Draftin'

I got some stuff cooking, but I'm too busy to post it. Kinda like this photo of my kitchen. I just need to get it in the pot.

Instead of blogging, or actual work (ha!), I'm gonna watch the 'Heels.

ACC Tourney, kiddoes! Go Tar Heels!

I just heard Jones on the pregame say that Ty Lawson won't play today. That's too bad, but I'd much prefer he got healed up for the big dance.

Y'all feel free to pick a slice of snout off the table if you're that hungry. Otherwise, don't bug me. I'm drafting!

And now, for something completely similar.

Some brief Monday morning tidbits...

I'm still wishing for a point & shoot digital camera, something I can A) carry everywhere, unlike my Canon EOS Rebel not-digital SLR, and B) take and use one solitary photo, without having to wait for processing an entire roll. So, if anybody out there wants to barter a 10+MP digital for free ad space, let's talk!

If I had a Point & Shoot digital, I'd have included in yesterday's pic-fest a dropped-trou shot of this blogger showing off something pretty spectacular.

No, not that.

I'm referring to an a black-and-purple bruise on the inside of the thigh area, that was incurred when kNockahoma tried laying down without warning his rider. Not just once...twice! The bruise is about this long (blogger holding hands this far apart) and this wide. Must've been from the saddle. And it's worth noting that it takes an awful force to bruise me. I got the right foot out of the stirrup both times, but could only curl the left out from what would be under the horse as he rolled toward his left side, so it wasn't him landing on me as much as my (unintended) trick-riding. Seriously, the bruise (today...8 days after the fact) is about 8" long by 3" wide.

I relate this account, in part, as a display of my willingness to poke fun at myself, because I do that almost as well as I ridicule others.

I freely admit that I'm carrying a couple extra pounds (tons), but Ted says kNockahoma was laying down because he's lazy and hadn't been ridden in 2 years. I'll take Ted's word for it...he's the only horse-rider I know that's about 40 lbs heavier than me. And for what it's worth, we have an exercise regimen that currently consists of talking about playing tennis when the weather starts cooperating. More on this as developments warrant.

As Paul Harvey would say, "And now...page...two!"

I swung on by the Upland Journal this morning, hoping to stumble on a topic discussing quail fields/coverts in North Carolina, which might actually hold birds (read: needle in haystacks). The ass-end of the season is this coming Saturday, and I'd consider a drive to the flatlands if it meant getting some bird-scent under poor Maggie's nose. Of course, I didn't find any of that, but I did see the new-ish thread about the owner/moderator's (Brad's) willingness to zap political content and posters. That thread is now 26 pages (wait, PAGES!) long. I read for about 90 minutes, and only had gotten through about page ten.

I used to be a member, but due to the fact that I was physically chasing work around the country, I lost my log-in information and quit actively posting. I have, however, remained a loyal lurker, and enjoy reading those guys' wit, sarcasm, and usual genius regarding dogs and guns and cooking and liquor and weather and wives and photography. Truly, I find myself living vicariously through some of their photo-essays. Very good stuff...check it out. I double-dog dare you.

But, the point I felt like making is that, especially now, everything worth talking about leads to a discussion of politics. And if I had a voice on that Board (I'm talking about the Upland Talk Bulletin Board, the overwhelming bulk of UJ conent)...if I had input on the solution posed by the thread regarding the culling-out of things (and posters) political, I'd vote for a separate compartment , maybe even semi-buried between "UJ Events/Shoots/Banquets" and "Upland Recipes". The issue, as I see it, is where & when debate turns into shit-slinging and name-calling. If there was that other compartment, when mud or feathers started flying...*poof*... it didn't go away...but it went...over there. "Over there" being the place to rant. The political compartment.

That said, though, I wouldn't want Brad's moderator responsibilities, and doubt seriously if anyone else could build something so fantastic. Any of y'all know them guys, tell 'em the Sweet Tea & Livermush guy says "keep up the good work."

Great jumpin' Jiminy Cricket...tidbits my fat hairy butt...

This is turning into an all-day-blog-a-rama event. At the top, it says "morning". I tell myself that I write slow to accomodate the fact that you don't read so fast.

But the thing is, I'm kinda getting this stuff outta the way. Clearing the runway, so to speak. 'Cause, kids, this blogger's drafting again...What is the blogger drafting on? Well, let's just say that it includes Barkorama and Abraham Lincoln...

Paul Harvey: "And now...page...three!"

