ProudlyNerdy

Paleogeology

2009-05-02T10:00:00.004-04:00

I don't know why, but I just find this stuff fascinating.

I usually like to do things the hard way, but I must be going at it backward this time. I'm surfing Google Earth, like always, and I come across the most puzzling things. I'm looking off New York's Long Island and right there at the continental shelf, I see this sharp gash eroded away by what can only be an ancient Hudson River way back when the ice shelf covered North America. Then there's a smooth indentation connecting the present-day Hudson with the gash in the shelf. Interesting.

What might have caused this? Maybe this:

Catastrophic Flooding From Ancient Lake May Have Triggered Cold Period

Hey, at least it's not crack!

2009-04-11T06:36:00.008-04:00

Huh, I thought I had posted this a long time ago. Some of ideas listed here are more efficient than others. This was not written by me but was an email I received years ago, so I take no claim to it. I did make some spelling changes, reordered them some, and added a few of my own notes.

The Hundreds of Wonderful Uses for
Baking Soda!

Forget everything you know from the commercials advertised on TV for everything from Aquafresh Whitening toothpaste to soap scum-removing Comet.

This simple, naturally abundant, water-soluable, naturally-occurring, effervescent, pH-neutralizing, odor-absorbent, drain-declogging, fire-suppressing, teeth-whitening, plaque-dissolving, antihistaminic, exfoliating, bloodstream-cleansing, stain-removing, fabric-softening, grease-lifting, dishwasher safe, fine granular chemical compound, NaHCO3, commonly called Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda, is found in the earth, in the world's oceans, in the air we breathe and is produced by our own bodies. *Breathes*

You can use this shit for everything!!

1. Like turn cocaine into crack! (although not recommended)

2. Keep an extra box of baking soda by your stove in case of grease or electrical fire. Scatter the powder by the handful to safely put it out.

3. Keep a container of baking soda in your garage as well as in your car to put out a fire. It won't damage anything it touches.

4. Baking soda will also put out fires in clothing, fuel, wood, upholstery and rugs.

5. You can also use it to dissolves battery acid build-up around your battery connectors.

6. Clean vegetables and fruit with baking soda. Sprinkle in water, soak and rise the produce.

7. Wash garbage cans with baking soda to clean and eliminate odors.

8. Removes tar build up behind tires.

9. Soak and wash diapers with baking soda. (I say throw that shit away!)

10. Add a cup of Baking Soda to your wash. Oil- and grease-stained clothing wash out better with soda added to the washing water.

11. Clean your fridge and freezer with dry soda sprinkled on a damp cloth. rinse with clear water.

12. Deodorize your fridge and freezer by putting in an open container of baking soda to absorb odors. Stir and turn over the soda from time to time. Replace every 2 months.

13. Soda absorbs kitty litter odors. Cover the bottom of the kitty box with 1 part soda; then add a layer of three parts kitty litter on top.

14. Add 1/2 cup soda to your washing machine load to boost stain-lifting power & eliminate odors.

15. Clean combs and brushes in a soda solution.

16. Wash food and drink containers with soda and water. (Eww, use soap and kill shit!)

17. Wash marble-topped furniture with a solution of 3 tablespoons of soda in 1 quart of warm water. Let stand awhile, then rinse.

18. Clean Formica counter tops with baking soda on a damp sponge.

19. Wash out thermos bottles and coolers with baking soda and water to get rid of stale smells.

20. To remove stubborn stains from marble, Formica or plastic surfaces, scour with a paste of soda and water.

21. Wash glass or stainless steel coffee pots (but not aluminum) in a soda solution (3 tablespoons soda to 1 quart water).

22. Run you coffee maker through its cycle with a soda solution. Rinse.

23. Give baby bottles a good cleaning with soda and hot water.

24. Sprinkle soda on barbecue grills, let soak, then rinse off.

25. Sprinkle soda on greasy garage floor. Let stand, scrub and rinse.

26. Polish silverware with dry soda on a damp cloth. Rub, rinse and dry.

27. For silver pieces without raised patterns or cemented-on handles: place the silver on aluminum foil in an enamel pot. Add boiling water and 4 tablespoons baking soda. Let stand, rinse and dry.

28. Reduce odor build-up in your dishwasher by sprinkling some soda on the bottom.

29. Run your dishwasher through its cycle with soda in it instead of soap to give it a good cleaning. Look on the ingredients list of your detergent, you may find you're already adding sodium bicarbonate.

30. To remove burned-on food from a pan: let the pan soak in soda and water for 10 minutes before washing. Or scrub the pot with dry soda and a moist scouring pad.

31. For a badly-burned pan with a thick layer of burned-on food: pour a thick layer of soda directly onto the bottom of the pan, then sprinkle on just enough water so as to moisten the soda. Leave the pot overnight, then scrub it clean next day.

31. Rub stainless steel and chrome with a moist cloth and dry baking soda to shine it up. Rinse and dry. On stainless steel, scrub in the direction of the grain.

32. Clean plastic, porcelain and glass with dry soda on a damp cloth. Rinse and dry.

33. Remove that bad smell from ashtrays with soda and water.

34. Sprinkle a bit of dry soda in your ashtrays to prevent smoldering.

35. Clean your bathroom with dry soda on a moist sponge - sink, tub, tiles, shower stall, etc. It removes soap scum and eliminates odors.

36. Keep your drains clean and free-flowing by putting 4 tablespoons of soda in them each week. Flush the soda down with hot water.

37. Soak your shower curtains in water and soda to clean them.

38. To remove strong odors from your hands, wet your hands and rub them hard with soda, then rinse.

39. Sprinkle baking soda on your wet toothbrush and brush your teeth and dentures with it.

40. Sprinkle soda in tennis shoes, socks, boots and slippers to eliminate odor.

41. Add 1/2 cups or more of baking soda to your bath water to soften your skin.

42. Putting 2 tablespoons of baking soda in your baby´s bath water will help relieve diaper rash irritations.

43. Apply soda directly to insect bites, rashes and poison ivy to relieve discomfort. Make a paste with water.

44. Take a soda bath to relieve general skin irritations such as measles and chicken pox.

45. Take 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water to relieve acid indigestion or heartburn.

46. Gargle with 1/2 tsp. baking soda in 1/2 glass of water. Freshens and cleans your mouth.

47. Used as a mouthwash, baking soda will also relieve canker sore pain.

48. Use a tablespoon of soda and enough water to form a paste and massage into face for a skin-softening, exfoliant.

49. To relieve sunburn: use a paste of baking soda and water.

50. Mosquito bites: use a paste of baking soda and vinegar.

51. Bee sting: use a paste of baking soda and water.

52. Windburn: moisten some baking soda and apply directly.

53. Making Play Clay with baking soda: combine 1 1/4 cups water, 2 cups soda, 1 cup cornstarch.

54. Use soda as an underarm deodorant.

55. If your baby spits up on his clothes after feeding, moisten a cloth, dip it in baking soda and dab at the stain. The odor will go away.

56. When scalding a chicken, add 1 tsp. of soda to the boiling water. The feathers will come off easier and flesh will be clean and white.

57. Repel rain from windshield. Put gobs of baking soda on a dampened cloth and wipe windows inside and out. (I wonder if this works, but "gobs"? Really?? I saw you're just cleaning the window.)

58. Add to water to soak dried beans to make them more digestible.

59. Add to water to remove the gamy taste from wild game.

60. Use to remove orders and lift stains from sour dishcloths.

61. Use dry with a small brush to rub canvas handbags clean.

62. Use to remove melted plastic bread wrapper from toaster. Dampen cloth and make a mild abrasive with baking soda. (I've always wondered if there was a way to take that off.)

63. Baking soda mixed with a little water works great for removing bugs from car paint, headlights, and windshields, and does not damage the paint.

64. It's said that if you put a small amount of baking soda in a 8 oz. glass of water and drink it, it will clean out your kidneys.

65. Sprinkle a fine layer along door thresholds and paths that ants travel to deter them from coming inside your house. (They navigate by scents, as you know.)

66. Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a gallon of water to make an excellent homemade fungicide for water plants.

67. Scrub scuff marks off the floor and your tennis shoes with a soda paste.

68. Get crayons out of your clothes and off your walls with a watery soda mix.

69. Wash out hair product build up and remove water impurities with a little soda in your shampoo once a week.

70. Sprinkle a dusting on your carpet to remove odors and stains and to kill fleas. Trample it in for a couple hours or so and vacuum it up. Do not do this on a rainy or humid day as the salts suck in moisture.

71. Sprinkle a dusting on your dog or cat a couple hours before their bath as it kills fleas within an hour or two.

72. Dump some baking soda into a foot bath to smooth the skin and alleviate irritations.

73. Put a pinch of it in my Padgett sauce. It removes the acid taste from the tomatoes.

74. Apply a soda and water paste to jellyfish or sea nettle stings to remove the burn.

75. Put a tablespoon of baking soda in a large pot of beans while soaking them and keep the flatulence to a minimum. (LOL!)

76. Takes kool-aid stains out of counter tops. (This does work.)

77. Takes permanent marker off plastic, linoleum, painted, and metal surfaces. (Holy crap, what? I gotta try that!)

Is it safe to go outside again?

2009-03-20T00:06:00.004-04:00

Sunburn in 5 minutes?! Damn that's cooking the planet... as in a microwave. I can imagine the havoc that would wreak on the atmosphere. Maybe this is kinda old news but not in geologic terms.

Yahoo News article: "NASA: Environmental disaster avoided on ozone loss"

I'm waiting here in Allentown....

2009-03-12T08:18:00.006-04:00

Waiting to see Elton John and Billy Joel tickle the ivories together that is. They're going on tour across the States playing "face-to-face" as it's been dubbed, and they've just stopped by Charlotte last Saturday. "How was it?" you ask, assuming that I went, of course, having been a fan of both artists for many years -- both the source of fond memories, childhood and recent. But to your utter shock ... I did not go.

Oh, I bought tickets! I bought them the morning they went on sale in fact back in December when everyone was thinking of Christmas shopping. I got two, because let's face it -- I'm not going alone, and there must be *somebody* who would want to go with me or at least someone who could be persuaded to join me. The sad thing is if I polled my gay friends, most of them would say they don't even like Elton John. I KNOW!! How shameful is that?! It makes me want to reevaluate my friends it's so disturbing. They should go back to listening to the self-proclaimed "hit music station" and drinking their Kool Aid. (Brought to you by Carl's Junior. LOL)

About a month or so went by, and I got several rejections from coworkers and friend's moms alike. (She went with me to Elton's last concert in Charlotte.) None wanted to or could spare the expense in light of this dollar menu economic Roche limit we're rapidly approaching. So the concomitant seat remained vacant until it was learned that the Piano Man and Captain Fantastic would me performing together two months later in the town of a good friend I regrettably, rarely get a chance to see. (Hopefully summer will arrive in the Arctic by May this year. Maybe we can even catch the Aurora and go hit the clubs with his seal friends.) Frankly, I was shocked to hear he actually LIKED the two pianists. A quick check of the calendar told me I was free, and the decision was made. I sold my one uncommitted seat along with my own on the day of the concert to a seemingly overly suspicious young tag football mom on Craiglist.

