Umm...Wow

Well, so much for the news being Fair and Balanced.

Fricken Work

So work raised it's ugly head and demanded that I address it. I had to drive into town to a small coffee shop because the Library is closed on Sunday and Monday. So there is where I sit, working.

Boo! :(

However, once this is done I think today will be spent in Nederland checking out all the hippie art and stuff and then dinner at this big ass German restaurant called the Black Forrest. The Black Forrest has a special place in my heart because we played a radio show there when I was in Europe the first time and the director popped a solo on me. Bastard.

Nederland!

Today we went into Denver. It was mostly a very frustrating experience because it was mostly last second. I have learned that last second planning (or lack thereof) and big cities do not go together. Also, once again, I discovered that me and no food do not got together.

So we went home and took a nap. Then we went to Nederland!

Now, Nederland is a town in the moutanins tucked away in a valleyish area on the way to Boulder. This place has hippie written all over it. Grest town! Lots of neat little shops and restaurants. And four bars!

Here is my thinking on the name Nederland. Either they meant it to be Neverland, but were too high to spell it right. Or, and I think this is most likely, it is named after my heor in Three Amigos...Ned Nederlander. Therefore, it should obvious that someone should open bar/restaurant called Ned's in which a talking turtle serenades the patrons. How cool would that be?

Muesums

Is DC the only place where Muesums are free?

Boulder

Above is the Pearl Street Mall. It's an open air mall that spans several blocks. Lots of shops and restaurants and free entertainment.

In some areas of Boulder peds can press a crosswalk button that's turns on these flashing lights that indicate that the traffic should stop. Found that out the hard way. :)

Black Hawk and Central City

The closest town to where I am staying is Black Hawk - a gambling town. Central city is right next to it, like a mile away. They both have town halls and police forces.

The way Blawk Hawk was described to me I had thought it to be some poor little crappy town with one casino and a gas station. Wrong. Its like Vegas in the Rockies. Big ass Casinos with all the trimmings.

Central City also has a bunch of Casinos but has little shops and such as well. And, the biggest surprise of all, and Opera house...a pretty famous one at that apprently. Been in business for 75 years. If I knew anything about opera, I was told, I would have been impressed by the level of superstars they have there. Apparently one sat next to me at the Face Bar. Ah the face bar, that's a different story.

To give you an idea, think of the old west meets a smaller scale Vegas. Black Hawk would be the strip and Central City would be the old part of Vegas...Eldin Street I think? The two cities are REALLÝ cool.

Btw, isn't Central City the name of a town in a video game? Policy Academy comes to mind.

On The Way To Boulder

I decided to head to Boulder today. It's about 35 miles away but the road is uber windy and the speed limit is about 40. Plus, it is raining, which I enjoy but not everyone does.

On the way I saw the place pictured above and it looked like it was really hopping, so I decided to stop for lunch.

I am now sitting at a table inside waiting for my breakfast eggs and chili thing. Across the road is a dude that does trail rides that I think i'm going to check out.

The place is busy as heck so I sat at the tiny bar they have while waiting for a seat. I'm drinking a rather hoppy but refreshing beer as well. The people are nice and sociable which has more or less been typical up here in the hinterlands of Colorado.

On to boulder!

East vs West

Traveling west by car is more plesant than traveling east. For one thing, everytime you hit a new state the miles count down to the state line. This way you know how far you have to go.

The timezone changes work in your favor heading west as well, giving an extra hour here or there of driving.

As boring geographically as the midwestern states can be, they have awesome speed limits. You can cover a good bit of ground with a 75 mph speed limit.

One of the annoying things, however, are the radio stations in western Iowa and Nebraska. The three Cs are mostly all that is available out there (Classics, Country and Christian). So if that's your cup of tea you are golden.

All in all the drive west was pretty fun and quick.

Public Service Announcement

Two things:

1) I have discovered how to update my blog via email.
2) because of number 1, expect a lot of short entries about random stuff. These are mostly for me so in a year or so when I have totally forgotten everything I can go back and look.

Wait, who am I kidding. It'll be in September I need to go back to remember.

The Big Open Sky

Evertime I drive across the middle of the US...your Iowas, Nebraskas and Kansasies...I have an apiphany. I decided to write it down this time so I can stop having it.

There really is something to the "big open sky" that comes up in songs and such about the midwest. The sky is fricken huge. There are not any trees or structures to block your sight and it really is impressive. I don't know that I could ever live in one of those states but seeing that sky like that is something I would never tire of.

Car, I Name Thee...

...Bug Catcher!

"Nothing beats clown sex."

Stop laughing. (You know who you are.)

Butch Dewey

Any one know who that is? Pop quiz!

Anyway, I meant to post this a few days ago but didn't, so now I will. Some interesting quotes from my Breaux trip. I'll let you all try to figure out what they are in reference to. I apologize if I hurt anyone's delicate sensiabilities.

"No, that isn't too juicy."
"It's like sliding a hotdog now a hallway."

Oh, and the next quote deserves a post all on it's own. :)

Denver

I arrived in Denver last night about 4 ish east coast time.  I decided to push through all the way.  Dang that was a long day.  20 hours, 1200 miles and one nap, but I'm basically here.  Just a 30 minute drive up the mountain and I'm there.   Let the fun begin.

Oh, before I forget.  I was listening to the radio and that song about becoming a rock star by Nickleback came on.  The Dobson 'Focus on the Family' influence is apparent because they were bleeping out all kinds of stuff, like the word drug.  Oh, but Playboy was ok.  Weird. 

Onward!

Riding Along in My Automobile

So I'm heading to Colorado.  By car.  Yes, once again I have decided to drive across country all by my lonesome.  It has been a couple of years and I was starting to feel an itch to just go.  So that's what I did. 

I'm currently writing from a truck stop with Wi Fi (the Flying J, they are all over the country and all have Wi-Fi) in Des Moines, IA.  I left my house yesterday in my car around 5:30 pm and stopped west of Cleveland, OH for the night.  I've gone a total of 1000 miles with 700 more to go.  My thinking right now is to try and make it to Colorado by tomorrow morning before my friend goes to work so I can sleep in a real bed.  That'll be nice.

I've learned a couple of things I thought I would share on my trip so far:

1. There is a town in Iowa called 'What Cheer'.  Two thoughts come to mind on how this town's name a came to be.  Either someone was hard of hearing OR, more likely, it is just a really depressing place to live.
2. Having the back open in the Jeep when it is raining is not good for the stuff in the back of the Jeep.
3. The trip between Cleveland and really until you hit Iowa has some awesome rock channels.
4. Sirius antenna's do not work under the top of a Jeep.  Boo Sirius.
5. Jeep's do NOT do a good job of keeping bugs from whacking the windshield.  Must be that less than aerodynamic shape.  Eww.

This trip is totally open-ended.  I expect to be back the week after August 10th but who knows.  Once I get to my first destination I'm just going to do whatever feels right at the time.  I have an entire army of people looking after the beast so I know he is taken care of (thanks!!). 

Anyway, that's it from Des Moines.  It is time to hit the road again and take a bite out of that 700 miles.

BTW, here is a link to my route: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Ashburn,+VA&daddr=Black+Hawk,+CO&sll=40.40378,-91.32766&sspn=32.587941,48.867188&ie=UTF8&ll=40.380028,-91.494141&spn=32.587941,48.867188&z=4&om=1

Yay Monkeys!

"Sixty eight percent of Republicans don't believe in evolution. On the other hand, only five percent of monkeys believe in Republicans."
---Stephen Colbert

Ha Ha!

Scrubs

Love that show!  It is so funny how some of the plotlines in that show parallel my romantic life.  Actually, its usually funny...sometimes it stinks.

The Day The Internet Crashed

Oh Nooooo!!  Oh the humanity!!!

Ultimate Energy Drink

Mmmmmm...energy.

This Is Spinal Tap!

I don't think the audience got it.  Good stuff.

Well Said

Keith Olbermann talking about the Scooter commutation. 

Air Car!

Sweet

Ha Ha

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

Now THAT's a headline.

Unbreakable

Just finished watching that movie again. LOVE the ending of it.

'Now that we know who you are, I know who I am'

Good lovin.

Why I Hate the Media

Bill Moyers is a good journalist, a journalist of the old mold that wasn't worried about how they looked or how famous they were like the punks that anchor your daily news broadcasts now. Last night PBS aired a documentary called 'Buying the War' about how our political media didn't do their job in the run-up to the Iraq war. It is very very good.

