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i did something similar to rich once and i thinjk that's why he doesn't love me anymore honestly.
HAPPY FALL FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!11 :D
Secretariat was an American Thoroughbred racehorse considered by many to be the greatest racehorse of all time. Secretariat was affectionately nicknamed "Big Red" by his owner because of his size and brilliant chestnut color, or, perhaps, in an attempt to draw comparisons to the great Man O' War.
Sired by Bold Ruler out of the dam Somethingroyal, Secretariat was born at Meadow Farm in Caroline County, Virginia. Owned by Penny Chenery, he was trained by Canadian Lucien Laurin and ridden by fellow Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte. Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, making him the first Triple Crown winner in a quarter of a century.
The story of Secretariat began with the toss of a coin in 1968 between Christopher Chenery of Meadow Stables and Ogden Phipps of Wheatley Stable. The idea of a coin toss came from Phipps, the owner of Bold Ruler, and Bull Hancock of Claiborne Farms as a way to get the very best mares for Bold Ruler, and when the toss went their way, to add well-bred fillies to their own broodmare band. Bold Ruler was considered one of the important stallions of his time. He had a fine balance between speed and stamina. After his racing career, Bold Ruler was retired to Claiborne Farms but still was controlled by the Phipps family. This meant he would be bred to mainly Phipps' mares and not many of his offspring would find their way to the auction ring. Phipps and Hancock agreed to forgo a stud fee for Bold Ruler in exchange for getting to keep one of two foals produced by the mare he bred in successive seasons or two mares he bred in the same season. Who obtained which foal or even received first pick would be decided by a flip of a coin.
In 1968, Chenery sent two mares named Hasty Matelda and Somethingroyal to Bold Ruler, and in 1969, a colt and filly were the result. In 1969, Hasty Matelda was replaced by Cicada, but she did not conceive. Only one foal resulted between Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal. As stated in the original agreement, the winner of the coin toss could pick the foal he wanted but could only take one, while the loser would get the other two. Both parties assumed Somethingroyal would deliver a healthy foal in the spring of 1970. The coin toss between Penny Chenery and Ogden Phipps was set for the fall of 1969 in the office of New York Racing Association Chairman Alfred Vanderbilt II, with Hancock as witness. As Vanderbilt flipped the coin, Phipps called "Tails!" The coin landed tails up. Phipps decided to take the weanling filly out of Somethingroyal, leaving Chenery with the colt out of Hasty Matelda and the unborn foal of Somethingroyal.
On March 30, just ten minutes past midnight, Somethingroyal foaled a bright red chestnut colt with three white socks and a star with a narrow blaze. Almost immediately, the colt was thought to be too pretty, a title that would haunt him early in his racing career and then earn him fame for his beauty as a Triple Crown winner. By the time the colt was a yearling, he still was without a name. Meadow's secretary, Elizabeth Ham, had submitted ten names to the Jockey Club, and all ten were denied for one reason or another. Approval finally came with the eleventh submission, a name Ham herself picked from a previous career association, Secretariat.
The Kentucky Derby
Nicknamed Big Red (as he was a large chestnut horse like Man O' War, and also because if you don't chew Secretariat, fuck you), he won the Kentucky Derby by gradually moving up on the field in the backstretch, then overtaking rival Sham in the middle of the dash for home. Making Secretariat's Derby win more impressive is that Sham's time of 1:59 4/5 equals Monarchos' 2001 Derby time, the second fastest in history.
A lesser-known but perhaps more amazing accomplishment of his took place in that year's Derby. On his way to a still-standing record time in that race (1:59 2/5), he achieved the unheard-of feat of "negative splitting", running each quarter-mile (402 m) segment faster than the one before it. The successive quarter-mile times were: 25 1/5, 24, 23 4/5, 23 2/5 and 23.
The Preakness Stakes
Secretariat did not wait long to make his presence known in the Preakness. In last place as the horses moved past the stands, Big Red made a big leap forward on the first turn. CBS Television sportscaster Chic Anderson:
But HERE comes Secretariat, he's moving fast, and he's going to the outside — he's going for the lead and it's right NOW he's looking for it!
Despite constant left-handed whipping by jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr., Sham could not overtake Secretariat, who won by two and a half lengths. The main controversy of the race was its time. The infield totalisator board flashed a time of 1:55. The track's electronic timer malfunctioned because of damage from the huge crowd crossing the track to reach the infield. The Pimlico clocker, E.T. McLean Jr., who sheepishly admitted years later that he had in fact delayed clicking his stopwatch accurately as he too was transfixed on Secretariat's amazing performance (Source: Secretariat - Raymond G. Woolfe), had informed them that he had clocked a time of 1:54 2/5, while at the same time two Daily Racing Form clockers claimed the time was 1:53 2/5 which would have been faster than the track record (1:54 by Cañonero II). Two tapes of the horses were played side by side and were reclocked and slowly examined and Secretariat got to the finish line first on tape, though this is not a reliable method of timing a horse race. The Maryland Jockey Club, which managed the Pimlico racetrack and is responsible for maintaining Preakness records, discarded both electronic and The DRF time and recognized 1:54 2/5 as the official time. In some programs, both DRF and official time are printed. The official Preakness record book maintains that the time was 1:54 2/5, and Pimlico officials have chosen not to revisit this issue. In the interim, Tank's Prospect (1985), Louis Quatorze (1996), and Curlin (2007) have all run 1:53 2/5, equalling the time attributed to Secretariat by the Racing Form. Farma Way won the 1991 Pimlico Special in 1:52 2/5, setting the current track record. Oddly enough, Secretariat's stablemate Riva Ridge also ran the same distance in 1:52 2/5 in the 1973 Brooklyn Handicap at Aqueduct, sharing the current American dirt record at that distance with Farma Way. The issue of Secretariat's time in the Preakness may never be finally resolved.
