Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Wacky News Wednesday

Did you all see this story:

Police use stun guns on greased, naked student

So the story says that this student "had rubbed his body with grapeseed oil to keep from being caught", had "long hair and a full beard", and when asked to stop by a school administrator he "made a sexual gesture and kept running". But my favorite part is the final sentence: "There was no indication of substance abuse or a medical problem". You know, aside from the fact that he greased himself up, ran around the cafeteria, and had to be shot with a stun gun twice before stopping. Minor details.

Here are a few more news items for you edification:

Today's birthdays are brought to you by the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile:

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

SPC - Resolution #5

My final resolution (thank Gawd!) is to make more effort to keep my house clean. It's so psychically pleasing to me to have a clean house that you think I'd do a better job of keeping things tidy. But there are just so many other things to do that are so much more fun, and there's rarely anyone here besides me to see the mess, so it stays that way. But I want to do better.

As for the picture, the photo of me vacuuming was just too scintillating for words, so I came up with the idea to photograph my face through a bottle of Windex. And well, it just kind of seems to fit with the mondo weirdo stuff I've been posting lately, so there you have it.

See more self portraits here.

If you see any of these people, wish them a happy birthday:

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Monday, January 29, 2007

A Sunday Stroll

Today I have been busting my proverbial hump working on school stuff. I guess I found my motivation. But the website I'm supposed to evaluate is currently down, so I guess I can do this post.

Always carry your camera part 99: yesterday I saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. But I didn't have my camera with me. Dangit!

Speaking of cameras, I'm starting to notice one drawback of digital SLR cameras - they are prone to getting dust specks or crud on their sensors, which then turn up on your photos. Especially photos that have blue sky or uniform backgrounds. Most annoying because a lot of times you can't see them until you download the pictures to your computer. Me no likey.

I went for a stroll yesterday and took these photos:








Boring, huh? I took this picture because I saw 2 bluebirds. Another lesson is contained herein: I decided not to bring my telephoto lens, thinking "I won't need that". Well, I needed that. The next two photos are blowups of this one.

Can you see the bluebirds? You can click on the picture to see a larger view.

They're inside the circles. Would have been so much better with the 300mm!









Whoops.



Not sure what it was about this rusty barbed wire I liked...











I like the way this cedar tree has adapted its shape to fit under this other tree.

On the way home I got accosted by someone's dogs. It's the only house on this road. I wasn't scared of them, but then one kind of jumped at me in an aggressive manner which freaked me out a little. The weird thing is that I'm the one who said "Sorry". I guess I felt like if I hadn't been there his dogs wouldn't have come running, but that's stupid. It's a public road even if that's the only house on it, and I had every right to be there. Don't know why I said "Sorry". So really, I'm not sorry.

I'm too lazy to do birthdays today!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Insane In The Membrane

I want you all to be as insane as me, so here's a video of what runs through my head every night when I lie down to go to sleep:




Today's boy band-heavy birthdays are brought to you by Preparation H.

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Saturday, January 27, 2007

Back To The Movies

In the last week I've actually seen a couple of movies in the theater. My movie going has slowed down tremendously since I started school. And I'm starting to be old-fogeyish enough that I prefer to watch stuff at home more than in the theater. No people talking, crunching popcorn, or generally being asshats. Aside from me, that is. I've been really wanting to see Pan's Labyrinth, but I'm supposed to wait for a friend to see it with me, and his schedule keeps getting in the way.

Last week I went to see Notes On a Scandal, with Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. I thought it was really good. It's quite the dark film, and it does a good job of portraying an oppressive air of obsession. And it doesn't hurt that the two leads are among the very best actresses around today. Today I saw The Queen. I think Helen Mirren definitely deserves her Oscar nomination. And what do you know, James Cromwell is in it and today's his birthday. I thought it was interesting to see how Tony Blair was portrayed as being "a man of the people" back in 1997, and now he is almost completely at odds with British public opinion in the wake of his war stance.

