So, I was taking my daughter to school this morning, and as I pulled my truck out into traffic, I called out, “Up, up and awaaayyyy!” to which she replied with, “To infinity — and beyond!”
What?
I asked her where that came from, and in her typical, smart seven-year old way she told me that it was from the movie Toy Story. When quizzed as to whom the toy was who said it, she knew that it was Buzz Lightyear.
Wanna see me pull a rabbit out of my hat?
It got me thinking of my childhood and things that I recalled. I was a bit too young to remember watching the Lone Ranger on TV, but I do remember Cisco Kid. I used to put my saddle blanket on the bar stool and use the chair back as the reins as my brother and I rode along with the Kid and his trusty side-kick Pancho. Being the younger child, I was always relegated to the lesser role, but in those days I don’t remember that it mattered. All that concerned me was that I was part of the story, no matter how far removed from it.
Kids these days have it so easy! Cartoons 24×7, even on their own channels, and if that won’t sate, then there is video on demand, YouTube, Netflix and DVDs (like who uses VHS cassettes anymore? They are so 1980!). I remember Saturday morning cartoons from 8am to 11am, and that was it. If you were really lucky, there was the rare occasion of a Disney movie on Sunday night, and that was if you behaved enough to stay up past your bedtime to watch it. There were the annual holiday shows like the Rankin-Bass Christmas trilogy and the Charlie Brown Christmas special, but if you missed them then too bad — you had to wait another whole year.
But I digress.
When looking at the television heroes of yesterday, I remember Cisco Kid and Pancho. For cartoons, there were the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, the Looney Toons hour, Hanna-Barbera and Deputy Dawg. We emulated the Super Friends as they stood for truth, justice and the American way from their Hall of Justice! Who do the kids have to look up to today? Spongebob. Egad!
When you look around today and wonder what happened to America and why we are the lesser shining jewel on the hill that we once were, look to what influences today’s youth and the idols from where they build their moral character. Like me, I’m sure you’ll soon yearn for the heroes of yesterday.
I updated my site theme to the latest build and it wiped out my header image! Really. Why couldn’t the author maintain the integrity of the header folder?
Fear not, though. I have a backup at home (I think?) so I should be able to recover it later tonight. Until then, enjoy the stupid default flower garbage.
UPDATE 4/21: Found the header image in my archive at home. All things are now as they should be.
Ok, so my latest addiction is a kids’ game. So sue me.
Actually, my wife set up our daughter with an account at Wizard101 and both Mrs. Kharmin and I decided to create our own accounts so that we could all play the game together. It has since taken over.
Wizard101 is a free-to-play online multi-player game, meaning that you can just create an account and go. However, to unlock the more advanced content requires some investment and depending on how much real cash you wish to spend, you can gain access to various levels and whatnot.
Basically, your character is a student at Wizard school. You have your own dorm room which you can decorate with a variety of things that you get as rewards from completing quests. You have instructors to teach you skills and they maintain a consistent storyline for you to follow.
Someone cast a Firecat spell!
In Wizard101, your character obtains assorted quests from the computer characters throughout the game. While achieving your goals, you do arcane combat with the evil denizens who walk about everywhere. Here is where my interest was piqued: combat is done with using a deck of virtual cards which represent creatures or other buffs/de-buffs that your character must decide and cast. This is very much like Magic: The Gathering, which Mrs. Kharmin and I were into several years ago.
There is a fair amount of strategy involved with choosing what to use in combat as some of the opponents are resistant to certain types of spells (fire, ice, etc). Battles can be with up to four players versus four opponents and many times the players cooperate to take out a particular foe or to increase the defenses of another player. There is an arena for player versus player challenges, but that’s paid content and not something that appeals to us.
In the game, you can obtain a pet (and train it, too!), different outfits that you can dye in unique colors and mystical mounts that you can ride. I saw one guy zipping around on a flying carpet!
