- vendbien
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vendbien's Blog
Blue means 'Link'... Get with the program, people
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27Nov 09
NEWS BREAK: Phixed the PhotoBucket Thing,
Now on to My Little SCRUBBIES
Well this is a phine mess... when did the Phucks at PhoBuck decide to ex'pho'liate we occasional visitors??? Apparently in the last several weeks, as, out I am loathe to phind. (Lest the grammar gestapo stick their wee brains into the mix as well).Was going to wonder/wander on about the phact that one of my phaves, SCRUBS, has seen phit to launch yet a third time (coming to a TV near you, and mine on 12/1/09, ABC - check your local listings). Can't wait to see who has come back (the phour males I know and two of the cuter, 'new' phemales I can surmise).
I am phearful that this may turn out to be a 'Godphather III' situation, which would really, truly turn me ophph, as I still watch up to 10 SCRUBS reruns a week (can't help myselph). Have seen all episodes between phour times (the very most recent) and twenty (seasons II and III, anyone) times, and iph they mess too much with the basic dynamics, I am aphraid the whole body oph the work will be tainted.
But, enouph (?) railing... I am ophph to visit other bloggies and make snide remarks to all my droogies.
Later.
Jon
- Posted Nov 27, 2009 6:10 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 21 Comments
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2Oct 09
Howdy, FolKs (he said sheepishly)...I have been meaning to stop in for months and finally found the time, inspiration (and courage) to do so this afternoon (5pm, Fri 10-02-09 las vegas time).
I looked over my last blog and found that it is ONE FREAKIN YEAR (minus 2 feakin weeks) since my last post. Well, you coulda blown me over and tickled my fat a$$ with a feather duster... woulda guessed 4 or 5 months, tops.
Wanna say 'hey, do you still remember or give a $#i% about the old timer and how many of the old gang are still around'. I miss you guys and gals a lot because this was one of the few places I used to go where everyone knew my name and didn't care about trappings and all the peripheral crap that makes life a growing pain in the ar$e.
I started thinking about some sorta blog upon viewing the season-opening 2-hour HOUSE ep about 10 days ago (it was up-n-down) and how much it reminded me of one of my old faves ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (like I'm the only one) and how I'm seeing a shutdown of the series coming up soon (this season?),
Also, the only new series I'm seeing that seems to have good, crisp writing (haven't seen them all) is COMMUNITY - really well written and with a passable cast of sorts. Also like THE GOOD WIFE because I've suddenly developed a real, hard crush on Juliana Marguiles (who reminds me partially of that old girl friend -- i.e. friend who is a girl -- that I mentioned several blogs < and apparently, years > ago).
My lawsuit is winding down - still - and we're past the depositions and headed to negotiations before the end of the year. I'm now on permanent disability and walk with a cane (exactly like my old buddy Dr. G .House - I mean exact mirror image).
Just stopped in to say Hi... gimme a shout back.
(oh, yeah... Courtney's lookin pretty good in COUGARS, btw)
Love, Jon
p.s... My writing skills seem shot. There's no snap... there's no crackle... JD, it's got no pop (name that quote, all of you .commers)-o-
- Posted Oct 2, 2009 5:22 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 28 Comments
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14Oct 08
.
I am SOOOOOOOOOOO sorry.
I have been in my Rebel-Without-A-Cause / Howard-Hughes-Hermit Mode (for the last two months) and I have been as incommunicado as I have ever been in my life.
I hate the world (but not you guys) right now, and I'm punishing this planet by withdrawing from it.
I hope you all understand (especially any of you ladies who might have been thinking that you might consider sleeping with me - I am currently/surgically unable to finish the deal, although I am more than willing to start it).
I find myself in a RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE... not because I have run into further problems (except for the finishing-the-deal thing), but because this whole ordeal has dragged out, ad infitum.
My Mom (Me Mum for you UKers) is still alive and hangin in there (she's 88 - as you might remember) and I visited her a couple of weeks ago. To talk to her on the phone, you might guess she was in her 50's.
