Happy New Year: 2018 to 2019

GOODBYE 2018 HELLO 2019

Yes it is the very end of the year post. If this post looks familiar it is because for the last several years I have tried to crank out an End of the Year New Years Eve post. The more recent ones I have cut and pasted the previous year's end of the year post, edited it for change of year, deleted a few things, added a few others and BAM you have the end of the year post. Just check out the last post of December or the first post of January for each year in the blog's archives to see how consistent I have or haven't been. These are not quite the same thing as my "year in review" posts. Those are more like the chintzy letters you get from estranged acquaintances and extended family each year. I haven't done one of those for ages.

In a few days in Jan 2019 I will make my annual "State of the Blog" post. 2018 is again one of those bare minimum one post maybe two per month. I have been nothing but consistent with this these last few years.

Feliz Navidad = Merry Christmas

Image from RateYourMusic.com

For many years one of my favorite Christmas time songs was recorded by Puerto Rican folk singer Jose Feliciano Feliz Navidad. It is a catchy tune and I have always loved foreign language songs. This song is a mix of English and Spanish so it could be called Spanglish I guess. I prefer to call it Amerikan Music.

Feliz Navidad was a song recorded in 1970 and for many years was played on the radio just about every year. For me it wasn't Christmas until I heard Feliz Navidad on the radio. In the mid 1980s it wasn't played as often and when I looked for a copy of the song around Christmas Time I could never find it. I eventually did get a copy from Tower Records (I think).

The lyrics are simple a few lines of Spanish a few lines of English (the translation?), repeat and rinse a few times. Basically the lyrics are:

Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Prospero Año y Felicidad

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart

One would think it was a straight and simple translation, but wait. "Feliz Navidad" is just "Merry Christmas" not "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas" and "Prospero Año y Felicidad" does not translate to "From the bottom of my heart".

Lets see: "Feliz Navidad" does indeed translate to "Merry Christmas" and "Prospero Año y Felicidad" translates to "Happy New Year and happiness", "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas" translates to "Quiero desearte una feliz navidad" and "From the bottom of my heart" translates to "Desde el fondo de mi corazón".

So a strict English Translation is:

Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year and happiness

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart

With a strict Spanish Translation:

Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Prospero Año y Felicidad

Quiero desearte una feliz navidad
Quiero desearte una feliz navidad
Quiero desearte una feliz navidad
Desde el fondo de mi corazón


*Thank you Google Translate. Saves me from digging out my old Spanish/English Dictionary and translating word for word for an hour or two.

The Mandela Effect: Not Always A Mandela Effect

THE MANDELA EFFECT: Not Always A Mandela Effect

While not specifically looking for something on the Mandela Effect a YouTube video on the subject popped up on my recommended list, because I checkout a lot of Mandela Effect videos: This video attempts to explain the phenomenon with the psychological answers. I guess it is up to viewers to decide if does or doesn't explain things.

Many Mandela Effect videos are just about slightly different words or pronunciations of the words, or part of the word dropped off at the end, or the not as popular spelling variant of a name. Hmm was the Toys R Us giraffe mascot named Jeffrey or Geoffrey? I'm pretty sure it was the not as common Geoffrey not Jeffrey. Many people might "remember" it as Jeffrey because it is the more common spelling.

Misheard lyrics: For lyrics often improper grammar is used either to make a rhyme or to keep the timing and tempo of a song consistent. Or an entire new word will be created (see Steve Miller Band: The Joker and the line "'Cause I speak of the pompitous of love"). In transposing lyrics to the written word mistakes can be made. Also how a word is enunciated or spoken, well sung rather, can be misinterpreted. For instance do you know what Manfred Mann's Earth Band is singing in "Blinded By The Light"? It isn't the crude version that people think it is. Misheard lyrics are simply that misheard lyrics. They haven't been changed by the Mandela Effect. They are just commonly misheard and the "new" version of what they say is mistakenly passed along. There is a similar thing with misquotes from movies. I won't get into those here, but many people remember a quote in a specific way that was never actually said. In many ways it is like that kids game of Telephone. Where you sit in a circle (or organized line) and someone whispers something in the ear of the person siting next to them. That person then whispers what they "heard" to the next person, That person repeats the process and on and on til the saying gets to the last person. That person then says out loud what they heard and then the original person reveals what they started things with.

There is even a Mandela Effect for the opening title speech from the Original Star Trek series. The real line is and ALWAYS has been "Space THE Final Frontier..." The Mandela Effect has changed it to "Space A Final Frontier..." It is simply a matter of pronunciation. In the Speech William Shatner pronounces the word "T-H-E' as "Thuh" not "Thee" so it sounds like he is saying "A". There are similar misunderstandings exactly like this that people have labeled as a Mandela Effect.

The phenomenon that is called the Mandela Effect could just as easily be called the "Barenstain Bears Effect".

