Sunday, August 06, 2006

Tidepooling

A couple of Saturdays ago, Allie and I meet up with some friends of hers at the Moss Beach Distillery for lunch, and a hike down to the Beach to wade through the tidepools. There was like 20 of us that showed up.
At the Distillery, Allie asked me to accompany her down to the restrooms. As I waited outside, she appearently heard laughing. It was the same sequence repeated. When she came out, she was asking if I had been laughing as a joke on her. Umm, no. So she was a little freaked out until she figured out that it was a recording meant to add a little playful fun to the experience of visiting the Blue Lady's haunt.
After lunch, we all embarked on a brief hike to the shore. Down there, we had fun just milling around the tidepools, finding little critters crawling around. There where a bunch of enemities like the one in the picture. We also found a bunch of sea snails and hermit crabs (in their own sea snail shells).
Afterwards we just all relaxed. The heatwave was in full effect back inland, so the shoreline was perfect for once. Usually, the Central and Northern California coasts are foggy, cloudy or just plan cold year around, but that day as perfect. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Mixed Universes

Friday night ended up being a lot of fun. I made plans with Kimi for dinner, and then invited Miriam. I picked Kimi up around 5:45pm and headed up to a Mexican rest'rant in downtown Mountain View called Fiesta del Mar Too.
Miriam showed up on her own, but a bit late, for various legit reasons. This is the first time in awhile that I've mixed my Universes between friends of different groups. It didn't take long to get thangs warmed up. Before long, Miriam starts into some infamous stories about us, and Kimi fit right into dynamics between me and Miriam.
After dinner, we end up at the Budda Lounge for some drinks. At first, both Kimi and Miriam though they where going to have an early night, but as thangs progressed, we all lost track of time. We took over a group of sofas and started up our own little party. I feel sorry for Kimi a bit cuz Miriam kept spilling her drinks over Kimi's legs.
I had called Jenn earlier in the day to see if she'd be interested in coming out too, and well, she found her way down to the club too.
There was this one random guy at the bar that started acting like Miriam's best friend. We were all, "what's up with that guy?" Anyways, it turns out he was on a short leash cuz his g/f came up and claimed him a few times. Weird.
So, when it was time to take Kimi home, I asked Miriam to get her her new "best friend" to take a group camera phone photo for us. So she goes up to the bar, talks to him and then gets another drink from some other random guy. After a fews minutes I go up to see what happened. She forgot all about the photo. lol
Finally she gets the guy to take the photo, but he can't figure out how to push the button. After a few very lame attempts, I got up to show him. He's all, "That's what I was doing!". Lame. Anyways, we finally got our photo on Kimi's phone. I just realized she's still gots to email to me. ok, anyway.
I took Kimi home and then returned to the club to fine Miriam drunk beyond belief, and Jenn getting ready to take off with some other random guy. lol I'm like thinking to my self, "what the help happened when I was gone?".
We see Jenn off, then go dancing for a little bit. I figure out that Miriam is just way to drunk, so I take her home myself, leaving her car in Mountain View. I get her home and then head home myself. Sep for the little bit of babysitting at the end it was a great night.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Just when you think it's safe

Wow, what the hell was he thinking? I mean, Bush just doesn't stop being an embarrassment! Check here: HERE! Freaky!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Toyota problems

"Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it was recalling about 420,000 vehicles globally, including some Echo and Prius models sold in the U.S., over a faulty engine part.
The faulty part is the latest in a string of problems requiring recalls by Toyota, raising doubts over whether the automaker can maintain quality standards amid booming sales." --AP

