Welcome to my life.

I'm a self-avowed WordPress Whisperer with a specialization in front-end design. I live in Maryland. I take lovely photos, go to the gym a lot, and opine strongly over design, aesthetics, and politics. I'm prolific on Twitter; I used to post to Flickr; I have a moblog and in my spare time I help out at the SemperFi WP Support forums. Read more about me.

From the ashes, Hillary?

It is amazing how the actions of a senator whose name many right-wingers would rather have buried out of sight and out of mind still causes quite a stir. It is perhaps the very testament to the threat that she poses to the direction our nation’s leaders and followers want it to take. You know who I am talking about: Hillary! Clinton.

I didn’t blog about the visits to Iraq by both Bush and Hillary! because I believe there’s hardly anything really worth saying.

Many have taken the task at picking apart the ramifications of Hillary’s visit. Chris Lawrence is considering the news and trying to find out whether she was indeed performing a class act or not. Matt Stinson himself admits that getting into her head is impossible (and rightfully so). Dean Esmay himself has pinned down what I’m trying to say here:

Unfortunately, I think your average person sees Hillary Clinton as the backroom leader of the Democratic Party. They also see her doing absolutely nothing to upbraid Democratic Presidential candidates who, for the most part, have been using the inevitable casualties and setbacks in the war effort for their own partisan ends. Every casualty proof of failure and incompetence, every success ignored or portrayed as insufficient. That’s how the most partisan Democrats have been behaving for most of this last year, and most of the Democratic Presidential candidates have either done this directly, or tacitly given it approval by not objecting to it. With no one (except obscure figures like Zell Miller) within Democratic ranks calling people out for this attrocious behavior, it makes Democrats look terrible. Your average moderate Democrat might be able to escape being lumped in with the worst elements like that, but Senator Clinton is largely seen as one of her party’s main ringleaders. This makes her powerful, but it also makes her look more guilty by association than your average Senator or Congressman. [Emphasis added --- ed.]

The Left needs to burn down its house. It needs to destroy itself and rebuild from the ashes of their self-destruction.

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Time for a KitKat, Yg.

Yggy on quality versus quantity:

So as readers have probably noticed, I write a lot. As such, I always like to think of the prolific Mark Steyn as a cautionary model of someone whose output really seems to have dragged down quality.

Pot, kettle.

Pot, kettle.

Dude. A day’s break wouldn’t hurt.

Not an error 447

I’m taking a quick little break for the weekend, but this is in no way an HTTP Error 447, as proposed by Mark Pilgrim:

The requested resource is not currently available at the server and no forwarding address is known. This condition SHOULD NOT be considered permanent. The server owner wishes you to believe that this condition is permanent, but it isn’t really. If the resource is going to be permanently unavailable, the status code 410 (Gone) SHOULD be used instead. This response is cachable unless indicated otherwise.

Rather, I’m just enjoying the short period of silence that starts the holiday season before I start scraping the bottom of my cookie jar. That way I can buy a fresh hundred-stack of blank CD-Rs. Pleasures of the flesh always make for cheap holiday presents.

Vegging out on the couch watching the James Bond movie marathon on TNN Spike TV is a far more appealing choice for the rest of the afternoon.

(I found the E-447 link from Mog-ra — Mog after calling on the honor of grayskull in order for her to preserve her sanity.)

Book Cover: Glenn Reynolds

Should I even warn anyone about posting pics on their blogs, whether they be of them or of their cats? It’s my own little version of Friday levity, and this week we have none other than Glenn Reynolds.

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Warm Pork Salad

In the Philippines it is called sisig, a pork dish whose preparation methods vary with every household. It’s no big surprise, since just about every household’s recipe for something is the “only” recipe for it. Barbecue, turkey, stuffing, whatever. The attitude is common with Philippine families too, and if it’s something you can’t cook on your own, you’d have this one place you’ll always go for. It applies with sisig as well.

Sisig is simply pork, grilled on open coals or deep fried, and then chopped and seasoned well. As I’ve said, the choice of seasonings differ. The choice of the cut of meat also depends on the person cooking it. Usually, the cheeks of the hog are used, but it can turn some people off. The following recipe, written a la Joy of Cooking, is how my family does it.

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Accolades

Whoop-de-doo. First of all, happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope your holiday will not be marked with bloody murder, nor guests from hell.

Barring any historical arguments or debates or whatever that might politicize this day, spreading some poisonous holiday sneer, I suppose this day means differently for different people. Whether you’re descendants of the pilgrims or first generation immigrants, there’s gotta be something we all should be thankful for, and I suppose today would be the best day to show some appreciation.

