Seth Lamble

Been reading about the issue of whether or not Bert and Ernie should get married, due to the underlying idea that they are gay and that it would promote a greater acceptance of same-sex marriage. My issue with that is that none of the other main muppet caste is married so why should Bert and Ernie marry. As one news story points out that having them marry does cause Sesame Street to become much more politicized then it has in the past. Generally its views were always more subtly promoted. I also believe it would promote greater acceptance of homosexuality for it to turn out one of them to be gay, and the other not, to show that gay people and straight people can live together without any issue.

Personally when I was a tike I just assumed they were brothers, but I have been called naive and innocent fairly frequently.

Happy Fathers day Poppa Bear

It is my 29th birthday, sadly no birthday cake like in Office Space, but I do have my stapler.

I have passed my thesis defense, and now I recommend referring to me as Master Seth Lamble or Master of the Universe.

I thought number 3 was perfect for my brothers, so if you guys use that line tomorrow, I expect aknowledgement. And if you are a member of this family you should know where the last one was used. As a hint it was in the second movie of the first trilogy.

1. You are the syrup on my waffles.

2. Um. So. Yeah. 100%.

3. I don’t care if I have to wield a pitchfork with one hand, and a roaring chainsaw with the other, no zombies will ever eat your brains. Not while I live.

4. My pillows smell so much better when you’ve slept on them.

5. I read every single one of your tweets.

6. I wish you were key-chain sized. I’d put you in my pocket and take you everywhere.

7. Even if you forget who I am when we’re old and fat, I’ll still come to visit you and read your stuff, just like in that stupid movie that always makes you cry.

8. If you want to be with another guy, that’s totally cool. I’ll just spend the rest of my life sitting on a bar stool, nursing a beer and hoping the glow of the jukebox playing our song over and over masks my red, swollen eyes.

9. From the moment I met you, I’ve wanted you and that hasn’t changed. Never will.

10. I have brought you meat, the roses of the caveman! Now, I will make FIRE!

11. I had this dream the other night. I was stumbling through a forest at night. It was dark and I couldn’t see where I was going and in the distance I could hear wolves howling. Then the cloud cleared and the moon illuminated a path to a village. Only it wasn’t a moon. It was your beautiful face, glowing silver against the night sky. What the heck do you think THAT means?

12. I am a grown man, but I have to be honest: you’re my personal night light.

13. G’head. Take the last beer.

14. Here’s a baseball bat. Just hide it under your bed while I’m away on business.

15. As a Vulcan, I recognize the significance of a quickened heartbeat, sweaty palms and heightened activity in my brain’s pleasure centers when you are around. However, I do not fully comprehend why I feel compelled to kiss you nonstop. I find it … fascinating.

16. I am perfectly happy co-depending on you.

17. When I was a kid, there was this amusement park that had a ride that would spin you around really fast. It was so much fun. I’d ride that thing all day, and every time I’d get off it, I’d be laughing but thinking I was going to puke. All day long: laughing while on the verge of vomiting. That’s how I feel right now.

18. Your face tastes like cake and dynamite. Dynacake!

19. I have a lifetime subscription to You Magazine, the magazine about you, for me. By the way, you look stunning on the cover, just like every month.

20. You had me at, “Who are you?”

21. I wrote you this poem: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art so hot.”

22. I want to be your personal airbag.

23. I know

It is funny, a certain grouping of people I know hate ‘revisionist’ history. Many have similar outlooks as those on the Texas board of education. Revisionist history of the United States is bad, it casts us in a bad light, tearing down of many of our heros and sacred history. In many ways I consider history scientific, in that it requires constant study and consideration to get at the answers.

This post is about something I have been hearing about frequently since living in this little corner of the midwest. This is that the Civil War was no about slavery. That it was about states rights versus federal rights. I always want to point out to those people was that the right that the states wanted to preserve was the right to own slaves. Which was a direct violation of the spirit of the Founding Fathers. Don’t even bring them up around here though. The North was full of a bunch of a$$holes that were trampling the poor rights of the South. Just like gay people wanting to adopt children or be married, in the eyes of the government, are trampling on the rights of straight people I suspect.

Another defense I have heard, is that slaves didn’t have it so bad in America. Since we are such a phenomenal Capitalist country, and capitalism is perfect with no flaws, hadn’t it pretty nice. This is because slaves are property and as property a good capitalist wouldn’t have abused his/her slaves. They would have treated them very well and given them all the rights and privileges as a free person. I know most of my information on the treatment of slaves comes from movies, and those are alway 100% accurate, but I doubt it was hunky doory for the slaves. Even for those that were treated like family, still had no rights, could not leave, did not have the freedoms that the Sons of the Confederacy now claim were what the war was all about. The same people that say slaves were happy being part of the family, are the same people that say a prostitute they paid for sex, loves them.

The Daily Show points out how in the very declaration of the South for the secession, that the reason for the civil war cited by those secceeding was all about Slavery.

It has also been pointed out that Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union (which if you read the first pharagrph of the first link you will see we were no longer a Union but a Nation). He said that if he could free every slave to save the union he would, if keeping every slave a slave would save the union he would and if somewhere in between would save the union he would. Now in my opinion the writing was on the wall, slaver/abolition was on its way one way or the other. And certain elements of the South, having one so many presidency’s and control of congress for so long, were seeing their dominance disappearring. In the end possibly what the South said was the cause of the civil war in their own declaration of secession (I should probably learn how to spell that correctly) may not be the entirety of the answer, but I am betting it is 80% of the answer.

Soooo, I have had a hard time trying to figure our how to do with a certain situation I have been put in twice in the past week.

