Versatile Blogger Award

Apparently I've won an Award of sorts. Or had it bestowed upon me. Same thing, sort of, although this award comes with rules for accepting it.

Like linking back to the Blogger who gave it to me, being Memphis Steve from Steve's Nude Memphis. No, he's not naked, or even a nudist, just read his Blog and you'll get it. Or not.

The second rule is to share seven things about yourself, and the third is to pass the award on to 15...FIFTEEN!!?!? recently discovered Blogs. I think I'll fail that part, but first...

1. If I like you I will deliberately insult you, and the more I like you the more I will insult you. The problem is I'm socially inept so I usually cannot tell when I've gone too far, and what should be a bit of light-hearted teasing among mates often comes across as very offensive.

2. I like to walk places. I once offended my Dad when I said I needed to go into town, he offered to give me a lift, and I said I could just walk. It was only about a half hour walk into town. No big deal, to me. Dad was pretty pissed off though. When I first came to the States I got a job in the local Mall about a mile from the in-laws home (where we lived for the first year or so after we were married...does that count as Number 3? I think so. I'm going to count it.) and the mother-in-law was visibly shocked when I told her I was going to walk to the Mall.

3. After the wife and I were married we lived with her parents for about a year. I told you I was going to count it.

4. I believe in ghosts. I believe we don't see them because we've learned how to close our minds to them, and that children whose minds are still open can still perceive them. I believe that in some cases the crazy homeless people we see having conversations or arguments with thin air are crazy but their minds are no longer closed and so they're actually talking to and arguing with ghosts.

5. (a) In High School I copied an entire book on Ned Kelly for a History assignment. This was before Referencing and Bibliographies were expected. I got an A+.
5. (b) In College, when only one of the girls in our group understood a certain assignment she let four of us rewrite her essay so we could all pass. We all made sure to write it a little differently, use our own words, etc., so the Professor wouldn't suspect us of copying. When we got our grades back the girl whose assignment we copied from got a B, and everyone else got a C, except for me. I got an A. Sometimes cheaters do prosper.

6. Back in High School, I was reading the winning entries for a State-wide short story competition when I came across a very familiar story about a boy and his new bike. At home that afternoon I searched through numerous editions of Reader's Digest until I found the issue with the story about a boy and his new bike. The next day I showed my English Teacher the winning short story, along with the corresponding Reader's Digest. A few weeks later my English Teacher told me that he had learned that the student had been ordered to return his prize. I don't remember what it was. Probably money.

7. I have a genius-level IQ, which doesn't really mean anything other than I'm very good at solving logical puzzles. I do very well in maths-based tests, but anything requiring critical thinking, reading comprehension, etc., I usually fail with flying colors.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Or not. My nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award. Of which there most assuredly will not be 15.

1. 6 Inch Move is a Blog written by several table-top wargaming friends. I think this counts for as many extra Blogs as I need to make up my 15 :P

2. The Food In My Beard is, obviously enough, a food Blog. It's written by a guy who loves to cook for himself and his friends, and he appears to be pretty damn good at it, too. Features lots of delicious photos. Do not read while hungry.

3. Carrying A Cat By The Tail stars Spuds, a self-proclaimed "cool guy". If he actually says and does even half the stuff he says and does (and I have no reason to believe that he does not) then he is, indeed, a very cool dude.

4. A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings is written by an Aussie girl who moved from Melbourne to Canberra for work, before regaining her senses and moving back to Melbourne. That's Melbourne, Australia, not Melbourne, Florida.

The following Blogs have been classified by Blogger as Adults-only. Whatever that means.

5. Perception is Everything is written by KittyCat and is probably one of my most favorite, newly discovered Blogs.

6. Fun and Dirty Thoughts is written by a pretty hot guy named Marcus who still seems to have trouble charming the pants off his wife.

7. GoodWill (Bad Will) is written by Good Will, but sometimes he's Bad Will, and as the saying goes, when he's good he is very, very good, but when he's bad he's even better ;)

That's all, folks.

Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime?

I'm not terribly fond of beggars, for reasons which I've elaborated on in the past.

