Friday, May 30, 2003

The History Buff

You'll find some historic recordings on this page. Very interesting. Some of these I had never heard before.

Cool Honda commercial

This is a pretty cool commercial, it was all done as you see it. There is one spot, when the tires are going uphill, that bothers me though. You can see the second tire on the ramp speed up, then keep going after it hits the other tire. Something fishy there.

Here's an article that explains the uphill tires. Or so they say.

"They do so because inside they have been weighted with bolts and screws which have been positioned with fingertip care so that the slightest kiss of kinetic energy pushes them over, onward and, yes, upward."

Python Boy

I really don't know what to say about this, it's bizarre. Please, do not try this at home. Really, do not allow children to play with large constrictors. Supervised or unsupervised, never. Even if he is the son of a dragon. They are so much stronger than you can possibly imagine and you never know when one simple movement or smell could set off an instinctive chain of events that cannot be broken until it is complete. The feeding instinct of a snake is very strong and like a computer program, once you hit enter it does each job in turn until it's done and there is no control-alt-delete on a snake. Boom-boom-boom. The finished product is a dead animal.

Speaking of Animals

Polar bear attacks submarine.

More animals

Funny Cats. I think it's a clip from Planet's Funniest Animals on Animal Planet.

I got the link from Karen, thank you Karen.

I found some funny animal pictures on this page too.
Irma Update

Irma has been staying with her Mother while she recovers. She had to got to the doctor Thursday morning so I had to go get her after work. I thought to take her van so I got in it Wednesday night and put my wallet in the dash pocket but noticed there wasn't much gas and I didn't want to stop that night so I decided to take my car instead. I left work at 7 am and got up there around 7:35 am. That's when I noticed I didn't have my wallet with me. Grrrr. James was happy to see me and immediately stated his intentions of going to the pool. No James, not now. I-4 was almost a parking lot going back to Kissimmee but we got to the doctor early (9:45) and believe it or not she went right in to see him. I started to read a magazine but fell asleep and dropped it, scaring another patient. Oh well. She came out soon after, it was a really fast appointment, and we went home and I made her some coffee and went to bed. The good news is, she is doing great. Her Mother came and picked her up in the evening, so I have to go back tomorrow to pick her up again. I'm getting some sleep first! She'll stay home Friday night since I'm not working.

Thursday, May 29, 2003

On the Highway to Third-World Status

Ilana Mercer writes Downsizing jobs, outsourcing lives

The trend is growing.

The Threat Among Us by Cal Thomas.

One of the advantages our enemies have over the United States is that too many Americans don't take them seriously. We prefer the short-term comfort that denial brings.

Michelle is right: Myth of the Muslim hate-crime epidemic

I work for, talk with, and interact with Muslims everyday. I have for many years. There's a large Muslim population here. They are doctors, dentists, nurses, store owners/employees, hotel owners/employees, students, and friends, you name it. Never, never, never have I heard a single instance of a hate crime. I haven't heard of anyone being harrassed in any way. They are a part of the community and they are much more concerned with getting the tourists back here in large numbers again so business will go back to normal than they are with hate crimes. I've sensed a little fear of the possibility of problems, especially right after 9/11, but nothing happened. And life goes on.

That being said, they are a large and growing population. And secretive, you are not allowed into their services if you are not a member. And it is not inconceivable that at a point in the future when Muslims start becoming a majority, if trends continue, that they will be voting with other Muslims for the America they want. Don't lose any sleep over it, it's not an evil plot and it's a long way off, but it's something to be aware of. Every religion wishes the whole country shared their views, but most religions are not growing so fast.

Photos From Space

Check out this site: The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. There are alot of great photos to look at. I was looking at the photo of Abilene, TX, since I lived there for a year, trying to find the apartment I lived in. I can't remember enough to figure it out exactly but I can see the general area. It was on S. Clack (Las Brisas Apts). It was interesting to see Dyess Air Force Base since I worked there and have been on that tarmac many times. I was there when they introduced the B1 Bomber. It did some flyovers and parked for everyone to get a good look.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Mt. Everest

This is a cool site with a 360 degree view from the summit of Mt. Everest.

Other 360 degree panoramas are available at Panoramas.dk.

Here's one that has views of ground zero 10 days after.

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

The Man Behind The Wall

This guy spent 20 years living inside a wall cavity to escape Saddam Hussein. How do you live 20 years in a wall and not go crazy? It might have been a good movie if not so incredibly boring.

