STP Stickers

The other day I was commenting on the song "I Call My Baby STP" by The Del-Vetts. You can find it at YouTube by a simple search.

In the course of that post, I think I mentioned all the STP stickers we used to see 35-40 years ago. There were STP stickers everywhere, on cars, telephone booths, school lockers, briefcases, everywhere.

It makes me wonder ... what ever happened to all the STP stickers? Did we just throw away everything that had these stickers on them?

Maybe if we found a junkyard somewhere, like a forgotten junkyard down in Missouri somewhere, one on a dead end road that also doesn't have a entrance (it's a double ended dead end), and somehow we could parachute in, we might find some old cars with aging STP stickers on them.

They might've been rained on for 45 years. Also blistered by the heat of 40 hot Missouri summers. And they'd be peeling at the edges. But there they'd be ... the oval STP logo from all those years ago.

Propriety

Propriety, first, last, and always. Must maintain propriety at all times.

With it, I must maintain dignity as well. Keep an unfluttered, unprovoked face and demeanor.

Everything where it belongs, eyes not roaming, hands appropriately used, every word decently filtered.

Uni, Roy, and Al

Whatever happened to Uni, Roy, and Al? They're seen here in a 1973 advertisement. I always hate it when we get to know these people, for example through their preference of Uniroyal tires, then they're gone and we never hear from them again.

The Archies - "Truck Driver"

One of my favorite songs by The Archies is "Truck Driver." I've been looking around the house for one of my 45s of it. (I think I have two, but I knew I had at least one.) And today, while looking for something else, I found one of them.

So I made an MP3 of it right away, since it's always been one I liked.

"Truck Driver" is the flip side of The Archies' first hit, "Bang-Shang-a-Lang."

Listening to it, I like it. But the story of "Truck Driver" doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. In the song, the singer knows a girl with eyes of brown. She's gone somewhere. And if he can catch a ride with the truck driver, maybe he can find her.

I personally think Baltimore would be a good place to check. Because he says "She talked about it the night before." Which might be an excellent clue as to her whereabouts. But then he has all the rest of the country to check, the United States, and that's a very big place. Even if the truck driver went to every state, the chances of seeing the girl are slim.

The truck driver is going to take his load through "27 different states." That still leaves quite a few.

If not Baltimore, how about New York City, where the lights are pretty. Plus, she'd go to Hollywood if she could.

I like this part where he says he won't get in the way of the truck driver. Except he'll be "standing on the running board calling her name through every town along the way." You don't think that would constitute "getting in the way"? The police are constantly pulling you over. "Hey, buddy, you can't be riding on the running board like that, screaming at the top of your lungs. It's not allowed."

In summation, this is a big country. And trying to find a single girl by riding a truck and calling out her name is not likely to get the job done!

Kucinich On The Aisle

How does Dennis Kucinich always get an aisle seat for the State of the Union speech? Does he have a bladder condition and need to be able to get out fast?

There he is once again tonight, leaning out, grinning, expecting the passing parade to acknowledge him.

Maybe the seats are assigned and that's just his natural spot. It's odd though, that one guy would always be right at the edge.

Looking at the Republicans there. Yuck. They're detestable.

I Should've Been A Bacteriologist!

I was just reading this article on the possibility of alien life forms already living among us in the world, as bacteria.

The basic concept that maybe some of this bacteria might be from outer space doesn't bother me. What is space anyway? We're always there. What got me was this paragraph:

Still, he noted that less than 1 percent of all the world's bacteria had been comprehensively studied – leaving plenty of room for scientists to find surprises in Earth's nooks and crannies.

Someone in the article notes that "less than 1 perfect of all the world's bacteria had been comprehensively studied." What? Less than 1 percent? That's about nothing. That means you get a job as a bacteriologist and you have a job for life, if you can stand to be around bacteria.

That is wild. I tend to think everything's pretty much well in hand as far as discoveries go and what there is left to find. But it looks like we have more bacteria than we know what to do with. Someone needs to get busy!

Salt On My Gloves

The other day I was trying to get rid of some ice. For this terrible task I was using the salt that comes in the big bag. There's a downside there.