In essence, at some point during the 80's our media stopped being skeptical of government. Rather than verifing what a source tells them they just repeat it and then when it turns out the source was using them for propoganda purposes they protect the source rather than burn them. The stories around Lynch and Tillman and the hearings on the the Hill this week show how evident this is.

Disgusting.

So THAT is what Democracy Is

I love the writing of this guy. There is a pompous blowhard that is particularly irritating on the right-side of the blogsphere and this post does an excellent job of trashing something he wrote. At the same time it does a wonderful job of explaining a view of government I agree with.

FWIW.

Politics of Fear

Rudy needs a new play book: This crap doesn't fly anymore.

Honestly, this fear mongering might have gotten Bush elected a second time but does anyone really believe this crap anymore?

He says:

He added: “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”

then goes on to say:

Giuliani said terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world.”

Yea right. They hate us for a freedom. I can't believe I'm seeing this crap again from a presidential candidate.

What a dork.

Sources of Morality

I've had this conversation with some people and I think I posted about it a few times. Basically where does morality come from? Is it always based in religion or something else? Is our basis of law based in religion? Etc.

Well, I was poking around and came across a transcript of a debate between a well known atheist and a well known pastor. Some really good questions are presented from both sides and it is really a fascinating conversation.

In any case, regarding the topic of this post, I'm going to link to page 4 of the transcript where they are talking about morality and it's source. Check it out and, if you are really bored, read the whole thing! :)

Page Four

Eeek!

Here is an article about the sorry state the mortgage industry is in and how much it is going to SUCK in the coming years. The value of my house has already dropped a fair amount, unfortunately. :(

Teaser:

Now they are also a major reason the subprime mortgage market is melting down, why 1.5 million Americans may lose their homes to foreclosure and why hundreds of thousands of homes could be dumped on an already glutted market. They also represent a huge cloud hanging over Wall Street investment houses, which packaged and sold these mortgages to investors around the world.

Try Not To Snarf Your Drink

:)

SNL Digital Shorts

Here are a few that I find really funny. Enjoy!

Andy Popping Into Frame

Sloths!

The First Man In The History Of The World To Dance

What a Mental Image!

Despite the vast differences in their ages, ethnicity, and religious upbringing, the sexual chemistry between Roberto and Heather was the most amazing he had ever experienced; and for the entirety of the Labor Day weekend they had sex like monkeys on espresso, not those monkeys in the zoo that fling their feces at you, but more like the monkeys in the wild that have those giant red butts, and access to an espresso machine.
---Dennis Barry, Dothan, AL

That is the winner of the Romance category of the 2006 Bulwer Lytton fiction awards. Good stuff if you are bored and need something to do.

Hurts so Good

On Sunday we made Jamican Jerk Chicken to eat for the Uberbowl. It's like a mad scientest experiement because it requires the use of Habanero's which, for me, requires the use of plastic gloves to handle. So I made the marinade and we poured it all over the chicken breasts. Turns out it is supposed to marinate for 6 hours which would have meant it wouldn't be ready until after 10 pm, so we decided to let it marinate over night and just have it Monday night whilst watching 24.

Monday night comes rolling around and we decide it is FAR too cold outside to attempt to fire up the grill. Enter the George Foremen grill. The chicken has marinated so long is has taken on the color of the marinade, namely a greenish tint. Mmmmm. We toss them on the grill and away they go.

Here is where it gets interesting. The marinade is so pungent and spicey that the steam coming off the grill is almost toxic. When any of us were within like five feet our nose would start running and we'd start sneezing. It was REALLY funny. This went on for about 20 minutes until the chicken was cooked. The entire time, while sneezing and blowing our noses, we were wondering why on earth we were going to try to eat this.

We made some rice to help cut the heat down and I had made two dipping sauces as well, one an Asian Peanut Sauce (actually left over from the Chicken Satays we made for the Uberbowl) and a creamy mustard sauce. The chicken was cut up into little pieces and mixed with the rice, add the sauce of your choice and away you go.

While, there was some serious heat to the meat. Not the same kind of heat you get at mexican restaurants because it didn't hurt your tongue like that heat does. And not like wasabi hot because it did the opposite of sinus clearing. It was a unique heat that is unique to the habanaro. It made you sweat, it clogged your sinuses, and the weirdest thing is that you could feel it the most back around where your tonsils are and radiating up towards your ears. Also in your chest. However, it was fricken GOOD. The pain said NO but your mouth sad MORE. Mmmm...so making that again.

It reminded me of a drink called Kiss of the Devil that I think I wrote about here before. It is a wine made out of habernaros instead of grapes. It looks like soapy water and when you drink it your thought process is "WTF is this shit! It hurts! Omg it hurts. Make it stop." because your entire face is on fire in a very unique way. Then, about 15 minutes later, as the feeling subsides and it starts to feel strangely good, you crave more.

Same deal with the Jerk Chicken last night, just not as potent and tasted better...since the Kiss of the Devil was pure sensation and no taste. Mmmmm.

Hungrey yet?

Molly Ivins

Just marking this for me mostly. Molly Ivins was an incredible columist who died a few days ago. This is a good tribute to what made her so unique. We need more like her out there.

Rest in peace.

Holy Crap

The Colts beat the Ravens. I can't believe it.

I can't see New England beating the Chargers tomorrow but if they do, it'll be another show down between the Colts and New England and it'll be in the Colts backyard.

Mmmmm...

Misfit Utopia

I had a dream about Misfit last night. It was brief, and he basically just rubbed his head into mine like he used to do at night, but it was nice.

I have been thinking about righting a post for myself about the things he used to do so I could look back from time to time and remember. I'm taking that dream as the sign to do so. This is a post mainly for myself but feel free to read it if you like.

Misfit:
-would in the mornings stretch out his back so far he would basically fall over, then drag his back legs across the floor with his front legs about three feet to finally lay on his side all stretched out.
-when it was cool inside would sit on the hot air vent when the air was blowing with a big 'cat grin' on his face
-whenever the front windows were even an inch open would lay on his side and either push the entire screen out with his paw or claw through the screen. Sometimes he was even able to squeeze himself through and out the window.
-whenever he was able to get out would either just roll around on the cement or make a bee line to the grass to eat it. Occasionally he would take off but never too far and always ran back in the door when someone went after him.
-was so determined to get out would sometimes wait 10 or 15 feet from the door until someone opened in then charge full speed at the door. He would literally bounce off people and doors until he either found himself outside or lost his momentum.
-would sit on top of the tv cabinet and wait until the door was opened then bound outside.
-would sit on top of the tv cabinet very tall and proud like and look down on everyone like he owned the house. When I would go to pet him in this mood he would just raise his head further and get a bothered look on his face like the help was touching him.
-didn't like anything on top of the tv cabinet. He would wait until I was up and then get up there, look at me, and whack something off of the cabinet. Then he would peer down at the ground at it, look at me again, and turn away.
-he wouldn't really pur during the day, regardless of how much you pet him. Instead, at night, he would always come up to my room and get on the bed and start needing the sheets with his feet and pur away. He'd pur so much that he would start to drool. Cat drool is fricken nasty and he'd just drool and drool. Then, he'd shake his head really hard and all that crap would go all over the place. Nasty nasty stuff but I miss it.
-speaking of needing the sheets with his feet. He'd pick and spot and do that for a few minutes then walk three feet in a different direction a lay down. Most cats will need a place and then lay on it. Just weird.
-at night he would get his face up in my face and then just kinda ram his head into mine and push it along my face. Cutest thing ever.
-when he would sleep he would usually wrap up into a ball. Sometimes he would kind of fold his paws over his eyes and stretch, it was so cute!
-his entire goal in life was to get outside and eat grass. When I wouldn't let him out he would get all pissy and start to mope. Literally his head would hang down and he'd just walk around the house slowly and shoot glares at me, meowing this really low meow and beating up the other cats.

I'm sure I'll think of more and add on to this.

The Nature of Belief

There were two other updates below, don't miss them. :)

Anyway, Bunny asked me a good question responding to my 'everything is horrible' post a few days ago that I thought deserved it's own entry. She said, and I quote:

Oh and as devil's advocate: Do you also read things that encourage or positively explain religions or aspects of faith? Or is it just criticisms?