There is at least one ME video poster who has blocked all comments on his videos, you can't even vote thumbs up or thumbs down on them. He says he is tired of people commenting on his videos. I think maybe he was getting too many negative comments and didn't like people complaining about them or the Mandela Effect. I first noticed him from a video where he has compiled about 20 minutes worth of reports of John Lennon's death and points out some of the inconsistencies of the reporting. Many of the reports were the first "breaking news" reports that were broadcast within an hour or two of his being killed. Some details of those early reports were in error. As often happens with news reporting the first initial reports have inaccurate information. Unfortunately it is the first reports that people often remember. They will remember a celebrity being arrested for something, but not that they were found innocent a few months later, or that the charges were dropped and there was never a trial.

On some other Mandela Effect video I commented on how the first initial reports often contain inaccuracies and someone tried to correct me by mentioning some details of an event I wasn't even commenting on but apparently was mentioned in the video I was commenting on. I have also been "corrected" at times with comments that basically say the same thing I had just commented, or they think I am complaining about what I commented on. This sort of thing happens to me sometimes on Facebook also. I often think I should stop commenting on social media especially videos some of which are a couple of years old.

There are some Mandela Effect believers that say if you don't believe in the Mandela Effect and mock it. You have not been effected by it yet and are from this reality. Huh? Yes most people believe that part of the Mandela Effect is that we are currently in a moment of time where multiple realities are combining together as one reality and that is why many are experiencing the Mandela Effect. They refuse to believe that they might be wrong about one difference and they defend the entire phenomenon. They also say if you don't believe in the phenomenon you don't get it and don't understand it. The one thing to understand is people are finding proof of different spellings of things or of slogans or logos that are different than what they had remembered.

World Peace: Some Thoughts And Ideas

For many years I have had an idea for a world peace plan. Unfortunately due to mankind's violent nature this world may never have true worldwide "peace". The plan is very simple in concept but the actual execution of it is the part that would probably never be possible to accomplish.

In a nutshell the idea is for all of the countries in the world (195?) to hold a peace conference, select a group of globetrotting ambassadors that would travel the world and meet with each and every country's political and religious leaders over a year or two year period. After the traveling ambassadors complete their trip a second peace conference would be held discussing the information the ambassadors obtained on their travels and to formulate some kind of plan to get it done.

Unfortunately with the thousands of religions in the world and some of those in direct conflict with each other on many issues there is no clear cut solution.

There is also a small faction of isolated tribes that don't want to have anything to do with the outside world. These isolated tribes in the short term would be a non-factor I guess. These primitive tribes are usually very hostile to outsiders. In many cases those unfortunate enough to encounter these tribes end up dead. In recent weeks (about a week before Thanksgiving?) a young American Missionary was killed in his attempt to "Introduce The Lord" to the Sentinelese from the isolated island North Sentinel in the Bay of Bengal off of India. The Indian government has strict laws against any contact with the tribe. These laws are intended to not only leave the tribe alone to keep their culture intact, but also to protect them from modern diseases which could kill them and to protect outsiders from the tribe. This young man ignored those laws and warnings he was given.

Would total world peace require a worldwide government, or could just a central "mother" government that oversaw the group of individual countries work? Many think it would require the full one world order/government yet several religions primarily Christianity are dead set against an overall one world government. There are also conspiracy theories about secret societies like the Illuminati planning on creating an evil One World Dictated Government by force.

THE PLAN or IDEA:
OK so here are more details on the idea. All the countries in the world would agree to hold a peace summit. Every country would participate, no exceptions. Each country sends a small delegation of 2 or 3 people to this summit, conference. The delegates do not have to be government leaders or high ranking officials. From this assembled group of delegates a small group of special ambassadors will be assembled. My original thought was to have a symbolic 12 people. The number could be as few as 5 or 6. There will also be a small group of alternates designated to fill in for the main group should there be some sort of need to do that.

This group of 12 will have the task of visiting with the political and religious leaders of each and every country within a one or two year period. Spending a few days to maybe a week in their world peace discussions. The number of special ambassadors might have to be increased and they might have to be split into smaller teams to meet the suggested 2 year time limit. I don't know how long visiting each and every country will actually take. They will discuss with the leaders (and their translators) what world peace means to those people and what they think it would take for that to be achieved.

While the special ambassadors are traveling from country to country their health and safety will be insured. If any individual country or group of countries attempt to kill or kidnap the special ambassadors, they would be met with worldwide sanctions against them. Trade with that country would cease immediately. Diplomatic relations with those countries ended. That country would be socially isolated from the rest of the world. If they then declare war on any individual country they will be met with the military force of the entire world against them.

OK so maybe a delegation of traveling ambassadors might not be needed, maybe a huge peace summit over a month or two might do the same sort of thing. The main idea is to have every country's input as well as the input from every religion. I thought that a small group meeting with the leaders would be more effective at actually getting the talks done and insuring the input from each and every nation and religion than one massive meeting. A huge summit would could also have too many potential arguments that would delay discussions.

The cooperation of every country would be needed for this idea or a similar idea to even be attempted or have a chance at being successful. As I said a big problem is religious beliefs. Some religions would have to reconsider their "traditions" as they relate to how they treat others and if they even give them the courtesy of respect or of recognition of being an equal human being.

Maybe just an overwhelming majority of countries would be needed for this to happen, and then hopefully the reluctant countries would eventually join in.

