Idle Ramblings of a Slightly Mad Man

When the Superman movie came out with Christopher Reeve, the greatest accolade, the greatest comment, bestowed upon it was that the movie made you believe that a man could fly. 

There has not been another movie like that since. 

Until today.

I saw Iron Man tonight and I was blown away!  This movie made me believe that man could fly again.  I was in awe throughout the movie.  This is the best comic book movie based on a Marvel character in a long time. 

I would also reccommend that you sit through all the credits at the end!  You’ll be glad you did.

I was thinking, since this silly little blog is now 1 year old, doing a little reposting of some favorites from the past year. 

Has anyone ever done a “Best of…” on their blog?  How did it go?

Did you ask for readers to request their favorites?  Or did you just post what you felt was your better posts?

Or do you just think that a Best of is a stupid idea?

I was tagged by Teeni and the Vaguetarian Tea Room for this meme and basically the rule is that I have to write a short little something about books, television and music.  Seems simple enough.

BOOKS - I read them.  I read a lot of different things but when I get a chance to read a good novel I really get into it.  I have been a reader for as long as I can remember.  I would stay up late as a child reading The Hardy Boys.  I would stay up and read as much of the book as I could because I was so captivated by the story and my parents would yell to me to turn lights off forcing me to sneak the lamp under the covers or into my closet to continue my reading.  Thankfully, my passion for reading has been passed to my daughter.

Television -I watch it.  There are just so many good shows on lately that I can’t seem to stay on top of it all.  My DVR is filling faster than I can watch.  The Discovery Channel and the SciFi channel have been exceptional with shows lately.  I think that the writers strike has hurt the Big 4 (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) and viewers have discovered a whole new world of television beyond them.

Music -  I listen to it.  I am not a fan at all of any of the current music that is out there.  Especially the mainstream music.  There is nothing good being produced or written.  It seems like everyone is trying to write that next one great hit. 

Gone are the days where you would buy an album (or CD for you youngsters).  Now people just want the singles.  They want one song.  That one song that will be a hit.  They want the one song that the music industry and the record company want you to listen to.  There are sometimes some great songs that are on albums beyond just what you’ve been spoonfed. 

I grew up on Kiss, James Taylor, Carol King, Led Zepplin, Warren Zevon and many more.  Every song on the album would be a great song.  Every song you would know the words to.  Today, the only albumCD, that anyone would know the words to would be the Now That’s What I Call Music, vol 384. 

The thing that the three of these forms of entertainment have in common is that they allow you an escape from reality, relax the mind, escape into another world, someone else’s world, and be led on a journey or an experience that you would not otherwise take.

Beam me up Scotty, put on some Dark Side of the Moon and let me try to break the Da Vinci Code. 

As for who I will pick to play along, and there is no pressure, it is strictly voluntary….

Eric

Kara

Heddy

and anyone else that would like to dabble in it. 

I have moved on to the next thing to grow in my Aerogarden.  I pulled out the lettuce and cleaned out the machine/growing center/doohickey/thingamabob.  I had read, online, many other reviews that mentioned how difficult and/or time consuming it was to clean out all the roots in the basin but I was pleasantly pleased to find that I had no such issues. 

I was prepared for the task to be arduous and time consuming and found that in seconds, my Aeorgarden was cleaned out of the old and ready for the new.  All told, the turn around time was about 5 minutes. 

I stopped growing the lettuce.  Not because its life cycle was over, no, my lettuce was still very healthy and very much bountiful.  My family and I had many great salads with that lettuce since Christmas.  But I was bored with the lettuce and eager to move on and try something else. 

I began the Herbs.  They have begun to grow quite well.  There is, though, a slight problem with the Aerogarden and the growing of the herbs.  It is not a problem that complaining to Aerogarden is going to do any good.  Aerogarden will not be able to help.  The problem is cats.  Specifically, my cats.  Suddenly, my two cats have a strong appetite for fresh herbs. 

One day, I was watching TV when the one cat hopped up on my lap and began licking my face and I caught a strong scent of onion from her.  It was very unusual and peculiar.  I did not put two and two together until I saw her nibbling on my herbs in my Aerogarden. 

