Only 4 posts in May, none in June?
Lost in the o-zone again (or I guess cyberspace these days)?
Comfortably numb? Given up all hope? Stress? Mental fatigue? Irrelevant? Apathetic?

What’s your take on the new Trek? I liked it for the most part. Once you get over the few contrived bits necessary for the plot, it is a fun adventure.

The soundtrack bugged me though. It tried so hard to not sound like a Star Trek movie and yet had the similar instrumentation to typical Star Trek (and other space Sci-Fi) productions. The end result was a let down. If you look at the new Battlestar Galactica, they completely went a different route and it works.

HS mentioned elsewhere that there was too much “Lost” influence. Maybe he’ll elaborate. I’m not sure I saw it other than the destiny hints.

A tremendous person, basketball player & Jazz bassist. Sad.

Former Sooner star, NBA player Tisdale dead at 44
Associated Press
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Updated: May 15, 2009, 12:15 PM EST
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Wayman Tisdale, a three-time All-American at Oklahoma who played 12 seasons in the NBA, died after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 44.

Class act
Wayman Tisdale Tribute: Basketball lost an icon Friday when Wayman Tisdale succumbed to cancer. Jeff Goodman recalls a man who touched so many.

Tisdale died Friday morning at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, hospital spokeswoman Joy McGill said.

After three years at Oklahoma, Tisdale played in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. The 6-foot-9 forward, with a soft left-handed touch on the court and a wide smile off it, averaged 15.3 points for his career. He was on the U.S. team that won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics.

After basketball, he became an award-winning jazz musician, with several albums making the top 10 on the Billboard charts.

“Wayman Tisdale is one of the best people I have ever had the privilege of knowing,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said in a statement. “He had an incredible gift of making the people who came in contact with him feel incredibly special.”

Tisdale’s death was announced on the Oklahoma Senate floor Friday by Senate Majority Leader Todd Lamb, who led the chamber in prayer.

“Whether you’re a Cowboy or a Sooner, Oklahoma has lost a great ambassador,” Lamb said. “He was a gifted musician, a gifted athlete and he just wore that well wherever he went.”

The famously upbeat Tisdale learned he had cancerous cyst below his right knee after breaking his leg in a fall at his home in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, 2007. He said then he was fortunate to have discovered the cancer early.

“Nothing can change me,” Tisdale told The Associated Press last June. “You go through things. You don’t change because things come in your life. You get better because things come in your life.”

A noted musician, Tisdale played at a charity event during the All-Star weekend in February. (David Sherman / Getty Images)

His leg was amputated last August and a prosthetic leg that he wore was crimson, one of the colors of his beloved Oklahoma Sooners. He made a handful of public appearances in recent weeks, including one April 7 at an Oklahoma City Thunder game where he received the team’s Community Hero Award.

Also within the past month, Tisdale was honored at the Greenwood Cultural Center in his hometown of Tulsa and presented with the Legacy Award. During the ceremony, he spoke about his cancer, saying “In my mind, I’ve beaten it.”

Last month, Tisdale was chosen for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

He was the first freshman to be a first-team All-American since freshmen were allowed to play again in 1971-72. He was also one of 10 three-time All-Americans: The others were Oscar Robertson, Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor, Pete Maravich, Patrick Ewing, Tom Gola, Jerry Lucas, David Thompson and Ralph Sampson. Ewing and Tisdale were the last to accomplish the feat, from 1983-85.

Tisdale played on an Olympic team that sailed to the gold medal in Los Angeles, winning its game by 32 points. The squad was coached by Bob Knight and featured the likes of Ewing, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and Chris Mullin.

Tisdale averaged 25.6 points and 10.1 rebounds during his three seasons with the Sooners, earning Big Eight Conference player of the year each season.

He still holds Oklahoma’s career scoring record with 2,661 points and career rebounding record with 1,048. Tisdale also owns the school’s single-game scoring mark, a 61-point outing against Texas-San Antonio as a sophomore, along with career records in points per game, field goals and free throws made and attempts.

In 1997, Tisdale became the first Oklahoma player in any sport to have his jersey number retired. Two years ago, then-freshman Blake Griffin asked Tisdale for permission to wear No. 23, which Tisdale granted. Griffin went on to become the consensus national player of the year this past season as a sophomore.

“His basketball talent and accomplishments pale in comparison to the impact he had on the lives that he influenced by the way he lived his life, and the tremendous character he displayed in his fight with cancer,” Capel said.

“Throughout it all, he always had that infectious smile. This is an incredibly sad day as we have lost not only one of the greatest Sooners ever, but one of the all-time best people to walk the face of this earth.”

Tisdale is survived by his wife, Regina, and four children.

During this slow down in blogging…….playing for fun cause we don’t have any money……What word is derived from a Sardinian plant said to bring on convulsions resembling laughter. Word of

honor, no Googling.