So while we wait, enjoy this unnecessarily homoerotic music video of Billy Joel's "Allentown". I mean there's a nude shower scene for the love of penis. (New favorite line thanks to Family Gay.)

Lexicomic

2009-03-12T07:56:00.002-04:00

I'm not trying to go all XKCD on ya, but someone at work asked me to define for him the difference between "complement" and "compliment" and this illustration came as a result.

You know you want to give me props for squeezing in TWO definitions for "complement." =)

Green Comet makes Bright Exit

2009-02-18T04:00:00.003-05:00

Look out to the west-southwest on the night of the 24th of Feb. and you'll see streaming in front of Mars the comet Lulin making its first and final pass around the Sun. You'll be joined in your observance by a 19-year-old fellow astronomy nerd in China, Quanzhi Ye, who discovered it two years ago.

So I read the whole NASA article and all, but now I'm wondering... If this thing is making its first and only pass at the Sun from a trillion miles away, then ... is this really just a Oort Cloud object that bumped into some other object? The other would-be comet gets bumped out and the other, Lulin, gets sent sunward at an angle that would send it too close to the Sun -- its eccentricity is 1.002 -- for the Sun to retain its tug. Then my real question is -- if it's going this close to the Sun, will it break up like Shoemaker-Levy? It would be impossible to predict how it would break apart and which pieces, if any, would remain in the inner solar system to join the other swarm of asteroids.

Go Obama Yourself!

2009-01-23T23:53:00.008-05:00

http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com

Planet simulator

2009-01-22T03:01:00.003-05:00

Dan Ball Planet simulator

WEEEE!!!

President Obama Day

2009-01-21T07:35:00.006-05:00

Today I got in my car on my way to work today and heard the words "President Barack Obama" and "former President Bush"...and it was quite something to finally hear after a torturous last --mmm, 8 years now, really. "Horrible downward spiral" is right, Will Ferrell. They said immediately after the inauguration itself, former President Bush --love those words-- was whisked away to an awaiting jet in a whirlybird, bound for a huge ranch in WhoWouldJesusBomb, Texas.

As I later watched streaming in high definition on company bandwidth, Senator Barack Obama was quite uncharacteristically inarticulately sworn into the office in this country, resting one palm on a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln.

And then I saw this cool pic on the internet of a waterfall of dignitaries spilling out of the front steps of the Capitol and into sea of onlookers, and I'm sure Oprah was in there, too. I just can't remember all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the last two Bush inaugurations. In fact, the last I remember was when Reagan died. Shit, people all over the world are watching hopefully. Thanks to Al Gore and the Internet we can see pictures of Muslim men in Pakistan watching Obama on Al-Jazeera, talking of hope for improved relations and kids in a classroom in Seoul, South Korea watching the inauguration in school. (I just made those up, but I'm sure there are pictures of those exact scenes, LOL.)

That being said, it was a long, difficult transition for all of us, arguing with each other and pitting family members against each other. And you know, as I watched our first black president get sworn in and created my cubicle stalactite made out of a magnet and handful of wasted staples, I thought we're finally point we are today, where we have someone in office who I believe has our best interests at heart and will not disappoint us but feels immense challenge and displays the conviction that they are conquerable ones. And then I overhear some redneck in a restaurant saying, "And I don't even wanna talk about Obama," a reminder of the reality of living in the Rip Van Winkle state.

That crazy Ston Jewart guy...

2008-12-29T00:22:00.013-05:00

That's funny that Jon Stewart talks about flipping words like sock cucker fother mucker after my roommate and I have been doing that for a while, flipping the names of everyone at work and laughing at them. LOL.

Watch Mike Huckabee, former presidential candidate, talk about redefining marriage and then watch Jon Stewart stick 'em with a zinger and the crowd goes wild.

Hot Boy Skin

2008-12-27T19:24:00.004-05:00

Dance, Mr. Bojangles, Dance!

2008-12-21T21:16:00.003-05:00

For whatever reason, I missed this news when it happened.

Here President Bush is out on the White House's north portico waiting for the tardy McCain to show up so he can publicly endorse him as the next President, something neither of them wanted to do but felt obligated to do, I'm sure. Either way, Bush in his waiting decided to embarrass himself (and McCain when he later found out) by entertaining the crowd with a little ... tap dance. Yes, hang your head in your hands and peer through to the awkwardness...

Youtube link

OH, shit...sorry. Wrong video. .... They looked so similar. That was Jesco White and friends. LOL Here's our president:

Youtube link

OMG SHOES!!

2008-12-21T18:50:00.006-05:00

Take THAT!

AND ANOTHER!!

Like some 80% of the U.S. (and all of Iraq apparently) this made me laugh and and praise the journalist who did it. I mean, how awesome is that? After Reagan's shot in the chest from a journalist outside that hotel they've been thoroughly screening every single reporter before getting to be near the president. .....But they didn't think they were going to throw a shoe at him! LOL! That tells you how much they really know or care about the culture of the country we invaded for no good reason.

When I heard about this, I watched it over and over again and I immediately made it my Yahoo icon, LOL.

You can even play a presidential shoe toss GAME!

And now they're talking about throwing the guy in prison for a couple years. The Cairo-based reporter, Al-Zaidi, has admitted "aggression against a president" and has since has been tortured and has his hand broken while in custody, according to his brother as reported by Al Jazeera. As he hurled the footwear at America's least popular president ever he said, "It is the farewell kiss, you dog!" [Source]. This came not a moment after Bush assured the attendees that his unpopular war in Iraq would soon be won.

I've gotta give soon-to-be ex-President Bush props for ducking that shoe so deftly.

Meteor brightens Edmonton night sky

2008-11-22T17:44:00.003-05:00

Yahoo link

"I seen it!"

It's good to know there are white trash folks up in Canada, too, hehehe. (No offense to my fabulous Albertan friend, of course.) If you saw it, you have to tell us all about it!

Read more in the CBC News article.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

2008-11-16T06:00:00.004-05:00

That's the sound of Peter Griffith's sigh, and it's a huge sigh of relief after the freakin' elections. Ugh! I thought it would never end! Just remembering debating Hillary version Obama seems like FOREVER ago. SO much changes so quickly!

Enough with the politics! I'm done. Oh wait, I'm gay. Damn it! LOL I'm still ... [insert adj. here] about Prop. 8. What a bummer, huh! I'm still upset with that shit. Freakin' hot Mormons like their freakin' fifty wives, and I can't get one husband. That line borrow from a picketer's slogan. Find many more here, I found. Oh, and the Connecticut Supreme Court rouled 4-3 in favor of accepting gay marriages in their state . I wonder if Connecticut Catholics (or Mormons, LOL) will raise millions of dollars in money to advertise their bigotry AND push their church on the state, all on display for its 3.5 million citizens. I don't know what it is about this intersection of religion and politics, but it evidently gets to me.

My only solacement has been my twilight-hour coding. I've put together a small collection of code snippets and demos to prove to myself that I could make it use this to do that, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. And I have put together a simple project that I am improving bit by bit. Maybe I will post it soon, who knows.

Bush Congratulates Obama

2008-11-09T21:10:00.002-05:00

It's the start of a new era in America.

Hulu link

See Obama's first press conference including the quip, "mutts like me," referring to the upcoming choice in dog for this daughters.

OBAMA WINS!!

2008-11-05T05:58:00.004-05:00

Sorry to spoil the news if you TiVo-ed it, but Illinois senator Barack Obama became the President-elect last night around 11:15pm. I was so excited when it all went down as I chatted with my Canadian friend who was excited for no reason. =)

The odds were stacking up against McCain quickly in the last hour as one after another electoral-rich states reported their votes and yielded all their electoral votes to Obama including Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida and California to put it over the edge. McCain did get the majority of the Southern states EXcluding Virginia, NC (both typically red) and Florida. The electoral count turned out to be a landslide for Obama, as of now it's 338 to 163 with a couple states not accounted for. ... That's more than twice the votes McCain got! Twice!

McCain gave a gracious concession speech, despite the boos of his character-trashing followers, and I have to confess I was a little sad when I watched Tine Fay, I mean, Sarah Palin walking off stage, like that was the end of all that wonderful fun we were having with her, haha. Obama gave an epic, presidential speech to a freakin' SEA of people in Chicago's Grant Park. I mean I was just in awe of the vast number of people there, and then the guys panned the cameras down the length of the park and it behooved me to say OMFG with renewed awe. This picture just doesn't do it justice since this is about half the width of this elongated park.

The Democrats secured a majority in both the Senate and the House in Congress in part due to the ousting of North Carolina's own Sen. Elizabeth Dole in favor of "Godless" Democrat Kay Hagan. At first I thought Dole was being gracious when she gave her concession speech, but then she made that comment about how she's going to PRAY for Kay Hagan, and it was just the way she said it that really rubbed Hagan's face in the whole Godless accusation again, and that really turned me off for Dole. I'm glad she's gone, because she doesn't represent my ideals in any way, and when I look at her I just think of Bob Dole and his beach-walking Viagara commercials. *shivers in disgust* Hagan was almost tactlessly giddy in her acceptance speech. I think she even gave out a "w00t!" LOL

In other NC news, Patrick McCrory, who I voted for, lost the gubernatorial election against current Lt. Gov. Bev Berdue. I guess only time will tell if Perdue doesn't get too wrapped up with Raliegh over there and doesn't forget about the state's larget city, Charlotte which is also larger than Atlanta and every other city between Philadelphia and Jacksonville, Fla. Keep that in mind when you're driving down our 2-lane interstate, Perdue!

What a night!

President Barack Obama!

YES WE CAN!!

The Force is STRONG with Me!

2008-11-02T20:10:00.000-05:00

Drill, Baby, Drill!

2008-11-01T06:44:00.008-04:00

I found this eerily funny game online today. It's called Oiligarchy and this is its stated description:

Delicious, profitable, stinky oil! Let's get stupid rich, huh? Trash the environment, bribe the politicians and squish the little peoples. Don't feel rich enough? Then Drill, Baby, Drill!

And it doesn't stop with references to the winkin' hockey mom we know and love, Caribou Barbie, LOL, but it starts post-WWII in Texas and and you start drilling for oil. Depending on the politcal climate in other locations, you can also drill in Nigeria, Venezuela, Alaska, and Iraq. You influence the president and try to get stinking rich over the years. I don't want to spoil the fun, but there are some overt suggestions. Don't forget the read the newpaper headlines!