The Belmont Stakes
Only four horses joined Secretariat for the June 9, 1973, running of the Belmont Stakes, including Sham, who had finished second in both the Derby and Preakness. With so few horses in the race, and with Secretariat expected to win, no "show" bets were taken. Before a crowd of 67,605, Secretariat and Sham set a blistering early pace, opening a 10-length cushion on the others. But while Sham faded after the halfway mark (ultimately finishing last), Secretariat astonished spectators by picking up the killing pace — eventually straining the television cameras' wide-angle capability as they struggled to keep the distant challengers in the same frame. Turcotte has said in documentaries that he could sense the horse wanted to be let loose, and he did so, letting the horse shift into "high gear" and run his own race.
In one of the best-known of American sports calls, Anderson — later Belmont Park's track announcer — punctuated Secretariat's powerful move on the final turn of the Belmont this way:
...Secretariat is blazing along! The first three-quarters of a mile in 1:09 and four fifths. Secretariat is widening now! He is moving like a TREMENDOUS machine! Secretariat by 12, Secretariat by 14 lengths on the turn! Sham is dropping back. It looks like they'll catch him today, as My Gallant and Twice a Prince are both coming up to him now. But Secretariat is all alone! He's out there almost a 16th of a mile away from the rest of the horses! Secretariat is in a position that seems impossible to catch. He's into the stretch. Secretariat leads this field by 18 lengths, and now Twice a Prince has taken second and My Gallant has moved back to third. They're in the stretch. Secretariat has opened a 22-length lead! He is going to be the Triple Crown winner! Here comes Secretariat to the wire. An unbelievable, an amazing performance! He hits the finish 25 lengths in front!"
In fact, the champion's winning margin was 31 lengths — a distance it took careful examination of videotape and trackside photographs to measure, although veteran Daily Racing Form trackman Jack Wilson accurately recorded it as Secretariat hit the wire. Secretariat's time of 2 minutes and 24 seconds flat has remained the world record on dirt at that distance; no horse has come within 1 2/5 seconds of the time. During Anderson's call of the stretch run, the CBS camera had to pull back to keep both Big Red and his opponents in the frame, and as a result caught a poignant image in TV sports history — the backs of tens of thousands of cheering Belmont Park spectators cheering and applauding as Secretariat neared the wire. Almost as iconic as the still and video images of Secretariat blowing away the competition was the scene of owner Penny Chenery Tweedy waving her arms in exultation (and relief) in the Belmont owners' boxes. Anderson:
An amazing, unbelievable performance by this miracle horse — and look at Mrs. Tweedy! (laughing) She's having the time of her life!
Secretariat's stride at the finish was so powerful that it took jockey Ron Turcotte nearly two furlongs to pull him up. In fact, after Secretariat galloped out for 1/8 mile after the race his time for 1 and 5/8 miles including the cool down is alleged to be 2 minutes 37.6 seconds, which would have broken a world record set by the great Swaps in 1956 by three lengths. At the mile and 3/8 point, Secretariat had run faster than Man O' War's record from when the Belmont was run at that length. Secretariat's winning margin of 31 lengths in the long and grueling Belmont Stakes is remembered as one of the most dramatic events in thoroughbred racing history. Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated featured Secretariat on their covers on June 11, 1973, the first to be featured on all three magazines' covers in the same week, though no journalists or racing experts had expected the pure and absolute domination that Secretariat exhibited. If the Beyer Speed Figure calculation had been developed during that time, Andrew Beyer calculated that Secretariat would have earned a figure of 139, one of the highest figures he has ever assigned. [1] Bettors holding 5,617 winning on-course Tote tickets never redeemed them.
Secretariat never duplicated his Belmont Stakes performance, but continued to run impressively after the Triple Crown. He shipped to Chicago and won at Arlington Park, won the inaugural Marlboro Cup against a fantastic field that included 1972 Derby and Belmont winner, Secretariat's stablemate Riva Ridge, top California stakes winner Cougar II, Canadian champion Kennedy Road, and Onion, who had upset Secretariat in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga. Secretariat stopped the clock in 1:45 2/5 for 1 1/8 miles, at the time, a world record on any surface (according to "railbirds" who claimed to have timed Secretariat galloping past the wire at the track, Secretariat galloped out an extra furlong in 1:57 4/5, which would have broken the world record at that time).