It's a myth that anything as complex as a car will meet a high level of quality for a long period of time. Toyota (and Japanese brand cars in general) are no exception. They've done a good job with marketing over the past two decades to create the perception of quality, but at the end of the day, they are like every other manufacturing company on the planet in that they much ship product, and deal with supply lines where they actually have very little control. Granted, the effort to produce better quality produces does help prevent a complete decline, but it doesn't prevent it completely. There's nothing magical about Toyota. They've actually been having issues for years with quality, but have gone unnoticed by the general populous because of their overall reputation. Acura used to have a similar reputation. They produced high quality product for a good price. But gremlins will always creep into any system. In the case of Acura, very big ones popped up out of seemingly nowhere. Don't even get me started about European cars. lol The public bias towards Japanese and European cars seems bizarre given what's actually going on right now. Qualitywise, Japanese and American automakers are about on par with each other in quality, and European automakers have fallen substantially behind.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Homer

Ok, so here's the movies I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the year (and into next year): Click here. I've just noticed that most of the movies on my list are action or thrillers (non-horror) of some sort. It was just a few of years ago when there was a lot of good movies out in other genres, even documentaries. Last year, most movies either completely sucked or just weren't up to par. I've enjoyed movie going this year a bit more, but it does seem that many movies just don't have the same story quality as years past. It is as though fewer people know how to write a movie anymore. Or many that so many movies are being made these days, the quality writers are getting lost in the sea of crappy writers. Producers and directors used to blame the studios are hacking movies up, causing them ruin. These days, I think many movies are just crappy from the start. I think this is why Action movies are still holding their own, for now. There's not much writing involved.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

What is desecration of the U.S. Flag?

What is desecration of the U.S. Flag?
Is marking over the flag with felt tip pin?
Is sneezing over a flag?
Is not saluting the flag?
Is standing with one’s back turned to the flag?
Is printing an image of the flag on paper, then throwing it out?
Is wearing flag colors as underwear?
Is soiling a flag with dirt?
Is walking upon a sidewalk with the flag painted upon it?
Is dying ones hair with the stars and stripes, then later getting a hair cut?
Is using a flag like handkerchief to wipe one’s brow of sweat?
Is throwing a shoe at the TV while the flag is displayed?
Is using the flag as a backdrop for another symbol?
What is a flag?
There is no law that defines what a U.S. Flag is besides the general dimensions for the different color fields, and placement of the stars.
How is one to know when one is handling a flag, or simply an image of the flag?
Does printing out the stars and strips on one’s printer constitution the creation of a flag? Does painting on the side of one’s truck?
Does having a cloth of the right size and color fields, but no stars?
Does using alternative colors for the color fields?
Does a photo of a flag?
Does a tattoo of the flag?

As a citizen, the flag represents my country and for which we all stand. I’m proud of my country and know that the desecration of my flag is wrong. But to make laws concerning such matters is about as un-American as one can be. To hold a piece of cloth that happens to be of a certain shape and design over the rights of our citizens to freely express themselves is abhorrent. The flag amendment being discussed by our Congress is a desecration upon our Constitution, and the rights for which the flag represents.

Monday, June 26, 2006

The Classic Restaurant Experience

Granville Entertainment District 
Dave, Little Miriam, Alice and I visited Vancouver a few months ago. On our Saturday evening, we were on the hunt for a good restaurant that suited everyone’s mood. We found this one place that we agreed on. It had an atmosphere similar to an Elephant Bar, but a little more upscale. The menu was classic meat and potatoes. The experience was, well, check this out.

So we put our name down at the front and let the hostess know that we will be in the bar. At the bar, I order a Long Island. The bartender asks if I’d like to make it a double for just on dollar more. I’m like, “sure!” Dave orders a Coke with no ice. They don’t have Coke, but have Pepsi. He’s fine with that. I was a little critical about having Pepsi at a bar.  So the bartender brings me my Long Island Ice Tea and Dave’s Pepsi, with ice. She immediate walks way to serve other customers. Dave gets her attention and gives the drink back to get a Pepsi without ice. As for my Long Island, it tasted like crappy lemon juice. That part about ordering a double? It was only one extra shoot in the drink. I’m not convinced there was more than just that one shoot in the drink. It was not good and didn’t have hardly any alcoholic content. When the girls joined us, they ordered some sweet and blue girly drink. It worked for them.