Back To The Pool

I took James back to the pool Monday and he just loved it. Surprise. He met a 4 year old girl and a 5 year old boy to play with. We stayed about a hour and a half, he would have stayed longer. I can see it now, everytime we go to Grandma's house he'll be bugging me to go the pool.

Monday, May 26, 2003

America Unmade

Diane Alden is sounding the alarm that America is destroying itself from the inside. Is anyone listening?

He maintained, "Government leaders and others believed for much of the '90s that the country was undergoing a transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based one."

"Then the [tech] bubble burst, and we began to learn a very hard lesson and that is there's only a few ways to create wealth," he said. "You have to either farm something, mine something or manufacture something. The bubble burst. Unfortunately, our policy makers are acting as if it had not."


Unfortunately, however, there are still too many in Congress who still think taxes and regulations don't drive business out. They need to get a grip before they destroy this country.

Her article is too long, no one will read it. Who wants to think about such things anyway, just keep watching TV, our elected officials will take care of us. Never fear.

Perhaps Roger is right, we are Amusing Ourselves to Death.

The Swimming Pool

I took James for a walk to the pool at his grandmothers house and he wanted to go in so bad. I let him go ahead and play on the steps. That kid loves the water. Their were some older kids playing with a football in the pool and James kept telling them to throw him the ball. They started to play with him. James was standing on the side of the pool with me right there holding him and they were throwing the ball back and forth. He was laughing so hard. I don't think he really gets the age difference. He thinks he can just play with anyone he wants. Usually he does. He cried and carried on when it was time to go and he kept wanting to go back the rest of the day. Another day James, another day.

Saturday, May 24, 2003

Mac OS X vs. Windows XP

I found a site that compares the 2 operating systems, in great detail, I might add. It looks like it does a pretty good job, too. You have to really be interested in this to read through it all though or you can cheat and read the final score. You can see it here.
The Hospital

The operation went well Friday morning and I spent the morning eating breakfast first, then reading .pdf books and playing solitaire. No internet access. The breakfast was terrible, undercooked, powdered scrambled eggs. Tabasco to the rescue. Irma got to her room at noon, still pretty drugged up. I brought some DVD's and watched some movies, Irma mostly slept. I went to the cafeteria for lunch but decided against it. It's very telling that some of the unhealthiest food you can eat is sold in the hospital. They don't even pretend to have healthy food there. I went to Long John Silver's, not much of a step up but Irma didn't want me to be gone long.

I stayed the night with her, sleeping in the most uncomfortable chair available. The hospital here in Kissimmee doesn't seem to have much security. I could pretty much walk around anywhere I wanted and no one would ever question me, except perhaps ICU and the maternity ward. When I visited my father in the hospital in Kearny, NJ, we could only go up 2 at a time with a pass, which a security gaurd checked and no cameras. I finally talked them into letting me bring the camcorder to show my father pictures of James, who was less than a year old. I think they only let me because he was dying. Even the nurse upstairs said something about the camera and I assured her I wasn't taking any pictures. I took pictures anyway, screw them. My fathers dying and I'm not allowed to take pictures? They're not trying to hide anything are they? This was prior to 9/11.

They let Irma come home today, I was so happy. It's good to be home. She has some pills for pain but she's walking around and doing great. Her mother came over and they decided to go to her house for the night. The idea was to take Joshua and leave me with James but James didn't like the idea and persuaded them to take him too. You should have seen the smile on his face when he buckled up! Bugger. I'll be going over tomorrow for lunch, maybe Abner will come too. In the meantime I'm gonna get me some restful sleep tonight.

Toe Socks

In the hospital Irma wanted me to put some socks on her and when I took them out they were toe socks. Freaky! At one point she got up and put on some sandals and the little toe was sticking out the side like it was broken, that just freaks me out. When I got home and had a chance to read some blogs I found some mention of toe socks at Aged and Confused and Yellow Jeep Girl.

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Ultrex Nonstick Cookware Really Stands Up

Yesterday I left my frypan on the stove after cooking and forgot to turn it off. Smoke filled the house and I thought the pot was ruined. It already had a slight accumulation of black around the edges and now almost the entire bottom was covered with burnt crust. Since it's nonstick I figured if it doesn't come off with the sponge it's a gonner. What the hell, I used a brillo pad on it and it took off the burnt coating but the Ultrex coating was unharmed, almost as good as new. I couldn't believe it, nonstick pans don't stand up to brillo pads. Way to go Ultrex! I guess that demonstration they do with the drill sander is true. I got them from HSN. I would definitely buy them again.

