American Kitchen

Deer Fighting

2008-11-14T14:35:00.003-06:00

It's rutting season for the deer in the Texas hill country and we sit on our porch nightly and catch a few bucks fighting now and then. It is amazing and intense.

Seeing some of these trophy bucks almost makes me want to go back to my deer hunting days.

When asked why I don't shoot one of these deer I reply, "I'd rather see that head and rack running around in the woods than cut off and hanging on my wall." We haven't filmed any of these incidents but I found a few interesting deer videos on YouTube.com.

Mountains, Texas, and Texas mountain music

2008-11-07T18:53:00.003-06:00

Mountains are on my mind and I just wrote a bluegrass song about a man that gets jaded at the altar - it's called "oh, the pain"..... lots of lyrics and i find myself having trouble remembering my own lyrics. My wonderfully beautifully daughter recently went to Enchanted Rock had a picture of herself looking out upon the true West of Texas hill country. She is beautiful and enchanting. If you haven't found the internet stream ripper yet, go get it and rip some good music..... you won't regret it.

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace

2008-11-06T12:22:00.002-06:00

Thanks Mr. Shapiro for calling Americans what we have surely shown to the world that we are - petty, disloyal, and short-visioned. Why Americans are so shallow as to place all the hopes, blames, and problems upon a single man - the President - is beyond me.

I hope Americans grow up and stop looking for a father-figure to solve their own problems. Unfortunately, Obama has taken his new post on that very platform - that things have been very bad for us and now "change" has come in the form of a black messiah.

I guess we'll find out soon enough. I hope Obama remembers how fast the public turned on Bush from a 90% approval to 20% over matters mostly beyond his control.

Americans should be proud that we have come such a long way that we can elect a black President. We should be ashamed again for our past for so easily disdaining a man like George W. Bush.

A Great Nation

2008-11-05T07:39:00.004-06:00

Congratulations to every black person who has survived their history to get to this magnificent point in America's timeline.

Congratulations to all of America for stepping up and voting their conscious regardless of color.

May our past be behind us.

May just the beginnings of the greatness of this nation begin to unfold.

Tarantula Wasp

2008-10-31T18:35:00.003-05:00

We have tarantulas around us here in the hill country. We also have tarantula wasps. These are hummingbird sized insects that fly around looking for tarantulas to kill. I came across one the other day that just killed a tarantula and was dragging it somewhere - I assume to its lair. It headed due north and climbed straight up and over my rock wall dragging the dead tarantula.

The Vinnie Show

2008-10-23T08:16:00.000-05:00

I understand why Pilate washed his hands

2008-10-21T17:39:00.004-05:00

I don't like to kill things

I don't mind if something has to die so I can live. But meaningless death bothers me. It's even harder if I have to do it.

Dogs killed another deer today. Or near killed it. Dogs chasing the deer. Wife (and this time my daughter also) chasing the dogs. I followed them all. A small female deer running for her life. Smashing into the fence over and over as the dogs are either on her tail or at her throat. It's very dramatic and fast happening when you are trying to prevent it.

Deer jumps up and crashes one more time before we get the dogs under control. It lays there breathing. The women screaming.

I pull them back. Daughter stares and watches the doe dying for awhile. Comes back an excites the mom into hysteria and senseless guilt. More wailing and cries of pain.

I have to rid the living, still breathing, but dying animal.

Bringing a fold-out Gerber knife I bought as a kid and recently sharpened. Talking to a friend who calls and says, "hey how's it going?" I go to the deer to try and finish her off.

Cutting her throat repeatedly, it comes to semi-life and kicks to try and remember its former life of romp and pleasure.

Friend on the phone, says "... man, why are being short with me."... "Sorry, dude, .. I'm trying kill this deer ... it don't wanna die", I say.

(When we die, do we need that extra time to repent and think about the life we've lived. Does cutting someone's or something's throat steal away the few extra moments a creature might have to say goodbye. Or is it imaginary? Is it just a slow loss of consciousness?)

Wife and daughter are making peace with each other now. A shot of tequila for me. I don't like killing things.