Obama Appears on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart

2008-10-30T21:49:00.003-04:00

Watch the entire episode here:

Hulu link

Netflix is Soon to be Everywhere

2008-10-30T07:00:00.003-04:00

TiVo is joining up with Netflix to bring tons of more streaming online movies to TiVo devices over the internet, browseable on any TV set. Netflix subscribers will soon see a ton of new movies and TV episodes. Soon it will work on XBox, too. Maybe the Google phone or iPhone is next?

It makes me wonder, though, now that we are getting TV and movies streaming online anywhere in the house, and Japan has had TV on their cell phones for years, . . . what the hell do the Japanese have now??

Anchorage Demorat, 60, files claim against Palin

2008-10-30T05:44:00.006-04:00

A 60-year-old Anchorage Democrat filed a claim againt Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin claiming she abused her power and used state money to fund her children's travel and lodging.

And I got something in the mail about why I shouldn't vote for Obama because he's a tree-hugging liberal that doesn't want to tap into the natural reserves (location unspecified). And it wasn't from McCain's campaign; it was from a local branch. (Maybe McCain should get some of his wife's money involved. LOL!) But seriously, drill in the Gulf? Wait, how long does it take to build an oil platform in the Gulf? and how many offshsore rigs have been destroyed or damaged in the last few hurricane seasons? ... One second thought, maybe I shouldn't be reading a website in which their front page article paints a grim, dystopic future where society as we know it collapses in on itself.

It's Me!

2008-10-28T07:03:00.003-04:00

Check out tonight's creation:

Take THAT, Caribou Barbie!!

2008-10-26T17:51:00.006-04:00

The Alaskan Daily News, Alaska's largest newspaper, endorses Barack Obama for the next president of the United States.

The following statement refers to the economic meltdown, though it describes my reasons for voting for Obama (rather than a man with decades more experience who also happens to be so diametrically opposed to all of my opinions) better than I could have summized.

"[Obama] brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand."

About Palin's inexperience and McCain's old age the paper stated, "Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency — but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation. ... Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time."

I wonder what Ms. Shopoholic thinks of this!

Source: Yahoo News

And this may be a bit of old news, but I felt like I had to work this in. Here's what Matt Damon had to say about Sarah Palin.

YouTube link

Num Peeps > 30,000 !!

2008-10-26T17:48:00.001-04:00

Proudly Nerdy reaches over 30,000 hits! Woohoo!!

Family Guy - Season 7

2008-10-24T07:07:00.005-04:00

Not having cable and finding only what I want to watch on the intratubes has led me to discover a lot of TV stations hosting their full episodes of shows on their websites (with advertising of course, some more than others)...

Hence, here's Family Guy Season 3 full episodes.

Episode 1 - Love Blackually

Hulu Link

Episode 2 - I Dream of Jesus

Hulu Link

I thought everbody had heard the news. LOL.

Episode 3 - Road to Germany

Hulu Link

"Well, we're in Europe."

More Tina Fey

2008-10-24T01:21:00.004-04:00

I guess I was wrong. SNL is gonna keep at their unabashed mockeries of the Republican nutjobs! YAY!

Click here to see tonight's SNL skit with Sarah Palin, John McSame, and Bush all together.

And here's the first episode of Tina Fey's new creation, 30 Rock, in its entirety.

Hulu link

Yay for Tina Fey!

2008-10-21T01:11:00.004-04:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have LOVED watching Tina Fey do those Sarah Palin impersonations on Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey has always been a funny gal, but this stuff with Palin has been so simultaneously hilariously and eerily accurate that at one time I couldn't believe that Sarah Palin actually said that she didn't know what the Vice President did every day... It had to be Tina Fey. (It actually was Palin who admitted she had no idea what the VP does. I bet McCain bursted a blood vessel when he heard that.)

Tina Fey went on Letterman talking about how she does Palin's accent, which I just told is a farce -- she never had that thick of an accent before six months ago. Maybe she's just doing it to look cute in the face of Mr. Wilson--I mean John McCain.

"She digs in those R's. I think she thinks there's oil in those R's." LOL!

In case you missed last Saturday's SNL, you can see clips of it here. Sadly, though, I think this may be the end of Tina Fey's Palin impersonations on SNL as she has been soooo busy working on 30 Rock, which was dismissively mentioned by SNL's producer and creator Lorne Michaels in last Saturday's SNL. =)

"CARIBOU BARBIE!?" LMAO!!

I hate this store! ....WHAT?!!

2008-10-19T02:36:00.005-04:00

A friend sent me this link. Check it out. It's an old MadTV skit about A&F and it's SPOT ON! =D

YouTube link

I'm a PC! LOL

2008-10-17T23:45:00.006-04:00

Microsoft sent me a link to this in an email. I'm a PC! It looks like it's their attempt to get back at Apple for laying all those negative ads against them...

I'm a PC!

It would be more effective, I think, if this guy's sarcastic comment didn't ring so true. He goes, "I'm a PC and I like to watch videos that work." LOL Maybe it's due to Microsoft's new Silverlight they're using there, or maybe it's my internet connection. If it were the latter you'd think it would stream faster the 2nd or 3rd time, but that's not the case...

Check out this hottie!

GasBuddy Map

2008-10-17T23:22:00.001-04:00

Find out the prices of gas around the country and down the road:

GasBuddy.com

Neat Political Survey!

2008-10-17T21:40:00.006-04:00

MySpace is hosting a pretty cool web application now (and probably has for a long time running but that I'm just noticing) that surveys you on your political positions, provides you with a few opinions on a particular issue, and asks with which you agree most, and then it reveals the candidate who made the statement. At the end you see the results of the quiz and the results of all other MySpace users complete with maps and pie charts for the entire country or any state. Each map's color gradation is based upon the options from which you can so granularly select including gender, age, and issue. It's rather one-sided when you see it, but keep in mind these are MySpace users, not your average *ahem* conservative Republicans.

http://www.myspace.com/mydebates

Super Mario Brothers 2 for guitar

2008-10-17T21:14:00.001-04:00

How awesome is this guy?!

First Meteor to be Observed Prior to Impact....Makes Impact

2008-10-09T23:57:00.003-04:00

Early Tuesday morning in the desolate Sahara Desert of northern Sudan, just east of the Nile River, a rock big enough to fill your living room came streaking in at eight miles per second, brightly flashing as it exploded in the Earth's atmosphere.

Meteors of this size enter the Earth's atmosphere all the time, but what makes this one unique is that it was the first meteor to be observed prior its impact with the Earth.

... *pause of dramatic effect*

These things are teeny tiny in astronomical proportions, but what makes them so hard to spot is that they're dark -- so dark that only the slightest fraction of the sun's light is reflected off its opaque surface, having about the same reflectivity as a lump of coal.

... Kinda scary, isn't it? Now guess how long we knew it was coming?

Less than 19 hours. Even worse, most scientist would agree that if a large meteor were to strike the Earth the chances that we would even see it coming at all would be slim. IF we were lucky enough to see it coming, we would probably know about it only a day ahead of time, similar to this meteor. In this case, the people of the world would not be notified and stirred up into a futile fury of panic; there would be nothing we could do about it at that point anyway. It would simply impact.

Read the Wikipedia article about 2008_TC3.

Rednecks for Obama

2008-10-09T19:59:00.005-04:00

That's right. No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Rednecks for Obama is a grassroots movement started by two self-labeled rednecks from Missouri in support of Barrack Obama for president. In learning about this group, I found out Barack Obama is black and that racism still exists in America! LOL But seriously, I just thought that this was awesome. And it was started by a couple of guys in Rolla, Missouri. (My uncle lived there his whole life. I've been there, and it's pretty redneck!)

Now, I don't identify as a redneck, maybe because I don't enjoy Nascar, cheap beer or putting vinegar or coleslaw on my barbecue. Yuck! But I have been called a "Southern boi" by some. And I have met my share of redneck gay boys, so all you Yankee bois best know that the two are not mutually exclusive. (Had better, even.)

So this is a great group, I think. It lets the rest of the rednecks in the many historically red Southern states know that you don't have to vote republican just because you're a conservative. You can vote for Obama this time around because it is what's best for our economy, our health care system, and for a timely and responsible withdrawal from our oil war with Iraq.

P.S. -- If you haven't registered to vote in your county of residence, the deadline for registration is October 10th, tomorrow! You must have your envelope containing your registration form post-marked by the 10th, so you have TONIGHT to get it ready and in the mail before the mailman picks it up in the morning. Go to VoteForChange.com to register to vote TONIGHT!

Finally!!

2008-10-06T04:29:00.004-04:00

Oye, I hate working as much as I am now. It's like 50 hours a week, so don't beat me up if haven't been blogging lately. Oh, AND the cable company came out and fucked up our internet for a couple days. Go corporate giant dumbasses!

So, what have I missed?

Clay is GAY?? FINALLY!!! Good for you, Clay!

Queen Latifa is gay??? I didn't see that one coming, and I just found out.

Ricky Martin is -- Haha, gotcha! (Taking bets now.)

Gas Shortage in Charlotte! Oh Noes!!

Palin can see Russia from her house! LOL

Obama is "palling around with terrorists"?? LOL OMG Doesn't she think before those words fall out of her mouth?? She must think we're all ignorant on the subject and are too lazy to research it ourselves. I thought this argument was dead already. We've got an economic disaster on our hands, and McCain is avoiding it and dredging up this old crap instead.

Anyway, enough ranting. I have to get to bed. Laters!

Straight boys would go gay for him...

2008-09-18T00:39:00.006-04:00

And now, he's coming out on OUR side!

Brad Pitt, the loveably masculine man for whom at least two straight men I've talked to said they would go gay, has announced he donated $100,000 to fight California's Proposition 8 in November, a measure that, if it receives a simple majority vote, would reverse the state's supreme court decision to allow gays to marry in state.

Thanks Brad! We appreciate every penny, AND yours and Angelina's votes in November!

http://www.VoteNoOnProposition8.com/

Fantastic Contraption

2008-09-17T19:59:00.003-04:00

My roomie showed me a new game on the interwebs, similar to Magic Pen, but a little different. It's called...

Fantastic Contraption

Making tank treds seems to do the trick nicely on many of the levels. I've even figured out how to devise a coveyer belt and a cannon... but some people seem to be quite devoted to their tanks...

Recent Reels

2008-09-16T06:57:00.006-04:00

Yet another addition. .... You know, it feels like I've seen more in just two months.

Seen in Theatres

Not a damn thing. I haven't been out the movies in a while... not since Wall-E and "Eeeeeeeeva!"

Recent Rentals

American Beauty - If you haven't seen this, let me just say Kevin Spacey plays a pothead. There, now you have to see it.

Breach - Ryan Phillipe is such a hottie in this movie... except for that irritating buldge in his forehead that's so pronounced in this movie. What's up with that?? Anyway, this was a great show, I thought. I read all about Robert Hannsen on the interwebs when it was over. =)

Hostage - Bruce Willis, hostage negotiator. What else can I say? It was decent. Oh, and what's up with the crazy, dark kid? They have him identified on the Wikipedia entry for the show as something I didn't ever see in the movie.

