Somehing is wrong wih my oshiba...

For some reason, ye undiscovered, I am having rouble making the T button work on my laptop today. here's probably a ca hair stuck under i or somehing. I hough it was jus my poor yping skills acing up bu i is more han ha...

I can actually make it work but the key needs a little more effort on the downstoke than all the other keys. So I suppose I need a can of compressed air to see it the offending obstruction can be removed.

I'm still alive-

and I haven't quit blogging. I've just been incredibly busy and haven't taken the time to share my thoughts with you here. The new job, the holiday season, a large dog living at my house= the reasons the dog is living here, spousal illness and injuries have all kept me away from writing.

And I see that I will be coming up on the 9th anniversary of this blog next week, which except for child rearing and marriage the longest effort I've ever undertaken. I've got some ideas about what how to direct Wasted Electrons over the coming months so I will be getting back into the writing and sharing in the very near future.

I promise.

Well isn't that a hoot?

So sitting down this evening I started reading through my blogroll and noticed that Tam had linked to my thoughts about celebrating J. Stevens' invention of the 22 Long Rifle cartridge. First, it's a surprise that such a celebrated blogger as Tam stumbled over to this humble blog and second, that little mention on her blog busted my stats average in a huge way! I went and checked and I'm up to 174 visits today compared to the usual average of about 17.

It doesn't take too much to really make my day and seeing my visit count spike due to a link by somebody I really like reading everyday does make my day. Even better, Tam's readers and commenters seem to be in favor of my idea of celerating Mr. Stevens' birthday every September with the purchase of more of his celebrated invention.

Thanks Tam!

I'm not dead and I haven't quit blogging-

I'm just pretty busy right now, with lots of stuff going on and finding it hard to get my activities and thoughts converted into bits & bytes.

Maybe soon though!

This is really gonna make you laugh!

I got turned on to this blog through a Facebook friend and it's just too funny and smart not to share with even those of you that might not see it over there. This gal's writing and drawings are hilarious and I can't wait to see what else she posts in the future. Go check out Hyperbole and a Half for a great tale!

I wish I could write like this-

Now, the party that has retaken power in Congress may do nothing. At best I fear yesterday's election was a band-aid on a sucking chest wound, and at worst they'll go right back to getting all knotted up in rearranging the "family values" and "law'n'order" deck chairs while the USS Dollar continues to slip beneath the waves... But while I was eating lunch I watched the Brat Prince keep trying to strike his favorite chin-uplifted Mussolini pose, with its haughty "Who farted?" moue of confident disdain, but it wouldn't stick, and his facial expression kept drifting back to one that looked like a man chewing on a cat turd.

Now that's writing! You are a charmer, Tam!

I have a regular visitor-

I'll bet you're surprised by that, huh?

But seriously, I browsed through my visitor log this morning for the first time in weeks and noticed I have a regular visitor from Kayseville, just down the road a piece from Wasted Electrons World Headquarters. I have no idea who it is but I appreciate their regular visits to my tiny little spot on the interweb's tubes.

Care to introduce yourself in the comments? Don't be shy. And if you remain cloaked, that's fine too. Just keep visiting!

I haven't quit blogging-

I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!

No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting. He's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords...

No fiords for me... In spite of current appearances, I'm not dead and haven't quit my job here at the opulent Wasted Electrons World Headquarters. And I have been resting- occasionally, in between camping vacation days at the Oregon coast, hurting my lower back just pulling up my pants and a week of enforced rest because of that injury and some general apathy, everything has piled up and kept me away from my blogging duties.

But I have been thinking about getting back into the blogging habit and today I did get one phone call from a reader asking me if I was coming back. So I'm back. Maybe some good stuff to read in the coming days.

Well ain't this a kick?

My blogging buddy Bruce from No Looking Backwards has decided to look even further forward and to take action where he sees a need, so he is quitting blogging, effective right now.

Bruce has made himself a candidate for the New Hampshire State Legislature and is running for office! Good for him! I really have enjoyed his blogging over the years and I wish him the very best in this huge endeavor.

