Sunday, May 23, 2010

Proof that truth REALLY IS stranger than fiction.

Waterworld


Will Kevin Costner Save Us All?
By now, more than 650,000 gallons of chemical dispersant have gone into the Gulf of Mexico to try to break up the oil. But after giving BP the go-ahead to use the chemical, and to inject it undersea, the Environmental Protection Agencychanged course yesterday and demanded that BP switch to a less toxic dispersant. From the EPA statement:
While the dispersant BP has been using is on the Agency’s approved list, BP is using this dispersant in unprecedented volumes and, last week, began using it underwater at the source of the leak – a procedure that has never been tried before. Because of its use in unprecedented volumes and because much is unknown about the underwater use of dispersants, EPA wants to ensure BP is using the least toxic product authorized for use.
EPA gave BP until today to pick an alternative, and then another 72 hours after that to begin using the alternative in the Gulf. A couple weeks ago we covered the concernthat Corexit—the dispersant BP has been using all along—could have toxic side effects, and that a less toxic (and possibly more effective) alternative could be available. With the EPA order, BP is finally moving in that direction.
U.S. Polychemical of Spring Valley, N.Y., which makes a dispersant called Dispersit SPC 1000, said Thursday morning that it had received an order from BP and would increase its production to 20,000 gallons a day in the next few days, and eventually to as much as 60,000 gallons a day [The New York Times].
The pressure came on the EPA to change its dispersant rules after the use of Corexit, manufactured by Nalco, came under fire in Congress.
BP’s dispersant of choice was a hot topic during a House Transportation and Infrastructure hearing Wednesday, as lawmakers repeatedly challenged the company’s decision to go with Corexit. Several questioned whether corporate ties between BP and Nalco prompted the choice. Nalco’s board of directors includes Daniel Sanders, the former president of Exxon Mobil Corp., and Rodney Chase, a nearly four-decade veteran of BP [Houston Chronicle].
Meanwhile, as BP’s solutions to stopping the leak and cleaning up the spill continue to struggle, a new savior has stepped up: Kevin Costner. Yes, the prince of thieves and builder of cornfield baseball stadiums is, in real life, an avid environmentalist, fisherman, and greentech entrepreneur. While making Waterworld in 1995, Costner was troubled by oil spills like the Exxon Valdez and started developing a system to cruise the surface of the sea and clean oily water. His business partner, John Houghtaling, says:
“The machines are essentially like big vacuum cleaners, which sit on barges and suck up oily water and spin it around at high speed,” Houghtaling said. “On one side, it spits out pure oil, which can be recovered. The other side spits out 99% pure water” [Los Angeles Times].
BP and the U.S. Coast Guard plan to test six of the massive devices next week.
Recent posts on the Gulf Oil Spill:



Image: Universal Pictures
This post was swiped from the DISCOVER blog, Author: Andrew Moseman, Ennvironmental

Friday, May 21, 2010

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.



The Evil Pain Clown review:
Here's a record i picked up in edmonton this month, at a goodwill, it's kind of like a dirty version of laugh it up with ray and rick...now it's not really really dirty, more double entendres then anything, and some great oneliners, there are three brothers but two of them do all the talking, of course one is the straight man, while the other is the brother from hell...really really funny, now since this albums is from the early sixties, the comedy is topical for the time, there are some moments of "political incorrectness", and lots of "commie" talk but all in all a pretty funny disk...enjoy!  

Ok, I'm back.  Me, PF.  This album is one of my dad and his brothers'.  I found this post one night while Googling "The Richie Brothers", never thinking I'd find anything.  (Thanks to White Rabbit for reminding  me to "borrow" this post this and Thanks to the  Evil Pain Clown for actually posting it!)

This music, the humor and the outrageousness is what I grew up with.  It was all normal, and it still comforts me to listen to it.  I really miss the music and the food, the laughing, the booze, the coffee and pastries...and even the fighting and making up.  All three of them, my dad and his brothers are all gone now, and they took a good chunk of magic with them.


Thursday, May 20, 2010

Harley's Head

(In response to very close/loud thunder) "That scared me right out of my underpants!!  Only, I'm not wearing underpants, just my fast pants."  (Fast pants are his special pj pants which make him very very fast.)