I do, I have. In fact, I love talking to people that are very religious. Not to argue with them, but to understand where they are coming from. I find the vast majority of followers are very pleasent and are fun to talk to and I have no problem with them or their beliefs. They get a lot of strength from it and in some ways I envy that. It is very personal, very sincere and usually very private.

The one's I have problems with are the one's that feel they are superior and/or shove their faith down my throat. The evangelicals. Those are the guys that I read about and am critical of. The ones that force their morality on me and are attempting to force it on the entire country. The ones that are trying to push religion into politics. That is where my criticism comes from and who I rail against. Not religion in general, but religion that ceases to be personal and attempts to become law.

Hope that clarifies things a bit. :)

Update

Phone recovered after it dried out and I finally got my car back late Friday evening. I also finally put Misfit in the ground at my mom's so that is finally all over with. However, I wasn't able to make it to Frankfest so I'm pretty disappointed about that.

You see, a friend of mine I have literally known all my life is an awesome guitarist in Richmond. Well known in the music scene there, a celebrity if you will. His day job his hanging gutters, he's been doing it for years. Well, a few weeks before Turkey Day he fell off a roof and crushed his arm. Compound fracters on both his elbow and forearm. Took three surgeries to fix it up. Luckily there was no nerve damage so he should be able to play guitar again although he'll never have full movement in that arm again.

The pisser was he had no health insurance nor workmen's comp so he is left with HUGE medical bills. So this past Friday (the 1/5/07) a bunch of local bands were having a benefit for him called Frankfest. How cool is that!? And I couldn't get down there because the shop took forever to fix the car. :(

Anyway, so there you go. At least my tire won't fall off.

Poetic Justice

Anyone that knows me knows I hate the Cowboys (NFL - Football). You also know that I like football. Football has a way of surprising you. The Cowboy/Seahawks game last night is a prime example.

Some backstory first. Early in the season the Cowboys were struggling with their quarterback. Whether to injury or desperation (I can't recall) a rookie named Tony Romo got his chance. He started lighting it up and suddenly the Cowboys were kicking ass. Very good QB, too bad he plays for Dallas.

Anyway, they manage to make it to the wild card playoff game last night against Seattle. They get the lead and it looks like they are going to win. 5 point game. The Seachickens score a touchdown but miss the 2-point coversion, so it is a one point Seattle lead (21 - 20). The cowboys get the ball and drive all the way to the 11 or so. All they need is a field goal to win the game. They throw for the in-zone on third down and the Seahawks stop them but it looks like the Cowboys got a first down on the one yard line. However, on review they didn't make it so they have to kick the field goal from 1.5 yard line. Chip shot, nothing to it. Cowboys are going to get the field goal and win the game. Here comes the poetic justic.

Romo, the savior of the Cowboys season, is the holder for the three-point kick. Has been all year and hasn't made any mistakes. The snap is made, and Romo screws it up! He fumbled the snap, makes a break for the in-zone, Seahawks tackle him. Game over! Ha ha ha! Romo screwed the Cowboys! It was FANTASTIC!

Yay Football!

What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 5

Haven't done one of these for a while but I'm really fed up.

I had to get up at 9 am this morning. I know, to most of you that doesn't seem too bad but that is like 3 hours before I usually get up, plus I went to bed at 2 am so that didn't help. I had to get up that early in order to take my car to the shop because one of the ball bearings seems to be going out. I want them to check it out before I make a trip to Richmond for Frankfest (more on that later). So I figure taking it in that early would allow them to get it in early, right? Wrong! I just called them at 3:30 pm and they STILL hadn't done anything with it. Why the hell did I get up so damn early if they weren't going to do anything with it until this afternoon? That's the first thing.

After I drop the car off I go home. I'm up for a little while checking email and the like then I decide I'm going to take a nap. I go upstairs with a glass of water and my phone (in case they actually call). The cat (Mimic) likes to stick his nose in the glass and drink the water so I set my phone on top of it like I usually do when I have my phone up there (usually I leave it downstairs). Well, and I'm sure you see this coming, I f'ing knock the phone in the water and the water onto the floor. When I finally got the phone out of the glass water just gushed out of it. GUSHED I say! I dried it off best I could and took the battery out and let it dry whilst I napped. I woke up a few hours later and stuck the battery back in. Every light on the phone came on (including the light they laughably call a 'flash' for the camera) and it just vibrated. That is all it does now. I'm still hoping it'll dry out and work again but as of this moment a glass of water fried my $600 phone. Damn it.

Back to the car. Since they dicked around all day doing god knows what if they have to order a part to fix it they'll have to wait until tomorrow to order it, which means the part won't show up until next week, which'll fuck this weekend for me. I'll need to rent or borrow a car or something so I can see Margo and go to Frankfest.

You know what it is? This bad crap happens like this when I start reading critics of religion. I'm going to have to stop reading about that shit. Damn it. It's so fascinating though! Arg.

So far, this year sucks.

R.I.P. Misfit

On the last day of 2006 Misfit was found dead. :(

He was my favoritest cat ever and will be sorely missed.

Eragon

Crap.

Update!!!

Ok, I'm going to break this up over several posts.

First and foremost, I am now dating a wonderful woman named Margo. Her and I are a lot alike (is that a good or bad thing?) all the way to having Birthdays 26 hours from each other (I'm June 9th and she is June 10th). It's fantastic. I really click with her and things are, for the most part, very smooth and easy going. Good stuff! Totally in love! (how mushy.)

She lives northeast of Baltimore about an hour so she is about two hours from me. Totally worth the commute. :)

Second, Christmas is a coming and I need to figure out my plans. So you Hagerstownian people, what are our plans? I don't even know if you all (Kris, Ben, Jamie, Bert, Chrissy, etc) even read this thing anymore but if you do, let me know if and when you are going to be in town in the comments or email me so we can come up with a plan. It'd be cool for us all to get together again since we missed out last year.

Third, I got some stories that'll slip out over time I'm sure. They involve various things such as Haunted Forrests, camping in 17 degree weather, dropping a kid on his head (not my fault!), a close call with cat death (everyone is ok), and the Search for the Perfect X-Mas Tree. Good stuff.

Finally, anyone know where this quote comes from: 'Awesome Pink Velvety Ball of Whip Ass'? Cracks me up.

Risk Assessment and Perception

I've talked about perception before and how I am fascinated by the way people can view the same thing in such different ways. Risk assessment is something else that I find interesting, particularly the way in which small risk items are blown SOOOO out of proportion compared to everyday risks. This is a pretty good article describing exactly that.

Big update coming when I get around to writing it. :)

Holy Crap

Amazing what a major shake up in the power struggle of the US Congress will do to a stubborn President. Rumsfield is stepping down.

It's so fun to watch Bush squirm on his press conference. It's like a little kid getting his lollipop stolen. He suddenly figured out that the tactics aren't working and that maybe Rumsfield isn't the person who should be in charge. It's just totally amazing how unstubborn he became!

What a jackass.

You know what it is? It's nice to see that cocky bastard humbled.

Democracy Rocks

Well, Bush is going to have a BAD couple of years and it couldn't happen to a more deserving man. Not only did the Dems pick up the 15 seats they needed to take the house and thus the purse strings AND investigation power (finally), at the last count there up to almost 30 seats with 13 still undecided, and most of those leaning Dem. That is HUGE.

Additionally, they are two recounts away from taking the Senate as well and lead in both races. That is even crazier because while the House was pick-up was pretty much expected the Senate seemed pretty unlikely. Yanking boths chambers is pretty much going to shut down the Neocon experiment that has been driving the country into the ground.

The makeup of the takeover is going to be very healthy for the country. What ended up happening is a lot of the crazies that hijacked the Repubs (i.e., the religious right and neocons) were kicked out on their butts and moderate dems came in...several of whom were traditional repubs that switched parties because of how far right the repubs swung since '94. So what you end up with is a more moderate congress. Maybe finally we will get some sanity back into policy

The only downer was that Liberman won...that dudes an ass. While he is probably going to cause problems he can be mitigated as long as the dems control the dialog. The issue with that guy is he kept kissing the neocon's ass and provided 'bi-partisan' support for some of the more screwy legislation such as the torture bill and such. With the dems in control he won't even have the option to be such an ass

So, in a nutshell, regardless of if the Dems pick up the senate or not, Bush's freehand has been shut down and investigations of the more ugly things such as the energy policy and extrodinary rendition can finally be explored. Plus, we may actually start to implement some of the 9/11 Board recommendations and not just pretend to. It's going to be a good couple of years.

