Wacky Wednesday!

Great title, huh? Sadly nothing happened today that was wacky. Wait! My partner and I watched Once Upon A Mattress. Fun movie, somewhat of a musical.

It stars Carol Burnett, Tracy Ullman and Tom Smothers. At first I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it. Then I said to myself, "Snap out of it and have some fun!" And I did! If you are looking for some light fun and light musical - this is it!

Now I've got to go back to reading and taking notes of the book, "Definitive XML Schema" by Priscilla Walmsley. It's filled with nodes, attributes, whitespace, regular expressions, unions, lists, unparsed entities, parsed entities, and more!

Ok, so I'm sure lots of you will be running out there and buying that book! I totally expect some reviews! Ha! Ha!

I'm really serious about that.

Not!

No, really. I am.

Yea, I'm tired of that old joke too.

Not really.

Now I'm rambling. Actually, I'm procrastinating. The book is staring at me! It's calling my name!

Its not really. What is it book?

Good night.

Monday Meme

Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

Once everything is set up, calculating the recognitions requires no knowledge of the strategy subclass. The OO habit of successive forwarding from object to object moves the behavior to the object most qualified to handle it, but it also resolves much of the conditional behavior. You'll notice that there are no conditionals in this calculation.

I got this idea/thought/activity from Sticky Crows. He's also expanding my vocabulary as I didn't know what the definition of the word meme.

If I was a really good student I would write down the definition and then write three sentences using the word. Boy that brings back some school memories!

This activity is an example of a meme.

Saturday Sky - 08/26/2006

Saturday Sky - 08/26/2006
Originally uploaded by i_bugsy.

Today's sky is nothing but gray and overcast. In an attempt to add interest to this sky I took lots of photos while my partner and I were running around doing errands.

I selected this photo as it shows the US Air Force Memorial under construction. This is off of I-395 on the right heading South. Its near the Pentagon. The dedication weekend is October 14th and 15th.

Enjoy!

Bee Quilt

Bee Quilt
Originally uploaded by i_bugsy.

I did this block when I first joined a quilter's guild. It was the only block like it and I'm not going to make more. Its just not the style of block I'm into. Of course, that was before I made it. I made it to try and fit in with the group. Now I have a UFO (UnFinished Object) which I did not want.

Then I realized that my nephew, E., loves bugs! He absolutely loves them. So I decided to challenge myself to make a wall hanging and this is the result!

Hopefully he'll enjoy it. I'm almost certain he'll be terrified of it!

Where the Readers Are

Peter in Toronto put me on to this cool map thing from ClusterMaps That one reader seems to be in Washington DC Metro area. Hmm... Hey that's me! I'm so grateful to be able to keep up with myself!

Who Won The Mideast War?

Who Really Won the Mideast War?
Bush claims Israel won the recent conflict
Hezbollah declares 'historic victory'

At times I find that I become obsessive over some topic. This weeks obsession is "Who won the Mideast war?" The short answer - nobody. All are big, big losers!

Why nobody? Because its the same thing over and over and over again. Its not a new war; its an old one. Its one fought by people who have nothing but hate for each other. Period. They don't learn and don't change. The weapons get bigger and the tactics change but the way to affect change is the same - violence.

Besides death and destruction, this latest 'war' has done nothing more than further radicalize both sides. It did nothing more than to further incite hatred and desire for future death and destruction. Bigger and better death and destruction! New and improved death and destruction!

Because, frankly, its easier to demonize those that are different from you. Easier to chide and deride them. Easier to destroy, than to create. Easier to kill than to find a reasonable compromise.

So who won? Nobody. Neither side learned anything new about how to compromise or how to live in a peaceful, co-existent nature. They learned how to hate and how to manipulate each other so that at some point in the future they can kill and destroy again. Oh. Wait! They already learned that!

Anyone who tells you differently is merely delusional. Of course that's my opinion. You are more than welcome to have your own! I'll even listen and try to understand your point of view. Just don't ask who won!

Saturday Sky - 08/12/2006

Saturday Sky - 08/12/2006
Originally uploaded by i_bugsy.

Here's my Saturday Sky! Had to do this before I forgot.

Hopefully yours is as nice!

Tagged!

Here's the scoop:
Once you have been tagged, you have to write a post with 8 facts/things/habits about yourself and say who tagged you. In the end, you will need to choose 6 people to tag and list their names or you can not tag others instead ask for volunteers! No tag backs. I'm doing the volunteers, so six people volunteer and leave a comment to let us know so we can go check it out. (I got this idea from Addict).

I was voluntarily tagged by Addict: News, Gossip, Lies.