This is the first time I have felt the urge and the competency to really communicate to the 'outside' world in a long time. I hope you will understand/appreciate that I came here first. I love you all (especially any of you ladies who might have been thinking that you might consider sleeping with me).
There is (so much) more to come. Hope you will be patient... I actually do have quite a bit more to say - like I hate this new format.
Watch the sky.
.
Love, Jon
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- Posted Oct 14, 2008 10:25 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 30 Comments
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12Aug 08
.
So where have you all been this past week? I was worried about you guys.
Anyway...
Just stopped by tonight (Tues PST) to say that everything seems to be all right, but it has been a very strange 10 days or so (in an upish-downish-upish-downish kind of way).
Pretty tired at the moment, and feeling kind of dumb and dull. I hope to get a REAL blog up (and some blog-reading and comments) sometime tomorrow, and fill everyone in as best I can.
Thanks for all the PMs and comments - see you then...
o
Oh... and heard this earlier today, and for the first time in well over a year, I felt like getting up and...
.
... Jon
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- Posted Aug 12, 2008 10:36 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 63 Comments
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4Aug 08
.
Promised some updates on the past week... but this isn't gonna be as interesting as I had hoped. A lot of questions were answered this week concerning my health issues - but a number of new questions came up... so I'm still sort of in limbo.
o
In the meantime, my sisters called and said that my Mother suffered a stroke on Friday (a coupla days after the L.A. Earthquake - I talked to her that day, and she seemed in good spirits - then). My only niece (her only grand-daughter) is getting married in less than two weeks, and we think this has all been to much for Mom.
My sisters tell me that they can't see Mom getting out of the hospital anytime soon (or ever, really), so am trying to make plans to get down there in the next 10 days or so (it's the earliest I can make it and she is better now than a few days ago).
My sisters (younger) are quite overwhelmed by this sudden turn for my Mom, my current condition (I was always more than hale and hardy til now) and the upcoming wedding in San Francisco. I am trying to tell them that this is just one of those big bumps in the road that happens to all families eventually, and that we'll get through it in time. They are two very strong women, but I haven't been able to step in as the oldest and make everything right like I used to - so it's a little different this time around.
o
The surgery of May 22nd seems to have been quite a success as far as what it was supposed to achieve, but some of the complications to having been walking/limping around for the past 18 months still remain.
My lawyer is in the process of contacting all of the medical people to determine how much has been spent on all of this and how much more will be spent in the future so he can determine how much needs to be asked for.
I can see this whole thing taking up to a year to be resolved, so I'm not really jumping up and down (or bouncing up and down on my bed) with joy.
o
Still getting no response from my YouTube sites (I'm a registered user who brings them a lot of traffic)... can't even click on their HELP tab. I've had problems connecting to other sites before and I've always fixed them. In fact, I lost a number of sites back at the same time as YouTube and straightened all of those out immediately. Don't know why the Tube is beeing so obstinate, but it has taken away much of the joy of posting (as regular readers might imagine).
These truly are the dog-days of summer here.
o
I've also been informed that someone out there is not who they profess to be, and it really p*sses me off that people feel the need to do that. I'm not so bothered by it (I've been dealing with no-good, piece-of-garbage gamblers for 40 years), but there are others out there that might find this very hurtful.
Hope I can find a way to fix the YouTube thing (I've douched out my cookies and temp files, Tom) and tried to come at the site in more ways than suggested by the Kama Sutra... still no luck. It really diminishes my desire to post when I can't link some songs up.
o
WOW... what a downer blog. I'd just cancel it - but I've spent 40 minutes or so and it's one of the few constructive projects that I've managed to complete recently, so up it goes.
Later...
,,, Jon
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- Posted Aug 4, 2008 10:32 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 53 Comments
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30Jul 08
.
I'm half-way through the week (there was a little more to the first coupla days than I thought) and here's the partial report:
So far - so-so.
Remind me to write any further blogs in the evening. I have many more creative and interesting ideas in the evening - and they're still fresh in my mind. When I get up in the morning, I'm like a blank sheet of paper, these days (it's the drugs, I'm sure).
Really won't have a good idea about where all of this is heading til the end of the week (I guess - I hope).
