Happy New Year!

Here's to hoping that 2009 will be a better year than 2008! There are dire predictions to what we can expect in the coming year, but I'm hoping that at least some of it will be better...we can all use a break today! :D

Well, we didn't get a second ice storm, actually today it's been in the mid-40's and it's rained all day. It's turned into a real mess outside, what ice is still out there has been smoothed out by all the rain, and is even more slippery. I'll take that over ice-storms any day though. Right now the winds have become fierce, which makes it feel colder than it is.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and that you can enjoy the holidays!

Power Outages!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

And don't forget to actually be THANKFUL for all the great things in your life!

Obama's Nov 4th Acceptance Speech Part III

Obama's Nov 4th Acceptance Speech Part II

Obama's Nov 4th Acceptance Speech

NUFF' SAID!

And the bail-out just keeps rolling on!

You know, people need to quit thinking that what's happening on Wallstreet has anything what-so-ever to do with the "real economy", or what's happening to the American People. This up and down rollercoaster ride that the stock market has been taking is just the ultra rich cashing in on what's happening. I guarantee you there are people making hundreds of millions of dollars off what's happening right now. People "in the know" who are buying stocks on the day they hit rock bottom, then are selling them off the next day after the DOW has soared 700 or 800 points. Which then causes the big drop that you see the next day!

"They" keep telling us that the credit market is frozen, yet just today I went online to a retailer and applied for credit and received it, and made a purchase. How did I do that if banks aren't willing to lend? I'm not saying it was some huge amount or anything, but it was there. I keep seeing houses here in the area where I live taking down FOR SALE signs and I see moving trucks moving people in. We're all just being manipulated so that the mega-rich can become even richer. We need to stop giving the government more and more power over how we live our lives, thinking that they're going to wave some sort of magic wand and make everything better. Sometimes it's best to just sit tight and have a few bad years before things heal on their own and things get better. You can't have year after year of continual growth. Anyone who cares for plants will tell you that every few years you've got to trim back the excess growth and let the plant itself catch up. Otherwise it becomes top-heavy and the first little wind or hard rain that comes along will snap it off right at the base of the roots.

It's time we did a little pruning, and maybe it's some of these greedy investment banks that need to be pruned.

John McCain - Elitist!

What a great bail-out!

Well, it's been a few days since Congress passed the 700 billion dollar bailout, and aren't you so glad they did it?! Have you seen how well it's calmed the markets down and the DOW has recovered?!

Of course it didn't work! I guarantee you though that they'll soon be telling us about how it's going to take time for the bailout to help. They'll talk about how they haven't actually bought up any of those bad debts from investment bankers yet. Of course it was the same people who told you that things would start to calm down just by passing the bill and getting it into law.

And of course now, the Fed has just cut it's rate again...dropping the value of the U.S. dollar to even lower depths, if that's possible. Which will in turn crank up inflation even more and make it that much harder for the average Joe Citizen to get through the months ahead.

Isn't our government just so wonderful to care so much about us ordinary folk?!

Well THANKS Congress...

FOR FUCKING EVERY HARD-WORKING AMERICAN by passing the bail-out plan! Call it a Buy-in, or credit rescue legislation all you want, what you've really done is put Big business ahead of the average American citizen who's struggling trying to make ends meet!

Warren Buffet on the bailout plan

Hopefully my next vehicle....

Although it really doesn't look anything like the sexy concept car that Cheverolet has been promising for the last year or so, it still looks to be a really nice vehicle. Here's a LINK to the story on CNN Money.

nuff said...

Update to my Google Chrome Review

I may just have to give up...

I just got back home from driving my son and his girlfriend to her house to drop her off. On the way back home, I was heading East on Main street and saw a bike-rider to my right. He was standing up on the pedals right at the edge of the road, whipping his front wheel back and forth trying to stay upright while not moving forward. I kept thinking to myself, "what's this idiot up to?" "Is he going to suddenly lunge in front of me, or go off in some other direction. As I came up on the intersection, he finally headed towards me right on the edge of the sidewalk. I was finally satisfied he wasn't going to throw himself in front of my car and turned my head back to where I was going...the traffic light had turned RED! I was just entering the intersection at about twenty-five miles per hour. There was no way to stop in time, although I did hit my brakes as I went through the light.

Thank GOD there wasn't anyone traveling the other direction, and there weren't any cops around. When I got home I told my wife what happened, and of course she gave me that look that said, "Why do I let him out of the house?" I don't think I did anything wrong by watching a bike-rider who was capering around suspiciously on the edge of the road, but then again, maybe I really don't need to drive anymore either.