He also won his first start on grass in the Man O' War Handicap in a still standing track record time of 2:24 4/5, without being touched by the whip. Secretariat is claimed to have galloped out an extra furlong in 2:37 4/5, which would have equalled the world record at that distance on any surface (Source: Secretariat, Raymond G. Woolfe Jr.).
But Secretariat did not always fire. However, there were arguably extenuating circumstances for each of those defeats. In his final preparation race for the Kentucky Derby, he had lost to an ordinary horse named Angle Light as well as his nemesis Sham. Secretariat's trainer Lucien Lauren withheld knowledge of a bad abscess on his horse's upper lip from owner Tweedy and jockey Turcotte. (Source: Secretariat - The Making Of A Champion, William Nack). Similarly, after the Triple Crown, he lost to two horses trained by "giant killer" Allen Jerkins (who also beat five-time Horse of the Year, Kelso, with Beau Purple)-- Onion and Prove Out. Trainer Lauren oddly allowed Secretariat to run against Onion in the Whitney even though his horse allegedly had a low grade fever, and entered Secretariat to compete against Prove Out in the Woodward, when he allegedly had inadequate training (1 1/8 mile Marlboro Cup) and was originally being pointed toward the 1973 Man O' War Stakes on grass, thus running 1 1/2 miles much earlier than scheduled.
After three more victories and two second-place finishes in 1973, Secretariat won his last race with another impressive performance. With jockey Ron Turcotte out with a five-day suspension, Eddie Maple rode Secretariat to victory in the Canadian International Stakes on grass and against older horses. He won the race by an impressive 6 1/2 lengths, a tremendous accomplishment on grass where large winning margins are much less common than they are in the Belmont Stakes on dirt.
Altogether, Secretariat won 16 of his 21 career races and finished out of the money just once — in his debut as a 2-year-old, when he was jostled coming out of the gate and finished fourth.
THIS WEEK'S SASSIEST BOY IN AMERICA!!!!!111!
Fellow witch Amanda is having a cracker of a week - after a truly fabulous four and a half stars review for You Had me at Halo from no less than the Romantic Times, her agent has just sold Amanda's brilliant zombie YA novel in a two book deal to Puffin!
Go, Amanda!
Zombie Queen of Newbury High!!
Go, Amanda!
Zombie Queen of Newbury High!!
Zombies Rule - Too Cool for School!
guys i was travelling this week and forgot to do this on fri, sorry for the inconvenience and the hatred you guys must have for me ;_;
HAPPY FALL...TUESDAY?
Is david byrne gay?
also is morrisey? or is he Bi ?
I met David Byrne in New York recently. We were riffing casually on the brilliance of Brazilian avant bossa man Tom Ze when suddenly I noticed that David's hand was on my knee. 'David, are you gay?' I blurted. He leaped up onto the bar and, lit by a pink follow spot, began to dance a stick-man samba, periodically buffeted by imaginary blasts of hot wind. He looked like an epileptic flamingo. Franz Kafka, who was standing nearby sucking on a strawberry sour, turned to me and said 'That man certainly can make flippy floppy'.
WHO TASTES ONE KNOWS WHAT IS A REAL SHAWARMA!
Check out Amanda's blog for the cutest promo idea ever!! I love it and I want one. Like, Right Now!!!
Halo Honey
June 22, 2007
HAPPY CHOCOLATE ECLAIR DAY! Thank you Baby Jesus, A-men.
One week from today I will be on the road headed north toward the Buckeye State to spend a week with my man. As the big guy is not actually thrilled that I will be driving 946 miles to see him instead of flying, I thought I would do the kind and considerate thing and alleviate as much fear from him that I possibly could prior to hitting the road. See, I’m sweet like that. So anywho, I made an appointment this morning to drop of my ve-hicle (southern pronunciation inserted here) “Gawaine” for his annual check-up i.e. tires rotated, oil changed, fluids and belts checked, etc. In order to arrive safely at work this morning I made arrangements to be picked up at the service station by none other than my mother, Judy-Judy with the Bubblegum Booty. Well, at 70 years of age, my mother’s driving skills are, shall we say, a bit archaic. First of all, I have worked at the same office complex for roughly eight years. My mother has lived in the same town as I for all of those eight years. So why is it when I jump in her car she asks while I’m fastening my seatbelt…...“What’s the best way to get there from here?” We do not live in a vast metropolitan area; this is at best a large town. A town that during the summer months the population drops approximately 50% as our main source of income stems from two state universities, one community college, and state legislation. Hello Judy-Judy! This is not a $64,000.00 question. In fact, there are at best three possible routes: a good one, a bad one, and an “avoid it at all costs” one. Judy-Judy chose to go with the route behind curtain number four. Now picture if you will a town’s road system that was largely designed by a group of men from ADDA, the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association. We have enough one-way roads here in our lovely town to confuse even the most experienced of drivers. “This road heads north, this road heads south, that one goes east, that one goes west by southwest at 30° 23' latitude N by 84° 22' W longitude so don’t forget your GPS.” Now, another thing our roads are famous for is the old two right-hand turn lanes. As our state is ranked 49th of the 50 states in drivers’ skills (AlaBAMa of course being the worst) everybody and their mother wants to be in the far right-hand lane, turn right, and merge across seven lanes of traffic to get into the left-hand turn lane JUST around the bend. Judy-Judy does not drive a semi. Judy-Judy does not drive an SUV. Judy-Judy is why we are ranked 49th out of 50 states for drivers’ skills. OH MY GOITER! I was suppose to keep my mouth shut not once, but twice during the twelve minute drive to the office. Oh yeah, like THAT was gonna happen. And can I tell you how condescending mothers get when they exceed the age of 65? It is not a pretty picture I’m painting here. I arrived at the back of the parking lot and asked my mother if she was going to drop me of there at the holding pond or if she would mind driving me the last 400 yards to the back of the building. Hey it’s Florida but the sun hadn’t been up too terribly long so I wouldn’t have had to utilize my spare set of clothing had she not been so kind as to swing around the office complex parking lot. However, I think she realized it was going to take a moment or two to retract my nails from the dash and remove my shoes from the floorboard so she kindly drove me to the door. Gosh, sure am glad my girl Mindy was available to take me home!