That is all (that I can remember this morning).
(Did every paragraph contain at least one parenthetical comment... wow, my inner-monologue is on full-alert).
Jon
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- Posted Jul 30, 2008 9:50 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 31 Comments
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27Jul 08
.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o - o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Please visit LSS_Fanatic (Junk)
He's just suffered an unbelievable tragedy...
keep him and his family in your prayers.o-o-o-o-o-o-o - o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Big, Big, BIIGGG week comin' up for me.
Two Doctor's and one Lawyer's appointment (Mon, Wed, Fri) and a number of other little tasks in the next six days, so...
"May I please be excused," from spending more than just a little time here on tv.com 'til next Saturday or Sunday. I promise I'll stop in a coupla times to read some blogs (and recomment as needed). It's awfully important.
Thanks...
o
There is an amazing, two-hour documentary that will be replayed twice this Tuesday (here in the states) on the History Channel. It's called...
DVD Info
(I've got it on DVR and VHS)... and it is one of the most informative, entertaining and meaningful two hours of programming you could ever hope to watch. If you are a Human Being, on this planet, this is stuff that you just have to know.
Oh, you could go to University and spend four years majoring (and/or minoring) in: Astrophysics (the formation of our Galaxy, Solar System and Planet); Geophysics (how are planet has evolved over the past 4.5 billion years); Biology (how plant and animal life has evolved over the past 3.5 billion years); Climatology (earth has gone from being molten with no water to being encased in mile-thick ice 650 million years ago); Anthropology and Archeology (how humans have evolved and how dinosaurs roamed the earth and then were wiped out in a matter of weeks 65 million years ago), and several other lesser disciplines that would help put everything into better perspective.
Or... you could watch this program (two hours) and/or get the DVD (90 minutes) and skip the 40 hours or so a week for nine months a year for four to six years it would take to get basically the same information.
I'm sure you could also read three or four (really thick) books that might give you most of the information contained in this show, as well.
But whatever you do, make sure you avail yourself of this information. You owe it to yourself as an inhabitant of the world we live in.
How much did I like it...
I wrote my first Review - or submission -
in close to three months about it.o
Woke up early this morning and couldn't find much on TV until I surfed by Turner Cla$$ic Movies (it won't even let you type in the name of a network - sheesh) and saw where back-to-back Humphrey Bogart movies were playing.
As I was watching, first, Dark Passage (1947) and then High Sierra (1941 - Bogey was made up to look older in this one then the 1947 movie), I was kinda swept back into the 1940s as I saw all of the vintage cars as well as three locations that I have visited more than once in my lifetime (San Francisco, Arizona and the Sierra Nevadas).
Lauren Bacall was stunning in Dark Passage (as well as Key Largo and others), and it amazed me that these two fell in love, got married and from all reports were very happy together until Bogarts death (despite some 20 years difference in their age).
In High Sierra, if there was ever a 40ish, scrawny, little 5-6, 3-packs-a-day smoker who scared the hell out of you, it was Bogey. Oh, and I heard words like 'dame, soda-jerk and jitterbug' in this one.
In Dark Passage, if ever there was a stunning, 20ish 'dame/dish/skirt' to make you do whatever you had to so that you could meet in a romantic, seaside resort in Mexico at the end of the movie, it was Bacall.
Bogie and Bacall
(what a story - what a life)
Was gonna YouTube 'Key Largo'
but it won't load for me...
you should search it and listen...See you soon...
...Jon
p.s... is anyone else having a problem with YouTube? Everytime I click on it now, it says 'program not responding' and I have to close that browser entirely.
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- Posted Jul 27, 2008 10:11 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 31 Comments
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23Jul 08
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Let me join the ever-growing list of dot.commers who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with what's happening on this site.
o
These past three or so days, the people who run tv.com have not kept track of new views and percentage gains towards the next level. I have heard anecdotal evidence of increased rejections by moderators (with flimsy excuses, to boot) by numerous members - as well as warnings for fonts and colors used in blogs and cases of histories disappearing (and then sometimes reappearing).
Seems like...