The game is rated E for Everyone 10 years and older. Our daughter is younger, but we feel comfortable enough with what we’ve seen to allow her to play under the restrictions that we can set with the built-in parental controls. And for those of us over 40 (egad!), it’s entertaining enough especially when following your own kid on his/her adventures.
I am by no means an expert on single malt whisky*. I have never claimed to be an aficionado of scotch. However, over the past several years, I have become a huge fan.
What started from a tentative fancy has blossomed into a full appreciation of different single malt scotches based on the location of the distillery and the barrels in which it matures. Islay, Highland, Campbelton, Speyside, Lowland and Island whiskys all have their own distinct characteristics, from honey-sweetened to peat-smoke laden and all flavors in between. Some have fruity hints while others leech out the tannins from the wine that had been casked in the barrel prior to being sold to the distillery for whisky maturation.
People often ask me, “How can you drink that stuff?” As in all things, one should sample a wide variety. I can almost guarantee that you will find a distillery or region of scotch that suits your palate! The trick is to start slow and work with someone with at least a modicum of whisky knowledge who can point you down the path of your preferences.
Still my favorite!
I started on my journey with a scotch-tasting and a friend’s house. Along with a mutual third-party, we had purchased a sampler box of single malt and made an afternoon of it. We had some literature (since none of use had that requisite modicum of whisky knowledge) which gave us some ideas of what to expect with each sample. We tried them, one at a time, made our own notes of observation and then shared those with each other. It was quite interesting to see the differences in opinions! To this day, one of my friends is still a big fan of Islay (pronounced EYE-lah) scotches, which are usually are stronger in peat than I prefer.
Drinking quality single malt scotch is an acquired taste. It is also an expensive hobby. I often tell folks that I don’t have many vices, but the few that I do have aren’t cheap. Single malt scotch is one of those vices. I have a profile over at connosr.com which lists my current shelf of whisky, those expressions I’ve tried as well as a wish list. Not all of the ones I’ve sampled have been purchases — the advantage of having a friend who enjoys sharing a dram or two from his own shelf!
So what really brought me to write this post? Well, it’s this: after these past few years of sampling and enjoying many different single malt scotch whiskys, I still have much to learn. Like I said, I am no aficionado.
The lesson learned last night was not to follow a dram of Compass Box’s The Spice Tree with a cask strength Aberlour A’bundah (batch 38). When sampling multiple distillers, it is a good idea to cleanse your palate between them. I should have known better, but I was too excited to dive into a newly purchased bottle. The stark contrast between the ginger spice in the Compass Box expression and the stinging bite of the 60.3% A’bundah made my eyes water! Don’t get me wrong: both expressions are terrific, just not one right behind the other.
It has been a fun ride thus far, as I have virtually traveled all over Scotland by way of the various distilleries I have sampled. My favorite is still the Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban (a Highland whisky), although I am finding some interesting scotches in the Speyside region. I will sometimes enjoy an Islay, but usually when I’m really in the mood for that peaty (smoky) flavor like having a dram around a campfire at night in the summer while looking at the stars and enjoying the pleasant company of friends.
I hope that someday, dear reader, that you can enjoy a dram or two with me as well.
*To be called a “whisky” (without an ‘e’), the scotch must be distilled in Scotland. If it is made anywhere else in the world, then it is not a whisky, but a whiskey.
Just a quick note/post to say that, yes, I am blogging from this site again with significantly more regularity. I have a certain someone to blame for this revival (and you know who you are!).
I had gotten away from posting here because Facebook, and to some extent Google+, are just easier since I don’t have to do any real formatting; however, having posted quite a bit this month I am coming to the realization that I miss the more “formalized” format of blogging on my own site. And, since I am paying to have it hosted, I should use it, right?
Anywho, I think that for the foreseeable future (wow, spell check actually accepted “foreseeable” … there’s a heckuva lot of vowels in there!) I will be primarily focused on posting here and letting the various WordPress plugins do their job of announcing new posts over on Facebook and Twitter.
I’ve got rhythm, I’ve got music, I’ve got dancing, who could ask for anything more? Actually, I have neither dancing nor rhythm, but with the receipt of my replacement, refurbished iPod I once again have music.