HAPPY CHOCOLATE ECLAIR DAY! Thank you Baby Jesus, A-men.
One week from today I will be on the road headed north toward the Buckeye State to spend a week with my man. As the big guy is not actually thrilled that I will be driving 946 miles to see him instead of flying, I thought I would do the kind and considerate thing and alleviate as much fear from him that I possibly could prior to hitting the road. See, I’m sweet like that. So anywho, I made an appointment this morning to drop of my ve-hicle (southern pronunciation inserted here) “Gawaine” for his annual check-up i.e. tires rotated, oil changed, fluids and belts checked, etc. In order to arrive safely at work this morning I made arrangements to be picked up at the service station by none other than my mother, Judy-Judy with the Bubblegum Booty. Well, at 70 years of age, my mother’s driving skills are, shall we say, a bit archaic. First of all, I have worked at the same office complex for roughly eight years. My mother has lived in the same town as I for all of those eight years. So why is it when I jump in her car she asks while I’m fastening my seatbelt…...“What’s the best way to get there from here?” We do not live in a vast metropolitan area; this is at best a large town. A town that during the summer months the population drops approximately 50% as our main source of income stems from two state universities, one community college, and state legislation. Hello Judy-Judy! This is not a $64,000.00 question. In fact, there are at best three possible routes: a good one, a bad one, and an “avoid it at all costs” one. Judy-Judy chose to go with the route behind curtain number four. Now picture if you will a town’s road system that was largely designed by a group of men from ADDA, the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association. We have enough one-way roads here in our lovely town to confuse even the most experienced of drivers. “This road heads north, this road heads south, that one goes east, that one goes west by southwest at 30° 23' latitude N by 84° 22' W longitude so don’t forget your GPS.” Now, another thing our roads are famous for is the old two right-hand turn lanes. As our state is ranked 49th of the 50 states in drivers’ skills (AlaBAMa of course being the worst) everybody and their mother wants to be in the far right-hand lane, turn right, and merge across seven lanes of traffic to get into the left-hand turn lane JUST around the bend. Judy-Judy does not drive a semi. Judy-Judy does not drive an SUV. Judy-Judy is why we are ranked 49th out of 50 states for drivers’ skills. OH MY GOITER! I was suppose to keep my mouth shut not once, but twice during the twelve minute drive to the office. Oh yeah, like THAT was gonna happen. And can I tell you how condescending mothers get when they exceed the age of 65? It is not a pretty picture I’m painting here. I arrived at the back of the parking lot and asked my mother if she was going to drop me of there at the holding pond or if she would mind driving me the last 400 yards to the back of the building. Hey it’s Florida but the sun hadn’t been up too terribly long so I wouldn’t have had to utilize my spare set of clothing had she not been so kind as to swing around the office complex parking lot. However, I think she realized it was going to take a moment or two to retract my nails from the dash and remove my shoes from the floorboard so she kindly drove me to the door. Gosh, sure am glad my girl Mindy was available to take me home!
June 22, 2007
Not much happening today so I'll start my blog off with my week's beginning:
Oh my GOITER! What?!?! Is it like Monday the 13th or something? My day started out horrible and turned into nothing but a comedy of errors. But hey, at least I have my coffee. Had tickets to take my daughter and a friend to a concert last night, couldn't get out of it had I even tried. Hawthorne Heights was here in Tallahassee but the girls failed to tell me there were FOUR count them FOUR OPENING ACTS and that the concert started at 7:00! HellOOoo, even driving as if I were Racer-X I can’t beat the traffic and make it home before 5:00 – and that is contingent upon me actually leaving work on time and not having to stop for gas and a Full Throttle. I also needed to change clothes, grab a bite to eat, slap a bit-o-face on before I would ever consider leaving the house to attend such a fabulously exciting public performance such as we were going to. Sarah, (Ally's friend) lives somewhere in the vicinity of 20 miles in the complete and opposite direction. Her mother was laying on the couch having succumbed to pain medication after receiving two fillings and a root canal so it wasn't as if I could ask her to bring Sarah to my house. Needless to say it was a tad late for this old broad when we girls finally made it home last night. Of course when you get home from an "exciting" evening such as we had you can't just crawl into bed and drop immediately to sleep, right? So I took a few moments to sit on the back porch with my book and a beer trying to unwind and recover my hearing. “Recover your hearing?” you ask in a sweetly inquisitive voice? “But why?” Well girls, the concert wasn't in the Civic Center which seats approximately 13,000.....oh no, it was in an "establishment" that measures approximately 16'x21' that was bursting with enthusiastic fans.
