- bakonative's Blog - Bakersfield.com

True or False?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:43:30 PDT

OK, here's the story. The moon and the planets were lined up, therefore, you could take an aluminum handled broom and stand it up on it's own and it will stay there, due to the gravity of the planets. I witnessed it, but is it true it can only happen at certain times or will it happen any time? Same thing for microwaving an egg and it will stand on the tip.

Audrey - thought you might like this joke!

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:52:46 PDT

Four lawyers in a law firm lived and died for their Saturday morning round of golf. It was their favorite moment of the week. Then one of the lawyers was transferred to an office in another city. It wasn't quite the same without him.

A new woman lawyer joined their law firm. One day she overheard the remaining three talking about their golf round in the break room. Curious, she spoke up, "You know, I used to play on my golf team in college and I was pretty good. Would you mind if I joined you next week?"

The three lawyers looked at each other. They were hesitant. Not one of them wanted to say 'yes', but she had them on the spot. Finally one man said it would be okay, but they would be starting pretty early at 6:30 am.

He figured the early Tee-Time would discourage her immediately. The woman said this might be a problem and asked if she could possibly be up to 15 minutes late. They rolled their eyes but said this would be okay.

She smiled and said, "Good, then I'll be there either at 6:30 or 6:45." She showed up right at 6:30 and wound up beating all three of them with an eye-opening 2-under par round. She was a fun and pleasant person the entire round. The guys were impressed!

Back in the clubhouse they congratulated her and happily invited her back the next week.

She smiled and said "Sure, I'll be here at 6:30 or 6:45."

The next week she again showed up at 6:30 Saturday morning. Only this time, she played left-handed. The three lawyers were incredulous as she still managed to beat them with an even par round despite playing with her off-hand.

By now the guys were totally amazed, but wondered if she was just trying to make them look bad by beating them left-handed. They couldn't figure her out. She was again very pleasant & didn't seem to be showing them up, but each man began to harbor a burning desire to beat her In the third week they all had their game faces on. But this week she was 15 minutes late!

This had the guys irritable because each was determined to play the best round of golf of his life to beat her. As they waited for her, they figured her late arrival was some petty gamesmanship on her part. Finally she showed up.

This week the lady lawyer played right-handed, which was a good thing since she narrowly beat all three of them. However, she was so gracious and so complimentary of their strong play; it was hard to keep a grudge against her. This woman was a riddle no one could figure out!

Back in the clubhouse she had all three guys shaking their heads at her ability. They had a couple of beers after their round which helped the conversation loosen up. Finally one of the men could contain his curiosity no longer He asked her point blank, "How do you decide if you're going to golf right-handed or left-handed?"

The lady blushed and grinned. She said, "That's easy. When my dad taught me to play golf, I learned I was ambidextrous. I have always had fun switching back and forth.

Then when I met my husband in college and got married, I discovered he always sleeps in the nude. From then on I developed a silly habit. Right before I left in the morning for golf practice, I would pull the covers off him. If his "you-know-what" was pointing to the right, I golfed right-handed and if it was pointed to the left, I golfed left-handed.

Astonished at this bizarre information, one of the guys shot back, "But what if it's pointed straight up in the air?"

She said, "Then I'm fifteen minutes late."

The Sacred Way, China

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:46:59 PDT

This was a post I had saved then lost due to the save draft problems formerly - so I'll post it now. Included are pics I took while in China back in November.

The Sacred Way – The Ming Tombs

Serene is the best word I can describe when walking down the path of the Ming tombs, from the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644.

Located here are the tombs of 13 of the 16 Ming Dynasty emperors. The Sacred Way runs for about a kilometer and is flanked on both sides by carvings of human and animal figures. There are 12 large stone human figures and 24 of animals, all carved from a single block of granite in 1435 during the 10th year of the reign of Emperor Xuan De.

Testing

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:39:28 PST

Blogs - for the past week I've been trying to post a new blog with photos, but everytime I hit save draft, my blog disappears. Since it's the weekend, I know Jason's not around, anyone have a clue what's going on?

Terra Cotta Army - Xi'an, China

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:30:02 PST

So I went to China. Here is my first post, beginning with the Terra Cotta Army, since I see MSN.com has a video on it. This is just my interpretation, and I hope I have the facts somewhat accurate. But go ahead, and correct my errors, so I can do the same! There is so much history, it's hard to get it straight. Also see my photos of the soldiers!

Terra-Cotta Army, Xi’an, China

Not quite the story of the farmer in the dell, but in 1974, a local farmer was drilling a series of wells in search of water on his property. Rather than water, he discovered fragmented pottery and weapons, and notified authorities, who responded to the site and took possession of the farmer’s land (eminent domain to us) to begin excavation, leaving the farmer without a home or source of income. The site of the farmer’s land is now known as the Terra-Cotta Army Museum, in Xi’an, China. The farmer, left without a source of income for more than 20 years, is now at the museum most days for a small stipend from the government, and supplementing his income by signing books for the tourists.