The Fountain - I totally forgot to trip balls when I watched it, so I was a bit out of the loop. Still, it was a good movie....weird, but good. Doesn't hold much of a candle to Pi but maybe Requim, IMHO.

Alexander: The Theatrical Cut - Gotta get the theatrical's cut. I fear you might miss out on Colin Farrell's fine ass and genitals if you don't! Good movie, though I'm sure it's riddled with historical inaccuries as most historical movies are, but I have to admit I'm a bit too ignorant on the subject to notice... or care -- sometimes you have to just acquisce to the fact that it's a movie not a documentary.

Eragon - Two cute boys wrestling in hay was the best part of this movie. .... I can't remember if they were shirtless or not. I Googled their names for shirtless pics, LOL. ... No, they were shirtless, I just decided. ... Wait, what was this show about? Something about a dragon or something.

Crash - Mmmm, Ryan Phillipe...again. It's like I'm in a trance when he's on the screen, LOL. Anyway, this was a good movie, not because it made you feel all warm 'n' fuzzy, but because it's the ugly truth about prejudice.

Children of Men - This was a great one! I love futuristic, dystopian movies, this taught me. I had to watch it again to pick up on those clues for which I didn't yet know I should be looking.

Weeds (Season 1) - I know Season 4 is airing now, and I'm behind, but I've had a few friends tell me I should see this now, so I'm starting from the beginning. So far, I've seen just season one. (Just finished actually.) Somebody tell me: what the hell happened to the cute gay boy from the beginning episode?? I want him back! At least we have the adorably cute Hunter Parrish playing Silas. (HOT Screencaps here, LOL) P.S. Please don't spoil anything for me. =)

GLBT Movies

Garçon stupide - I'm still not sure what to make of this movie. It's about a guy with a wannabe girlfriend who's also a gay hustler and wannabe photographer. It's in French with English subtitles.

Zerophilia - Very unique movie, but good.... and the main character is cute, too!

Very Natural Thing - 1973 gay flick about a gay teacher and his love life. Kinda meh.

Denied - A small town high school football star turns out to be gay, he finds out, when moves in with his sexually indecisive fuck buddy. This shows what happens when the football jock finds out that he's gay and what he does about it.

I hope this is true

2008-09-13T18:20:00.003-04:00

Check this video out and see for yourself.

http://www.blackbottom.com/watch.php?v=WdBJd9b9i8A

If this were true then that would mean that their shinning new lipstick-wearing sidekick has serious family issues where they can't discuss things as adults with each other much less with the media, instead, they decided to make Levi their cover story.

I dont' know how genuine a news story is if it's coming from BlackBottom.com, LOL. What the hell kinda name is that??

Bristol's boyfriend is kinda hot though, don't you think?

Hurricane Ike hits Galveston & Houston

2008-09-13T17:52:00.006-04:00

Last night at about 2:10am, Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas and passed over Houston. (Actually the eye wall was 60 miles across, so it made landfall over a larger area that just the island.)

Actually, I read a funny note on the Weather Channel about the mandatory evacuations:

The police chief asked one stubborn couple to write their names and Social Security numbers on their forearms in black magic marker "in case something bad were to happen." They soon changed their minds.

Though the island of Galveston is protected by a 17-foot-high seawall, it still flooded out the island in the storm surge, and glass was still falling from skyscrapers to downtown Houston streets this morning.

After all this, I can't help but think how much worse it could have all been. It almost seems like Rita was worse, but that was because my own hometown of Beaumont took a direct hit. I think if it had been a slower moving hurricane or a little bit stronger, or if it had a higher storm surge that things would have turned out much worse for the country's 4th largest city. I still have to call my family up north of Houston to find out if they got any damage from the storm.

And wouldn't you know it -- Last night everyone here in Charlotte RUSHED out and bought up all the gas in the area in a mad panic before the impending shortage or something. Yea, they shutdown a number of refineries in the Houston area, but those refineries aren't very prone to wind damage or power outages. The one thing that would cause serious damage to them is flooding, so I don't think that the price in gas is going to spike (with good reason). This is to say, the price could very well spike with for no good reason at all .... which, isn't that why the price always spikes?

Nom Nom Nom

2008-09-07T18:29:00.000-04:00

In Through the Out Door

2008-09-06T23:57:00.004-04:00

I took the scenic route one day, and wound up behind Charlotte Catholic, a local crazy school for reason-underdeveloped adolescents. The road soon dead-ended, so I needed to turn around....

and then I saw this....

How fucking great is that? And it couldn't be in a better location, hehehehe.

New Place

2008-09-06T05:11:00.006-04:00

I felt behooved to take and post pictures of the new place due to the persistent nagging of one particular Canadian friend, and it's been sooo embarrasingly long since the last post, I felt I had to post some pics.

So this is the new pad. I just realized today that I haven't bought gas since before I moved, which was about 3 weeks ago, which is amazing, since I'm so used to buying gas every week and watching that needle constantly. I need to drive up and get some of mom's food, though. No couch yet, but there's a PS3, PS2, and an XBox360 (not pictured). =)

This is the desk that took 6 hours and a trip to Home Depot to put together.

This is my room, probably as clean as it has ever been. The cabinet in the middle is a bookshelf and CD/DVD tower me and my dad designed and built. The room's got its own bathroom on the right. Yay.

It's me, a guy from work, and his two kitties. They eat and poop. What more can I say. The gray one is older and calmer. The little one is a lil crazy sometimes.

Moved!

2008-08-19T05:38:00.003-04:00

Last Friday I moved out of my parent's house and into an apartment about 5 minutes from work. It's a pretty nice place so far. I'll be sure to take some pictures for ya once I get around to it. Actually, I don't have internet just yet; I'm borrowing the neighbor's right now, hehe. Soon I should have lots more time to put into sharing all the details, but for right now there are so many things to do and I need my beauty sleep. Stay Tuned!

Beijing Summer Olympics 2008

2008-08-13T06:45:00.004-04:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been GLUED to the Olympics as much as I can this year! I've been watching them at work on NBC.com where they have a metric shit-ton of videos online.

It seems everyone in the country and undoubtably others are all cheering for Michael Phelps to win the gold in all eight events this year. He has publicly repeated his goals since Athens to beat Mark Spitz's record by winning the gold metal in all 8 swimming events at the Olympics in a single year AND to break all the world records in each event. So far, he has done just that. He's already gotten the gold and broken the world record in the two events that held him back from this goal back in Athens four years ago. It's only 3 more races to go!

Okay, I confess. I'm sure just like all the rest of you the only reason that I'm so obsessed with the Olympics is because of all the hot, muscular, chilseled, dripping wet athletes strutting around in their tight speedos. I'm in fucking heaven. If they release the olympics on DVD I'd totally buy it. But it's not just swimming. There's DIVING, WRESTLING, and GYMNASTICS! I can't decide which one I like the best. They're all just a visual eye candy binge. OMG last night I was watching the wrestlers squat down on all fours in the middle of the mat -- HAWT!! Wrestle me doggie style in a singlet ANY DAY! The wrestler boys I saw were short and stout, though, they weren't very well proportioned. And some of them were kinda busted looking. But I really enjoyed watching the gymnastics at work tonight.

I enjoyed it too much I think. I watched a group of them go for a round and then some other group came out, and not only was this one boy muscular of course (but not overly so because he's a gymnast) but he was fuckin' CUTE!! I didn't get a picture because I threw down my headphones and had to walk away for a few minutes. The eye candy had made me sick to my eyes I think, LOL.

Very soon I hope to acquire a photo collection of the Olympics that would make any stalker proud.

New Gay Porn Site!

2008-08-06T05:46:00.003-04:00

I found a new fairly decent site with lots of nice pics. They're not like wallpaper size, but it's a good collection regardless. And well organized! =)

ChadzBoysz.net

I stuck a link on the right. Enjoy!

Heinz gay advertisment pulled in UK

2008-07-31T17:53:00.007-04:00

I was just flipping through a friend's photos on Facebook of London Pride 2008.

Looks absolutely fabulous. I'm so jealous.

Drag Queens with BIG Hair

And then I saw this and thought, "Don't Buy Heinz? What the hell?"

This article posted by another blogger explains it all. See the advertisement here on YouTube.

The thing is I have a hard time forming an opinion on this. So, they pulled their ad because some conversative, old foggies got their panties in a wad. They always do. It WAS out there on the tele and now it's all over the internet, and we're talking about it now! So it's gotten out, and now we've seen the advert and its scandalous gay kiss (as if it's the first on TV). So who cares?? I'm sure Heinz won't go under because they stop getting my $1.50 every couple of months from that single bottle of ketchup.

Circumstances Unknown

2008-07-30T06:39:00.004-04:00

I'm curious to know, but I really don't care. Looks friggin' hot to me regardless.

They just still look straight for some reason, don't they?

Justin is listed as Flippant

2008-07-30T00:17:00.009-04:00

I have to rant for a minute. Since I've been on Facebook, I've gotten all kinds of friend requests from Charlotte gay boys like myself. The thing is, 99% of them never say anything to me, never comment, never message. It's like, what's the point? Same thing bugged me with MySpace. Why should you remain a "friend" when we've never met and we never talk?

But the one thing that just gets under my skin more than anything with them is their incessant relationship status changes. One day they're married, the next they're single. Literally, I've seen it. It's like if they're serious, I can imagine they'd be a real emotional wreck right about now having been through all that in one day. But they're not serious; they're just throwing these terms around like farts in the breeze... Married, Single, Engaged, Divorced, it's like a carousel gone out of control with some of them, like this guy for instance.

Does he not know that people are reading this shit he's posting? I mean, they have a fight, and 20 minutes later they're "engaged." Then the next week it's all over?? Gimme a break. I bet he got dumped because his "fiance" saw his Facebook page.

Can we all just take a deep breath and stop for a minute? Look at yourselves! Unless you live in California or Massachusetts, you cannot "marry" or be "divorced" or "engaged" in this country. You're only denigrating the meaning of these words when you toss them around so thoughtlessly and carelessly. Do you really expect the straight community to take us seriously when we don't even take own relationships seriously? Isn't this all counter-productive to what we've been fighting for for all these years?

I'm on YouTube, bitches!!