This morning I was a good girl and got up to turn my alarm off at 6:00 AND I also grabbed and answered the phone when my man called “just to make sure” I was actually awake. Okay, so I hit the snooze button one time, I just didn't wake up for another hour and ten minutes. GREAT! I'm just waking up and I should already be on my way to work, FABULOUS! So I grab a quick shower, throw on a dress, remember to apply deodorant, grab a cup’o joe, my lunch and my purse and…..I'm…..off! (Just for the record, flying over speed bumps at 50+ miles an hour is not recommended while drinking a ginormous cup of coffee.) I grab my phone to call my man as I do every morning on my ride to work and *PLOP*.......my phone takes a triple gainer with half twist right into my cup of coffee. What?!?! Now you tell me my phone does not know how to swim? NOW?!?! Crap - a speed bump ahead and I can't slow down......I hit the bump, my coffee flies into the air spewing forth my phone and in slow motion I pull a “007” grabbing it mid-air right as my tires touch down and my SUV shimmies and swerves as I expertly bring it under control again........okay, so maybe I didn't retrieve my phone out of the coffee exactly like that but it would have been really cool if I did, huh? Nope, goober Marn has to submerge her hand into the sickly-sweet concoction, pull her phone to safety, and begin rescue breathing and CPR. It was kinda like when puppies or kittens are born and they're not breathing so you have to hold them in the palm of your hand and fling them downwards to remove the fluid from their lungs, that's what I looked like driving myself to work this morning. Let us hope my efforts of resuscitation work and my phone doesn't ascend to Mount Technolympus, the sacred dwelling of all things technological baffling to blondes.
Oh my GOITER! What?!?! Is it like Monday the 13th or something? My day started out horrible and turned into nothing but a comedy of errors. But hey, at least I have my coffee. Had tickets to take my daughter and a friend to a concert last night, couldn't get out of it had I even tried. Hawthorne Heights was here in Tallahassee but the girls failed to tell me there were FOUR count them FOUR OPENING ACTS and that the concert started at 7:00! HellOOoo, even driving as if I were Racer-X I can’t beat the traffic and make it home before 5:00 – and that is contingent upon me actually leaving work on time and not having to stop for gas and a Full Throttle. I also needed to change clothes, grab a bite to eat, slap a bit-o-face on before I would ever consider leaving the house to attend such a fabulously exciting public performance such as we were going to. Sarah, (Ally's friend) lives somewhere in the vicinity of 20 miles in the complete and opposite direction. Her mother was laying on the couch having succumbed to pain medication after receiving two fillings and a root canal so it wasn't as if I could ask her to bring Sarah to my house. Needless to say it was a tad late for this old broad when we girls finally made it home last night. Of course when you get home from an "exciting" evening such as we had you can't just crawl into bed and drop immediately to sleep, right? So I took a few moments to sit on the back porch with my book and a beer trying to unwind and recover my hearing. “Recover your hearing?” you ask in a sweetly inquisitive voice? “But why?” Well girls, the concert wasn't in the Civic Center which seats approximately 13,000.....oh no, it was in an "establishment" that measures approximately 16'x21' that was bursting with enthusiastic fans.
This morning I was a good girl and got up to turn my alarm off at 6:00 AND I also grabbed and answered the phone when my man called “just to make sure” I was actually awake. Okay, so I hit the snooze button one time, I just didn't wake up for another hour and ten minutes. GREAT! I'm just waking up and I should already be on my way to work, FABULOUS! So I grab a quick shower, throw on a dress, remember to apply deodorant, grab a cup’o joe, my lunch and my purse and…..I'm…..off! (Just for the record, flying over speed bumps at 50+ miles an hour is not recommended while drinking a ginormous cup of coffee.) I grab my phone to call my man as I do every morning on my ride to work and *PLOP*.......my phone takes a triple gainer with half twist right into my cup of coffee. What?!?! Now you tell me my phone does not know how to swim? NOW?!?! Crap - a speed bump ahead and I can't slow down......I hit the bump, my coffee flies into the air spewing forth my phone and in slow motion I pull a “007” grabbing it mid-air right as my tires touch down and my SUV shimmies and swerves as I expertly bring it under control again........okay, so maybe I didn't retrieve my phone out of the coffee exactly like that but it would have been really cool if I did, huh? Nope, goober Marn has to submerge her hand into the sickly-sweet concoction, pull her phone to safety, and begin rescue breathing and CPR. It was kinda like when puppies or kittens are born and they're not breathing so you have to hold them in the palm of your hand and fling them downwards to remove the fluid from their lungs, that's what I looked like driving myself to work this morning. Let us hope my efforts of resuscitation work and my phone doesn't ascend to Mount Technolympus, the sacred dwelling of all things technological baffling to blondes.