The past week of commercial radio (or the alternative – silence) during my daily commute has been just this side of hell. I cannot imagine how these stations stay in business. Each hour was dominated by at least 45 minutes of advertising and/or disc jockey banter, or so it seemed. How spoiled I’ve become!
I even tried to listen to Pandora on my Droid, despite the multiple losses of signal on my smartphone as I trekked over hill and dale on my drive to and from work. Some days I fared better than others, but I probably averaged 8-10 songs during my hour commute.
At last, I have an iPod in the truck again. Thanks to who shipped it to me faster than it was estimated. For a mere $117, I got a fully functional, refurbished 5th Generation iPod — 60GB just like my dead one. Ocean Reef has a 30 day warranty, which made me more confident in my purchase (most other refurb places only offered 14 days). It arrived packaged well and was in a condition exactly as advertised.
Now, I begin the long, arduous task of loading my music and movies back onto the iPod. Of course, I didn’t have a recent archive of my iPod brick, so I’ve had to start from scratch. Lesson learned — when I’m done, I will make a backup.
Anyway, it has been very refreshing to once again have control of what I listen to in the truck. Thanks, again, Ocean Reef for making my return to sanity affordable.
On my way in to work today, I was stuck with the local radio stations and their incessant chatter, which was only disturbed by a few songs and a disproportionate amount of sales pitches. Buried in the cacophony of voices was Tommy TuTone’s classic 867-5309/Jenny (the bane of those who actually held that phone number when the song hit the charts). One of the later lines of the song is, “For the price of a dime I can always turn to you” which got me reminiscing about those days of yore when a local phone call from a public phone (booth, no less!) was only a dime.
Then, it was a quarter. Well, 25¢ was a hike, but it made some sense in that you needed only one coin to place a call. Convenient. In that era, a common insult was, “Here’s a quarter; call someone who cares.”
Later, it went to 35¢. Now, I have no idea what a local phone call from a public phone costs. Heck, I don’t even know where a public phone is around here — everyone is using cell phones nowadays.
So, what’s the common insult now? Instead of giving someone a quarter, is it, “Here’s a prepaid, disposable cell phone with 8 megapixel camera and GPS tracking; use it and get the hell away from me.” ?
I was able to get my credentials issue resolved over at my political blog site at townhall.com. I hope to be resurrecting my more salient points regarding the state of our country over there in the near future.
Sorry for the delay. I hope that you look forward to my posts there as much as I look forward to writing them.
Kharmin
So, I was taking my daughter to school this morning, and as I pulled my truck out into traffic, I called out, “Up, up and awaaayyyy!” to which she replied with, “To infinity — and beyond!”
When looking at the television heroes of yesterday, I remember Cisco Kid and Pancho. For cartoons, there were the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, the Looney Toons hour, Hanna-Barbera and Deputy Dawg. We emulated the Super Friends as they stood for truth, justice and the American way from their Hall of Justice! Who do the kids have to look up to today? Spongebob. Egad!
The game is rated E for Everyone 10 years and older. Our daughter is younger, but we feel comfortable enough with what we’ve seen to allow her to play under the restrictions that we can set with the built-in parental controls. And for those of us over 40 (egad!), it’s entertaining enough especially when following your own kid on his/her adventures.
I am by no means an expert on single malt whisky*. I have never claimed to be an aficionado of scotch. However, over the past several years, I have become a huge fan.
It has been a fun ride thus far, as I have virtually traveled all over Scotland by way of the various distilleries I have sampled. My favorite is still the 
Just a quick note/post to say that, yes, I am blogging from this site again with significantly more regularity. I have a certain someone to blame for this revival (and you know who you are!). 
Now, I begin the long, arduous task of loading my music and movies back onto the iPod. Of course, I didn’t have a recent archive of my iPod brick, so I’ve had to start from scratch. Lesson learned — when I’m done, I will make a backup.
On my way in to work today, I was 
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