Irma

Tomorrow Irma is going to have an operation. I have to get her to the hospital by 6am. I have to stay with her all day and now she is saying it may be all night as well. I hate hospitals. Her mother will be watching the kids. I'm bored just thinking about it, I hope they let you use a computer in there. She's gonna be home from work for a month afterward. No doubt she'll be wanting breakfast in bed every day, she's so spoiled.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Motor Oil Bible

I've added a link to the Motor Oil Bible because it's easily worth every penny of the 10 bucks it costs. It's full of information the oil companies don't want you to know. If your car is a keeper for whatever reason, you need this information. A free version is available.

Kids Are So Helpful

The lawn needed mowing and the weather was nice, cloudy and not so hot. So I let the kids ride their bikes and play in the yard while I mowed. I'm keeping an eye on them but I lose sight of them for a few seconds every pass. Joshua is supposed to be keeping a sharp eye on James. So, I come around the corner and James is headed for the road and Joshua is nowhere in sight. I grabbed James and went looking for Mr. Helpful. He was in the house getting a drink. From there he went to his room for the afternoon. I still had to mow so I just did the front while watching James and then told him to come with me and sit and watch me mow the back. He's not much for sitting still and was soon playing with the hose but I let him because it kept him occupied the whole time and he was never out of my sight, so it worked out OK. Joshua fell asleep. James took two baths, which he loved.
People Are Still Watching CNN?

CNN 'backpedals' on gun story: Admits it misled viewers in comparing different types of weapons. Gotta love CNN!



Japan - Soon To Become A Nuclear Superpower?

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

HTML 4

Yesterday James found a huge book I have on HTML and decided it was his favorite thing for the day. He carried it all over and read it regularly (it says "doggy, doggy, doggy"). This is a big, thick book, I wouldn't be surprised if it weighed 5 pounds. At naptime he insisted it had to be in the crib with him and at one point he was using it as a pillow. I thought he was sleeping but as soon as I got comfortable he popped up and announced he "woke up!" Kids! I made him lay down again and he fell asleep soon after. I got up at 2 and went to his room, he was still asleep. I tried to wake him and told him to get up so we could go pick up Joshua, but he wouldn't get up. I picked up the book and that did it! "Give me my book!" At least he didn't insist on taking it in the car.
We The People Of Europe...

Sunday, May 18, 2003

Melbourne

We went to Abner's house in Palm Bay and had a barbecue. That was great. We met Miss Pauline, the woman Abner lives with (not that way). She is native to Florida and told us how it was way back when. She lived on a farm in Hialeah and had 65 cows to milk every morning starting at 2:30am before going to school. Hey, you can't walk to school 6 miles, uphill, in 3 feet of snow in Florida! Actually it was quite an education and I cannot imagine living here with no air conditioning. She amazed me with her knowledge of snakes (that's rare!). She knows what she's talking about and when she was young she used to go see Bill Haast of Miami Serpentarium fame and he would teach them (the kids who would go with her) all about the snakes.

She also has what is most likely the largest and most diverse private collection of seashells in Florida. She's been collecting them since she was a child and she has some amazing shells! Most of her collection were collected in Florida and I'll tell you what, you can spend a lifetime looking these days and you won't find most of the beautiful shells she has that she collected long ago. With dredging, pollution, dying reefs, and who knows what else, most of what you find are very common and mostly broken shells these days. She also has some egg casings from a conch. I had no idea there were egg casings. They develop inside them and come out a hole when they are ready. Her casings were dried, of course, but still had the little shells inside and they would fall out as you shook it. They are so tiny. I took some pictures of a small part of her collection and you can see them here. You'll have to sign up with Ofoto if you're not already, but it's free.

We went to Melbourne beach afterward and James just loved it. It was such a beautiful day, it didn't rain at all, although it looked like it might be coming. You couldn't ask for better.

Saturday, May 17, 2003

What's The Point Of Having Caller ID?

70 to 80% of the calls I get say "unknown caller" or "out of area" and occasionally "blocked."

It's not smart enough to return long distance calls because it doesn't add the "1."

It's over $8.00 a month = Sprint is stealing money for a service that doesn't even work as advertised.

James Wants To Go To The Beach

Today we're gonna go over to the Melbourne area to visit Abner and go to the beach. James has been talking about going to the beach since we got back from Panama City Beach. I'll take some pictures. It's been a long time since we've gone over to Melbourne and it seems like it's gonna be a beautiful day. Joshua is with his grandmother, I didn't get the story because I don't speak spanish but I think he's going on a day cruise with them. I heard them talking about it but I didn't ask what was going on. Too busy eating.