One day this past week, after Googling "quail hunting" in the search nearby field, and coming up with a reference to a very nearby exotic big-game (wild boar, bighorn sheep, antelope, Angora goats, etc.) lodge, I went to visit that lodge, because as I said it's very nearby and I'd never been and maybe, if I have to go to a put & take pen-raised birds place, I might as well save on gas...

I met the proprietor and we chatted for a while. He confessed that he's never been able to get the birds to stick, and that the predators keep 'em thoroughly eaten...and speaking of predators... He has lots of bobcats and coyotes, and he even has evidence of panthers (!) roaming this county (this county, as in the one Maggie and I live in, and "evidence" as in trail-camera photos). Yikes-a-hootie. Oh, and if that ain't enough, "Did you hear about the recent sightings of The Creature?" he asks.

Apparently some neighbors have spotted a Sasquatch roundabouts. Seems we have everything but quail.

*Sigh*

"Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy..."

If my blog template had a subtitle box, it'd go here and look like this!

I was visiting Jenny's, and she had this post that suggested that she has blog-ideas that when fresh, have a brilliance that later don't seem so brilliant. But, that her ideas have a sort of cooling off period in what she calls a "draft" folder. What a concept!


Here I was thinking that the whole purpose of blogging was supposed to be vomicking out all your unwashed creativity on the back-porch of the blogosphere, and later judging its worth by which reader-cats came along and licked it up.


Important side note: The preceding paragraph is an illustration of my own blogging ignorance, and definitely not a reflection of her blog. I have nothing but reverence for Jenny. Jenny rocks.


Point I was getting at, though, is that I've been fighting the need to blog out something along the lines of Why I'm Not A Democrat, Anymore, because...


See, there it is. I get running just a little bit on it, and it bogs down fast. But back to the point: I'm thinking on it, and it'll be good when it's finished, but if I throw some notions into it (over there in draft-land) and come back later, without letting it rip my guts out all at once, I may actually get to some other things, which might come easier.


But, on the other hand, it could be like jokus-buildupicus. That term's my invention, by the way. It refers to when someone says, "Oh, I've got this great joke..." Then, before it gets told, it gets interrupted, again and again, until it becomes a joke that is no longer funny. So, forget I said anything about the "great" Not A Democrat thing. Don't forget I mentioned it, just forget I said anything about it having any value...just so you're not disappointed. But, if you wonder, "Now why hasn't he been bloggin'?" you'll have that little thing in the back of your brain that says, "...maybe he's drafting..."

So, while I'm drafting over there, today's blog will be a movie review...

Having recently stumbled across some discussion about the new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino, and having also recently seen the film, I thought I'd volunteer my assessment. The "discussion" in question was on the bulletin board over at the Upland Journal, which is great, by the way, and chock-full of mighty fine people. I found it odd, reading the opinions posted there, that almost all of them liked the film. Someone even compared it to John Wayne's The Shootist, as if it similarly puts a punctuation mark on Clint's career like Shootist did for The Duke.


Now, understand one thing. I am an enormous Clint Eastwood fan.


That said, this film fails in a couple of ways, and doesn't rank as nearly his best effort. I think Eastwood should have either gotten someone else cast in the lead role, or had a different director. All the performances were way over the top. Clint's Kowalski is more bitter and bigoted than he has to be. Kowalski's sons and their families are more superficial, banal, and coarse than they should be (or would be allowed to be, if Kowalski's character is anywhere near as hard as he is depicted). The priest-guy? Too sappy, or something. Kowalski's transition from tough and aloof to open and disarmed, as a product of the priest's counsel? Unconvincing. Ditto with his (Kowalski's) catharsis of character regarding the Hmong neighbors. Not sayin' it couldn't happen, just sayin' that going from point A to point B should have been more than an exercise in button-pushing. Some honest character-development would've been nice. A measure of subtlety could have done wonders.

Looks to me like the story had potential, but someone decided to short-cut the actual work in favor of spoon-feeding the audience. I think it could've been so much better. On a scale of 1 to 10? I say 7.

Compare it to The Shootist? No way, Jack. Not even close.

My list of the best Clint Eastwood movies:

1. The Outlaw Josey Wales
2. Paint Your Wagon
3. Dirty Harry
4. The Unforgiven
5. Million Dollar Baby
6. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
7. The Eiger Sanction (I recreated a scene from this, in an actual fist-fight in high school)
8. A Fistful Of Dollars
9. Two Mules For Sister Sarah
10. (Tie)The Beguiled, The Bridges of Madison County

It had been since 04's Million Dollar Baby that we got some new Eastwood. Let's hope that we don't have to wait that long again, or that if we do, it turns out a little better.