I pass a couple of homeless folks on my way to the bus stop each afternoon, and they're always there, every day, and have been for years. When the weather took a turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago they acquired a tent from somewhere (not that a cheap tent will do a lot to protect you from the elements) but for the most part they have their cardboard box bed layered with blankets, and a nearby shopping cart filled with their junk. From my perspective, over the past couple of years they've made no attempt to better their lot in life, other than the acquisition of a tent.

The L.A. Mission is not far away and there the Priests will provide the needy with a warm meal, clean clothes, and a shower, shave, & a haircut. So when you're wearing the same filthy clothes day in & day out and you haven't had a shave or a haircut for months if not years when real help is within walking distance, why should I help you?

My wife will say No to you and not even spare you a second thought. But me? I tend to over-analyze things.

This weekend we were down in San Diego when a guy approached us in the parking lot (for the U.S.S. Midway) asking for help. He was dressed just like the average tourist about to board the Midway. Clean, freshly shaven, polo shirt, bermuda shorts, & sandles. He even had a lanyard around his neck from which appeared to hang a tourist ID badge, although I didn't look terribly closely. And he wanted help. Then came the spiel of your typical, heart string-pulling beggar, laced with the personal touch they all give.

In this guy's case he'd discovered he'd left his wallet in his jean's pocket and now he needed $2.80 for the train to get back to his hotel & his wallet.

Sorry, I can't help you, I told him, while my wife just said, "No".

And off he walked, saying "sorry to have bothered you." And that bothered me. Him saying that. Because now I worried whether he was just a beggar, or if he genuinely needed our help and really did need $2.80 to get back to his hotel.

Except in addition to leaving his wallet in his other pants he'd apparently driven his car to the Midway, because in fleshing out his story he also mentioned locking his keys in his car, thus being unable to drive back to the hotel. Not that we asked. It was just additional information he volunteered.

Now if he drove in, what happened to the people he came in with? Did none of them have $2.80 to loan him? Or did he come by himself?

If he came by himself, how did he pay to park his car without his wallet? Shouldn't that have been the "OMG! I forgot my wallet!" moment?

If he really was a tourist, how did he know the train cost $2.80?

If he'd found out the cost of the fare at the train station, why wasn't he still there? Why did he come back to the Midway parking lot? Surely there were a lot more people at the train station who could have given him the change he needed.

As I said earlier, I tend to over-analyze things, but now that I have there appear to be numerous holes in his story, which all seem to indicate that as clean & well dressed as he was, he was still just a beggar. A beggar with a really good shtick, but a beggar nonetheless.

When he walked away while apologizing for bothering us, that made me feel like crap, because maybe he had genuinely needed my help. But now, having over-analyzed the situation, I don't. He deliberately picked the parking lot to the USS Midway because of the prevalence of people like us, a family of four, being adults more likely to respond positively in front of their children, especially to someone perceived as a fellow tourist.

He didn't look homeless, and he didn't act homeless. He succeeded in passing himself off as someone in genuine need of help, not someone living on the streets trying to bum a quarter. And if he can successfully do that then he's talented enough & smart enough to succeed in a more legitimate line of work. Instead, he chooses to hit up strangers for spare change, and he probably does quite well at it, too. He's not down on his luck. He's right where he wants to be because he's smart enough to recognize when he's on a good wicket. That's his job, tugging on heart strings and playing to people's emotions, and when he realized he was getting nothing from us he immediately cut his losses and walked away.

My wife said No, and went right on with living her life.

I said No, felt like a prick for doing so, then over-analyzed the situation. Eventually I arrived at the same place as my wife, I just needed to put in more work than her. But even now, there's still that niggling speck of doubt that says, "What if you're wrong, and he really did need help?"

Then I'll have to console myself with the thought that someone gave him $2.80 for the train, because he and his cause were believable. If he really was someone in genuine need of help then someone helped him that day, it just wasn't me.

Coffee House loitering

What's the protocol for loitering at your local coffee house?

Is it acceptable to set up shop as soon as the doors open, snaring a table next to a valuable power outlet, then sit there all day, typing away on your laptop? Or are you just being a jerk?

"But I'm a customer! See my cup? So what if it was a $1.50 cup of coffee and I've been getting free refills every hour since then. HELLO?! CUSTOMER?! We're always right, remember?"

What if you buy a sandwich at lunchtime, and a pastry or three throughout the day when your blood sugar drops? Is that okay, then?