The dogs still pant.

Blood is on the rocks where I dragged the deer to an open field in hopes of the buzzards soon to spot.

I don't like dying. I don't like death.

I don't like cutting the throat of a living creature to help it die.

I don't like dying in general.

2008-10-21T16:08:00.002-05:00

...can somebody

get me out of this thing?

Wimberley - Keeping it Weirder

2008-10-20T17:13:00.004-05:00

Well to hell with the rest of the world, and politics and crashing economy and all that.... we here in Wimberley have kept the party rolling according to our motto of "keeping Wimberley weirder."

Last weekend I entered Phoebe (my elite but whiny American Bulldog) into the "Blessing of the Animals" celebration. She won an award for something - either best dressed or being a big dog or something.... we marched around and asked God to bless our animals... some folks had chickens, rabbits and a hermit crab. God was able to bless them all.

This weekend we had the 3rd annual Calamari Chili Cook-off - the largest chili cook off in Wimberley on this side of the Blanco River. It was great. We didn't win but came real close. Adena's chili was devoured by everyone. Mark won the "Best Booth" award with his Elvis in Hawaii dress-up. He did look cool I must admit. We were the "Raise the Dead" chili and dressed as such. I got to entertain a little on my slide guitar and harmonica with a make-shift gig with the popular Whitney who was there.

Whatever the rest of the world is doing, we're going to keep it weirder here in Wimberley and keep it fun.

It sucks to live in other places.

I love YouTube - Joe the Plumber is funny - Government is not.

2008-10-17T14:22:00.004-05:00

With much ado, I was able to snag the code from YouTube that give me the specific videos I want... check all of these out that I've watched and enjoyed today... some about "Joe the Plumber" and some about various White, Black and government perspectives - mostly around Obama ... some of it very funny... some very serious (like the Ron Paul one)... enjoy.
If you don't like one, mouse over and click the arrows on video to go to the next.

Be sure to catch the last one entitled "How to Dance Like a White Guy" and don't forget to actually hear Hillary Clinton's onstage fart.

Barack Ocommie

2008-10-17T10:16:00.001-05:00

Good ole' Joe. Boy this is fun.

Joe Plumber

2008-10-16T10:39:00.003-05:00

Breaking news: Joe Plumber get lecture from Obama. Told we need to "spread the wealth". Joe Plumber doesn't laugh ... thinks about slapping Obama upside the head.

2008-10-09T09:51:00.006-05:00

If the below thesis is epistemologically sound, then literally:

I make the world that makes me

Thinking Makes It So

2008-10-09T09:00:00.003-05:00

[context: "economic crises" going on now]

FAITH in the banks
FAITH in the financial system
FAITH in the economy

How can FAITH be the sustainer of anything?

Confidence. Truth. Believing that something is sound and true.

How can belief in something actually make that thing what you believe it to be - to be?

I don't get it? This is totally backwards to me. But that is what all the experts, government officials, and smart people of the world are saying is required to stabilize our economy - the banks, the financial system itself.

I don't get it.

The thing either exists or it doesn't. The qualities of the thing either is good or bad or somewhere in the middle. It's somewhat fair to characterize it at any given moment if it is to the left or to the right of that exact middle between Extreme good and Extreme bad. So this is not a black versus white issue.

So it is fair to say things can be described as GOOD or BAD.

The economy is either GOOD or BAD.
Banks are either GOOD or BAD
My BELIEF of whether something is GOOD or BAD can't actually make it become the very thing I believe it to be.

Can it?

Is this a paradox? Hidden wisdom? Magic? Mystical cause and effect in dimension of reality that we don't understand? Is this just some kind of hard-wired brain trick or semantic puzzle?

I don't get it. I can't say I believe it possible. I can't say I could get any reasonable person to confess that just simply believing in something MAKES it exist.

Yet I kind of believe it.

The economy rolls when people are confident. Banks work, the economic system works when people trust in it. We all kind of know this.

And this is true. (At least it sure appears to be.)