These a just my ideas on how world peace could be achieved. Maybe this sort of idea could work, but it probably wouldn't. Just as I said near the beginning of this post total world peace might never be possible on this world.

I welcome comments on this idea, but any hate filled comments or nonsense comments that just say it is a stupid idea will be deleted.

*World Peace Button Image from https://www.zazzle.com

The Mandela Effect: What The Heck Is It?

If you have been watching YouTube for a few years or searching for weird things on the Internet you have probably heard of The Mandela Effect. It is a strange phenomenon that many have taken to heart to explain some things that are unexplainable or to finally pin something on the strangeness of CERN. There are some Vloggers (Video Bloggers) who specialize in discovering "new" Mandela Effects. There are just as many explanations and theories posted about this bizarre concept as there are things that have been effected by it. The whole subject is a gigantic can of worms.

At the end of this post I have a few related links that go into further detail about the ME and the theories about what it is and the origins. I think the concept has been around for as long as there have been people.

The basic beginning and the naming of the effect goes something like this. When Nelson Mandela died in 2013 many people got a major case of deja vu as they had a vivid memory of him dying some 30 years previously while he was in jail. Maybe they thought he had died during his major surgery mid to late 1980s. That coupled with a special musical tribute for Mandela in 1988 for his 70th Birthday. The fact that some years later in the mid to late 1990s he would become the president of South Africa, must also have slipped many people's collective minds. Another theory about why people thought Mandela had died was perhaps they were confusing him with another South African anti-apartheid activist Bantu Steve Biko and the 1980s movie based on his life "Cry Freedom". More recently I read a comment from a video I think that mentioned some conspiracy theory that the South African government had spread rumors about Mandela's death for some political reason and had staged a fake funeral even though he was alive and well.

Another major popular confusion that has been attributed to the Mandela Effect and one of the early effects from the newly coined phenomenon is a popular children's book series The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain. With this book series the confusion is that many people could swear on a planet full of Bibles that the name was spelled differently and the Bears names were Berenstein. Either one of which are common misspellings.

There are many many misspellings that are remembered that many falsely attribute to the Mandela Effect. Simple memories of a misspelling of a name or remembering an alternate spelling is not a Mandela Effect but simply a mass misremembering. There are many Vloggers on YouTube that specialize in the misspelled effects. Some of them I have commented (in the video's comment section) stating that the specific misspelling of the subject name is NOT the Mandela Effect but just a very common false memory.

Most Mandela Effects fall under the "Wait a minute I thought that it was this way, not that" heading. There are many scenes from movies that are in this area of the effect. Like remembering a certain line of dialogue that ends up being totally different. It is the movie line version of Misheard Lyrics. Oh and misheard lyrics apparently are also a Mandela Effect. There is also the subject of product labels and product names and logos. Plus many other things that in some way now appear to many to be totally wrong. Some people claim they remember there being 51 or 52 states, and they weren't DC or Puerto Rico. One was supposedly "Columbia" but they couldn't remember where it was exactly. Some say the other state was North California or some area in North California. Say What?

My original intention for this particular post was to be a potential starting off point for a series of posts about the Mandela Effect. Concentrating on just one or two effects per post. There are a few that have me stumped (like the Moonraker braces thing) but most of what I have seen can often be attributed to remembering something that is actually a common misspelling. Thinking a celebrity named John Smith spelled their name "Jon Smyth", when they spelled it the most common way of "John Smith" all along. Or someone named Jeff who has always spelled his name Geoff.


Related Links:
Mandela Effect: Official Site
The Conversation: The Mandela Effect
Snopes: The Mandela Effect
Wikipedia: False Memory

Misheard Lyrics: Tonight, Tonight

Hey it's another round of Misheard Lyrics. This time it is some lyrics from the song "Tonight, Tonight". No not from the musical "West Side Story" (that is just one tonight) it is a pop song from the group Hot Chelle Rae off the 2011 record "Whatever".

Album cover Whatever - Hot Chelle Rae (2011)

Yeah they are pretty much a one-hit wonder.

Single cover Tonight Tonight - Hot Chelle Rae (2011)

'What I thought the lyrics were:
"I woke up with a strange tattoo
Not sure how I got it, not a dollar in my pocket
And it kinda looks just like you
Mixed with that gal from Nackass" (or "from Nassis")

I was wondering where Nassass was or what television show or movie Nackass was.

The real lyrics are:
"I woke up with a strange tattoo
Not sure how I got it, not a dollar in my pocket
And it kinda looks just like you
Mixed with Zach Galifianakis"

Later in the song there is a line, although I didn't mishear it, I frown upon the line. It seems a little bit racist.

"Just singing like whoa, oh, oh
Come on, oh, oh, oh, all you party people
Whoa, oh, oh, all you singletons, oh, oh, oh, even the white kids"

Is That A Fact? Cracker Jack?

This post has nothing to do with researching or quoting actual "facts" about the snack food Cracker Jack as the title might suggest. It is just a telling of a snack eating event and possibly the reasoning behind doing it in the first place.

Actual bag I got from snack machine.