So the wife & I stopped by one of our local Starbucks last week. There's a couple in the neighborhood but this particular one is close to home, and it's on a fairly major road which gets very little foot traffic so for some reason I don't think of it as being very busy, yet it is. It's also kind of small, as far as Starbucks go, with about half a dozen tables w/ chairs, so it doesn't need to be busy to look busy. When we walked in and looked around for a table we quickly realized we'd be getting our coffees 'to go'. Every table was occupied and almost all of them had a laptop sitting on them. Even the obligatory table w/ two armchairs had a laptop on it.

It reminded me an Improv Everywhere stunt at a New York Starbucks where they had several agents each bring in and set up a desktop PC. The thing about IE's stunt which I found most intriguing was despite Starbucks never having provided PCs for their customers (at least not to my knowledge) some customers assumed the PCs were there for their use.

We naturally assume an unattended laptop is someone's private machine, but an unattended desktop PC? That's fair game, right?

Registered Sex Offender list

I saw a news article last night on some people getting upset about discovering a Registered Sex Offender was living in their neighborhood, and it made me stop and think as to whether or not the Registered Sex Offender List constitutes cruel & unusual punishment by facilitating discrimination against those offenders who have done their time and are now, to all intents and purposes, just trying to get on with their life.

"But wouldn't you like to know if there's a Registered Sex Offender living in your neighborhood?"

To be honest, as a father of two young children, yes, I would. But if we put emotion aside, why do I need to? Wouldn't you like to know if there's a convicted Murderer living in your neighborhood? Why do we only have a Registered Sex Offender List? Why not a Murderer List? Or a Mugger List?

Is it because unlike convicted Murderers, Sex Offenders cannot be rehabilitated and will always pose a permanent threat to society? That then leads to the question of why release them at all?

The only positive purpose I can see that The List serves is it gives the police a place to start looking in the event that a Sex Crime is committed within that neighborhood. Note that this means it doesn't prevent those crimes from happening, it only facilitates them being solved.

So that's a good reason for the police to have access to The List, but why do we, the public, need access to it? If the Registered Sex Offenders have been rehabilitated by their time in prison and no longer pose a threat to us, why do we need to know where they live?

And if they still do pose a threat to society, why have they been released?

Finally, if they cannot be rehabilitated and do pose a permanent threat to society, why should we waste valuable resources locking them up for Life? Why not remove them from the Game of Life altogether?

It's an interesting jump to go from not liking how The List facilitates discrimination against Registered Sex Offenders and may constitute Cruel & Unusual Punishment, to advocating use of the Death Penalty.

Randomness from the Cap'n

Saturday morning the boy and I got in some more DDO then went and watched Astroboy, which was very enjoyable even if I did get a speck of dust in my eye a couple of times.

After dropping the kids with the in-laws, Liz and I headed into San Gabriel for some Korean BBQ. We got to the restaurant at 2:30pm for their All-You-Eat lunch, only to be told the lunch special closes at 3pm. That's fine, we can eat fast. We didn't eat that fast but by 3pm we had ordered and received our third plate of meat and a second helping of fixings and by the time we were done we were stuffed!

After lunch we went into Pasadena, did a spot of shopping, and picked out some Halloween costumes. The boy's Tae Kwon Do school is having a Halloween party next Saturday and our Church is having its annual Trunk-or-Treat that evening. Liz tried on a Racecar-Pitgirl outfit and she looked good in it, but she didn't like how I looked in my complimentary Speed Racer outfit, so she chose an Indian girl costume while I picked up a Cowboy vest. The picture on the front showed a big mustached fellow with a hat, The Vest, a white shirt, jeans, and belt with huge buckle. I pretty much have all that so The Vest completed my ensemble. Liz's Indian girl outfit came with a headband and feather, so she'll need to provide the Ugg Boots or moccasins to round it out.

Back home I unwound with some more DDO, finally took the plunge, and joined a PUG that was LFMing for the Collaborator on Elite. My Cleric joined a Rogue, a Mage, and a Ranger and we decided that was good enough and started the encounter. I remembered to Heal when I saw Health bars getting low and we drove back the rush of Mobs that makes up the first part of the encounter, then hit the Dungeon itself, which also went without a hitch.

