Predictions for 2013

As I look into the Astoria Rust Crystal Ball (patent pending) here are 10 predictions of trends that I see for 2013:
1. Bio-metrics will begin replacing passwords for access to everything being that everyone on the planet has now been hacked at one time or another.  Conservatives will resist because it is forward thinking.
2. Pony tails and goatees will be out for men in the civilized areas of the country. If there is a twang in the local vernacular, then this won't be realized for at least another 15 years.
3. People will realize that Target stores are basically Walmarts with better TV commercials.
4. Someone will come up with a Thai food that doesn't give you the shits.
5. Black Friday will begin on October 31st.
6. Tattoos will lose favor and be replaced by bumper stickers as many Americans realize that the body art they adopted 6 months ago is now totally irrelevant.
7. Vintage motorcycles will be purchased and wrecked by the thousands, which is great news for potential organ recipients.
8. Internet mini TV shows (crackle.com) will be the rage where we with short attention spans can see just enough before getting bored.  Shows such as Jailbait, Star-ving Gay-Town and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee are proving to be just what we need and only take under 15 minutes to view.  Well written, bite sized entertainment.
9. A new social media will come around that will replace Facebook.  It will incorporate all the best of My Space, Facebook, Google +, Skype and CU-SeeMe. (Please come true...Please cone true.)
10. Skinny ties will be worn again by more people other than just Joel McHale.

Chicken Crazy

As of my last writing of chickens you were aware that we ordered and received two batches of baby chicks about six weeks ago.  They about two weeks apart; the Leghorns came first followed by the Dorkings.  We tried putting them together, but immediately the elder chicks started picking on the younger ones.

We keep the chicks warm in the house for the first couple weeks until they grow some feathers and until they start to smell and then we put them in the green house.  The two batches each got their own penned in area in two of the raised beds.  We left heat lamps on them at night and as they grew we opened their pens to allow them a bigger space.

Sadly the Leghorns cornered three of the Dorkings and nearly pecked them to death.  Their heads were cut and bloodied.  Leaving them would have meant infection and certain death.  Most people would have dispatched them on the spot, but we are chicken people so my wife took them to a vet to get stitched up.  They spent the weekend in the animal hospital and we got them back with a bill that was much more that we will ever recover from the sale of their eggs.

We have since moved Longhorns into the main coop and gave them some cover to prevent the adult hens from pecking them to death.  Now the Dorkings have the greenhouse to themselves.  We are going to wait several more weeks before introducing them to the other flock.

You know you are a chicken person if you go to these extremes to keep your flock alive.

My Robot Friend

I've been meaning to do a piece on Bingo Gazingo for some time now and somehow it all came together recently while listening to My Robot Friend.  I could have easilly done a piece on each, but now they are linked in my head forever.

My Robot Friend is a group of musicians that take the type of music that Kraft Werk did in the later Twentieth Century and upgraded it to the 21st century.
For more info on them and to listen to some of their tracks you can visit their site:
http://www.myrobotfriend.com/

Now Bingo Gazingo was an elderly stream of consciousness poet in New York City who died in 2010 at the age of 84.

Here is a recording of the two of them together and they make a remarkable combination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ1EJG45oWg