The first instance was while I was performing work for a new research project. I was conducting a phone survey of companies that perform a certain function in California. I was told by one of the companies that they did not have the information that I needed and I would have to contact their parent company in another region of the country. So the next day I made a phone call to said parent company. The conversation was as thus:

Me: Hello my Name is Seth, I am a graduate student working a research project concerning ______. I was wondering if I could talk to someone about what is sold and installed in California.
Phone Person: I am sorry you are going to have to contact our office in California about that.
Me: I did and they told me I should contact the main office.
Phone Person: No they didn’t.
Me: Um Ok, Uh Thanks.

So yeah I didn’t really know how to respond to that, beyond a Uh Huh, Na Uh battle.

Today I went to one of the local wineries to find out if they ship internationally. I had checked online, and in the order area the orderie was able to select the country they wished to ship to. But when I continued with the ordering process the cost to ship to Canada (I chose a country at random) was the same as to ship to Rolla (5 miles away). So I was a little suspicious and I went to the winery in person to find out if this was true. The ladies working the wine tasting area responded to my query with:

Me: Hey do you all ship internationally.
Ladies: No
Me: Ok, just checking your website allows you to choose which country you want to ship to while you ordering, but it cost the same as shipping locally, so I wanted to make sure, thanks.
Ladies: No it doesn’t, our website does not allow you to ship internationally.
Me: Um ok

In both cases how would you all recommend I respond in the above situations?

Oh P.S. photo of the website indeed letting you choose the country you wish to ship to.

P.S.S. No photo, the upload program doesn’t like my files apparently.

This past Sunday I did what I have done several times in the past and drove several other graduate students around the five local wineries. I am no wine expert so most of my commentary is going to be dedicated to the wineries and scenery themself as opposed to the wines, plus since I was driving I wasn’t trying everything.

We started off at Meramec Vineyards where I managed to take apart and reassemble two wooden puzzles, one of a wine glass and the other of a wine bottle, while my four compatriots tried the various wines available. Meramec is nice in that it is the only one of the five that has regular sit down meals. There is also a small garden (not always well tended) that people can sit in or view from the wine drinking areas. The wine tasting is done at a bar, with at least one server there to pour and discuss the various wines. I don’t actually know what the proper term is for the individual who pours the wine, so I am going with server, sorry if it is derogatory to those of said profession.

From there we traveled to Three Squirrels (formerly Ferrigino’s) which came under new management a year or two ago and underwent rennovations for awhile after that. They are down the same road as Meramec, about 2 miles farther along and the winery is built into an old barn. The interior is nice, featuring local artists on the walls, more than a few of which I have though about buying, if I win the lottery (as pop always says). I really enjoy the seating location, the most of the five wineries, it looks out over the vineyards and is very nice at any time of the year (if the weather permits) . The wine tasting area is once again a bar like area with a server there to discuss the various wines. The owner was the server the first time I went (after new management) and he was around, though not serving, this time also happily discussing the plans for the winery and the wines.

Heinrichshaus is awesome simply because its website plays classical music when you enter it. This is the second most difficult winery to reach in the “st james” area. Either having to pass through St James proper or via country rodes to reach. Everytime I have been to this winery one of the owners has been the server (Husband or Wife). The first time I, and several other people, have driven out there it is easy to miss. The winery itself is in an older farm building set back among some trees. The doorbell is a walkie talkie set in a water resistant box. They don’t have a lot of wines but they show a lot of interest in there guests and educating their guests about the wines. They also have a big old german shepard (Rudy) who is sometimes around. This is my second (though only by a narrow margin) favorite winery in the area. The wine tasting is done in the winery around a little wooden table, surrounded by old wine bottles and the awards that have been won. While the seating area is out around a few picnic tables under the tree canopy.

Peaceful Bend is my favorite winery, but it is also the farthest (and hence the most difficult for graduate students with there goldfish scale attention spans) to reach. It is set pretty far back from any of the main roads, and down the hill is the Meramec river and the peaceful bend that the winery has chosen its name from. The winery like Three Squirrels hosts local artists and has been host to several music and artistic events, that I have heard about but never had a chance to attend. The wine tasting area is done indoors around a bar area, with at least one of the owners pouring and talking about the wines. They have two large dogs (labs) that are friendly when you get out of the car and often come to view the wine tasting. The wines here range from very dry to very sweet, and being a wine wussie I am able to try the sweet wines. There is a little bit of seating inside, and a lot of seating outdoors, with areas for cooking from the above mentioned events.

St James Winery was the last winery we reached (though its proximity to Rolla, and ease of access would suggest it is one of the first). St James has nice seating outdoors, with vine drapped seating areas, to enjoy the shade while drinking your wine. Indoors the wine is a serve yourself bar area, where you have your ID checked and your hand stamped. The servers that watch over the bar, are knowledgeable though they prefer to allow the wine tasters to explore the wines without interruption. St James is nice because it has a large selection (largest?) and it has wines (booze) made from other fruits, besides grapes. Last time I was there, they had Peach, Strawberry, Blackberry, and Cherry wines. Plus they have non-alcoholic fruit juices for those who wish to participate but who don’t drink alcohol. There is also a large selection of snacks and gourmet cooking supplies available at St James.

It is nice having these wineries nearby, they make for a good place to take new students, too show them what can be done in Rolla. Plus they provide a source of gifts for me to give that can’t be bought anywhere else (well some can).

No serious this is way more important

Babies and dogs playing

Maybe thats what Flike needs, a baby in the house.

Happy fathers day to Dad, I am assuming you guys are at the land.