Today's birthdays are brought to you by the Pillsbury doughboy. Give 'em a shout-out, won't you?

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Friday, January 26, 2007

Feckless Friday

Only 11 months 'til the day after Christmas!

When it comes to blogging, I’ve got a big bag of nothing right now. I think I’ve transferred my lack of motivation towards schoolwork over to blogging, because I actually did write my first post for school yesterday. I decided to answer the question “Do you think the Internet is in and of itself a digital library?” To which my answer was “Not only ‘No’, but ‘Hell No’”.

Here are some news items of note:

* Did you say pork-flavored postage stamp? I thought you did!

* As much as I love coffee, I’m surprised I only recently heard of this. I’d be willing to try it if it didn’t cost so much. I wonder what it tastes like if you pass it through a housecat? I'll let you know.

* Having trouble quitting smoking? Maybe brain damage can help!

* This is pretty funny. My favorite is the toy pole dancing kit. The headline on that one is a classic!

* Be careful when microwaving your sponge.

Today’s half-assed birthdays are brought to you by the fine folks at Chia.

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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Non-motivational Wednesday

I just heard a radio commercial for a casino in which they bragged about having the "loosest slots in town". Does that gross you all out as much as it does me?

I've got a bad case of the "dontwanttas". I enjoyed my break from school so much that I'm really having a hard time getting back into the habit of doing schoolwork. Put the remote down and step away from the DVD player, sir. Wah wah, huh? In the spirit of getting some work done, I'll keep things short today.

If you see any of these people today wish them a happy birthday:

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

SPC - Resolution #4


Resolution #4: Spend more time outside. I love being outside when the weather is nice. And since my job entails spending lots of time in a hermetically sealed indoor environment, I have to make a little bit of an effort to be outside. As much as I love to watch movies and television, a nice walk outside is better than any movie I've ever seen. Even when the landscape isn't what one would typically think of as "scenic".

See more resolutions here.

(and if you've ever wondered how far I can walk in 10 seconds - now you know!)

If you see any of these people today wish them a happy birthday:

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Monday, January 22, 2007

The Great Out of Doors

We finally had another sunny day yesterday. It's been awhile. I went outside to get a shot for SPC, and I took these while I was out:













If you see any of these people today wish them a happy birthday:


Sunday, January 21, 2007

Stan Who?

Despite the fact that I am not the world's biggest hockey fan, I was interested when I heard that the Stanley Cup would be at a local mall today. I missed a chance to see it in 1999 when the Stars won it, so I decided to go take a look at it today. You can read more than you ever wanted to know about the Stanley cup here. It seems as though a lot of hockey players don't have much respect for it if the "Misadventures" section is any indication.


The guy who built the Dallas skyline out of playing cards at the State Fair was there too, this time he did a much smaller version out of hockey trading cards:





As usual, if you see any of these people today wish them a happy birthday:

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Friday, January 19, 2007

Arctic Blast 2007

Here are some of the pictures from "Arctic Blast 2007". Pretty mild stuff compared to what some of you have seen, I know.


A little bit of ice on the trees.





I thought these icicles were kind of cool looking.







The next day they looked even more impressive.





These icicles are on my neighbors' house.

My car is totally ragged out after driving in slush and sand.

It's actually even dirtier today after driving yesterday in the muck.

We aren't allowed to wash our cars due to the drought, so I think I'll see how dirty I can get it.










If you see any of these people today, wish them a happy birthday:


Thursday, January 18, 2007

The A to Z of JC

I have heard a lot of talk about “black ice” on the roadways here over the last few days. Um, I think it prefers to be called “African-American ice”. I really thought we had come further on this, people.

