Xmas list part2

I got the local machinist shop to make a gear shift. So that is off my Christmas list now. And since I now have gears, a new clutch probably won't be needed either. Fork seals are still big on my list. If those fork seals were attached to a new Speed Triple or ST1300ABS, You could forget the rest of the list. A nine inch by nine inch piece of diamond plate would be cool (and cheap, if you went to Wymore and got a piece of their scrap - dimensions are just a suggestion, I'm looking for plate to park my bike on at work, the kickstand is eating up the tarmac.) I want a good flat griddle. One with a lip or aluminum need not apply (Not begging, so I reserve the right to be choosy.) A ceramic chef's knife is on my wish list, but that is a tad pricey. I will gladly accept ultralights, powered parachutes and or gyrocopters. And if you have a spare dirtbike toy on your hands, I am looking for a hobby. Your mom wants a segway. And if you gave it to both of us, I'd be happy - so that would be a two-fer gift. (Why am I assuming the only people reading my Christmas list are my kids? And why would I put in nothing but unreal ideas like Segways if that is who's reading this?) A good leatherman would be nice, but it's more money than I want to spend on me, or that I'm worth. And I like a nice hat.

Depression list time again, Baby!!

I used to have a son in law that said something to the effect "I have everything I want, and I hate everything I don't already have." As I have been thinking about my Christmas list, I started to think the same way. I realize now, he must have been depressed. It is hard to get up excitement when everything seems so blah. I can imagine several things that would excite me. Like Karl, I like gadget-ty watches. TokyoFlash are my current favorites (Retsu, gun metal 'n blue or the L type ) but I am not excited enuf to put it on a list. I would give away Zachary for a Bugatti Veyron; I'd lease him out at very advantageous terms for a nice motorcycle. (And he may be my wife's best hope for grandkids - he's the most impulsive of our kids and most in a hurry for more.) Tickets to a cool concert are always appreciated, but it's winter and my musical tastes are getting stale anyway (though i do like Matisyahu.) My favorite gift in the past year has been Netflix, but now we are on the perpetual renewal system with them and what was so exciting was that it was a surprise, that turned out better than I had thought. The favorite thing I bought myself was my iPod, but i got one now. A new engine for my airplane sounds like a good idea, if money were no object. An airplane for the new engine would be good too, not to mention batteries for the radio - if I haven't lost that thing. I miss the dog and or cat, but Lynnellle has to buy off on thatr kinda of present ( Manx cat or border terrier in case you're Lynnelle.) I really don't need a 60 inch flat screen, blu ray, or home theatre system. My eyes are going so much that a 25 incher across the room looks fine. I could use a librarian for a few days to sort out my various media. The dvd's are mostly in order, but the vhs are a mess and the library is worse. New novels, movies and or media events I don't need, or will buy for myself if I really want one (Though like Caitie, Mom wants Mama Mia sing along.) Retirement would be a great gift, but then I'd start having to figure out how to fill my days. Forget it - I have everything I want and I hate everything else.

life

One family wants to get through a tunnel. Dad can make it in 1 minute, mama in 2 minutes, son in 4 and daughter in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, through the tight tunnel can go at once not more than two persons moving at the speed of the slower one.Can they all make it if they have a torch that lasts only 12 minutes and they are afraid of the dark?

Sometimes that seems to be our own existence, needing something that seems impossible and being afraid of the dark. But this is obviously something with a trick answer. So no bonus for being the first to say yes. but the first with a real solution gets a candy bar. (More like life - a reward that is a penalty, but we still want it.)

Puzzle

"Call Me" by Blondie
"When Doves Cry" by Prince
"MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer
"Too Much" by Elvis Presley
"Best of My Love" by The Emotions
"Don't/ I Beg of You" by Elvis Presley
"On My Own" by Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald
"Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul with The Wild Pair
"Endless Love" by Diana Ross & Lionel Richie



What do these mean to me?



The first correct post/answer wins a combination compass, whistle, thermometer, and magnifying glass.

Another daffinition

I was listening to the "Once" soundtrack this morning and I remembered the quaint Irish word "foaking" (pronounced with a long O and silent A) which generally means the same as that Utah word "frickin' ". As in "Are you out of your foaking mind?" which would translate in Utahan as "Are you out of your frickin' mind?" Last Christmas Allie and I watched "Once" and counted over fifty uses of the superlative "foaking" used by almost every character in the movie.

The same word is used in British English as well, but the accent is a little different in England and Scotland and Wales. Some have an "AW" vowel sound and other slur toward a "OO" vowel sound and some even slur into a short U vowel sound, which creates a word that sounds suspiciously vulgar to the American ear.

So basically what I'm saying is that "Foak" is great, huge, silly, more, asinine, rude, super, and possibly a tad vulgar to the American ear. - A lot like me.

bragging

Like most parents, I like to brag about the things my kids do. It makes me feel better - not that I actually have much to do with their accomplishments. I did tell Craig to join drama as an elective in Grossmont High School ( That's where the girls are.) That in turn led to his brothers and sisters getting involved in drama. And Caitlin has followed that into a cool sounding program with Second City in Chicago.(Assuming we can get all those pesky things like life and finances figured out.)





That is almost my entire contribution to her recent successes in the field of theatre arts. (Other than cheering.) My wife has actual credibility in drama. She played the juvenile roles in several college productions, getting statewide recognition as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. Of course that was a small state - Hawaii, but her picture in the paper was as big as Don Ho's. I'm sure she is bragging as much to others about her daughter as I am now.





