Big Leather Couch

Good things do come out of being on Facebook. How you ask? Well, yesterday my dear friend Liz posted a link to this site and how cool is it when you have an entire site dedicated to


Recipes, contests, recipes, photos...all dedicated to the wonderful world of


I found one I think I am gong to have to try realllll soon...


Real simple and it looks like - well, potatoes and bacon and onions and garlic...well that is

Manna (Hebrew: מָ‏ן‎) or Manna wa Salwa (Arabic: مَنّ‎, Kurdish: gezo, Persian: ترنجبين), sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of an edible substance that God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert as recorded in the Bible. It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey.

CONGRATS to the Dallas Mavericks, who after a season of 2,000,000 games lasting 3 years (or so the NBA season seems) beat the Miami heat in 6 games to take the title.

No LeBron bashing here...heck, he does a good enough job himself.

SO, Terrelle Pryor pulled a Giambi the other day, issuing an apology, but never stating why he was apologizing.

“I say sorry to all the Buckeye nation and all the Buckeye fans across the country,” Pryor said. “I never meant to hurt anybody directly or indirectly with my conduct off the field and I am truly sorry.”

OK, Terrelle, was it selling the merchandise to drug dealers? Was it selling merchandise to anyone? Was it the fact you drove a new car almost every week and we are not talking about a 1999 Honda...we are talking brand spanking new luxury cars.

So, you apologize..shouldn't the entire city of Columbus apologize for being blind to the fact that a college student could have so many cars?

It is time to revamp the entire NCAA Scholarship program to allow these kids to work if they can, and to receive a stipend each month.

THEN, there has to be rules in place so when the coach bolts or the player does (as Pryor has done after the allegations arose), they can be sued in court for repayment of the money they gave or took illegally. And go after the boosters too!

Finally, today...another item I picked up from Facebook. This from my friend Jon and it is amazing what we can do with photographs these days...

This is scary and at the same time, with the way of the world, this will help in solving situations in the future - check out the link here.

Amazing how far technology has come. Just pick a person in the crowd and keep double clicking on their face.

Very impressive engineering, this will help law enforcement.

FASCINATING BUT SCARY!!! If you were there, they would know!!

 You used to be able to get lost in the crowd, but not anymore. Double click on any area in the picture to bring the person closer. Or, just click the mouse and use the mouse wheel to bring them closer.

This is a photograph of 2009 Obama Inauguration. You can see IN FOCUS the face of EACH individual in the crowd.

You can scan and zoom to any section of the crowd. Wait a few seconds. Double click anywhere. And the focus adjusts to give you a very identifiable close up.

The picture was taken with a robotic 1474 megapixel camera (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera). Every one attending could be scanned after the event, should something have gone wrong during it.

Sorry...need to b**ch a bit...hell, if I am going to do it, I am going to spell it

TIME TO BITCH!

So, I had a chance to get home Friday instead of Saturday...time to call Delta.

ring...ring...recorded message "all our people are busy at the moment. Enter your phone number and we will call you back in about 90 minutes."

NINETY MINUTES! OH, it was 3am in California when I called.

NO OPERATORS TO HELP AT 3AM PACIFIC!?!?!?!

and yes, 3:00am...I could not sleep the whole dang week (another bitch btw)

So, then they call back exactly 90 minutes later.

"Want to change my flight one day"

"OK, well, it is $150.00 change fee"

$150!!! for you to push a button?

Well, actually $200.00 since you booked through your corporate travel and not through Delta direct.

$200.00 for you to push a button?!??!??!??

OH, and there is a fee increase of $100.00

$300.00 to change my flights to the EXACT SAME FLIGHTS one day earlier. And these are commuter jets here!

The airlines are freakin nuts! And that is not just Delta, ALL OF THEM!

Why can people not let co-workers know when they are taking vacation? All of a sudden they are not there. OH, and no voice mail informing you of that, so when you leave a message and then wait 3 hours for an answer to finally be told they are on vacation!

BUSINESS RULES FOLKS!

Why do you have to listen to co-workers deal with their personal crap all day?

DO SOME WORK!!!!

Sorry, these things are making me crazy and I needed to bitch

Anything making you want to bitch?

