BIG BROTHER 5 HOUSEGUESTS, FIRST GLANCE

Big Brother, in their infinite wisdom, has selected and made known at least 13 of this year's houseguests. Three blocks on the BB website remain blank, and this time without the big Question Mark. So, are there 13 players or 16? Guess we'll have to wait to see if those will be filled by 3 more players.   Here are my quick takes from the photos and brief Q&A:  

Adria - 30, married, Web Designe, AL. Seems stable but watch out for clashes in the kitchen with Marvin who considers himself a gourmet cook and sees this as part of his winning strategy.  

Diane - 22, single, KY, cocktail waitress. Likes gossip but is afraid of snooty girls in the house. Vulnerable, but maybe not.  

Drew - 22, single, college grad, OH. Weakness is women, will miss his cell phone, afraid to trust. 'Do what makes you come alive' attitude. Probably uses women and blames them, and will be used back.  

Holly - Model, 20;s, sinle, LA-CA. loves cats, considers she is caring and goes out 'on a limb' for others, possibly vegetarian. Likely to be used, hurt and discarded by more focused players.  

Jase - 28, single, Vol. Firefighter, IL. How he'll win? 'A controlled mess! Like falling on the ground, yet missing the dog turd.' What he'll miss from the outside? 'Um, well gee, me on TV."Already I think he might be the Most Annoying. Possible gay.  

Jennifer - 21, TX, single, Restaurant Hostess - says she's artistic, funny, stubborn, odd, overly judgemental. Will miss hearing about world events. Plans to become friends with people, figure them out and then use it against them.  Being overly judgemental does not bode well for her long-term chances, but she does seem to have a viable strategy if she can stay under the radar.  

Karen - 30, married, Portrait Artist, NJ - judgemental, opinionated potty-mouth; an artist and highly competitive. She will clash with Jennifer over artistic things and Mike, and possibly Scott, over politics. Her competitiveness reminds me of Nicole and her potty-mouth reminds me of Krista.  

Lori - 26, single, Yoga Instructor, MA - her big fault is being messy...otherwise she seems 'normal'. She is this year's physical fitness instructor. Ok, I'll play along. Yeah, right. As a player she seems like the type that could slide under the radar if she gets in with the stronger group.  

Marvin - 36, single, mortician, SC. Considers himself to be dynamic and a maverick, Christian, 'too real for some people', wants a 6-person alliance, backstab & be the chef. He is going to be too 'dynamic and real' and may be unable to hide his strategizing ways; he'll clash over the kitchen and be an easy mark to be voted off.  

Michael - 23, engaged Dad, Security Officer, OK. I took one look at his photo and thought "Josh". Here's what he says about himself: 'caring, loving'...weakness? 'my emotions'. Plans to go into the house 'with my head up and be myself'. Yup, Josh. Overly Sensitive Man with self-esteem issues. Watch him find a 'Roddy-type' and become his emotional pawn.  

Mike - 41, single dad, commercial painter, MI. says he's competitive, loyal and smart. heroes are Bush and Limbaugh. Weakness is he's not exciting. Strategy is to be friendly, agreeable and win key competitions. He looks like he could be agreeable and low key. He will be the older person who has some self-control while the young people show their hands and fight it out. I am starting out liking him.  

Scott - 26, single, Sales Rep, PA. says he's savage, outgoing, relaxed, strong and in control. Mentions fame twice, and his looks, so he's a famewhore. Plans to be friendly but deceitful. As Katjam observed, Roddy 2.0. I'll take it a step further and say that Michael will become his Josh. Scott also has cold eyes and reminds me a bit like photos of Scott Peterson. Dangerous.  

Will - 26, single, registered nurse, MS. Slings the slang left and right in his Q&A. Will miss his cell phone and new's about Whitney in the tabloids. My take: thinks too highly of himself and is gay [Whitney?? cell phone??]. Plans to slide under the radar, but that could be hard for such an ego to do.

LET ME TRY THIS AGAIN

"AOL ate my blog entry!"

I had this multiple-paragraph rhapsody composed about the joys of the start of summer and was adding in the links. Gone! Now I'm too tired to sing the full song.

