Desertrose

I love the dreamy smile on #1, but #2 has always been a favorite of mine. I went reluctantly for #1.

Happy TGIF!

Happy Anniversary, aikim!

Happy Birthday, Idyj!

Have a great day, all!

Caro

Hope you don't mind my borrowing this, Caro! I haven't seen your blog yet since I didn't quite make it home.... but tonight!!!

I am glad you stayed at your work place. I was worried about you driving home so late. If you ever have to work at NASA or anyplace near Clear Lake, you can crash at my house.

Alicia

Hallelujah, Tweeterwall is over!!!

I think there were some amazing results from the poll as the fan base came together like days of old. I read FCA posts from 9/13 to the present, and many of you were impressed with the OFC Thread. There were similar cheerleading threads on CA message boards -- the Clayboard, international fan boards, etc. For at least a day, we knew Clay would come in second, so that's what I wrote about in the blog ...

The Carolina On My Mind blog celebrates the conclusion of Tweeterwall and grandson Kai's second birthday. Clay epitomizes an Ultimate World Idol, which I supported with info familiar to you, the next chapter with Decca, and Wednesday's updated list of 128 countries recording visits to the blog. Clay is truly worldwide!

The lead Clay graphic is by Cotton with others by AmazingCA, Claystruck, Ashes, and Sally. Thank you for your visits and comments.

For those who enjoy the Kai reports, this entry includes a birthday graphic and a short video of grandson's latest drumming escapade. Here is the art by Ashes (Claysmelody at FCA) celebrating our family's birthday boy:

Clickable Kai

Again, WOOHOO and on to the next chapter! First, I have to teach violin lessons. See you in a bit ...

Have an awesome day, all! :thbighug-1:

Caro

What a beautiful child.

No contest #2 for me.

I may be alone in this one but it's #1 for me. I can't resist those Wango Tango jeans and the sexy guy in them. As much as I love profile pictures of Clay, the Wango Tango jeans just do something to me. Can't resist them! Love the way he's leaning in that picture too.

Yeah all of that! #1 for me too!

Sorry, but I went with #1.

Please, please, please, fans of #2 vote for one of the best pics ever, imo, of clay. There is so much to love, the expression on his face, the dropped boot, the openness,

(takes another look),

where was I

the jeans, the shirt, the shoulders,

VOTE FOR #2!

I luv the campaigning. Funny! But aren't fans of #2 the same fans of #1? ROTF

It's pretty quiet in here, so I thought I'd post a link to a long profile of Neil Patrick Harris in New York Magazine. It's an interesting take, I think, on how NPH has come into his own as a gay man, and as an actor who is out in Hollywood - still a pretty rare thing. I shouldn't project too much, but I can't help wondering how much NPH's experiences along the way parallel Clay's. Neil talks about how his time onstage like this:

When the show was canceled in 1993, Harris went through a period of retreat. He made some lightweight but lucrative TV movies; then, at 25, he appeared in the L.A. company of Rent, an experience he found liberating. "This gypsy world of people who are just so appreciative of each other's individuality!" Harris says, grinning at the memory, his arms held wide. "Where some people are super-gay and have girlfriends or boyfriends for twenty years, and others swing both ways—or are straight and have a wife but they're okay with gay men giving them foot massages and don't freak out. And you're singing about that: no day but today, and there's only us and there's only this, and don't regret."

The audience became a mirror for his own struggles. "You can see young couples, old-guy couples, clutching each other, openly sobbing," he tells me. "And you're singing at them, to them, sobbing too. It's very cathartic. And it certainly put to rest my weird personal concerns, because there's a much bigger picture."

We'll never know unless Clay tells us, but it makes me curious about how much his Spam Fam helped him with his process of coming out publicly.

I do not know the answer either but for whatever caused it, I am grateful. I love the glow that envelopes Clay now.

IMO his Spam family probably helped him in the process. Totally different being around this family than living in Raleigh surrounded by Southern Baptists. I am happy that he can finally be himself without fear of being "outed" by people who had no business doing it. He looks so happy now, and that makes me happy.

I doubt that we will ever really know because Clay is a private person, but that is OK. All that matters is that he can live his life to the fullest now! JMO

Who knows, maybe one day Clay will open up, write about it if he thinks it will help someone who is in that position.

I have been voting on this Ultimate World Idol poll every 20 minutes for days and have still not seen this pop up. I am so sleep deprived that I tried to turn the TV on with the phone and then could not figure out "why the remote was not working."