Just remember, Politics are a soap opera you can participate in.

Go Vote!

Do it or you can't bitch later.

The Day After - Part 2

The previous post was about the forrest, this one is about what I did afterwards. :)

So we all had back to the bonefire, do a group picture, and then start wonderering around to see what other kinds of trouble we can get into. The group of four I was in decided to head to Bethesda to find a bar and do some drinking. The group consisted of a Indian chick, a Pakistani chick, and an Indian dude. It was the same group I went through the forrest with.

We made our way to a bar in Bethesda that didn't card because someone forgot their license (no, it wasn't me). The cool thing about this little group was the diversity. We spent most of the night talking about travel places in southeast asia which was totally fascinating to me. Oh oh oh, and I learned something! We were talking about labels and how Indians and Pakinstaniens aren't really middle eastern or asian and they told that they are desis. And I learned that people just arriving in America are called FOB's (Fresh Off the Boat). :)

So we hung around for maybe a couple hours, enough time for a couple of drinks and some food, then headed out around 1 am because of work the next morning.

There you go. Good times.

The Day After

Ok! So I went to the Haunted Forrest last night. The place was just across the river in Maryland so I was able to hop the ferry and get there in 20 minutes. About 56 people showed and we hung outside of the entrance for about an hour while we waited for everyone to show up. Turns out about 8 more people showed up then payed so that took a while to get sorted out as well. At one point all 56 of us were lined up in a line, it felt like grade school again.

We are standing in this line, right, and we hear this screaming and two girls come running out of the forrest like they are afraid for their lives...then right behind them comes this chick dressed all in black on this big ass black arabian horse chasing them. One girl stumbled and the horse kinda pushed her with it's head. It was f'ing awesome!

Finally we have everyone together and our guide (an older dude in a zombie costume) gathers us all around. He starts by saying 'This is your last change to turn around...' and then his cell phone rings and he steps away to take the call. Classic.

He leads us in through the central area which is like a little town. They have about five big ass bonefires with a small fence around each one and benches to sit on for those waiting to be called to hang out at. Around the perimeter are concession stands, bathrooms, a zip line thing about 30 feet in the air, a rock climbing wall to get to the zip line, a haunted hay ride and some other stuff. You can see flames shooting off in the forrest and people screaming and the sound of chainsaws. Good times.

The dude leads us to a private bonefire we paid for back in the forrest a bit. There we hang out for about 10 minutes before our group is called, then we head over to the entrace. We have to split into groups of 4 or 5 to do the trail. I break off with one chick I met at an earlier event and two others I never met before.

The trail itself was pretty cool. It was about a 1/2 mile long and took about 20 minutes or so to work your way through it. It was lit by candle light in little buckets so that they would temporarily blind you and then crap would jump out at you. There was one area where they had all of these really cool pumpkins carved and I was looking real close at one and this dude jumped in front of me and scared the crap out of me. Good stuff.

The end of the train was by far the coolest. I mentioned chain saws? Well, the entire time you are walking the trail you hear these things going and people screaming. I figure there was one guy running around chasing people, right? We get up to this little house where the two trails merge (there were two trails so they could get people through faster) and there are zombies and crap following close behind you. Then out of nowhere like 3 people show up, including the dude right behind us, with real chainsaws minus the rotating blade, and start chasing you. Mass havoc! People running all over the place to get away. They heard you towards an overturned bus with a strobe light going. You make your way through that with people grabbing your legs and slamming on the side of the bus into this scene straight out of Mad Max's Thundedome. Blaringly loud death metal playing, smoke and strobe lights, people jumping out of the corners and crap falling from the ceiling. It was totally awesome.

And then it was over. Most of the trail was kinda blah but the end was fantastic. Definitely doing it again next year.

Halloween Night

What are you all doing for Halloween Night? I'm going to Markoff's Haunted Forest. There is a menu at the top with pics and such.

This thing has me amped up. You have to sign a waiver too. A WAIVER! Wee!

I'm sure I'll have a story or two after this beast.

Opps

So I went to the Maryland vs FSU game yesterday with the Dad, my sister and her husband.

Here is our view:


Anyway, I knew it was going to be windy but it was in the low-60's when I headed out I just tossed on a pull-over windbreaker thing over my shirt. Well, that obviously wasn't enough because the temp dropped like a brick to the mid-40's and the wind was NUTS. So now I'm fighting a stupid cold, trying to kick it before Tuesday night's feastivities.

The game was awesome, though. The last five minutes are why I like football. It was intense. FSU is a hated team by Maryland and beating them has only happened twice in recent memory. Beating them was a BIG DEAL (tm) for us plus it made us Bowl Eligeable for the first time since 2003.

Here was the scene after the game:

Weekend Summary

So, here we go. After spending most of the week in a social comma I went out to Happy Hour with the Ashburn Singles Meetup group at Old Dominion brewery. Maybe 15 people showed up? If you remember, the last time I went to the Happy Hour with this group I ended up in a heated discussion with a Christian gal about religion. Anyway, the first part of the night was fun. Some people thought I was from California, partly because of the white streak thing I have going on apparently.

The group split up, some people went home and some people to a different bar to see a band and then over to a different bar afterwards. This all happened around closing time of the brewery around 10 pm. Myself and four others tried the second bar to see if we could hook up with them but there was a cover and the smoke was insane, so we headed over to this big ass bar in a steakhouse instead. We were able to snag a booth.

So it was myself with these four ladies all over 38 with kids. We had some good conversation, even if it did get out of hand a bit from time to time. The funniest thing though was this waitress that was waiting on us. So I was giving her this hard time because of the music that was playing. The music was pretty good at first but it varied widly, I mean it went from Gun's and Rose's to f'ing Paris Hilton, one after the other! So she kept coming back to tell us she put different songs on for us. This prompted the ladies I was with to be convienced that the waitress girl was into me. This also prompted me to do a LOT of blushing. Fricken women.

Ok, so that was Friday night...good 8 hours of fun. Saturday was another social coma. Sunday was the last day of the Ren Faire. I went with Les and two guys I know from various Meetup groups. We spent the entire day wondering around and drinking. It was pretty cool because of the customs that were there. A lot of gay people in drag (never seen them there before) were hanging out and lot of Star Wars outfits. It was pretty cool.

Leslie, being Leslie, got flirty after the drinking and was hanging out with one of the guys we went with. Apparently they both get flirty drinking so they kept wondering off while Kevin and I were making fun of them. Well, at one point they headed over to the bathrooms and Kevin and I were delayed because we were hungry. By the time we got over there they were no where to be seen. We hung around for a bit then gave up and headed to the bar we were ultimately going to end-up at anyway. We sat around there for about 30 minutes before Jim called and asked us where we were. Leslie wasn't with him (arg). So we head over and meet him and I slap him around for not keeping an eye on Leslie. I mean, you gotta keep an eye on that girl when she's been drinking. So I ask them to stay where they are and head out to find Leslie. I was pretty sure would eventually find her way over to the bar in the middle where we were all headed anyway so that is where I went. Low and behold there she was! She was shaken up but all was good. The rest of the day was low key except for the end. Leslie and Jim wondered over to shoot arrows and Kevin and I sat in front of the Dragon's Pub or whatever that one is by the elephants and watched the belly dancers...one of whom was a guy that was just plain scary. :)

So anyway, all in all a good weekend.

Weird Al

Finally broke the Top 10

Yay!

Unacceptable

I think this speaks for itself. Do these people know the meaning of the work irony?

Grude 2, Thursday Night, and The Satanic Verses

So I figured this will be a general catch-all post since I've been a bit remiss in posting. I've been hiting a bunch of different Meetup groups and it has kept me pretty busy.

Thursday night I went to a group in Arlington that was a happy hour. They reserved the top floor of this bar and some 100 or so people showed up. I got there about 6:30 pm and left around 1 am. In the process I had far too many glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon, then we moved onto Mimosa's and shared a Hookah! I've been wanting to try that thingy, it was pretty interesting. Had a melon flavored one and shared it between 7 of us or so. The music was pretty loud but all in all it was a good time.

However, I spent most of Friday sleeping off the hangover. I went to bed about 1:30 am and slept until about 9:30 am. I got up and staggered down stairs and read some email, etc. About 30 minutes later I start to feel pretty crappy and crawled back up into my bed to sleep it off. Ended up sleeping until about 3:30 pm or so...opps.