On Wed 09 May I got a pack of Cracker Jack. I got the snack pack from a vending machine at work. [in recent months our company has been bought out and the vending machines will go away soon.] It had been a long time since I had any Cracker Jack - Candy coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize. To show you how long ago it was, or I think it was, the last time I had a "pack" of Cracker Jack it was actually a BOX of Cracker Jack.

This is close to how I remember the Cracker Jack Boxes

Back in the day Cracker Jack was sold in individual serving cardboard boxes in a couple of sizes and I think a huge family box. Not sure how many sizes they had but usually you would get a small box that was like 6"x 4"x 1" or close to that size. As a child in the 1970s the mix of popcorn to peanuts was usually in favor of the peanuts but close to being evenly distributed. This time it was a small foil package like a potato chips bag and the popcorn to peanuts was pretty much a minimum of 90% popcorn. I'm not complaining I wasn't in the mood for peanuts especially with the skin or seed coat still on, but I was Jonezin for The Jack. Taste wise it is about what I remember but like most other classic treats not as sugary as it was back then. It didn't stick between my teeth as much as popcorn or the old CJ used to. Now days popcorn usually sticks between my teeth more often as I get older because of the teeth not the snack. That is also why I rarely even eat popcorn products. I was never much of a nuts or peanuts guy but liked CJ for the caramel covered popcorn.

I knew years ago when they switched over from boxes to bags/packs. That was no surprise, the little Cracker Jack Sailor mascot image however has changed in recent years. That was a little surprising. I'm too lazy right now to research that change and quite frankly not that determined to figure it out. Branding on products change and that is NOT a "Mandela Effect" as some might want to claim.

This is the current Cracker Jack Sailor and his dog.

Oh yeah and the "Prize". It was a little CJ branded sticker that has some promo for what they call "Blipp a Surprise". It has something to do with some silly smart phone app you download and "scan" your sticker or whatever to find out what you have won if you win anything.

 Front of Prize.

Inside of Prize. The quality of the image on the sticker is pretty bad. This enlargement doesn't help, but didn't hurt much either.

To Blog Or Not To Blog: Not Quite Throwin in the Towel Just Yet

"To Blog or Not to Blog, that is the question, Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the migraines of creativity or just say 'Screw this crap'..."

Yep I'm doing it again. Doing that dangerous 'thinking' thing.

This is me from the last time I did some serious thinking.

Anyway where whuz I? Oh yeah thinkin' and drinkin' er thunken and dunken er frickin and frackin. These last few months I have been doing very little blogging almost as if it didn't mean anything to me anymore. Sometimes it is a struggle just to make my pretty lax one post a month quota for each of my three blogs. Sometimes this blog can be the most difficult because it is more personal. There are many things in life I don't want to broadcast to the world, and I also don't want to junk my blog up with gimmicks, then again there are times when I really don't know what the hell I want to post about. At least with my trading card blogs they have a specific subject to concentrate on, trading cards and the one specifically Washington Baseball. This blog free ranges over the entire blogiverse and it's unlimited subjects. Except for rude and crude content that isn't allowed on family friendly Internet sites. I don't want to make my blog ugly and be forced to change my settings to not allowing any comments on any post because it attracts all the sickos, scammers and hackers.

So the thought of "thowin' in the old towel" o blogging did pass my wacky brain. Only due to the commitment it requires. I think I like blogging too much to ever really stop doing it. I considered putting it on hold for a while, but the damn OCD part of my psyche? of me that loves my personal self-regulated posting quota would not allow me to do that. I like seeing at least one post for each month in my post archives.

It was like when I collected comics I would prefer to collect the entire run of a series. The blocks of missing issues stuck out like a sore thumb and bothered me. If the missing issue was the finale of some huge storyline well that would take the cake. Of course if you got into a comic that had been around for years then a full run is very unlikely as back issues tend to get difficult to find after a few years. The Internet has made it easier, but can get very expensive depending on the title and hot issues. I have many comics that part of me wants to sell for top dollar, the nostalgic part of me wants to keep it for such-and-such a reason. The sensible part of me says go ahead and get rid of them any way ya can, it saves space and is one less mess for your family to sort through after you have left this mortal coil. The PFC in me (Procrastinator First Class) of course has won out and for many things I have stalled or just haven't done anything with. Big le Sigh.

The point of this post? To get my personal "at least one post a month" quota accomplished. To rant and rave like a lunatic and to stick it to da Man. Or maybe just blab and jabber jaw and yadda yadda and of course Yadda.

Rant Or Misheard Lyrics?

When I first thought of what I was going to blog about this month I had a couple of ideas that I kept forgetting what it was I was going to write. So I thought about doing a mid-year update on my self appointed posting quota. That would be depressing because as usual I've been procrastinating and will most likely yet again barely crank out the bare minimum of one a month possibly a little more. I don't mind too much since I am making the low minimum. Sort of like when you are only making minimum wage and still living at home with Mum and Dad.

I also thought about doing a rant about some current political event or personality, but I don't like controversy on my blog. I also don't want to have to delete all the comments it would attract, or the spam I'd have to report and then delete.

Then I remembered some more lyrics I had misheard over the years. So:

I recalled that for one of my previous "Misheard Lyrics" posts, I had forgotten to include one of the lines I used to mishear.