Joyful signs of summer:

1.  The grill, even if red-hot coals do fall onto my 'deck' from time to time. Hope no one was below. May the chicken fat sizzle!

2.  Thanks to persistant accolades by a chorus of Chat friends, I have a new Official Summertime 2004 drink.  And a First Runner Up.

3.  New music, thanks to Rhapsody and friends at Looking Good. Nick Cave is a keeper with a list of other artists to check out.

4.  Delly, my new laptop, and it's wireless router, software and the USB flashstick so that my summer obsession (see below) can be close by and I can free myself from sitting at a desk chair. I've needed the past month to get it set up and accessorized for work, home, and integration with my desktop computer.

5.  Hamster Time has been refurbished for a new group of Houseguests, friends are starting to gather again, Green Tuna has completed her NC vacation, and we are all preparing and anticipating a new summer Big Brother madness.

Links and photos will be edited in. I need a nice little summer nap.

WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN?

Bedtimes this past weekend:  3:30 am - Friday night, 3:30 am - Saturday night, 4:00 am Sunday night.  

Ok, I guess it's bad policy to begin playing Zuma at 11:30 pm. On the other hand, perhaps I'm just in training for late-night Big Brother Live Feed watching.  

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.

PASSING THOUGHTS

This weekend I'm consumed with scanning my slides into the computer. This first required sorting the slides into some kind of life timeline. Sometimes the slides were stamped with a processing date and sometimes not and the latter needed considerable effort to place, particulary those from the 70's when I never seemed to stay in one place for a long time.

The problem was compounded because in my travels I crossed the USA several times. For instance, I lived in California twice but at four addresses. These were interspesed with stays in New York state. In one case I lived with my parents in the same house three different times. Identifying which Third Street stay, the one in 1972, 1973, or 1975 I was looking at took some detective work.

Perhaps this doesn't seem important, but when you get to my age and you recognize that you're forgetting a LOT and that it's harder to stir up the old memory banks, it's time to nail down some basic information....names and locations. Heaven forbid that something gets out of sequence in a complicated timeline to cause even more befuddlement.

So, along with the scans, filed by Year, and in some cases in special event folders within the year, I'm going to write a text file with notes about each year so I can get my life sorted out once and for all in text and photo.

In the process of working on the most complicated portion of the timeline (mentioned above) my thoughts went to a Russian 101 class I took in college in about 1981. I liked the sound of the Russian language and it's grammar and it's very charismatic instructor. He said there were jobs in the government for translators and for a time I entertained the thought of going into this field. Aside from the fact that I was not motivated enough to do it, I also thought of the background check I'd have to undergo, listing where I've lived and where I went to school and who I knew and in the complexity of my life I knew, even at that time, that I'd never be able to pull this information together. So, now I'm attempting to do it 20 years further down the road.

As a final rambling passing thought, I recalled that Russian instructor, so charismatic and impassioned about his area of knowledge, and I remembered my first college Chemistry professor; he was bald and not 'sexy' charismatic like my Russian professor, but he had a joyful, uplifting spirit and a love for Chemistry. I loved Chemistry, and chose it for my major, because of his love and enthusiasm for the field. Unfortunately this love was not sustained to where I developed my own passions. I became capable enough to become a good lab technician, but could never dedicate myself to it to become a good Chemist.

Enough mental wanderings for now .... back to the slides.

PROGRAM NOTES

While we wait for the A-list Reality shows [The Amazing Race and Big Brother 5] to start:

Tuesdays at 9 pm on UPN: Top Model, season 1 - rebroadcast [well, it is new to me!]

Wednesdays at 9 pm on Bravo: The Restaurant, season 2

VERY GOOD NEWS

My Dad made it successfully through the surgery today!

His broken neck was pinned and the surgeon said he should be able to move it again. One of our fears had been that it would be pinned without mobility, but this is thankfully not the case.

We are so relieved and grateful for all the prayers and good thoughts that have supported him, and us, through these past several days. Please continue to remember him for a strong and quick recovery.

He is on a ventilator for some lung infection/pnumonia that he has been battling all year, but other than that things are looking quite good at this point in time. He will, of course, be on pain medication and the introvenious feeding for a while yet. He may also have limited ability to speak during the post-op healing.