I used to enjoy getting in the car and going somewhere, not anymore. It seems like nothing but an exercise in stress and futility...I can't remember the last time I enjoyed driving somewhere. I wrecked our car while on vacation back in 2005, I had two wrecks on the scooter this year, maybe I'd be better off if I just let my license expire in 2009 and just stop driving altogether!

Google Chrome Beta Review

Just my initial thoughts on Google's new beta version web browser called Chrome.

My thoughts on Hurricane Gustav

One answer to global warming

Flight plans will be optional today!

Lack of posting...

Well, it's August 20th and this is the first time this month I've blogged! I don't know what's going on, just been busy I guess, although I couldn't say what I've been busy doing!

I guess I could have blogged on the whole "bigfoot discovery", but maybe it's just as well that I didn't since that turned out to be a big bust. I'm still not sure what exactly is going on with that, or why. I mean, the guy was a decorated police officer described as a "hero". Why would he pull a stunt like this? I hear now that some party in that whole mess is most likely going to pursue charges against them.

Personally, I believe Bigfoot does exist, and it would be nice if eventually someone could come up with some "real" indisputable evidence to back up it's existence. It just becomes that much harder though when con-artists make such a public spectacle of themselves though.

OFFICIAL! Water discovered on Mars!

Nasa has announced that water has definitely been discovered just beneath the martian surface. In the form of ice that has been melted in one of the mars landers' tiny ovens. I've known all along there's been water on mars, it just took a little time for the scinetist's to catch up with me!

STORY HERE

Riding the bus...not the short one!

Seeing as my wife has told me I can't film myself with our cluttered closet in the background, and she's objected to me blogging without a shirt on, I've filmed my thoughts about riding the public bus outside on the sidewalk...of course now she'll just yell at me for wearing my hat that she hates! I keep telling her it'll help keep me alive by keeping the sun off my bald noggin'. That doesn't make her like it any more though, maybe that should tell me something!?

Good luck or bad luck? I can't decide

Hooray for glasses

America should adopt this...

Here's a story I read on CNN today that I feel we here in America should take up as a cause!

LONDON, England (AP) -- British bureaucrats have been warned: no more synergies, stakeholders or sustainable communities.

The body that represents the country's local authorities has told its members to stop using management buzzwords, saying they confuse people and prevent residents from understanding what local governments do.

The Local Government Association, whose members include hundreds of district, town and county councils in England and Wales, on Friday sent out a list of 100 "non-words" that it said officials should avoid if they want to be understood.

The list includes the popular but vague term "empowerment;" "coterminosity," a situation in which two organizations oversee the same geographical area; and "synergies," combinations in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Officials were told to ditch the term "revenue stream" for income, as well as the imprecise "sustainable communities." The association also said councils should stop referring to local residents as "customers" or "stakeholders."

The association's chairman, Simon Milton, said officials should not "hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases."

"Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?" he said.

The association sent its letter after reports that one town council had told staff to use the term "thought showers" instead of "brainstorming."

Officials at Tunbridge Wells council in southern England felt brainstorming might offend people with epilepsy, a condition that involves periodic electrical storms inside the brain.

However, the National Society for Epilepsy said it had surveyed its members and they did not find the term offensive.

"Brainstorming" is not on the Local Government Association's list.

LINK to original story at CNN

My son has graduated High School!

Alex completed High School last night after going through the final graduation commencement. We're very proud of him, and he did a great job! Next up, he'll be starting college in the fall, learning to be a video game designer...hopefully this will work out for him, I'd love for him to be able to do what he loves for a living!

Arnold on steroid use....

This is hilarious! And I have to agree with the sentiment expressed in this video 100%!

My first attempt in blender at using physics to create an animation. Thanks to Super3boy for the fine tutorial that explained how to do this.

Hilarious!!

Becoming a hair stylist

Well, as promised, I've been working for a couple of hours tonight on Blender's particle system to create hair. Yesterday, I managed to create a simple ball that emitted hair from everywhere...tonight I've managed to take a monster's head I'd earlier made and give him a stylish 80's mohawk! It took awhile, and a little trial and error, but the end results are worth it. Next up, I need to work on my "box modeling" skills and create a good looking head with a little less geometry. Although I'll probably start working on improving my lighting skills next.

