Happy Anniversary

August 31 marks three years that iris has been with Me.

I know I repeat Myself often here when I talk about the girls -- how amazing and wonderful they are, their incredible love and submission and devotion. But it's all I can do; it's simply true, and words are inadequate to describe how I feel at times like this so I end up using the same ones over and over.

iris, thank you for three fantastic years. To see how much you've moved and grown, how every aspect of your submission has deepened and expanded, is truly thrilling to Me. I love you, so much. Owning you is a joy, every day.

YouTube Tuesday: Bulls On Parade

Tonight's clip veers way off in the other direction -- "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against The Machine.

I can't say I endorse Rage's politics, but their videos are some of the most evocative, effective four-minute propaganda films ever made. Taken simply as art (or as craft, if you must), Rage's videos represent some of the better examples of the art form in terms of images fusing with message.

"Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed tha war canibal animal
I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a
Library
Line up to tha mind cemetery
What we dont know keeps tha contracts alive an
Movin
They dont gotta burn tha books they just remove em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
Rally round tha family, pockets full of shells"

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, tasha . . . I love you so much. Thank you for being you, and for everything that you are, and do.

Update

1. I finally got around to going through the link list and removing the dead entries.

So the link list to-do list now looks like this:

Check link list for dead links
Remove dead links
Subscribe to feeds from linked blogs
Catch up on linked blogs
Look for new links
Leave comments/Link-whore

2. As you may have seen, I posted the first part of a new Lenora X story last week. More soon.

3. My health issue continues to remain manageable/good, so that's a huge plus.

4. The thought occurred to Me yesterday that it's seven months since I last smoked. I don't necessarily feel tremendously better physically as a result but it does feel very good to have accomplished quitting.

5. Some significant events coming up in Lenora-land soon: tasha's birthday and iris' third anniversary. As always, iris, storm, and tasha are My inspiration, My pride, and My joy. I love them so much.

6. I hope everyone is well and happy. KAHTATUS.

End Of The (Sitemeter) Era

I don't know all the gory details and background, but it's come to My attention (a few months late apparently) that sitemeter, the hit counter you (used to) see at the bottom of the page, has been allowing the placement of spy tracking cookies in the sitemeter code.

Apparently, sitemeter will move users to a special server if they don't wish this to happen, or I could revert to the non-Javascript version of the counter.

The easier solution for Me is to just use a different counter.

Not that I think that third-party marketers are necessarily clamoring for My meager readership, and certainly I'm not selling anything. But on principle it seems to Me the right thing to do is to dump sitemeter.

The counter that now appears at the bottom of the page is spy-cookie free.

YouTube Tuesday: Don't Talk About The War

Tonight's clip is a snippet from Fawlty Towers, perhaps the best sitcom ever created on either side of the Atlantic. There are, I think, only twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers. Watching them, on realizes that the reason for that is that there are really only twelve basic sitcom plots, and Fawlty Towers does each and every one to perfection.

In this clip, Basil (John Cleese) tries to "not talk about the War" as he waits on a table of German guests. I must've seen this twenty times, and I still laugh as hard every time.

YouTube Tuesday: Hesitation Blues

A little too much soul-searching in the YTT clips lately . . . I had intended to resume the search for the World's Greatest Pop Song but then this caught My eye.

Tonight's clip is Hot Tuna performing one of the many many recorded versions of "Hesitation Blues."

As simple as it gets. A guitar and a bass. A blues song that is as straightforward as they come. But what Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy are able to do with these simplest of ingredients really is magical.

YouTube Tuesday: A Case Of You

Tonight's video is a little slide show, but I chose it for the song.

"A Case Of You" by Joni Mitchell.

"A Case of You" is Joni at her mesmerizing best, showing why she's head and shoulders above any of her so-called singer/songwriter contemporaries. Listen to Mitchell's voice in this video and it's clear (no pun intended) she sings Judy Collins or Joan Baez or anyone else of that era (or this) under the table. Her songwriting is on a par with anyone's . . . "A Case Of You" is a perfect little bittersweet bullet of a song, pure -- one of the few pieces of music I'd ever consider applying the word "luminous" to.

"You are in my blood like holy wine
Taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you
And still be on my feet . . .
I would still be on my feet"

My health troubles of late have kept Me from doing much here aside from doggedly maintaining the weekly YouTube Tuesday video clips (I can tell from the barrage of comments on each one how much that's appreciated).

A bit more on the health stuff. It is serious but not life-threatening, ranging in severity from annoying to semi-debilitating. Good days and bad days. I do go to work every day, and I make it to the end most days.

So I still have a more or less normal life. The problem is that by the time evening comes, the energy I have I put into being with My girls and the odd baseball article for armchairgm.com. Plus, on some evenings I take a pain pill and well, responsible bloggers don't blog under the influence of controlled substances. Weekends I need the extra rest.

It is slowly getting better, however, and before too long I expect the health issue to be pretty much an afterthought, and I'll have more energy for the thought pieces and the fiction.

Until then, you are in My thoughts . . . and I look forward to really settling down and being able to catch up on everyone's lives, update/clean up the link list, and resume link-whoring with vigor.

KAHTATUS.