So I get up, right...and head out to Fairfax to catch a different meetup group doing dinner and a movie. We went to Joe's Crap Shack and caught Grudge 2. Now, I've explained how much a fan of Sam Raimi I am before and he totally didn't let me down on this one. The man has a gift. Needless to say, I will be sleeping on the couch tonight with the TV on. Scared the crap out of me.

Now, one of the conversation that have come up at various meetup groups are book clubs. There are a few in Washington and it is something I've always wanted to try since I like reading and I like having conversations, so it seems like a good deal to me. I signed up for one that meets once a month around the 24th. They are reading Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses'. This book was very controversial and the author actually has a bounty on his life in a few countries. I've heard about it over the years and am pretty excited to give it a read. The thing is 550 pages and I have just over a week to read it. Crap.

Anyway, there you go, now you are up-to-date.

Public Service Announcement

As if having to deal with terrorists and a resurgent Taliban wasn't enough, now they have to deal with this. Run for you lives!!

Alternate Reality: What Would You Be Doing

I was watching me some crappy Sci-Fi today, as I often do whilst I work, and this particular crappy episode involved alternate realities in alternate dimensions. The theory, as was put forth by this crappy tv show, was that there are an infinite number of alternate dimensions presenting us with an infinite number of alternate realities, some of which are close to are own and some that are very different. Got it? Sounds good to me - who am I to argue with such a theory anyway.

So I got to thinking...what would I be doing in some of these other dimensions? I could be the preznit, or I could be living in a box. I could be some famous movie star or some infamous murderer. Hell, I could be a gay pumpkin harvester in Alaska for all I know. Gee...how appealing.

All in all I like to think I wouldn't be all that much different than who I am now. If I was, I wouldn't be me, would I?

What would you be doing?

I Feel Like Rambling

So it is 1:39 am on Sunday night (not all that late by my standards on some days) and I am in a weird mood. One of those semi-surreal moods where one side of me just doesn't care and the other side is stressed and everything around me has kinda faded a bit. I have a prediciment that I guess is a good one to have but is stressing me out anyway. Ya see, I got this email late last night saying that a spot on a singles cruise opened up...not just any spot but a spot in an Oceanview cabin. It retails around $900 but since the dude dropped out but paid the deposit I can get it for about $700. Its for a week at the begining of Novemember and going through the Carribean, hitting some places I hit on a cruise several years back.

Why aren't I jumping at such a deal? Well that is the pisser of the whole thing. I was unemployeed for a few months over the summer and I'm close to having my finances back in order. One of the things I wanted to do was to build up some savings in case something comes up. I have an invoice in to my main client that should be paid in the next couple of days that will allow me to catch up on the remaining outstanding bills. I should be able to get one more in and paid before the cruise. Assuming that works out I can pay my mortgage, etc etc and maybe be able to pull off the cruise as well. The problem is I'm not totally sure. And that would be $700 that wouldn't be going to savings. And let's be honest here, it'll be another $300 or so on travel expenses to and from the boat (car pool) and the boos on the boat, which isn't included (although everything else is).

Additionally, my brother, Dad and I are trying to plan a weekend to go camping and we were talking about the first weekend in Novemember, which happens to be the weekend that the cruise starts. Now this is something I've been looking forward to but no specific date is set. Also, I'm not even sure that weekend works for my Dad or my brother...so, damn it.

So I'm vexed. Do I commit to the cruise, have a fucking awesome time, and deal with any financial issues afterwards...or do I decline the cruise, kick myself in the ass for it later, but finally get back on my feet financially.

It is now 1:50 am on Sunday night and I find myself leaning towards going again...but I've been back and forth on this about 20 times today.

Damn it.

Aww hell, there goes the TV switching to Univision again.

Damn it.

Kiss of the Devil

I went to the 31st Annual Wine Tasting/Show thingy on Saturday. 55 of Virginies 100-some vineyards were represented under four big ass tents. $25 gets you in the door and unlimited tastings, quite the deal. I met up with a MeetUp group (http://www.meetup.com) and proceeded to drink. The process basically was picking a tent, going to all the vineyards in there and trying their wine, then going to get something to eat and repeat for the next tent. By the time one tent was finished you had something like the equivlant of four or more glasses depending on how generous they poured. So, there was quite a bit of inebriation going on.

Anyway, I was there for something like 7 hours and towards the end of the day we found this vineyard called Peaks of Otter that didn't really have wine, just different weird stuff. One was called a Chilli Dog where they squirted some easy cheese on your hand like you would salt for a shot and you licked the cheese then slammed the wine. Tasted like a chilli dog. However, the most unique one was called 'Kiss of the Devil'. This was made out of various peppers, chief amoung them the Habernaro. This drink...it had no taste. It looked like lime juice and the smell made your eyes water. Drinking it...wow...it was just pure sensation. Lit your face on fire and felt it all the way down your throat. As much as it hurt it was so unique I tried it three times. Mmmm...so good.

Anyway, this picture has nothing to do with any of that but god is it funny:

Why Are Fart Jokes So Funny?

I can't figure it out, but I always find myself laughing my butt off. One side of me is like 'Why are you laughing at this crap' but the other side is like 'Make it stop, I can't breath'!.

So, without further delay, check out around 6:11 in the follow clip...it is hysterical:

Debate! WARNING: Religion Content

So in the 'Under God = Bullshit' thread we got into a nice conversation. One poster wrote:

'Can a society define it's ethics without some association to some religion? - Nope, I don't think so.'

I think that is an awesome place to start because, as I'm sure you can guess, I disagree. I think a large amount of people gather their ethics and morals from religion but I don't think it is required to follow a religion in order to be ethical.

Before I get into why, we need to define what we are going to call religion. Obviously anything that is inspired by some intellegent greater power that told some dude to write a book is a religion. But what about some of the middle eastern philosophies? Like Taoism or Buddhism. Budda was some fat guy that sat under a tree and came up with a way to look at the world. He was hardly devine. And Taoism is a philosphy that developed over a LONG time from stories and observations. I wouldn't consider either a religion in their pure form (although some people have taken them and turned them into a religion, dorks).

So taking Taoism, someone who has read about Taoism and believes it is a pretty spiffy way to look at the world and follows its tenents would have a common set of ethics that other Taoists have, but it wouldn't be from a religion, right?

I tell you that so I can ask you this, what about atheists? Some of these people are almost militaristic in their non-belief, yet they have ethics and morals...I don't see a group of crazy atheists running around killing people because they wroke up with a sore tooth or something.

I think ethics and morals are a learned behavior and are reinforced by society. Sure, if the family you grew up in is a religious family and if the society you hang with is mostly religious you can make the arguement that your ethics were religiously based. But I think you can also learn ethics and morals if you group up in an athiestic family and an athiestic society. Afterall, religion developed as nothing more than a codifed set of what the hell made sense back in the day to control the masses...social control. Whether you believe it devinely inspired or not, in the end that is what it boils down to.

Discuss.

Good Conversation on Jesus Camp (Bill Maher)

This is good, particularly the part in the middle between Bill Maher and the Fox News Christain.

Under God = Bullshit

So I went to this Singles meetup on Friday night. I'll keep most of this short. In a nutshell, it started with 16 people, boiled down to 6 who went to a different bar, which boiled down to myself, this other guy and this chick. Ok, so we had been drinking for about the past 5 hours so we were relaxed, to be sure. I think we started to talk about immigration and that turned into a conversation about religion. It turns out the chick that was there was a Christain, which in itself isn't a problem. As I've expressed before I believe belief is very personal and I don't hold a person's personal belief against them...it's when it goes outside of the personal and starts to be pushed upon others that I have the issue.

Ok, so she was pretty cool in that she didn't shove religion down my throat, etc. However, we got into one of the biggest mythes that have been shoved down American's collective throat for a long long time: that the US was founded as a Christian nation. What a load of shit.

1) God is not mentioned in the Consitution, not once. Read it. It was on purpose.
2) The majority of the founders believed in deism and freemasonry rather than Christianity.
3) 'Under God' was not put into the Pledge of Allegence until 1954. This was done as propaganda during the Cold War since everyone knows the commies were Goddless.
4) 'In God We Trust' was not added to money until the Civil War.

So how does any of that equate into the country being founded as a Christain nation? And on top of that, if it was founded as such a nation explain the explicit separation of Church and State. This whole thing is simply an attempt to muddle the waters and it's fricken annoying.

