The wonders of womanhood

Kyle keeps me from touching the soundboard... again. Darn that Kyle and his cat-like reflexes!
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Just my meandering thoughts

Just to cap off the weirdness that has been today, here's three baby chicks on a desk in the office. I bet I can fit at least two in my mouth without noticable discomfort.
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This is Evan, my fifth grade guide for Career Day at Langston Chapel Elementary School on Tuesday. Not only is he the spelling champ for Bulloch County (I offered him a job at the Herald writing sports headlines), but he's also got the patience to listen to my same tired stories four times in a row.
Copyright Jake Hallman/all rights reserved

Not pictured: The other eight apostles.
Copyright Jake Hallman/all rights reserved

True, true.

I am so getting one of these shirts to wear on stage.

This is Eric Lee Beddingfield riding a mechanical bull at the Pi Kappa Phi house in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I rode it first, and I rode it pretty good, but, alas, digital SLRs are a little too complex to simply hand to someone and go "get a shot of this shit!" Bonus points to anyone who can identify exactly which fingers (special bonus for which knuckles) I took the skin off of whilst riding for my eight seconds. That's eight out of two rides, mind you...
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This is Bobby. Can you guess what Bobby does with my new adopted family, County Line?.
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Blocks and house payments

That's right, this is a big ol' truck on frickin' blocks in the yard of my house.

To be completely honest, it's on the side of the duplex that I don't live in, but it still bothers me. This only solidifies my conviction to speak with my landlord this week about the possibility of buying the home.

I bet if I suddenly went from being "the annoying old guy on the other side of the house" to "the annoying landlord on the other side of the house" they'd pay me a little more respect, dangit.

Plus, they'd be paying my mortgage...
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I'm pretty sure this is how all of us felt after the 12-hour odyssey that was Chris Mitchell and Ashlee Bartels' wedding Saturday. She's really a very lovely girl, and he's a very lucky guy.
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Here's why I liked playing in Auburn, Alabama with County Line. You can't tell in the picture, but they're dressed like schoolgirls. And they seem to like one another.
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Two DVDs (and a microphone...)

Lesson learned for the day:

Never, ever tempt a man who is the keeper of the off-site backup for your photo collection.

There's a story behind the picture linked above, too. Y'see, I was a somewhat rebellious youth, and had no compunctions about wearing tie-dyed t-shirts, growing my hair out and even wearing a cool li'l peace sign necklace.

I'm about 16 years old in that picture, by the way. It was taken the summer before my senior year at Claxton High School when I was at the Governor's Honors Program at Valdosta State University.

Cropped out is the very nice flute player named Leah that I was friends with. Eddie's probably also got the pictures of Stephanie Kampfer in the archive, too... now she was a hottie!

The pain!

Nothing's sadder than good writers who have to post pictures of their cat in their blog just to get attention.

So here's a picture of Eric Lee Beddingfield. There's a joke in there somewhere involving Eric and synonyms for "cat," but I'm checking myself right here and now.
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Read the cutline for the picture below this one. Contest time!
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Yes, that's me in a Humvee. And with a helmet on. Triple points to whoever makes the best story in the "comments" section incorporating the two pictures. People who actually know what I was doing are disqualified. Be creative, folks.
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Tuesday, part 1

Self-portrait, unhappy in room 110 at the McDonough, Ga. Days Inn.
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Tuesday, part 2

The reason I'm unhappy. Yes, that's my car.
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Beetle Bailey and the decline of Indian civilization.

Today's Beetle Bailey sunday cartoon was sad! You can't have a sad Beetle Bailey cartoon!

Must be some kind of subtle anti-war protest on the part of the Walker family, I guess.

Sorry I couldn't provide a link straight to the cartoon - they're a couple of weeks behind on the official Beetle site. My search for the link did provide me with some history on Private Bailey, however.

He entered college in 1950, and the next year he screwed up and enlisted in the Army just in time for the Korean Conflict. I don't know that Beetle's ever served anywhere but stateside, but... geez... 54 years as a private?

Can you imagine what kinds of acts go on outside the funny pages that keep Beetle and his cohorts from getting any promotions for a half-century?

Things like... (links definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

(or sanity)

this,

this,

or (Dear sweet Jesus!) this.

I know that last one is "ahht", but... wow. How much time did they spend carving that?

Where was I? Oh yeah - can you imagine what would have happened if the kids from Camp Swampy had run Abu Gharib?

Maybe the Iraqis got off light by not having Private Bailey overseeing the prison. Speaking of hazing, turns out that Beetle and company were based on some frat boys.

There was brief discussion about making this our front page tease for the entertainment page. Kathy, probably wisely, felt that it would cause some uproar.

I love the shot, though... no pun intended. It's Jonathan Murphy as "Ralph Rackstraw" in the GSU Opera production of "H.M.S. Pinafore."
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