Before the group could think about breaking up I asked about doing Cannith Crystal on Elite so we knocked that one out, too. Then we hit the island where we did the Underground Complex (again on Hard) as well as two other Dungeons, which got me the quest to enter Misery's Peak. So I'm now one Dungeon away from finishing Korthos Island.

Sunday we woke up around 8am thinking we had 2 hours before our Dim Sum brunch with friends, then realized our alarm clock, which automatically adjusts for Daylight Saving Time, had set itself back an hour. It was really 9 o'clock. We were a few minutes late and the last to arrive but not by much. Lots of yummy food was eaten, I even sampled the chicken's feet. They were more palatable this time around than 11 years ago, but are still not something I'd choose to eat at Dim Sum, if given the choice. There's far too much delicious food to fill my tummy with something I'd rather not eat.

With the meal over Xinh suggested we go bowling & everyone thought that was a great idea. As we discussed where the closest bowling alley was, Xinh said she'd meant Wii Sports bowling at our house. That was a good idea, too, so we all made our way back to our house where we first played Bowling, then several of the other games on Wii Sports Resort, all of which proved as fun to play as they were hilarious to watch. The Sword Fighting was probably the funniest, watching everyone flail the Wiimote around in a manner more akin to fighting with rolled up newspaper than actual sword fighting.

Finally, with everyone having errands to run, we called it an afternoon and bid our guests adieu.

And that just about wraps up the weekend.

Wanted: One artist

Specifically the name of the artist who drew this...
I cut it from the LA Times about 8 years ago and stupidly didn't clip the article itself. But someone knows the artist who drew this, maybe even one of my readers. So, let's see if one of you can come through :)

As always, you can click the picture to view a much larger copy, like Wallpaper size :)

Wisdom from a bear of little brain

"What's this you're writing?" asked Pooh, climbing onto the writing table.

"The Tao of Pooh," I replied.

"The how of Pooh?" asked Pooh, smudging one of the words I had just written.

"The Tao of Pooh," I replied, poking his paw away with my pencil.

"It seems more like the ow! of Pooh," replied Pooh, rubbing his paw.

"Well, it's not," I replied huffily.

"What's it about?" asked Pooh, leaning forward and smearing another word.

"It's about how to stay happy and calm under all circumstances!" I yelled.

"Have you read it?" asked Pooh.

From The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.

Penguins having a party

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get why this doesn't have a lot more hits...



As far as I'm concerned, the little clip here on my Blog doesn't do it justice. So if your bandwidth allows it, head over to the actual video on Youtube and hit the HD button to view it in it's full glory. It's something else.

MMOs defined

It made me LOL ;)

Shooting them should be legal

As I approached an intersection today the driver of a Ford Explorer waiting on the side street pulled onto the pedestrian crossing and either struck a cyclist, or scared him so badly he fell off his bike. If he did hit him it can't have been too hard because the cyclist got up, shook his fist at the driver, then climbed back on his bike and continued on his way.

I passed the intersection and the Explorer pulled out behind me, and because I wanted to make a right up ahead I moved over into his lane, about 50 metres in front of him. When I slowed down for the red light at the next intersection he made a move very typical of drivers of SUVs and other larger vehicles; He decided he didn't want to be behind my little Focus so he started to change lanes, except he forgot to do a head check. He was halfway into the next lane before he noticed the Scion next to him. I guess the Scion's driver was too busy avoiding being side swiped to use his horn, except in doing so he was letting the Explorer push him out of his lane into oncoming traffic. Fortunately for the Scion the light was red (with pedestrians crossing the road) so there was no oncoming traffic.

Incredibly, within the space of 30 seconds, I'd just witnessed the same driver almost cause two accidents, both because he was not cognizant of his surrounding traffic conditions. Some people really do not deserve their license.

Yup, I've got this, too...

(Click to view sharper image)

Motivation

I'll admit it, I may be a bloody genius but I'm also a lazy bastard, and sometimes I need a kick in the pants to get me going. So I made myself a motivational poster, and damned if it doesn't get the job done. Being a considerate, lazy genius, I thought I'd share, in case anyone else needs a slap upside the head, too ;)

NCIS

Yeah, I'm an NCIS Fanbois, and a dorky one at that, with my satchel strap across my chest. (Idiot! Take your bag off next time! Whadda ya trying to do? Ruin an excellent fan pic?)