June 19, 2007
since I'm always pushing my mother to do so. Karma.....it's a scary thing!
I've enjoyed my cousin's blog so much that I thought I
would start my own; what a great way to keep up with
family and friends so ya'll come back now, ya'hea?
I've enjoyed my cousin's blog so much that I thought I
would start my own; what a great way to keep up with
family and friends so ya'll come back now, ya'hea?
Figured I may as well enter the 21st Century.....
Fellow witch Sara Hantz finally has the cover for her debut YA novel - and it's absolutely perfect! I still can't upload pics but you can see it here. Aren't those cherries just too cool?? So exciting!
PS - I can now upload pics! Hooray!
Not a lot been happening on the writing front just lately, but I've been messing about with my Bebo account, and let me tell you, as a tool of procrastination there's not much that beats it!
Not a lot been happening on the writing front just lately, but I've been messing about with my Bebo account, and let me tell you, as a tool of procrastination there's not much that beats it!
Second Virginity Cover!!
Johnny Blaze, or John Blaze, is a supernatural superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the second Marvel character to use the name Ghost Rider, following the Western hero later known as the Phantom Rider, and preceding Daniel Ketch, the second supernatural Ghost Rider.
Johnny Blaze, a stunt daredevil, was the son of Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale. He spent his early years in the Quentin Carnival where his parents starred in a stunt show with Craig "Crash" Simpson. Blaze's family had ended when his mother abandoned Barton and Johnny and took the family's two children.
Losing his mother caused Blaze to repress many of his memories of her and his siblings. When his father died in a stunt, Blaze was adopted by Crash and Mona Simpson. The Simpsons helped Blaze by fabricating his past with the hope that it would be less painful than the truth. Now believing that his real mother was Clara Blaze, who had died, Blaze became an enthusiastic member of the Simpson clan, growing closer to their daughter, Roxanne. The two soon became inseparable and, as they grew older their fondness for one another moved beyond familiar.
Blaze would eventually join the Simpsons into their own traveling stunt show — the Crash Simpson Stunt Cycle Extravaganza. Crash had become a real father figure in Blaze's eyes, and on learning of Crash's life-threatening cancer, Blaze turned to the occult. His studies led him to a spell which supposedly could summon Satan himself. Johnny was unaware that he in fact had summoned Mephisto. Desperate to save him, Blaze sold his soul to Mephisto in return for Crash's cancer to be cured.
Crash Simpson's cancer was cured, although Crash died soon after in a stunt trying to jump over 22 cars. Blaze, still at the mercy of Mephisto, believed he would lose his soul to Mephisto until he was saved by Roxanne. Roxanne proclaimed her love for Blaze, and drove Mephisto away with the purity of her emotion.
Blaze was unaware that Mephisto had bonded him with the demon Zarathos as an act of revenge for not being able to obtain Johnny's soul for himself. Johnny was transformed into a Ghost Rider, a leather-clad skeleton, his head cloaked in a sheath of flame, the night after Crash's death. Basically, he still had his soul, but he was forced to punish the wicked and evil upon Mephisto's demands whenever needed.
Blaze became a bounty hunter for Mephisto. Whenever he was in the presence of evil he would transform into the Ghost Rider, to exact the devil's revenge, returning the evil to Hell. Blaze was not completely lost in the transformation however, and would also help the innocent when they were in danger.
Eventually, Zarathos would gain control of Johnny Blaze, and the Ghost Rider would become the spirit of Zarathos unleashed. Johnny himself was becoming stronger as well, and the conflicting personalities led to a battle over Blaze's physical body.
Before too long Centurious appeared, stealing Blaze's soul into his soul crystal. Zarathos, weakened from the ordeal used the last of his strength to shatter the crystal, freeing Blaze's soul and many others contained inside of the crystal as well. Before the crystal was reformed, Centurious was absorbed into the crystal. Zarathos followed him into the crystal, freeing Blaze from the curse, restored his soul and ending his time as the Ghost Rider.
He later teamed up with the new Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch) to form the "Spirits of Vengeance". During this time Blaze would again ride a bike with wheels on fire and would sling a hellfire spitting pump-gun. Their mentor Caretaker would later reveal that they were in fact brothers.
Blaze went back to leading his carnival. Despite it being staffed with many powerful entities, it was nearly destroyed in a demonic attack led by the creature Vengeance. The dead, friend and foe alike, were taken by government forces to be disected. Blaze, with the help of living, and dead, friends, breaks into the facillity and destroys all the bodies.
A later confrontation with the forces of evil would lead to Roxeanne's death. Blaze would later hunt down the demons responsible for her death and kill them all.
Starting over, Blaze eventually found a new job as an accountant and a new girlfriend, Chloe. Though free from the curse and with his soul back, Johnny would eventually transform back into Ghost Rider since Zarathos never really left him and had been reconstituting himself from within Blaze.
