commander other has returned from his hiatus in the natural sauna that is otherwise referred to as “Des Moines”, where he frolicked about in the hot sun and punished all sorts of boys and girls for playing the game of soccer, and otherwise had a fine time pissing off coaches and parents by calling bad things fouls and not calling perfectly acceptable things fouls.

commander other has no idea what has happened to his blog categories in the hands of his guest bloggers, but realizes it was something entertainingly bizarre, and thus will blithely ignore any confusion which might have been created by his not describing what his categories were about to said guest bloggers. those of you who understood commander other’s categorization (all one or two of you), please rest assured that that he will probably deviate from it soon enough himself. naturally, commander other is very pleased with the quality of support from those two nefariously funny people….er….person and simian. he had a great time reading through their posts.

commander other will post more later tonight or tomorrow, after spending some family time with his….er….family. he has missed his little portion of the blogosphere very much, and hopes he finds you all well. he has now grown tired of referring to himself in the third person.

thank you all for your continued readership. except for you damned backwards-ass republitards, of course!

As I will be out of town for several days starting on Friday, I put out a call for guest-bloggers, and the esteemed Tengrain of “Mock, Paper Scissors” fame and the renowned drmonkey of “Monkey Muck“, took me up on the offer. So, expect to see some posts from them in the days to come.

Or…er…already, as the case may be. I guess monkeys don’t read the fine print (probably because this human doesn’t write all that well). I am very pleased to have others (others of such high regard, I might add) helping in this endeavor to capitalize upon the obvious, and not-so-obvious, editorializations of certain photographers who work the political beats! Their “keys to the kingdom” are eternal, unless they start throwing poop or scissors at each other, of course…

At any rate, a big, hearty Otherwhirled howdy-do to Tengrain and drmonkey. And welcome to all simians and scissorheads!

i will be at an all-day shoot this coming Friday, and out of town from Saturday through next Wednesday. in other words, i won’t be around to blog from June 22nd through the 27th. the way i see it, i could either frantically try to put together a ton of pre-dated posts that will automatically go live at the appropriate times, and probably be relevant to exactly nothing that’s actually going on in the world, or i could get (an)other person(s) who enjoy(s) poking their fingers in the eyes of public figures to keep everyone entertained during my hiatus.

if you’re interested in guest-snarking, reply here with a facsimile of your email address and links to your work (if you’re not blogrolled), and i’ll make some keys to the kingdom for you. this could even potentially lead to ongoing guest-snarkery so that the 100 or so per day that swing by the otherwhirled don’t get too incredibly bored.

okay, so, despite how much i get out, i don’t get out much.

i’ve seen Bats Left Throws Right blogrolled at a few places, but i just spent a while there and found “James Briggs Stratton ‘Doghouse’ Riley” to be very well-written and certainly worth the read. Riley intersperses the personal with the opinion, and that suits me just fine. I found Riley’s blog by way of the World of Crap.

some posts over there which i enjoyed, and which some of you may enjoy as well:

Goldberg on Education: Like a Man Selling Brassieres

Okay, I have to ask: how much time did you give that? Did you think it through, or did you type it as it popped into your head? George Will is widely rumored to employ a Quote Boy. Maybe you need to hire a Metaphor Wrangler.

Truthiness: An Impossibly High Standard

LAST week’s youthful exuberance about the process of deciding on a new furnace/ac combination fades into memory as the Elmer Fudd of my expectations meets the Trickster Wabbit of sales & marketing. I had imagined that this part of the process would be concluded by last Saturday. It’s Wednesday.

Faithiness

Which reminds me–this is actually not off topic–yesterday the Indy Star ran a blurb about a call for 500 extras for the next Will Ferrell howler, which concluded:

“Just normal people who want to come and work with us and dress in 1970s costumes, or wear a wig and sideburns.”

which can be overlooked in the same spirit we’ve overlooked the rack-like stretching the term “film comedy” has undergone in recent years. Showing what a crowd might actually look and dress like in them days, this side of Woodstock, that is, would risk sending today’s moviegoing audience into a maelstrom of anachronistic confusion it might never recover from.

at any rate, i’m adding Bats Left Throws Right to my blogroll, in the “inspirations” section, no less. i wish i wrote half as well as he, and should you find yourself with a bit of extra time on your hands, i dare say it’d be well spent perusing the writings of James Briggs Stratton “Doghouse” Riley. especially, say, early next week, when any pre-dated posts i will have hopefully had the time to setup before i leave for Des Moines, fail to show up at their appointed times….

It is highly unlikely that I will be able to post anything until late Monday, June 4, (which happens to be my wedding anniversary ~ condolences should be sent directly to Mrs. Other, of course). This weekend is the state tournament for soccer hereabouts, and I spent all day on the fields yesterday, and will do so again most of Monday. I am skipping Saturday’s and Sunday’s opportunities to referee my ass off, because I sponsor the local renaissance fair, and am thus obligated to cover it photographically, since that’s what I do for a living. It’s one of those weekends when “rest and relaxation” means bed and a couple of beers at the end of a really, really long day. Hrm. Maybe in the other order, though….

That having been said, I’m going to try to sneak a few things in this morning before the gates at the fair open. Traditionally, my readership is rather low on the weekends, so I’m trusting everyone will survive without a ton of posts from me. In the meantime, go fill your noggins with these:

• Mock, Paper, Scissors
• Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes
• I can’t believe it’s not a democracy!
• Republic of Sestakastan
• Sorghum Crow’s General Store
• Zaius Nation

There. Now don’t let me hear you telling anyone I never gave you anything.

{edit} Added Republic of Sestakastan. Howdy, Morse!