bobmacliberty

I'm a Hitchcock fan. Rear Window and North by Northwest are 2 of my favorites. For comedies, I always enjoy Some Like It Hot.

Every now and then I go down a YouTube rabbit hole. My latest journey involves a musical group called Postmodern Jukebox. They re-arrange popular songs in completely different and older styles. The first one that I saw was Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me done in a 1960s early soul style. That led me to Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like a Woman! in a 1950s Marilyn Monroe style and Kiss's I Was Made For Lovin' You in a spaghetti western style (with an incredible singer). They have hundreds (literally) of songs that they've redone in jazz, soul, swing, doo-wop, R&B...you name it. They've done songs from Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Lizzo, Spice Girls, Blondie, ELO, The Police, Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift, Huey Lewis, U2, Rihanna...the list goes on and on. If you're looking to kill some time watching some very talented musicians, their main YouTube page is here. Don't say that I didn't warn you. 😁

Yes. The majority of dialog is in Japanese with subtitles throughout the series. I'm used to reading closed captioning, so it doesn't bother me.

I have closed captioning turned on anyway. 😜 Although it's a little bit of a pain to read the subtitles, I think it's more authentic having 2 Japanese people speaking to each other in Japanese. It also makes sense when a Japanese person is speaking and Blackstone doesn't understand, and makes it easier to know when Blackstone and Mariko are speaking in English.

We are watching Shogun. It's excellent. It's also on FX, if you have access to that channel and can watch the episodes that were aired previously. The only thing I don't like is that you need to wait a week for another episode. I've become spoiled binge watching.

I agree with everything that you've written. I'm an ideal candidate for an EV. We have 2 cars and don't drive either one very far, so range anxiety isn't an issue (except for the couple of times a year when we take a longer road trip). In fact, I have to occassionally trickle charge both of our car batteries since they don't get charged enough from driving. I could plug in an EV overnight and almost never have to worry. I'm also a tech geek who likes the tech in many EVs. For a while, I was monitoring the new EVs that were coming out thinking that this year or next I'd replace my current vehicle with an EV. I was waiting until the Mercedes and BMWs of the world came out with luxury vehicles designed as EVs from the ground up rather than being retrofitted into a gas car with some compromises (like a hump in the floor for a drive train that no longer exists). I'm not a Tesla fan...too minimalist for me and not enough of a luxury vehicle with fit and finish issues. I'm backing off looking at EVs for now. If I were to replace my car today, I'd probably go with gas or hybrid. I'll squeeze a few more years from my current car and see how things have changed both in EV designs and in the charging ecosystem. We're seeing more chargers pop up in places where a gas pump can't be located (parking garages, restaurants, stores, etc.) which I think is an advantage for the EV market. It's getting easier to "plug in" wherever you go, although we're far from that being broad enough to impact range anxiety in a big way. There are also changes being made in where and how EV batteries are being made. The US may have the largest lithium deposit yet found in the world and environmentally cleaner battery production processes are evolving...just like manufacturing processes for many other products that were historically bad for the environment. Battery development will also certainly lead to better power density, meaning more range. One of the things that I'm keeping an eye on is Toyota's hydrogen engine. Toyota, the largest car maker in the world, has not fully embraced EVs. They continue generating huge sales with their hybrids while developing what they think will be a better option than current EV designs. Even if Toyota is successful with their hydrogen ICE, they will face the same challenge of how to distribute hydrogen to consumers who want to refill their vehicle. I wouldn't buy an EV just because I thought I was helping the environment. I'd buy it because I like the vehicle. I can't justify the big increase in price of an EV over its roughly equivalent gas ICE that exists today. As others have noted, this price increase is part of what's caused the EV market share in the US to level off (depending on what you read). If I were to guess, I'd guess that the EV market will be much more robust in 10 years.

My daughter texted me about OJ before I saw the news. I replied that she should expect a lot of white bronco chase videos in the next couple of days. Since that was before she was born, she texted back that this is what she remembers most about a white bronco chase: I forget how funny the Shrek movies were. I love the Puss In Boots line. Knight: Catnip. Puss In Boots: That's ah, not mine.

Looks like her last activity was on March 16 and her last post was in February. Hopefully everything is OK and she's just busy.

I don't mind athletes in college, even if they are only a student in name. If you want to play professional football or basketball, you have to go through college. This is the path to a future for some of these kids, even if that future is not academically related. The schools make a LOT of money from those 2 sports, especially the big-name schools. That money funds scholarships for other athletes in smaller sports who ARE good students, don't have a pro sports option after graduation, and might not otherwise be able to afford college. Combined with Title IX, this gives opportunities to a lot of girls who might not have been able to attend college. At Kentucky, profits from sports were used to build a brand new academic building which benefits all students. I understand the thought that "student athletes" who are paid to attend a school just to play a sport are overly privileged, but I think it's quite a bit more complicated than that. Edit: I'll also add that sports are a fun part of the college experience for those who don't play sports. It's a nice relief from the pressures of school and helps generate school pride. Without sports, there wouldn't be student managers, marching bands, cheerleaders and dance teams, etc. I'll get off my soap box now. 🙂

RIP Bella. 😢

Someone at NASA was having fun with their NASA Moon and NASA Sun Twitter accounts. 🤣

I think you're right. I don't think popcorn ceilings were a fashion choice so much as it's much easier and faster to put up drywall that way. Just spray the ceiling to get the popcorn texture. No time/skill needed to apply and sand drywall mud multiple times to get a smooth finish.

