the NBA, NCAA or my pick-up games, she says that she is done with it. I told her that she is a cranky old broad and that she ought to loosen the top button of those jeans, because surely that is what affecting her judgment.

And as you might expect I was forced to duck repeatedly. The woman is a master of flinging that heavy, oversized handbag with great force at me. Most of the time she strives to hit my head, but thanks to my pick-up basketball game I am still nimble enough to avoid her strikes.

In fact there was one time where she swung so hard she spun herself in a complete circle and it was only because of my chivalric catch that she didn’t land on her backside. Of course I should add that I wish that I had that whole on thing on camera because America’s Funniest Home Videos would surely have given me ten grand for it.

You know part of the beauty of the queen is that she is a colorful old gal who never ceases to provide me with an unending stream of blog fodder. There are a number of stories that I always keep a rough draft of because you just never know when they might be applicable.

And now if you’ll excuse me I think that I better go purchase some body armor because when she sees this little ditty she’ll most likely do her Mama Bear impression. And don’t let her fool you, her teeth are sharp and she does have a nasty bite. 😉

Fiddling With Facebook

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I have intentionally been reluctant to get real involved with Facebook. I have such limited time that I have been hesitant to give away chunks large or small to things that don’t seem to have a solid payoff for my involvement.

Still, I am always interested in learning more about social networking tools that can be used for networking and reconnecting with friends and family. So with that in mind a short while back I found myself setting up shop there.

The process of adding friends reminds me of the concentric circles that form on the water after skipping rocks. When I first signed up the people I sought out were those who are closest to me. In my mind there was no reason to haphazardly add names to the list. I wasn’t interested in having more friends listed there than anyone else.

In fact, I am still not, but over time I have found that it was impractical and unrealistic to try and limit it so dramatically. Gradually I reached out to people who weren’t part of that inner circle and was in turn contacted with friendship requests by many others.

One of the interesting things I noticed from all this occurred because of one of my sisters. She has her own Facebook so periodically I have gone over there and looked at her list of friends. I am always surprised by how many names are unfamiliar to me.

She left home quite some time ago and has made a life for herself in a new city so it makes perfect sense that I wouldn’t know everyone on her list. Still, it seems a bit strange not to know them. I am the big brother. I have spent all of her life watching out for her and here I am wondering who Bob Delaney, Kim Connors and Jonathan Weissman are.

Anyway, I understand from her that one of my nephews and a niece have asked if they could do something like Facebook. I don’t know if they really understand what it is all about, they are still relatively young. But what I do know is that this is another sign that their childhood and that of my children is going to be dramatically different from my own.

I’ll save the value judgment for a different time. Just suffice it to say that it is a reminder to me that I need to stay on top of technology. They’re growing up with it, absorbing it the way I used to absorb baseball statistics. I don’t want to be the old man who hasn’t a clue what is going on. I am not trying to be the cool dad either, just don’t want to look around and feel like a dinosaur living in times that are not his own.

Vocabulary Time Part 8

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It is vocabulary time again. Here is part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part 6 and part seven. As always we’ll try not to repeat ourselves.

Also, I noticed that I made a mistake last time and didn’t list the definition of the words alongside them. I’ll rectify that lower down in the post. Here are your new words:

Otiant– idle; resting.
machicolation– n. apertures in parapet or floor of gallery for firing upon persons below. machicolate, v.t. furnish with these
Secern– To discern as separate; discriminate.
prothalamion -A song in celebration of a wedding; an epithalamium.
a capite ad calcem–From head to heel.
ad internecionem– To extermination.
Abusus non tollit usum-Wrong use does not preclude proper use.
ad captandum vulgus-To attract or to please the rabble.

From part seven

Ollendorffian– in the stilted language of foreign phrase-books.
gerascophobia–a morbid, irrational fear of, or aversion to, growing old.
bathysiderodrophobia–the fear of subways, undergrounds or metros.
hormephobia-Fear of shock.
cacoethes loquendi– the irresistible urge to speak.
cacoethes scribendi-.the irresistible urge to write