One thing about this salt is, if you even get around it you're going to be tasting salt. I think I can taste it now, and it's been days since then.

I got it all over my gloves, and apparently it kicks up some micro dust in the air and attaches itself to your lips. Every once in a while you're tongue will hit your lips, and when it tastes that salt, you know you've gotten into something nasty. Especially since on the bag it says something about "phosphorus something or other" that you're not supposed to swallow.

But how much is too much? I immediately went and rinsed and wiped my lips. But still it lingers. I was just telling someone about it today...and as I started telling it (like now) I started tasting the stuff again. So that might be my imagination. Or it might be lingering, like a time release thing.

The big thing I've been wondering about is what kind of precautions they take with the guys who work with this stuff, like at the packing plant. It must be brutal. Now I know why the slaves in movies always look so down when they say "Back to the salt mines."

A Blizzard Day

Something about a snowy day, when the wind is whipping through at 50 mph, and there's white out conditions, makes me want to stay home.

They advise against going out, so that's a pretty good reason to stay in. They say to stay off the roads, because of the terrible danger. And they even close the highways leading out of town. So what they're trying to say is "Stay home."

There was an article in the paper where the sheriff was lamenting that people often ignore the official warnings. And next thing you know they're in a ditch somewhere, needing assistance.

My big fear about being in a ditch would be that the sheriff would be sitting in his office, heeding his own warnings, and wouldn't notice me in a ditch. So I'd freeze to death out there, where I shouldn't have been in the first place.

As it turned out tonight, I did have to go out. So I went and did what I needed to do -- official business for which I was commended for being faithful to do it in spite of the weather, when it would have been so easy to call and say I couldn't make it (sloughing off was the word they used). I was thinking, "Well, I do have a conscience, and I am conscientious." Just don't tell the sheriff!

Then I went to the store and picked up some foodstuffs. Because you never can tell. I don't want to starve to death at home. The sheriff doesn't make housecalls unless someone reports you for waving a gun.

Here I am now, in the house, listening to the blizzard assail my windows with its wind and awesome fury. It'd be a good night to have shutters on the house, assuming they wouldn't be frozen open.

Backup And Restore

I've got a backup underway. It took off automatically at some point. I didn't notice it start. I noticed everything getting sluggish and after a while saw the little notification down there.

Since it's been going for quite a while I thought maybe it was stuck, and searching around I notice other people have had that problem.

But apparently it's not stuck. I went to the place on the computer (Windows 7) for Backup and Restore and it said it was 58% along. And it's moving ... slowly but surely.

I don't care for all this automatic backup stuff, but I hate to turn it off. There'd be the short term benefit of not having everything sluggish, but let's say I needed a backup, then it might come in helpful. I'm pessimistic about it though. One day I tried to restore the computer to a prior date, its configuration. It got most of the way, then told me it failed. Real helpful! So I believe that's probably what would happen on a backup too. But you never know.

I just hate the sluggishness. Things coming to a standstill every once in a while!

He Of The Echo Effect Hath Sent Me

I'm listening to an old record called "The Story of the Old Testament as told to young people" (Part 1). It was put out on United Artists Records, in the '60s I think. Or maybe the late '50s.

In it God speaks. And whenever God speaks He has an echo effect added to His voice. How awesome!

I used to have a cassette set of the Bible on tape. And I believe they had Jesus' words with a kind of echo too. I believe that one was called a "red letter recording," the audio equivalent of printing Jesus' words in red in the bible.

We need that, I guess, the idea that God doesn't talk like we do.

Lady Gaga Five Years Ago

That's Lady Gaga from 2005, when, I guess, she was an unknown, average person in a restaurant.

It's a video that has a few clips of her on an MTV show from the time called "Boiling Point." I never heard of the show, but the premise apparently was to get on people's nerves and see if they could keep from losing their temper.

In this case they took her food and brought it back to her table with garbage on it. That would be a shocker.

She's very cute, I think. And five years ago isn't that long, from being unknown to being maybe the Number 1 artist in the whole world today. I love her songs and as far as I know I have them all.

