Quote of the Day

Praying is like a rocking chair - it’ll give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.
- Gypsy Rose Lee

Quote of the Day

If Darwin's theory of evolution was correct, cats would be able to operate a can opener by now.

Larry Wright

Quote of the Day

Life, we learn too late, is in the living, the tissue of every day and hour.
- Stephen Butler Leacock

Quote of the Day

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has read.
- Mark Twain

Badger in the garden

Apparently, there have been a couple of young badgers walking around in the garden of a night, so yesterday I decided to take a pic of 'em. I was going to sit up laaate anyway, following the Senate race in Massachusetts (yes, I need help), so I got out my camera and prepared the flash.

A little over 1AM I stepped out, not knowing if anything was outside. Before I could get my camera up, a furry, chubby little thing scampered away into the undergrowth. Badger!

A few hours later I decided on another strategy. Looking out my 2nd floor window I saw a figure snuffling around below the tree were my parents keep several birdfeeders. The ground is always covered in birdseeds and it was these the badger was now stuffing his little snout with.

Quietly I eased the window open and got my camera into position and fired off two pictures with my flash on. The badger just sat blinking and confused, wondering what the fuck had just happened. It was only when I closed the window again that he turned around and ran.

Stuffing face without a care in the world...


Whut?

Quote of the Day

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.
- Harry Fosdick

Off to Scotland again

Alright. I gave in. The far north of Great Britain has once again called to me, and I, being ever the sucker for bad food and lousy hotels, have answered in the affirmative. So I'm off to Scotland for two weeks; July 29 - August 12.

Looks like Imma travel part of the time with one and maybe even two Norwegian friends. Lucky for me, my membership in Historic Scotland (I believe I have mentioned it before...?) allows me to bring two adult companions. Insert maniacal laughter and gleeful rubbing of hands here.

And yes, I do need to buy friends.

Quote of the Day

I am only serious about 20% of the time; one of the great joys of my life is the fact that I alone know when that is.

- Mark Richards

Quote of the Day

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

- George Burns

Quote of the Day

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

- George Carlin

Quote of the Day

Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back or a fool from any side.

- Yiddish Proverb

Quote of the Day

Telling computer guys that they need to have permission to quote things is like having to tell little children about Death.

- Ted Nelson

Baby steps

107.8 kg this morning. Inching down by the week.

Quote of the Day

Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.

- William Arthur Ward

Quote of the Day

Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don't worship it. Feed it.

- Aubrey Eben

Quote of the Day

Whereas each man claims his freedom as a matter of right, the freedom he accords to other men is a matter of toleration.

- Walter Lippmann

Same old same old

Clocked in at 108.6 kg again this morning, which means I haven't done any progress since May 30th. On the bright side, I've rarely been much over 110 so it seems I've stabilized.

Quote of the Day

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is no barking dog to be tethered on a 1-foot chain.

- Theodor Adorno

Quote of the Day

I'm sickened by all religions. Religion has divided people. I don't think there's any difference between the pope wearing a large hat and parading around with a smoking purse and an African painting his face white and praying to a rock.

- Howard Stern

Quote of the Day

Great wits are sure to madness near allied

And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
- John Dryden

Quote of the Day

It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens.

- Cynthia E. Varnado

I's got a new job!

Got a new job teaching at a high school almost two hours north of where I currently live. Interviewed for it Thursday and the area seemed very nice, as did my future co-workers. Things be looking up, dawg.

Quote of the Day

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.
- Machiavelli

Quote of the Day

While there's life, there's hope.
- Terents

Quote of the Day

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

- William James

Quote of the Day

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.

- Pericles

Quote of the Day

The assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the existence of cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent Deity.

- Charles Darwin

Quote of the Day

Committee: A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit to do the unnecessary.

- Richard Harkness

Quote of the Day

Life is like a dog-sled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

- Lewis Grizzard

Quote of the Day

He would come in and say he changed his mind -- which was a gilded figure of speech, because he didn't have any.
- Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

Pay no attention to what critics say. No statue has ever been put up to a critic.

- Jean Sibelius

Quote of the Day

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
- Ann Landers

Quote of the Day

"If everybody minded their own business", the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, "the world would go round a deal faster than it does".
- Lewis Carroll (from "Alice in Wonderland")

Quote of the Day

I even went so far as to become a Southern Baptist for a while, until I realized that they didn't hold 'em under long enough.

- Kinky Friedman

Quote of the Day

My second favourite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk until I faint.

- Emma Brombeck