"If you don't do what I say, I will yell!  Just like YOU DO"!!! (sigh)

"Now I have 2 invisible friends".

"Mom, you need to take a deep breath".

"Will it be my birthday again soon"?

Monday, May 17, 2010

I think Jo may be Johnny's real mentor...


Our boy Johnny takes a bite outa crime...
Read all about it.

Ah, btw,  I didn't Snopes this.  So if it's not true, why then we are all left with a seriously weird/fun visual.

I love Martin Fish Man Strel

Many of you may already know about Martin Strel, but by living in my tiny self imposed cocoon, I had not... 


Not until this weekend that is.  

I spent the weekend with some very good, long time friends.  In addition to a lovely, healing reunion with them and their son, I also got to work with a most incredible traditional healer (Shaman) that I've wanted to work with for years.  And to top it all off, I got  watch a little cable.  Saturday afternoon was our ceremony and that evening, afterward, I was so full of energy, I could not sleep.  My friend and I watched the Green Planet, on the Discovery Channel, and there  we got sucked into the documentary, Big River Man.  This is the documentary about Martin's famous Amazon swim.

In 2007, Martin swam from Peru to freaking BRAZIL!!!  The FULL LENGTH of the AMAZON!   I was stunned.  He swam 3375 miles from Atalaya, Peru to Belem, Brazil i in 66 days! He did a lot of it drunk, hungover, and the last bit he was also battling parasites in his brain.  We missed the beginning part of the documentary, so we couldn't understand what this guy's motivation for such a treacherous insane feat.  Apparently, he is calling attention to saving our waters and rain forests.  His attitude and habits and mind set are drastically inverse in the most fundamental ways from the typical athlete.  He is over weight, does not listen to his doctors, swims off without warning, and has been known to imbibe regularly during his record breaking swims!  The rebel in me adores him for that, and the caring individual me is sad for that.  But regardless of what I think or feel, he is an outrageously lovable character who's single minded goal has done more to bring attention to his passion of saving our fellow trees and sister rivers and lakes and oceans than anything I can remember.

I got me a new hero.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I am an official ILS coach!!



Woo F-ing HOO!!!!

I passed, apparently with "flying colors".  That was UNexpected!

Thanks for well wishes and I will be celebrating tonight!

Needless to say if you or anyone you know would like coaching, I am now officially available. :-p
Peace,
PF

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Got my final coaching exam tomorrow...

Wish me luck.  I didn't get to study as much as I'd like to, but that's the way it goes.

It's not really a huge deal if I don't pass, I'll just have to pay to take it again.  That is sort of a bummer, since we're broke!  But really, for the love of God, it's not like the GRE or the bar exam!

Anyway, I hope the next time we meet, I am a certified Life Coach.

Happy Hump Day.

Monday, May 10, 2010

My head hurts, My feet stink, and I don't love Jesus.

 I just like the picture... and it captures the essence of my mood.

I was startled awake by Harley's screechy beckoning for mommy comfort in the middle of the night this morning.  I was annoyingly jerked out of a strange dream about an ex of mine.  He was a sultry vile clown who enters my dreams uninvited from time to time.  He was beautiful and damaged, and I loved him as I did the others. But there was something unforgiving about him, which set him apart.  He was not welcome at my wedding.

In my dream I was helping some chicks nail his ass to the wall about some anti-social move(s) he pulled on each of them respectfully, and probably repeatedly.  So, we were just getting to the good part, where in I maneuvered stealthily over a parking valet crossing arm and slid into the little key cabana unnoticed in order to obtain some info which was vital to our sadistic plot to bring him down when our boy (Harley) cried out for momma.  Can you hear the needle ripping across the vinyl in stereophonic amplification?

