Carroll's Journal: Rocky Mountain High

"Stop it, Carroll." She half demanded. I guess she didn't like me playing with her toes. I was doing the "little piggy went to the market" routine. Sometimes I get bored, and when that happens, I become annoying. My favorite act of personal space invasion is the "pig in a poke". That's when you take your finger and start gently poking them in the ribs, stomach and other parts of their body. Yeah, that's annoying as hell too. But it can also be romantic.

A friend of mine wants to go to Colorado for a week. Gee, I wonder why? 

I still haven't ever gone to that Obama Care website. I probably shouldn't say that out loud, I could end up on some government list. Oh, who are we kidding, I'm probably already on some government list. But seriously, I have a question: Before the health care roll out, Obama wanted everyone to call it Obama Care, yet ever since the roll out, he wants everyone to call it the Affordable Care Act. What gives? 

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, has been all over the mainstream news. All the media is talking about him and the four day traffic jam. You would think the world was coming to an end. Can't say I blame the mainstream media for being all over this one. I mean, how much more important is a traffic jam compared to four dead Americans in Benghazi? Or the IRS abusing its power on Americans? Or the NSA spying on Americans?

Did you know that in five years of the Obama administration, or as I like to call it, the Obama Regime, that the USA national deficit went from 9 trillion dollars to over 17 trillion? Why aren't we talking about that? And by the time Obama leaves the office, it is predicted that out national debt will be somewhere around 22 trillion to 24 trillion dollars? Do we honestly believe that we will ever cut that number down? I mean, seriously, do we think we will ever pay that back? Really? And has anyone ever considered what would happen if our lenders decided to stop lending us money? The mere thought makes me want to go to Colorado for a week. 

Word on the street is that Hilary Clinton and Chris Christie are our two best bets for presidential candidates. Really? No seriously, really? ... It is often times said that hitting rock bottom could be a good thing sometimes because when you're down that far, there is no where to go but up. Leave it to America to prove that theory wrong. Hilary Clinton? Chris Christie? Our best presidential candidates? ... I guess we are about to discover what is underneath rock bottom. 

Can we now officially call John Denver a psychic? 

Will be getting with Mr. Fickisen on the 20th of January to begin the process of starting his biography. I am really excited. I never took on such a challenge before. I always considered writing someone's biography as the pinnacle of writing. I don't know why. I suppose it always fascinated me to a point. I mean, writing someone's biography is like a 240 page interview. You get to learn everything, and I mean everything, about a person. And I am extremely honored for this job because Mr. Fickisen is such a world renowned pen and ink artist. He has celebrity status in Ohio in his field. I only hope I do a good job presenting him to the world. Like I said, as far as writing goes, this is my biggest challenge. 

My science fiction book, "Light Years Away" will be slightly delayed. Not to worry, it is coming. It's just, when I did a quick and final read, I saw something that I really wanted to change in it. I really needed to change in it. Had I not changed it, everyone would have thought I wrote it while living in Colorado. 

"Stop it, Carroll." - Ha! Pig in a poke. 

I got to make my "lasagne burrito's" recently. Oh my God they are so awesome. I have to thank mother for her recipe which she finally shared with me this past Christmas. I spent the early part of Christmas Eve with her to make it for the family. It's our family tradition. It's our Christmas Eve dinner, mother's lasagne. (And she makes a lot of it.) 

It started one year back about 25 years ago, I reckon. She asked me one time what I wanted for Christmas, and I, never being too greedy with my Christmas list, requested a whole pan dish of her lasagne. (Back then, turkey was the food for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.) Well, my brother in law decided that the following year he wanted it too so now mother had to make two pan dishes of it. Then someone else requested it, and then another. Five years later, mother just simply gave up on making Christmas turkey's and started making the lasagne instead. It's been like that ever since. 

I am a trend setter. 

However, I took it to the next level recently when I made my first ever "lasagne burrito". It was everything I ever dreamed it would be .... and more. It tops my "potato salad" sandwich, I'll tell you that. What? You never heard of the potato salad sandwich? You don't know what you're missing. It's more like a potato salad hot pocket than anything else. The ingredients consist of potato salad *duh* baked beans, coleslaw, and your favorite meat. I use fried chicken as my meat, or sometimes ham, but you can use whatever you like for your meat. Add a little BBQ sauce, wrap it "hot pocket" style and heat - then enjoy. I have a whole cook book full of tasty little gizmo's and treats. I should do a cook book someday. Or maybe share some of my recipe's here on my blog. I'll have to think that one over.

"Seriously, Carroll, stop it." - Belly burple's can also be annoying too. Wait! You do know what a belly burple is, correct? It's when you put your face on someone's belly and blow. I used to give them to my little sister all the time when she was young. She would laugh and giggle. It was fun. I miss those days. Now she's all grown and married with three kids of her own. The two most recent additions to the family came over the Christmas holidays. Twins! We're all very excited about it. The first set of twins in our modern family. Speaking of which, have you ever seen that show "Modern Family"? .... I love it. It's funny as hell. I highly recommend you watch a few episodes. I tried to get into that show "How I Met Your Mother", but it just didn't stick with me. I mean, it's good, don't get me wrong, but it just didn't stick. 