The Yawning Reflex

The yawning reflex is great in me tonight, my big gaping maw sucking the skies for air.

And I'm sure I'm getting that fatigued, droopy look in the region of the eyes.

My posture is slumping, betraying me as one tired individual, seeing repose and a supine position.

Sleep comes easily to me, perhaps too easily. I could burrow in somewhere, pull the covers up and fall to sleep quickly.

Wouldn't be a problem.

Amazing Grace

I like the line "that saved a wretch like me."

That's an interesting twist on self-esteem, isn't it? A wretch.

There's another song that has the same kind of self-deprecation theme. Except it says "Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" A worm.

Interesting choice of words.

Too Much Complimenting

Have you ever been complimented too much?

That's happening to me in my life these days. I have someone who's complimenting me left and right. I'm "such a nice man," etc.

Which I am. I'm nice to everyone. But most people take it in stride, maybe it's their due. Certainly I don't mind people thinking nice things about me. That's OK, but leave me to my own sense of how things are going. I don't need constant strokes about it.

I came very close today to saying "It's too much," or something like that. But, being such a nice guy, I couldn't bring myself to say it.

I myself affirm people regularly, but not the same people over and over. It's a good thing to do, especially, of course, if you're sincere. Which I usually am.

Maddening Audio Problem

I used to be able to change my recording settings on the computer, my old computer.

Now I have a Windows 7 computer and everything seems quite a bit different. One, I can plug a line into the computer, in the microphone jack, and record something, like a record. At that point the built in microphone is turned off, not picking up every throat clear, etc.

But say I want to record the soundtrack of something playing on the computer, with no line in. Such as something off of You Tube. At that point, the built in microphone is still on. There doesn't seem to be any way of turning it off.

That's a bad feature ... or non-feature.

Finished Fun In Acapulco

I've been in an Elvis mood lately. Which happens to me fairly often, being his youngest original fan. That's what I am. It would be certified if such things were certifiable. Since they aren't it's my claim ... and I don't see anyone disputing it.

I was three or four in '56, baby, doing a great Elvis impersonation. "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog!" with my rattle for a microphone. This is true stuff. I had sideburns in kindergarten.

Anyway, even though I'm old now, I'm actually quite sane -- quite sane, but I'm still certifiable as a diehard Elvis fan. Like we said back in '56, I'm still "Pulling For Presley!"

So I've been engaged in my free time watching some of the King's movies. I just finished "Fun In Acapulco" tonight. I was all the way up to the last five minutes this morning but didn't have time to finish it. So I hit pause and continued with the last song "Guadalajara" tonight.

This is a pretty good movie. Like I just wrote a day or so ago, though, I'm a little bummed out that Elvis wasn't actually in Acapulco. I don't like watching some body double walking around pretending to be him. Especially when you can look, with a trained or untrained eye, and see that it's some other guy. Of course I wouldn't expect Elvis to have done the stunts or the dives, all that. But walking around, holding hands with a girl? He could've managed that.

The little kid, Raul, at the end was going to get to go to Florida with Elvis (Mike Wingert) to be his amigo for life. So if he's still alive, a shout out to him. You did a great job in the film. I wonder what it would be like to work with the Elvis double. Was that freaky?

Now tonight I started "Double Trouble." This is kind of a freaky movie. Elvis is downright surly to the girl at the beginning. But it's all in good fun. Plus she was secretly underage, so it's a good thing that they didn't go too far!

Lloyd

What's the deal with the name "Lloyd"?

How did they ever come up with a name that starts with two of the same letter? Kind of like Aaron in that regard. "Aaron, mmeet Lloyd." "PPleased tto mmeet yyou, Lloyd."

It's a waste of letters!

Limbaugh, Our Dr. Smith

Roger Ebert has a great idea: Rush Limbaugh needs to be horsewhipped.

Rush reminds me of Dr. Smith on "Lost In Space," who's only there to be a burr under everyone's saddle. In Dr. Smith's case, he foolishly sabotaged his own life support system, the spaceship and the well being of the crew.

Limbaugh at this point is sabotaging his own country. There ought to be a penalty for a guy like that. I don't know what it is. But horsewhipping sounds like a good start!