As a casual Kentucky fan (daughter got her undergrad degree there), I was happy to see Coach Cal go. I was not the only Kentucky fan to feel that way. He has arguably had the best talent of any college team (NBA teams are littered with former UK players) but they were all one and done. No matter how much talent you have as a freshman, it's tough to go against some of the more experienced 3 and 4 year players on teams like Virginia, or Villanova, or Gonzaga. He had a hard time just winning the SEC. Cal didn't seem willing to move away from the one and done model. Worse, he complained every year about how his guys had a hard time adjusting to being great team players. 🙄 Hopefully he tries a different approach at Arkansas and has better success. I think he's still a good coach.

Mark - Have you guys been to Hocking Hills in OH? It's a couple of hours south of Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park so I'm guessing a good 3 hours from you. They have great hiking with lots of caves and waterfalls. Hard to believe it's actually in OH given how flat and boring most of the OH landscape is. Definitely worth staying a night or 2 there, especially in the fall.

We had about 60% eclipse coverage here. It got a little bit darker but not much. We tried too late to get glasses (everyone sold out) so couldn't look at it. My SIL, who works in Dayton, OH, took this picture from the roof of his building. He said it was much cooler to see in person than the picture shows.

Oops. You're correct. That is supposed to say St. Kitts. I've never even been to St. Croix. 🤣

As always, spectacular photos. This one reminds me of St. Croix. Atlantic Ocean on one side and Caribbean Sea on the other.

UConn, especially Nika Muhl, did play great defense that held Clark to 3 for 11 early. But Clark still managed to come through for 21 points including some big 3s with Muhl tightly in her face. She can handle good defense. The foul seemed a bit iffy on first watch, and the timing with 4 seconds left isn't good, but it was definitely a foul when watching the replay from other angles: https://x.com/IowaSportsGuy1/status/1776467266797785500 Hate to see that at the end of such a good game though.

I have it scheduled to be recorded. It was actually a concert from last week (Mar 28) that was recorded and will be aired in 2 weeks. I'm interested in seeing how it compares to the concert that we saw in January. I may have already posted this (memory issues can be scary) but if you've got 2 hours to kill, there was an interesting interview of Billy Joel by Howard Stern last month. Billy is sitting in front of a piano the whole time and often plays something. It's amazing to see his musical talent and the way that he thinks about music.

Never thought I'd see anyone even close to Gretzky's records. His assists and points records are probably safe. Impressive accomplishments for both Sid and Ovechkin. Between Lemieux, Jagr, and Crosby, Pittsburgh always seems to have great scorers.

I remember being woken up in bed by an earthquake while in college. This was 1982 or 1983 outside of Albany, NY. I think it was in the 5s on the Richter scale. It was felt across much of the northeast.

I'm the same with Sailing Doodles. Loved the early days where he actually had 2 Labradoodles (hence the name) sailing with him. Cool dogs. That's when they usually found the cheapest food possible and he usually anchored wherever he went so that he didn't have to pay for a mooring ball. Things have definitely changed. He now has a deal with Navigare Yachting and you can join one of his flotillas (multiple yachts cruising together, which looks like a lot of fun) by getting a cabin on one of the boats for $3K a week.

The trade saves the Bills some salary money, but doesn't really help their cap. They'll still take a $31M dead money cap hit. I agree though that he's on the downside of his career and that he's a locker room problem. The Bills are following the Patriots model of letting him go maybe a year early rather than a year late. Like many Bills fans, my first response was shock, and wondering why they could only get a 2nd rounder for next year in return. Seems like the rest of the league doesn't want to pay much for him and other teams probably have similar concerns. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. You don't just dump your WR1 for next to nothing without a plan. I don't know if that's another trade (Tee Higgins?) or maybe moving up in the draft for one of the top WRs (although they don't have much draft capital). They picked up Curtis Samuel in free agency so at a minimum, he should replace Diggs in the lineup and pair nicely with Shakir. This will be a test for Josh. It never seemed like it mattered to Tom Brady who was at WR...he made them look good. We'll see if Josh can do the same.

I completely agree with wishing that we had better public transportation in the US. I understand though why we'll never really have a broad, national train system (beyond what Amtrak already has). Too many reasons why there isn't enough demand. In addition to being clean, I remember the Japan trains being quiet. Other than an occasional "Moshi moshi" when someone answered their phone, any talking was very quiet. I was with a group of about 10 people from the US who were always talking and laughing. I could see it on the faces of the Japanese people on the train...we were the "ugly Americans".

I love your photos! I visited the Himeji Castle several years ago (maybe 2005??) on a business trip. Beautiful place...the castle itself, the outbuildings, and the surrounding area. I remember there being some unusual (to me at least) flavors in the food that we sampled in that street food area. We also used the trains to travel. The engineer in me loved it. Everything was so precise. You looked at a message board to see when your train would arrive, how many cars long the train was, and where the train doors would be according to symbols on the platform. People would politely line up by the appropriate symbol. At exactly the right time, the train would arrive and stopped exactly lined up with the symbols. People getting on would wait until everyone got off, and then board. Everything was so organized.