I know this doesn't look like much, but after much hardship I've finally gotten a "small" handle on the new hair and fur system in Blender 2.46! Next step is to take a model of a head that I've been working on and see if I can give it a realistic looking head of hair and maybe a beard.

Wassup!

I don't know...I'm having a totally weird evening. I've been sick the last couple of days, missed work and everything. Actually my whole family has been sick. First my son came down with something? He mostly had a stuffy nose and sore throat. Then my wife and I both came down with symptoms. She's been achy, sore throat, headaches...while I've been runny nose, achy, weird stomach. I've ate a couple of times today, but I still feel like I could use something, but don't know what. Nothing that we've got sounds good, and gas is sure way too expensive to be trekking out just to satisfy a craving, especially when I don't know what for!

I've been doing a lot of learning the last week or so on a 3D program called Blender, a free 3D program that's been around for a few years now. It's basically a professional level 3D creation tool like the one I've paid for to use called Truespace, only much more powerful. I've tried using it in the past, but it's user interface is extremely daunting. I recently bought a book called, "The Essential Blender" edited by Roland Hess. It's extremely well written and has already got me doing some pretty amazing stuff. I hope to be posting some examples here soon. Anyone interested into getting into 3D CGI, I higly recommend that you look into Blender, which can be found HERE If it looks like something you'd like to try, I highly recommend getting Roland Hess's book, and just follow all the tutorials in order.

Alex graduates from Anthis Career Center

Worrying infection showing up in Texas

Excerpted from Slice of Sci-fi.com


Have those black-oily aliens from the X-Files invaded Texas? Doctors puzzled over bizarre infection surfacing in South Texas

According to some medical news out of the southern part of that State one might think they have. Doctors are trying to find out what is causing a bizarre and mysterious infection that has surfaced there.

While the disease isn’t deadly it makes those who get it wish they were dead and that is no laughing matter. Called Morgellons Disease, those infected will break out with beads of black, tarry sweat and get lesions that never fully heal.

“Sometimes little black specks come out of the lesions and sometimes little spaghetti-like fibers,” stated one sufferer of the disorder.

Currently about 100 cases of this strange disorder have cropped up and been verified in the State with patient’s exhibiting a variety of bizarre symptoms and a great deal of pain.

Others complain of having overwhelming feelings like bugs are literally crawling under their skin.

The only course of treatment seems to be a regiment of antibiotics, pain meds and anti-parasitic remedies, but nothing seems to be 100 percent curative.

The pain and anguish is so intense that one patient took his own life to get relief from the horrendous symptoms.

So far, pathologists have failed to find any cause for the infection or how one contracts the disease.

For more information on Morgellons, visit the research foundation’s Web site at www.morgellons.org.

Taking a bigger lead

Looks like yesterday Barack Obama has taken a bigger lead by sweeping North Carolina and "almost" taking the lead in Indiana, which few were expecting him to show even that respectably here in the hoosier state. I would have liked to seen Mr. Obama take Indiana as well, but I guess this is going to have to be drawn out a little bit longer. He has now stated though that he's going to begin campaigning in states other than just the Primary states that are left to win. This is a definite sign that he's planning on winning the nomination, otherwise why spend money campaigning against John McCain?

It's my personal opinion that Barack Obama is the candidate offering the best hope of repairing the damage that's been done to the moral fabric of this country over the past seven years. John McCain is just another George W. Bush, with the same idea that military confrontation is the only way to handle everything...and Hillary Clinton will bankrupt this country that's already in dire trouble with healthcare and economic plans that just don't make any sense whatsoever.

Just got back from seeing Ironman...what an incredible movie! This one ranks right up there with the best of them! Robert Downey Jr. gave probably his best performance ever. This movie had too many great moments to count them all. I highly recommend seeing it whether you're a superhero fan or not...it's simply a great, entertaining movie for the entire family.

Video introduction to our new kitten...

Prepare for food shortages

Here's the quick poll from CNN today. People need to stop being so complacent and realize that the food shortages that are happening all around the world are going to make it to the United States as well. The recent decision by Sam's Club to limit the amount of bulk rice people can buy at one time, is just the first signal that it's on it's way.

Many things are going to combine to cause this food shortage. High gas and diesel prices are going to put many American farmers out of business. Corn, soybeans and several other crops are going to start getting bought up by fuel companies to meet government mandated quotas for bio-fuels, which will drive up the prices to get thousands of different kinds of food-stuffs onto store shelves. Global warming, and the weird weather that we've been experiencing in recent years will further decimate crop harvests in the U.S.