What does the Terra-Cotta Army represent? The Terra-Cotta Army warriors are believed to be the soldiers from the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC) belonging to the First Emperor of China, YingZheng. He became the King of Qin at age 13 after his father’s death. Consisting of high ranking officers, officers, armored and unarmored soldiers, charioteer, cavalrymen, kneeling and standing archers, the Terra Cotta Army warriors were made of local clay and basically are hollow except for the legs which are solid. The heads of the humans were made in two piece molds, joined together. Ears, noses and hair were made separately then added on to each head. Facial features, such as the mouth, moustache, beards, and hairstyles were sculpted. No warrior has the same feature or expression, leading to the belief that each soldier faced one another and sculpted each other until the final clay warrior was completed. Horses were also constructed in the same manner. Their legs are solid, the head, body and tails are molded or modeled separately then attached to the legs. The facial details are sculpted the same as the human figures. In addition to the warriors, tens of thousands of weapons were unearthed from the pits, but many were reduced to dust as they were constructed of wood and did not hold up over time. Looking at the warriors, you can see their hands at one time held a wooden weapon but it disintegrated over time, leaving their hand void of their original weapon. Bronze swords survived and are displayed in the museum. Pits containing rare birds, animals, pottery, and more were discovered and are displayed throughout the museum.

Qin spent his life looking for immorality, and was obsessed with a fear of death. He ignored the fact he was a very sick man and died at the age of 50. During his obsession of immortality, it is thought that was his reason for his replicating his “army”. Emperor Qin believed that life under the ground after death was a continuation of life on earth. Upon his death, thousands were killed - the tomb builders, officials, craftsmen were either killed or buried alive – all in order to keep the tomb secret. Those that escaped death became angry and intent to destroy the mausoleum – thus, surviving craftsmen and others set about destroying the army of clay warriors by knocking them over and reducing them to broken bits of clay – to be discovered and pieced together some 2200 years later.

Excavation and restoration are done at night, leaving the museum open during the day to tourists. The warriors are carefully pieced together and if a piece is missing, it is not replicated, the warrior will stand as is, with parts missing. In the original days, these warriors had paint covering them, in bright colors, which have faded over the years. In the museum and store, you can purchase replicas of the warriors anywhere from inches in height to full size replicas.

No more squatters!

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:48:51 PST

Ha ha! I'm just back from China and boy am I glad! No more squatters ever! For those of you who have never been, the porcelain goddess (toilet) choice in China is a squatter. A porcelain hole in the ground in which you squat to pee in to. NO THANKS! In 12 days I only had to try it once, and then upon assuming the upright position, almost slipped and fell into the dang thing. YUCK.

China is amazing. I saw the Terra Cotta Soldiers, the Forbidden City and Tinnamen Square (that's another story for another day), Shanghai, Wuhan, Wushan, Xian, and Bejing. Operas, acrobats, and the chinese market place. (another big YUCK). So much history I learned, so many notes I took, and I still feel I can only remember a small amount I learned.

BUT NO MORE SQUATTER TOILETS. YES, I'M GLAD TO BE BACK IN THE U. S. A. !

New Comments

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:45:45 PDT

OK, I want to SCREAM! I HATE BEING HIJACKED BY THE NETFLIX AD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone else agree???????

Hey, where's Steve Swenson?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:36:42 PDT

I just realized Steve hasn't been posting in the blogs for a while. Hope he's doing ok, and just wanted to say I miss his witty comments (along with Scary Mary's).

Blogging

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:58:39 PDT

I only blog here on TBC, but what are other sites you bloggers blog on?

The Great KC Fair

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:15:39 PDT

Anyone enter photos in the fair this year? I know Robinslost did, I saw 3 of her entries. Out of my four entries, I only received one honorable mention this year for the photo shown. Anyone else want to share their photos and whether or not they placed in the fair?

The Bakersfield Californian

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:43:54 PDT

I've held off on my judgment of the new size/print of the newspaper, but after a month (has it been that long?), I have to admit that (1) I like the size which is similar to USA Today but............ (2) I hate the smeariness (is that a word) of the paper. Today was just horrible. The pages were so smeared, it was practically illegible. Maybe it has something to do with the pages that combine big color print ads along with regular news stories in black and white. I don't know, but on a rating of 1 to 10 in legibility ... well, it's about a 4. What do you think?

LET'S GO CAMPING

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:26:43 PDT

It's been a little HOT around here in Bakersfield and it shows itself in the blogs lately too, hot tempertures, hot heads. So let's cool off and let's go CAMPING. Remember, there's a pattern to this game! I'm going to make this one easy.

