Right after I made those 2 posts on the previous page, I went to a Kwik Kar down the street and got Ludwig (van) inspected. In Texas you have to get inspection and registration once a year. So I'm sitting there waiting (Ludwig sailed through at 250,128 miles) and I decided to pick up a current celebrity gossip magazine that is on the high-end of the glossy-finish news stand spectrum. They show a lot of skin but not enough to officially be termed offensive. Just suggestive. Anyway, there isn't one photo in that whole magazine, and it's mostly photos, that wasn't doctored in Photoshop. Every single picture was run through an edit session to make every single person look absolutely perfect in an absolutely perfect atmosphere. As a man, I consider those directives harmless but they do have an influence over a lot of women who constantly worry about and aspire to the young, skinny, sexy and beautiful ideal that they get hyped with all the time. Pictures in magazines to me are a representation of, an idea of, a take on...what's really there. The ones that concern me are in the two main competing news and political magazines, one is right-wing and one is left-wing. Their stuff contrasts sharply, and it was there that I first discovered the game going on behind the up-front printed media we buy, read, believe, live by, etc...I just don't trust any of them anymore. Not the pictures, anyway. Cheers, WC1

A little story to accompany some of this stuff...On November 21, 1963, I was in San Antonio in a seminary, studying to become a missionary priest. Can't say I was studying, really...but I was there. The big event was that the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was coming to town for a few hours and his motorcade was going to be rolling in just on the other side of Trinity University, which was next door to the seminary I was in. We were allowed to go down to the motorcade route to witness the great man as he went past. Included in that parade was the Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson and the Governor of Texas, John B. Connelly, along with all their wives and a big-time police escort with Secret Service agents in tow. We all went down to that street, I don't remember the name of the street, but it was a winding 4-lane street that went North to South and passed into Breckenridge Park. I went off by myself, away from the crowd of seminarians that were going to cheer the King when he went past us. There was nobody for 50 feet on either side of me. So here they come, in exactly the same formation and order that they were in the next day in Dallas. They were going about 15 mph, the sun was shining, it was a beautiful scene on a beautiful day. I started jumping up and down, waving and yelling "Mister President! Mister Kennedy!" He and his wife turned and looked at me, smiling. He raised his hand and pointed at me when they got close and he said "Hi, Son!" Whoosh, they went past and were off into the future. That was a shining, timeless moment in my life. 24 hours later, he was gunned down, and the world changed instantly into an out-of-control, swirling supernova of wacked-out mayhem that over time came to be known as "The Sixties". I had decided before that happened that I did not have a vocation as a priest after all, but I finished the year in the seminary out of a sense of duty and obligation to the people who were supporting me: my family and my teachers (my friends all told me I was crazy). The other day my wife asked me why I changed my mind about becoming a priest. I told her because I knew I couldn't live with the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. She said, oh, well...I said, That's how everything worked out anyway, but at least now I have kids! Then I had to duck the flying vase... Cheers, WC1

I have wondered about that Oswald photo.


Sounds like you made a good choice not to become a priest, after all you have a lovely wife and a great family.
I think you found your true vocation!

You're right, Carl. Hope your neck is healing well. I hate it when that happens. I can relate...I've had stuff happen to me in the last 3 years that would never have happened in my "younger" days. Should call it "younger daze". I'm paying the price now for decades of tempting fate with reckless abandon. I still push myself with overlapping schedules, impossible deadlines and committments too far-reaching to live up to, and it spells out S-T-R-E-S-S. I try to laugh it off when it starts getting the best of me and that works at least to keep my demons at arm's length.