I can tell you that when I awoke Sunday morning (PDT), my new views were at 162 and my percentage gain towards level 26 (I've been on level 25 for ever) was at 45%.
When I awoke today (Wednesday), those numbers had not changed. At about 10am my views readjusted to 71 new views (even though I posted a blog Sunday afternoon which would normally equate to a minimum of 300 new views for just Sunday and Monday). The 71 NVs would be what I would normally expect for Tuesday... the third day after a new post. My level % is still 45 (for the 4th consecutive day) even though I was on line and made close to 100 new posts the last four days.
Since the buyout a coupla months ago, the management of this site has gone to hell on many levels. Thank God we still have each other to rely on (several people have written Good-bye blogs in the last week because they can't take the abuse from the moderators anymore).
This has got to stop... more later.
---------------------
EDIT: Check out this...
...to get a better idea of some of the system and/or editor problems ocurring on this site. It stars our own
SPARKLE FARKLE...and...
Saw this last night in a rerun, and it reminded me of recent events - especially since the last guy to die had complained of numb feet (uh-oh) just before this clip started.
---------------------
o
On a different (lighter, brighter) note, I went to my primary doctor yesterday and it looks like I am near or at the end of my three or four doctor visits per month. I have one more visit with each of my three doctors scheduled... and then it's time to sit down with the lawyers and figure up what were gonna ask the cab company for.
o
As I often do, I stopped at my local watering hole on the way home and happened to sit one stool over from a regular who is there most times I drop in. I know him only as Randy (my middle name is Randall and I was called Randy until I went to high school when it changed to Jon - much to my delight).
Anyway, we became engaged in a 3-way conversation with the bartender (Mike), and I found out that Randy used to play with the Beach Boys and that Dennis Wilson (now deceased) was the best man at Randy's first wedding.
We started talking Rock 'n Roll (and Mike played several of the B-Boys songs on the juke box that he knew Randy had played on). I don't remember much (I never seem to, anymore), but we exchanged numerous anecdotes about RnR going back to the Sixties.
Here's one we talked about at great length (for some reason), and I found the only really, viable YouTube of it (it's shorter and liver and doesn't take 2 minutes to load).
Then I had a few more drinks... and things got a little blurry. More later (if I can remember)...
...Jon
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- Posted Jul 23, 2008 11:51 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 59 Comments
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20Jul 08
.
Well whaddya know... feelin pretty good for the second day in a row - even after running some errands and doing some chores yesterday. Maybe a sense of accomplishment is good for the soul (like everybody says).
Even made it to the store (I was foraging around through the cabinets looking for food the last few days cuz I couldn't get off me lazy arse to run up the street). While I was limping up and down the aisles, I heard a remake of an old Joni Mitchell favorite that I hadn't heard in a year or so. Then later that evening I heard another version of the same song while channel surfing (Two Weeks Notice) - and you know how I love coincidences,
Anyway... there's also a backstory to the singer of the first version that gives me one degree of separation from her. But let's hear the two renditions, first:
...and
o
Turns out that the first singer, Amy Grant, is married to an almost ex-brother-in-law of mine (have I told this one before?). Long story short...
AMY GRANT, VINCE GILL and CHILD
I was going with a girl (Chris Oliver of Sweethearts of the Rodeo) when her sister, Janis, started seeing country music singer, Vince Gill (he was more of a rocker back then). Janis and Vince got serious and ended up married (Chris and I, not so much), and had what all of the Memphis/Country people thought was the ideal marriage. Yah... Right.
Towards the end, Vince started having an affair with Amy (it was quite the scandal), both of their marriages broke up and then they married each other and have had at least one child. So I'm one degree separated from Amy (if you're reading, Amy, call me).
o
BTW... this is my third try at this blog (I was 90% done both times, and, I guess, tv.com decided that maybe they just don't want me writing blogs anymore).
And it hardly bothered me at all (bites tongue, whimpers and polishes the gun he hasn't used in years).
...Jon
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EDIT: In the past 16 hours, several good friends have written about the changes to this site - especially the moderation - and how they're not gonna take it anymore. I smell a boycott in the air.