Friday, May 16, 2003

Chiller Theater

You can see the six fingered hand from the opening of Chiller Theater (from WPIX, NY) over at A Small Victory. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my Mac (something about the compression), I'll check it out on the Windows machine when I get home. I used to love watching that at my Grandparents house in Kearny, NJ. I searched the net for another copy but couldn't find any. I did find the older Chiller Theater opening they used before the six fingered hand and you can find that here.

I found some interesting things while searching. These came from the Dr. San Guinary Weblab. Dr. San Guinary was a host of Creature Feature in Omaha, NE, I believe, I'm really not familiar with the show.

This is a short audio clip of the Dr. saying Roll that movie. (.au)

The following videos need QuickTime.

Here is a video blooper of the Dr. introducing "The Attack of the 50 ft. Woman." It was a little too "adult" for air in those days. Funny.

This one is the Dr. with Jerry Lewis at his telethon. Very funny.

There's more where that came from, if you like those go check out the website.

They Got It Wrong Again

The Wednesday night news said the eclipse would start at around 11:15 and continue past midnight. So when I got out of my car here at work at 10:50, imagine my surprise to see only a quarter moon. They were only off by about an hour.

Wildflower

I was walking with James the other morning and noticed a very beautiful flower on the side of the road. I wanted to take a picture but didn't have the camera, so I decided to come back later in the afternoon to get the picture. Later, when I went back all the flowers were closed up. I guess it gets too hot for them too. I had to wait till the next morning to get the pictures and I believe it was worth the wait. What do you think?

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Reflections

My driveway is long, curved and narrow and alot of people have trouble backing out without going off the driveway. I'm used to it and it's no problem for me, even at night, but when it's raining and dark, the driveway disappears and it's hard to keep from falling off. So, I decided to put some reflectors along the driveway in strategic places. Well, about the second time down the drive after installing them, in broad daylight, I ran one of them over.

"Dear Kofi:
Now that we have conquered and occupied Iraq, may we please have permission to govern it for one year?" Signed: the US and Britain.

Viva la world community

And in related news...

UN And Globalism Condemned In The Bible

Monday, May 12, 2003

Kids Are Cruel

So I used the blower today to clean off the porch and driveway. They were nice and clean. Add 2 kids playing outside and a father going inside for a minute. Come back outside and...

James practically filled the porch with leaves while Joshua watched. I have no idea how he got so many leaves, it must have taken a few trips (or Joshua helped and won't admit it). A little later he found some clay pots Irma had laying around and he started throwing them up in the air and watching them crash down on the driveway. He got 3 before I could stop him. So we all had a cleaning party and swept it all up. Just as we got it all cleaned up, James says "Here Dad", I look and he's about to throw a pot in my direction. I'm about 15 feet away saying "Noooooo!" He threw it and it bounced off the driveway in front of me. It was plastic!

P.S.

While blowing the leaves I blew a fire ant hill away. That was fun, although it probably just pissed them off and they will regather and take over my entire property. If there ever was an example of a creature that deserved to be wiped off the face of the earth, it's fire ants. Fire ant lovers and appologists need only sit on any lawn in Florida for 5 or 10 minutes to be in complete agreement.
Wilderness of Stars and Galaxies

It's just interesting to see the images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Very interesting.

Hubble's deep view shows cosmic violence

HubbleSite


"any real grasp of the numbers of stars out there is beyond any human comprehension."

Sunday, May 11, 2003

Melting at the Park

Saturday we went to the Kissimmee lakefront park and let the kids play on the playground for a while. Our friend, Abner, came with us. They had a great time and I took some video of them. The playground is covered by a huge tarp to protect from too much sun but it was so hot. We walked down by the water and almost melted in the sun. They have a new area with spraying water for the kids to play in and that is a great idea. There were alot of kids in there. It's way too hot to spend much time outside. I have no idea how people work outside in this sun. We came home and enjoyed the air conditioning and a cold beer.

Oops

For some reason I thought I was supposed to work tonight. I was wrong. I had slept in the evening so I couldn't go back to sleep right away. James came out here (living room) 3 times so far. First, he was looking for his mommy. I took him back to bed, but he got up again after about 10 minutes. This time he wanted to take his vitamins and play. I took him to lay down with Irma. A little while later he got up again and just wanted to play with his toys. I let him play a little while thinking he would get sleepy again. He wasn't getting sleepy. I took him back to bed with Irma and said if he didn't go to sleep I would put him in the crib and I haven't heard from him since. Now I want to go to bed but there's no room left. I'm still glad I'm off.