And oh yeah, Debby is beautiful. I fell in love with her the first time I laid eyes on her. It wasn't mutual, but over time she gradually took a liking to me (she dug my band) and we hooked up in '82...it was a rock 'n roll fairy tale...we broke up several times, got back together, got married, got divorced for 10 years and then got back together and got married again. While we were divorced, we'd get back together for a while, break off our other relationships with other people, etc., then split up again, but we didn't figure out how to stay together until we just started hanging out with each other as friends. That's when we started liking each other just as we are individually and we preferred each other's company...we counseled each other, consoled each other, compared our love interests with no underlying current of disenchantment...the same way we'd talk to one of our trusted friends. That's when a mutual respect and longing for that spiritual connection became the most important feature of our relationship. We were able to get things worked out. It was a blessing for us both. No doubt, she's a Babe. Guys followed her back to me. Most of them were polite, well-mannered gentlemen, they treated both me and her with respect, and I could see they were concerned about Debby's happiness and well-being, so I couldn't be a jerk and tell them to get lost. I understood how they felt. They were good guys and they let me know they're not trying to steal her back, they just wanted to make sure she's in good hands, so to speak...I felt lucky because she came back and made me her life partner...but it wasn't that way with my girlfriend...Debby didn't like her and she didn't like Debby...and when I got back with Debby, it wasn't a very nice scene on that side of the deal...I kind of grin to myself when I remember how that went down...but what's in the past is in the past. I wouldn't recommend any of it, that's just how our lives have intertwined. If I was a priest, I'd have never had all that fun. I guess it was my way of overcoming the Calvinistic guit-trip that got laid on me to pursue the priesthood in the first place and later from having rejected it. I'll have to take the time to figure that out some day...in the next life (I'm hoping I can come back as a rich lady's cat...but with my luck I'll probably come back as myself)...anyway, it's all good. It's a wonderful party. Gonna crank up the audiocast now and do some graphics this afternoon. I'm rooting for the Sarge. I was against them last year but now I'm on their side...Cheers, WC1

There's a major Photoshop flaw on the cover of W magazine this month. Demi Moore's hip got indented instead of smoothed back, and she and some critics are riled up about it. Cheers, WC1
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/a-line/demi- ... ver/306?nc

For a while, a lady named Amy was singing with the band. She was a doll-face and a joy to be around, and she could sing her ass off. We had large fun. We played an opening of a Yoga center in near Northwest Houston in 2002 and a friend of mine showed up and took pictures. After Amy saw them, she emailed me..."can you make my thighs thinner? Please! I don't want those pictures getting around!" I said baby, there ain't nothing wrong with your thighs. They look great. She said no, I want skinnier thighs. Please, do me. So I did her. Whew. I told her later, don't let your husband come after me...I know you as good as he does now...down there...she said lmao. Anyway, here's what I did to Amy. Cheers, WC1

Very nice!!!

Glad her husband didn't mind

Thanks...we're friends on Facebook. Working with her was fun because she's a rock n' roll maniac and she never had a problem being up there...she showed it off...and she never required special treatment, she was one of the guys. I got to be friends with her parents and husband, they're good people.

Here are a couple of pics of the thingamajig. As you can see, it's broken where it hooks up to the whatchamacallit. Cheers, WC1

It hooks up to the flip-flop dealie underneath that apron, which is attached to the firewall by 5 or 6 odd-looking bolts (to the right of and below the unit in the picture)...the wiper motor works...it does what it's supposed to do. But apparently if one wiper thing is broken, they both work in synch so the other one doesn't move at all. It's that metal bracket that the damn thing is attached to...

Looks like you need to get the whole nine yards.

Probably not the motor thing but everything else.

Well, maybe not new wipers.

Are the wipers worn? They may also need replaced.

Yep, the whole nine yards it looks to me like.

That's what I'm thinking, too. Thanks for the tip....WC1

We were talking about Photoshopped magazine covers a while back. This one just came out and I thought it would be a good example of painting a slant on somebody who's under the microscope...I have included the link to the article. Enjoy! This picture is heavily Photoshopped. The only thing they could have added would have been a herpes sore on his lip or maybe bags under his already bloodshot-added eyes...maybe a subliminal image inside his corneas of a naked chick. Anyway, whatever your opinion is of this guy, he sure got whacked this time for what he's been doing! Cheers, WC1
The link to the article:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1169185/index.htm
The picture:

Nick graduates in a couple of weeks and I made this announcement. Debby wants the standard printed announcement but I made this. She wanted a picture of him smiling. I told her, he is smiling. Cheers, WC1

lol, that is cool...

WildcatOne wrote:Nick graduates in a couple of weeks and I made this announcement. Debby wants the standard printed announcement but I made this. She wanted a picture of him smiling. I told her, he is smiling. Cheers, WC1

Looks cool and Congratulations Nick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!