2008-07-28T06:17:00.002-04:00

I totally geeked out today. I put together my very first YouTube video! I'm so proud. =)

YouTube link

Pride Charlotte

2008-07-27T05:31:00.004-04:00

Earlier today, and by today I mean Saturday, the Gateway Village once again hosted the annual Pride Charlotte in uptown. It was probably the fifth one since I've lived here and only the third that I've heard about, which is interesting in itself. The only reason I knew about it this year was because of a Facebook friend's status message. I remember not going last year because I had errands to run, and I this year had to work. I half-ass tried to get up early, but I slept through my alarm and still felt tired all damn day regardless. So, I have no fun, fabulous photos of rainbow boa bestowed 'mos to show. LOL. Hopefully no Queen City queens are reading this, but from the pictures on the website from last year, it doesn't look like I missed a whole lot. I didn't see hot boys everywhere, or even one. LOL, that was a little mean. I went to Gay Days, so I might be a bit underwhelmed, I think. Any Charlotteans (or whatever the hell you're called) wanna tell me how it all went and prove me wrong? I'd love to see pictures! =)

2008 Olympics is gearing up!!

2008-07-23T23:32:00.003-04:00

As you all well know, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing is, what, less than two weeks away now. I'm excited. The Olympics are great to watch on TV -- that stuff you didn't think was humanly possible, they're doing, and you don't even have to leave your couch! The winter Olympics look fun to watch, too and all, it's just that summer brings out all that delicious eye candy for us all to drool over. You bois know what I'm talking about!

My favorite are the divers -- one, because I look like a cat forced into taking a bath when people try to get me to dive, second, because they're all beautifully chiseled, muscular men (and women), and third, because they're not in the water the whole time; they're standing up out of the water, thinking about their next dive, but just standing there, drenching wet in their Speedos with the water dripping off of them. Yummy. Well, I'm rambling, but see for yourself. Here are some pictures from OutSports showing the 3-meter men's synchronized diving practice at the U.S. National meet at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California.

Recent Reels

2008-07-22T23:52:00.005-04:00

This is beginning to become a recurring theme here on my little bloggie-poo. Here's a list of the recent movies I've seen since my last laundry list and what I thought of them. The Netflix account got bumped up to 3-at-a-time, and I'm tempted to step it up even more, actually.

Seen in Theatres

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Though the movie has some HUGE "Ah, com'on!" moments, you just have to forget that and just sit back and enjoy the nostalgia of Indiana Jones...all the first three were better, though I did enjoy this one.

WALL-E - Visually busy and interesting to watch. A few cute/romantic moments here and there. Kids may enjoy it, but the GREEN storyline is definitely intended for adults: trash, superstores, and obesity. Oh My!!

Recent Rentals

Into the Wild - Interesting kid, and I would say I have to agree with some of his ideas, however, I have to ask, "Why Alaska of all places?" One other beef: TOO LONG!! One can only drool over him for so long. (Pookie, have you found the full frontal yet? Hehehe)

Stephen King's The Shining - This shit pisses me off. I LOVE The Shining....the original by Stanley Kubrick, not this made-for-TV crap they slapped together is trash in comparison. Don't fuck with the classics!!

The Illusionist - Excellent movie! I had to go back and watch it again and see everything that I missed the first time around. You really have to pay attention to this one, but it's well worth it.

Resident Evil - Guns, zombies, and gory action scenes...maybe a little too gory for me. I never played the games, and now I'm debating whether or not I want to see the rest of them.... I might.

Lawrence of Arabia - I'd heard so much about this and I've always seen it on the top 5 movies of all time, so I had to see it... and I was disappointed after all the hype. First of all, it's almost FIVE HOURS LONG!! FIVE! One, two, three, four, FIVE! There's a friggin' intermission and even it's like 4 hours through the movie, which makes no sense to me. As for the movie itself, it seems alright to me. Watching this, I couldn't help but think the actual person on whom the character was based was a little bit gay if not bisexual. =)

Juno - What a great movie, if for nothing else than the fact that's so quotable. Love it!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - OMG! WTF has Tim Burton done to this CLASSIC?!? It's positively mutilated! The annoying children, the crappy scenery, the friggin' music makes me wanna shove some cacti in my ears just to make it stop!! This movie is absolute torture to watch.

Children of Men - Though it is a tad gory, I really enjoyed this one. I always love an alternate future science-fiction, especially if it's a dystopia; somehow they just feel more realistic as sad as that sounds. This one is just chock FULL of little morsels of our time's culture that have gone horribly wrong in their time. Loved it!

National Lampoon Presents: Dorm Daze - Talk about plot twists! It's just all over the place. It was an interesting movie, more so than Van Wilder, but you'd definitely have to be drinking to enjoy it.

National Lampoon Presents: Dorm Daze 2 - I liked this one better than the original for some reason. I think it's the murder mystery and the play within the movie. Still, I think you'd have to be drinking to really enjoy this one, too.

Documentaries

Who Killed the Electric Car? - Utterly fascinating. This documentary reminded me that I still have faith that generally people out there are working toward the greater good, only now I have a lot less of that to go around.

Super Size Me - Wow, I had no idea fast food was that bad for you. It made me want to eat more veggies, but then I realized, I don't like many veggies. Oh well, at least I can try to cook at home more often and save money in the process.

Walking with Dinosaurs: Allosaurus - It's really amazing that they can tell so much about the life of an animal that lived over 70 million years ago by its fossilized bones. Must see for dinosaur nerds.

Modern Marvels: The Manhattan Project - The development of the atom bomb has always been a fascinating subject to me, but this show has really filled in the gaps of my knowledge about how it all works and some of the history of its use on Japan in WWII.

NOVA - Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Interesting chronology of the inventions that brought us ice and air conditioning.

Global Warming: The Signs and the Science - This didn't really tell me anything I hadn't already heard before about global warming...but it was weird coming from Alanis Morisette.

GLBT Movies

Big Eden - Meh. I seriously doubt every in a small Montana town would be hooking up the gays, so I didn't buy it. Besides, there aren't any hot guys in it.

Almost Normal - Meh. Back to the Future goes gay when this aging queer gets transported back to his high school to face his secret crush, though this time everyone's gay. I can see why some might like this one, but it didn't do much for me.

Sugar - The guys were kinda cute, but it was hard to watch with all the drugs and prostitution. It was okay, but it's not something I'd keep for any reason.

Open Cam - I remember seeing this at [heartless, corporate giant movie rental store] and was too embarrassed to rent it. The main character was really hot, but he was about it IMHO. Besides seeing him half naked most of the time, it was hard to watch at times. I'm just glad I stuck it out to see the ending.

Mysterious Skin - Though this one, too, was uncomfortable to watch at times, it was very realistic and well worth the insight. It's a believe able story surrounding a touchy subject that I think they handled well. Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a pretty good job, too.

Boys Briefs - I don't know why I thought this might be good. The acting is corny, cheap, and cheesy. Looks like they spent a good weekend filming on a home camera. And, no, I don't plan on renting the other 18 volumes, thank you very much.

The Color Purple - "You sho' is ugly!" LOL Yes, I'd never seen this one. Watching it, I was wondering how on earth this was a gay movie. It wasn't until afterward when I thought about it that it kind of made some sense.

Happy Endings - This may or may not be a "gay movie," but there are two gay couples, and there's a kinda hot gay make out scene at the end. It's a tangled web of lives that all intersect at the end. There are lots of well-known actors in this one, too.

Defying Gravity - Here's a touching story about a couple of frat guys who are only just seeing each other when of them gets gay-bashed and put into a coma. The other has to come to terms with his relationship with the boy, his frat's homophobia and his own sexuality. That's quite a lot to deal with at once if you ask me! Definitely worth seeing.

New Movies I Want to See

Let me know if they are any good!

The Happening

The Dark Knight

Sex and the City

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2008-07-22T22:49:00.002-04:00

If Barbara says so, it's true. A couple of guys bought this little lion cub in a Paris department store (Imagine that! It wasn't in Thailand or China!) and brought him home to raise him. They released him back into the wild and years later went to reunite.

My apologies for the overdramatic music. YouTubers. *rolls eyes*

YouTube link

I'm on Facebook, bitches!!

2008-07-22T04:55:00.003-04:00

In the last month or two, I've acquiesced and joined the masses on Facebook. I'd actually had an account for a few years, but it went completely ignored until just a couple months back when I got an add request... I cancelled my account. The next day I had two guys at work wanting me to join and friend them, so I said fuck it and joined again.

Then I got to looking, and there's some neat stuff on there. I added all kinds of pictures of friends and added a few applications. Some of the apps are neat but meant for those with ADD, LOL. The BEST part is that, unlike MySpace you don't have to choke your site with HTML and CSS in their clunky editor; you can't actually, but it has TONS more functionality than MySpace, I think. I've found all kinds of friends that I went to school with and lots of people from work. The bad thing is it makes it easier for people to stalk you, haha.

So, look for me or leave me your email or something in a comment, and we'll friend each other, or something.

I'm Hungry All of a Sudden....

2008-07-21T00:51:00.002-04:00

Magic Pen

2008-07-19T05:41:00.003-04:00

YAY for an addicting physics/engineering game I can play at workie! How fun is this shit?!?

MAGIC PEN!!

If you really must cheat or just get plain stuck, there are cheat vids on YouTube, 1 & 2.

I Feel Pretty and Witty and GAAAAAY!!!

2008-07-14T00:40:00.002-04:00

Dad made the mistake of singing a bit of this song today, and it's been in my head ALL DAY LONG!

Sing along, girls!!

YouTube Link

RUUUUUUUUN!!!

2008-07-12T23:37:00.016-04:00

The annual festival of San Fermín is underway now in Pamplona, a normally quiet town in Spain's northern Navarra province that comes alive each year with this long-lived festival. The most famous event during the festival of San Fermín is the encierro or the running of the bulls. Thousands of people from all over the world flock here to adorn themselves with red scarfs tied to their necks and waists, to bathe in an orgy of red wine in the plaza outside the town hall, and to await the release of a herd of angry bulls into the crowded streets. The bulls then race down the city streets, cumbersomely slidding and falling at times, goring red-adorned runners in their path, and finally running into the stadium to commence the bullfight wherein FABULOUSLY- and tightly-dressed matadores put on a show for the cheering audience that eventually leads to the slow death of the bulls.

¡¡ ES FABULOSÍSMO !!

First, everyone has to get fuckin' tanked.

Meanwhile at the arena, the boys are getting ready and putting on those gorgeoous outfits!!

RELEASE THE BULLS!!!

Let the bullfighting begin!

The Aftermath...

Writer's Block. I has it.

2008-07-12T03:04:00.002-04:00

Nerdy Joke of the Week

2008-07-02T23:18:00.001-04:00

"I think you need a firmware upgrade."

"That's what she said!"

More Gay Mormons in the News

2008-06-28T17:58:00.008-04:00

Let me just read you this quote from this Yahoo News article:

"A growing number of active Mormons, who have gay friends and family members are coming to the conclusion that our current leaders are as mistaken in promoting discrimination against gays and lesbians as was the Mormon hierarchy in the 60's when they opposed equal rights for people of color, and our Mormon leaders in the 70's when they opposed full legal equality for women."

Jeffrey Nielsen, professor of philosophy, Brigham Young University

First of all, let me say, NO SHIT!!

Second, this is another example of what I like to call HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF!!