The hostess came to the bar to take us to our table. She started gathering our drinks from the bar. She had a tray in one hand, and was picking up the drinks with her other. She picked up the girly drinks and my “Long Island”. Then she went for Dave’s Pepsi. There were bar chairs blocking her from reaching his drink. Instead of moving the chairs or going between them, she walks into the chairs and bounces off of them, repeatedly. It reminded me of a robot that was out of control walking into a wall over and over. I’m not exaggerating. So after a few times of this, Dave and I move the chairs for her so she can reach the drink. Honestly, we would’ve been happy carrying the drinks ourselves. The one redeeming point is at least she was trying hard to assist us, even if her efforts where a bit inefficient. Her blonde roots apparently ran deep.

At the table, we wait for the waitress to come. OK. We continued to wait. Umm… still waiting. Finally, she comes and takes our drink order. She was Chinese, and I kinda felt like I was in Hong Kong because of the attitude she exuded. We waited long enough to know what we wanted for our meal, so we just ordered it all at once.

After some time, we got our drinks. I finished my Long Island and a Pepsi too in the time it took for the meal to come after.

Finally the dinner plates showed up. The food looks delicious. I cut into my pork shank and took a bite. It was tasty. I started looking at the presentation of the food on the plate. Noticing some unusual looking garnish on the meat, I took my fork and pulled at it. It turned out to be a long hair cooked in with the food. Dear lord! We spend about 5 minutes trying to get the waitress’ attention. She finally come over and we showed her the…before I finished talking, she noticed the hair herself and apologized. She took the plate back, and that was the last we saw of her for 15 minutes.

The manager comes over and squats down next to me. She apologized again and offered a few comps on our dinners, including a dessert and some quick appetizer. To replace my plate would’ve apparently taken an additional 20 minutes. (It appeared the waitress didn’t immediately put in the replacement order.) The manager also gave me a 50 dollar gift certificate. I’m like, “We don’t live here and aren’t likely to come back to Vancouver for some time.” She still forced it upon me. Anyways, I ordered the chicken strips, and some brownie fudge thing, with the ice cream on the side. Chicken strips did come pretty quickly and where pretty good. Then the dessert came. The ice cream was not only not on the side, it was under all the brownie stuff. Dave is sensitive to dairy. That is why we ordered the ice cream on the side. So, we flagged the waitress down again and asked for our correct order. We got it after a bit longer.

I determined that I should pay the bill. The small tip should come from me, since I was the one that had such a delightful evening. The bill only included Dave’s, Miriam’s and Allie’s actual dinners. Nothing else. Well, OK. I left a 3% tip on the bill, but thought about the hostess. Hostesses usually get their tips from the wait staff. Even if she was a ditz, she did make a sincere effort help us out. So Dave left her a 2 dollar coin on our way out.

I gave the gift certificate to Little Miriam since there was a slightly better chance for her and Dave to use it than I. She looked at the certificate and read the expiration date. “6/31/05”. Because Little Miriam is an accountant; she immediately picks up yet another error by the rest’rant. It’s a comical conclusion to the most annoying and least satisfactory dinner of my life.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Primitive Man Never Existed, and the Stone Age Never Happened?

I came across a website that has some pretty amazing claims. I’m going to entertain myself by posting it here for journalistic purposes for rebuttal. The source for this article is here, but I don't necessarily recommend visiting it because of pop-ups.

“Did you know that 700,000 years ago, people were sailing the oceans in very well-constructed ships?” Umm, yeah, this is the opening statement and it’s hella random. 700,000 is long before modern humans walked the Earth.FH  Our ancient ancestors in that time knew how to make fire and hunt. (Yup, the use of fire wasn't even invented by modern humans.)FF  The advent of advanced world wide sailing actually consists of well documented events. Do the names Columbus and Magellan come to mind?

