Skeezix

Bingo!

He needs a beat down.

Juvenile Long-Tailed Macaques at Wat Phra Prang Sam Yot ("The Monkey Temple"), Sara Buri, Thailand 12/27/2008

This guy'll get 'em talking...

Modern art?

[video:youtube]

Can't you see?

The Republican Party is done. Done. I don't think the pendulum's even going to swing back to those dumbfucks. They might as well pull their heads out of their asses and just try to fit in.

What's that note?! H# ?

I gotta tell you, you don't have to be tech saavy at all to use one of these things. I carried one in my pocket and recorded over 400 video clips while I was in Thailand. The quality is very good, and the software that comes with the camera makes it so easy to edit and upload videos to YouTube that you can do it in your sleep. The people that invented this thing are geniuses. Can you say Volksmovie? They start at $129 and go up to about $250 for the HD Mino.

The stick is held like a flyrod and used to whip that string and accelerate the top to get it spinning ...it adds leverage to increase the velocity. The aiming is a mystery to me. They throw the top with one hand, and then whip the string back away from the top to impart the spin. So the first throw, into the circle, is a toss. But the second guy really hurls his top at the one in the circle, because he needs to knock it out of the circle ...but even as he pitches it, he whips back with the stick to get it spinning. They also use the stick to touch or tap the spinning top to adjust it's alignment in order to maximize the spin. It's tricky, and they're damned good at it. The photos were taken in the hills above Chiang Mai, Thailand. I took my family on a two-week tour through Thailand over the Christmas holiday... Here's a video of our crazy tuk tuk ride through the streets of Bangkok on our first night there: [video:youtube]

The purpose of studying literature is to study what it means to be a human being. It's the most important subject... I would submit that it's not for everybody, though.

I was in a Hmong hill tribe village over new years and witnessed a festival that included formal teen courtship rituals and adult men participating in a highly competitive spinning top tournament. Here's a few snapshots... We arrived in this village --a funeral for a teenage boy was going on.. These men were blowing horns around the dead boy's house to scare off evil spirits. Others were shooting off fireworks. Meanwhile, lunch was cooking... These cute kids were happy to pose with Flat Stanley for my son. Across the valley, we arrived a the festival site. Adolescents line up, boys facing girls, and toss a beanbag back and forth while conversing. This is a formal courtship ritual... The men compete in a spinning top tournament. First one competitor sets his top spinning in a chalked circle. Then a second man stands behind a chalked line about 20 yards away and hurls his top toward the spinning top, attempting to knock it out of the circle. If he successfully knocks the top out of the circle, it's game on, and both competitor's teams try to keep their top spinning longer than the other team's. First top to drop loses. Here's a video: [video:youtube] After the tournament, they celebrate and toast each other with Chiang Beer! These friendly Hmong girls agreed to have their photograph taken in their traditional costumes...

This is an important thread.

Bush looked glum during the inauguration. I wonder if that was because he heard the boos from the crowd when he and Laura appeared on the platform?

Classic NOCA traverse...

Now Fairweather is a Bush apologist. The guy likes bucking conventional wisdom. Consensus is the Bush presidency was worse than a failure ...in fact, Bush dragged the country down. We're talking lasting damage.

To summarize Fairweather's view of Bush "...you're an idiot, you ignored the mounting criticism, and you were clueless enough to consistently act like an idiot for eight years without wavering." Cogent analysis from Fairweather, the guy who predicted McCain by a landslide. Like Bush, consistently wrong.

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger

Motor boats are allowed on Ross Lake. There's a boat launch at Hozomeen accessible through Canada. Thornton Lake camp has a camping party limit.

There are plenty of good, competent folks wearing the park service uniform. Not tools, not the man ...just people that love working in the parks. Just like whatever organization you work for ...there are some duds. But don't go painting with your broad brush.

Around 1983 some friends and I did Liberty Ridge as an overnighter from White River CG. We humped over St. Elmo's pass and climbed up to Thumb Rock to bivy, then climbed up and over the next day and descended the Emmons. But I guess that doesn't fit what you're asking, because we carried a tent and stove... [img:left]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/235/456107416_7cb3e3a027.jpg[/img]

I think Nancy is hot.

PacoJacoPacoJaco

Good flyfishing in the winter...