Nuthin but a hounddog

The Monkey Playing Cymbals intercepted a comment that must have been intended for me yesterday. It was a request of sorts:

SUPER FANS said...
Well, Tim "Snake Eyes" Elvis,

We stumbled across your site when searching for "carnival towel animals." We were pleasantly surprised to find your addition of the "hanging monkey" to the list. We are very sorry about the lightbulb. Those carnival mofo's!!! (They also refused to change my lightbulb...what is wrong with them?!?).

Now we see you have many blogs, how fabulous for us.

We, too, LOVE (L-O-V-E LOVE) to superimpose our heads onto the bodies of animals and computerized characters (ancient kings, etc.). Let's share secrets? Keep in touch? Who's your FAVORITE thing to be the head of? We LOVE you as the snake. ssslllliitthheerr!!!

Please write back to us. Make a post about us and we will respond. Dooo it, Tim Elvis. Do it.

PS Maybe put your head on a chihuahua?

LOVE,
Tia and Cara (please reference us in next post. Thanx.

Okay, I don't normally take requests. Plus I think Tia and Cara may fall into the CUI category. But what they hey. If I can put my face on a quesidilla, how hard could a chihuahua be?

But personally I prefer the pug.

As for "Who's your FAVORITE thing to be the head of," I'm going to ignore the Freudian implications and assume you mean what is the favorite thing I've Photoshopped my face onto. I could suggest a vanilla ice cream cone, but that could only set off the revolting peasants again. So I will have to say a timber wolf.

Pointing out the obvious

Believe it or not, I never know what to do when I pose for a photo. So most of the time I just point at whatever I'm standing next to. It has become kind of a reflect action (fortunately I resisted this reflect action in my wedding photos). I call this pose "pointing out the obvious."

Unless you are aware you doing it, the "pointing out the obvious" pose is pointless. But if you are aware you are doing it, the "pointing out the obvious" pose does have a point. It adds exaggerated emphasis to something in the photo, even if that something is of little or no significance. So everytime someone looks at the photo they will wonder why the hell you are pointing at something insignificant and think there is some significance that they are missing. It's a great way to mess with people.

I find the "pointing out the obvious" principle can be applied to blogging as well. Sometimes you can blather on about some mundane and blatantly obvious thing and people think there must be some hidden meaning or ulterior message that they are missing. So they create one. It's kind of fun to watch.

But it can also be kind of annoying. Because sometimes you are just blathering on to blather on. It doesn't have to have sinister significance.

Or does it?

My head examined

I have been told on a few occasions that I need my head examined. Okay, here goes.

I have a big head. This is not an ego thing. I just have a big head. I think I mentioned this a few months ago when I was ranting about hats. Because my head is so big, I have a hard time finding a hat that fits or doesn't look stupid.

Fortunately, I also have lots of hair. It would suck having a big head and not having enough hair to cover it up. Though I swear if I ever start losing my hair I will not do the comb over thing. I'll shave my head before I do the comb over even though it would mean having a very big bald head.

When I was a young boy, my hair was blonde. It gradually turned brown. Then after I turned 30 it started to turn gray. Now it is pretty much all gray, though in some light it kind of looks blonde again. The irony doesn't escape me.

I've heard people describe how different parts of your body shrink as you age (and get your mind out of the gutter, I'm not talking about that part). This doesn't apply to the ears and nose. They seem to get bigger and bigger, especially the ears.

Then there is the hair that grows randomly on the ears, in the ears and in the nose. And I swear I'm starting to get Albert Einstein eyebrows. I'm starting to feel like a chia pet.

I have blue eyes. I've had Lasik surgery but now I have to wear reading glasses. The irony of that doesn't escape me either.

That's about all I have to say about my head.

It is pretty big though.

We are what we eat

True artists in the kitchen know that presentation is almost as important as the food itself. My blogger friend Hayden is just such an artist. I was inspired by her last post. It was simply a description of her breakfast: kale and mustard greens sauteed w/ onion and garlic, 2 egg omelet w/maitake mushrooms, garnished with ikura (salmon caviar) and radish sprouts.

Her breakfast presentation was such a work of art I offered to do what I do to all major works of art -- Photoshop my face on it. Shandi egged me on, too (egged me on, get it...ha, ha). I call it Baccus of Kale and Mustard Greens.

I think it is very tasteful.

Punxsutawney Tim

Yesterday was Groundhog Day. In Punxsutaney, Pennsylvania, Punxsutaney Phil (coincidently enough, a groundhog) came out of his den in Gobbler's Knob, didn't see his shadow and tradition says we now will have an early spring.

I'm hoping Punxsutaney Phil is right. Because if you can't trust a groundhog to predict the future, who can you trust?

Punxsutaney Phil was made famous by the 1993 film with Bill Murray called coincidently enough Groundhogs Day. If you haven't seen it, you are living in a hole because they play it over and over. Ironically that is what the movie is about, one man reliving the same day -- Groundhogs Day -- over and over until he gets it right.

The film is the most brilliant description of karma I've ever seen depicted. Bill Murray goes through phases of despair and then acceptance when he realizes he is stuck in the same day. He begins to use the day to improve himself and the environment around him. He reads. He learns to play the piano. He rights wrongs and eventually becomes an enlightened individual. That's when he is free to move on from that one, perpetual day as a new man.

I think about that movie sometimes when I feel stuck in the same situation over and over or feel frustrated that I keep repeating myself and no one seems to hear it. Because even though it feels like I am part of an endless loop, the movie reminds me that we need to keep doing things until we get them right or saying things a little be different until people finally understand them.

Groundhogs are pretty clever animals.