I was thinking of simply listing down the names of the people I gotta thank; besides, you know what you have done for me, and I’m not overly sappy enough to give everyone a virtual thank-you hug. The truth is the list would be very long if I did.

So, people, you all know what I am thankful for, when I list you all over here:

Matt Hamilton. Cam Edwards. Jason Verber. Anthony Cantiello. Tony Seneadza. Dodd Harris. Vinny Ferrari. Zombyboy. Doc J. Mama Montezz and her hubby. Matt Margolis. Sarah Navarro. Venomous Kate. David Strain. Dave Tepper. Meryl Yourish. Dean Esmay. De Doc. Kelley. Kevin Aylward. Michele. Erica. Margi Lowry. Matthew J. Stinson. Matt Mullenweg.

Very special thanks for words of support during my personal crisis to Zombyboy, Mog, David Strain, Deb Yoder, Meryl, and Kathy Kinsley.

If I have missed anyone here, apologies.

Also thanks to everyone who’s blogrolled me, and everyone who comes by regularly. I hope I continue being a good stop for all of you.

Anyhow. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Looney Tunes, weight gain

Daniel of Alabama might gain more than a few unwelcome pounds after being upset with seeing the Looney Tunes movie.

As for that movie, eh, don’t waste your money… I was actually sort of offended with the way they took some really classic charecters I’ve grown up with and put them in places and situations they should never be in. I mean, Daffy Duck in a Vegas showgirls dressing room? Come. On.

[...] Oh well, there wasn’t anything better to do at all. So, I am just going to take it easy over the next few days to make myself feel better about it. And probably eat too much. Yes, far too much.

Causation in action! I’m just glad that the DVD box set for the Merrie Melodies shorts will be out; hopefully a family member who doesn’t want to poison me with Jack Daniels would give it to me.

Lawsuit-Free Thanksgiving

Chet has the full text of a contract you can give to any guests you might happen to have over for Thanksgiving (which can also be called Forced To Be With Family And Unwelcome Guests (But Guests Anyway) Day).

This indemnification includes an agreement not to haul Host into court on the basis of:

Failure to provide nutritional information;
Failure to warn of potential for overeating because food tastes too good and is provided at no cost;
Failure to offer “healthier alternatives” or vegetarian “tofurkey”;[...]

It has, however, no provisions regarding choking, or slipping on greasy turkey skins that would lead to one’s head landing on a nail sticking out on the floor. Mmmmm.

(Yeah folks, I know it’s humor, but my, what a change in the face of humor, eh?)

Asked? Answered!

Michele takes the role of Thanksgiving guru for the evening and I couldn’t resist asking the question:

Hi Michele. Usually family holidays when everyone is actually together in our extended-family home (Mom and Stepdad, Sis and her brood, and feisty me) are the most tense, since it’s during days like Thanksgiving that everyone is actually with everyone else.

What is the polite thing to do when the unavoidable Massive Family Conflict™ over the dinner table that ends in “Fine!” “Fine!” happens? Does everyone silently stuff their faces? Or does everyone go their separate ways to the Thanksgiving Party that each person’s friends invited them to? (Sister gets to stay at her house with her nest.)

Her answer:

I feel your pain, Jay. I have a sister who has perfected the “Fine!” routine. She even adds an “Phhft!” to it once in a while and storms off into another room, where she proceeds to ignore us all.

There’s an easy solution to this, Jay. Just place a big bottle of Jack Daniels in the middle of the table. Give everyone, even the kids, a shot glass. Everytime someone starts a fight, everyone take a shot of Jack. Within an hour you’ll all be too drunk to care about fighting anymore, or you’ll have all died from alcohol poisoning. Either way, the fighting is over.

Mmmmm. Jack Daniels. (An aside to the webmasters of that damned site: anyone who can compute ages, say, ten to eleven years old, can enter your site. Eschew the entrance page will ya?)

I knew it. Coffee really didn’t lead us to great family fun and togetherness. Maybe alcohol could help this time. Maybe I’ll set aside some wine coolers for the kids instead, so that if every adult does die of alcohol poisoning, at least there would actually be people left behind to inherit our meager possessions. I wonder if their aunties would squander the little money we’d be leaving the wee ones.

Anyhoo, thanks dahlin’. I suppose a bottle of Jack would be cheaper than the cab ride to the party fifteen miles away, coupled with the potential for great embarassment brought about by being drunk after a family “Fine! Fine!” Fight.

Welcome, anytime

Matt Margolis has upgraded to WordPress, and with help of yours truly and someone else, has a new clean look. Thanks for the thanks, Matt, welcome anytime.

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