The U.S. was once known as the "land of plenty". It will soon become known as the "plenty who need food".

$2 per gallon diesel

Sounds great, doesn't it? Only problem is, you're going to have to go to Mexico to get it! That's right, in mexico, you can get diesel for $2 per gallon. So why then is diesel costing Americans over $4 per gallon? I'd sure like to know the answer to that question, as I'm sure many other Americans would too. Why don't you contact your state Senator and ask him about this...I doubt he'll have an answer, but maybe it will put a fire under him to take this up with the President!

Something's going on, we'll probably never know what though

Here is an excerpt from a story on Fox news:

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 50 school children underwent hospital treatment Friday after developing what educators called mass hysteria, marked by fainting and screaming.

A 15-year-old girl said that she was in the middle of chatting with a friend. "Suddenly I had a horrible headache. It hurt so much that I started screaming. And then I fainted. From that moment on, I no longer knew where I was," she said.

Doctors didn't immediately provide a medical diagnosis, and rumors began circulating in the city linking the incident to supernatural involvement.

Chief hospital psychiatrist Ababacar Wilane tried to put it into perspective, saying many of the students were "probably caught up in the moment and succumbed to a kind of domino effect" when they saw the others fainting and screaming.

And this story from Seattle Washington today:

KENMORE, Wash. -- Three girls from a synchronized swim team fainted simultaneously and went under at the deep end of a public pool in this Seattle suburb while practicing holding their breath, team leaders said.

Others around the indoor pool at St. Edward's State Park also felt faint and dizzy, and fire officials asked the Seattle-King County Public Health Department to check the chlorine level in the water following the frightening episode Monday.

A fourth girl swam to the side of the pool and said she was dizzy and unsure where she was or how she got there, and the mother of a team member blacked out after bending over the water, Penner said.

I've been saying for several years now that something isn't right in the world...more and more "weird but true" stories like this keep cropping up. Some days it just makes me so frustrated...it's like you're standing on the train tracks watching the train bearing down on you, but there's nothing you can do, you can't even get off the track!

Newest family member...

Here's our newest family member...Squinty!

Evidence of our crazy weather...

I got my most recent gas bill today, and couldn't believe the graphic for gas usage. Circled in red is my gas usage for January and February of this year. Traditionally the two coldest months in the midwest. Circled in green are March and April, which usually reflects the return of Spring, and warm weather. I think this shows clearly that our weather is not what it used to be!

Dangerous Animal Virus on US Mainland?

Once again, the Bush administration is trying to put a potential "crunch" on the middle and lower classes of this country. Apparently, members of our government have deemed it necessary to begin experimenting on "hoof & mouth" disease at a proposed new facility which will be located on the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock! The current research facility, which has no apparent reason to need to be moved is on an island 100 miles off the U.S. coast. Here is the article in full as it appeared in Comcast news;

By LARRY MARGASAK, AP
2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak.

Skeptical Democrats in Congress are demanding to see internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision. An epidemic of the disease, foot and mouth, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock industry.

One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and federal farm data to show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been considered for the new lab. "Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?" asked the nine-page document. It did not directly answer the question.

A simulated outbreak of the disease — part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called "Crimson Sky" — ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages.

"It was a mess," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who portrayed the president in the 2002 exercise. Now, like other lawmakers from the states under consideration, Roberts supports moving the government's new lab to his state. Manhattan, Kan., is one of five mainland locations under consideration. "It will mean jobs" and spur research and development, he says.

The other possible locations for the new National Bio-and Agro-Defense Facility are Athens, Ga.; Butner, N.C.; San Antonio; and Flora, Miss. The new site could be selected later this year, and the lab would open by 2014. The numbers of livestock in the counties and surrounding areas of the finalists range from 542,507 in Kansas to 132,900 in Georgia, according to the Homeland Security study.

Foot-and-mouth virus can be carried on a worker's breath or clothes, or vehicles leaving a lab, and is so contagious it has been confined to Plum Island, N.Y., for more than a half-century — far from commercial livestock. The existing lab is 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound, accessible only by ferry or helicopter. Researchers there who work with the live virus are not permitted to own animals at home that would be susceptible, and they must wait at least a week before attending outside events where such animals might perform, such as a circus.

The White House says modern safety rules at labs are sufficient to avoid any outbreak. But incidents in Britain have demonstrated that the foot-and-mouth virus can cause remarkable economic havoc — and that the virus can escape from a facility.