The chick I was arguing with was adament that Under God was in the Consitituion and that is was always in the Pledge, etc. That is what pisses off, lack of critical thinking. Why would you by that shit? Hopefully she looks it up like she said she would. Can't wait to talk to her next time. :)

Anyway, here is more for your reading pleasure if you are curious about the facts.

What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 4

The VW car commercial where two people are chatting about whatever and WHAM, someone hits them. It's too trumatizing and, more importantly, it isn't funny. Bad no funny, bad!!

White and Nerdy

Yay!

Aww

Aww

What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 3

My Stupid Mortgage Company.

So I'm trying to make a mortgage payment. I have the money in my PayPal account because that is how my customers want to pay me. I login to the website to make a payment, but the website doesn't take credit cards, only checks. Ok, fine. So I figure I'll just call them up and pay over the phone. I can't find a customer service number. Pleanty of numbers for new loans and crap but none for existing ones. I end up having to call one of the other numbers to get the existing customer service number. Arg. When I finally get the right number I call it and I get their stupid automated teller system that wants me to talk to it. Fine. So I talk to the stupid thing and it figures out what my account number is. It wants me to confirm it by saying Yes. I say Yes. It says 'What?'. I say it again...still can't figure it out. I proceed to say it in different tones and speeds, etc and FINALLY it figures out I'm saying yes. Piece of shit. So then it says it is going to transfer me, fine. Then, like it forgot something, it goes 'Oh! By the way, blah blah blah'. What the hell? Why is it trying to be a person? Just get on with it.

So I finally get in touch with a real live human. He proceeds to tell me that they do not accept credit cards. *sigh*. I thank him for his time but before he let's me off the phone he tries to get me to refinance the loan. Come on! I just refinanced the damn thing last year and there is no way I'm getting a better rate. Turkeys.

The result of all this is I need to transfer the money from PayPal to my checking account anyway to make a payment, which is going to make the payment late. :( Punks.

Rant Coming in 3...2...1...

I lurk around on a few blogs from time to time that represent the more conservative side of the aisle so I can get my blood pressure up...masochistic I guess. Anyway, one of the things that really gets me is how a certain strain of people just blames every muslim for the actions of the fundamentlist sect. The arguement goes that Islam teaches violence and hate (you don't have to go any further than the uproar about the Pope's idiotic quoting of a Byzantine King saying something similiar). They claim that followers of Islam are, by nature, violent.

What a load of shit. Sure, there are fundamentilist muslims and yea they want to kill you. Some even put the number as high as 3 million. Ok, let's take that figure and think about this some. 3 million out of 150 million followers is a very low total percentage...2% of the whole. So what 2% of the whole believes is enough to condem an entire group of people? Yikes.

But let's not stop there. Apparently, this 2% of the entire muslim population is a greater threat to America than Nazi Germany or the USSR during the Cold War. Are you kidding me? They don't even compare. The fundies, the extremists, are not an organized whole. They are not a nation. They don't have anywhere close to the industrial capacity that Germany or Russia had. So how on Earth are they compariable? If a war had started between the US and the USSR millions of people would have been dead inside of an hour. To think that a group of extremists without state sponsorship or any industrial capacity at all could even get near that sort of threat is extreme naiviety at best and purposefull insanity at it's worst.

Don't let the obvious differences distract you. Listening to some of these turkeys talk about it (and we are talking about some pretty main stream people here - see Fox News sometimes) this is the Greatest Threat To Civilization Ever. This is World War III. This is the prelude to the rapture! Yea, hardly.

Ok, I got off the topic I wanted to nail. Back to the people that believe 2% of a group is enough to condemn the entire group. I've always maintained that in any group (particularly religious groups) you have a small percentage that are totally and completely dedicated and extreme about it. Literal, even. Islam has them, Christainity has then, even Star Trek has them. There isn't a whole lot of difference between the Islamic and Christain crazies.

But dude! Christain crazies aren't blowing themselves up! I would submit that in order to be part of the crazy group you don't have to go blow yourself up. Before 9/11 the biggest terror attack on US soil was Oklahoma City. Guess what group of crazies Tim was part of?

To drive the point home, check out this link. That's write, soliders of christ right here. How is that any different then what some people accuse Islam of doing to their young? It's the same damn thing, but it is a small and extreme part of the whole...just like it is in Islam.

Get some damn perspective.

What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 2

Every night, around 2 am, every channel on my cable box switches to Univision, the mexican channel. Everychannel. I mean, i can flip the box to any channel on it and they are all Univision. It lasts for like 60 seconds or so. What the heck is that all about?

What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 1

So I had this bright idea to start this series of posts about what happens to be pissing me off on a given day or whenever something stikes me as pissworthy enough to post about. Couple of notes before the first installment:

1) By 'pissing me off' I don't necessarily mean anger or frustration. In fact, most of the stuff that I'll probably write about as 'pissing me off' are probably things I find particularly stupid or lacking sense. That doesn't mean I'm not going to write about things that for anger or frustrate me (see: Bush, Cheney, Religion, etc etc etc).

2) Ok, I lied. On one note.

So, for the first installment for What Is Pissing Me Off today...Car Commercials!

What on earth do people dancing on chairs have to do with selling cars (Superbowl commercial for the Hummer)? Or, most recently, four guys escaping from the office in the middle of the day to drive down a dirt path in their H3? The stupid car is only in like 1/6th of the commercial...the rest of it has nothing to do with anything regarding a car. Since when was artsy crap necessary to sell a car? With some of this stuff you can't even tell they are trying to sell a car until the end (the office one is a good example).

The commercial that looks like a home movie of these guys recording their friends off roading in a truck when a meteoroid whacks it IS a good car commercial because (a) it has a car in it and (b) it is funny. Which remind me...the FCC needs to pass some regulations that all commercials need to be funny, damnit.

R.

Opps!

"One of the hardest parts of my job is to try to connect Iraq to the war on terror." -- Pres. Bush, CBS Evening News, 9/6.

Maybe that's because Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror?

Housing Boom -or- Bust?

is a graph that puts the current housing boom into a historical perspective.

That is a LONG way to fall.

I said before that the crazy lending practices such as interest only loans and the like are going to cause some serious issues with home values in the not too distant future. The signs of it happening have already started. The last new housing report showed that new purchases fell something like 6%. That is a large drop. The ramifications of such a drop are that building companies now have a large surplus of houses, which means they won't be building new ones until they can move the old ones, which means layoff's in the previously booming construction industry, which leads to people not being able to make their interest-only payments on their houses, which begets forclosures, which then starts to drop the housing values because they are over priced and require an interest-only loan for most to afford. As that happens the fed cranks up interest rates to hold off inflation which cranks up the adjustable rate on those interest only loans pricing more people out of their affordable range thus causing more forclosers. BOOM, crash.

It'll happen, the only questions are when, how fast, and how bad. It'll be ugly regardless. So hold onto that equity in your house so you can absorb the fall. And if at all possible lock that adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed rate as soon as humanely possible.

Exciting times!

Duh!

Can we say 'jumping to conclusions'? After the obsession of the media of John Mark Karr we now have what wasn't much of a surprise come out: here.

10 years after the girl's murder this guy comes forward and gets a ton of media attention and it all turns out to be a load of crap. So I guess the media can go back to speculating on if it was her mother or dad or cousin or dog or cat or whatever. Oh what I would give to get back to a straight-talking media where the anchor's don't think of themselves as TV stars. Jackasses.

How Cool Would It Be...

...to have some sort of units of measurement named after you? As in: such and so is 7 Kautzes. Awesome! Now what needs to be measured that doesn't have a name yet...hmmm....

Snakes on a Plane!!!!11!!1!111!!!

Saw it. Love it. Much more entertaining than you'd think.

Fan Trailor

All your snakes are belong to us!

Yay!!!

Update

Oy!

Thought I'd post a quick update since I sorta fell off the face of the earth for a bit.

1) The boat works! Took it out last weekend while camping at Lake Anna. I thought it broke down again that Friday but it turns out that a $40 part was all it needed and it worked great the rest of the weekend. Even got a few waves up over the bow to soak people. :)

2) I picked up a second somewhat largish long-term contract so between that and the work I'm doing for my previous job (TADOnline) I should be good to go. Kautz Consulting is back, bitches! That, however, is what has kept me so busy.

