High school yearbook . . .

. . . destined to be a collector's item.

McKINNEY, TX -- (excerpts) A photo company says it's taking full responsibility for altered pictures that ruined a high school yearbook and will pay to have the publication reprinted before the seniors graduate.

Students at McKinney High School were stunned to get their yearbooks this week and see that some heads had been put on other people's bodies, sometimes of the other sex, and one girl appeared to be nude.

A spokeswoman for Lifetouch National School Studios Inc. said Saturday that the company sometimes touches up photos to cover blemishes and the like.

The high school in a Dallas suburb had required Lifetouch to make heads the same size and eyes at the same level in all student photos. Rollin said the request was "unusual and definitely very particular, but that's not to suggest what happened here is acceptable."

More than 30 students had their photos altered in the yearbooks that were handed out this week. Several heads were atop bodies wearing the same clothes. Some students' necks were stretched, one girl's arm was missing, and another girl's head was placed on what appeared to be a nude body, with the chest blurred.

Does anyone think the requirement to make all the kids' heads the same size and their eyes at the same height is a little anal retentive?

I absolutely LOVE this . . .

Opportunities . . .

. . . come at the strangest times, and from the oddest places.

I am being rather actively recruited for a position that would pay me approximately 3X my current salary. It would also provide for housing, a car, medical insurance and an allowance for daily living expenses. Most of my salary - less taxes - could go straight to the bank.

It has some downsides, and is not a sure thing. However, I think I can pull it off. It will take some time to develop.

This came, totally unsolicited, out of the blue from a source that I never expected. One blogger knows the details, but she is sworn to secrecy.

Stay tuned . . .

Tree frog redux . . .

H. cinerea apparently thinks our house is a tree. I had a treehouse once, but this isn't it. A week or so ago, I took these photos:

Today, as I was returning from the store, I noticed a little green thingy behind the trim next to the front door. I guess there are a lot of bugs that hang around our front porch light. The light has a motion sensor, and various people, cars and other beasties wandering by turn it on.

A PhD should be . . .

. . . smarter than a fifth grader. But he wasn't. Missed the first question. Walked away with the grand total of $0.00. Shouldn't a PhD in ANY discipline be able to do third grade math?

The question that was beyond the PhD's math ability:

If a pound of peanuts costs 48 cents, how much does 5/8 of a pound cost?

Now, no cheating, no pencil and paper. Do it in your head. What's the answer?

Babbling . . .

. . . because it's all I have today.

On "The Tudors," Anne is starting to rub Henry the wrong way - which is diametrically opposite to her approach last year. I'm starting to fear for her safety.

Rummy. No, not gin rummy. The Donald of Rumsfeld. The exiled SECDEF. The ex-Bushie. He engineered the start-up of a pay-for-performance payroll system for Federal Department of Defense employees. Now, I'm all for pay-for-performance, but this is the $10,000 toilet seat of personnel systems. I don't have enough employees in my department to do the work as it is, and just adhering to the system is going to take from 10% to 25% of our collective work time just to work the system. Great idea. Pay them according to the amount of work they do, but cut the time they have to do it. My logical, engineering brain does not compute this.

A three day weekend . . .

. . . and it's rained for two. Oh, and the area has a tornado watch, high winds and thunderstorms right now. It's raining sideways, and I had to bring the grill in to keep it from blowing away.

All is not lost, though. It's still strawberry season, I picked another gallon yesterday and Mrs. B.
went all artistic with berries, angel food cake and whipped cream.