I hope you're all paying attention, because in another 10-30 years, gays, similarly, will be classed together with women or colored people in that, DUH, of course they should have rights, and there will be another minority out there pushing for equal legal rights and recognition under the law. I don't even want to venture to say who it will be. I just hope that I'm more accepting of them than people like my PARENTS are now of people like myself.

Good for those gay Mormons, their friends, and family who plan on walking out this hypocritical and hate-filled reading! I congratulate them for standing up for their personal beliefs despite those of the church they attend. We should all challenge the decisions and opinions of the churches we attend; we should always think with our own minds and question those who teach us. I find the most difficult question, the most root-digging, and the most irritating question to the teachers and those who think they have all the answers is "WHY?" That really gets them going. =)

One a side note, I saw this poll on Yahoo's 60 Minutes page covering their story on the complete failure and subsequent 180 of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy here. Don't you think it looks a bit like that hot Mormon stud from Latter Days?

Taking into account the location of this poll, don't you think this is a pretty good result?

Is this where we are, seriously??

2008-06-26T06:03:00.003-04:00

RedLightCenter

It's like that futuristic Sandra Bullock movie where everyone's afraid to have actual sex anymore.

OMG ... but YAY for California!

2008-06-23T06:03:00.003-04:00

Stevie found the cutest YouTube video and posted it on his blog. Bitch beat me to it... cunt.

Check it out!

Awwwww!!

2008-06-23T05:36:00.004-04:00

Isn't this just the sweetest, dorkiest cake you've ever seen?

Naked Boys Singing on YouTube!

2008-06-20T18:26:00.002-04:00

YouTube link

Ms. Crabapple wants to know!

2008-06-20T01:50:00.004-04:00

Okay, I just found this site, WordQuery, and the Ms. Crabapple inside me LOVES it. I especially love their grammar and punctuation pages.

So who can pass the Spelling Bee?!

Choose the correct spelling for the sentences provided. I got one wrong, and I was kickcing myself afterward.

Let me know what you score!

A Couple Random YouTube Videos

2008-06-19T23:04:00.003-04:00

LOL I hope this story is real. I really do.

YouTube Link

Why can't I have more friends like this??

YouTube link

Gay Days 2008

2008-06-19T20:35:00.004-04:00

After much delay, here are pictures from this year's Gay Days in Orlando, nearly all of which I should give credit to Rob for taking.

June 17, 2008 -- Gay Marriage Legal in California

2008-06-18T05:36:00.000-04:00

Work it harder, faster, stronger

2008-06-13T16:29:00.001-04:00

I don't know why, but this made me giggle. =)

California Marriage goes to Ballot

2008-06-04T01:09:00.009-04:00

The ballot initiative to put the "Marriage Protection" vote on the November ballot in California was officially approved today. It's funny how they call it the "Marriage Protection" initiative, like gay marriage will in any way change straight marriage in any way. So Californians get to vote in November to give gays in their state the right to marry. I wonder how many gay couples in California will tie the knot until then. The number was right around 4,000 just in San Francisco alone previously. AND I believe the state Supreme Court decision doesn't bar out-of-state gay couples from tying the knot in California, so we will again see an influx of couples from all over the country getting hitched in the Golden State again.

UPDATE:

In response to Greg's comment, I thought I'd just add to this post:

Greg's Comment:

For what its worth, I'll be rejecting that bull-shit law in a hurry!
Makes me wonder though, if this ban does go through, will that be it for gay marriage in California?
Or can we repeal this damn stupid law later on?

Well, that would be it for gay marriage in California for a while if the amendment passes. I only know of two things that would overrule it: another California state constitutional amendment re-instating gay marriage (as with the federal Prohibition amendments) or a federal amendment allowing it.

The truly scary thing is that if this amendment passes it will get all the ultra-conservative, gay-hating people around the country rallying behind even more constitutional amendments -- states and federal; it'll give them more courage to keep pushing it. (After all, if California can't pass it, no one can, right?)

The upside of this tipping point is that if this amendment fails, it will give the gay community more courage to keep pressing for equal rights.

The best thing I heard recently on the advancement of queer people was that every year, the older and more conservative and bigoted people die off, and more open-minded and accepting people get older and into politics and openly discuss their opinions with other adults. And this has resulted in about a 1% gain per year of the nation's acceptance of gay rights and gay marriage... so there is still hope for the future.

Obama gets Democratic Nomination, McCain Hates Us

2008-06-04T00:31:00.004-04:00

With the final two state Democratic primaries now over in Montana and South Dakota, Obama declares victory and Hillary acknowledges or denies nothing. I still think there are back-room talks going on where Hillary is trying to secure some sort of position for herself either as the V.P. or a cabinet member on Obama's team before she publicly acknowledges anything, I believe.

Yahoo article about today's developments

Either way, there are a ton of Hillary supporters out there who are theatening to vote for McCain come November, so we as Democrats should all take it upon ourselves to learn the positions of the political candidates, especially those of McCain. The debate now shifts to a a McCain/Obama debate, not a Clinton/Obama debate with their relatively trivial differences, but a debate between two RADICALLY DIFFERENT presidential candidates.

If you are one of those Clinton supporters, and at one point I was too, and you claim to now be in support of McCain I would urge you to try to put out of your mind all the character stereotypes that are portrayed in the media about McCain being a Vietnam war hero and Obama's campaign about hope and change and all that -- that's all rhetoric and character-based. Keep in mind that doesn't reflect the views, opinions, and voting records of the candidates. We should all work to educate ourselves on the facts using the vast resources of the Internet to find these facts out for yourself. The problem is all news is slanted; you just need to be conscious of this...

HRC released a detailed report today detailing McCain's voting record with regard to GLBT issues:
http://www.hrc.org/equality08/264.htm

McCain's Political Views (Wikipedia)

Obama's Political Views (Wikipedia)

Clinton's Political Views (Wikipedia)

Watch TV on da Interwebz!

2008-06-03T00:08:00.002-04:00

Thanks to a commentor on the old TV-Links blog from way back for pointing out that there is a new site for watching TV on the Blogosphere:

http://www.tvlinksdb.com

I've also stumbled upon another one myself recently that I'm enjoying (though not at work so much because many of the sites to which it links are not available from work, lol).

http://www.surfthechannel.com/

Enjoy!

Almost Time!

2008-05-30T05:05:00.006-04:00

It's less than a week away now to Gay Days 2008 in Orlando!

I'm pretty excited. I'm still running around doing stuff to get ready. I've already gotten in all the new swimsuits I'll be taking for the trip, and yesterday I got my very dark brown hair highlighted blonde. I'll take lots of pictures, so don't you worry. You'll get to see my "cute" hair as it was called at work today. I also took my car in yesterday for maintenance, since I'm going to be driving down. It's going to cost me freaking fortune.

So, assuming I don't get time to blog while I'm on vacation, I will be leaving you all for a week come next Tuesday.

Reading your [Lack of] Rights

2008-05-29T05:54:00.005-04:00

Okay, I know, I've been on a bit of a gay-marriage-slash-equal-rights kick lately, and I know many of you bois out there are either single, too young to marry, don't care about gay marriage, or think that "domestic partnership" or "civil unions" would be just fine. If this sounds like you, this post is for you.

The reason gay couples struggling to get that word marriage, including those in California who won against the state to have their marriage recognized, is not for the social acceptance of the gay marriage in being equal to straight marriage -- that, they recognize, will take years. (Interracial marriage was legalized in 1977 and still couples get a second look by some people. Obama is the son of an interracial marriage, as a matter of fact.) They have been fighting for years not for the social acceptance but the rights bestowed upon straight married couples. Civil unions and domestic partnerships may give gay couples a subset of these rights in the few states they are allowed, but it's nothing near the laundry list of rights enjoyed by their straight counterparts.

Rights Given to Straight Married Couples/Individuals:

Access to Social Security after spouse's death
Access to health insurance through spouse's workplace
The right to custody of children after divorce
Visitation rights for non-biological children
Joint parenting rights, such as access to children's school records
Bereavement leave after death of a spouse
Burial determination after the death of a spouse
Domestic violence intervention
Sick leave care for spouse or non-biological child
Legal validation of a long-term relationship
Ability to live in neighborhoods deemed "families only"
Access to life insurance in spouse's workplace
Access to survivor benefits in case of emergency
Access to spouse's crime victims' recovery benefits
Ability to file wrongful death claims
Right to shared property, child support, and alimony after divorce
Ability to file joint home and auto insurance policies
Joint rental leases with automatic renewal rights if spouse dies or leaves
Access to adopting children
Automatic inheritance of shared assets after spouse's death
Automatic inheritance of retirement savings tax-free after spouse's death
Automatic exemption of property tax increases on shared assets gained after spouse's death
Ability to file joint tax returns
Access to tax breaks for married couples
Veterans discounts based on spouse's armed forces status
Assumption of spouse's pension after death
Ability to file joint bankruptcy
Ability to collect unemployment benefits after leaving a job to relocate because of spouse's job move
Ability to transfer property from one spouse to another without transfer tax consequences
Access to fostering children
Automatic next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions and hospital visitation status
Immigration and residency priority for spouses from other countries
Ability to invoke spousal privilege in a court of law
Access to reduced rate memberships at health clubs, social clubs, and organizations
Prison visitation rights

Source: TheTaskForce.org

NY to recognize other states' and countries' gay marriages

2008-05-29T05:37:00.003-04:00

New York state will soon recognize other states' and other countries' gay marriages and will grant all the rights and benefits reaped by in-state couples to gay married couples.

Massachusetts is currently the only state that allows same-sex marriage (California will join on June 17), but its residency requirements would prevent New Yorker couples from marrying there. Couples could also travel to Canada, Spain, or wherever gay marriages are legal and New York will soon recognize the marriage.

Yahoo article
NY Times

W00t W00t!!

2008-05-29T05:34:00.000-04:00

Look Boys, No Hands!!

http://www.XTube.com/play_re.php?v=3yNB9_G414_&cl=7DAZc_G414

Both Fabulous

2008-05-24T19:02:00.006-04:00

Think back to your high school English class for a moment. You may have at one point been forced to write a "Compare and Contrast" essay. Let's just call this a Compare and Contrast blog posting -- I'm not going to elaborate or make too many inferences... BUT....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_%28singer%29#Personal_life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_martin#Personal_life

Maybe if they weren't famous they'd say one way or another. Are all artists like this?? You know the day after we find out we wouldn't care honestly.

UPDATE:

I didn't want to go into too much detail, BUT Greg brings up a valid question.

To contrast they are hugely different artists in demeanor and, shall we say, fantabulousness. Mika is very ... colorful and just wild and fun while Ricky Martin is a chisled muscular, sexy, provocative hunk of a man who looks GREAT in a Speedo next to a friend in a Speedo. The world needs both, quite frankly.

To compare, they both say the same thing about their sexuality publicly. And who could blame them with their careers on the line? Frankly, I don't care either way, but I like to imagine they're gay, because they're both fabulous in their own way.