Friday, May 09, 2003

Hurricane hunter

This morning I heard on the news that they were opening a P3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft to the public at Orlando Executive Airport, so I thought I'd take James to see it because he loves airplanes. Once we found it we had a great time. We went to the airport entrance but the airplane was in the back of the airport at a different unmarked entrance. They were all prepared with maps and didn't even wait for me to ask, she knew what I was looking for, so apparently, everyone was doing the same thing. It would have been nice if the news let us know where it really was since I went way out of my way to get there and as it turns out where I needed to go was much closer to home.

There was a bus to take us from the parking lot to the aircraft and James loved the ride. It was his first time in a bus and he wanted to ride again. The plane had a steep stair (ladder) to get in but James took to it like a pro. He had fun sitting in the seats and looking out the windows. The crew gave him a patch and some stickers. We went back down and had a look around outside and took some pictures. After a little while James started running to the ladder again and I caught him at the bottom. I let him go back up, since he doesn't get to see many airplanes and he started acting like he worked there. He knew his way around and knew what he wanted to see. I took a few more pictures and headed out to pick up Joshua from school. He had alot of fun and wants to do it again. I put the pictures on my website, you can see them here, along with various other photos I've taken lately.

There is one kind of funny thing I noticed after looking over the pictures. The plane was full of electronics, all kinds of test equipment, radar, computers (Gateway), you know. James thought some of the radar screens were TVs, but I corrected him. But, in one of the pictures you can see a TV guide so I guess they can check out Surviver on the way to the hurricane. See for yourself.


What is an Artificial Blueberry?

I saw some blueberry pancakes in Publix today and bought a box because it's been a long time since I've had them and suddenly started craving them (comfort food). I used to pick wild blueberries when I was a kid. Anyway, I got home and made some (yes, they were good), but noticed it said the blueberries were artificial. What the hell is an artificial blueberry? Couldn't they just use freeze dried? Next time I'll buy frozen blueberries and add them myself. What is it about "mankind" that we think we can improve our food with artificial and synthetic ingredients?

Hot, Hot, Hot

James loves to play outside and he bugs me constantly to go out. Thursday I let him play outside earlier than usual, right after Irma went to work. We found a frog and he had so much fun chasing it around. Eventually it hopped up on a tree and climbed out of reach. Now it was time to ride his bike. He wanted to ride down the road and see the cows. It was so hot! The sun is so bright you can't even look up normally, I wish I hadn't lost my sunglasses. This is all before 10am. Finally he had his fill and I chased him home (he wanted me to get him). We had fun though. You just can't spend too long out there without some shade and drinks.

Fare Thee Well

Check out this online National Obituary Archive. I found my father and grandfather on the first try but didn't have much luck beyond that.

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Bizarre Human Rights Commission
Baghdad Bob is Back

Now he's writing error: 404 pages because, apparently, the US forces won't arrest him. The 404 page is pretty funny.
Saddam Never Was

As the logic goes, since we can't find him now, he must never have been. Or is that just chemical weapons?

Failure to Find Saddam Proves He Never Existed

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

CNN is Irrelevant

It's very telling that Fox News and MSNBC are showing the President's speech and CNN is showing "The Royal Report" and commercials. 'Nuff said.

Monday, May 05, 2003

On Overeating

I went to my mother-in-laws house today and as usual she kept giving me more and more food. First some pancakes, then chicken stew and rice. Now I'm full but she wants to give me more. She brings me a bowl of farina. I tried. There was no chance of eating more. I'm still full. I feel like a snake, eating a huge meal and not eating again for a few days. She means well, I just can't eat that much anymore. Ever since I've been taking Seasilver I can't eat so much anymore. I believe it's because your body tends to crave food when it needs nutrients and the Seasilver takes care of that for you. Amazing stuff. Powerful.

Sunday, May 04, 2003

New E-Book and Free Sample

Here's a useful resource that outlines step by step instructions on how to build your own online business in 30 days. I found it really helpful, and it can help you the same way it helped me. Click Here for more info.

Download a free sample here.

Spiders

Yesterday I saw a spider I'd never seen before. It was grey, hairy, with a couple of orange spots on the back. I took some pictures of it and it reared up to try to scare me away even though it was only about 3/8 in. long. A little later James was showing me a dragonfly. I thought it was strange because it was not flying away, but I couldn't see it too well because it was behind a pipe on the side of the house. Upon closer examination I realized it was being held by a larger version of the same spider I saw earlier. I tried to get a picture but couldn't quite get a good view.