Johnny Blaze soon found himself constantly pursued by demons of Hell, intent on forcing him to make good on the demonic pact he had made. It was all that the Ghost Rider could do to out-run the evil, but it wasn't enough. Eventually, Johnny was captured and taken to Hell. ;_;
THIS WEEK'S SASSIEST BOY IN AMERICA!!!!11!
Paris crawled to freedom through
five hundred yards of shit-smelling
foulness I can't even imagine. Or
maybe I just don't want to.
Five hundred yards. The length of
five football fields. Just shy of
half a mile.
I like to think the last thing that
went through the warden's head...other than
that bullet...was to wonder how the
hell Paris ever got the
best of him.
I hope I can make it across the
border to Zihuatanejo. I hope to see my friend
and shake her hand. I hope the
Pacific is as blue as it has been
in my dreams.
five hundred yards of shit-smelling
foulness I can't even imagine. Or
maybe I just don't want to.
Five hundred yards. The length of
five football fields. Just shy of
half a mile.
I like to think the last thing that
went through the warden's head...other than
that bullet...was to wonder how the
hell Paris ever got the
best of him.
I hope I can make it across the
border to Zihuatanejo. I hope to see my friend
and shake her hand. I hope the
Pacific is as blue as it has been
in my dreams.
i am the small cat
If you have a car alarm, put your car keys beside your bed at night. That way, when the retarded neighbor kids bump into your car because they're on their wheelie boards or whatever the fuck, just press the panic button for your car and you can finish taking your after work/depression nap. This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: "Okay. I'm going to leave my keys right here. And tomorrow, I'm going to find them right here. If I'm late, it gives my boss a reason to go on and on well after I've got the fucking point." Test it. It will work at least twice this week. It works if you park in your driveway or garage, not half a block away; really, if someone else is parking there, you're allowed to take a 5-iron to their car, ipso facto. If someone is trying to break in your house, then you are allowed to kill them. This is the moment you have been training for... after a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see the frontier-style brand of justice you are handing out to the criminal. And remember to carry your keys in your hand while walking to your car in a parking lot. If someone tries to rape you, you will have the keys spaced out between your fingers in a poor man's version of Wolverine, thus you should be able to slash away strips of tender cheek flesh ..... This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or a sexual abuse crime. And, honestly, we should all be involved in helping to save lives and helping to save sexual abuse crimes.
P.S. I am sending this to everyone because I think it is fantastic.
Would also be useful for any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can't reach a phone. Wouldn't be so useful if your hot air balloon tour over the Kenyan wilderness crashes.
A handy smidgen of info
youtube needs to man up and up its level of fall videos fyi i mean this will not go on very long if they keep disappearing on me. ;_;
happy fall friday is here yet again :D
Dan Perry
Communications Specialist
Date of Birth: October 15, 1958
Place of Birth: Savannah GA
Residence: Bradford VT
Marital Status: Married
Wife: Anita
Children: Angela, Julie, Valerie, Daniel IV
Hobbies: Racing, golf, radio communications
Years Racing: 16
Years in Busch East: 14
Favorite Little Tree® air freshener: Vanillaroma®
Working for several years as Mike Olsen’s spotter, Dan Perry is the expert in updating and maintaining the team’s radio communications equipment.
Even though he’s a busy father of four, a volunteer fireman, a town water commissioner and the owner of three laundromats, Perry rarely misses a race. :D
THIS WEEK'S SASSIEST BOY IN AMERICA!!!!1
I was driving my son to school this morning, and as we turned off the horrifically busy dual carriageway into the main road of a new estate that's being built, a HUGE kangaroo suddenly bounded across the road. The car in front of me slammed on the brakes, I slammed on the brakes, and all but climbed out of the window in excitement.
OMG! A kangaroo! He leapt across the road and into the scrubby bush beyond the school. But god knows where the poor bugger thought he was going, as within two minutes he'd hit another housing estate.
We've lived in Australia for over eight and a half years, and that's the first time anything like that's happened to me. There are wild kangaroos who frequent various golf ranges (not that I play golf but the one time I accompanied my brother it's kind of intimidating having those enormous bucks staring you down), and for sure you see them more frequently once you get more into the country (again - not that I ever have, discounting the distressingly high level of road kill) Just don't expect anything like that to happen when you're mere feet from roads which are close cousins to motorways.
It's an awful shame so much of their habitat is being eroded. I keep hoping this kangaroo had the sense to turn round and go back the way he came, because he was heading directly into the city. But having said that, I must admit seeing him quite made my day!
OMG! A kangaroo! He leapt across the road and into the scrubby bush beyond the school. But god knows where the poor bugger thought he was going, as within two minutes he'd hit another housing estate.
We've lived in Australia for over eight and a half years, and that's the first time anything like that's happened to me. There are wild kangaroos who frequent various golf ranges (not that I play golf but the one time I accompanied my brother it's kind of intimidating having those enormous bucks staring you down), and for sure you see them more frequently once you get more into the country (again - not that I ever have, discounting the distressingly high level of road kill) Just don't expect anything like that to happen when you're mere feet from roads which are close cousins to motorways.
It's an awful shame so much of their habitat is being eroded. I keep hoping this kangaroo had the sense to turn round and go back the way he came, because he was heading directly into the city. But having said that, I must admit seeing him quite made my day!