I have been tagged by the lovely and talented Chickytava to present the following A to Z list:

A- available or single? Chronically.
B- best friend? Probably Mary at work. I tell her everything.
C- cake or pie? I'm not going to kick either one out of bed, but if I can only choose one I choose cake. Icing is the shiznet.
D- drink of choice? Water, coffee, milk, beer, generally in that order. I’m all about the basics. And I do think water is a choice, I know someone who never drinks water.
E- essential item I use every day: Deodorant. Thank Jebus.
F- favorite color? For some reason I don’t have a strong preference. But probably blue.
G- gummy bears or gummy worms? Bears. You can’t stick gummi worms to your shirt. At least not easily. When I was a kid I had two cousins who got gummi rats one time when we were on a road trip. The rats were life-sized, one was white and one was black (that’s OK in this context), and they were really gross.

If you lick the back of a Gummi bear, it will stick to your clothing. It will stick real hard.

Do any of you remember that Gummi bears cartoon? I never watched it, but I'm willing to bet that it sucked.



H- hometown? Richardson, Texas
I - indulgence? Yes, please. Fancy coffee.
J- january or february? January because you get more time off from work.
K- kids and names: No kids and I haven’t given a second thought to what I would name a kid. I need to concentrate on getting a woman to let me see her naked first I think…
L- life is incomplete without? Something to read. I read all the time, be it magazines, blogs, cereal boxes, newspaper articles, what have you.
M- marriage date: Not applicable!
N- number of siblings: One younger sister. She is four and a half years younger than me myself.
O- oranges or apples? Oranges. I’m currently on a ginormous Clementine kick.
P- phobias or fears? public speaking
Q- favorite quote? "Eat every meal as if it were your last." - Author unknown
R- reasons to smile? I didn’t have to use any leave for missing work all day yesterday because they closed the building.
S- season? Fall. I guess because it’s cool outside and you usually don’t have the thunderstorms you get in the spring.
T- tag: painter girl
U- unknown fact about me: I like to read. Oh wait, I already said that. Um, unknown? When I was 14 I was in a pie eating contest. I didn’t win. This was way before eating contests became so popular.
V- vegetable you don't like: This one took me a while to think of. Brussels sprouts.
W- worst habit: Staying up too late.
Y- your favorite food? I like all kinds of stuff, but Mexican food is probably my favorite. I love tortillas, cheese, tamales, and blah and blah and blah. Something about the way these things blend together is just so right.
Z- zodiac? Aries.


If you see any of these people today, wish them a happy birthday:



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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Ice To Meet You

Man I've been wanting to use that title for so damn long. Yes! So I get up this morning at the ungodly hour mentioned in my SPC post, I'm getting ready to leave for work and I hear a strange noise coming from outside. Hello, it's sleeting. I turn on the TV to find that traffic appears to be pretty bad. I call my boss to tell him that I will be late, get in the car, and start driving. The freeway is only about a half mile from my house, and as soon as I can see it, I see a wreck up ahead. I decided to turn around and wait things out a bit.

So about 3 hours later I leave again. Traffic is going slowly at first, but things aren't too bad. It takes me just under an hour to drive the 30 miles to work (which is actually about the same as an average day, time-wise), where I find people fleeing the building in droves. I ask someone if the building has been closed for the day and find out that it indeed has. So I drove down there fer nuthin'! Oh well, at least I get the rest of the day off!

The ironic thing is that the weather people said nothing about this. All last weekend we heard how horrible it was going to be, and it wasn't nearly as bad as they predicted. Yesterday they were saying we would maybe get some flurries today, but nothing to worry about. Sheesh.

So what will I do with this precious gift of time that I have been given? I dunno, probably just get drunk and watch a porno.

SPC - Resolution #3

I'm a night owl. If left to my own devices, I would probably go to bed about 1AM. Unfortunately I also require about 8 hours of sleep or I'm a worthless blob of flesh the next day. And doubly-unfortunately my job requires me to get up about 5:15 in the morning. I have been really tired lately, so I am making a resolution that I should do a better job of getting to sleep on time!


Yep, about 9:15 if I really want a good night's sleep. It ought to be illegal, but them's the breaks.

Sleep tight...


...don't let the bedbugs bite!

See more self portraits here.

If you see any of these people today, wish them a happy birthday:

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