More to come on this.ALSO: Has anyone heard from MarksVigil lately... he should have posted a G-Rated Blog 4 or 5 days ago.
UPDATE... heard he's fine, just real busy.
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- Posted Jul 20, 2008 8:06 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 55 Comments
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18Jul 08
.
While I was watching the British Open (THE Open for you UKers) yesterday, I finally got up the energy to write a blog that might have provided loads of entertainment for the reader.
I spent about two and a half hours loading about 30 pictures into it and - had it loaded properly - you folks would have had the opportunity to determine whether the photos were real or manipulated, internet-posted fakes (I missed 5 or 6 out of the 30 or so myself).
When I hit the 'Submit' button, here's what I got:
Errors:
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Topic:Needless to say, it was quite vexing. After trying several fixes, I just gave up and watched a little more TV before drugging myself to sleep early so I could catch THE Open at 6 a.m. this morning (it's one of my three favorite tournaments of the year, along with the U.S.Open and Masters... and yes, I'm aware that 6 a.m. this morning is superfluous - it just sounds a little bit earlier).
So, I am going to just plod away through what has become not only the doldrums of Summer, but the doldrums of my life, and still try to catch your folk's blogs (again, as best I can) and see where this very forgetable portion of my life takes me.
Veddy frustrating.
...Jon
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- Posted Jul 18, 2008 9:11 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 36 Comments
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12Jul 08
.
I see where a number of my friends list some of the Movies, TV programs, Books and Music they are enjoying at the moment... sounds like a good idea.
I feel like I've fallen behind (in general) here in the past two weeks. It could be all in my mind, but I've noticed that I keep putting things off (I hate that), and it gives me the feeling of too many tasks left undone.
Let's try to catch up.
o
What I'm watching...
GALAPAGOS... on National Geographic. It's a repeat of a 3-hour special and shows how the Islands were formed and how they've evolved. It's also where Charles Darwin got much of his inspiration and information for his Theory of Evolution, This stuff just knocks me out.
LAW & ORDER: CI... This has recently become my favorite of the three (and a half) different Dick Wolf franchises. I think the acting and plot lines are a little better than the others, these days.
o
What I'm Listening to...
THIN LIZZY... was the second song that played on the FM as I drove my friend back from the hospital. It had an entirely different meaning back when we'd run into each other in L.A. or here in Vegas. We're both (hopefully, temporarily) sporting canes and limps, and we just laughed out loud when we thought of how the times had changed.
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker
,,,Steely DanSTEELY DAN... Bad Sneakers really got me through a deconstruct/reconstruct episode in my life when I lived in Hermosa Beach and went into hermit-mode for a month or two. You could actually see the grooves worn down on the LP I was playing.
o
What I'm reading...
Your blogs and comments (as best I can).
Later...
Jon
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- Posted Jul 12, 2008 11:09 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 53 Comments
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10Jul 08
.
Promised some friends I'd do this - and wanted to see what happened anyway. Most of these were read in my High School and College years.
Several books that I read on my own should be on this list, but that's another story.
Two of my most-recommended books - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlen and Dragons of Eden (non-fiction) by Carl Sagan are not on this list. That's a shame... those are two books you should really read.
o
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (Changed my life forever)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (kept waiting for the pillow fights)
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (changed my life forever... again)
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - (we used to act them out in c!ass.. I got a number of juicy parts cuz I read well and threw in a little comedic slant)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks (Huh???)
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (wow... hit me like a ton of bricks - reread it several times
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot (missed this one by one of the first woman authors in history).
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (strangely enough... had seen the movie several times - didn't feel I needed to read).
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (Wanted to be FSF for awhile)
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (what a chore)
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (maybe most recent on this list...and have the movie to boot - what a trip)
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (big Waugh fan... he and George Eliot should have gotten married... that woulda caused some confusion. " I'd like to introduce you to a Mr. and Mrs. Waugh... George and Evelyn")
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (another real chore).
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (bunch a times including after White Rabbit came out - it wasn't just for kids).
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky shoulda got married... they could have bored each other to death).
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (missed this one).
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (like the sound of it)
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell (another life-changer)
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (and saw the movie)
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding (a real eye-opener when I was a kid).