An epidemic in 2001 devastated Britain's livestock industry, as the government slaughtered 6 million sheep, cows and pigs. Last year, in a less serious outbreak, Britain's health and safety agency concluded the virus probably escaped from a site shared by a government research center and a vaccine maker. Other outbreaks have occurred in Taiwan in 1997 and China last year and in 2006.

If even a single cow signals an outbreak in the U.S., emergency plans permit the government to shut down all exports and movement of livestock. Herds would be quarantined, and a controlled slaughter could be started to stop the disease from spreading.

Infected animals weaken and lose weight. Milk cows don't produce milk. They remain highly infectious, even if they survive the virus.

The Homeland Security Department is convinced it can safely operate the lab on the mainland, saying containment procedures at high-security labs have improved. The livestock industry is divided. Some experts, including the former director at the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center, say research ought to be kept away from cattle populations — and, ideally, placed where the public already has accepted dangerous research.

The former director, Dr. Roger Breeze, suggested the facility could be safely located at the Atlanta campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., home of The United States Army Medical Research Institute for infectious diseases.

Another possibility, Breeze said, is on Long Island, where there is no commercial livestock industry. That would allow retention of most of the current Plum Island employees.

Asked about the administration's finalist sites located near livestock, Breeze said: "It seems a little odd. It goes against the ... safety program of the last 50 years."

The former head of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service said Americans are not prepared for a foot-and-mouth outbreak that has been avoided on the mainland since 1929.

"The horrific prospect of exterminating potentially millions of animals is not something this country's ready for," said Dr. Floyd Horn.

The Agriculture Department ran the Plum Island lab until 2003. It was turned over to the Homeland Security Department because preventing an outbreak is now part of the nation's biological defense program.

Plum Island researchers work on detection of the disease, strategies to control epidemics including vaccines and drugs, tests of imported animals to ensure they are free of the virus and training of professionals.

The new facility will add research on diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans. The Plum Island facility is not secure enough to handle that higher-level research.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee also are worried about the lab's likely move to the mainland. The chairman, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and the head of the investigations subcommittee, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., are threatening to subpoena records they say Homeland Security is withholding from Congress. Those records include reports about "Crimson Sky," an internal review about a publicized 1978 accidental release of foot-and-mouth disease on Plum Island and reports about any previously undisclosed virus releases on the island during the past half century.

The lawmakers set a deadline of Friday for the administration to turn over reports they requested. Otherwise, they warned in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, they will arrange a vote next week to issue a congressional subpoena.

A new facility at Plum Island is technically a possibility. Signs point to a mainland site, however, after the administration spent considerable time and money scouting new locations. Also, there are financial concerns about operating from a location accessible only by ferry or helicopter.

The Homeland Security Department says laboratory animals would not be corralled outside the new facility, and they would not come into contact with local livestock. All work with the virus and lab waste would be handled securely and any material leaving would be treated and monitored to ensure it was sterilized.

"Containment technology has improved dramatically since foot-and-mouth disease prohibitions were put in place in 1948," Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.

Cattle farmers and residents are divided over the proposal to move the lab to the mainland.

"I would like to believe we could build a facility, with the knowledge and technology we have available, that would be basically safe from a bio-security standpoint," said John Stuedemann, a cattle farmer near Athens, Ga., and a former scientist at the Agriculture Department.

Nearby, community activist Grady Thrasher in Athens is worried about an outbreak from a research lab. Thrasher, a former securities lawyer, has started a petition drive against moving the lab to Georgia, saying the risks are too great.

"There's no way you can balance that equation by putting this in the middle of a community where it will do the most harm," Thrasher said. "The community is now aroused, so I think we have a majority against this."

In North Carolina, commissioners in Granville County originally endorsed moving the lab to their area but later withdrew support. Officials from Homeland Security ultimately met with residents for more than four hours, but the commissioners have taken no further action to back the facility.

"Accidents are going to happen 50 years down the road or one year down the road," said Bill McKellar, a pharmacist in Butner, N.C., who leads an opposition group that has formed a research committee of lawyers and doctors.

Today's fun with photoshop

The death of television as we know it....

Believe me, this is not a bad thing...it's a good thing! How many times, especially in recent years have you sat there flipping though the channels and said, "there isn't crap on TV!" Come on, you know you've said that a million times, just like I have. Recently though, I realized that I've only been watching about two hours of TV a week for the last couple of months. That's right, a week, not a day.

