11232281.1Loser High. Is is okay to call it that just once, before school starts? After that it can go ahead and be Southlake High School for the Unpromising. I was going to head this post, "It's enough to make a senior citizen insane," but I remembered that there are already 382 posts with that one.
At least it's pretty,
for $14.1 Million and 156 students, and you can bet it has every do-dad and amenity they've thought up yet for the science of Loser/Pregnant/Expelled Ed. I think they even tattoo a big "L" on the kids' foreheads the first day just in case they forget.
We used to have another alternative high school, John Marshall. It was a disaster and remained so for years until finally someone got up the nerve to fire the principal, himself a walking epicenter who was virtually 100% responsible for the failure of the school to achieve anything whatsoever. Quite the accomplishment. Even with that, it cost us a $200,000 bribe settlement to get rid of him and close the school.
So, Southlake opens with a lot of glass and a lot of hope. Not a moment too soon. It seems that after four dynamic years of preparation for the next round of tests, the latest 4th graders have FLUNKED. It took almost a year to get the achievement tests graded and scored (they must have spent that time trying to find a way out of publishing the results,) but, sure enough, they came in well below last time. Go-Southlake-Go. Lose-Southlake-Lose!Rick Macherat
11232280.1Relaxing. I was looking at some furniture with an eye to re-doing the Living, Dining, Media Room and Study. Comfort is important, but style must come first. This is Seattle after all. I've narrowed the finalists down two each, at least for the chairs:
I like one of the top two for the living room, the middle ones for dining, the brown one is a pick for a chair in the study, and one of the two loungers for watching television. I think the green thing is a lounge anyway. It was kind of hard to tell from the photographs and the text was in Swedish. Anyway, it's either a lounge or a potted plant.
Finally, I've saved the best for last:
Are you ready for this? A true National Geographic bookcase. Heck, I've only been waiting since the fifties. Looks like I'll need about ten. Now, where to put them ... gosh but this is fun.Rick Macherat
11232278.1Oil. Brother asked me if he was ever mentioned in my blog. I told him that he was but always anonymously, same as the sister-in-law. "Oh," he replied, face brightening as it always does when he's about to come up with something brilliant, "like "poetic security!"
You know, there really is no hope with this oil thing, or with your gas price. I say your because I don't fill up but once or twice a year, if that, and I never have paid attention to what it costs anyway. Ever since gas passed 30 cents a gallon I figured the game was fixed. The problem now is that the general public is ignorant to begin with and then misinformed and outright lied to by those they should be able to trust to look out for their interests. Bottom line, as they say, no one looks out for your interests, no one but you. For instance, the argument against Drilling is that it won't help gas prices now, that being the furthest into the future the average American can see, or about four days. The truth is that every speculator and trader has his greedy quivering finger poised about an inch above the "get out" button, ready to drive it home the instant the U.S. announces it's going to drill. Drill where? Anywhere, dork; the keyword is Drill. The result of that would be an immediate drop in crude on MSNBC of about forty dollars. Maria would be going orgasmic, so anyone who happened to have the sound down at that moment would not miss it.
I was going to type out that whole scenario the way it played in my head, complete with the drone of the newscast announcement starting with, "THE UNITED STATES HAS ANNOUNCED A GO-AHEAD FOR DRILLING..," and then the shrieks and all the carrying-on as the price plummeted and then, "... FOR OIL IN VERMONT," and then all the wtf's and whatnot would happen and it would be too late, but I was watching the women's 50 freestyle semi and decided not to. Jeez, she's amazing, isn't she? And so is he. Every four years I start off completely disinterested, then Michael and Dara come along. Wow.
Anyway, do not believe a word you read or hear about oil from or by anybody. But me. Rick Macherat
11232277.1This calls for planetwide distribution. And I say that only because it is so stupendous for our little town. It seems we have a Swinger's Sex Club, a real live one, right in our extremely modest and subdued suburb. Very, very lively BDSM parties, especially on weekends and well-attended by up to eighty persons from legal to age eighty. Indoors, outdoors, spilling over into the neighborhood .. and that is what sort of caused the problem and the front page article, the spilling. This is a picture of the individuals who were in charge, my neighbors, [by ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES]
and that's pretty much all I was going to type about it. fourstate.blogspot.com
11232276.1Just Listed! One of those real estate postcards came in the mail today, announcing that this lovely local home was being put up for sale. $287,500.
The address seemed familiar, so I looked it up on the mapper. Yup, right on the Green River Killer's street all right. So, this crappy little house with a carport and dirt lawn, on a street too scary even to get near (for me anyway) is going for more than a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS. And they'll get it. And that is why the world is totally fracking insane. Rick Macherat
11232275.1Huh? What is he typing about? We have a lot of airplane crashes here in the Pacific Northwest, so many, in fact, that they never make the national news. It's kind of surprising to see CNN go all Breaking News over a small plane crash in Florida on a day when we may have had several. They are covered locally, of course, in great gruesome detail. I was watching one just this morning on the local cable news channel - anything to get away from Wolf Blitzer and his neverending sentences. Given a chance, I'm sure he could carry out a single sentence for the entire duration of the Russia-Georgian War of 2008 and would jump at the chance to do so.
Today's crash could simply have been a rerun from the archives for all anyone would know. They showed the mangled remains of a single-engine private plane, completely unrecognizable as a flying machine or anything else which might have worked at one time. Switch then quickly to the daughter who did a little emoting, then back to the plane - another angle (still unrecognizable,) then to the middle-aged fat son. Why do fat people just have to get on television and even go so far as to wear clothing and position themselves to look as fat as humanly possible? We'll never know. From there it was on to the impromptu crashside memorial, located in some weeds just off an old farm road. Candles, flowers and signs. Tricia we HEART you forever! Somewhere in the coverage they will typically show an individual in uniform poking around. There will be an investigation.