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert (all of 'em... took a LOT of time)
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (I don't know why).
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (along with 1984 and Animal farm in short order - the priests didn't know the doors they were opening on these).
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Missing
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (mmm... Lolita)
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (and saw several movie versions).
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville (call me Ismael)
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker (again... saw enough movie versions).
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (sorry, Choc).
75. Ulysses - James Joyce (tried to right my own novella in this sty!e- stream of consciousness).
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (again... don't know why - and saw the movie)
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (and seen many many movie adaptations...
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White (don't remember a thing about it)
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (need to read this one)
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (My literature teacher was Fr. Doyle)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton (top 100???)
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (read a lot of Exupery at the time)
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole (sounds interesting
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (loved it).
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (didn't we already do this one)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (don't read books with Chocolate in the title - don't know why).
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (and I've eaten at Victor Hugo's in San Something, CA (EDIT: it was Mission Viejo, CA -sheesh my brain is turning into marshmallows - mmmm marshmallows)o
Looks like an even 50 (out of 99 - so I was 50-50 to have read the missing book).
Not bad for someone who finds it hard to sit through an hour and a half movie anymore.
Try it yourself... if you haven't read a lot of these, underline the ones you think you'd like to read (and hope someone comes out with a more updated list - some of these have been rendered obsolete).
o
I'll prob update this later with some more quips.
(Can't help myself)....Jon
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- Posted Jul 10, 2008 6:11 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 55 Comments
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8Jul 08
.
Just finished a rough, two-day stint of getting my buddy all set and to the hospital.
He's already come out of anasthesia and called me... he's gonna use the next three days as a mini vacation (with a suite and a balcony and 4 nurses he's ready to propose to).
As for me... I'm gonna nap on and off and get back to things tomorrow. Then I'll make my blog rounds (hope I don't miss any), try to keep from being eliminated in Joey's contest, and maybe take one of the tests that's been out there this past week or so.
Heard this one on the way from the hospital... it was kind of the theme song for our crew back then.
Catch you all tomorrow.
...Jon
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- Posted Jul 8, 2008 12:49 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 37 Comments
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5Jul 08
.
So I spent all day at my buddy's house because he's freakin out about having his own surgery on Tuesday.
It was tons of Last Will and Testament and Durable Power of Attorney stuff... plus all the keys to safes and bank and casino lock boxes. As the day wore on it got goofier and goofier - but it's his time for Tea (etc.) and Sympathy - so what the hell.
Afterwards, I had to stop at my local Watering Hole, just as a group at the other side of the bar played these next two songs... then I threw in a coupla my own.
So here's what this 'odd' group played:
(Kate Perry... never heard her before)
and...
She Hates Me
(kinda explicit... mature. Also never heard before)o
Then I played these:
and...
Nickleback 2
(kinda explicit)then...
The Core
(put this on in the background -
I used to put my speakers out my Hermosa Beach
windows and start a party every morning with this)...and finally (for some reason)
Panic in Detroit
(one of my two favorite David Bowie's)
and... the other
Guess I'm feelin a little frisky tonight...
... Jon
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- Posted Jul 5, 2008 9:39 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 54 Comments
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4Jul 08
.
It's July 4th here (God Bless America - please)
The ol US ain't doin to good right now... This song seems most appropriate at the moment ... (and a coupla tunes I heard right after... on the radio. Ohhh,ohh - on the radio).
but hey, - it's July 4th.
then...
I heard this..And this...
...and some more,
Like this...... and one more time...
,,, Jon
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- Posted Jul 4, 2008 12:02 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 35 Comments
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2Jul 08
.
The call came out of nowhere. She moved to New Mexico about a year ago to help open a new Indian Casino. Didn't realize how much I was gonna miss her.
Then she called early Tuesday afternoon and said she was in town and could I meet her for a few drinks. Thankfully I had just gotten out of the shower and had cleaned up a bit for my twice-weekly, get-out-of-the-house-for-whatever-reason sortee.
We met up the street (she asked if I was well enough to even leave the house)... apparently she had called a coupla mutual friends to see how I was doing.