Bako Boyz and Sin Cal Ryderz

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:03:18 PDT

Just a quick "shout out" to Bako Boyz and Sin Cal Ryderz - I heard on the news last night they made about $9,000 from their car wash which benefitted Beardsley School kids with supplies needed. WAY TO GO!!!

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/sincalryder/31964

Sin Cal - in retrospect, you would have never made that kind of money doing the car wash in Oildale!

Oildale 08-08-08

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:09:20 PDT

Friday, 08-08-2008, at 12:08 in the afternoon it all started - Oildale celebrating the date. Starting out at the Highland Cafe, my friends and I had a wonderful lunch at the Highland. I had one of the specials, a wonderfully cooked Spaghetti plate with crisp toasted bread and a salad - the meal was 4 stars, and chef Dariel took time to come out and greet with the clientele. The golfing guys were present, and Stuart Townsend said his tee time was at exactly 08:08 a.m. Couldn't have been a better day to golf! Later we visited The Trap, where owner Kevin Williams served Dogger food - popcorn mixed with flaming hot cheetos in buckets. From there, we went over to Dugan's and were heartily welcomed to the celebration with free keg beer - Coors Light and a wonderful potluck! Wow. This was such a friendly and fun experience. You just had to feel like part of the family at Dugan's. Even Dugan and Wilma were there to mix in with the folks. A white limo with flames (yes, flames) arrive about 5:30 to start giving away rides from Dugan's to the Elks Lodge on the Garces Circle where many people went to dine, dance, and listen to the fantastic Arvizu Brothers play. How cool is that? We did take a side trip to Alice's Branding Iron to meet up with more friends and see our favorite bartender, Carla. They were also serving food for this special occasion, I think it was BBQ pulled pork on a hamburger bun and chili beans.

The best part I think was the interaction between bar owners. Kevin from The Trap was visible at the Highland and Dugans, Roger (I think that's his name) the owner of the Branding Iron was a Dugan's. I'm sure Dariel from The Highland would have made his rounds too if he hadn't been too busy cooking all day. Everyone was friendly, it was like a High School reunion. No fights, and no readers, there were no toothless woman there either.

I should clarify I was not drinking all day, until 6pm, then I had a beer but was home by 8:30 pm. (Or maybe it was 8:38?). All in all, I think everyone had a great time.

Time to play a game - Let's go camping! ROUND 2 NOW IN PROGRESS

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:40:28 PDT

OK, fellow bloggers, let's start a new game version of Let's go camping. (sorry Nancy).

REMEMBER! There is a pattern to be followed if you want to go camping!

I'm going camping! And I am going to bring some music, I think I'll bring some Aerosmith.

If you want to go camping with me, what will you bring?

ROUND 2 STARTING NOW, SEE LATEST BLOG

FIRE IN THE N.E.

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:41:21 PDT

Just passed what must be a house fire near Bernard & Haley. Going East on Bernard, there's a Y intersection at Haley, it's to the right. Hope everyone is ok.

Breaking news teams - what have you got?

Three women named in fight outside courthouse

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:38:07 PDT

I had to laugh out loud when I read these names - Old Blue hit the nail on the head when guessing their names in a previous blog!

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/BreakingNewsTeam/30573

Three Bakersfield women arrested after a brawl broke out in front of the downtown courthouse Tuesday have been identified by the Kern County Sheriff’s Department.

Quemesha Ellis, 21, and Jamika Walker, 20, were arrested on suspicion of fighting in public and resisting arrest.

Karnesha Sawyers, 28, was arrested on one count of suspicion of fighting in public.

The fighting broke out at just after 11 a.m. outside the glass doors of the county justice building at Truxtun and Chester avenues.

Sheriff’s deputies assigned to Kern County Superior Court used pepper spray to break up the fight.

What apparently began inside the courthouse as a verbal exchange between two families escalated into a physical confrontation outside.

Other women who were not arrested were left wiping pepper spray residue from their eyes following the incident.

A witness said the women had been attending a hearing for 21-year-old Michael Montgomery, who is accused of driving drunk and ramming his vehicle into a tree earlier this year, killing two passengers in the car.

The incident apparently erupted between members of the victims’ families and the defendant’s supporters.

LET'S GO CAMPING

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:36:30 PDT

Fellow bloggers, here's the newest camping game, enjoy! Remember, there is a PATTERN to be followed, so let's see who can guess the pattern first.

I'm going camping - and the boy scouts are providing the food and equipment.

Therefore, I'm going to bring ASPIRIN

Christian the Lion

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:53:13 PDT

Maybe you have already seen this - I got it in an email today, checked Snopes to verify it's authenticity, and then saw it was also posted on MSN.com. What a beautiful, moving video. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U&NR=1

Anyone up for a new game of Camping Trip?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:27:44 PDT

Well, let's say I'm going camping, and I am going to bring a book.

There is a PATTERN that must be figured out before you can be allowed to go camping with me. Good luck!