Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Nine on the Ninth__May

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OK, OK. It is a blog, not like it is national defense surveillance or your computer's virus checker. So it is a little late. Better than other things that can be late..!!


In the tradition that is 'nine on the ninth' ...lets 'git 'r done'.





Some early flowers that are planted alongside our main driveway. Always a bright way to arrive at or depart from the homestead...






While red and yellow seem to dominate this particular garden bed (if only because they are the youngest daughter's school colors...) there are some other colors mixed in there.









This crabapple tree and its flowers were featured in last year's Crabapple Glory Days post.

These pics were captured after an early evening rain with the sun coming out later to highlight the water drops and colors. As I said last year, our two crabapple trees are gloriously colorful about two days each spring. ...sigh...








These were after another early evening rainsquall passed through. As the sun sank low in the west I knew there must be a potentially good rainbow in the east. VoilĂ ..!! I did not even see the second rainbow, trying to form, until I downloaded the pics later.








A local barn and house now form the anchor of a city park in a nearby community. Maintained by the Johnston Historical Society in Johnston, Iowa, the buildings, the windmill captured here, and a small pond/lake make a great inner-city retreat. Of course, inner-city means something much different in Johnston, Iowa than it does elsewhere..!!






...and number nine: a flag flapping gently in the breeze on Memorial Day, 2009.

This flag is one we purchased from a 9/11 memorial event in our area several years ago. There are more pictures here and an essay on my Epinions page that explains more about the event and its meaning to me.


So there we have it ...a month late, but hey, it is about 'git 'r done', even if much later than planned.


...tom...
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Sunday, June 7, 2009

' Say what..?!? ' Number 4

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Previous 'say what' posts ... where I discuss and link various 'unique phrases' I have found while reading online.


Say What #3, Mar 2009

Say What #2, Feb 2009

Say What #1, Sep 2008



Time again for yet another entry in the 'unique phrase' series.

I have not been spending much time reading widely on the net recently. So most of my recent 'unique phrases' come from my participation at Epinions dot com.


To recap: what makes a 'unique phrase'..?? Well, it has to be at least two words. A one word phrase makes no sense, right..?? These unique phrases also have to be made up of real words, though I will stretch the definition for a word or phrase that still would be recognizable for most readers.

As I have stated earlier, there continue to be new or 'nearly new' phrases coined out here on the web every day ...or so it seems to the observant reader.


As I stated in my earlier post two word 'unique' phrases earn a gold medal, three words a silver, and four word unique phrases draw a bronze medal.


So once again, let's see what we have found recently.



Unique phrases I have crafted or discovered:





No results found for "true water whisperer"
"Which brings us to water’s ability to read. Firstly, not only is the good doctor a master scientist and a true water whisperer, he’s also clearly a wizard at the subtleties of language, able to divide it up into positive and negative with no trouble."

From a review of a book, the title of which I will not give the attention to note, that purports to be a scientific treatise on the 'memory' of water molecules. Yikes..!! What can pass for science these days..!!



No previous results found for "mediocre minutes and inspired moments"
"Though overall this is an enjoyable enough film, it's an odd mixture of mediocre minutes and inspired moments."

OK, OK. So I am going 'off label' with this one. But it is such a nice phrase I could not resist. I can always tell myself the article 'and' does not count...

From yet another Epinions review, this one of the film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Definitely one worth the read.



No results found for the phrase "bomb squad reply"
"By the way, nice 'bomb squad' reply there. Ya know, 'defusing' the moment..."

A comment at an Epinions review. This one was actually coined by me.

My thought was that the writer responding politely to a challenging comment, instead of arguing back at them, was similar to a bomb squad defusing a potential explosive device. But in this case, the situation was 'defused' by not arguing a point. Classy solution to a situation that happens all the time online.



Two results found for "chihuahua on sedatives"
"If The Terminator was a pitbull at the onset of the series, this movie is sort of like a chihuahua on sedatives."

As you might guess, a review of the latest Terminator film, Terminator Salvation. Obviously the writer had no love for action and thrills found in this latest Terminator film.




Once again, just the latest update on my little web reading-n-writing obsession. Looking forward to sharing more once again on down the road.

Hey, as always, if you have any examples of your own please share them in a comment..!!


...tom...
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