Gibb's famous black Dodger Charger

He was driving it earlier that day, Mark Harmon was, that is. He drives just like Gibbs too, which makes perfect sense when you think about it.

Per Crucifer's request here's more on my NCIS encounter.

* * *

On Tuesday our HR Rep forwarded a Memo from Building Mgmt. about filming that would be taking place in our building the next day. A month or two back the Heroes crew had been by so I opened this one to see if they were back or....NCIS??? OMG!!!!

Yep, it was kind of like that ;)

Actually when I'd arrived for work that morning a crew was already setting up, and it didn't occur to me later when I got the Memo that NCIS were already here because big productions rarely shoot for just one day.

I was in a late afternoon meeting when I heard a pitched gun battle from the alley. Easily 10 or 12 shots were fired, which is unusual for NCIS. Up until that point none of NCIS' gun fights (at least none I'd seen) had run that long, most were over after the exchange of just a few shots. (*edit* They were filming ep. 6.20 Dead Reckoning, and this was the opening scene's gun fight involving Trent Kort)

Today Liz came into downtown to join me for lunch (& hopefully see someone ;) so when she called to tell me she was almost there I headed downstairs where I found a crew out on the sidewalk. From where I stood I could see Michael Weatherly (aka DiNozzo) chatting with a couple of folks. A minute or so later a crew member came over and asked me and a couple of other people standing next to the alley to move back, because Mark Harmon was going to be driving into the alley hard & fast, just like his alter-ego 'Gibbs' :)

Sure enough Mark emerged from the alley and as a cop directed traffic around them he walked out and got into the familiar black Dodge Charger. When they were ready the cop stopped a couple of cars to give them room and with that "Gibbs" emerged, the Charger roared, and with tires screeching it hammered into and down the alley and out of view.

I chatted with the crew member and found out they were about to break for lunch themselves, but he told me where they'd be shooting afterward, which was just a couple of blocks from where I'd be catching my bus.

Liz arrived as they were getting ready for another take, and she actually drove past Mark & Michael in their car. If she'd come along a minute or so earlier or later she would have been stopped by the cop and had an excellent view of Gibbs doing what he does best: driving like a maniac :P

Instead she picked me up then did a "Gibbs U-Turn" of her own, right in front of the man himself.

Without enough room for her Highlander to get all the way around in one shot and with oncoming traffic quickly approaching, Liz was forced to drive up onto the sidewalk to complete her U-turn. As she pulled back out onto the road we passed Michael and Mark still sitting on the other side of the road. The driver's window was down and Mark was looking right at us.

In Liz's words, "I didn't know until I made the turn and I was facing him when I was finished. He flashed his famous grin at me. *swoon*"

I don't know if Michael made a comment to him about how "she drives just like you", but Mark really was looking right at Liz and he had a big grin on his face.

After lunch Liz dropped me back at work. The crew were still on their own lunch break so Liz went on home.

At the end of the day I swung by the second location and while walking down the street I saw the Charger first, then Cote de Pablo (Ziva) chatting with a few guys. When I got closer and was finally able to take my eyes off her :P I realized Michael was standing beside her. On meeting Cote in person it was very hard to picture her as diamond-hard Ziva. She is a strikingly attractive woman.

I had to interrupt their conversation with two crew members (who I found out later were Donald Bellisario and his assistant) but they were really good about me intruding on their work. When I asked if I could get a photo Donald said sure, waved his hand and stood back.

Suddenly nervous I stammered & stuttered but managed to convey that I wanted my picture taken with Cote and Michael. Thinking back I have the impression that Donald knew what I wanted all along and was just messing with me. I handed over my camera but he passed it on to his assistant. When I stepped up to Cote and Michael they parted so I could stand between them, and when I did, Cote put her arm around my waist. I'm not joking. Seriously! Look how she's leaning into me! So I returned the favor and did the same to both her and Michael ;) I'm not sure what he thought about that, although it shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, I mean he is a good looking guy ;) We may be the same age but he's aged a heck of a lot better than I have :D

After the photo was taken Cote demanded photo-approval rights before letting me go, which got her a ribbing and a friendly shove from Michael. Clearly their onscreen chemistry is mirrored off screen as well, although rumor has it that while Cote would like their characters to hook up, Michael is averse to that idea.