Kanga Oooh!
The letter Q is the seventeenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is cue, occasionally spelled cu (both pronounced /kju/).
History
The Semitic sound value of Qôp (perhaps originally qaw cord of wool, and possibly based on an Egyptian hieroglyph) was /q/ (voiceless uvular plosive), a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones. In Greek, this sign as Qoppa probably came to represent several labialized velar plosives, among them /k/ and /k~/. As a result of later sound shifts, these sounds in Greek changed to /p/ and /p~/ respectively. Therefore, Qoppa was transformed into two letters: Qoppa, which stood for a number only, and Phi Φ which stood for the aspirated sound /p~/ that came to be pronounced /f/ in Modern Greek. The Etruscans used Q only in conjunction with V to represent /k~/.
Usage
In most modern western languages written in Latin script, such as in Romance and Germanic languages, Q appears almost exclusively in the digraph QU, though see Q without U. In English this digraph most often denotes the cluster /kw/, except in borrowings from French where it represents /k/ as in plaque. In Italian qu represents [kw] (where [w] is an allophone of /u/); in German, /kv/; and in French, Portuguese, Occitan, Spanish, and Catalan, /k/. (In Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan and French, qu replaces c for /k/ before front vowels i and e, since in those contexts c is a fricative and letter 'k' is seldom used outside loan words.) In Albanian, q represents the voiceless palatal plosive, /c/. In the Aymara, Azeri, Uzbek, Quechua, and Tatar languages, Q is a voiceless uvular plosive. [q] is also used in IPA for the voiceless uvular plosive, as well as in most transliteration schemes of Semitic languages for the "emphatic" qōp sound.
In Maltese and Võro, Q denotes the glottal stop.
In Chinese Hanyu Pinyin, Q is used to represent the sound [t~], which is close to English "ch" in "cheese".
Q is rarely seen in a word without a U next to it, thus making it the second most rarely used letter in the English language.
The lowercase Q is usually written as a lowercase O with a line below it, with or without a "tail". It is usually typed without due to the major difference between the tails of the lowercase G and lowercase Q. It is usually written with the tail to distinguish from the G. Unlike the written lowercase G, which has a leftward facing tail, the Q's tail faces right. An example of the lowercase Q written from a keyboard is a "q".
Trivia
* Q is the only letter that does not appear in any US state name
* People connected to an IRC-network with usermode +q are immune to bans, kicks and akicks.
* Q is a fan of the state of Virginia.
THIS WEEK'S SASSIEST BOY IN AMERICA!
So, I was chatting to Sara earlier today about the RWNZ conference in August, and getting very excited about it all, when somehow - and I'm not at all sure how - I found myself persuaded to enter the Agent two page critique workshop being held early on the Saturday morning.
This is a kind of Agent Idol, where the agent cold reads two pages of your manuscript and then proceeds to tell (everyone) whether or not it grabs her attention. An amazing opportunity to witness the workings of a top agent's mind to be sure, but is this something I'm quite up for?!
In fact the only reason I'm going along with it is because Kristin Nelson seems such a lovely person that I'm quite positive she won't morph into a scarified version of Simon Cowell once she starts reading the pages. And - I think - the pages are submitted anonymously so if i just sit there with a paper bag over my head no one will be any the wiser should she get to mine. Mind you the title of the workshop is a little eye popping - Cereal Killers - just hope that refers to the ungodly hour rather than anything else...
This is a kind of Agent Idol, where the agent cold reads two pages of your manuscript and then proceeds to tell (everyone) whether or not it grabs her attention. An amazing opportunity to witness the workings of a top agent's mind to be sure, but is this something I'm quite up for?!
In fact the only reason I'm going along with it is because Kristin Nelson seems such a lovely person that I'm quite positive she won't morph into a scarified version of Simon Cowell once she starts reading the pages. And - I think - the pages are submitted anonymously so if i just sit there with a paper bag over my head no one will be any the wiser should she get to mine. Mind you the title of the workshop is a little eye popping - Cereal Killers - just hope that refers to the ungodly hour rather than anything else...
Agent Idol
With two requested fulls and a couple of requested partials out with agents, I'm in a permanent state of excited anticpation mixed with terror. Every time I turn on the computer my stomach churns in case I have an email from an agent. Then when I do have an email from an agent, I have to Gird My Loins before I open it. But I'm determined that this time around I am NOT giving up after hitting double figures. I really have to give Neo the best chance possible and getting fed up with the whole submission process within a month or so isn't exactly the way to go about things, especially since this ms is getting quite a bit of interest and positive comments.
In other news, my printer finally gave me the finger last night and gave up its coil. Gah. Will have to postpone any snail subs I had in mind for the time being. I also took some pics of the new office but unfortunately mislaid the digital camera immediately afterwards so have yet to upload! It's nice to be so organised!
In other news, my printer finally gave me the finger last night and gave up its coil. Gah. Will have to postpone any snail subs I had in mind for the time being. I also took some pics of the new office but unfortunately mislaid the digital camera immediately afterwards so have yet to upload! It's nice to be so organised!