Once again it was from The Bangles "Walk Like An Egyptian".

What I thought the line was:

The phone waitresses take their trays,

They spin around and they cross the floor.

The real line is:
The blond waitresses take their trays,
They spin around and they cross the floor.

Another song that I had misheard some lyrics to, has recently been getting more radio airplay due to a recent cover of it. Well the cover has been getting a lot of airplay, and also the original. The Song is "Africa" originally written and recorded by the band TOTO from their Toto IV album.

Toto IV 1982

This year Africa was covered by the band Weezer and is a very faithful cover.

The part of the song that I had misheard for many years was part of the chorus.

What I thought it said:
I Guess it rains down in Africa

The Real Lyrics:
I Bless the rains down in Africa

So um Yeah. That is it for now.

List It, List It Now

Fairly recently (I do start things off with "recently" a whole heck of a lot around here.) I felt the need to make a "to do" list for stuff I needed to get done preferably before or during the weekend. It reminded me of a few things first it reminded me of some 20 years ago when Palm Pilots (Electronic Personal Organizers also known as PDAs Personal Data Assistant) were all the rage before smart phones and tablets (iPads) took over. It also reminded me of a catchy 1980s Girl Group song*.

In the mid 1990s the first PDA I got was a Palm Pilot II that I bought used from a co-worker, friend, acquaintance for 60 bucks. I think he had gotten it from someone else and already had an updated model or was going to get an update. They were selling for easily $200 at the time. For those who remember those things the PPII had a simple liquid crystal display that was simply black text on a green or light aqua background. A big selling point for them, besides being an electronic notepad, was the ability to make to-do lists, make schedules and don't forget play simple games like solitaire. As they advanced they could recognized handwriting and change it to a printed font.

I recall one time having to send my PP in for repairs, I forget what it's problem was. I may have dropped it and it stopped working. If I recall correctly the repairs could only be done through the manufacturer. You had to go online or call them (I might have done it that way) to have them ship you a special padded shipping box that you then returned to the repair factory and waited however many weeks (2 or 3?) it took to repair the thing. Usually the "fix" was a factory reset. I forget the exact cost but it was something like $120 or $150 almost the cost of a brand new one. Then a couple of years later it had some other problem and died for good. So I got an updated model that had a color screen a Palm Pilot V (or maybe that I look at more pics the M130?). I don't recall how much I paid for that one or where I even got it. I'm not sure how long it lasted and yet again forget what finally did it in or what happened to it. I recall once losing the stylus for it and at one time getting a pack of 4 or 5 stylus in case of losing the stylus. OH I also had gotten a sim card with some games on it and I think another chip card with advanced word processing something or other on it. I barely remember having to put the chip in and pulling it out.

I'm not even sure if I still have either one of the PDAs anymore. The first one I had gotten a padded case for since I think dropping that first one might have been what I had to send it to the repair shop for. The case of course then didn't fit the updated model. I never bothered getting a case for that one. I think I dropped it plenty of times also. I also recall when all was said and the PDAs were dead I missed having my calendar. I had a pretty tight schedule then, was pretty stressed out maybe because of doing all that keeping track of what I needed to do at that time.

Forward a few years to my 2nd (or 3rd?) cell phone that was my first "smart phone" I recall I used to occasionally use some kind of text editing app/program that could link to the Internet with. OH yeah the Palm Pilots used to be able to sync to your computer which I did once or twice, but eventually the computer it was on died and I never synced the thing again. When I was going to the PP died. I forget what this notepad, memo maker program was called. For my second smart phone (3rd or 4th cell phone) I think I tried to add that same memo thing but only used it once. Now I can't remember what the thing was but know the design of the user field looked like a yellow legal pad. I'm sure if I saw the name or a screengrab of the program I would recognize it.

Hmm it was similar to "Write Now" but was not it. For some reason I have the thought the name has an "A" in it or has "Notes" or "Pad" in the name. I was a simple type in the stuff, not one of these fancy recognize handwriting (like Palm Pilots attempted to do) app things.

AHA! Found it INKPAD Notepad. That seems to be what it was.  I didn't think I would be able to sign-in because I wasn't sure what account I had used or which of my standard passwords I used.Wow I was able to sign-in using my Google/Gmail account. The same account blogger uses. I signed out of the Inkpad thing and blogger kept asking me about my signing in at a different location and if I want to sign in again. When I did it started a new session. I have 4 or 5 notes/memos there 2 or 3 of which I could probably get rid of. One of the notes is a Stuff to get list that I would update when I went grocery shopping or needed to replace something in my wardrobe (worn out pants or shirts etc...)

It was indeed old because I had listed needing to get a second shower curtain. A few years back I had to replace an old dingy shower curtain that had pulled from a few rings. So I got a replacement and a few weeks later got a second curtain to have one on each side of the tub. I kept forgetting whether it is better to have the curtain outside the tub or inside. To keep water from spraying the rest of your bathroom or flooding the floor you place it inside the tub, when not in use and to make things look nice you keep it outside the tub. The dual shower curtain thing you don't have to worry about that just double the curtains up on the rings. It makes hanging them more of a chore but not too difficult.