Good on ya Bruce!

Taking one of my favorites off the blogroll

It saddens me but I'm removing Cranky Lit Professor from my blogroll tonight. She used to be one of my favorite daily reads but a couple weeks ago she put her blog behind a firewall and even though I've tried to register with Wordpress, I still can't see what she is writing. Too bad because I really liked her work.

I don't know what happened at her place to mke her take her blog down but she did. So thanks for the laughs, Prof but you're off the list!

Willie Nelson like you've never seen him before...

I don't remember what swirl through the intertubes landed me on Youtube tonight but somehow I did and when I did, I discovered a video that just blew my mind- Willie Nelson in a suit! This is NOT the Willie most of us know and love, (or tolerate or hate) and I'm guessing this video was made before Willie found his muse in the ganja plant. Anyway, it's a hoot so give it a look.

And to clear the scary scene from your cranium, here's a Willie video that will get your mind right- Willie and Merle Haggard singing Pancho & Lefty. If watching this video doesn't put a smile on your face, there's no hope for you.
This one is a classic too:

Time to make more changes to my blog template-

Seems that my Weather Pixie and it's supporting website has disappeared into the ethernet. I noticed it missing a couple days ago and and the website is dead and hasn't come back so I suspect the entire organization is kaput.

Say goodbye Weather Pixie!

Harrison Ford, tell Wendy Buckley to pound sand!

You'll have to watch Bill Whittle on PJTV to learn the story behind that title but it's worth 11 minutes of your time to hear Bill's thoughts on choosing Freedom over a Nanny State. It's a terrific piece and you know I like Bill's opinions and attitude.

BTW, did you know you can watch most of the offerings at PJTV ust by signing up for a free account? There's lots of really thought provoking and insightful video to watch over there. Check it out.

Awesome fishing pictures!

Nothing I did- which you will see obviously when you click this link but some freaky fishing skills none the less.

According to the website- Miguel Lasa Photography, these are Ospreys fishing in Finland. The scenes of these birds with a fish in each talon are just awesome.

Be a part-

of the Party of No! I gotta get me a couple of these! Support Bruce's efforts and buy some for yourself!

Speaking of curious-

There are 3 comments in the post from Sunday about ammunition but for some reason, Blogger hasn't changed the notification that shows if there is a comment or there isn't. I have no idea why or what to do about it.

Suggestions?

Some blog template help needed- anybody?

Over there on the right, my archives are listed by the month and it makes for a long an unsightly list going back for as many years as it does. I would like to change the way my archives are displayed and maybe even just show on the front page the years of the archives. Blogger is no help in their template set up.

So I'm asking. Could somebody assist with helping me get my template altered to change how my archives are displayed? My HTML-fu is lousy and I really don't have the interest needed to get the modifications done properly. If you can help, I'd be very appreciative. Contact me through my email.

540,000 miles, 1 owner Mercury Comet

Check out this 89 year old woman and her Chariot. It's a 64 Mercury Comet Caliente and she's driven it over 540,000 miles on the original engine. And she just came back from a 3200 mile solo trip to her 70th high school reunion!

Quite the old lady!

Sears sold houses?

Complete houses? Why did I never know about this before now? One of my cubicle mates mentioned yesterday that Sears Robuck once sold complete houses as kits. Turns out he was right-

Between 1908 and 1940, Sears sold about 70,000 homes in 48 states through their mail-order Modern Homes program, with 370 designs that you might not readily recognize as a kit home. Sears kit homes were shipped via boxcar and came with a 75-page instruction book. Each kit contained 10,000 - 30,000 pieces and the framing members were marked to facilitate construction.

Pretty interesting! Can you imagine having a train box car with every part needed to build your house show up, ready for you to crack open the 75 page instruction manual and get to work?

Here is original Sears catalog descriptions of all the designs from 1908 to 1940. Pretty neat!

Hurray! It's working!

My new D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N wireless router is connected and working! Now, now I can go have a shower so I can get the fish smell off of me from a successful day of fishing!