So is it the fact that these beliefs predominate across the masses? Is it the fact that the vast majority of people believing in, having faith in, trusting in some actual state of existence that actually makes it happen.

We all believe it is good and therefore it is good?

We all believe it is bad and therefore it is bad?

Does attitude itself MAKE the environment around us?!

And where does that leave the individual? Where does that lead me?

I think I am good therefore I am good?
I think I am bad therefore I am bad?

We - Need to Be

2008-10-09T07:55:00.003-05:00

Need to be ... the essence of purpose and therefore joy ... what we all aspire to and the only thing that makes us happy. The NEED to be. Being needed. Being and engaging in the compiling of maneuvers to orchestrate events to survive that others might live; this is what brings joy and life.

Death is not being needed or wanted. Death is not supplying this essence to some other - imaginary or real.

HOPE is the fuel of self.

The need to be is the supplier of that fuel.

Politics, Polls, and Propaganda

2008-10-08T14:50:00.002-05:00

$700 Billion bailout package turns out to be a "pebble in sea-storm". Find out and remember which of the Congressmen and Senators voted for this subsidizing. Thanks to Knight of Pan for the link.

Be sure to catch all of John McCain's video propoganda here.
Be sure to catch all of Barack Obama's video propoganda here.

And if you're looking to keep track of the swinging and swaying of which state will be voting for who keep this link on your favorites.

Squirrel Repellant

2008-10-03T08:39:00.003-05:00

Sweet! I found for only $99 I can buy "fox urine granules" gauanteed to keep them damn squirrels away.

Word to that! Send me two!

I wonder how they make these? Trap a bunch of foxes and tie little baggies to their backends? Then freeze dry 'em?

Free but not Free

2008-10-02T09:51:00.002-05:00

Remember the "Free Kevin" campaign? Kevin Mitnick was one of the first examples made by the federal government for "hacking" into computer systems. Well, Kevin spent 5 years in prison (4 1/2 BEFORE a trial) and has been out for 8 years but is still being harrassed.

On a same but different note, another Kevin also is being claimed as injustly being held by our federal government.

Oh, and by the way... If you've ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you're guilty of a federal felony.

People that Hate Squirrels

2008-09-30T20:52:00.005-05:00

I have some backwoods country folk friends that hate squirrels. They HATE, HATE, HATE squirrels. If you say the word "squirrel" around any of the family they will immediately let out a barrage of profanities about "tree rats", "varmints", and a series of why-it-is-good-to-kill-anything-that-might-interfere-with-your-garden-or-attic lectures.

I mean these people are obsessed. It is very comical. When I hear a gunshot in the neighborhood I assume it is one of them killing a squirrel.

The other day I heard the dad chewing out the son for shooting a squirrel and not even throwing the carcass over the fence. The son apologized and promised to not leave it lying in the garden next time.

Actually, I'm surprised he threw the carcass away at all, because I know this young man likes to eat dead squirrel. I've shot and ate squirrels a bunch in my younger days.

So I culled a few facts from the web.

There does exist at least one Squirrel hatred group.

Squirrels are considered one of the 10 most intelligent animals on the planet.

Squirrels live in symbiosis with oak trees and are most responsible for their successful propagation across North America.

Squirrel brains are good to eat with scrambled eggs for breakfast. (According to many observations made by Adena watching her grandparents in early Alabama mornings.)

Personally, I like squirrels. I think they are cute and playful. One scraggly-tailed one my wife has named Alvin came up to me this morning and barked at me all sassy like - till my dogs came and chased him away.

Squirrels are cool. Spread the word.

Loss of Desire, Loss of Truth, Loss of Both

2008-09-25T10:05:00.004-05:00

Sitting in a high school psychology class as a kid once, after I replied to the teacher that I indeed could tell when people lied or told the truth, I got nearly laughed out of the room.

Certain people can detect lying. I developed a certain amount of this skill growing up. Interestingly enough, many people learned this perceptibility as a child growing up in families where discerning the truth felt essential.

