brykmantra.com

Okay, I still can’t get motivated to take time from my other activities to do any serious blogging, but I feel obligated to post something, so, in honor of the North Texas Irish Festival being just one week away (WOO-HOO!), I finally got around to uploading my pictures from the 2004 festival to Flickr — so check ‘em out, and check out my ‘05 pics as well.

(And if you’re wondering why there are no pictures here from the 2006 festival … well, last year I was otherwise engaged, as you know if you’ve been around the blog for a while … )

So why am I celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday? Here’s why … but those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning — yes, there are some of those still around — remember the reason without looking …

I’m being prodded to post, so here goes:

Anna Nicole Smith: They keep saying on the news that her death was “shocking”.

Um … no. Surprising, maybe, since we didn’t know it would be that particular day, but as messed up as she was on a regular basis, it wasn’t really a shock to hear that one day she finally passed out and didn’t wake up.

And comparisons to the fate of Marilyn Monroe? Sure, if you take away the presidential connections, big Hollywood movies, marriage to a baseball superstar, a general sense of classiness, and probable Mob involvement in the mysterious circumstances of the death, then yeah, the two situations are almost exactly alike …

Hey, you know who’s probably glad to have the Anna Nicole story suddenly take over the news spotlight?

That’s right: Alleged Murder-Attempting Astronaut Barbie Action Figure! (Includes NASA Action Diaper with Kung Fu Grip!)

I think we have a winner for Wackiest Story of the Year …

And speaking of adults dressing up and doing wacky things: One of my co-workers passed out her wedding invitations today. I asked if the wedding date of March 17 was intentionally set for St. Patrick’s Day, she said, “Oh yeah, we’re having an Irish wedding!”

In fact, her husband-to-be will be wearing not a tux, but some elaborate pirate outfit (an Irish pirate, presumably), and the blushing bride will herself be decked out in ethno-anachronistic garb that will include a green cape, among other things.

Some other co-workers also began making plans to attend in costume, and I said, “Hey, good idea — I think I’ll go as a robot!”

And speaking of robots (but not of Texas women this time), today I overheard some managers talking to some vendors about putting some robots in our manufacturing area … but when I found out that they’re not the kind that say “Danger danger Will Robinson!” or “Bite my shiny metal ass!”, or much of anything at all, for that matter, I quickly lost interest …

Okay, that oughta hold y’all for another week …

The above picture is from my post-surgery hospital stay last year, but if you’ve been following the news for the past day or so, you know that I posted this because of the little green character in the upper left-hand corner of the shot.

Yes, that’s a “Mooninite”, the image that paralyzed Boston yesterday.

And in case you haven’t been paying attention (a couple of my co-workers were clueless), the story is that some electronic light-pictures of these characters were distributed around Boston (and several other cities) to promote the new movie for “Aqua Teen Hunger Force“.

The signs had actually been up for a few weeks, but it wasn’t until yesterday that Beantown authorities decided it would be nice to turn their city into a police state over some blinking lights.

That should give you an idea of how terror-stupid this country still is after five years.