*Part of the inspiration for this post was The Go-Go's song "Girl of 100 Lists" from the album Vacation.

The title of this post may have lead some to believe I was going to talk about some selling or auction site that is Ebay like with the "List it". On the other hand the second part "List It Now" seems to hint at something like Devo's smash hit "Whip It" even though the lyrics in the song were "Whip It Good" not "Now". As you may have noticed neither subject was breached with this post. I didn't mean to mislead anyone I just wanted a post title that sounded good.

The Palm Pilot images I grabbed from a Google Image search.

NCIS: So Long Abby

Bye Bye Abby Bye Bye Bye

Note: This post began drafting a few weeks ago so by the time it posts the season will have been completed. It was started after NCIS episode 15.21 aired on Tuesday 01 May 2018 was almost finished before the airing of the next episode on 08 May. However, I still wanted to add some specific Abby pics if I could find them or something similar. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but I found some I liked. I could have gone nuts and put up dozens of pics, but I didn't want to do that.

One of my fave television shows NCIS is nearing the end of it's 15th Season, and seems to be killing off a fan fave character of many fans and personally of me Abby Sciuto brilliantly played by Pauley Perrette. A month or two ago it was announced first by the actor via Twitter and then later confirmed by the production company that she would be leaving the show at the end of this Fifteenth Season. Her last episode is number 22 of a 24 episode season. The news made me sad. I am saddened further  that it appears her character is being killed off. After the shocking conclusion to her next to last episode 15.21 One Step Forward and seeing the scenes for her upcoming final episode  15.22 Two Steps Back a realization hit me with the show.

With the exception of the character Alex Quinn played by Jennifer Esposito when a main female cast member has left the series her character is killed off. While main male characters usually survive. There have been some reoccurring supporting male characters that have died, but to the best of my knowledge not main characters.

From a blogging point of view NCIS seems to be a popular subject here on my Knook blog. I'm wondering if this post will join them some day. Five of the ten most popular posts of this blog feature NCIS of those five two of them feature Cote de Pablo who played Ziva David.

Cote left the series at the beginning of season 10 she was in the first two episodes. Then at the end of season 13 when Tony DiNozzo (Micheal Weatherly) was leaving Ziva was killed off screen.

Many fans (not me) had a character shipping fantasy of Tony and Ziva they called it "Tiva". I don't subscribe to the shipping part of fandom. For me that type of fantasizing ruins series. The series confirmed the Tiva relation"ship" with the introduction of Ziva and Tony's daughter whom Tony didn't know about because Ziva was concerned for her safety. Tony was awarded custody of her because of Ziva's death in his last episode.

UPDATE; OH Good she doesn't die. The promos only made it look that way sneaky network and production execs. Abby was too much of a fan fave for them to senselessly kill her. The backlash would have been horrible. She wasn't killed off but the producers shocked fans further by killing of Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry) the MI-6 agent who joined the main team about 2 seasons ago. I didn't see that one coming. I don't recall hearing about Duane's contract ending. I didn't hear any updates from entertainment sources about other departures for the show. To the best of my knowledge the show has been renewed for a 16th season. I think that was done a year or two ago. The last renewal I think was for two years.

I am so glad they handled things the way they did. Except for killing off another character that is. In the story line Abby makes a promise to carry out Clayton's wish to start a charity in his mother's name for homeless female vets who are single mothers and their children. It is just the sweet kind type of thing Abby would do. Abby was a bit of a conundrum a sweet peace loving all caring individual who is a forensic scientist for a government military crime investigative service. A soft personality who would have difficulty being a field agent.

Of course the episode has some television magic healing. Abby was shot in the chest, near death, in a coma for at least 2 days and by the next day she is running around with just a scarf acting as a sling. What should one expect from a series where traveling from DC to Norfolk, VA takes just a few minutes not the reality 3 hours it actually takes.

Rock The Red To The Cup

ROCK THE RED: Going to the Cup!

Wednesday 23 May 2018 a night of Washington Hockey History. The Washington Capitals defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 winning GAME 7. They go on to the Stanley Cup Finals to face the new kids on the block the Las Vegas Golden Knights for the right to raise THE CUP.

Well the excitement has begun. Monday 28 May 2018 Memorial Day The Caps faced off against the Golden Knights for only the third time in the one season short history of team Vegas. During the regular season the Caps lost both games. Unfortunately they have also lost 4-6 in Vegas Game 1 of the Cup Final Series. The game did make it's own NHL history by being the first Final Game to have 4 Leader changes during the game. The game was tied through out most of the game whenever one team would score the other would score a few minutes later. In that way it was frustrating because the Caps were only in the lead for a little over 3 minutes 2-1 in the first period. Then in the 3rd they were briefly up 4-3 for about 2.5 minutes til the Golden Knights tied it up 4-4 and then took the lead 7 minutes later. They scored the final coffin nail with only 2 seconds left in the game to an empty net. One of the reasons I dislike the open net strategy. The concept is fairly solid with about 2 minutes left to play you pull your goalkeeper out and put in an extra man so you have six players capable of scoring a goal. Unfortunately, like it did in this game, it often backfires and the leading team manages to breakaway from the action at their side of the rink and toss in an unobstructed unmanned net goal.