I now have to keep one eye on the Aerogarden to watch for pesky cats until the makers of the Aerogarden come out with a cat proof version. 

In looking in the instructions that Aerogarden sends with the herbs, there were a few interesting recipes that I am going to have to try in a few weeks.  They were very simple recipes and could be prepared quickly and something that a family on the go (like mine)  would enjoy.

I’ll  keep you readers posted as I continue to explore the Aerogarden.      

This weekend the family and I went down to Chincoteague Virginia and searched out possible places to rent during the week of Pony Penning.

For those of you that don’t know what Pony Penning is, it is when the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department round up the wild ponies on Assateague Island, which is right across the water, and swim them across to Chincoteague where they will auction them off. This is for thinning the herd and for the fire department to raise money.

I have been going to Chincoteague for about 30 years now and I really have not been back for Pony Penning in nearly 10 years. I have been avoiding all the tourists. But now that my own family is coming of age, I want them to experience the event.  It really is something that everyone should experience at least once.

I have to say that I am looking forward to it. Like I said, I have not been there during a swim in years and I want to pass this down to my kids. My parents took us down there almost every year. My aunt and uncle have a place down there and we would all crash there. Then as more and more of us went, their house filled up and we had to find other places to rent.

The island is filled with history and character and there are little quaint shops and there is always something to do.  It is nice going down when there are no events happening on the island.  I know that their main source of income is tourism but there is something spectacular about going down when it is the off season.

One day, I am going to buy a house down there.

I love it. It is my second home.

I can’t wait for July.

While out Christmas shopping, my wife and I found the AeroGarden.  I found it interesting and wondered about it.  I asked around if anyone had any experience with it and no one in my circle of friends had.  I didn’t think much about it after that.

Then, on Christmas morning, I opened up a box to find that I was now the owner of the AeroGarden.  I found that it was easy to set up and put together.  The kit had come with Cherry Tomatoes, Lettuce and Herbs.  I decided that I would start with the lettuce.  I mean, c’mon, how can you screw up lettuce.

Within two days of placing the cups in their little holders sprouts started to appear.  I was on my way to my first batch of lettuce and soon, about 2 weeks later, my first salad.

The taste and flavor of the lettuce was refreshing.  I was pleasantly pleased how much lettuce was produced and how well it tasted.  I have pinched off three meals worth of lettuce so far from my AeroGarden and have at least one more to pick.  I am not sure how much longer the lettuce will continue to grow but I do know that I am happy with this product.

I am thinking that next I will try the herbs and see how they do.

Has anyone here tried the Aerogarden?  What have your experiences been like?

I have been awarded another award from my friend Teeni over at Vaguetarian Tea Room and no it is not the Blogger who has not posted consistently lately award. 

Here is what she had to say about me and my award

Mark at Idle Ramblings of a Slightly Mad Man - Like my buddy, Ms. Red, you have a way of tackling subjects nobody else would feel comfortable with. And you do it well. I oftentimes find myself cringing through a post you’ve written but I simply must read through to the end. And I must like it because I keep going back for more. You have earned my respect for that and you’ve always been nice and had kind words for me so you’ve also earned my friendship.

 That, I have to say, is the most interesting description of my blog ever.  I think that she is basically saying that I am a very bad car wreck with bodies thrown all over the road.  You don’t want to look at the bits and pieces of car mixed in with feet and arms of the bodies but you just can’t resist looking. 

Thank you Teeni for bestowing this honor upon me.  I will do my best to live up my standards.

I was asked questions by Teeni in another post about my forum TalkPa.net.  She wanted to know the how and why’s that TalkPa have come about.  Since she asked, I am more than happy to oblige.  She wanted to know how and why I got into it.  The story is fairly simple and since I am always looking for something to post about I figured that this would be an easy post.  I would also give me a change at another shameless plug for my site.

Here is the story…

I have always been someone that liked to visit local forums.  I enjoyed the information sharing, the different opinions or even the confirmation of my own thoughts and opinions by others.  I have been active in several and search out forums for my own fun and entertainment.