We will not have a good idea of his post-surgery prognosis for a while, but I must say that we have been greatly encouraged at this point.

Just as an aside, my Dad was a ceramic engineer and during the course of his career he worked on the development of many new technologies. One of these was fiber optics which was a key part of the surgical equipment used in today's operation. He has been very fortunate to have the technology and surgical skill that attended to him today.

Thanks be to God.

PRAYERS ARE WELCOME

My sister in Arizona just called. My father is in the hospital tonight in stable but critical condition. He fell this morning in his bedroom and hit his head and broke his neck.

At first he did not have feeling in his extremities. The feeling thankfully returned in the hospital; he is under traction and being attended to by a neurosurgeon. His vital signs are good and he will have more tests and perhaps additional treatments tomorrow.

My family will appreciate prayers and good thoughts for his recovery, sense of peace and whatever ongoing care he will need, and also for my sister who is bearing so much to care for him.  Thank you so much.

Monday update:  The surgery did not happen today; info is hard to come by, perhaps they are still doing tests or waiting for the swelling to lessen. My dad is apparently still stable, which is good. My sister took care of necessary legal matters and will see him tonight.

Tuesday update:  No surgery today. I haven't talked to my sister yet, but the nurse said his condition remains about the same. I asked about the surgery and she said it might be Wednesday, but she did not have anything definate yet.

Wednesday update: My dad is scheduled now for surgery Thursday morning at 8:30am , Arizona time. It is called a 'stabilization surgery' to pin the broken part of the neck. We are hopeful that he can come through this.

A GREAT ONE PASSES ON

President Ronald Reagan passed away today at 93. I consider him to have been one of America's greatest presidents.

I was in my 20's during the Nixon, Ford and Carter decade of the 70s; virtually the entire decade was one of American self-doubt that culminated in the malaise of the Carter years of the oil embargo, hostages, and crippling economic inflation. America seemed to have lost it's way and did not know how to become healthy again. No younger generation of today can fully appreciate the lack of vigor that pervaded those years.

Ronald Reagan brought a renewal to America with his optimism, spirit, and conservative policies that energized the economy and faced the challenges of the world with new firm resolve. He stood on principles of freedom and a strong belief in the ability of the individual to best manage their lives. He did not bend to polls, but stood firm on his principles.

America renewed and had a huge economic rebirth; the spirit of Americans lifted and became empowered again towards a brighter future; the spirit of freedom began to enflame places like Poland and within years of leaving office the Berlin Wall, and Communism fell. All can be traced to Reagan's policies and force of leadership.

Personally, I was drawn to Conservative principles in my college years during a time when the country was protesting Vietnam and the Nixon administration. William F. Buckley, Jr. was my first major Conservative influence. Ronald Reagan fulfilled the conservative vision with honor and effectiveness and created many 'Reagan conservatives' for a new generation.

Rest in peace, Ronald Reagan. Thank you for your service.

WARNING, WORK RANT AHEAD

It's Friday which should be a day of work serenity, a Whatever kind of day, where cares and concerns are securely filed under 'Monday - To Do'. Instead, I've worked my way into a mid-level work seethe for the 3rd time this week, complete with stress eyeballs and pounding headache; the only thing good about this seethe is that it's a result of me being on the warpath, a strong-willed I'm Not Taking This Anymore response to the previous seethes.

I am up in arms concerning a warehouse in Florida that has been giving our company bad service for the past 6 months, ever since new management took over.  They have sent out double shipments, sent the wrong product, missed ship dates, sent incorrect month-end inventories, failed to correct inventory problems, and have an utterly non-responsive person as our customer service contact.

Some of the product that we store at this warehouse are spent carbon canisters that are identified by a large colorful RSA label with an ID number. We track the spent product RSA#s and quantity of drums in our tracking system and the Warehouse does the same; these lists should match up. When we accumulate a large quantity of spent canisters at the warehouse I have them shipped to a place in PA for recycling.

At the end of last month I arranged for a full shipment of spent canisters with the standard instructions that they are to verify the RSA#s and quantities; if there are any discrepancies to notify me. Welllllll, after the shipment is on it's way to PA I get the Bill of Lading and the quantity shipped is about 1/2 the quantity I had listed to ship.