... and because Ricky is sooo freakin' gorgeous. =)

Intervention...

2008-05-20T05:33:00.004-04:00

It's official. I've been diagnosed .... as a Digital Packrat. I know, I hang my head in shame.

At one point after college I had over 15,000 mp3s and decided to delete the ones I never listened to, so trimmed them down to 3,700. But I've still got every paper I've ever written in school since the 6th grade backed up. Hell, I even have this blog backed up on my computer. You never know, this blog could be deleted if I started posting pictures of swastikas 'n shit.

The signs are all there. I...just...didn't know there were other people like me out there!

Find out if you're a digital packrat, and take the quiz

Q. Do you have 20 or more folders and sub-folders in your documents folder on your hard drive?

A. I count 11.

Q. Is your list of Internet bookmarks long and overwhelming?

A. Yea, a bit.

Q. Is your email program nearly full, or do you use more than one email account because of all the storage you need?

A. Hmm, I don't save a lot of emails, but I do use two separate email accounts to serve different purposes - business and personal.

Q. Do you have multiple duplicates of photos, and is it hard to find a photo you need?

A. I have two photo banks - business and personal LOL, but no, it's fairly organized. I'm only a photo whore with my porn.

Q. Is your hard drive 75% full or more?

A. I'm running everything live off of an internal slave hard drive, which every so often I back up to an external hard drive and DVDs when I feel the need. The external is nearly full.

Q. Do you have multiple accounts for similar things, making it hard to find stuff?

A. We've covered emails, favorites, and photos, so I don't know what he means by "things," but I consider myself fairly organized, so I pride myself on being able to find that needle in my haystack quickly.

Q. Are any of your digital file systems overwhelming?

A. They're huge masses of data, indeed.

Q. Do you have email from 5 years ago?

A. I just found one from Amazon to an email account I no longer have from 6 years ago, LOL.

Q. Do you have project files from 2 years ago?

A. Shit, I have project files from 20 years ago almost.

Q. Do you have folders of stuff to read that would take a year to actually read?

A. Yea, there are probably a couple books in here of study material I've never gotten around to reading.

Okay, so I'm a digital packrat, but at least I'm an organized packrat. I guess this means makign the tough decision..... It's time to purge.

You know, I just feel bad for my dad. He's in the process of scanning, tagging, digitally enhancing, "organizing," and putting to DVD every home movie, picture, negative, 8mm slide and 8mm movie that he and everyone else in our family has gotten their hands on. He's got three machines, two huge external hard drives, and DVDs out the wazoo. He's also got duplicates everywhere and an organizational nightmare on his hands. I keep begging him to get a real top notch photo organizer program and to stop fiddling with explorer to do the job. ...I'm definitely sending him this article. =)

By the way, does anyone want a copy of Netscape 7 from 2003? I have the setup.exe.

PS3 GTA IV

2008-05-18T23:04:00.006-04:00

So I finally went out and bought a Playstation 3 and GTA IV. I've really just started playing it, and the graphics are really stunning, so I think it was worth it. Plus, I have a BluRay disc player for when the discs get cheaper. And to think the guy next to me was buying an HD DVD player. I wanted to say something, but I bit my tongue. After Walmart picked BluRay, everyone started jumping the fence, so it really marked the death of the HD/BluRay debate.

Here's a lil taste of the new Grand Theft Auto IV game, which has already made more than half a billion dollars in its first week alone.

YouTube Link

California Legalizes Gay Marriage

2008-05-15T22:33:00.002-04:00

At about 10 A.M. this morning in California's Supreme Court, the highest court in the state that holds over one-tenth the nation's population, issued a 4-to-3 180-page verdict declaring gay marriages legal in the state within 30 days. Not civil unions or civil partnerships, but marriage with all the benefits already enjoyed by straight couples all around the country. It's a tremendous and brave step forward in the equal rights for those of us in the LGBT community and certainly a time to celebrate, especially for those 4,000 gay couples in San Francisco whose marriages were taken from them in 2004 and the rest of California. The court cited a 1948 ruling overturning a previous ban on interracial marriage in support of the new ruling.

I'm not sure how much buzz this will receive on television and how the presidential race will put their spin on it. Tonight while flipping through the channels I only caught one station that had a very brief, news blip on the matter -- just long enough to say, "Oh, by the way, listen to how much this disgusts me. Now let's get back to talking about the interminable war." The presidential candidates, though, have already been asked their take on the verdict and have offered their predictable responses -- Hillary and Obama both reiterating their fence-riding, mass-appealing preference for civil rights but not "marriage" for gays .... though you have to know they're in the phase where they're saying what won't make them unpopular before the general election. McCain, of course, opposes gay marriage but also thinks the courts shouldn't be making these decisions. I guess he doesn't believe in the Judicial Branch when handling lawsuits filed against the state. The Golden State's own governor, Mr. Terminator, though he twice vetoed gay marriage legislation said he wouldn't support a constitutional amendment to overturn the court's ruling.

And I believe this is where those in California need to turn their attention now, and the rest of us should support those fighting the constitutional ban. Focus on the Family, which is a conservative Christian group, claims it now has enough signatures to put the same-sex marriage ban on the November ballots, but this claim is now awaiting verification. A state constitutional amendment is the only thing that will overturn the state supreme court ruling, and it would be the end of the line since the U.S. Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction in the matter.

So if you have friends or family in California please urge them to be ready to vote in November against the constitutional amendment forever banning gay marriage in their state!

CNN article
Guardian article
Yahoo article

"We done seen the tornada!"

2008-05-11T23:11:00.003-04:00

So, we got a bit of a scare this afternoon when we heard a tornado had touched down a ways to our west-northwest and was barreling towards us at 40mph. It kept itself together for a long time, crossing from Lincoln County into Mecklenburg County and passing over Lake Norman, cutting through Huntersville just to our west. There were reports of golf ball and tennis ball size hail raining down from the storm, so I took my car over to my uncle's workshop just in time. The storm actually passed just to our north to where we could see the southern eedge of the anvil cloud. The tornado was at the southern edge about a mile north of us. A camera mounted at the Lowe's Motorspeedway spotted the funnel cloud after it had begun to lift back up into the cloud. Soon, reports from my own town came in of this tennis ball size hail, and one caller went into exhuberant detail about how she "done seen the tornada pick up the dog and set him back day-yown." The news reporter was visibly trying her best to hold in her laughter. Hopefully there will be footage online soon so I can link you guys to it.

Windmill, my ass!!

2008-05-10T23:59:00.004-04:00

I waltzed into my mom's little sewing room she has set up next to mine, and stopped dead in my tracks when I looked down and saw a quilt she had made (pictured below). When I held it up and asked, "Ummm.....mom?" she replied, "It's supposed to be a 'Windmill' pattern!"

......

Did she not see what I recognized immediately when she made the first square?? Did she really have to make the entire quilt before it dawned on her what she had created??

I mean...

Honestly....

Doesn't it just pop out at you immediately?

This is the kind of thing I have to put up with. .... It's no wonder they didn't know I'm gay.

What the Hail?

2008-05-10T00:09:00.003-04:00

Okay, so today is the second day in a week or so that we have had hailstorms. Twice I have in horror watched beads of ice dropping from thousands of feet and boisterously bouncing off the roof of my newly purchased car (which I love). First it was pea- and bean-sized, but tonight the droplet- and platelet-shaped hailstones were up to the size of almonds. Thankfully, both times I have been home at the time and I have been able to do something about it. Had I been at work when this happened, I'd have been pissed at the dings all over it, but my dad and I both times covered the car in old cardboard boxes and and old quilt to cushion the blows. (How's that for redneck ingenuity?) I'm leaving its shielding on overnight in case any more storms pop up. I should invest in a padded cover, right?

It could be worse. A guy at work actually had a tornado hit his house last night, tossing large trees around both yards, sending one on top of his car, but thankfully, leaving his house unscathed. It was confirmed today to be an F2 tornado that left a 7-mile path of destruction.

Sorry these pics are all motion-blurred, but I was getting pelted on the head at the moment.

Tax Holiday? Gimme a Break

2008-05-06T03:52:00.004-04:00

With gas pricing hovering at or above $4.00 across the country, presidential hopefuls Clinton and McCain are proposing a measure that would suspend the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline.

This is a bad idea, and I'll tell you why.

First of all, let me just state it's a political ploy aimed at getting votes, preying on those that accept at face value all the rhetoric of "listening to the hardworking people" and "sticking it to the big oil companies." It's a gimmick to win votes, because it won't work. What Clinton refuses to believe from her economic advisors is that it's not as simple as saying you're going to stick it to the oil companies this summer and put the money in the pockets of hard-pressed commuters. If you do indeed stick it to the oil companies, they will just raise the price to make up the difference, and they have done so in the past. Do you really think they're going to let $10 billion in lost sales just go and say "oh well"? Is an increase in demand going to make the cost cheaper? No, they're going to compensate by raising the price. And if they raise it 18 cents higher in the fall, why should they bump it back down again? Usually it goes down in fall (less demand) but what happened last year??

It will short the government $12 million in federal money, endanger over 300,000 jobs, and cause some people to forget that they should still be conserving their fuel, they should still be buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, and they should still move toward independence from oil. One rainstorm doesn't mean the drought is over.

Thirdly, and this is my favorite part: it won't save us squat. My daily commute to work is a numbing 32 miles one way, and amazingly that is near the national average. Clinton is really stretching her false hope over the underlying problem that eliminating the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline will save the average American driver a whopping $30.00, period. 30 bucks...over three months. Sure, McCain, that might not seem like much to the weathly, but it sure as hell doesn't seem like much to me either, when that won't even buy me a flippin' tank of gas!

Here's a little extra credit, and your chance to prove to yourself and Hillary in particular that this isn't worth it. How much would YOU save?

Savings in 3 months by Proposed Tax Holiday =
$0.184 saved per gallon TIMES 65 workdays TIMES distance you drive to and from work each day DIVIDED BY your car's mpg

My car's mpg is 26.4 and I drive 64 miles to work and back, so I stand to save $28.99 at the cost of gas going up later to make up for that money I saved and our roads going to shit. What a bargain!!

"The dumbest thing I've heard in an awful long time."

Political Pandering

Intellectually dishonest

Check out this graph of the price fo gas over the last 3 years.

Super Busy Boi

2008-05-03T21:22:00.006-04:00

That's me!!

The last few days have all just run right together. I've been running around, doing this and that, and not getting much more than a few hours of sleep here and there. After I got out of work Saturday at 3 AM I drove to Raleigh where I slept in my car for two hours before the start of a Microsoft convention. I was in conferences ALL DAY LONG yesterday and then I crashed at a local hotel for a few hours, stayed up for a few hours then crashed again for another three so I could drive home just in time for a doctor's appointment. In sum, sleep has been sparse and sporadic. ..... I'm nodding off now as I type.