Must be something about those good old southern boys. The Allmans & Skynyrd.

Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist ‘Ean’ Evans dies at 48
May 7, 2009, 5:46 PM EST

COLUMBUS, Miss. — Bassist Donald “Ean” Evans of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd has died of cancer at his home in Mississippi.

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said Evans died Wednesday. He was 48.

A statement posted on lynyrdskynyrd.com said, “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of longtime Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Ean Evans. Ean put up a valiant battle with an aggressive form of cancer and he will be sorely missed by family, friends and fans.”

Evans was born in Atlanta, but moved to Columbus in eastern Mississippi after marrying his wife, Eva. He joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2001 and had been touring regularly with the band until being diagnosed with cancer in 2008, when he cut back on performances with the band.

Survivors include his wife and two daughters.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

Mike Chain, a local guitarist who was close friends with Evans, told The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Miss., that Evans was always a dreamer with a “big heart.”

“He was just one of those guys who was always a dreamer and always seeing ahead,” Chain said. “And he was the most positive person I’ve ever met.”

The Jacksonville-based band was formed in 1966 by a group of high school students; famously, it took its name from a physical education teacher they disliked, Leonard Skinner.

They released their first album, “Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd.” It became one of the South’s most popular rock groups and gained national fame with such hits as “Free Bird,” “What’s Your Name” and especially “Sweet Home Alabama,” which reached the top 10 on the charts in 1974. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

The band was shattered on Oct. 20, 1977, when their chartered plane crashed in a swamp near McComb, Miss. The crash claimed the lives of six people, including the band’s lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.

And in 2001, bassist Leon Wilkeson died in his sleep in a hotel room near Jacksonville, Fla.

Chain said he was with Evans the night he got hired by the band.

“We were spending New Year’s Eve together when this Skynyrd thing was happening,” Chain said. “It didn’t look like it was going to happen. But he just set his feet in the ground … and was ready to stand up and fly to the moon. And he did.”

This state never ceases to amaze.

Okla. governor intervenes in Flaming Lips flap
April 25, 2009, 5:40 AM EST

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma lawmakers who voted against making a Flaming Lips tune the official state rock song represent a minority of “small-minded religious wackos,” the band’s lead singer says.

Most state House members voted for a resolution recognizing 2002’s “Do You Realize??,” but conservatives who said they were offended by the band’s clothing and language mustered enough votes to keep it from being adopted.

“Me, I just say look, it’s a little minority of some small-minded religious wackos who think they can tell people what kind of T-shirts and what kind of music they can listen to, and the smart, rational, reasonable people of Oklahoma are never going to buy into that,” frontman Wayne Coyne told Tulsa World in an interview Friday.
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Gov. Brad Henry resolved the issue by announcing he would sign an executive order proclaiming “Do You Realize??” the official rock song of Oklahoma. The song earned more than half of the 21,000 votes cast in an online contest.

The Grammy-winning group, formed in Norman in 1983, is known for its psychedelic rock and lyrics.

Rep. Corey Holland, R-Marlow, was offended when band member Michael Ivins wore a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer-and-sickle emblem, a traditional symbol of the Communist Party, during a visit to the Capitol last month.

“The great thing about this country is he has the right to make whatever statement he wants to make,” Holland said. “I have the right to be offended by that.”

The shirt was a Christmas present to Ivins from Coyne’s wife, and he wore it to a rehearsal earlier that day, said Coyne, who was offended by Holland’s implication that the band is un-American.

Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, also denounced Coyne for using an expletive at an event.

Despite the criticism, Coyne said he always expected state residents to stand up for their native sons.

“People would have a reason to really fight for us and say, ‘No, this isn’t what Oklahoma is all about,'” Coyne said. “And I think the governor is very cool, how he’s come to our rescue.”

of those,” You know you’re getting….” jokes….. I just thought this one up as I was packing for my inspection trip of the Seattle HQ complex…… It may not be funny as it is the truth, or, maybe that’s what makes it funny….. I don’t know, you decide….. Here it is…..

“You know you’re getting old when you’re going on a trip and you end up packing more prescription medications than you do anything else.”