I've just recently realized that probably about 90% of my entertainment these days is coming from the web, not broadcast television. I've been watching classic TV shows on great websites like HULU and IN2TV. HULU is the better of the two, but both offer classic and new programming. I've been watching favorite old shows like Johnny Quest, Buck Rogers and the Partridge Family, and there are hundreds of others available. They stick four or five 15 or 30 second commercials in there, but they're less bothersome than commercial breaks during network television.

Even better, is the burgeoning amount of original user-created content on the internet. I now never miss two of my favorite shows, DIGGNATION and THE TOTALLY RAD SHOW. Both these shows are created by regular people like you and me about things that get them excited.

It's shows like these that are sounding the final curtain call for television as we've known it. Now, anyone with a camcorder, computer and high-speed internet service can create their own unique television program and put it out to a world-wide audience. No longer do we have to sit back and watch only what a select few think we need to see. The greed of television executives who only see the bottom line are hastening the death of traditional television. Like CBS canceling the fantastic show "Jericho", simply because six to eight million viewers weren't enough for their liking. For network television, if it's not a blockbuster hit week after week, it's just not good enough, and they dump it like yesterday's trash. I've become so fed up with that mentality, that I've decided it's time to abandon ship, and swim towards better shores!

I myself participate in this new entertainment medium, through YOUTUBE, making my own short pieces which I share with the world. More and more people are finding out every day that we can entertain each other, better than Hollywood can entertain us.

Slowly feeling better...

Tomorrow, it will have been two weeks since I wrecked on my scooter. For having managed to not break any bones, it's certainly taking long enough for me to heal! I am finally feeling better though. I guess at 44 years old, you don't bounce back as quickly as you did at 18! And I did bounce pretty good on the pavement. :)

I went out to the shed yesterday for the first time since the accident, and got into the seat storage compartment on the scooter to get my jacket out of it. Since I was feeling much better compared to the day I last put the scooter away, I checked it out, and found that it wasn't too badly damaged at all. The wind-screen was busted in half, (no big deal there, the rest just needs to be unscrewed and it can go away). The right hand mirror is broken in half, and there are some small scratches down the right-hand rear side. It seems I came out of the accident worse than it did. Everything electrical seemed to be working fine, didn't even bust a tail-light. I didn't feel up to starting it, but I did ride it home about six miles after the crash, so I'm sure it still runs just fine as well.

I should be able to get close to what I paid for it this summer when i put it up for sale. I hate the thought of putting it up for sale, I've put less than 50 miles on it, and have yet to ride it in decent weather. Even though I'd been riding it in 30 some degree weather, it was still a lot of fun. I haven't even been able to just go out on a fun jaunt on it. My experience with healing though has made it obvious to me that I'd be better off leaving scooter riding to those younger than me. I felt really bad that night in the E.R. watching my wife sit worriedly next to me for 5 hours. She deserves better than to have to worry each time I'd go out on it. Funny thing is though, she's the one that's always wanting to have these "wild adventures". Thing is, wild adventures end up badly about as often as they do well!

Who...for our next president?

I've been very critical of the Bush administration over the last seven years, and for good reason. I've also been critical of the Republican party, mostly because of the Bush administration, and perhaps that's not such a good reason.

I know for a fact that I do not want to see Hillary Clinton become President of the united States, not because she is a woman, but because she isn't the "right woman". Hillary Clinton as President would be a huge mistake. I've been promoting Barak Obama as a good candidate for our next president, but I sometimes wonder as others do, does he have the experience to be a good president?

On the Republican side, I used to like John McCain years ago, but thought in recent years that he was coming off as fake. Perhaps I was just letting my judgment be colored by my views on George W. Bush. I hate it when I hear McCain talk about being in Iraq for years to come...but he's probably right. We, (America) have made a huge mess in Iraq, and it would be a morally reprehensible act to leave it in the state we've created through the Bush Administration's inept handling. Senator McCain, being a military veteran himself would likely have a good perspective on the kinds of things that need to be done in Iraq to stabilize it, and eventually, get American troops reduced there to the point that they would once again govern themselves.

Certainly, the Democrats who have controlled both the Senate and the House for the past year and a half haven't shown any ability to improve the situation at home or abroad. So who says that a Democrat in the Oval office would be any kind of improvement?! Between now and May when Indiana will hold it's primary, I've got some thinking to do, and a lot of research to do before I decide which way my vote will go. I'm hoping that others around the country also will take a long look at what will steer this nation back onto course.