So, yesterday I posted under the heading of Thursday Tidbits...incredible, huh? Good news is I only had two people visit and comment. TRAVIS of 'Trav's Thoughts' let it pass (maybe cause I had given him a shout-out, maybe because he checked in at 6:00am his time), but PHFRANKIE BONDO of 'The Blogfather Gazette' called me out on it (but then again, he checked in at 7:00am his time a full hour later, and I bet he had visited his birdbath beforehand!

So, I figured today could be Wordy Wednesday...
though, Lucy and I salute all those who really know what day it is!

...ah hem...

Hi, my name is Vinny Bond and I have a secret to tell...

You see, I have become addicted...

I am sorry, I promised this would not happen by it has...

I do not know if I can stop without some sort of professional help...

Really, this normally does not happen to me...Mafia Wars?  Played for a little while, stopped.

Fishing?  Nope for maybe a week.

Texas Hold em online?  Every once in a while just to keep my mind in the game for when I play for real.

But, this...man this has gotten a hold of me.  Today my phone came thisclose to running out of juice before I even got home because I could not stop today on breaks or at lunch.

Yes, I am addicted...anyone else?



Remember...tomorrow is Friday...right?  yeah, I checked a calendar..and on Friday we do

So, did y'all enjoy your Independence Day Holiday? Nancy and I took it real easy and just enjoyed time together. Saturday we had been invited to our neighbors for a cook-out and some swimming, but we were both so lazed, we declined.

It has been a tough few months and we just needed some alone time.

We lazed so much, I did not even have a post for Independence Day or yesterday, so I fell into a pattern that appears to be happening around the Bloggosphere where people are taking time off from blogging.

I had actually considered taking this whole week off, as it is the end of the quarter and I have a ton of billing to complete, but I am making headway. I will have over 80 invoices completed by tomorrow.

It is one of the parts of my job I detest. It seems ridiculous that I have to spend so much time cranking out billing when there is a staff in my home office that does it, but...as Dad Vince would say (and has ) "Hey, you have a job, don't complain"...so I won't.

Well, I guess I just did, but - well...never mind!

July is shaping up to be a grand month on MUSIC ON THE COUCH. as I just received confirmation on my final guest for the month.

This coming week will be IVORY TOWER PROJECT, a band that lives in the vein of the classic rock bands of the 70's and 80's & MAREE MCRAE, a singer/songwriter with a memorable voice and real talent. Then on the 19th, I have DANIKA HOLMES, who has been compared to Norah Jones and a young Alanis Morisette & HOT BUTTERED RUM. I am thrilled to be having Hot Buttered Rum on. If you don't know the band, go check them out as they are fantastic. And finally, this month is MARK RADCLIFFE, who has found the perfect blend of songwriting, musicianship and vocals & PHIL PUTNAM.

Phil will be our first repeat guest, as he was on the first show ever. He is coming on to talk about hi new project and it following in the steps of others who have gone to their fans to help with their recording project. It is a great way to connect with the fans.

hope you can join me and my guests each Monday.

I did spend part of the weekend working on a new DVD for a woman I work alongside. It is her husband's 40th birthday and I am taking about 600 photos and building a presentation with music for her to surprise him with as a gift.

After seeing the one for Dad Vince and Mom Joan, she asked me to do it for her. It is something I am really enjoying. And the extra cash is always nice!

I am thinking of trying to develop a business on the side to do more of these. I think I have the pricing structure down.

For up to 500 digital photos, arranged with titles and transitions and music it would be $150.00 and that includes two DVDs. If I have to scan the photos it would be an additional $0.25/picture.

Anything over 500 digital photos would be $0.30/photo.

500 photos would give you a DVD of approximately 50 minutes.

Most of these companies that do this in volume charge on average $0.29/photo for scanning and putting onto a DVD. The examples I have seen are almost Powerpoint in nature and the music has nothing to do with what you are viewing. I ask for the favorite music of the person, customize the tunes for the sections and use music of the era when there is no specific songs requested.

For the one I am working on, she had requested "These Are The Days" for one section. Problem was, the song was about a minute and 10 seconds shorter than the number of pictures in that section. Out came Audacity and I was able to grab a 20 second segment and duplicate it to fill the time.

Let's see if this can become a source of fun-money for me over the next year...Just another enterprise in the BLC Family.