Bucket List

A friend and I were talking about "Bucket Lists" the other day. It got me thinking, I've done a lot of things, in fact, most of what I wanted to do in life. This being said, there's still some things I'd like to do. Going forward, this will be a regular feature.

Bucket List entry 1:

I want to drop acid. Even though I was a BIG partier, I've never dropped acid. The first item in the bucket list.

Phone Technology

I got an iPhone not long ago, and it's incredible. I'm a technology guy, but this exceeded all expectations. The processing power of this phone probably exceeded mainframes back in the seventies.

The Right Hand Doesn't Know What The Left Is Doing

A pair of articles from Psych Central:

July 22, 2010:
Alcohol May Be OK With Bipolar

July 23, 2010:
Higher Risk of Suicide in Bipolar Patients Who Abuse Alcohol

I know research changes quickly, but c'mon - the same publication, 1 day apart?

Featured Video: Disco Apache

Could there be a greater video ever made? Seriously. From 1977 (I believe).

Can you hear the musicians / dancers telling to their kids about this? And how mortified those kids would be to see this video?

Featured Video: Nesbitts Orange Soda Pop

Remember Nesbitts Soda Pop? We almost never got soda when I was a kid, and when we did, we never wanted cola. We wanted Nesbitts, but usually got Shasta. At the time I was a kid, Nesbitts was known for it's orange soda, but also had strawberry which kicked ass, but I rarely saw it.

From French Vogue

From Salon.com, Lea T, the first high-fashion transgender model.

Per Salon:

When Givenchy's head designer cast his personal assistant, Lea T., in a print ad for the brand, it sparked a frenzy of interest. Calls for interviews and modeling gigs began pouring in. Now, French Vogue, the hipper sister of American Vogue, is running a profile of the Brazilian model alongside a nude portrait in its upcoming issue. But this isn't your typical tale about the feverish discovery of a new face in high-fashion -- because Lea just happens to be a transsexual.

Of course, that makes the nude all the more provocative. Her gaze is calm and direct, and the casual placement of her hand clearly reveals that she hasn't had gender reassignment surgery. Unlike in the buzzed-about Givenchy ad, she doesn't wear ostentatious makeup or strike any of the dramatic poses that usually mark high fashion editorials. She is simply, arrestingly bare. With her long hair draped over her shoulders, Lea looks straight out of the Garden of Eden -- and that is perhaps what's most subversive about the photo: its ability to make us re-conceive of what we think of as "natural."

I now state the following with a staunch, unblemished record of heterosexuality. Everyone grunt your agreement. But that's strangely hot.

Compassionate Liberal Christian?

Is is possible to be a liberal, compassionate, left-of-center Christian? Conservatives think they have the corner on religion, but I'll bet there are more like me out there.

Csonka, Kiick, and the Sports Illustrated Cover

Remember this one? Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, also known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were running backs for the Miami Dolphins in the early seventies. They had a reputation for being a little wild. They were both featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, with Csonka flipping off the world. You would think with their reputation they would have been watching for this. Maybe they were - this sold a lot of magazines.
(If you're not seeing the picture, click through to the original post.)

Spring Wind

Singer Songwriter Greg Brown writes a beautiful song. Here are a couple verses from one of my favorites:

I lived awhile without you, darn near half my life.
I no longer see our unborn children, born to you my unwed wife.
But yesterday I had a vision, beneath the tree where we once talked,
of an old couple burning their love letters so their children won't be shocked.

Love calls like the wild birds-- it's another day.
A Spring wind blew my list of things to do...away.

My friends are gettin older, so I guess I must be too.
Without their loving kindness, I don't know what I'd do.
Oh the wine bottle's half empty-- the money's all spent.
And we're a cross between our parents and hippies in a tent.

Love calls like the wild birds-- it's another day.
A Spring wind blew my list of things to do...away.

-- Greg Brown "Spring Wind"

Smoking

If I were diagnosed today with a terminal illness the first thing I'd do is buy a pack of cigarettes. I gave them up in 1989 and I still miss them today. In fact, the next time I see the doc I'm going to ask him at what age would cigarettes pose an insignificant risk on my remaining years. There has to be a time when the risk is negligible on what's left of my lifespan.

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