My new ride...not so new now!

Well, I don't have a picture of it to show you, but I managed to have a wreck on my new scooter Sunday afternoon. I'm just now feeling well enough to sit at the computer and type this up. I lucked out and didn't break anything, or worse yet, die! I did get pretty banged up, and my scooter isn't in such mint condition anymore.

I was going around a corner that I'd negotiated four or five times in the past week with no problem. I swung out a little wide to avoid a depression in the intersection and wound up losing control on some loose gravel left behind by snow-melt. I hit the curb, the scooter flipped around 180 degrees and I flew off and slid about five feet along the ground. Thank GOD, there were several wonderful people in the traffic around me. One gentleman stopped, got out of his car and after checking to see if I was all right, helped me get the scooter out of the street. Several other motorists and one policeman stopped and asked if I was ok. I'm really grateful to each of these people who took time out from their commutes to help me / check up on me, I didn't think people would do that anymore.

I was hurting badly, but was able to pick up all the pieces lying along the street, get back on the scooter (after assuring myself it was safe enough to ride) and continued on home. My wife was none too happy with me (she didn't like the fact I'd got the scooter in the first place), but she was more concerned about my health. After a couple hours at home, I decided that my wife was right and that I should go to the E.R. and get checked out. Long story short, I had no serious damage, but it was going to be a couple of rough days while recuperating. I feel better enough now, I should be back to work tomorrow, (minus the scooter). I guess I'm going to buff the scratches out of it the best I can, and put it up on the market. I promised the wife that I'd not ride it anymore, it's not worth the worry and pain I'd be putting her through, just to ride the scooter back and forth to work.

My new ride

Well, with the price of gas soaring through the roof, and the break-down of my old vehicle I got back to forth to work in, I've opted for a new style of transport...behold my new ride which I've named "Git-Git".

Spies of the future...here now!

These robots will soon be everywhere, spying on you in your home and where you work...privacy is soon to become an atiquated idea.

My UFO story....

Giants Win Superbowl XLII

...and Bill Belichik shows what a sore loser he is by walking off the field before the game was even over!

Coolest shadow-puppet show ever!

This says it all...

Freaking people out is cool!

This is totally cool!

Let's challenge the news media!

A blast from my past!

If you grew up or spent any time in central Indiana, you'll probably be familiar with Sammy Terry! I found this on Youtube and had to post it here...wow! This really brought back a lot of good memories. Just over 22 minutes in length, if you've got the time, take a stroll back to when the world was a better place!

The right choice is easy...

My Bigfoot story...

Government coverup?!

Have you heard about all the recent UFO sightings in Texas...particularly over the Erath county area? Hundreds of people have been reporting sighting unknown objects in the night sky. Some have reported seeing objects that they estimated to be one mile long, and a half-mile wide. As soon as these reports started coming in, The Air Force said that they have had no aircraft in that area.

Well, now they've reversed their position on that, for some reason. Here's an excerpt from a CBS affiliates website:

Texas UFO Mystery Solved?
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ―

The mystery of the Stephenville UFOs might have been solved.

Today the Air Force Reserve said on the night of January 8, ten F-16 fighter jets were conducting training flights in the area. Many of the suspected UFO sightings took place on that night.

Originally, the 301st Fighter Wing at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base said none of its jets were in the area that night.

In a statement today, a Wing spokesman says they made a mistake and that jets were flying in the Stephenville area that evening. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs.

What's with the sudden change of story?! You can't tell me that the Air Force doesn't know where their F-16's are flying at all times. This looks to me to be classic government cover-up well after the fact.

Man on Mars?

Here's a photo recently taken by one of the Mars Rovers. It looks like a "person" walking. I've read no official word from NASA about the photo though. I don't really believe that the rover caught a photo of an actual living being on Mars...but I do believe that there's always the possibility that this could be a statue, which if it was would be definitive proof that not only did life exist on another planet, but that it would have been "intelligent" life!


Hopefully scientists at NASA are planning on sending the rover that direction to take a closer examination of this to definitively tell what we're seeing. If it's just a rock formation that has a humanoid shape, it's certainly the most humanoid looking rock I've ever seen!

Handy advice for the near future....

Life after people...

Life After People

Premieres January 21 at 9/8C
(120 min.)