3) My house has become the revolving door of roommates. The same weekend Luke moved out Leslie moved in and took over Luke's room totally unexpected. For rent, I'm making her deal with the cat fluids. Ick.

4) Today is the day I've been waiting for: Mother Fucking SNAKES on a Mother Fucking PLANE! I'm so hyped! But first, time to go fly some R/C planes around and see if we can have any more mid-air collisions. Yay!

Boat Update

To recap, the gears in the drivetrain of my boat exploded on July 3rd. I took it into the shop on July 5th. I told them I need it back by Aug 10th for a camping trip on Laka Anna on the 11th. Two weeks after dropping it off they called me with the damage assessment. It wouldn't have been so bad except that the drive shaft was suspect as well.

So, after bothering the crap out of them this week they finally completed the work yesterday (August 10th)...down to the wire. I spent 9 hours in the car yesterday driving down to pick it up, taking it to Lake Anna, then driving home. The repairs cost $2115. I guess no mechanical problems for 5 years is a pretty good run.

So I have my boat back and all is good! I fixed the anchor light last night for some night boating and I have a backup solution for my on-going radio issues.

Good times this weekend!

A Funny Thing Happened...

...when I tried to make a phone call today. I received a busy signal. Why is that funny? I couldn't figure out what it was at first. Luckily, my phone was there to tell me it was busy. It occurs to me that I haven't received a busy signal in literally years. Usually it goes to voicemail now.

Anyone else notice that the busy signal has more or less gone the way of the dodo?

Political Views

I've said before that I moved pretty far to the left in response to what has happened since the BS impeachment attempt of Clinton, the election in 2000, and the BS war in Iraq. I wasn't always this far to the left and, in fact, I still linger towards some traditional conservative view points. By traditional conservative I am not talking about the conversatives that hijacked the Republican party in the 90's. I believe in stronger state governments, for example.

Anyway, this is a short post that describes what I think happened to a lot of people, myself included, that shaped our views and pushed us further left than we were before.

I agree that partisanship will be with us for the foreseeable future and while that is a sad thing we need to adapt to it. Peeps like Liberman providing politcal coverage to the GOP crap need to be challenged and made to defend their views via contested primaries. It is a fundemental excercise in democracy and one that hasn't been taken advantage of enough. Do you realize the incumbency rate of federal Senators is over 90%? The only time a senate seat changes basically boils down to when the incumbent senator retires or dies. They aren't being challenged and are not being held accountable to the voting public. Joe Liberman's reaction to his primary challenge by Lamont is a good witness to this. He was totally offended that someone would dare - DARE - challenge him. What an ass.

Opps, went off on a rant there. Sorry about that. Anyway, what shaped your views politically?

Mel Gibson

I used to like the guy, then he went nuts. Totally off his rocker.

In any case, can we stop with the play-by-play in the news about his DUI? I mean, seriously. I think there are probably more important things that could be taking up the airwaves.

30 Days

Ok, I know I'm full of glowing reviews but I believe I explained that already.

So, here is another one for you.

'30 Days' is a TV Show by the guy that made the movie 'Supersize This' in which he spent 30 days eating nothing but McDonald's food to show what happens to the human body on such a diet. It wasn't pretty. In the TV series it follows someone places in a situation outside of their normal experience. It is a social experiment and it is awesome. For example, one of the more remarkable ones was when they took an all-american god-fearing Oklahoma quarterback and stuck him with a single Gay man in the heart of San Fransico. It is an incrediable way to see how these different cultures clash and how they learn from each other.

We are now in the second season of '30 Days' and the premier was taking a Minuteman (the viglanties patrolling the border) and stick him with an illegal immigrant family in LA. I just finished watching it. In a nutshell, wow! It was a seven member family living in a house with less than 500 sq ft. Three of the kids were illegal and two were born in the US, making them citizens. The middle child was college bound. Most of the political fighting happened between the college-bound girl and the minuteman. Sharp girl..sharp dude too. The show did a GREAT job of representing both sides and showing why the problem is so complicated. I highly recommend anyone that wants to know more about the entire issue to try to catch one of the repeats.

Next weeks episode involves a guy whose job was shipped to India. It looks like they send the guy to India to do his job there. Looks pretty interesting.

Love these social experiements. :)

"Isn't it Ironic"

Now this is a real example of irony.

'Good, Bad, I'm the one with the gun'

Some of you know that I have a HUGE fan of the Evil Dead series. I have all of them, collector's version as well. I even have the action figure. I've been a fan of Sam Rami and Bruce Campbell before they were super famous (Sam Rami is the Spider Man director).

'Army of Darkness' was released in theaters a while back. That movie was actually a continutation of the Evil Dead series. It was Evil Dead 3. People have been dogging Rami and Campbell for years to make a new one and they have always turned it down.

I was poking around Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and looked up Sam Rami. Low and behold, he is the producer of an Evil Dead remake. He wants a new director and new cast to do a remake like what was done with Dawn of the Dead, etc. Evil Dead was one of the best horror movies of all time and influenced the genre quite a bit. It is fantastic to hear that it will be remade, can't wait!

However, they will be casting a new Ash since it is a remake. Oh the horror! Just won't be the same.

So I did some more poking around and I finally found what I was looking for...Evil Dead 4, bitches! There will be a new one in the series with Campbell playing Ash again. It might be called Army of Darkness 2, which would suck, but I guess it makes since because it would be a bit confusing to have The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 4 out at the same time. Who cares though, the import thing is that Ash is coming back, baby!

Oh oh oh! And a Bubba Ho-tep 2 is on the slate as well.

Anyway, here is the link with all the goods.

Some good movies are on the horizon.

Funky Movies

Ok, so from some comments in another thread I thought I'd post this.

Two movies, if you want somewhat unique experiences this year, you should see are:

A Scanner Darkly
Lady in the Water

A Scanner Darkly is like watching an acid trip, and it is meant to be that way. Apparently they filmed the movie and then went back over it and sorta cartoonized the entire thing. It is REALLY hard to describe. It does have some of the best conversations since Pulp Fiction in it though, particularly the one about the 18-speed bike. Pure gold. Here are a couple of choice paragraphs from a review that I think do a better job of summing it up that I do:

"A Scanner Darkly changes everything. Even though Phillip K. Dick wrote it, Richard adapted the screenplay perfectly. I found that the film ran like a combination of Tarantinoesque chronology(Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) and a Nolanesque confusion(Memento)."

"If you enjoy a good "mind-bender" of a film that doesn't stop resonating in your head until days after you have seen it, then A Scanner Darkly is for you. If you go to the theater simply for spoon-fed entertainment, see this film anyway and hopefully you will wake up and have an original thought some time soon."

Click on the Watch the Trailer link here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/


The second movie, Lady in the Water, is M. Night Shyamalan's new movie. You need to go in expecting the right sort of thing to enjoy this movie. Basically, as he explains it, it started as a bedtime story he used to tell his kids that just got longer and scarier until he decided to turn it into a movie. The movie itself has a lot of the components of a good bedtime story. Scary evil things, mystical good things, and the hero having to find companions to save the princess. The setting is in the back of a hotel. The entire movie takes place there. How cool is that?

There are a couple of parts that will scare the crap out of you. Shyamalan really builds tension well and he did it in a few places in this one as well. There is no twist like 6th Sense and Unbreakable had, instead it is just a bunch of smaller twists like Unbreakable and Signs was. All in all it was a very enjoyable movie. Good times.

Of Airplanes, Boxers and Pirates

I want to start this post with the description of a dream I had last night. For those of you who don't know, I am into remote control electric airplanes. And, I have a cat named Misfit who is kinda small and is missing a tail. Ok, with those two facts in mind, here is the dream.

In a nutshell, went to some sort of summer camp where we had to make R/C
Planes. So I put this plane together like they wanted but something
happened and the body broke on it. So I decided to use Misfit (yes, my
cat) as the body of the plane. I strapped the wings and such on to him
and took him out to the field, which was surrounded with trees and dark
out for some reason. Anyway, Misfit was fine during the wing attachment
process but once I set him down on the field he ran off. So I had to
chase him around a house that was on the field until I finally caught up
to him. :)

That's it. Thought you might find it amusing.

As for Boxers and Pirates...I saw the new Pirates movie. I enjoyed it, good flick. It ends very well and sets up the next one great. Plus, make sure you stay until after the credits for a little scene at the end wrapping up a loose end. Just like Star Trek III: The Search for Spock I believe the tag line on the Pirates III is going to be The Search for Jack.