“Or have you ever heard that the people described as “primitive cavemen” possessed an artistic ability and understanding just as refined as those of modern artists? “ Umm, again, hella random.  First of all, artistic ability is in the eye of the beholder.  However, artistic ability can be judged in terms of complexity and the ability to create the desired results as accurately as possible.AA  This statement is literally comparing the Mona Lisa with finger painted stick figures, and calling them both equal.

“Did you know that the Neanderthals, who lived 80,000 years ago and whom evolutionists portrayed as “ape-men,” made musical instruments, took pleasure from clothing and accessories, and walked over painfully hot sands with molded sandals?” Painfully hot sands in Europe during the Ice Age?  LOL  Seriously, Neanderthal was adapted for Europe,EU not the Northern Sahara.  It isn’t likely very many Neanderthal often encountered hot sands. Besides that, no modern consideration of Neanderthals describes them as "ape-men".  They were human and very likely contributed to modern human lineage outside of Africa.NH

“In all probability you may never have heard any of these facts.  On the contrary, you may have been handed the mistaken impression that these people were half-ape and half-human, unable to stand fully upright, lacking the ability to speak words and producing only strange grunting noises.  That is because this entire falsehood has been imposed on people like yourself for the last 150 years.”  This paragraph uses a common literary technique that attempts to accuse the reader of holding on to an incorrect view point, but through no fault of their own.  No one likes to be accused of ignorance.  Perhaps this article intentionally targets supposed weak-minded individuals?  This method involves numerous logical fallacies.LF

“The motive behind it is to keep alive materialist philosophy, which denies the existence of a Creator. According to this view, which distorts any fact that stands in its way, the universe and matter are eternal.  In other words they had no beginning, and thus have no Creator. Then how did life come to be?  The supposedly scientific explanation is the theory of evolution.” These statements are just plan lies. “Materialist Philosophy”MP is a term that often is misused as general accusation against anyone that doesn’t blindly accept a particular viewpoint about a creator.  Beyond that, no where in modern science will you see any statement that suggests our Universe as no beginning.BB  That’s just nonsense.  Then the paragraph goes on to ask stupid questions that are meant to direct the reader’s thinking (getting them to think they are starting to realize some secret that the “establishment” has been hiding from them). Again, continuation of numerous logical fallacies.

“Because since materialists claim that the universe has no Creator, they must provide their own explanation for how the life and myriad species on Earth came into being.  The theory of evolution is the scenario they employed for that purpose.  According to this theory, all the order and life in the universe came about spontaneously and by chance.  Certain inanimate substances in the primeval world combined by accident to give rise to the first living cell.  As a result of millions of years of similar coincidences, organisms came into existence.  And finally came human beings, as the final stage of this evolutionary chain.” Actually, I’ve written about this before.  Evolution didn’t come about to prove anything about a creator.  It came about because evidence from geology was contradicting long held beliefs that were derived by taking the Christian bible too literally.  That’s it.  Facts contradicted beliefs, so the facts won and our understanding of biological evolution was discovered because of this.DE

“The early history of mankind—which is alleged to have come into being as the result of millions of accidental mutations, each more impossible than the last—has been distorted to fit in with this scenario.  According to the evolutionists’ account, which is totally lacking in any proof, the history of mankind is as follows: In the same way that life forms progressed from a primitive organism up to man, the most highly developed of all, so mankind’s history must have advanced from the most primitive community to the most advanced urban society.  But this assumption is completely devoid of any supporting evidence.  It also represents the history of mankind prepared in line with the claims of materialist philosophy and the theory of evolution.” Again, that “materialist philosophy” accusation is present.  This paragraph also declares an opposing view as an assumption with no evidence, but of course, the opposing view is no assumption, and is based on facts.  This continues to employ logical fallacies.