The human species appeared on Earth about two million years ago and has been changing it ever since. What will Earth look like in the days, weeks, months, years and millennia after humans are gone? How long would it take for our edifices to crumble–all traces of us gone, to be replaced by primordial forests, wild boar, rare cranes in pristine marshes? The clues to the future are right here in the present but are illuminated when we look through the lens of history. Experts from all fields of science will paint the picture, and the destructions and resurrections will all be animated by the magic of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. (Genres: Science & Technology, Special)

Video Preview

This upcoming special on the History Channel looks totally cool! I'm looking forward to it. I've always been a fan of "post-appocolyptic" stories, and this looks to be along those lines, although in more of a scientific vein.

This also makes me believe more than ever that it's possible that an advanced civilization of beings, (i.e. not necessarily human) could have existed here on Earth millions of years ago, and that is why in our time we see no evidence that they existed...or that we see some crumbled evidence, but that we don't recognize it's significance due to our own insufferable egotism.

An addictive new game to waste your time!

World Golf Tour

The above link will take you to the "beta" demo of World Golf Tour. An in-browser game that may be the biggest time-waster of 2008...a fun time-waster though! Some ingenious people have designed this game so that you can play it in your browser without having to download any executables. The game uses high-resolution photographs of golf courses, rather than traditional 3-D graphics. The demo is 9 holes of "closest to the pin". Which basically means you get one shot at each hole to get as close to the pin as possible.

The closer you are to the pin on each hole, the lower your score will be. Score under 500 points to rank semi-pro, under 350 points to rank pro. I just sat here for an hour and played through about eight or nine times, it's very addictive. By mid-year 2008, it should be an entire 18 hole golf course, fully playable, with more golf courses to be added eventually. The game will be mostly free from what I understand, with the makers getting their money through advertising and possibly extras that may cost extra.

Human embryo cloned?!

Don't ask me...

The truth about Dodge...

Too much info....

It's raining, it's pouring...I'm sick of it!

I've never liked rain, and I definitely don't like it now! I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever stop. All summer long I read headlines about water shortages in the South, yet here in Indiana we had nothing but non-stop rain, or so it seemed. You know, water flows south, so some of all this rain has to be getting there!

Huckabee?

I've been saying for probably two years now that the worst thing that could happen to this country would be to be stuck with another Republican president for another four years. I now find myself in the strange position of thinking that I like the idea of Huckabee being our next president.

What could be causing me to possibly reverse course? Recently hearing Huckabee's idea of getting rid of personal income tax and invoking the "fair" tax. A 23% federal sales tax sounds high at first...but I did the math and when you consider that last year I paid in about $3500 in federal taxes...that would be like getting a $3500 pay raise since I wouldn't have to pay that into the government off the top of my paycheck. I'd still end up paying in about the same amount of money, but at least I'd be doing it by "buying", which in turn would stimulate the economy. Also, with a federal sales tax, all those illegal aliens, drug dealers, pimps and others who don't report their income, would be helping to support our government.

I still don't understand the whole "pre-bate" part of the fair tax, but then again, I don't understand how our tax system works now!

There's still plenty of time left before the elections this November, and Huckabee may not even be on the ticket by the time we get there...but he's made me pay closer attention to what's being put on the table by the various candidates, and I've still got time to decide where this countries future would best lie.

Who's fishing for who?

First blog of the new year...

Well, it's January 3rd and I'm finally getting around to posting the first blog of the new year. Brrrrrrr! When I woke up this morning about two hours ago, it was a whopping 4 degrees outside! That's farenheight here in the states. I can't stand it when it gets this cold out. The house starts making all these weird popping, snapping noises as the framework starts expanding/contracting, and I've got to leave a stream of water running in the bathroom sink to keep the water line from freezing.

Thankfully this is only supposed to be a short-term freezing snap. By the end of the weekend it's supposed to be back up into the upper 40's. I'm off work the next couple of days and wanted to take that time to go see "I am legend", but with temps like this outside, I'd rather just stay in and try to keep warm!

Started out the new year a little rough at work with "cold weather" related problems to deal with, but that's nothing new. I do maintenance on a large retail building and you get used to this sort of thing after as many years in the field as I've got. I work with a great crew, which makes it all the more easier. I'm not the kind of person who makes New Year's resolutions, but I guess you could say that this year I have set a "goal" for myself to achieve...I've set myself a goal of paying one of my credit cards down to a balance of less than a thousand dollars. If I can do that, I'll have put myself back into a financial setting that keeps me out of trouble. I think that's do-able, so I'm going to see if I can stick with this one!

I hope everyone out there is starting their new year off right, keep trying and don't throw in the towel, there's always tomorrow!