As for Boxers...Rocky Balboa baby! This Christmas! Can't wait!

Oh...and a Transformers movie next year...yes, those Transformers.

Rock.

The Desperate SIlence of the Hysteric

What does this mean? Any thoughts? Discuss. :)

Why The A-Team Still Rocks

Big guy to Mr. T: "Whoa, you're a big one."
Mr. T to Big Guy: "Listen fool! I'm also a mean one!"
*THWACK* -Sound of Big guy's ass getting throw into a parked car

Dude to Murdoc: "You're nuts!"
Murdoc to dude: "No, I'm condements. I've been promoted!"

Love it!

Boat Adventures

So on the first outing this year about halfway through a faint tapping sound started to be heard while we were hauling ass between a cove I like to swim in and a sand bar we mess around on. It was faint and I wasn't even sure I heard it at first. I kept pushing on anyway.

Once we got to the sandbar I poked around and found that the sound only appears in forward gear. When in neutral in reverse the engine purred like I am used to. 'Crap' thought I, 'it is a gear issue.' We putzed around for a bit longer then headed back to dock to get gas and see if someone was on duty who could check it out for me.

No one on duty. We filled up and on a whim I lifted the engine out of the water to check out the prop. Sure enough, one of the tips had bent back at a 90 degree angle. 'Ah ha!' I thought, 'Probably hit a board or a turtle or something on the way to the sandbar that bent the prop. THAT must be causing the sound.' So out we went and spent the rest of the day without incident, just a thumping noise caused by the prop.

On the next outing a few weeks later I bent the prop back and stuck the boat in the water. The battery was dead as a door nail. When I had put the boat in after the last outing I assumed I was going to be back the next week. However, it took three weeks before I could get anyone to go out (what is up with that?) and the battery was drained by then. We were able to get a jump from someone but the engine wasn't timmed all the way down when we pulled the jump cables off. I didn't think much of it at the time because the motor would generate power, right? Wrong. Apparently the engine doesn't generate enough power to trim itself, it pulls from the battery. With the battery dead I couldn't trim the engine down which means I couldn't get the boat on plane which means I couldn't go faster than 10 mph. We putzed around the lake for about 3 hours before there was enough power in the battery to trim the engine down to get on plane. After that, good times. Just had to leave the thing running the entire time.

Anyway, back to the main plot line. After the jump I reversed out of dock. Once the bow came around I put it into forward again. Thump thump thump. 'Shit, it wasn't the prop' the voice in my head said. Knowing now at this point it was a gear issue that I couldn't do anything about it presently we just went about our way.

July 4th was the following weekend. There wasn't enough time to get it into the shop and take it down to the river, so I gambled that I could get through the July 4th weekend without anything bad happening. Afterall, it hadn't gotten any louder, had it?

To shorten this story up a bit I got down to the river on Saturday. I took the boat out everyday the next three days for several hours each day (usually 5+). During the trip on Monday on the way back the thumping turned into a knocking that got louder and started to vibrate the boat some. 'Uh oh, I better get my ass back to port before...' WHACK! *engine whining* 'Shit!' Throttle back, the full boat looking at me, so I say: 'That is the sound of an engine dieing'.

True enough, putting the boat in forward made this aweful clanking noise. Reverse didn't make any weird noises but the prop didn't engage either. We were stuck.

So we flagged down a passing boat and they were kind enough to tow us over to the nearest marina. The plan was to call someone to pick us up so I could then bring my trailer out and pull the boat out of the water. Well, this marina didn't have a ramp. The only one that did that was nearby was a private yacht club and those people are evil. So I called a tow boat service that costs a cheap $175/hour (yes, an HOUR) to come out and tow me across the river to a dock on an island on the other side for the low low price of $255. The plan was for me to meet the guy over there to pick it up.

Well, I get over there and just as the guy comes around the point and under the bridge near the dock this HUGE storm comes in. Lightning and heavy winds. He is out there in his tow boat with my boat on a string about 20 ft behind him. He points his boat up wind and just maintains position trying to keep the two boats from being blown into something. I'm standing on the dock about 150 ft away soaked to the bone watching this spectacle and hoping I don't get whacked by the lightning striking all over the place. Luckily, the storm passes after about 20 minutes and he is able to bring the boat over. I walk it to the trailer and off I go.

So now the thing is at a shop down by the river. It's going to take them up to two weeks before they can look at it. Hopefully I just stripped or broke one of the gears in the transaxel-like thing in the lower unit and it can be replaced easily. If he has to replace the entire unit the part itself costs upwards of $3000. That would be bad, but he doesn't think that is the case.

I've been lucky in that I have had the boat for about 5 years and never had a mechinical issue, always electrical ones. Electical ones are a pain in the ass to find but usually very easy and cheap to fix. The reverse is normally true for mechinical issues.

So to summarize my last three weeks:

1) The fuel pump in my truck crapped out and had to be repaired.
2) The company I work for axed the tech division and me along with it
3) The lower unit in my boat blew up

Good times.

Guess That Quote

What movie did this one come from:

"Purple lightning, that can't be good"

Seats Available this Holiday

Taking the boat out this weekend if I can get some people to go with me. It will be down at Shoansy instead of Lake Anna (Lake Anna is way too much of a zoo on the holidays). Shoansy opens up into the big part of the bay which is fricken huge. Good times. Anyway, the kicker is that is about 3 hours from DC (1 hour from Richmond). We have pleanty of room for spending the night (for free!) or you can drive back late in the evening. As far as what day goes, I don't care...whenever people can go. Send me an email or comment here if you are interested on going and we can coordinate.

And here is this for your reading enjoyment, my two faithful readers:


>>The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a warning about a new
>>virulent strain of Sexually Transmitted Disease. The disease is contracted
>>through dangerous and high-risk behavior. The disease is called Gonorrhea
>>Lectim and pronounced "gonna re-elect him." Many victims contracted it in
>>2004, after having been screwed for the past four years...
>>
>>Cognitive characteristics of individuals infected include antisocial
>>personality disorders, delusions of grandeur with messianic overtones,
>>extreme cognitive dissonance, inability to incorporate new information,
>>pronounced xenophobia and paranoia, inability to accept responsibility for
>>own actions, cowardice masked by misplaced bravado, uncontrolled facial
>>smirking, ignorance of geography and history, tendencies towards
>>evangelical
>>theocracy, and categorical all-or-nothing behavior.
>>
>>Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed at how this destructive disease
>>originated only a few years ago from a bush found in Texas....

Best Quote Ever

'People feel connected to him in much the same way the feel connected to a proctologist, only without the upside potential'

Whoever figures out who that quote is about gets a prize!

Amazing Magic

This guy is amazing.

Thank God for Tax Cuts

[Link] The tax cut reconciliation bill (H.R. 4297) provides households with income of $1 million or more an average tax break of $42,000. In gross contrast, the more than three-quarters of the nation's households with annual income of $75,000 or less will receive an average tax cut of $30 for one year - not even enough to pay for a single tank of gas. And average families will end up footing the bill for millionaire tax breaks through cuts in vital services and added national debt.

$30! Awesome! I can almost buy a tank of gas with that. Be sure to thank your congress for the awesome job they are doing for the middle class. Mmmm, $30.

Birthday On The Boat!!

June 10th. Trying to get a bunch of guys away from their girlfriends/wives/kids/whatever for the day to go out on the boat at Lake Anna. RSVP.

Why so Angry

So why am I so pissed off when it comes to this Administration? This guy does a good job of explaining where the anger is coming from on the left.

Why aren't you angry yet?

It's Tough Work

Dork.

We don't want your stinking war!

This is a fricken good article. The first half is interesting, particularly the part about what Ahmadinejad (Iran's prez) actually said regarding 'wiping Israel from the face of the earth'. However, it is the second half that is really good. It starts with the paragraph just above the first picture. I highly recommend at least reading the last half at the very least.

Watch It!

Here is a teaser:

Then he turned to the president of the United States, who sat tight-lipped just a few feet away. "I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound -- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."

All in one link.

The deadly silence sometimes in the audience is great. Apparently they do not like to be slapped.

Sad

So why does the video of Bush and his double at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner doing a comedy routine get coverage in the media but Colbert's comedy routine doesn't even get a mention?

What crap. Frustrating as hell.