This Is Hilarious to Me

I am working hard on cleaning up the Batcave.  I got a new computer and desk and now I have to get it all organized.  Let's just say it's been nearly a week and I'm maybe a third of the way through it all. It may take a village.

I am examining a lot of stuff as I am doing a major purge.  I ran across some DVD's that were old and decided to see if there was anything on them that was worth keeping.

Well, I found this little gem.  I laughed so hard.

In August of 2010 I took a little trip (on my own) to visit our daughter in Alaska. This would be the same daughter who now brews beer in the wilds of Montana. I took along a sweet little point and shoot digital camera with a Leica lens and I had so much fun.

When I returned I decided that I would make a great slide show to give to my parents and other family members for Christmas.

I'm pretty sure that nearly all of these shots are straight out of the camera with a bit of cropping done here and there.  There are some really bad shots and some good ones.  I even added words and music to the whole deal.

My sense of humor comes out pretty clearly in this dumb video.  I am pretty much a sarcastic goofball.

The video is about 16 minutes long, so just sit back for a bit.  I recommend that you not drink a soda while watching as you may squirt it out of your nose and that burns, people.  I laughed a lot at some of the dumb stuff in it.  Feel free to comment below about what you found to be funny.

This was made using old technology so it may glitch a bit with the music.  I had a little trouble on my computer with lagging.

Warning:  there is a huge pile of bear scat in here somewhere.  Not even kidding.

It Was Hidden and I'm Kind of Pissed Off About It

My movie pal and I went to see a pretty great movie called "Hidden Figures" the other day.  It has garnered a lot of attention recently and that attention is well deserved.  This movie is cool.

Dorothy Vaughan

Octavia Spencer is Dorothy Vaughan, the computer whiz who teaches herself FORTRAN.  Yes, I remember that language.  I am that old.

Taraji P. Henson is Katherine Johnson, the incredibly gifted math genius who helps figure out...well, I couldn't tell you what she figures out because it IS rocket science.

Katherine Johnson

And Janelle Monae is Mary Jackson, an engineering prodigy who cannot be an engineer (maybe, maybe not) because she is female, black and it is 1961 in Virginia.  Enough said.

I am a complete sucker for anything Kevin Costner is in and he honestly doesn't disappoint here.  He is still a stud in my book.  Plus, he had some pretty good lines and I love it when he's funny.

It is rare that I go to a movie and not get a little antsy.  Even the best ones get me a little shifty in my seat.  "Hidden Figures" (running time 2hr 7 min) kept me completely engaged.  I never checked my watch once.  Maybe it was because I was laughing a lot.  Or maybe it was because the audience was really getting into it and clapping and cheering at all the right spots.  Or maybe it was because this is just a damn fine movie.

Mary Jackson

Now on the flip side, this movie kind of pissed me off.  That's right.  Why?  Because I want to know how in the hell I had never heard of the human computers that worked their asses off at NASA.  You shouldn't have to be a Women's Studies major to find out about these amazing people.  I don't really care if they were black, white, yellow or purple polka dotted; they and all other women who have had a hand in important work, should be celebrated along with the men.  Add the fact that these computers were African American and I honestly do not understand how they ever got anything accomplished. But they did.  Amazing.

I do remember the events recreated in this movie.  And I do remember that we saw women working for NASA well before they were common place anywhere else.  I also remember thinking that those women must have been pretty smart.  I guess it's the glasses.

Hidden Figures movie

Christmas Ramblings

I haven't done any home decor posts for a while so I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of my Christmas decorating efforts this past year.

I am definitely not a decorator.  I did pick out and do everything except for one arrangement which I will note.  I need to work harder at this.

All is put away now.  Some is set aside for my daughter to take with her when she gets her own place. Some will be donated.  The rest is tucked into boxes. I am going to put more thought into it next year. Brave words uttered in January.

Hopefully you will enjoy these pics.  Oh, and because I don't have my new, powerful machine set up, these were taken with my iPhone 7.

I actually took out some of the drawers from this card file and put some decorations on the sliding part.  This was a super easy way to display more stuff.

I have this old toolbox that I found at a sale in the middle of the corn somewhere in upper Iowa.  I threw in the balls and added one of those battery operated light thingys.  Ta da.  Instant decoration.

I bought this huge tree last year and I'm still getting ornaments for it.  It kind of takes over, but it has over 1000 lights and that is why I got it.  Head into the light.

So what did I do with those drawers from the card file?  Well, here is one.

There's another.

And another.

A few years ago I wrapped my twinkle lights with fabric strips.  I still love it so much.

We use this dumb stool all of the time.  The basket is just cool.  I got that from a local shop.  It's all gnarly, of course.

Probably the area that needs the most work.  I will try and start to flesh it out before December this time.  

Nearly all of these snowmen will not make an appearance next year.  I will figure something out.  Kind of tired of them.

I found this bucket at a sale this past year and was going to plant things in it, but I wound up using it for plant clippings instead.  Now it has a lovely arrangement that I jobbed out to a local shop.  They know what they are doing.  I don't.  It's that simple.  I will need a new bucket.

That's it.  My house at Christmas.  I don't do much anywhere else.  A couple of other trees and a few decorations around the house and that's it.  I kind of miss this on the coffee table, actually.  Too bad it is silver and glittery.  I don't think I can get by with it outside of Christmas.

This was my Christmas card this year.  I took the shot, but my brother did the post processing.  I gave a big one to my son for his apartment in Brooklyn.  I thought that was appropriate.

Merry Christmas (a little late).