"Evolutionist scientists—in order to account for the supposed evolutionary process that they claim extends from a single cell to multi-celled organisms, and then from apes to man, —have rewritten the history of mankind.  To that end they have invented imaginary eras such as “The Cave-Man Age” and “The Stone Age” to describe the lifestyle of “primitive Man.”  Evolutionists, supporting the falsehood that human beings and apes are descended from a common ancestor, have embarked on a new search in order to prove their claims.  They now interpret every stone, or arrowhead or bowl unearthed during archaeological excavations in that light.  Yet the pictures and dioramas of half-ape, half-man creatures sitting in a dark cave, dressed in furs, and lacking the facility of speech are all fictitious.  Primitive man never existed, and there never was a Stone Age.  They are nothing more than deceptive scenarios produced by evolutionists with the help of one section of the media.”
Well, this is a long paragraph full of falsehoods and, in my opinion, intentional misdirection (lies).  First of all, this paragraph argues against points that simply don’t exist.  No facts support the idea of a half-man/half-ape being, and no serious person supports this idea as fact.  Who are these “evolutionist scientists” that this paragraph is referring too?  No one.  They don’t exist since no true scientist of evolution or otherwise would say such things.  They are as imagery as the half-man/half-ape being mentioned.  Humans are apes and evolved from a common ancestor with the other apes.HS  Furthermore, this paragraph talks about points in anthropology, not evolution.  Such confusion is common place for such literature.  One more point, the Stone Age is a well studied period.SA

“These concepts are all deceptions because recent advances in science—particularly in the fields of biology, paleontology, microbiology and genetics—have totally demolished the claims of evolution. That the idea that living species evolved and transformed into “later” versions of each other has been deemed invalid.” Well, this appears to be a direct lie.  All of the sciences mentioned here grow more and more dependent on our understanding of evolution as more is learned in each of their fields of study.  The foundation of evolutionary studies is not the will to prove a creator doesn’t exist.  The foundation of evolutionary studies is several principles of geology, as mentioned by me above.  However, since the principles within geology are ironclad, they are never mentioned by such articles. Writers of such articles intentionally hide any references to geological principles because any mention of them would destroy their arguments outright.

“In the same way, human beings did not evolve from ape-like creatures.  Human beings have been human since the day they came into existence, and have possessed a sophisticated culture from that day to this. Therefore, “the evolution of history” never happened, either.” This statement is thrown into to make it seem as though the article proved the existence of a creator.  However, the article never even addresses any points that prove such a position; more logical fallacies.

“This book reveals scientific proofs that the “evolution of human history” concept is a falsehood, and we shall show how the fact of creation is now supported by the latest scientific findings.  Mankind came into the world not through evolution, but by the flawless creation of God, the Almighty and Omniscient. In this site, you can read the scientific and historical proofs of this.” This is a common redirection used by many people trying to promote highly questionable notions.  The paragraph assumes the reader was convinced of the writer’s message and offers more “enlightenment” (often for a fee).  Well, I’m not going to charge my readers anything!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Newport OC

I'm visiting Newport in the OC. This is a cool like haven in LA where there's interesting people, but not too many of them. Kinda a sleepy place with like a hypersmall Conie Island area nessled in a smallass harbor. There's a rest'rant here called Newport Landing Restaurant that's got a bartender named Mike who's appeared in some show called The Real OC Desparate House Wives on Bravo...along with this girl Lindsey who appears in the scenes where the girls sit around drinking. Funny. I might try to catch it just to see this shit. I only came here on a whim and it took forever to get here from Industry, but I'm glad I did. Anudder guy Lawerance was local and was a Raiders fan, so we had a few sports stories to exchange.

As I sit out on the quiet misty evening looking on the harbor, I'm relaxed. The noises of the rest'rant are now behind me as I'm outsite in a vacant seating area. A small touring boat is sneaking around the docked boats, though I don't know why. The night air is light, damp and sprinkling me extremely lightly. Distant lights reflect serenely off the water's calm surface. It's only 11pm and this sleepy noke is almost completely shut down now. ::Breath of crisp air:: I just might come back here soon.
___
Sent with SnapperMail
www.snappermail.com

