Friday, March 30, 2018

Crown Of Thorns Brings Water To the Desert

Cool story from The Daily Caller for Good Friday.

Pope Francis Provokes Apocalypse

According to Drudge, anyway:

153 Ducks and 11 Feral Cats

A New Hanover County, NC woman has been hoarding ducks.

Charges are still pending against a local woman who allegedly kept more than 150 Muscovy ducks in unhealthy conditions, according to the New Hanover County District Attorney’s Office.

Cynthia Huber, 56, was arrested Dec. 29 on nine misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, one count of failing to vaccinate a dog/cat/or ferret and one count of misuse of 911. In North Carolina class 1 misdemeanors such as these carry penalties of 120 days in jail and a discretionary fine.

The charges stemmed from the Dec. 20 seizure of the ducks and 11 cats from Huber’s Watermill Way home. Among various ailments, the ducks were reportedly underweight; 80 percent suffered from an upper respiratory infection; some had tumors that were left untreated and others had broken bones, according to Skywatch Bird Rescue, which helped New Hanover County Animal Services collect the ducks and has been caring for them since the rescue.


Crazy duck lady with a minor in crazy cat lady.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

They're Only Found In Coastal North Carolina

Venus's Flytraps, that is.

And only in a small strip of coastal North Carolina, at that - - the area right around the NC-SC border up to the Wilmington area and a little beyond. Only place in the world that they are found.

They are regularly poached and sold to plant fanciers; even a carnivorous plant garden in Wilmington was hit, with over $10,000 worth of plants taken. So it's now a felony in NC to poach them.

Caro Emerald

I discovered Dutch-born singer Caro Emerald via Pandora a few years ago, and like both her songs and videos a lot. Here's some samples, see if you agree:









And just listen to the dead-on Louis Armstrong vocals in this one:

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Sing To Me, Tift

I have the blues, and I'm tired of the fight:

Waking Up

It's no great revelation that blogging isn't as popular as it one was - - Facebook and other social media outlets make it easy to post the details of your life there instead of on a blog; but increasingly, Facebook and Twitter are suppressing speech from everyone that doesn't approach the world from a leftist direction. I've been banned by Facebook twice already, and by Twitter a couple of times, also. I don't appreciate it, it pisses me off, and increases the resentment I have toward leftists to the level of hatred.

So I'm going to wake the blog up, based on Brigid's (Home On the Range) example. She was the victim of leftist trolls and hate mobs, and took her blog offline for a while, blogging as a guest at Borepatch's place instead. Now she's back, and since I see my blog listed on her sidebar, I can only man up and do what she's already done, and try to start posting regularly again. I'll try to start out slow. Can't make any promises.

Most of my leisure hours are spent taking refuge in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, via the game Lord of the Rings Online. I literally waited decades for the technology to come along so I could spend time in Middle-Earth; I purchased a lifetime subscription while it was possible to do so, a decision that I've never regretted. The game is over 10 years old now, and people still play it daily, just as they do World of Warcraft or other online games. The developers bring new content online regularly - - North Mirkwod and the Lonely Mountain most recently - - and some of my happiest hours are spent exploring these new places. Being a game there is too much killing required for levelling up, which would probably horrify Tolkien; remember that Frodo Baggins never killed anyone in The Lord of the Rings, Sam Gamgee is noted as killing only a single orc, and the other hobbits have similar low body counts. So I'm not really comfortable to be constantly killing stuff in game. I like wandering the landscape, exploring. Crafting. One can farm in the game,raise crops - - pipeweed included. And one can smoke a long pipe, and blow smokerings. Or play music - - there is a robust system for playing music in game, and there are many very talented bands that regularly give "concerts" in game.

I have a full stable of various characters, including a family of dwarves, the Stoneskulls, named after the patriarch of the clan, Blarni, who survived an orc bashing his helm in during the battle of Azanulbizar. Blarni has four sons: Sporki (named after an eating tool that Blarni invented), Snarki (the wiseass), Corki (likes to drink), and Tardi (a little slow, perhaps, or maybe it's because he's often late to appointments). There's a hobbit burglar, Asbo Stabbins (an ASBO is an Anti-Social Behavioral Order in the UK, given to minor criminals and delinquents), three men: Animbecil, Thoronwe, and Pinkrandir the Transwizard (he likes to be called Trandalf; he's pink now, but once was blue). And a couple of Elves, Feleg and Linroth. Blarni Stoneskull the dwarf is my main character, the one I've played the most; the rest are just there to provide a bit of relief from time to time.

Probably more information than you wanted, but it's my current main interest. Lord of the Rings Online can be played free in a limited way, so if you want to visit Middle-Earth, you can do so. I play on the Brandywine server, if you want to meet up in game.