After my midnight summoning, which actually occurred around 3am, all I was left with were musings about why he (evil ex) was even at my class reunion (in the dream), who these chicks were, and how I came to know them and help them, and how fucking sexy he looked all liquored up and swaggering, long hair whipping and waving like a red flag across the dance floor.  This rude awakening left me unable to get back to the soft place beyond my eyelids.  I began thinking.  Thinking and thinking of my old workplace and haunt.  The place where I met him, and countless other fuckers and friends, The Grand Finale. I remembered way way more than I ever thought I could about the events that took place in that cave, and wrote about it in my mind just the way I wanted to, with that old devil may care humor that carried me through my 20s and 30s.  That humor and my stunningly meaty breasts opened a lot of doors for me. When I was young they were greatly admired by men and women alike, (the breasts I mean), although I never really understood it.  To me they were largely embarrassing (no pun intended, but let’s roll with it), and mostly in the way. For these and a whole laundry list of reasons, I’d have preferred a more sporty variety, but I digress. 

I began to remember.... I began to remember lots and lots of things.  Things I would not be proud to tell my family about, but wouldn't trade for the world…pieces and parts of stories, flashbacks from an incredibly special place and time.  A time which will live forever in infamy for those of us who were there. It was a time of youthful exuberance and antics, humiliations and lessons.  Of fun and frivolity.  Of darkness and sorrow, budding intelligence, expansion,  grief, redemption, experimentation, the muddy reaching of very deeply deeply disturbed individuals, all congregated around a great trough of the most delectable schmorgasbord of music, drugs, alcohol, lust, distorted love, fear, mysticism, attitude, poetry, cash and yep, food. Everyone was accepted and most (but not all) behavior tolerated.  Among our cast of characters were a long parade of bar and restaurant employees & owners (we were the after hours club), musicians, career academics, law students, bums, addicts of every variety, dealers (both small and big time), hookers, hippies, Krishnas, southern-style rednecks, artists, moochers, bikers, frat boys, philosophers, writers, dancers, pirates, geeks, freaks, dorks, lost souls, gypsies, tramps and thieves. We had it all, and every now and then we’d realize it, and raise a glass.

Walking into that dungeon was like dipping a ladle into a cauldron of primordial soup.  Once you dipped that ladle and the womb part disappeared, you never knew what on earth you were going to pull up.  It could be anything… anything at all.  And that was the magic of the Grand Finale. 

Sunday, May 9, 2010

It's happening already.

You see?   What with the mother's day pictures, stories and Tom Foolery, the trip pictures and stories are beginning to fade and feel not quite as interesting as the day's events.  We had a really fun family time with NO snarky snarks!  That, to me, was the most best-est par of all.  Usually there's at least ONE.

We had a rather event filled, spontaneous Mulberry picking experience among other "follow your nose" type of activities, which lead to the...

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Get your berry stained willie hand out of your pants!"    ~Full credit goes to a very flustered and delightfully jumbled up hub. (Ah, yes, we are dorks and yes, we enjoy both full and partial credit quoting!)

There will be more posting on these and our other shenanigans to follow.  Promise.

Hope everyone had a marvelous day.
pf

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Blah blah BLAH!

Well, we've been up north to see mom and sis & co... It was great fun. Nobody melted down till the end, and it was minor.  And I was the one who did the melting instead of hub, so that was good. It was the best and most stress free visit in a long time that involved all three of us. (Many a trip, we make it to around day 4 or so, and then we hit the "too much togetherness wall 'O' shame", and commence snarking and barking). That didn't happen this time. Yay for us! We also took many fun photos, and as soon as they are available on my computer I will post them.  Most of them are of Harley doing something or other, but we got a few good ones of the fam too, and one of a bunny and one of a really CHUBBY squirrel.  (No shit, Ohio squirrels are chubby!  Ask SB!)  It's the strangest thing  when you come from FL where all the squirrels look like Chihuahua runts with bushy tails. So, there's that. :-p

Lots has happened and there has been lots I've wanted to write about... the problem is that more keeps happening and well, all the old and new stuff gets all jumbled up and then I just throw up my hands and wait for a lul.  Then what do you think happens?  Things are too boring, nothing to write about.... and all the old stuff seems like old stuff or I can't remember enough about it because it's not fresh on my mind anymore.  

I think I am just going to to force myself to write a little every day to get back into the groove, so I won't be pouty if ya'll opt to skip ole PF's place for a while... It may get a  triffle boring here in the near future.  I'm thinking of it much like a science project myself. 
Have a fun weekend.