It’s sad, but true…… I didn’t realize the body had that many muscles that could hurt all at the same time……. (was that my knee or elbow popping?)……

I just glanced at my calendar and noticed that the 22nd day of April is a really big day!….. Not only is it “Earth Day”, it is “Administrative Professionals Day”!…… Is that like a “Temporary Secretary (Sir Paul) Day”?….. It just seems like a big name for a boring, thankless job….. Don’t get me wrong….. The World would not survive without tons of processed paperwork, but, if we have a special day for secretaries, why not have a “Sanitation Engineers Day” for our hard working garbage men, or a “Inclement Weather Protection Specialist Day” for all those roofers out there?….. Where does it end?……

Are secretaries on the same level of importance as Mother Earth?….. Maybe – but, why on the same day?….. There’s at least a couple of hundred others days left that honor no one…… In the Army we called ’em clerks, and, they seemed to be able to screw-up a soldier’s records, supply, R and R requests, and orders in more ways than you can count…… Usually small stuff in the grand order of things, but, very, very important to a lonely soul twelve thousand miles from home stuck in the armpit of the Universe….. They became known as REMF’s when I was in…… If you want to know what that stands for, just ask any Vietnam Vet…… It took ten REMF’s to support just one combat grunt in the bush…. They never got it entirely right, but, they did manage, at least, to get us enough “beans and bullets” to survive……

…..might just be all right as Prez after all…… I had to give him a strike for appointing CH (criminal Hilary) as Secretary of State, but, I have to give him a big “home run” for handling the high seas pirates…..

…..is decked out in his wet-weather gear, and splish-splashing down the bunny trail…… It’s a wet, cloudy, and cold Easter here in the Heartland…… I must admit it is a sight that you rarely see – An Easter bunny in a camouflaged poncho with a rucksack full of wet eggs, the colors running off them in a multi-colored stream down his back and on to the ground….. Anyway, a happy and safe Easter to everyone…..

OH, I almost forgot, I’m peeved at PD Bob….. He told me, in no uncertain terms, “to get that MRambler Central CRAP out of his storage space PDQ”…… When I inquired why, here’s what I got, “Every year I go on my own personal Easter egg hunt….. I usually end up with enough eggs to last me 6 months or more, and since it’s raining, I should be able to covertly acquire double that amount from that stupid splish-splashing, pea-brained bunny. So-o-o, I need ALL my underground storage space, NOW KID!”……

Last I saw of him, he was disguised as a bunny, heading out of the bunker with a GPS, a telescoping butterfly net, a starlight scope, and a walkie-talkie…… From the chatter I could hear on the W-T, he had a black-ops chopper on station just waiting to pick-up his bounty and his sorry, thieving little wet butt…..

This is MR, reporting live from PDB’s secret HQ located somewhere in the wet scorched earth of the Heartland….. Now for something completely different……

I’m sure at least some of you are familiar with this classic song by “Harry Nilsson”….. If you were in Oklahoma yesterday, you would have been trying to do just the opposite – Jump Out Of The FIRE!…… We had wildfires all the way from the Texas border to the Kansas border!….. One of the largest was in the SE area of Oklahoma City less than 4 miles from MR Central’s Oklahoma HQ…… J.J.’s abode was within one-half mile of the action……

Over one hundred homes were totally destroyed (the official count has not been determined yet), along with an equal number, or more, damaged from the fires….. I can’t think of a worse way to lose your home….. In a tornado, you at least have a chance of some of your stuff surviving, but, in a fire – it’s all TOAST!…… The constant winds we have this time of year (actually we have them year round in Oklahoma) was the major factor, along with super low humidity, pushed the fires to the limit….. To be more accurate, we always have Texas blowing and Kansas sucking, or, Kansas blowing and Texas sucking…… Yesterday we had both!…… Texas started it with winds up to 70 mph out of the south, then about 9 pm last night a front moved though, and Kansas started blowing between 35-50 mph which changed the direction of the fires….. It was not a pretty site……

I really, seriously, think I need to “get outta this place” (The Animals)…… We’re already had a tornado in February and now a firestorm, both within a few miles of MR Central….. Mother Nature has MR “bracketed In”, and, the only place I have to hide is in Prairie Dog Bob’s ample underground bunker……. I’m moving all the important stuff there before I leave to visit the Seattle MR Central HQ this following weekend…..

S-o-o-o, If you’re looking for a “Hot Time in the Ol’ Town” – just come to Oklahoma for a visit, but, remember to bring your flame retardant shorts and a map of the nearest tornado shelter….

What, no bracket love?

Besides the radio, I always thought the 8-track was the first automobile music player. Not so.
Everyone ever seen one of these?

http://ookworld.com/hiwayhifi.html

How long before newspapers are totally obsolete. In another 10 years is there going to be any semblance of life as we’ve known it? Andy Rooney had a dissertation on this subject on 60 Minutes last evening.

updated 4:06 p.m. CT, Mon., March. 16, 2009

SEATTLE – The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska’s gold fields, will print its final edition Tuesday.

Hearst Corp., which owns the 146-year-old P-I, said Monday that it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper, which it put up for a 60-day sale in January after years of losing money. Now the P-I will shift entirely to the Web.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/03/progressive_quiz.html

Here is a link to a quiz to determine if you lean right or left. I scored 231 on a scale of 400. Take the quiz & share your score. Might be kind of fun to find out the composite blog score. No hard feelings allowed.