Picture Problems with Blogger & Peter Gabriel to Talk at TED

Unfortunately, I can no longer upload images from my hard drive onto this blog or any of my Blogger blogs.  I can still add images, but they have to be links from other websites.  This sucks, because most of the Peter Gabriel images I place on this blog are uploaded from my hard drive.  This means that until this issue is resolved, my blog posts are going to be a bit bare.

I suppose I could write Blogger about this, but currently I have the flu (along with about 99.9% of the American population) and can't be bothered.

Anyway, Peter Gabriel is still on vacation and knowing his luck, he has the flu.  Hope he doesn't though.  Staying home with the flu is nightmarish enough without having the flu while going on international flights.  If he does have the flu, chances are good that he will have mostly recovered by the time he appears at the big TED conference in Long Beach, California in late February to early March of 2013. 

This will be his second TED appearance.  Image above is from his first talk back in 2008.  What do you want to bet that he'll give the exact same talk?  TED talks only last about 18 minutes and the odds are really good that it will go up on TED's YouTube channel, so unless you live within driving distance of Long Beach, it's not worth forking out the dosh to go.  Yes, I know other people give talks during the conference (Bono is currently scheduled to speak in 2013) but, quite frankly, who cares about them? I know PG loves these TED conferences, calling them "brain food" which goes to show that he never went to college or university. I, on the other hand, suffered through four year of higher education and consider sitting through a series of lectures about as pleasant as having a Japanese beetle fly into my ear.

Peter has also submitted a song for a benefit album, Home Recordings, Vol. 1 being put together by his daughter Anna's charity, The Voice Project.  PG submitted to a phone interview with Rolling Stone about the charity and the album.  I guess interviews do not count as "work."  I'd sure as hell count it as work -- whether I was the interviewer or the interviewee.  But then again, that's me.

My Fishes' Log

Since Peter Gabriel's on sabbatical, I can't blog about him so I'll blog about this:

I got a Christmas present for my tropical fish.  Let me back up -- I was at the pet store anyway getting dog food, fish food and presents for the dogs, so I thought, "Oh, what the hell" and got a present for the two tropical fish in the 20 gallon hexagon aquarium my Dad gave me.  I didn't get any presents for the goldfish.  Heck, that would be too weird.

Anyway, I got a hollow, aquarium-safe log.  It's marketed for bettas (also called Siamese fighting fish) but my common plecostomus, Mr. Big Fish, is getting a kick out of it. too.  He likes to chew on it and push it about the tank surface, ramming it into the walls, the heater and so on.  Dragon, the betta that the log is supposed to be for, sometimes swims inside if it and stays there, tooling around his territory in his log-tank.

But so far, it seems to be Mr. Big Fish enjoying the floating log more than Dragon the old, blue dragonscale betta.

And it shows you what my generation is like when I see that log and can't stop thinking

"All kids love Log!
What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs
    Rolls over your neighbor's dog?
    What's great for a snack and fits on your back?
    It's Log, Log, Log!

    It's Log, Log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
    It's Log, Log, it's better than bad, it's good!
    Everyone wants a log! You're gonna love it, Log!
    Come on and get your log! Everyone needs a Log!"

every single freaking time that log floats into view.  I have tried to stop the song from entering my head but so far, no good.  The song is not to be denied -- a tidal sound wave of epic proportions that will smash down any resistance.  It's only been 8 days since I gave the little log to the fish.  Let's see how long I can last before I finally toss the thing out so I can finally look at my tropical fish tank in peace.

So, anyway, this is what life for me is like right now while Peter Gabriel takes his sabbatical.  If he decides to extend it, I'm going to be really pissed off.