I Hit The Exercise Place Tonight

The doc wants me to exercise more ... so I am. I haven't exactly been pressing it, but I did go tonight.

I wasn't the sweatiest person there. I wasn't the more unhealthy looking there either. So that made me feel more than adequate.

There I was ... on the elliptical, with my headphones and iPod.

Later I was on the weight thing, where you pull down the bar, and it's all attached to some weights. They have a multitude of mirrors on the wall, so you can see yourself from odd angles. I was looking at the weirdest angle of me, thinking, there I am. Also thinking, just to look at me, you can't tell what I'm thinking or listening to. Just a guy pulling on a weight, maybe a blank slate.

But of course closer to home, in my own head, I knew it all!

The Ghost Hunters On Syfy

I have a little saying about the ghost hunters show on Syfy: "All tease, no cheese."

I really don't watch it, but another person in the house has it on all the time, and seems fascinated by their show about nothing. Ghosts that never seem to make any real objective appearance, although the folks on the show definitely seem to think they've seen and recorded something.

I see snippets of it while passing through the room. "Oop, there's something!" The camera is jarred, we instantly go to commercial! Once again, all tease, no cheese.

At this point just seeing the people on it during these snippets is a frightening enough experience for me. I don't like them a bit. If I was a ghost I'd go to wherever they are, wait for them to turn the camera off, then kick the crap out of them.

They must be making a bunch of money on this worthless show. Listening to mutters, murmurs, hisses in the dark. If they're that desperate to make contact with a living entity, how about just sitting down with some actual living people and talk!

Firefox (Not Responding)

Every once in a while, I'll be typing along, doing this, or browsing, and suddenly everything stops. Then I look up and it says Firefox (Not Responding). The computer is doing something and can't be stopped. It's just off in its own world.

Then a few minutes later -- tops -- it comes back to life and we proceed as if nothing happened.

It happened a few minutes ago, which is why I'm thinking of it now. But this time I just sat there and so the time it took to come back was less. Like less than 30 seconds. Usually I'm doing a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and trying to get to the thing where I can try to stop processes (which never works when this happens). But this time maybe I did the better thing, which is to do nothing, because it came back quickly.

It occurs to me, though, how terrible that is. It shouldn't do that. You wouldn't want your car to do that going down the road. Just to quit working for a few minutes.

And with your computer, what if you were doing a presentation for a big board meeting. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, it all freezes up. You're sitting there, sweating. Maybe swearing under your breath.

I wish stuff like this wouldn't happen. But it still feels like we're in the Wild West of the computer age. Like you really can't depend on anything. I know with my computer -- which is only a month old -- there's something challenging me every single day. It's disgusting, even though it's a pretty good computer.

They simply have a long way to go. There's still lots of bugs.

Busy Busy Busy

I've got a busy day going. I need to bear down.

I'm like the guy in Heaven in charge of butts. I've got to get cracking!

The Things That Drive Us Crazy

Here's a "Reality Principle" from a list I have from a class I took one time. It is No. 2 on the list of 10:

"The things about people that drive us crazy are the things that are keeping them sane."

Can that be true? What a wild concept! Making me wonder what are the things "keeping ME sane" that drive other people crazy? Assuming I'm sane. Which I believe I am.

I'll think of that statement for a while. And see if I can discern any truth in it in the people I meet.

My Beautiful Buffoon

Would you like to ride in my beautiful buffoon?
Floating way up high in my beautiful buffoon,
We could sail about the highest mountains, you and I,
'Cause we can fly ... fly ...
Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful buffoon.
Buffoon!

I would like the stillness of a hot air buffoon,
with just the sound of the fire whizzing above head.

How Much Is Five Pounds?

I had my six month doctor's appointment today, and the bad news is that I gained five pounds in the last six months.

So the doctor mentioned that as a bad thing. So now I need to try to shed it in the next six months. It's going to take all the determination I can muster. Plus the discipline to get to the gym and do my exercises regularly.

I was there tonight, got it done. It was helpful to me that an Elvis concert movie ("Elvis On Tour") was on the TV at my machine, so that made the time speed by. But I can't depend on that happening everyday!