I have been having fun voting. Even though these polls might not make any real difference, it might show that Clay still has a strong fan base and has not lost as many fans as a lot of people think. I also ran across a Utube that has now been removed in which people voting for AL were calling Clay ugly. That is making me vote for Clay more! I survived Ike, and I hope I can survive this contest! Hee Hee I sure am tired though. Voting!

WOW! I don't know about landing in tiny squares in the middle of the ocean. Exciting, but scary to me. Complaining is almost always a good thing if the complaint is legitimate. Glad it went your way this time!

BTW, I work closely with our Safety groups and I seem to remember how last year you were rather concerned about your means to evacuate if the need arises during a hurricane. Have things improved by now? It's the height of the season so I hope you have made contacts and/or arrangements since then. We were worried about you and were watching for you to call in after Ike.

I did way better not evacuating for Ike than I did with the evacuation for Rita. I have decided that up to a category 3, I am not going to evacuate. Even though I am in a mandatory evacuation area, I am 26 feet above sea level, so I should be safe up to a category 3. It was weird though because I was the only one in my neighborhood that did not evacuate. But the day after, everyone came back to the neighborhood, and it was kinda fun even though we had to live in the dark for a week. We would gather in the cul de sac every evening, someone brought their RV with a generator, and talk. All our fences got knocked down with the wind, so we all got to meet each other. No TV, no internet, just a blast from the past where neighbors visited with each other. When the lights started coming on in the surrounding neighborhoods and we were still in the dark, we would curse at them, but just in fun, not in an ugly way. Dealing with the damage Ike did was another story. I just had my gutters re-installed.

I know that there is much to be thankful for, especially while recalling yesterday's 9/11 anniversary, but I just wanted to gripe about work a bit since I'm on call this week but I have a huge backlog of chores, and had to do that late night server upgrade in the middle of the week. Started that late because apparently people in Halifax fly helicopters until 9pm in the summer and I couldn't switch off the flight system until then. Why people won't get to bed at 11pm their time to sleep or not, so that regular people can get their work done is beyond me. And just now I got a page on a report that wouldn't run -- it's Saturday, why didn't they run it yesterday?!!!

Sorry about the hassle it took for you to do your job. Your job sounds really interesting though. I always consider you a techie, but I did not know it had to do with helicopters. What exactly do you do, if you do not mind my asking?

Hi Alicia! I only just moved to this group in February and my work isn't as technical as it used to be. This week was an exception since the people who regularly do the servers are away in Australia & Papua New Guinea, so I had to do it myself and I didn't want to push it back since I'll be traveling myself soon, though nowhere near as exotic as the others. My group implements the Logistics systems that keep track of people traveling to our production sites via helicopter, fixed wing (small planes), train & crewboats. It's fun to ride helicopters that land in tiny squares in the middle of the ocean and it's cool to visit the control rooms that do flight-following (tracking the flights via a GPS system). The helicopter company we work with also does Antarctica runs for the NSF and so they have a lot of great pictures of helicopters near glaciers with penguins in the foreground. In the summer, though, places like St. John's, Halifax and parts of Alaska try to get as much work as possible done during the daylight hours so our maintenance windows are much narrower and it's somewhat frustrating to work outside of their work schedules.

ETA: I know that jobs are scarce at present and I'd complain more if this one went away, plus I can't really blame people at our Founders Square office because they're also just trying to get their work done and they're actually very nice... but I just wanted to vent a little. I probably should just go get some air and work on some of those chores... thanks goodness I don't need to work on the report -- one of our contractors answered the ticket before I could get to it --- hee, sometimes stopping to complain can be a good thing!

WOW! I don't know about landing in tiny squares in the middle of the ocean. Exciting, but scary to me. Complaining is almost always a good thing if the complaint is legitimate. Glad it went your way this time!

I know that there is much to be thankful for, especially while recalling yesterday's 9/11 anniversary, but I just wanted to gripe about work a bit since I'm on call this week but I have a huge backlog of chores, and had to do that late night server upgrade in the middle of the week. Started that late because apparently people in Halifax fly helicopters until 9pm in the summer and I couldn't switch off the flight system until then. Why people won't get to bed at 11pm their time to sleep or not, so that regular people can get their work done is beyond me. And just now I got a page on a report that wouldn't run -- it's Saturday, why didn't they run it yesterday?!!!