1. I love the color blue.


2. I suffer from insomnia.


3. I'm afraid of heights.


4. I'm an introvert.


5. I dislike Woody Allen films.


6. A few months after I came out to my Father, he had a major heart attack at the Pittsburgh airport. He survived. A few weeks after coming out to my Mother, she had serious heart palpitations. She survived.


7. I had my appendix out when I was about 10. I was supposed to take it easy when I got out of the hospital. The day I got out of the hospital I rode a big wheel as an act of rebellion against my Mother. Apparently, I was very upset with her for 'abandoning' me at the hospital.


8. When I was a kid (11 or 12) I drank my Uncle's beer in retaliation for him eating my dinner. I don't remember the particulars.

Ok people, I need 6 volunteers!

Third Quarter Done!

Section Three
Originally uploaded by i_bugsy.

Yes sports fans its the Third Quarter and this team is moving full speed ahead!

Ok, so I'm not a sports announcer. I also don't play one on TV. I also shouldn't even try to pretend I know sports! I once thought that there were only seven innings in baseball!

I only have one more quarter to go. I've sewn the other two quarters together and now I have a half of a quilt! This section seemed to go quicker than the other two. Hopefully the last one will go just as fast.

Saturday Sky - 08/05/2006

Today my partner and I went to the American Portrait Gallery. It had reopened awhile ago and we've been meaning to go. So I've combined our outing with Saturday Sky!

Its not as humid as it has been and the sky is a lovely blue! Here's hoping that your sky is beautiful too!


We arrived 30 minutes early, so we went to Starbucks for a little coffee and coffee cake. As we entered the store, immediately to the left was Gadget Bear!

Gadget Bear was a big, heavyset, hairy man wearing a tank top, sunglasses and a ball cap. His iPod was strapped to his arm with the earbuds in. On his table was a small keyboard that he was typing on and occasionally he would look up. Attached to the keyboard was a cradle with a Blackberry-type device in it. Thus, Gadget Bear!

I imagine that Gadget Bear was blogging, why else park it at a Starbucks near the front of the store? I'm sure he was taking care to make my entrance very dramatic and rememberable!

We had our little mid-morning snack and then headed back out to the museum. Yes, Gadget Bear was still working away! Probably documenting the fact that I was now leaving. I'm sure he was adding lots of flare and drama!

The museum was beautiful inside. I didn't take pictures as they weren't allowed in many places and I'm sure the National Portrait Gallery web site has some wonderful pictures!

There were lots of portraits! My favorites were of Laurie Anderson, Toni Morrison, and Shaquille O'Neal.

I also found that I like the art work of Alex Katz.

Blue Ocean Martini

In celebration of the hot and humid weather, i.e. Hades, I'm posting another of my favorite martini's - Blue Ocean. My partner lovingly refers to it as Windex! Isn't he cute? (Smooches honey!)

Bugsy's Blue Ocean Martini

• 1-3/4 oz vodka
• 3/4 oz blue curacao
• splash of cointreau

Mix the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake! Enjoy!

Me. I've got some quilting to do!

Hot, Humid, Hazy

Well its hot, humid, and I am a bit hazy. So I went for a stroll around the neighborhood and saw this! Black-eyed Susans! I love these flowers. I can stare at them for a long, long time. Maybe this explains the strange looks I received?

Today was a bit off as I didn't get to work until late, then there was no power at the office, left a few hours later, met my brother for lunch, and then returned home to do some work. Needless to say I'm a bit unfocused.

Anonymity and the Internet

After reading a fellow blogger's site and the comments to that specific blog entry, I realized that many people think that what they post on the Internet wont be found!

Quelle surprise!

Yeah that's probably bad French, but it is what I experienced! Surprise!

So here's my "The More You Know" public awareness spot - If you send anything through the Internet, if you post anything to the Internet - it can be found! Especially with the different search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN, Blogspots search engine, and any others. Go there and do some searches from words on your blog and see what you can find!

It pays to post and send email with a great deal of thought, care and common sense. Before posting, before sending - think and evaluate what would happen if someone saw this? What would be the repercussions?

Just as an example, I was invited to a friend's house for breakfast. I didn't know where they lived, other than the city and state. I knew their name and with the Internet I was able to find where they live, how much their house cost, how much they owe in property taxes and how much they have paid for their property taxes! They were very shocked when I told them all this!

So be careful out there, use some common sense, and be paranoid! Just because no one is out to get you, doesn't mean someone's not out to get you!

(now, where is that music......)

Editor's note: ok. I've found a lot of others blogging with the name of Bugsy!