Sometime in February or March of 2007 I stumbled upon another local forum that was just starting up for Delaware called TalkDelaware.com.  They were just starting up but rapidly growing.  I became a strong poster there and the Owner/Administrator rewarded me by making me a staff member of the site.  Over the course of a few months TalkDelaware became more and more popular and as a result the site was awarded with the 2007 Readers Choice Award from The News Journal, Delawares largest newspaper.  TalkDelaware beat out the sites of Google and MySpace.  We knew that we had something good and now so did others. 

The Owner decided to create a new forum and thought that Pennsylvania would be a great choice.  And so was born TalkPa.  The owner, being the smart man that he is, recognized his shortcomings that he is not a Pennsylvanian and could not pull off the charade of pretending to be from PA.  He asked me to become the Administrator of his site, to guide, shape and mold the site into the greatness that it has the potential to be.  Of course I said, yes!

I had Moderated other sites before but never had I been given the keys to the kingdom.  It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of time, a lot of creativity and a lot of promotion.  I enjoy the opportunity and the chance to help create a site that people come to to kill time, share thoughts, ideas and opinions. 

So if you are from Pennsylvania, or not from Pennsylvania, want some place to hang out online, to share ideas, thoughts, opinions or to just network with others, then come to TalkPa.net.  Tell them Green Lantern referred you.

Thanks Teeni for letting me get a shameless plug out there. 

I spent another day wandering around Seattle.  This morning I took in the Pike Place Market.  It truly is a unique place.  I have been to many Markets but none compared to this place.  I spent the better part of the morning taking it all in.  The variety of merchants is overwhelming.  Also mixed throughout is the musicians.  They are scattered throughout the market playing piano, guitar, violin, and clarinet to name a few.  Of course the experience is not complete until you witness the fish throwing.  While you are so focused on the guys tossing yard long fish they somehow slyly slip and overthrow into the unsuspecting crowd causing people to scream and/or leap out of the way of what turns out to be just a stuffed hammerhead shark.  I do have to admit that I was on the receiving end of this fish throw prank.  It did surprise me and no I did not scream.  I did catch it and as it was coming at me the thought that cats would be following me all the rest of the day did enter my mind. 

After the Market I traveled across town to Pioneer Square to take the Underground Tour.  This was a very interesting tour of the city below the city.  Long story short, they built the city, had a fire and rebuilt the city over the ruins.    Underground you can find the original entryways into the city buildings.  It was very educational and entertaining.  The tour guides give the history of Seattle and how it grew into the city it is today. 

Some of the other things I have taken in today is the Umbrella Statue and the first Starbucks.  Unfortunately, I will not have much time the rest of the week to play since I have to work so I am fortunate that I had the opportunity today to cram in as much as I can.  

I am tired and I am worn out but I am much better for taking in as much of this beautiful city as I can. 

I took some time today to visit Seattle and my first stop was to the Space Needle.  While the weather was not the greatest to where I could see Mt Raineir, I did have wonderful views from the top.  I was able to look out over the Puget Sound and the city of Seattle at a height of 605 feet.  The one thing that amazed me was the stability of the Needle.  I have been to the top of several tall buildings like the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Empire State Building in NYC and in almost all of them you could feel the building sway.  Today was a pretty windy day and I did not feel any sway whatsoever. 

There is something amazing about being able to see a city from up high.  There is a certain peace that seems to befall the cities when viewing from above.  A person can almost feel godlike as they witness the activities of the people below who go about their daily routines not knowing or realizing that they are being watched over from above. 

After I came down from the Space Needle I took a walk around the area and as I was walking along the water I was directed by a local that the houseboat out on the water was the same one that was in the movie Sleepless in Seattle.  I tried to act interested and appreciative of his pointing out this local fact but in reality I have never watched this chick flick to know if he was telling the truth or pulling my leg.  I guess now I will have to watch the movie to find out the truth. 

Speaking of Sleepless, I woke up at 4:30 am local time since I am not yet used to the time change.  My body thought it was 7:30 am Eastern still.  Even in Seattle, there is not much going on at 4:30 am.