I was (is there a better word than) thrilled and/or ecstatic. She looked as good or better than I ever remembered - and her light, crystal-blue eyes had me mesmerized. I had to make sure I didn't stare into them for too long.
She asked if and when I might be able to move to New Mexico and help her run the Poker Division at the new casino, either with or for her (the idea of 'for her' suddenly had a certain ring to it) at the same salary as her PLUS benefits and 'extras' (I didn't ask what).
In the two hours we were there a number of appropriate (to my thinking) songs played in the back ground... here's one:
After she left for the airport, I thought of a couple of other songs that I would have played (but I just can't show my hole cards that easily... It's not my nature).
Here's one that immediately came to mind - I played it a coupla times before I went back home.
o
I didn't sleep that well last night...
,,, Jon
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- Posted Jul 2, 2008 2:09 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 44 Comments
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29Jun 08
.
There's a nice little 'Quiz' going around where members divulge 10 little or unknown facts about themselves (Oddities? Quirks? Dreams? Secrets? Fetishes? - let your conscience be your guide), which allows your dotcom friends to learn a little bit more about you.
I was 'tagged' by British Royalty (the Count Thomas Simon Chocula), so I am forced by commonwealth protocol (I think) to execute this task.
So let's do this thing:
•1) My full name is Jon Randall V****, (that's funny... the site censored my last name), and I was born in Oak Park, IL (in a duplex owned by the Hemingway Family) a long, looong time ago.
•2) My dream was to be a championship baseball player 6 months a year; a rock 'n roll star during the off-season, and then run for president shortly after retiring from baseball at the age of 35 (check, check and check).
•3) I still have the same taste in women as I had in my late teens and early 20s (though I seem to have lost my allure in the meantime - most of 'em call me Sir or Mister).
click pic for Twiggy•4) My favorite band throughout the years has been Steely Dan, because their lyrics and my life seemed to be intertwined for four or five consecutive albums.
•5) I love the smell of Napalm in the morning (filler).
•6) My perfect retirement would be to play golf, go out and eat and have a coupla drinks two or three times a week after trading a few stocks in the early morning. Oh... and I'd probably want to play some poker once or twice a month (after solving all of the world's problems, of course).
•7) I've read every James Bond book by Ian Fleming between three and six times. I even read the first Kingsley Amis / James Bond offering twice before realizing it wasn't gonna work out. (C'mon, Ian and I were like................................. this).
Ian•8 ) Other than my Mom, two sisters and their kids, I haven't seen or heard from another blood relative in 10 years or so (not sure how many are still out there - we're a dying breed).
•9) In 2006, I got off work with about Two Grand in my pocket (and a day off coming) and gambled all night - and drank my A$$ off - until I found myself down to $18 and took a cab home. When I finally woke up the next day, I found a 4-team, $500 parlay baseball ticket in the shirt I had worn that night (still don't remember making that bet). All teams won and the ticket paid $4950.00... whew.
Elaine and Jerry•10) I've 'faked it' before... you know, if we had nice seats at the theatre or if I'm just tired and it's enough already. BONUS: I've yadda-yadda'd it, too
And now you know as much about me as I do.... Jon
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- Posted Jun 29, 2008 6:14 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 58 Comments
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27Jun 08
.
As you may have noticed, haven't blogged since last weekend... haven't had much to say.
(Let me thank everyone for the wonderful response
to Bloggie #100 last week. It meant a lot).Hate to be a whiner or complainer, but...
There is a secondary medical syndrome that set in some months ago and it has been aggravated by the surgery of last month. Turns out that the right foot, because of lack of sensation over the past 18 months, has developed a condition known as Charcot's Joint whereby the bones in an around the arch of the foot slowly break down from damage done that I couldn't even feel happening.
Now the left foot is experiencing the same problem because it is being used in a different way then it was intended and has been carrying much more weight than it was meant to.
I'm temporarily going for Hydrothereapy (and of course a new round of drugs), three times a week. They're telling me that the only real treatment for it is surgery - Blecchh. Otherwise it will require a lifetime of treatment that addresses the symptoms, but never really fixes the problem.