Another sad factor is that most times the team that scores first in game 1, as did the Golden Knights, ends up winning the game, as the Knights did. Also the team that wins game 1 that would be Vegas ends up winning the series. So far no indication which team will win it all. Anyway no matter which team wins the series it will be that team's first Cup

Rock The Red

The Washington Capitals in their 44 years of existence have gone to the playoffs at least 75% of the time. 29 of 44 seasons. For the last 20 or so they have been almost every year. Most post-seasons they do the old "one and done" losing in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers, or New York Rangers, Boston Bruins or the dreaded Pittsburgh Penguins who have squashed them 9 out of 10 times.

Occasionally like this year the Caps have advanced to round two like they have done this year. They beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in 6 games. Usually they go the full 7 games and lose in round one. When they do go on to Round 2 again they usually lose in game 7. It seems like it is always at home as well, but not always. So they are always the Bridesmaids NEVER the Bride so to speak.

For both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons the Caps won the "President's Trophy" which is presented to the league's team that finished the regular season with the best record most "points". These are not the highest scores as in goals but rather the points for games won that are used to determine a team's position in the standings. When a team wins a game they get 2 points,  if they outright lose they don't get any points. If a game ties and goes into overtime they get 1 point for going to overtime and then another point for an overtime win. This season 2017-18 they didn't win the President's Trophy. That is a good thing. Having the best record does not guarantee going to the Stanley Cup finals.

As of the writing of this post the Caps are in Round 2 vs. The Penguins. The series is tied 2-2. The Winner of Round 2 will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Championship Final.

Update For Game 5:
Saturday 05 May is game 5. The Caps won game 5 and lead the series 3-2. Game 6 is coming up tonight.

Update Game 6:
Monday 07 May.
The game has gone into Overtime it is tied 1-1. WOW Alex Ovechkin at center ice retrieves the puck and passes to Evgeny Kuznetsov who swoops toward the goal, he shoots and SCORES the Game Winning SERIES WINNING Goal.

The CAPS Move on. Next up The Eastern Conference Finals vs The Tampa Bay Lightning. On the plus side the Caps overall in regular season are 80-49-6 vs the Lightning (61.5%), however they are 2-8 vs Lightning in the playoffs. That is the negative side they are 2-8 (20%) vs Lightning in playoffs.

From last year the Caps made a cute video "All Caps No Pens" starring their mascot Slapshot the Eagle.

Blogging In Spurts And Drips

For me blogging has always come in spurts and drips mostly drips. Sometimes I have so much inspiration to get stuff recorded on pen and paper, er typed out into the Either nets. I make several posts and line them up in the scheduling queue. Other times it just slowly drips and I have to scramble at the end of the month to come up with some sort of post for my self appointed and regulated monthly posting quota minimum. Which is 20 posts short of my yearly quota.

At the end of April this year I had one of those posting spurts, at least on over at my regular trading card blog. That blog will have 2 posts for April and so far at least 3 posts for May. Here on this regular blog I once again only posted my minimum one post for the month drip. That post I started drafting in the early part of the month and was ready to post about 4 or 5 days before its posting date on 30 April 2018 which is today as I start to draft this post.

I have noticed that it is easier for me to post about my trading card hobby (or maybe it is an obsession) than it is to post general stuff here on this my regular blog. Part of it is I am more interested in writing about my hobby than I am random mundane things of life.

Of my three blogs my regular trading card blog "CaptKirk42's Trading Card blog" is the easiest to make posts for then my Washington Baseball "Curly W Cards" blog then this one the most difficult.

Doing regular features on a specific subject does help build the quota. I have had a few regular features on this blog: Fryday Fourtoon, Myka Monday, Year in Review (State of the Blog recaps), Warehouse 13 Wednesday, Book Review (was "Recent Read") I have also frequently mentioned times my name has been misspelled but it isn't a regular feature just a reoccurring subject.

Well now that I have that written down time to post this puppy. That is schedule this post for publishing Tomorrow to get in early for the May Posting.

Misheard Lyrics: Voices Carry

I have done a post like this before about misheard lyrics. Well I have another misheard lyrics memory. I should have mentioned it in the other post but didn't think about it at the time. This gives me a post for the month if I can't think of anything else.

The song for this post is Voices Carry from the album of the same name recorded by 'Til Tuesday. The lead singer Aimee Mann has a soft and very pleasant voice.

The real lyrics are:
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry

What I thought was being sung:
Hush hush, even downtown, voices carry

Those words might sound logical, but later at the end of the song the line "He said shut up, he said shut up" talking about downtown makes no sense whatsoever.

On a totally different note, I didn't realize til  I searched and then downloaded the image how Aimee Mann on the album cover looks a lot like Kate McKinnon from Saturday Night Live, or rather how Kate looks like Aimee did. It isn't exact but close enough that when I Googled to try to find some comparison pictures I came across a reddit discussion from about a year ago that makes makes the comparison of Kate to Aimee (from 30 years ago). Upon further exploring there are times when Kate looks more like Jenny McCarthy Now wonder when I first saw Kate she looked familiar.

