Category Archives: Personal

Fish and Fasting: the life of a Catholic during Lent

Well, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.  Per the ol’ Code of Canon Law, all us Catholics who are between 18 and 59 are supposed to fast and participate in abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays throughout Lent.  Fasting is an interesting thing; to me, fasting would seem to mean the absence of food.  The Catholic Church thinks that fasting is “one full meal during the day.”  And a light snacks for breakfast.  And maybe a snack in the afternoon. Or in the evening.  This is the kinder, gentler Church, I suppose.

According the the American Catholic, in addition to fish it’s still okay to eat eggs, milk products or condiments that are made from animal fat; chicken broth is okay, gravies are fine, sauces flavored with meat are coolio, butter, margarine, and lard – the staples of the American kitchen are “permissible,” and se can even slather even bacon drippings on our Lenten lettuce for a tasty salad – even if said dripping include bits of meat. Continue reading

Another Spectacular time-lapse video of Yosemite by Project Yosemite

A 200+ mile backpacking experience through Yosemite National Park captured by Colin Delehanty and Sheldon Neill. This project was filmed over the course of 10 months. We spent a combined 45 days in the park capturing the images in this video.

To view the entire story, please visit projectyose.com or facebook.com/projectyose

Special thanks to borrowlenses.comdynamicperception.com and mountainhardwear.com for their support.

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Put Snoopy the beagle on your license plate!

snoopyplateThere’s a program that’s just getting started that helps put money towards California’s museums and lets you let everyone know you love Snoopy.  If you’re a beagle lover, this is definitely something you should look into.  From the press release:

SNOOPY LICENSE PLATES NOW AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC

Proceeds to benefit California museums

A program is now fully underway to put the beloved beagle on California license plates, and help fund the state’s museums at the same time. The special license plate, available for pre-order now at www.snoopyplate.com, will feature a reproduction of an original drawing of Snoopy by Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz.

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J.A. Konrath: Fisking Donald Maass

Oh. My. Goodness.

My favorite author has just spanked the Emerald City Doorman hard enough that it’s going to leave a mark.  And Mr. Maass is going to have a severe limp for quite awhile!

It’s no secret that I am an indie-publishing heretic, posting often and everywhere about how every author should look into getting themselves published without getting ridden hard and put away wet by a legacy publishing dinosaur (that’ll give you a limp for sure!).  But no one – NO ONE – takes the publishing industry or their flan-boys to task better, cleaner, and more beautifully than Mr. Konrath.

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1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe preserved by Library of Congress

CSX2287 and I have had a long and tumultuous relationship.  I have been deeply involved with Cobras, Daytonas, and GT40s since I made a mistake and sold a car for much less than I should have.  Once you make a really expensive mistake like that, you either hate your stupidity or you gain the kind of knowledge necessary so that you NEVER EVER make that mistake again.  So I learned about these cars.  I learned everything.  I knew every car in the Southern California area – who owned it, who made it – just by the sound the car made as it drove.

At one point, I found out that this particular car was somewhere in Southern California, and that – if I could find it – I’d be paid a handsome finders fee. 

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