The Chinese don't really have private plane crashes, but you can bet they'll have lots of them eventually. As soon as they have private planes. I expect the news approach will be different, like with the pollution issue. After reading National Geographic, and watching a lot of Olympic coverage this week, I've reached a somber conclusion: They just might not be that worried about all the premature deaths which will come from the epic pollution they are presently spewing out. Think about it: 1.4 billion people now, and who knows how many millions about to retire and live long, long pensioned lives before the one-child-policy cohort eventually predominates. Wouldn't it be in everybody's better interest if .. how to put it .. maybe lifespans weren't all that long for awhile? Just like our own "millennials," I don't think young Chinese are that keen on taking care of their oldsters, especially since each of them will be responsible for up to six or more by the time they are middle-aged. So, all things considered, the air and water thing will probably get a lot more study. Rick Macherat
11232274.1Because they can. Got a piece of mail from HSBC, the financial megaconglomeration. Standard rate (bulk) postage. I started to toss it but reconsidered and opened it. Seems I am a customer of theirs somehow, probably a bankcard, and they wanted to send me the obligatory privacy notice and an update to the rules. No one ever reads either of these things, but a quick scan of the rules-change, written entirely in Lawyer, proved that I was right in shredding that card in my Deluxe cross-cut shredder, (what a machine .. horsepower!) then pulverizing the remains in the blender and feeding them to the cat. One would not want to become indebted to the HSBC. I wonder how they can get away with sending a notice standard rate? Answered my own question - who's gonna stop them?
Michael Phelps is in the pool, just drifting around, readying his mind and soul for the first Gold event. [Channel 5] Athletes do all kinds of mental things these days instead of just waiting. I make fun of it, but the level of competition is so stratospheric now that it is far beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals. And look at the bodies. Are those women in the relay really female? Even close? I saw a lady volleyball player who actually scared me a little, and she was an American.
Michael doesn't know that he already won the event [Channel 99 live, Vancouver] This happens every Olympics and it still spooks me.
In some of the events you really have to ask - how can somebody be insane enough to do this sport? Each Olympics which comes along leaves regular humanity further and further behind. Look as those ribbed abs (on the women!) and just think of how many fat people are watching tonight. Me included.
Anyhow, I do wish the Chinese well. Not in the events necessarily but in pulling off a good Games. I think a lot of participants, us 'mericuns especially, went there hoping they would fall on their faces and just prove again how inferior they are. Well, they won't and they aren't, and they do deserve some credit for once.
Also, it can't hurt to have said something nice, you know, for when they take over. JK!Rick Macherat
11232273.1Auspiciousness. Indeed, 8/8/08 verry auspicious, yes? Sorry to have to type something totally opposite: Another celebrity reproduces and believes he is among The First to do so.. Oh Lord, which one? Matthew McConaughey, the man you'll remember for some acting roles as well as appearing undressed, bronzed and sweating everywhere at any time. Brand new illegitimate son, named Levi. He was on CNN today, talking about the event with Dr. Gupta, another obiquitousity. Paraphrasing, ".. now her and I, we have something together, something that only we know, tribal .." Yes, and the eight million or so CNN viewers. There were more words in there, but I didn't catch all of it while madly banging the MUTE key, burying something out in the back yard...?
The last thing I heard him explain about himself is that his next project will be a multimedia extravaganza production of him taking a dump. Rick Macherat
11232272.1I'm (still) annoyed at my credit score. Well, immediately after typing that title I remembered having written the same complaint before. (Tuesday, August 23, 2005) So, I'll tell a short story about Brother instead. He was doing laundry, a chore he detests, but he tries to make me feel better about making him do it by insisting that it's enjoyable. Last night he came in to tell me about a small problem: seems that when he opened the washer during its violent SPIN cycle (twice,) it immediately started to make a loud, shrieking sound. Then he mimicked that sound, sort of a rapid meep-meep-meep. It was so hilarious that I cracked up and couldn't possibly get mad. We'll probably go to Lowes and buy a new machine next week. Heck, the thing was at least 25 years old anyway and had the labels worn off so we had to guess at the TEMP (hence the look of our clothes,) so it's no big deal. I'll charge it on my Sears plate. Rick Macherat
11232270.1A perplexment. I got a bill in the mail today, and I'm trying to decide just how much of a jerk I should be before finally paying it. Long-short, I had a do-dad removed a-la Senator McCain, only mine was behind my ear. They sent it out to be biopsied since it was "apparently" a melanoma. (Melanoma gets bolded and italicised.) Three months go by and this bill comes for a service a month after the surgery. For $568.00. I'm indignant, and here's why:
1. Three fracking months? Aren't melanomas, you know, like serious?! 2. Who the frack is Dr. Zlalt Blalazs Arganyi?! And I'm not even kidding, this was the name. 3. Dontcha think someone should let me know if I've metastasized or not? Huh? And maybe ... "how long?" 4. $568.00? 5. CANNOT IDENTIFY WHO PATIENT IS OR IF THEY EVER HAVE COVERAGE, it sez on the bill. Hey, try sending it to Mutual of Omaha instead of China. Might have better luck finding me.
Of course I'll end up paying it, we always do. In any event, thanks to Battlestar Galactica, as always, for some wurds.Rick Macherat
