kbobam

Watching an interesting show on the National Geographic channel. Clipped this shot of people who were literally "Sent to Siberia" doing calisthenics at 6:00 A.M. Tomorrow morning when I wake up completely disgusted with life in general, I'm going to try to remember this scene and maybe start the day with a slightly sunnier disposition!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31jqvZGtOJw

I have no idea why the flapping dog-ear is so funny, but the best humor always seems to work that way!

Nuts. Managed to stay up tonight until midnight trying to get even some sort of meteor photo, but unfortunately I 'got nothing'. Never even saw one 'by eye', but figured it was worth seeing if maybe the camera might pick up one I couldn't easily see. But I'm not giving up! One of these days I'll thrill you with a 'white line on black canvas' if it kills me!

Which direction do I have to look to see it? But I'll definitely try that. This whole situation has opened up a lot of questions that I didn't even realize I needed to know the answers to. So if I'm going to do a bunch of test photos of stars, that would probably be a good one.

It was a funny few moments for me! First, I'm looking at the image and wondering what I did 'wrong'. Then, as it started to dawn on me what the explanation might be, I started laughing at myself and thinking "You've got to be bleeping kidding me!" Just hadn't considered this possibility at all in advance. After that, even though I hadn't come up with anything new, just having this 'proof' right in front of me made me feel like I'd made the greatest discovery of all time!

I'm really enjoying the fact that everyone here is so classy and polite that they're giving their personal feelings, but not taking the original question literally and telling you what you 'should' do.

I'm going to have to go to bed soon, and won't have enough time to devote to the meteor shower tonight. But I did take a couple test-photos in preparation for tomorrow night. I figured using the same technique I've used for lightning shots at night would be a good place to start. This involves leaving the camera shutter open for thirty seconds. Haven't seen any meteors yet, but the stars in the photos, on very close inspection, all look like little horizontal lines. Does that sound normal for a thirty second time frame? Are we all really moving that quickly? Thanks in advance if I don't get a chance to get back to you until tomorrow evening.

Looks like today and tomorrow will be the 'peak' nights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_664lrmyGE

Good question. I would, because the marble would have more 'personal value' for me. But that's no reason you should. And the 'value' that Galen mentioned could be an important consideration. No matter how much I might like the idea of polishing a marble, every man has his price. And I have no doubt that if a large enough drop in 'resale value' was involved, I'd probably find my self unable to 'pull the trigger'. ( :

Ha! I only recently was looking at my special blue plate. (Laugh, dang it! That was a hilarious 'blue plate special' pun!) No it wasn't. Never mind! I've had it for many many years and have no idea where it came from. Used to eat off it all the time because it was small and easily washed, and apparently microwaveable. Then my once-a-day visitor 'TunaCat' decided he liked it, so it became 'all his'. Haven't seen him for a while, so I recently considered using it again. And that's when I noticed that it has all these 'glittery specks' in it! This 'bothered' me. Just seems like something's 'wrong' with that. With a marble, 'glittery specks' are usually a good thing. And I'm usually pretty good at ignoring opinions that suggest that one's food and water shouldn't be in contact with plastic. But when you put plastic and the specks together, I have to wonder. Seeing the specks requires a specific type of lighting. Hang on a while, and let me see if I can get a photo that shows them well. Oh yeah! I think that worked! Give me another few minutes to do the photobucket thing and I'll show you what I'm talking about. And oh my gosh, I didn't notice the dark specks on the back side before. They're something completely different. You know, I'm just remembering from my construction days that any 'compounds' we worked with that had 'specks' were always the most 'potentially dangerous' ones. This may have something to do with my 'gut reaction' to this entire situation. It's probably a good idea to stay away from specks in general. Although women with 'freckles' are absolutely beautiful and should be cherished. I don't think either I or visiting felines will be eating off this plate again.

Winnie, I'm not very fond of cherries, but it's a very attractive photo! Alyce, are you one of the 'silver' corn people? I kind of like the 'yellow' stuff, but around these parts I seem to be in a tiny minority. ( :

Hee-hee! Thanks! It's fun to get some emotional attitude along with the facts. And it made me crack up that I almost referred to myself as a 'City Boy', before editing it to 'lapsed New Yorker'. Even after decades of never setting foot in the place and not wanting to, I'm still almost obnoxious enough to leave out the 'New York' part, since, of course, there is no other city!