I have to call Preston this week to get a time set up for which to get back into the studio. I have some songs to record. I have a lot to do this year period. Can't wait for this cold weather to pass and get back to our scheduled "global warming". Who knows, maybe a little trip to Colorado could be worked into the itinerary this summer, but I should hold off until at least I get this biography done. I wouldn't want to get distracted, you know what I mean?

Seriously, John Denver must have been a psychic. 

Flag of Sweden

The flag of Sweden is a Scandinavian cross that extends to the edges of the flag. This Scandinavian cross represents Christianity. The design and colours of the Swedish flag are believed to have been inspired by the present Coat of arms of Sweden of 1442, which is blue divided quarterly by a cross pattée of gold, and modelled on the Danish flag. Blue and yellow have been used as Swedish colours at least since King Magnus III's royal coat of arms of 1275.

The dimensions of the Swedish flag are 5:2:9 horizontally and 4:2:4 vertically. The dimensions of the Swedish flag with a triple-tail are 5:2:5:8 horizontally and 4:2:4 vertically. The colours of the flag are officially established through the Natural Color System to be NCS 0580-Y10R for the shade of yellow, and NCS 4055-R95B for the shade of blue. The square-cut Swedish state flag is identical to the civil ensign. The Swedish law does not regulate the design of the Swedish pennant, but it's recommended that its colour scheme should correspond with that of the flag.

The triple-tailed flag (tretungad flagga) is used as a military ensign (örlogsflaggan). Its overall ratio, including the tails, is 1:2. The flag is also used as the Swedish naval jack (örlogsgösen). The jacks are smaller than the ensigns, but they have the same proportions. The Swedish swallow-tailed flag was originally the King's personal emblem, or the emblem representing a command conferred by the King. It was at first two-pointed, but by the mid-17th century, the distinctive swallow-tail-and-tongue appeared. The flag is also flown by the defence ministry, while civil ministries fly square flags.

The Swedish royal flag (Kungl. flaggan) is still identical to the triple-tailed military flag, but usually includes in its centre a white field with the greater or the lesser coat of arms with the Order of the Seraphim, which has the King of Sweden as its Grand Master. The King personally decides about the specific use of the royal flag.

According to the mythology, the 12th-century King Eric IX saw a golden cross in the sky as he landed in Finland during the First Swedish Crusade in 1157. Seeing this as a sign from God he adopted the golden cross against a blue background as his banner, though the golden cross was changed later to a yellow cross due to practicality. The problem with the mythology is partly the fact that there are no contemporary sources about the crusade and partly because there are no pictures or descriptions of the flag until the middle of the 16th century.

It has also been suggested that the Swedish flag might have been a resistance flag against the Danish flag, which is red with a white cross and has a mythological origin in 1219, but are not depicted until late 14th century. According to this theory, the Swedish flag was created during the reign of King Charles VIII, who also introduced the coat of arms of Sweden in 1442. The national coat of arms is a combination of King Albert's coat of arms of 1364 and King Magnus III's coat of arms of 1275, and is blue divided quarterly by a golden cross pattée.

Other historians claim that the Swedish flag was blue with a white cross before 1420, and became blue with a golden cross only during the early reign King Gustav I, who deposed King Christian II in 1521.

When used from a standalone flagpole, the size of the flag is recommended to have a width equaling a fourth of the height of the pole. When used from a flagpole extending from a building, the flag is recommended to have a width equaling a third of the height (length) of the pole. It is further recommended to fly the flag during daytime, and to lower it no later than 9 pm. Only when the country is at war is it recommended to fly the flag also at night.



Source: Wikipedia

This work released through CC 3.0 BY-SA - Creative Commons

Fun In Acapulco / Live A Little, Love A Little

Fun In Acapulco

This must have been filmed before the drug cartels. LOL Actually, Elvis never left America for any film or concert because his manager didn't have, nor couldn't get a traveling visa. (He could never leave the country) And he always went where Elvis went thus, Elvis could never go outside the U.S.

Anyhow, Mike (Elvis) works on a boat in Acapulco. When the bratty daughter of the boat owner gets him fired, Mike must find new work. Little boy Rauol helps him get a job as a lifeguard and singer at a local hotel. Clashes abound when Mike runs into the rival lifeguard, who is the champion diver of Mexico. He is angry at Mike for taking some of his hours, and stealing his woman.

This is a middle of the road Elvis film for me. It's good, but not quite good enough to crack my top ten. There are some parts that are boring and the songs, well, not exactly the best although, he does sing "Bosa Nova" in this film, so that's good. And famed actress Terri Garr made her debut in this film as an extra. And it does co-star the beautiful Ursula Andress.

My rating ... I give it a good 6 stars. I think you would enjoy it despite being a film made in 1963. It wasn't that bad of a year. Dinosaurs were fairly tamed back then. 

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Live A Little, Love A Little

Greg Nolan (Elvis) meets Bernice, and loses both his job and his apartment. However, Bernice manages to get him a new apartment, but it is so expensive that he has to get two full-time jobs. Nolan has trouble finding time to do both jobs.

I don't care what anybody says, I like this one. I don't know why. I just do. There are some really good songs in this one and the dream sequence where he performs "Edge Of Reality" is really cool. Not bad for 1968 and not bad for an Elvis flick. Check it out if you get the chance.

Oh, I almost forgot, it has Dick Seargent in it too. You remember him, right? He was part of the Dick York - Dick Seargent switcharoo on the beloved sitcom, "Bewitched". 

My rating .... 7 stars. And I am sticking by it.