Anyway, I want to have good health as much as I can. So I need to buckle down and get serious about doing the right things. No more Hershey Kisses, of which I had maybe 15 today.

My Bull Imic

This has to be the funniest joke ever, funny for not being funny.

My bull Imic. Let go of my puking bull, Imic.

2007 or 1997

I need to quit losing sleep, which means I need to get to bed at a decent hour.

I was telling someone yesterday about something President Bush did in 2007. But when I woke up today I was thinking I told them 1997, which wouldn't make any sense. I'm still not sure I didn't say 1997, but surely I didn't.

When I woke up today, and even when I was sitting in my chair, I was confused about 2007 and 1997, as in their relation to the present year. It took some real mental working it through to get myself square again.

It's not that I'm dumb. I just haven't had the full eight hours for a while. So my mind is playing tricks on me.

I need to wrap it up for tonight ... get the dog outside for her thing ... and get to bed!

The Kelsey Company

I have a sentimental place in my heart for The Kelsey Company of Meriden, Connecticut. They used to sell printing presses and all the equipment. I got one of these in 1965 for Christmas, a 3" x 5" press.

I still have one of my business cards, advertising "All Types Of Fine Printing." That's right, all types of fine printing, as long as what you need printed fits inside a 3" x 5" chase. (A chase is the metal frame that you put the type in.)

I was just looking online and see there's a site that tells about the presses and how you can buy them on eBay, etc. I actually sold one on eBay one time, a press I bought at an antique store. I bought it with the intention of selling it, but when I got it I was tempted to keep it.

I was thinking of this because I was going through some stuff and found my "Printer's Guide," published by the Kelsey Company. It's 37 pages of guidance on how to set type, handle fonts, etc. It's a great little book.

I was scanning it then with my new scanner and it was just like printing with a printing press. I have a scanner interface that you can set on a timer. I had it set on 10 seconds. So I put it in, it scans a page, then I open it, turn the page, close the lid and it scans another one. It's a lot like standing at a printing press putting in sheets of paper.

(I may as well say that my family had other printing presses. Including some good sized ones. But the 3" x 5" was my own.)

If you look through old magazines, like Popular Mechanics, you'll likely see little ads for the Kelsey Company. They were around for a long time.

I Have A Scanner And A Scanner Interface

...and they're not entirely compatible.

The interface is pretty good, not made by the scanner company. But it has one (apparent) fatal flaw. It can't run the document feeder automatically. That is, it can't do it reliably, but once in a while the option appears and works.

I wrote to the company for the interface and he told me it was a problem with the scanner's software, and that I should check for a upgrade to the driver. Of course that's going to be tough to find in relation to this particular issue with this particular piece of software, the interface software. The chances of five other people having the exact issue to be addressed in the new driver update are low. So it won't be addressed.

I called the scanner company and the guy didn't know what to tell me, since he'd never heard of it. His guess was that there was something wrong with the interface software.

The short story is ... I'm never going to be able to use it for the purposes for which it was written. Which is sad. Because it made it so easy ... the three times it worked.

A Fan Of Glenn Beck

Someone I know on Facebook is "a fan of Glenn Beck."

Sometimes you just never know. What is it that gives people such putrid taste?

The Christmas Tree Is Coming Down

The Christmas tree is looking noticeably barer as the day wears on. In fact, it has been denuded entirely. It's down to the bare branches, and the lights that it came with already installed.

What a process. All the totes, plastic bags, cardboard boxes with lids, and the rest. Some stuff is wrapped in tissue. The moving angel, that sets by the tree, is in a bag with a bag over her head. I see a big bearded Old World Santa peeking out of a plastic store bag.

Down below the tree, the musical merry go round horses are silent and still. A dog statue in a cap and scarf looks just as attentive as he always does. Little knick knacks relating to Christmas are coming down. Christmas is definitely over.

The Christmas videos are still setting next to the TV, but of course no one wants to watch them.

New Year's is almost over with. The holidays have come to an end, virtually. It's time to get back to normal. The season of no lights.