December Words of Wisdom

You can't go on being a good egg. You either hatch, or go bad. --C.S. Lewis

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind, next to honor. --Aristotle

Wake up early. Drink coffee. Work hard. Be ambitious. Keep your priorities straight, your mind right and your head up. Do well, live well and dress really well. Do what you love, love what you do. It's time to start living. --Unknown

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true. The other is to refuse to accept what it true. --Soren Kierkegaard

It is with love and joy that I create my day. --Louise Hay

Don't let anything deprive you of hope. --St. Nektarios of Aegina

I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots. --Albert Einstein

Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They'll only be able to parrot the information they've been given on the previous night's news. --Zbigniew Brzezinski (in 1972)

Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you. --Benjamin Franklin

My true self is free. I cannot be contained. --Marcus Aurelius

Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers. --Kahlil Gibran

I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling. --Marlon James

Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future. --Seneca

There's badassery, then there's this dude clearing snow off his driveway using a flamethrower

 

What a freaking stud. Click here to see the video.

But wait, there's more! 

Dude is such a badass. Bet he's a lot of fun to hang out with.

Merry Christmas and tidings of great joy

 

'Twas the night before...

We're almost there...

 

Sing it, Rod!

Imagine...

Face it, you'll never be able to not hear those lyrics in his voice now.

H/T to 1960's & 70's Rock on FB. 

Even the Rose Bowl is leaving California for Texas

The traditional New Year's Day college bowl game will be played in Arlington, Texas instead of Pasadena. 

I came across that news right after reading this shit:

My response:

You can read more reactions to this post here.

From reading some of the responses, it looks like the quote possibly came from Newsom's spokesperson, but even so, it still expresses his opinion and is right in line with the arrogance and lack of concern he's shown over how his shutdowns are crippling California businesses and livelihoods, while flaunting the rules he imposes on us peons. Remember The French Laundry? Or how he kept his winery open over the 4th of July while shutting down the rest of the state? 

Asshole.

Updated 12/23/20: Yep, it was his spokescritter. Still, he speaks on behalf of Newsom and it's not like Newsom has shown any sign of giving a crap about his constituents, so I stand by my belief that this is exactly how he feels about the people of California, who deserve better.

Prepare to have your heartstrings yanked

 Have some tissues ready.

I found out about this via AJ Benza's Patreon podcast. I kind of wish he hadn't given the end away, but even knowing what was coming, the tears were streaming. I won't spoil it for you. Do take the time to watch it.

A little bit of Christmas spirit

Earlier this year The Brother and I discovered that the cemetery where our Mom is buried suspends the weekly cleanup of flowers and other items during the holiday season so that people can decorate grave sites for Christmas. I don't know when it starts, but they leave everything up until after New Year's. 

I was out running errands this morning and decided to grab a few decorations for Mom's grave site. Nothing fancy, but now that I know I can do it, I thought she'd appreciate it.

I might move the little fir trees in front of the bow. They don't show up very well.

One of the things that worked out is that while shopping I had bought scotch tape because I wasn't sure how much I had at home and I didn't want to run out while wrapping gifts. So I taped everything to the marker so it hopefully won't blow away. 

There was a service breaking up nearby while I was there. I actually saw the guys start to lower the casket into the grave after the mourners had walked away. Speaking of the mourners, there were only about 5-7 of them. I've heard so many distraught comments online this year from people who were prevented from paying their final respects to family and friends, then these same people have to watch the same politicians who are telling us to lock down go out to restaurants, salons, and take trips after telling us to stay home. It must be so frustrating. In the blog post I linked to above, I talked about the huge crowd of mourners traffic we got caught in when we were there in January. It was like night and day compared to today. 

Offended? Here's a dime, call someone who cares.

Ask for Jenny.

Via 80s Forever And Ever on Instagram.

Numero uno

In case this ever comes up in a trivia game, you've got this one - the first person entered into imdb, the Internet Movie Database was...

This guy!

It's on his bio page.

Pretty cool, eh?

The Scamdemic hits an all-time low

From the Manhattan Village Instagram account:

Just sad.