Nowadays, I'm not so sure I ever was good at detecting lies or truths. Worse - I don't even care. Desire for truth itself has faded.

I may be molting in the squeeze between cynicism and despair.

Is this what getting old is about?

Desire. Let's pick a basic one. Sex. All my life sex was something that had to be controlled, minimized, and suppressed. Except in marriage where it's nice, but controlled still in a somewhat different way.

Now I find after years of suppressing desires themselves, these desires are respondinging. They are fading. I'd be happy to have some desires.

Food doesn't appeal to me. I have no passionate hobbies. Everything is pretty much boring. Drinking and catching a buzz has gotten old - again. I don't even desire to play music much anymore. I've about given up on it. Is this what growing old is like? Or is this just my old friend Mr. Depression cementing his roots into my arteries?

Don't know.

But I do know this (tip-o-hat to Caveman Lawyer) - I don't like this feeling of getting old.

Truth? Love? Sex? ... Eat? drink? And be merry?

My Grandfather often would quote to me as a child the whole last chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. There is a warning there of years to come when a person "has no pleasure" and when "desires fade away." That part of the quote used to puzzle me. I just couldn't fathom it.

I feel it now.

I stand face to face in a doorway to the last phases of my life.

It looks like big, dark and empty.

I don't want to go in.

(But of course, I just can't stand here looking stupid either.)

Joy

2008-09-12T09:02:00.005-05:00

Well, yes, I am a grandfather now. And 50 years old. This boy is cute as a button though. He's sharp and intense like his father too. Adena and I were blessed enough to go to Prague and visit this little "real McCoy" and his parents. I'll admit, he is the highlight of my affections for now, and the most endearing thing I've come across since the birth of my own children.

I haven't fully decided yet how this all affects me other than the realization somewhat of the adage "it's NOT about me". His presence still causes a lot of reflection on my part - a person who is unhealthily over-reflective anyway perhaps. Having a whole 'nother generation forward looking at you in face, cause one at least to wonder about how well they have done so far in preparing the whole this child will enter into. I do have my own regrets in life. Now they lurk about in my mind as little demons hoping to haunt me through all the "possibilities" that could have been awaiting this young child.

However, I didn't make the world, I'm just living in it. Vinnie will have to face all the same problems and pains we all do. Hopefully, he can find the joys also, and they will outweigh the costs.

Joy. That must be the measure of successful living. How much joy have I encountered, encouraged, and invoked in others. Joy. If I can find just a little of that daily, and look back and find it as an after-flow trailing through my life - then I will come out in the balance.

For now, a little person follows behind me two generations back. His name is Vincent Andrew Sanders. He is a joy - to me. My prayer is for an abundance of joy to follow him through life.

For more pictures of Vinnie you can dig through an assortment that I and Alena have each posted for public viewing.

Enjoy.

You can call me Vinny

2008-09-05T15:03:00.002-05:00

Well, yeah, I am pretty cute huh?

After Performance Wilmeth Interview

2008-07-17T21:23:00.003-05:00

I was lucky enough to get an interview with beach bum Rick Wilmeth and his lovely singer wife after they mangled the beautiful John Prine song at Rick's retirement party. Rick shares his secret to success.

Terms I Am Sick of Hearing

2008-07-10T11:31:00.002-05:00

Terms at the office I've really gotten sick of hearing:

"Deep-Dive" - supposedly means when someone is really going to spend some time getting into the technical aspects of a certain problem. Translates better as "I don't know. I'd have to get someone else to figure that out." Sometimes this term is used to put off non-technical people vaguely meaning "I don't care to try and explain it to you."

"Push-Back" - supposedly a high level term for when one department is requested to do something from another department and they have reason not to or require clarity. Used a lot when the requestor doesn't understand what he's asking for in the first place.

"Churn" - Emails, phone calls and conversations back and forth engaging many higly paid people to accomplish nothing other than "feeling" like they've accomplished something. Used reluctently buy often by the few people involved in the churn that actually could be accomplishing something.

Vincent Andrew Sanders

2008-06-26T07:27:00.001-05:00