I asked if Mark was still around and was told he'd already left. I mentioned that I'd seen him driving into the alley near my work that morning and told Michael he was taking his life in his hands when he rode with Mark. (Yeah, my nerves were calm now. I was shooting the breeze with Ziva and DiNozzo ;)

"Every day," Michael said with a laugh. "Every single day!"

And that was it. Off I went to catch my bus, and send Liz a text message: "No Gibbs, he'd already left. But I did get a photo of his car. I also got a photo of me with DiNozzo...and ZIVA!!!"

Her reply was short and direct: "U sux!"

Retirement Homes

I found an interesting post on a Blog (I amaze myself how I find this stuff, sometimes) about outfitting Retirement Homes with LANs, to give the elderly folks something to do as they wait out the remainder of their days on this earth.

If you think about it, most Retirement Homes are very passive places. Old folks sit and watch TV, read the newspaper, or talk quietly among themselves. Or they sit & stare out the window as if wondering who will arrive first: Their kids & grandkids, or the Grim Reaper.

Several years ago I was out door-knocking (I think I was trying to raise money for a charity) and I went into a Retirement Home, thinking the old folks in there would probably be generous and willing to donate to a charity. But the second I walked in and saw all these old folks sitting there, waiting (& you know what they're waiting for), I changed my mind. But by this time I was already well inside the main sitting area, and one of the Orderlies was making his way over towards me.

I looked around at all the old folks just minding their own business and I asked myself what the hell had I been thinking.

And then I saw my Great Aunty. My Mother's Grandmother.

She used to live just a few doors up from us and I'd visit her all the time when I was a young boy. Then...I stopped visiting her. I can't remember why. Maybe it was because she'd been "put in The Home". (How cold does that sound? You "put your parents in a home".) Even though she'd been more of a Grandma to me than my actual Grandma, I hadn't thought about or seen her for years.

So I walked over and sat down next to her and re-introduced myself, because I had no clue if she'd remember who I was. I can't have been more than 12 years old the last time I saw her, and at this time I was a young man in my 20s. I explained how we were related, and sat and talked with her for a little while, although she seemed more inclined to chat with her neighbor than me, and why not? Who was I to her? Just someone who'd walked in off the street, really. I was just someone who popped back into her life for a few minutes, then walked out on her again. Like everyone else I left her there, out of sight out of mind, to be forgotten until...you know.

I'm sorry for everything both my parents went through during my father's last years, that it wasn't a Bam! You're dead! Now get over it! situation. But I'm also glad my father was able to spend his last days, weeks, months on earth in his own home, that he had the dignity of dyign in his own bed. That's how I'd like to go.

Or take one last walk up into the mountains, and not come back down.

Or would I be happy in a Retirement Home if it had a LAN? Would I be content fragging the shit out of my geriatric neighbors? Or would it still weigh heavily on me every time my kids left with my grandkids, that maybe this goodbye is our last goodbye?

Messing around

I decided to try a new Blog layout, so I've been messing around with the tools Blogger gives you to accomplish this. I like this layout because it's KISS. I can't stand Blogs with non-scrolling backgrounds that obliterate the text you're trying to read, or try too hard to get your attention. Maybe that's my conservative side coming out. What I also like about this layout is it's one of the very few Blogger has which expands the "entry/post" column with the size of the window.

Now, what about the color of the text? Is the standard black text still okay? What about the blue or the red I used in that previous entry? I'm pretty sure I can still mess with the HTML code to change text color, or just remember to change it here when I post.

Is anyone's Blog missing on the side (in the links) that used to be there? For some reason this new layout killed my regular Blog list while keeping my MOG Blog list. I tried to add back in as many as I could remember, but if I missed yours, or heck, if you read my Blog and just want me to add your Blog to my roll, drop me a line and I'll add it.

That's about it, for now ;)

What the??? Where'd that come from?

Drat that Mogs and her newly discovered archery skills.

Six random things about me.

Random? How does one decide what constitutes randomness?

Just like Mogs,

1. I also like to hunt (but haven't for quite some time). My implement of choice is a 12-gauge shotgun, loaded for bunny, of course ;)

2. I can shoot a bow too, and am purty darn good at it, or I used to be. I could reliably put an arrow into a 4" circle at 20 metres (approx. 65 feet).