Thanks for all the great stuff, Dave! Manufacturer's 'names' for marbles are sometimes hard to interpret. Some of them make perfect sense, and some seem random and illogical. Most seem to fall 'somewhere between'. I'm just guessing that 'Purie' is sort of a variation on 'Clearie'. And of course could be completely wrong. But I don't have a clue on the 'Marine' part. Any thoughts on that? As a 'lapsed' New Yorker, I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to put down for the record here that '350 Fifth Avenue' is the Empire State Building! And since we also see a West Virginia address in some of these advertisements, it would be interesting to ask Steph and other historically-minded people what the deal is with that. Did these locations ever exist simultaneously? Or was there a 'move' from one to the other? And in which order? And why? As a person who watches way too much television, I think I'm approaching this from a 'soap-opera' attitude. Maybe Berry Pink Industries was an established New York business, and one day someone decided that "This is (bleep)! Why don't we establish ourselves in a 'grass-roots' marble area and reap all the financial savings and other benefits from being there and build our business more quickly and efficiently?" Or maybe they had a perfectly good thing going in West Virginia, but someone got a little 'big for their britches' and decided that the fancy city address was 'absolutely necessary'! Or maybe something else entirely! No Idea! ( :

Lentils are a really terrific (on many levels) and often under-appreciated food. In fact, they might be 'being unappreciated' at your household as we speak! With all their 'soluble fiber' they're a perfect complement to a delicious sausage. This is similar to the idea that you can eat all the General Tso's Chicken you want, as long as you also eat the fiber-rich broccoli that comes with it. (Okay, the concept isn't 'perfect', but there is some validity to it.)

Good to have you here. So far. You're still on probation! Instead of waiting for the show, why don't you post some marble photos now? Turquoise ones would be good! ( :

Great choice for this month's color! So far the posts kind of have me wondering if anyone ever made a 'less than great-looking' turquoise-like marble! ( :

Another 'too cool for words' photograph. (But of course I'll say some anyway) It's funny how visually appealing seriously cataclysmic events can be. I have no doubt that many of the people who've witnessed an atomic blast, have, on some level, thought that it was the most magnificent thing they've ever seen.

Hot and steamy today. Flies were in abundance. Might not have been aware of this if some idiot hadn't brought a plate of ham and fried egg outside.

Not even going to try to find it! The best way to accomplish this device would be to find an old-fashioned can of tuna. Use a can opener to remove both the top and bottom lids. You now have a nice open round ring of metal. Rub some butter on the inside, put it on your hot frying pan, and put a square of butter in it. Crack your egg into it, and cover with any available plate or pot lid. With a little experimentation, you can figure the perfect time and temperature to cook your egg just the way you like it every time! ( : (I 'sawed-off' a larger can because it's hard to find modern cans that you can 'open' on both ends. But it would be best to find one, so you get a good flat 'machined' edge on both sides of the ring.)

Oh shoot! May I go off-topic for a second? Just thought of something! Way back when, I posted a photo of my 'sawed-off tin can' egg-frying device. Came up with it because I wanted my eggs to have that nice round 'McMuffin' shape. Didn't include a picture of how the eggs turn out. This is it! ( :

As good a name as it is for the JABO marble, it should be pointed out for the record that it's not a direct translation of the Seuss book title. The title of the book refers to 2 things. Eggs that are colored green, and ham. The name of the JABO refers to 3 distinct 'areas' of the marble. The 'green', the 'eggs' (of normal color), and the 'ham'.

You know, it's not like there was ever any doubt that this photo would be taken. Not since the first day I got the marble, several years ago. I have no idea why it took me so long.

Ha! Thank you both for playing along! I've come to realize over the many years since my last post that 'Southerninity' is a 'state of mind' which really can't be measured by wheres and whens and how longs. ( :

Thanks. Knowing that I'm not the only one who thinks something is a little 'off' makes it much easier to deal with. ( : We'll have to see about the coupon. Still waiting for my case of canned tamales!