Sorry about the hassle it took for you to do your job. Your job sounds really interesting though. I always consider you a techie, but I did not know it had to do with helicopters. What exactly do you do, if you do not mind my asking?

#2 for me also.

No. 1 has always been one of my favorites, but two is hard to go against, beautiful.

Bang Clay......oh my!

Where does the line start? (Just had to smut a little)

Really hard choice, but it is #2 for me today.

I think whether one encounters it or not has to do with the browser you are using, whether your browser and OS updates are up to date, your security settings, your anti-virus, etc.. Mozilla is definitely a safer browser when it comes to preventing this kind of thing, but I have gotten the same thing on Mozilla--the most recent time I saw it I was using Mozilla. I don't know much about Mozilla security settings, which is why I went back to IE. If you are using IE, there are several different settings that can block pop-ups and prevent unwanted downloads. That script thingie that canfly hates (when you want to use FCA's link or photo buttons), for example, is a safety setting to prevent unwanted scripts from running. (And it can be bypassed, but it's risky. I just temporarily allow it.) I also use google toolbar's pop-up blocker.

Desertrose, I don't think you have anything to worry about if that window/box hasn't come up that says you are infected. Clicking on that box is what gives you the infection. It's a clever trick to hook people, because you can't shut it down even by clicking cancel. Some you can stop with the red X. Some won't stop even then. Shutting down your browser (with control-alt-delete) or shutting down your computer will do it. Best thing IMO is to avoid sites where these thing are known to exist unless you are very secure about your computer's security. Those who haven't encountered it have good reason to feel confident for themselves, but given that at least one person we know has gotten the virus there (and I don't think it's unreasonable to believe her when she says she got it there, especially when others have had the box come up when they were at that site), I would not feel comfortable guaranteeing to everyone that they are safe.

Thanks JMH

So the trick is not to click on the box if it appears because one won't be able to stop it downloading once it starts. For those that accidentally click on it, would unplugging the computer stop the download? I am not too computer savvy. That is why I am asking. I am definitely not clicking on it if it shows up. I picked up a worm on Facebook, but Norton's found it and took care of it. Researched it and found out that social networking websites like My Space and Facebook download it to get your personal information. Scared the heck out of me cause Norton's notified me while I was doing my online banking!

You know I've been in this site continuously for the last few days as have a many others and I've seen nothing like this. Is it at all possible that this pop up came from some other site that she had open at the same time? There is no question that this is a nasty virus and depending upon which one it is, will make you reformat your computer to get rid of it (although I hadn't heard of it crashing it) BUT I haven't seen this pop up mentioned except for the mention from strummer6 via you. SO I'm just wondering if it could have been some other site that caused her the issue (unbeknownst to her).

Caro mentions it coming up a couple of times for her right in the post I quoted. And, yes, you may have to reformat your hard drive, but it won't be literally destroyed, so if you don't mind losing all of your computer files, no biggie.

I have been voting a lot in this poll, and I have seen nothing like this either. I certainly do not want a virus that would cause me problems. Strange that I have not encountered it as many times as I have gone to vote. I use Mozilla and it blocks pop ups really well. I have been scanning my computer for viruses with Norton's just in case, and I have no viruses. I have been doing this more than usual. I am also scanning with ad-aware and spy-bot. They find nothing except maybe a couple of low risk tracking cookies, which I have them remove. Most of the time they do not even find those.

Everything Cindilu says, except for the "looser" part, #1 for me. It is a winner!

#2 - he looks so happy and that smile lights up my life.

I'm with you clayzedover... he has a "million dollar smile" that definitely makes my day!

Hard one today. The smile vs the suit. I had to go with the suit. So it is #1 for me, because I love the look on his face. He happens to be looking straight at me. Don't be jealous.

Easy choice for me this time. #1 all the way.

Lets hear it for the boy. I have to vote for #1, even though I love #2. Its kind of, like nostalgia about your kids when they were so cute that you wished that they could stay that way forever. Then they grow up, still are good looking, but the memory of the cuteness is always there, and looking at their younger pictures always makes me feel good. It is sort of like that with Clay for me.

No. 1 for me, but I would shave my legs for #2 any day! This one is way too cruel.

Easy choice for me this time, #2. I loved the way he looked that day his outfit, his hair, and best of all, the smile. The smile always gets me.

Another hard choice, but I had to go with the Rolling Stone guy, #2 for me.

Tough choice, but I went for #2.