3. I once beat a semi-professional swimmer at his own game.

4. I could climb before I could walk. Classic example was my mum coming into the living room and finding me sitting on top of our television set.

5. I once helped out a mate by replacing his car's broken tail-light with a unit I found...in a used car lot...on the back of another car.

6. English is my first (& only) language, and I love to read, but I was terrible at English (the subject) in High School.

Mogs? Do I need to Tag someone else now? I could Tag my wife, but I think she's given up on blogging. Xinh, however, she's pretty reliable about doing these things.

Xinh? Tag! You're it!

Wanted! Dead or Alive!

BugHunter has a post up about a 'date' he & his wife recently went on to Body Worlds. That may not sound like a great date to you, but BH & his wife apparently had a great time (other than the delays, long lines, and crappy customer service), and I would have thought it was pretty cool, too (other than the delays, long lines, & crappy customer service).

When I did a search for Body Worlds, one of the links that popped up caught my eye: How much is your body worth?

Intrigued, I clicked on this Cadaver Calculator, and this is what I found out:

What about you? Are you worth more Dead than Alive?

*Edit* After answering the 20-question quiz you will be prompted to sign up for something like Mingle (an online Dating service), but in small print at the bottom will be a link you can click to say "No thanks, take me to my quiz results."

Now I know...

why Garfield, and Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats don't like Mondays.

You know what's worse than opening a pistachio nut and thinking it's moldy?

Discovering the "fuzz" on the nut is actually the remnants of a cocoon spun by a little grub. And look! There it is! Roasted in its little niche, inside the pistachio nut.

You know what's worse than that?

Looking at the pile of empty shells from the pistachios you've already eaten.

Straight No Chaser, 10 years later

Their original clip, from 10 years ago, has been taken down. They're 10 years older and some of them are having just a shade of trouble hitting the really high notes, but the A Capella group from Indiana University are still doing an excellent job with their rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

I hope it makes you smile as much as it does me.



Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus, or just plain Happy Holidays.

Another one rides the bus

This morning while waiting for the bus, a (what's the PC term?) Residentially Challenged Man wandered up, scratching himself, fidgeting, and doing things your typical RC person is wont to do, like slapping himself and yelling at things only he can see.

I debated (with myself) the merits of calling my local P.D. but really, what had this fellow done other than be Residentially Challenged? That really shouldn't be a crime (and I doubt it is), and while he did look like he could use the attention of someone who'd take better care of him than he was himself, would my local P.D. be able to satisfy that role in his life? And considering the Bus Station is under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Department, not the local P.D., my friendly, neighborhood RCM would probably end up just getting a ride into downtown and wind up a few blocks from where I work.

He wasn't hurting anyone, and didn't really appear dangerous, so I figured what with it being Hanukkah/Christmas/Kwanza/Winter Solstice, why not just let my fellow man be.

A Metro Bus came through and the RCM got all excited, but this particular Bus was Not In Service so it just drove on by without stopping, and the RCM calmed down (somewhat) and resumed his fidgeting and pacing. Then a Foothill Transit Bus pulled up at the station and the RCM jumped up and trotted over to the door, but as this Bus terminated at the Bus Station the RCM was once again disappointed. Then my Bus finally arrived and everyone in line got excited, but the RCM was more so than most.

Ignoring the line of passengers he trotted up to the door and got lucky. Normally the Drivers of the Express Buses into downtown close the front door when they go back to check their passengers and make sure everyone has paid the extra fare to ride into town, but this morning's driver didn't do that; he left the front door open.

The RCM pushed his way in front of the first person in line and when the driver was halfway down the bus he made his move and leaped aboard. Taking a couple of quick steps he plopped down into the first available seat, and his new neighbor immediately switched seats. I watched as the Bus Driver got to the back of the bus, checked his last passenger, then turned and made his way back towards the front. Surely he'd notice RCM and realize he hadn't been there earlier but RCM's sheer audacity paid off and the Driver walked past him without blinking, or even wrinkling up his nose.

For gaming the system and getting a free ride into downtown, we salute you, Mr. Smarter-than-you-look Residentially Challenged Man!