We all seem to think our newest car is the greatest thing since sliced cheese - even when it's a Ford or Chevy or another of the 217 million Honda Accords on the road. We all have a problem of pushing our identity onto our things. And thinking of things we can't possess as ours, like children, country, high school football team (we lost the bell, last second 40 yard field goal). Is this because we need more sense of self, or is this just an extension of out monomania? (I actually know the answer, I'm just asking to make you feel smaller.)



Actually I think the real answer is that we are all apart of the giant sea of life. And Identity and all that goes with it, jealousy, pride, envy, inferiority and superiority complexes, etc. are just the effects of our genomes fighting to dominate its space and secure its future. I honestly think we are more than just a tremendously complex chemical reaction, but that reaction is what life is all about on this Earth. The genetic imperative drives us all. The more we are able to separate our actions from our basic drives is a fundamental measure of our spirituality. Altruism is more than just a game playing strategy and does more than just help along the overall giant chemical reaction. At church we would call it being Christ-like. The idea of sacrifice is what the Christian Ideal is all about. That is the difference between what out genes are telling us and what we are outside of that imperative.



If that DaVinci Code guy was right, I don't think it would make any difference in our reality. Christ the ideal would love but never brag about his kids. He wouldn't have done anything to promote his biological children above the interests of the whole world. His basic message is in having us put the entirety of Life above our own genetic demands. Any True religion is an attempt to lead individuals to the altruistic ideal. What kind of car would Jesus drive? - maybe he'd just walk, or maybe he'd drive a Bugatti Veyron. He wouldn't care about the vehicle, just the journey. And he only care about the journey in as much as it furthered the needs of Life encompassing.



I gotta stop blogging. I end up taking way too much of your time and mine. If you haven't figured out yet I ain't perfect - you really don't know me. I hope to be perfect and hope that everyone would work to be perfect. Perfection isn't really possible in this world of quantum mechanics and free agency by those pieces of the overall chemical reaction of Life called individuals like Jim or Zach or Malia. (If your name isn't on the list that doesn't mean you couldn't have been what I thought of adding next...) But if you feel like cheering on Caitlin or Zach or Malia I will still be happier. (If you felt like cheering on Jim, I might question your mental stability - but that is the source of a future blog.)

FOAK - additional definitions

First Of A Kind. Also it seems to be a reference among the exceptionally hip for a transexual - I've never heard of that one.

p.s. - If you're looking for the distinguished biology professor James Hite - I'm not him. I'm also not the slightly shady character from Rancho Santa Fe that investors keep looking for.

Mormons should praise Obama

The odd thought of the day I had the other day was that if it wasn't for Barrack Obama. Prop 8 in California wouldn't have passed. The polls show that 90+ percent of Blacks voted in California, due to Obama's shared heritage. They also overwhelmingly voted for Prop 8, despite Obama's not too clearly published opposition to that Proposition.

Now Mormons supported the proposition - though not Obama. (At least in my own humble experience as a member of the strange tribe of LDS'ers.) California would have put any Democrat through, but the socially conservative black vote wouldn't have been so overwhelming if their choice was Hilary. And their difference in voting looks to have been the difference in 8 passing.

An odd set of bedfellows is what politics seems to be all about. I don't see the San Francisco vote and the Mormons agreeing on much, but you never know. Maybe somebody will try and pass a free speech suppression proposition. Imagine a proposition to limit people proselytizing for organization found to be offensive within the shared values of a particular community. Like some of the flamers that offend Mom and Pop with their Pride day celebrations getting lumped in with those offensive Missionaries that can't take no for an answer - I could see some people trying to get them both banned. That might fly with some of the supporters of Prop 8, but wouldn't with the Gay Vote or the Mormons -at least in general.

There are nutty dissenters within all populations. I remember helping Betsy with her Church talk on loving people regardless of their sexuality and using the writer of "The Little Mermaid" as the example of excellence within those dreaded gay fiends. (The real reason Mormons are so upset with Gays is that the word "gay" has been removed from gentle conversation, and they miss singing about their Gay tra-la-la's and the little stream gaily rambling down the hill.)

What's a FOAK?

Malia (soon to be the most common name of newborn girl babies) and I had an acronym for Fount of all Knowledge - FOAK. Generally it had to do with something I maybe knew that she needed to know. Or it might have been she needed a Google screen available over the phone, with a semi-literate monkey to ask the world wide web of knowledge an important query to decide the fate of peace in the People's Republic of Oregon - or maybe answer a trivia question for bonus points on a school scavenger hunt. (If you didn't know I run to too long sentences and a rambling style that rarely gets to the point, you do now.) I take the title of Foak seriously, or at least as seriously as I take anything.

Chances are great if you're reading this your last name is Hite, or it once was and you already knew what a Foak was. But just in case a random stranger mis-spells "Foal" on Google and has too much curiosity to take their suggestion that you were looking for baby horses in stead of an old horse's arse...


Anyway, I generally only read blogs of people I know well (generally having a possibility of needing a body part of theirs someday when mine fails.) But I do read a few bloggish sites like Weird Universe and Museum of Hoaxes. Not that I have any of their dedication, but I hope to put in an occasional interesting thought or point of trivia on a sporadic schedule determined by my particular mood swing and free time available.