kbobam

I always look forward to Lloyd's Autumn turkeys. (Yeah! That's right! We tough!) They just make me feel good when not a lot about this season does. Can't say the snowy trees photo makes me feel 'good', but I really like it anyway. The lighting and colors are unusual and really 'chilly'! Here are some leaves because why not.

I'm with Ric. Occasionally people ask me how I'm doing. In recent times my response has sometimes been along the lines of "It gets dark right after lunch! How the bleep do you think I'm doing?" I think I may need to make a note to look up some of those techniques that people use to help with 'seasonal affective disorder'. I've been a bit testy.

Crazy canines! (No offense to dog people! Just making a joke because of my avatar. Dogs are great!)

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has always had visually interesting promotional clips between the movies they show. A recent one involved a Rube Goldberg kind of device. Although it didn't involve marbles continuously, they were part of the process in two separate occasions, including the finale, when a marble turned-on the projector which announced the start of the next movie. Looking at one of the images I 'clipped', I was amused to realize that a small section of the 'marble track' appeared to have been made out of 'topless' director chairs. ( :

The word 'weird' doesn't seem quite right, but it's still an interesting story. http://www.npr.org/blogs/theprotojournalist/2014/11/19/365195079/when-thanksgiving-was-weird

That's a good point. I've never tried one of those.

Oh, Ann. We've always trusted you! It sounds like a 'keep it simple' piece of perfection. Steph, you have to do it! It's even easier than mac and cheese. And if you haven't already, do the same thing with rice. Get a big bag of the 'real' stuff that takes at least 30 minutes to cook. There's a little bit more of a learning curve with it. You need to figure out the correct rice/water ratio, and the proper heat level and time for your personal cooking setup. But it's worth it. And once you've got it, you can get the same good result consistently. There's a good reason a large percentage of the world's population eats the rice/beans combo. The fact that it tastes good is only a small part of it. It's actually one of the few such combinations that ensure a person is getting all their essential amino acids, and in my opinion is hard-wired into our genes, although many of us lose track of this. It's possibly the best nutrition you can get for the least money! That doesn't hurt, these days. ( :

We haven't had any 'food' posts for a while, and this seemed like the right moment. I just cooked black beans for the first time. Meaning, I started from a bag of dried beans instead of the cans I'm used to. For this first attempt I didn't add any 'extras'. Didn't even put salt in the water. And they're really good! They have a great flavor and a better texture than the canned variety. I can't imagine how good they'd be if prepared with some brown sugar and bacon bits. They're also very easy to cook and very inexpensive. A real winner in my book. And a good long soak and rinse before cooking removes most of the 'difficulties' some people have with them!

Boy I'm glad to hear you say that! I gave up because I thought I was losing my mind. Any idea on the age of the photo? The one kid's headgear looks like a wartime helmet.

This shot (which is very cool) reminded me of the research I did for my Halloween photo. I wasn't sure what the proper size was for the marble playing 'ring'. Guess I'm still not! There seems to have been a lot of variety in both tournament and casual play. ( :

I noticed today that there was a small bit of ice building up on the shelf underneath the ice cube trays. ( :

Let's imagine that we're using a piece of tape to stick one thing to another. The tape is not sticking well at all. Why do so many of us instinctively assume that adding two or three more pieces of tape will improve the result? (I know! Doesn't sound deep at all! That's the true sign of a really deep thought!)

I didn't say that very well! I have no doubt that they're Japanese. But I'm getting the Peltier 'feeling' from them. ( :

I always get a distinct emotional response from Pelts. Definitely feeling it now, so I think Winnie and I are on the same wavelength. Ann's agate is just too cool. It's so precise and perfect. I want to 'lose' the stand, though. The same thing in flat black, or the itty-bitty O-ring approach would be better. I just like the marble so much I think it deserves something that quietly fades into the background! ( :

Found one! Thought all I had were the 'Pepsi's', who after many posts are now retired.

Just saw this production screen at the end of one of my tv shows. Marbles were the first thing that popped into my head, although who knows. I'm hoping there's no awful hidden meaning to it that I don't know about, but since it was on network tv I guess it can't be too bad. Anyway, here it is along with a salute to all our dedicated diggers!

Like the crazy fluorescent Jackson. Wouldn't have looked at that one and seen that coming! ( :

Nice. And I'm going to bet that when you first saw it your brain thought of marbles first, and coins second! ( :

I'm somewhere between you two. For lack of a better term, I'm going to say I like 'rural suburban'. Farmland and woods around me, with big city pretty nearby.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing your experience!

So many beauties here! In Steph's construction-worker marbles, I'm kind of fond of the little green one. (3rd. and 4th. photos, top row center.) I like the way the black has a mind of its own and doesn't always follow the pattern. Here's my marble which relates to Winnie's and Ron's. I don't know anything about it, but just in case it's worth posting here for comparison. There's a tiny hint of a golden-yellow glow in the black at great magnification, but in hand it just looks black.

Although I'm sure that most of you who need to set your clocks back have done so, it just hit me that it might be a worthwhile public service announcement to suggest that you double-check to make sure that you didn't do the classic AM-PM blunder! ( :

I'm hoping I'm doing the chivalrous thing by posting this so as to wipe-out the slightly awkward Happy Birthday Steph! By Steph which is misleading and might be getting a little tiresome to see on the 'general' page every day. P.S. Do not respond to this message!

This guy's radar always hones right in on the good seafood when he's on the road!

Everyone already knows how I feel about fluorescent marbles. But I'll definitely say there're a lot of other cool gift ideas in that link. And it's funny about the geek/nerd/dork distinctions. Any of them can be a source of pride. I personally consider myself to be all three! Not sure which categories these fall under, but my recent (yesterday) gifts include a Halloween 'severed hand' identical to the one shown in a recent photo. Had an extra one I didn't use for my 'Halloween Thread' photo, so gave it to the young kid who lives upstairs. Not fond of his mother, so I hope it really ticked her off. Also spent my last $1.50 on a Halloween-decorated donut for my 95 year old lady-friend who lives next door. Told her that I was worried about all the candy available on this particular night, and wanted to make sure she ate something healthy. She thought that was pretty funny. ( :