My blood begins to boil. I call Crappy Customer Service (CCS) who says, "We sent everything we could find." I said everything should have been there, and that I need a list of which RSAs did ship, and which did not from the list I originally compiled for the shipment; this is important because we certify to our customers that their spent material has been recycled. We track this closely. Have I got this list from CCS? Of course not.

By special invitation (this should be their standard procedure), I requested our end of the month inventory faxed to me. Sure enough, it lists all the RSAs our CCS "could not find". My blood really boils! The shipment itself had problems as some of the tanks were poorly wrapped by the warehouse and subsequently tipped and spilled in transit. Tuesday I was on the phone all day sweet-talking the carrier into cleaningup the spill and getting the shipment back on track.

In other instances of bad service, CCS has not made corrections to our new product inventory that I requested twice by fax, beginning back in February. The errors have multiplied with more wrong than right on the list, an outrageous situation.

So, I'm fed up and on the warpath; this warehouse now has a new site manager. Either this guy will deal with, and correct, all this bad service pronto or I will badger my management here to change warehouses (pronto). Most of this morning has been spent compiling documents and writing the Situation/Remedy memo. Kaboom!

HONEY BUNNY

Honey and I are getting along just fine.

Muy casa es su casa
After my week away at the end of April she became bold enough to be in the open living room/computer room area while I recreated at my computer work area. She discovered both the short cat tree with the saddle top and the carpeted window seat attached to the front window. She now enjoys both the front and back windows at her pleasure.

Mama's plan for her baby
So, we have accomplished full apartment range at the 5-month mark in our relationship. This leaves the following: getting on the bed with me for petting, getting on my lap, relocating her food dishes to the kitchen, and [the big one] getting picked up.

Behind closed doors
Honey is very affectionate despite not yet being a lap cat type kitty. She and I have our affection routines throughout the day; she will now let me pet her in her cat bed or on the cat window seat. Just recently she has given me a few nips of affection on my leg during our morning bathroom pet time together.

Doctor, I'm a wreck....
She is still insecure about Swiffer Saturdays and terrified of thunderstorms, but she's getting a little better about the bi-monthly clean-ups. She is pretty much out from under the bed, except during storms, but she is insecure if I do anything that disturbs the current position of her cat feeding area or the little mat under the bed.

Urgency - Moderate, Critical Level - High
I can wait on Honey's decision to be a bed and then lap cat, but it is important to be able to pick her up, at least by December when she is due for her annual vet visit. I've tried, believe me, I've tried to pick her up. Honey is composed of a very squishy outer body wrapped around a powerhouse of muscle driven by a sharply honed, agile street-cat instinct. While I'm trying to find a grab-hold beneath the body squish she squirms and kicks her way from my grasp.

Let the Game begin!
So, in between the incidents of thunderstorm and Swiffer Saturday trauma, and in the spirit ofoverg's game of gitchu, I've begun a game of Kitty Pick-Up.All is normal, then I do a pick-up move and Honey squirms away; she does not go far, and always looks back at me with a wary eye. I then just go about things as usual, like the pick-up attempt never happened. Hopefully this little game will instill some 'normalcy' into the action and I can get more serious about it as time goes on.

Little Princess!
Finicky, that's the word. She likes 2 flavors of Fancy Feast and that's pretty much it. I think I've run through all the flavors at least twice and tried a little sampling of other brands. Sometimes she eats these, but mostly not. She is highly opposed to any flavor that is grilled or marinated, or in an aspic (don't blame her here); she does not like chicken, beef, trout, ocean whitefish, or turkey. She sometimes, but rarely, likes veal, tuna or salmon. She does not like kitty snacks.

Play with yourself
She becomes timid when I try to play with her by doing the following: rolling a cat ball in her direction, dangling a toy on a pole, dangling and moving string. She backs off when I do these things. Ohhh, how I wish to have a playmate! On her own she will play with cat balls, toy mice, and bows. She also gets the cat crazies from time to time in the morning, running back and forth through the apartment before I get up. She also does not get into things like younger, more curious kittens, or like Katjam's legendary cat, Dom.