Oh, yah... and the cooling fan on my lappie went out so I either have to get it fixed or get a cooling pad. Otherwise, it just heats up and shuts down right in the middle of things... which makes me want to throw it over the balcony (along with myself).
Between all of the drugs and the thought of never getting better without some more surgeries... I'm not in a very 'chatty' mood right now. Unless I really drug up, the pain above the arch - on the top of the foot - is buggin the f**k out of me.
It's just a phase for right now, but there's no real end in sight. The doctors and my lawyer (and me) are scratching our heads to figure out what to do about it. In the meantime, I'm the guy who's all drugged up and in pain.
It's kind of putting a real drag on things here (plus the WSOP is in full bloom about a mile down the street - and I'm not there).
o
In the meantime,
Mary
(angelsxo)Is having a much worse time of it then I am. Please drop in and give her a shout.
.
... Jon
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- Posted Jun 27, 2008 9:19 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 44 Comments
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22Jun 08
See what we did there
.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
died Sunday night.
Kinda puts a damper on thingsHe just appeared last weekend here in Vegas at the Orleans Hotel and Casino (about a mile away)... I was tempted to go, but I'm just not in shape for that, yet.
Wish I woulda.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
.
.
OMG !!! I am so honored that you have chosen me to write my 100th Blog... I will cherish this moment forever.
- But First -
A little tip o' the Green, See-Through, Smoke-Stained Visor to the History Channel for playing the absolute best of MEGA DISASTERS on Sunday, with new, seldom-seen or updated episodes of how the world coulda, woulda, shoulda ended.
It really made my lifetime worth living.
-o-
Now, to push on with the task at hand.
(What to do, what to do)?How's about a retrospective of key (not best, but key) blogs along the way. OK he said, enthusiastically.
So here they are (about 20 to 25 blogs apart) - a look back on the panorama (it's only been about 51/2 months since the first one) that is vendbien.
-o-
(Note the fanaticism, pedanticism...
and number of comments).Shortly thereafter, I would get my first commenter and friend, Jen (Big_Haircut82) who correctly answered my first Quiz Question, and then Tom (Count_Chocula)...
SweetPeaSurry, CSINO1FAN and UnaLovesU2 rounded out the first five (I think, and in that order).
.
My first double-digit comment blog, with a very sage, prescient prediction about the next coupla months of TV.
I re-read it and felt like a teenager (with acne) again..
Didn't know it at the time...
This was during my heavy-music-link days,
and it followed some faux pas I had just made.
(coincidentally, just read the comments, and
it was the day Tish and I formally met after bumping
into each other on Lin's blog a coupla times)..
Shortly after the death of a friend, with the walls closing in on me,
I just couldn't take it anymore... remember?
Oh, and btw, there's a link in this blog that refers to the previous coincidence blog.
(What a coincidence)..
(Originally, I was going to show the slow aging process
by depicting Sean Connery throughout his career.
Didn't quite work out that way, but at least YOU get the picture),
Always a c!assic... it's been resized a coupla times to suit different purposes. Still can't believe we made it to 517 (so far).
EDIT: It's now up to at least 555..
...and my
Favorite Blog
of all timeWell, not my favorite, but certainly my most recent.
.
Glad we could do this... I envision more of these in the future. Doesn't it seem like a lot longer since the first one?
This will be a work in progress, with a coupla edits along the way. Hope all of the links in the above blogs are still in good working order.
Maybe, in a few months (if you're all good boys and girls), I'll do a blog of My Favorite Blogs of all time.
Oh, and I expect to get my 20,000th view before this blog is replaced, so... woohoo (cough, wheeze).
Until then... whatever.
...Jon
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- Posted Jun 22, 2008 10:24 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 78 Comments
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21Jun 08
You guys are so easy (especially you girls).
Scroll down to the top of the previous blog.
( And, no, I don't want to hear the one about 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' ).
p.s... What a weekend for those who watch the Discovery, History, Science and Nat-Geo channels.
Anonymous
- Posted Jun 21, 2008 10:25 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 35 Comments