The Microsoft convention was good. It was a launch event promoting Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. I checked out the SQL and VS meetings. The first was a quarter filled with grumpy, old washed up database administrators busy clutching their data in their arms and the second was packed wall-to-wall with a great mix of young, preppie, collegiate, yuppie, tatooed and the obvious computer geeks who responded to cool features with a collective "oooh" and to often with a vocalization of relief. (Some of the new features of Visual Studio 2008 really do lift a burden off our shoulders.) I felt right at home with them. =)

So sorry if my running around has left you with few posts. Maybe I can post some men to make it up to you? Hehe....

Gas Price Map

2008-04-25T18:04:00.002-04:00

Check out this map I found for gas prices all over the country:

Gas Price Map

FutureMe.org

2008-04-23T22:50:00.003-04:00

Everybody go to FutureMe.org when you have a few minutes to kill. (I would hope that's now since you're reading my blog.) =) There you can write yourself an email and set a date sometime in the future that you would like to receive it. I set mine for my 30th birthday that is looming ominously less than 3 years down the road and proceeded to berrade myself with a guilt trip that would make any Jewish mother proud. In hindsight I set three distinct long term goals for myself, so I suppose some good came out of it. One thing to keep in mind when you do this is that you have to have the email address now (as you will need to confirm it) and you will need to have the same address at that future date, of course. If it's years down the line and you get tons of spam as it is, consider another email address or just get a GMail account already. Let me know if you did this and what you told your future self!

Grand Theft Auto IV

2008-04-21T19:41:00.003-04:00

August 29, 2008

This is the day set for the release of Grand Theft Auto IV for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It will be the fourth generation of GTA games and the 9th bearing the name. I have played GTA, GTA II, GTA III, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, and GTA: Liberty City Stories, so I can't let a little thing like not owning a PS3 or Xbox 360 stand in my way.

You know, I have never felt the urge to buy an Xbox 360 so closely as when Halo 3 came out recently, but I held out. I've played previous versions of Halo with friends on a LAN, and Halo 3 looks pretty awesome, but I can play those at friends' houses.

Seeing as how I owned a PS1 (which I acquired in a trade for a Sega Genesis I cherished for a couple years) and then several PS2s, it looks like I'll be buying a Playstation 3. ...and probably a better TV later, because mine's suckie. =(

I can't wait for GTA IV to come out though. It's going to be modeled after NYC and Jersey city. (Jersey girls, holla!) A few days ago I started on a much-delayed personal quest to reach 100% completion of GTA: San Andreas. I've only just begun, so wish me luck!

Tapping

2008-04-17T02:48:00.003-04:00

I have actually done this with a pencil on the corner of the desk at work, but ... I believe the tune was Beverly Hills Cop instead.

Stolen with permission from XKCD.com

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright

2008-04-13T06:05:00.003-04:00

*clap clap clap clap*

Deep in the Heart of Texas!!

OMFG I'm so glad to be out of Texas, LOL. It was good to see the family and hang out the brother and see the niece and all that good stuff. It's just a shame they have to live there and not someplace that doesn't suck. It's the only place I've seen that has 10 lanes of interstate and construction all around to make it wider, as if that's going to solve the problem.

I'm just so glad to be back in my own cozy bed again, sipping on my chocolate milk and surfing the InterTube on the ole laptop, writing to you fine people.

P.S.
Oh, and Stevie, I'm a subscriber to your blog posts on Myspace. Today alone I got 11 email notifications of new blog posts. It's been hacked. Seriously, get a grip on it already. Like, change your password or something.

Rules are Rules

2008-04-12T04:52:00.015-04:00

Stolen with permission from xkcd.com

...And Darkness Fell Upon the Blog

2008-04-09T01:14:00.003-04:00

I probably should have warned you guys, but I left Monday on a short vacation to Texas to meet up with long-lost relatives. I didn't think it would be necessary, however, because I thought like sensible people they would have WiFi out here, or a neighbor would or somebody, but to my dismay, it's next to nothing. I am now, finally, on my own computer on the Internet, a feat that didn't come easily as I discovered their sole computer was connected to a DSL box via a USB hub for which I didn't have drivers and couldn't get any of course. After they went to bed tonight though I surrepticiously found an ethernet cable and hooked myself up. It's like in that move Celluar with the delicious Chris Evan where the science teacher lady rewires a busted phone when she's kidnapped to dial out to the rest of the world. Anywho, I'll be back to civilization on Thursday night.

UGH, and I just saw a huge spider crawling on the floor. I've seen Aracnophobia and it creeps the shit out of me and I'm already sleeping on the floor on an air mattress. So I got up to kill it. It had crawled behind a rack of those tv trays and I couldn't get to it with my shoe or even move the damn thing without waking up everybody in the house. So I thought, I'll spray it with something awful and kill it. I went to the bathroom and got some Clorox, came back, and wouldn't you know it, it's gone. Great, now I have to sleep knowing that big ass spider is crawling around near me.

I want my own bed. =(

The futon just went to a whole new level

2008-04-04T00:42:00.006-04:00

Quite literally, too. I spotted this on TreeHugger.com. First it's a sofa, *makes Transformer sound* now it's a bunk bed! Pretty neat, huh? Let's just hope it's comfortable... and safe!

So WHY are gas prices so high again???

2008-04-02T17:59:00.004-04:00

I stayed up last night watching CSPAN2 until like 5 in the morning. I can't say that's ever happened before, but I was just fascinated watching the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing on oil and gas prices, oil profits, and the need for renewable resources. The five high-ranking oil industry executives were mainly defending their need for $18 billion in subsidies and expressing their need for further access to drilling for oil in the gulf and the intercontinental shelf off the east coast. Resources in Canada and northern Alaska were also mentioned.

You can hear NPR's coverage here that includes sound bytes from the hearing. The Guardian's article can be read here.

Though informative, the hearing, in my humble opinion, was fairly entertaining as well. There was something very satisfying about seeing the Senior Vice President J. Stephen Simon of ExxonMobil get chewed out by members of Congress, calling Exxon's $100 million contribution to Stanford University toward renewable resource research "pathetic" in sight of the other 4 oil companies' combined $3.5 billion. The committee chairman, Ed Markey is quoted as saying, "People are being tipped upside down and having money shaken out of their pocketbooks and your message is you can't do anything for them. You're going to begin a research partnership to think about it." Simon defended Exxon's attempt to research and "leap frog" the current renewable technologies by saying they have "studied all forms [of alternative energy], and the current technology just doesn't have an impact." To refute this, one Congressman actually quoted a report from a Stanford University professor citing tons of statistical results from their research stating that renewable resources such as solar, wind, and electric energy are in fact viable alternatives that could be implemented within the next ten years. Congressmen in the hearing referred to this period between a few years down the road and 2030 as "mid-range," a period that ExxonMobil said during which this country will remain dependent on fossil fuels but that they planned to "leap frog" by implementing the results of their pathetically-funded research in renewables.

The panel questioned why so little of their profits last year were invested in renewables research, but multiple oil executives cited the reason that their industry's profit margins are cyclical and may waver into the negative at times. Though one might argue the democrats questioning the executives may have leaned more toward the need for research and development of renewables, there were a couple of other themes brought to question. All the executives, for instance, stated that one of their main obstacles was with access. Congressmen were concerned though, that though THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF OIL SUPPLIES AND DEMAND HAS DECREASED, the price of gas continues to climb, presently at an all-time high of $3.29 per gallon. Anyone with a basic understanding of supply and demand would see a huge logical problem with this. The oil executives and the Congressional panel appeared to come to some consensus on the reasons behind this artificially inflated gas price we have now, citing three causes: the weakening dollar, something that completely escapes me at the moment, and wild speculation... none of which could be easily corrected.

Awwwwww

2008-04-02T17:53:00.002-04:00

I thought I'd just share this ad I saw on MySpace. Isn't it adorable??

States I've been to

2008-04-01T14:41:00.011-04:00

It comes to an even 40 or 80% including D.C., Puerto Rico and the USVI. =) Make your own here.

Those Google people are a kookie bunch.

2008-04-01T14:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, so Google has again gone off its rocker. It's cool, though. They've given GMail what they call Custom Time, that is, you can send emails from the past ... it's like going back in time before you missed a deadline. Their website actually dropped a Back to the Future reference to the flux capacitor and another to the Grandfather Paradox. It makes me think that the Google campus in San Francisco is just filled with guys similar to those on The Big Bang Theory.... sounds like my kind of people!

ProudlyNerdy

Paleogeology

Hey, at least it's not crack!

Is it safe to go outside again?

I'm waiting here in Allentown....

Lexicomic

Green Comet makes Bright Exit

Go Obama Yourself!

Planet simulator

President Obama Day

That crazy Ston Jewart guy...

Hot Boy Skin

Dance, Mr. Bojangles, Dance!

OMG SHOES!!

Meteor brightens Edmonton night sky

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Bush Congratulates Obama

OBAMA WINS!!

The Force is STRONG with Me!

Drill, Baby, Drill!

Obama Appears on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Netflix is Soon to be Everywhere

Anchorage Demorat, 60, files claim against Palin

It's Me!

Take THAT, Caribou Barbie!!

Num Peeps > 30,000 !!

Family Guy - Season 7

More Tina Fey

Yay for Tina Fey!

I hate this store! ....WHAT?!!

I'm a PC! LOL

GasBuddy Map

Neat Political Survey!

Super Mario Brothers 2 for guitar

First Meteor to be Observed Prior to Impact....Makes Impact

Rednecks for Obama

Finally!!

Straight boys would go gay for him...

Fantastic Contraption

Recent Reels

I hope this is true

Hurricane Ike hits Galveston & Houston

Nom Nom Nom

In Through the Out Door

New Place

Moved!

Beijing Summer Olympics 2008

New Gay Porn Site!

Heinz gay advertisment pulled in UK

Circumstances Unknown

Justin is listed as Flippant

I'm on YouTube, bitches!!

Pride Charlotte

2008 Olympics is gearing up!!

Recent Reels

*Purrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

I'm on Facebook, bitches!!

I'm Hungry All of a Sudden....

Magic Pen

I Feel Pretty and Witty and GAAAAAY!!!

RUUUUUUUUN!!!

Writer's Block. I has it.

Nerdy Joke of the Week

More Gay Mormons in the News

Is this where we are, seriously??

OMG ... but YAY for California!

Awwwww!!

Naked Boys Singing on YouTube!

Ms. Crabapple wants to know!

A Couple Random YouTube Videos

Gay Days 2008

June 17, 2008 -- Gay Marriage Legal in California

Work it harder, faster, stronger

California Marriage goes to Ballot

Obama gets Democratic Nomination, McCain Hates Us

Watch TV on da Interwebz!

Almost Time!

Reading your [Lack of] Rights

NY to recognize other states' and countries' gay marriages

W00t W00t!!

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrr