Infant Memories...

I've heard it said that we are blank slates at birth. My own memories from the womb involve self aware thoughts and feelings. I do not have sensory memories per se, just mostly emotional. We've been so conditioned to believe we don't remember anything from our earliest ages that most of us believe it, but it's not true. I even remember having the conversation with my mom at a young age asking her why I didn't remember anything. The answer she gave me lead me to believe it was true. "No body remembers anything from when they are an babies." Well, that was wrong. Most of us just don't recognize what the early memories are. It is true that I don't have may well defined memories from before 3, but I do have some, mostly in the form emotions, without much sensory relationship to them. We don't have much in the way of sensory memories because our brain isn't yet developed enough to fully experience the the physical senses. So how is the brain going to to record such events? It would be like holding your finger over a tape recorder's mic while recording. I think much of the confusion on this topic comes from not understand this simple fact. Yes, we don't have many memories of physical events, but we do have the memories of the emotions that those events caused. We carry those memories our entire lives without realizing them and what they are. My memories of that period are not recovered. I've had them all along. It just took me a long time to realize what they were in the context of my own experience. From what I remember, I most definately had a well developed personality just waiting for a chance to express itself. But that's a different topic.

Pix from the Kimi, Miriam and Jenn nite

Here's a photo of Kimi, Miriam, and Jenn at Buddha Lounge a couple Fridays ago. The quality of the pix is directly related to the person holding the camera phote, and the strength of the flash on said phone. Also, in this particular case, I took the picture by accident while trying to show some drunk-ass how to take the photo for us that included all of us.

I actually made it into the next photo. :) It took forever for the fellow random bar patron to figure it out. I'm actually surprized it came out as good as it did. Below is Jenn and Miriam growling at each other. I don't think I remember any real growling, but it kinda looks like that in the photo. grrrr hehe

Actually, what was going on there? A picture says a 1000 words, but are any of the words spoken by this photo saying anything meaning full or representitive of our evening? grrr. grrr. hehe

And finally here I am. I was trying to go for a sweet smile, but I think this photo is telling in other ways. :) Special thanks to Kimi for providing this pix!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.
___
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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. :)

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.

No Trouble with Earthquakes

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

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.

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?

Ol'gang

Friday night was back to the ol' instigations by Miriam, Ronie and I at Chevy's, then back at Miriam's place. It's been too long. We cracked up about all kinds of shit all night.

Random Bonds

I ran across this message on a bulletin board on myspace at 5:00pm. The title was like "available Giants tickets for tonight" and the body was "anyone interested?" The message was left at almost 4:00pm.

Well, Barry Bonds just might've met and even broke Babe Ruth's home run tonight, so I figured that this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. At first, I tried to just send a reply message via myspace, but then figured that was not the best way. I didn't have this person's direct info, but I know who did, her cuzins. So I called up one cuzin. No answer. I called up another, yes, Kim answered. The funny thang is that Kim has just moved to San Diego and was in the middle of unpacking, so I did feel a little funny about asking a favor to contact her cuzin and find out about the tickets, but hey, I did it anyway. hehe

So after about 1/2 hr's worth of phone tag (from Silicon Valley to San Diego to San Francisco and around again a couple of times), I finally was in direct contact with Kate who had the extra tickets. Note the plural. Time was ticking. The game was set to begin at 7:15pm, and it's already like past 6pm. My first choice: I call up Allie and (with really explaining what was so important about this game) I head over to her place. Unfortunately, I made a bad request to take her car instead of mine. Well...

...she was almost out of gas. Arg. So, we had to go to the gas station. tick tick. Ok, guess what? The attendant had put someone's cash payment on our gas pump! Allie and I always use credit cards, so when the pump stopped at 10 dollars, we both got a bit confused. It took like 10 minutes for the attendant to sort out the mess!! tick tick tick ARG!!!!!

Hey, we made it to the game just at 8:00pm. The seats where about 10 rows up, in field and near 1st base. GREAT SEATS, especially for the price Kate offered!!! Allie and I did miss a couple of Bond's at bats, but no homers yet. The score was Cubs 3, Giants 1. Allie and I went to the food court. When we came back, the score was Cubs 6, Giants 1. I went to get a beer refill. When I came back, the score was Cubs 8, Giants 1. Pattern here? LOL Hmmm... I did get to watch Bonds at bat twice. Let me give Kate a big thank you for making these tickets available!

Kate her b/f headed out at the end of the 8th after Bond's popped out. Allie and I stuck around to the end of the nineth. I don't like leaving games early. We waited for traffic to die down at the nearby Borders and then at Amici's Pizzeria, then headed back to Silicon Valley. ::yawn:: I did some work online and now here I am at 2am thinking why didn't I post the story when I didn't have to get some sleep. :) It has been awhile since I've been so completely random, but I'm glad I did, even if Bonds didn't get this record when I was there.

Focus Keyboard FK-8200

I am dependant upon an extremely rare keyboard. This keyboard is the Focus Electronic FK-8200. It is special for several reasons.

First, it has an extra top row of PF key’s above the function keys. This top row is programmable on the keyboard itself; no special drivers or software. Some other vintage programmable keyboards also have extra keys, but they are on the left side of the keyboard which makes the keyboard too long for most keyboard trays. Other programmable keyboards require computer software or drivers to work, which means that if the company stops supporting the product, the keyboard will become obsolete. I couldn’t do without these PF keys for my CAD work.

Second, it has a built-in calculator that can send results directly to the computer. This is a function that is unique to an extremely few number of keyboards. I think there’s a patent on it or sumfin, otherwise I’m sure this would be a more common feature. As it stands, only two Focus keyboards and a few their predecessor Omni keyboards have this feature; and only the Focus keyboards have the “Send” function.

Once a person gets to using this features, they become addicted to them.

The fact that makes all of this frustrating is that no new FK-8200’s have been made in several years, and the company that used to make them appears to no longer be in business. Finding these keyboards is becoming increasing more difficult as time goes by. I’m becoming dismayed at the prospect of breaking mine and not being able to find another to replace. They are good quality keyboards that take frequent use in stride, unless you happen to spill the slightest bit of liquid on it, then they fry. I’ve already destroyed two this way.

[UPDATE April 2024]

So this article gets a far amount of attention from time to time.  There seems to be interest in the feel of the FK-8200, its programmable keys and also the calculator function.  As noted in the comments, I'm also using a G910 keyboard, which has a mechanical-feel keyboard and nine programmable keys. It works well, though software is needed for the programmable keys. Additionally, I'm considering something like a modern numeric keypad that doubles as a calculator, which appears to have a function to send calculated values to your computer, similar to the FK-8200.

MI:III

Mission Impossible III is a good movie. It's better than II, and definitely different that I. At the beginning, after the opening scene, I did get a little fearful about the movie getting bogged down in story, but the action picks up a just the right moment, and keeps going to the end. There are the normal set of twists in the plot, so no surprizes there, but the action was incredible and intense. It's a fun movie.
Now, I'm looking forward to Da Vinci Code, X-Men 3 and kinda interested in Poseidon (mostly cuz of the g/f's interest), all coming out this month. It’s not often that Hollywood has (at the least) a promising lineup of movies in a single year, but this is all within a single month!

Cinco de Mayo

uAnother friday night spent out, for Cinco de Mayo. Yes I celebrated of the day of the great battle in which the locals mexicans pulled together a militia to take on the French, but lost, however the French were so annoyed they left on there own anyways! lol It's funny how this day has grown in popularity in the U.S., but is pretty much not even noticed in Mexico. Anyways, Miriam, Allie, Stevo and I meet up at Compadres in Palo Alto for after work drinks. It was hella crowded. After that, we tried to go to a couple of other places, but ended at St. Stevens Green in Mt. View. Later Miriam's new interest came out later and she scared him with her dancing abilities. He was a trooper though, but he did drop her on the floor once. lol
Apparently, after Stevo, Allie and I left, Miriam and her date had enough fun where she ended up barfing at some point.

Selfsexual Part II

My definition to selfsexual has officially been added to Urban Dictionary. I've got a few words up on Urban Dictionary now. Check it out.

The Cellar in SF

Well...it looks like I discovered a new place in SF Friday. Kimi and I meet up with her younger sister in SF and headed down to The Cellar with some other friends, to meet up with even more friends that were celebrating another friend's BD. It was a crazy night! The DJ sucked, and the music was mostly Eighties with some random Ninties thrown in from time to time, but the atmosphere was fun. For example, it's been awhile since I've watched girls making out with each other.
This picture Kimi's little sister, her b/f, and me. This is my second night out in SF within two weeks. I haven't been in a club up there in years, and now all of a sudden, it seems like I've never stopped. hehe

Depeche Mode

Their concert last Thursday at the Shoreline was fun, but nufin exciting. They started off with some newer stuff, then went into the classics. Stranger wasn't played, but they did play Reach Out and Touch Faith (or whatever the name of that song is). Allie and I enjoyed it, but there's really not much more to talk about.

Zebra Lounge Friday

The Zebra Lounge in SF was great last Friday. My cuz, her b/f and her classmate, along with Allie and I meet up there around 10. My friend Maria is part of Sugarbeats which is a promotional group that threw the party that night. My cuz and her friend are seen here (the pic to the left) on stage dancing. Can you guess which one is my cuz? I'm asking cuz it ain't obvious. :) Kris (the classmate) was up on stage most of the night! Anyways, we all had a great time. BTW, the photo is deceiving. Kris is actually over six feet tall, and my cuz is under 5'6", but they look almost the same height in the pic.

I'm looking forward to getting up to SF again. Oh wait, I'm heading there tonight with some friends!

Selfsexual

Imagine a person who's is turned on by flirting with themself. Yes, there are people out there that are like this. To this point, I think that pop culture and science have both ignored this class of sexual orientation. No longer!
Selfsexual is a term I had to create to describe how a certain friend of mine is, at least at times, attracted to herself. It goes beyond just looking yourself in the mirror to check if everything is in place. It goes to the level of actually turning yourself on by doing nothing more than looking at your own yourself.!
Now, I have to admit that I may be selfsexual curious at times. I mean, even though I'm happily engaged, I do make love with myself quiet a lot. lol That doesn't make me selfsexual, of course. Simply masterbating doesn't make one selfsexual. Masterbating while looking at yourself in the mirror does show some tendencies.

I got an old camera working

I've lost an really cool camera a couple years ago. It was a digital Canon. I loved it. But even before that camera, I had others. One is this old Advantix thang. It's never been lost, but I've kinda lost track of it since I don't use it. I ran across it today. It's the only camera I got these days, and I prolly only have it cuz it's the one I stopped using before. I didn't stop using cuz its usefulness of expired though. The camera's flash is one of those hide-a-way ones. There's really no reason that it is a hide-a-way, but some engineer at Minolta musta thought it would be a good idea. Pointless for sure. Anyways, the automatic mechanism that pops the flash out stopped working years ago. When I use it at night or in-doors, I have to remember to pop the flash out manually before the camera will take a shot. Ghetto, huh? What's even more ghetto is that if I do use it, I actually have to go to the store to process the pictures.

So I'm addicted

I got Civilization IV almost as an afterthough to my recent visit to Best Buy. Well, I've loved the Civilization game series since the initial version was released back in the day. I remember playing it on my old Tandy computer, which didn't even have a hard drive. I was pimping it out by having two 3.5" floppy disk drives so that I didn't have to do as much disk swapping for the bigger games (like Civilization).
My favor release is Civilization II. The producers expanded the scope of the game perfectly. I felt Civilization III was good, but it came across as not as well balanced for length and type of game play it offered. Civilization IV scales back much of what made Civilization III too looming, while at the same time offers more depth of game play.
So, I've been playing Civilization IV about every chance I get now. So far, it's my second favorite release. There's not a whole lot of waiting around for thangs to happen, so the pace is quicker, but it feels as though I'm still playing with the same level of control as the previously releases.
I very highly recommend this game! I'm a bit surprized by how much I'm enjoying it.

It's sunny

Today it's sunny.

Ketchup

Isn't it funny how drive-thru fast food places with either give you no ketchup at all (if you don't ask), yet they give you enough ketchup packages to allow one to survive a nuclear winter (when you do ask)?

Trouble with Bush

It's funny, people dislike Bush Jr. so much that in an informal poll online, these are the running results when he's compared to Jimmy Carter.

Who will history judge more favorably?
Carter
77%

Bush
23%

Total Votes: 32,283

What the hell? LOL

In other news, this is a recent story about yet another retired general speaking out against the administrations (particular Rumsfield) approach to the Iraqi War. Read article

A player's trouble

So, I was at this party one time at a friend’s house in Monterey many years ago. There was a few guys that lived in the same place, and they always had some friends over. It was a den of players. At this party, a female friend of theirs had brought over some fresh meat, a cute 18-year old blonde girl. I had started talking to her and even got her number, but couldn’t hang out too long. Anyways, the king player had his eyes set on her, and hung out with her for awhile too.

The next day, I get a call from him. He went into this short story how he liked her and that she said she liked him too and he was hoping he could get her number from me. I was thinking that’s a pretty slimy move, but hey, it didn’t really matter to me. So I gave him the number, or at least I thought I did. It turns out that I misread the number when I gave it to him. By some massively strange coincidence, I gave him the new number to his ex-girlfriend’s new place. When he called, he got cussed out by his ex over the phone.

I get a call back from him like 20 minutes later. He was kinda pissed, but he was a trooper. He still wanted the blonde’s number from me, even though he thought I intentionally gave him his ex’s number to fuck with him. His friends thought I was a genius for that maneuver, even though it was completely accidental. I never met his ex, nor did I know her number. However, I think the accident ended up working in his favor anyway cuz he was able to use the incident to suck his ex back into his game for a little while longer.

So, Mr. Rogers was a sniper?

Hmmm. http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-mr-rogers.htm

Today...

It's rains.

Just some thoughts on U.S. war capability

For a long time the U.S. had a policy of keeping a standing military ready to fight one full war and one half war at the same time. This means that the U.S. can engage in one all out war in one region, while still being able to do peacekeeping missions and smaller scale operations in other regions at the same time. There was a time when people viewed the need for this with skepticism. Following the Persian Gulf War, some believed the world was becoming more united and less tolerant of rogue states.
After 9/11, many began to realize that the proper approach was neither a single war policy or a war and a half policy. So the U.S. adopted a two war policy. This allowed the U.S. to fight the Iraqi War and the Afghani War at the same time. Of course, here comes my criticism.
I've got the sense that the U.S. is barely able to fight one all out war right now. It seems to me that the politicians and bureaucrats have significantly underestimated the resources required to fight a war. It's my opinion that the current chaotic situation in Iraq could've been avoided had we sent in the appropriate number of forces from the beginning. In additional, the Afghani War never got significant U.S. forces at all. In reality, it was a half of a war. So, the U.S. really is fighting and rebuilding nations from one and a half wars. Yet, our ability to do this was based on trying to implement a two war policy. It seems to me that maybe our leaders don't really have a sane grasp of reality when it comes to what's really involved when fighting a war. We haven't learned from many of the biggest mistakes in the Vietnam War. Mistakes like never making a formal declaration of war, underestimating the enemy's ability to stay entrenched, or working too closely with the existing powers within the occupied nation. We succeeded with reforming Japan and Germany, but these were two nations weary of wars they started. Right now, we are occupying one nation that is weary of the war we started, and another nation that's not had a strong central government in modern times.
These wars need to be finished. In my mind, the Afghani War will not be done until Bin Laden & crew is captured. This should be our main focus. We should've been fighting the Afghani War as a full war. We need to get Iraq on its feet so we can finish our job in Afghanistan.

Trouble with time again, or not

So far, this evening is going pretty much as planned...well, not really planned, but as I intended for each task that I thought of doing. So, I had to leave work a bit early to drop off some components for rework. I left that machine shop around 4 and headed home. As I headed home, I figured out that I could possibly have enough time to do all of my laundry at the nearby Laundromat. I get home, gather the laundry and head over. I got all the loads started in the washing machines and headed next door to discover a sandwich restaurant at around 4:45. I finished my sandwich, walked back over to the Laundromat and started moving clothes to the dryers. As the last load was transferred, I looked up to see the time was about 5pm. I thought about the nice shirts and sweaters that I need dry cleaned. I headed back home and gathered my dry cleaning load and drove to the near by cleaners. After dropping off my dry cleaning, I'm thinking about how hella low on gas I am. Ok, I head down the street to the gas station and pump a nearly full tank, 15.25 gallons. Ya'no, I went 365 miles on that 15.25 gallons. That's pretty good. Anyways, after that I head back to the Laundromat. As I walk up to my dryers, the first load finishes. Talk about prefect timing. While I'm folding my clothes, the second load finishes. Just as I'm done folding both of those loads, the third and final load finishes. I get all that done, and everything back to my home at just about 6:55. That's 5 minutes before my grocery delivery time window starts. And here I am blogging about the whole journey.

How many thangs are wrong with this?

Recently, a disc jockey was babbling away on the radio. During her show, she reported that Donald Trump just had his new baby which was born on March 18th, 8 days early and at 8 o'clock. She then added, "That's kinda like 7 degrees from Kevin Bacon, but with 8 instead."

Vancouver Visit

From my visit to Vancouver, I can say it seems to be a cool place with plenty to do. I definitely want to visit again. Dave, little Miriam, Allie and I drove up from Seattle Saturday morning this past weekend. Dave picked out a great hotel, sep the bed situation was a little strange. The hotel only had two “deluxe double beds” per room available. I’m not sure was a deluxe double bed is, but my guess is that they are somewhat smaller than a queen bed. From sleeping in them, my perception is that they aren’t quite as wide. Anyway, in Vancouver, we headed down to the famous Public Market on Granville Island. It’s a place where one can get tons of fresh food from around the world in the style of a large European market place. We really just walked around; didn’t do any shopping. At the food court, we settled on German style sausages and hotdogs for lunch, with crepes for a dessert. We then walked down to the small ferry launch and took a ferry ride around False Creek. We got of at Yaletown, which (upon close inspection of the stores and inhabitants) seemed to be the gay centric area of Vancouver. We were in this one fancy knickknack boutique that had hella gay-ass photos as samples in the picture frames on sale. It was pretty amusing. I wouldn’t have expected overt stereotypical displays like that, regardless of who the target cliental was to be. Other clues regarding the homosexual friendlessness of the area were many of the guys walking around the area. After exploring the area for a bit, we got back to the ferry and headed back to Granville Island. One thang that Dave and I noticed is that time seemed to be slipping by without notice. We lost track of time several times, realizing each time that it was later than we though it should be. Very strange.
After that minor adventure, we headed back to the main shopping area in the region near our hotel. After getting thangs figured out, we found an area of shops near the Sears. The Sears in Vancouver reminded me more of an upscale dept. store in the U.S. We also checked out this one comic book shop that had a lot of interesting items, and a few other boutiques as well. All the stores in that area began closing around 6 to 7, so we drive on a hunch to find another area. Eventually we found a street where all the shops where open late. There we found the restaurant where we had diner. That’s another story. Anyways, after dinner we did some shopping, and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning, we headed back to Seattle.

Went to Seattle to get away from the Rain.

I went to Seattle to get away from the rain. lol It’s funny cuz it’s kinda true. For my birthday, Allie flew us out to visit Dave and his g/f (little Miriam) in Seattle. On Thursday night we decided to drive up to Vancouver for the weekend.

On Friday, both Dave and his g/f had to work in the morning, so Allie and I got to sleep in. We started the day around 12:30 when Dave got off and picked us up. We headed to Miriam’s job to pick her up. While waiting for her to get off work, we wandered around a Fry’s Electronics near her work. I had to battle off Dave’s attempts to buy me a gift. That will learn me not to go shopping on my birthday with my friends. hehe

Once Miriam got of work, we went for lunch at this one crab restaurant again, where they serve steamed seafood poured out on the table from buckets. Very tasty, as always. Then we headed to the heart of Seattle. The girls went off shopping while Dave and I tried to take in some of the attractions. We tried to check out the underground tour of old Seattle. We missed the last tour of the day. We tried to go to the top of the tallest building, but again missed that day’s cut off for access to that. We ended up just driving around for the most part, figuring out what to explore when everything is open next time. The girls bought some clothes. For dinner, we tried this one kinda hit sushi place. While waiting for a table, we wondered around the area, doing a little window shopping. I found a Nibbler character at this antique place. Although Allie is not a fan of Futurama, she does like that character, so I bought it and surprised her. The sushi place was pretty good. Afterwards, we went back to Dave’s home and watched Crash. It was later than I thought it would be when the movie ended, which kinda sucked for trying to get up early the next day for the 3 hour drive to Vancouver.

Seattle III Trip

 

March 3, 2006 to March 5, 2006, visited Seattle yet again in 2006 with Alice Leung, Miriam Erlichman and David Erlichman.  Also, took a trip to Vancouver, BC.  (Original post/backup link)

If you have any doubt about Bush...

Even when talking about the President, I normally don't use his name...but today I am. If you have any doubt that President Bush is negligent and is not fulfilling the duties of his job, watch this video:

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2704463

The man needs to be removed from office on this account alone. If you support him in the face of this evident, you are as blood guilty as he is at this point. Yeah, I'm talking to you, that 34 percent of the population that still thinks he's doing a good job. You are as blood guilty as he is now. If you are still a Bush supporter and you think that somehow you are immune to this statement or that this is somehow an overreaction, you are even more blood guilty of those 1300+ deaths in the Gulf Coast. This man has no business being in the oval office any longer. He has proven without a doubt that he is willfully unwilling to fulfill his duties and oath as President of the United States of America.

Moved to Sunnyvale, CA

 
In March 2006, moved to Sunnyvale, CA from San Jose, CA.  (Original post/backup link)

Trouble with English sounds and letters

English is a funny language. According to the American Heritage Book of English Usage,

“English adopted its alphabet, except for the letters j, u, and w, from the one used by the Romans to represent the sounds of Latin, and the fit was not an exact one. English is a Germanic language that has borrowed many words from French, Dutch, and other languages, and the result is a phonological mishmash in which certain letters are pronounced differently depending on the origin of the words they appear in.”

That basically means that our alphabet doesn’t exactly match our spoken sounds. We have 26 letters, but over 40 sounds. Depending on the region, distinctions between vowel sounds may push the number of English sounds over 50. Anyone wanna learn an alphabet with 50 letters? No? Well, it might be easier to spell in English if we did, but then again, it might not.

There’s really no way to fully identify all the vowel sounds and have those recognized worldwide, especially where those sounds are combined with the r. One vowel sound that is completely without a letter though is oo (boot {long sound}, took {short sound}).

The consonant sounds are more predictable. Currently, commonly accepted consonant sounds that do not have their own letters are ch (chat), ng (long), sh (shin), th (thin), th (this), and zh (vision). The hard and soft th sounds can be given to one letter. The ng sound is really two sounds blended closely together, so it doesn’t really need its own letter. Adding these sounds as letters would give the English language a 30 letter alphabet. Adding the oo vowel puts it at 31.

But, there are sounds that aren’t commonly recognized. For example, the sound tt, as in little, is often reduced to a flick of the tongue in a way that sounds just like the Spanish r. Not many people notice they even pronounce the tt in this way. Once recognized, this will add yet another sound to the English language, putting the total alphabet at 32 (so far).

All this put together would produce an alphabet something like this:
Aa Bb Cc CHch Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss SHsh Tt THth TTtt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz ZHzh OOoo

Of course, for easier identification, it might be a good idea to give the new letters their own forms, such as joining line or even custom new shapes.  We could bring back some older letters that fell into disuse for various reasons about the 14th Century.  The letter thorn  (Þ) would be very useful in modern writing.

Additionally, there are consonant and vowel sounds that this new alphabet does not cover. For example, there is a soft and hard y sound (yes {hard}, you {soft}). But this alphabet would at least represent all of the major sounds. Of course, if this would be ever accepted, a respelling of many English words would follow. Experience with English might suggest this would actually worsen the link between English spoken and English written language. Oh well.

Trouble with Treo

Well, my old Treo 600 has now been replaced with a new Treo 600. I'm sync'ing all the software onto the new device. It's all hella easy. Not like trying to restore a Windows machine or anything. Just put the button, and everything is loaded on the new device in working order, same as before. Thank you PalmOne. lol

Friday, Saturday, Futurama

Allie and I met up with Miriam Friday night at Nola’s in downtown Palo Alto. Miriam’s company had a function there in the lounge area, so Allie and I showed up as it was ending, to keep the night going. That was a fun night. On Saturday, Allie and I had lunch and diner with some of her relatives. I think her cuzins like me. Even though they are a bit younger, we has some lively conversations about cars, music and even cartoons, if that isn’t a bit surprising. I found out that the makers of Futurama are currently working on 4 made for DVD new Futurama movies. I haven’t been able to confirm this, but I like the rumor.

Much ado about English thangs oh, and that Shakespeare guy

So as a random little project, I wondered what Shakespeare might look like if
it was translated into Modern English. I chose the opening soliloquy by Romeo when he enters the Capulet garden for the famous balcony scene. This seemingly easy task took on an added dimension when I found out that this is really a speech criticizing Queen Elizabeth. How does one translate text that metaphor laid upon metaphor? Thinking about how difficult it is to translate from Renaissance English to Modern English, I have got to wonder how anyone can possibly think the Bible is properly translated from ancient Hebrew to ancient Greek to Latin and then to all the different languages around the world. Well, here’s my attempt at translating this one small section of Shakespeare. BTW, I didn’t keep the original meter because that exercise is pointless. If anyone has any comments on this, I’m perfectly willing to adjust it.

What’s that light suddenly appearing in the window over there?
It’s dawn and, and Juliet is the sun.
Rise up, brilliant sun and put down the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
Because you, her servant, are way more brilliant than her
Stop being her servant because she’s the one who is envious of you;
Her virginal regal outfit is nothing but sick and green
Only idiots wear it. Get rid of it!
It’s my woman. Yo, it’s my love!
I wish she knew it!
She speaks but says nothing. What’s up with that?
Her eyes glance my way, she wants to talk! Finally, it’s time.
Oops, my bad. She can’t see me. She doesn’t know I’m here.
The two most brilliant stars in all heaven,
Going away on some business, beg her eyes
To shine their twinkle until they come back.
What if her eyes remained on her face?
The brightness of her check would way outshine those stars,
As daylight does to a lamp; her eyes do to the stars in heaven
If the atmosphere was filled with her glow
The birds would sing and think it was not night.
Look how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
Oh, I wish I was a glove on that hand,
So I could touch that cheek!

Winter Olympics IMHO

So, the Winter Olympics might be better renamed to the European Olympics. No wonder the Winter Olympics lacks popularity! Most of its sports are very European centric. How much Bobsleighing or Ice Skating is possible in places like Nigeria or Costa Rica? Sure, China and South Korea have been welcomed into the mix, but these two are from regions that are winter sport friendly. At least they add snowboarding. That's actually exciting to watch, since they allow contact and there's a good chance for at least one big wipe out! The woman's Snowboarding Cross final had three wipe outs, and one of those was from the #1 contender celebrating before she crossed the finish line! lol Anyways, U.S.A.! U.S.A.! hehe
Oh, and one comment about those South Korean speedskaters! Speed Skating is not a team sport unless it's Team Pursuit! The South Koreans are pretty much just outright cheating by playing as a team instead of individuals. It's legal right now, but if they keep it up, I'm sure the rules are going to be changing to not allow that sort of team work in the future. They screwed a couple of better racers out of gold medals because they were working together. If a racer isn't going for the gold medal, they don't belong in the finals! The teamwork strategy is not in the spirit of the Olympics for non-team competitions.

Daytime Motorcycle Cop with Radar

Well, my record is now 18 and 3. For some reason, I haven't been able to avoid a ticket when I'm pulled over by a motorcycle cop with a radar gun at daytime. All three of my tickets have been issued by this very specific demographic! Cops are normallly pretty cool about thangs when they pull me over. Normally, they give warnings of some type or another. But for some reason, when they fit that particular demographic, they issue a ticket to me. Bummer. Traffic school, here I come.

Haunted Room

When I was growing up, on house my family lived at was frequented by ghosts.  I don’t know who/what the ghosts were, or where they resided specifically.  I just know that every now and again, we’d experience strange things.  Often, our entire family would get strange dreams within a very short period of time.  Once, when I was seven, the ghosts got a bit more impish with me.

The house was part of a duplex; each side had 3 bedrooms on a corner lot.  My room was small and in the middle of the house with large windows along the backyard.  It had one normal door to the hallway that lead to the other two rooms, and one sliding door that opened into the kitchen. I often keep both doors shut at night.  My room was only illuminated by distant street lights thru closed roller blinds.  This one night, I was awoken in the middle of the night, in my bed of course.  I remember being on edge and scared, but still curious.  I felt something in the room with me.  I didn’t know what.  My parents had taught me about demons (from the Christian Fundamentalist perspective), and since I had nothing else to reference, I immediately associated my sensations with my limited understanding of demons.  My mother also taught me that if I had an encounter with such demons, I could simply call upon god’s name and that would scare them off.  For some reason, this night I did not immediately resort to this.  I was too frightened to speak or get out of bed, and I was a little curious actually.  I tried to get a handle on what I was feeling.  I imagined Halloween style ghosts floating near the ceiling. Of course, the reality is, doing this did nothing, and I soon found that out.

Trying to convince myself that it was all just in my mind, I started to relax a bit.  For a short while, I just laid in bed, awake.  I was lying on my side when I noticed something coming from my closed closet on the oppose wall from my bed right, in front of me.  There was a dark half circle shadow that appeared from the crack between the closet door and door rim, as though it was a hand reaching out from inside my closet.  I couldn’t believe it.  I stared as long as I could dare.  I was so frightened, I hide under my blankets.  My heart was pounding. I never saw anything like that.  What I had been taught said that this was a demon.  I got up enough courage to peak out from under my blankets and looked again.  It was gone.  The sense that something else was in the room was not gone.

Without the visible manifestation, I did start to calm a bit.  I began to think that since these demons were in my room, I would simply look out the window over my bed until they decided to leave.  So I sat up in bed and ducked under the blind with the plan of just looking into our backyard.  Well, this calmed my nerves for a second or two, until I saw a large silhouette appear as white shadow right on the window all around me.  I looked at the edge of the silhouette around me on the window, rolling me head and eyes from my right, up and to the left.  I was sitting with my face practically pressed against this manifestation!  In an instant of pure fear and dread, I zoomed back under my blankets and just started instinctively praying to god for all of this to go away.  I was tense for quite some time, but the other presence was gone. I was awake for quite some time that night.

I told no one of that event for years.  Of course, I’ve since realized that the spirit in my room that night wasn’t able to harm me, regardless to its nature.  What are ghosts?  I don't know.  In this case, I guested is that it was an earthbound ghost that was having some fun with me.  Or, maybe this are demons of some sort, whatever that means.  Anyway, other visitations did occur, but after that night, I never experienced any other tangible manifestations at that house.