Misheard Lyrics: Bangles Walk Like An Egyptian

We have all done it, mankind has done it since he started putting vocals to music. I am talking the musical version of "the telephone game". You know where something is said but you hear something completely different and believe what you heard is the right line. A mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase or song lyrics is called a Mondegreen. There are at least two websites devoted to this sort of thing as it applies to song lyrics: Am I Right? and KissThisGuy Can you believe all the people who used to think (and some still do) that Jimi Hendrix sang the line "Excuse me while I kiss this guy"?

One of the songs that it took me a while to get the right words for was Elton John's "Bennie & The Jets". NO I didn't think that "electric boots" were "electric boobs" like so many did. I was too young to know what a mohair suit was but understood that line.  For me it was the line "Oh Bennie she's really keen" at first I couldn't figure out the "really keen" part and thought it was "Oh Bennie she's a rent-a-Queen" or "Bennie she's a real queen.". Which is a little closer. Oh maybe I should be a writer for "Don't Forget The Lyrics!"

Now as for the song I intended this thread to be about. For as long as the song has been around there were some lyrics that I never quite heard correctly. Even seeing the real lyrics and trying to listen for them it is hard for me to hear the real lyrics. The song I am talking about as recorded by The Bangles from their Album Different Light is Walk Like An Egyptian.

The Bangles: Different Light copyright The Bangles and Columbia Records.

To start things off the opening line:
I used to think the second line was "They do the SAME dance don't you know"

The real line is:
"All the old paintings on the tombs,
They do the sand dance don't you know"

Screen capture from official "Walk Like an Egyptian" video.

Here is the more difficult verse/lines:
Most of the line was unintelligible to me something like "slight bit a street and your back, shift then you call a cop (also sounds like call a cock), Let the Sargent know (oh whey oh), they strike a pose on a Cadillac".

Now the real verse is:
"Slide your feet up the street bend your back,
Shift your arm then you pull it back,
Life is hard you know (oh whey oh),
So strike a pose on a Cadillac.

If you want to find all the cops,
They're hanging out in the donut shop."

Screen capture from official "Walk Like an Egyptian" video.

OK so excuse me NO I will not kiss this guy, I don't play for that side of the field.
Now my favorite misheard song lyrics- "Don't hold on tonight, It's bound to take your life, There's a bathroom on the right."

Update: Ebay Oops Sort Of

EBAY Oops Sort Of: An Update

Well I got a bit of a surprise on this almost mistake. A while back try late April last year (2017) I made a bid on Ebay for an autographed Wes Unseld Basketball trading card that was coming from China! I originally had missed that part. When I did notice it upon seeing the "item has been shipped" notice I started to get concerned. What with all the counterfeit cards that come out of Asia, and the various shipping problems people have had with stuff coming from overseas yadda, yadda, yadda I thought I would have to chalk this one off as a loss.

Just as sometime between late September to late December of 2016 when I had two packages that I suspect were snatched from my apartment's front door step. I thought that this would never arrive. Of the two missing packages from 2016 one I know for a fact was actually delivered because I was given a tracking number and after a few days I checked on a Thursday to check on the status of the package and it said the package had been delivered to the unit on that Monday. That one stinks because it was a full Score 1989 Baseball set. The other package was supposed to be 600 Nationals cards from a trade never got a tracking number but it sounded like it was shipped around the time I had shipped out my end of other teams for them. But I digress.

I started the tale of these cards back in April on this my regular blog because I needed to post something that month here for my minimal personal posting quota of one post per month. It so happened that this drama that ended up being non-drama and nothing to worry about was what was going on in my life at that particular moment.

Anyway since this is a card related story it is posted Here on: CaptKirk42's Trading Cards Blog. OK so the story was explained mostly here on my regular blog, but the bigger pictures of the card is on the card blog.

State Of The Blog: 2017 Recap

STATE OF THE BLOG

2017 Edition

2017 Joins last year and the year before in the growing number of Republican Red years in my annual State of The Blog tally. 

Here are the monthlies from 2017:

January: 1
February: 1
March: 1
April: 1
May: 1
June: 1
July: 3
August: 1
September: 1
October: 1
November: 2
December: 1

TOTAL: 16
Monthly Average: 1.33

Yet again this past year I FAILED my yearly goal of 32 posts per year. That is three years in a row.
Now lets look at how the 2017 blogging matches up with past years:

2006 - 32
2007 - 43
2008 - 36
2009 - 34
2010 - 18
2011 - 20
2012 - 38
2013 - 93
2014 - 57
2015 - 24
2016 - 29
2017 - 16
Yearly Average: 36.66

Sigh - The LOWEST year to date. I am barely keeping up with my bare bones minimum of one post per month. If the current trend keeps though even that will get more and more difficult to achieve. My first year of blogging 2006 met and set my self-appointed blogging quota of 32 posts per year. My all-time high was in 2013 with 93 posts. That was in part due to some semi-regular post series FryDay Fourtoon and Myka Monday. I somehow managed to keep up with posting and had more motivation to blog that year. I need to recapture that motivation. At one point I felt that I was going to reach 100 posts that year. Some year maybe.