Friday, May 26, 2006

I think I've written about all the X-Men movies in my blog

X-Men: The Last Stand is dramatic in its violence and willful disregard for the sacred nature of franchise characters. In this, the movie is well done. The plot is thin, and it jumps quickly from one setting to the next, but this is expected for an action flick, and this really is an action flick, much more so than the previous two X-Men movies. But what this allows for the franchise is something that has been missing...the massive mutant on mutant battle were an outnumbered force of good faces off with massive forces of evil. Why am I discussing the movie in this manner? Cuz there's a crap load of hardcore X-Men fans that will hate this movie, not for its qualities or perceived lack thereof, but for the fact that this movie takes the story of the X-Men to a place that their precious comic books could not. This movie goes for broke with the characters, exploring their dark sides with no remorse. This makes the movie all the more fun, and brings life to the characters despite the movie's very simple plot. Yes, the movie coulda fleshed out the X-Men characters more, but it doesn't really need to. If you are into the comic books, then you know the characters already. If you aren't, then the characters are taken at face value when they fulfill their purpose in the story. This is a fun movie that moves the X-Men franchise forward. How does a "final installment" move a franchise forward? hmmm. :)

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Busy

I can't remember when I started being really really busy in my daily life. I seems it started sometime late in 2004 and hasn't let up. It's nice to have stuff to do; stuff that isn't just something to do. Just sometimes it does start to wear one down. I was looking over my Outlook calendar the other day. A long time ago, I didn't even have use for it. Now, I'm glad to have a day here or there that is free from appointments, duties, scheduled fun time, etc. Some people are hella busier than me. I'm glad I'm not too busy.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

No Trouble with Earthquakes

I just realized that I haven't been in a major quake in a long time, like 17 years. huh.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Trouble with Crucifixion

People really do treat each other extremely poorly. The more I hear experts talk about the crucifixion, the more it becomes apparent just how little human well being was regarded in the ancient world. Even for criminals, this treatment was horrific. No matter what one believes about Jesus death, the fact that anyone (be it son of God or lowly criminal) was nailed to anything through their hands and feet is repulsive.
Make no underestimate, these people suffered. Some of the most sensitive nerves in the body where pierced with a large nail and then used to hang up a the body upon a tree, stake or cross, left to suffer agonizing convulsions and nerve shattering pain throughout the body while onlookers gawked. How inhuman does one have to be in order to condone this?
I know this sentiment regarding crucifixion is two thousand years too late, but people still do engage in similar activities in modern times. Even with recent American torture embarrassment, it is not a normal thought for us to accept the inflictation of real torture on the scale of the crucifixion. The guilt of those particular U.S. soldiers in the recent cases amounts to taking hazing a bit too far. There are people in our current world that not only feel real torture is acceptable, they take joy in committing the heinous acts and are rewarded for them. This posting isn’t as random as it may seem.

Sometimes too cleaver

Some websites can be a bit too cleaver. I was going to post a link to an article that appeared in the Feb 1-8, 2006 Seattle Weekly which detailed the fall from grace experienced by the Discovery Institute in their efforts to combat reality with the highly fictional "Intelligent Design" notion. Well, Seattle Weekly does have their back issues on their website, but in the form of an Active X controlled pseudo-PDF format. Not so easy to link to, though it does store the exact pages as they appeared in the periodical when printed. I still recommend reading the article entitled Discovery's Creation. Goto Seattle Weekly and click on the Print Edition link under the Home tab. The browse for the Feb 1-8 issue under the back issue folder in the left menu, then goto page 19. It's not as hard as it sounds, but still is way too many steps when all would be needed is a direct link.
Anyways, the article does a good job of laying waste those nut-jobs at the Discovery Institute in light of recent Federal Court decisions reaffirming the lunacy of "Intelligent Design". It's a good read, and worth the time it takes to click through all those steps.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Anyone can be a Guru

You will find your answer at the end of your search.

Your quest begins with an answer and ends with a question.

When answers are given by others instead of by self

discovery, the lesson has not been learned.

Why walk upon hot coals if you can walk around them?