rerun rapture

I am intensely enjoying the replays of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The new season starts September 8. Television doesn't get any better than this show. I can watch every episode again and again.

yelp is back

In the spirit of the Democrat's call in 2000 to "count every vote" I am reinstating the Yelp gadget because after the official vote tally, two more yes votes came in. I do not want to be accused of disenfranchising these voters.

the "people" have spoken

I got four votes on my poll regarding the Yelp gadget on my blog:

• 1 vote for Yes, leave it on
• 2 votes for No, take it off
• 1 vote of "Incapable of deciding"

Recent reviews by Jack O.

What's this?

olympic funny

Watching Olympic swimming you keep hearing the commentators say things like:

• "he's the best breast stroker ever"
• "she has really been working on her breast stroking"
  

Insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here.

olympic sports?

Olympic sports that kick ass:

• women's beach volleyball
• track and field
• swimming
• shooting
• archery
  

Olympic sports that suck ass:

• anything synchronized or rhythmic or artistic
  
• anything involving animals other than humans

Olympic sports that shouldn't be:

• sports that have events and championships that are already bigger than the Olympics (e.g. road cycling, tennis, soccer, boxing, baseball, basketball)
• sports you can play in your basement (e.g. ping pong a.k.a. table tennis)
• sports you have played in your backyard (e.g. badminton)
• sports that require "judging" (e.g. diving, gymnastics, trampoline)
  

training hike 2

Took a hike today on the Illinois River Bluff Trail in Robinson Park. Last weekend I hiked south from Forest Park Nature Center on the Pimiteoui Trail then south on Grandview Drive continuing down Adams to Detweiller Marina and back. Today's hike was much more pleasant due to both the environs and the weather. For both these hikes I loaded my backpack with 30 pounds of weight, loaded the iPod, put on my new hiking shoes and socks and walked. I have taken these hikes to help prepare me for the trip to Colorado with my father planned for the first week of September.

The new trails in Robinson Park are great. You can now hike from Camp Wokanda on the north end all the way south to Route 6. Kudos to all the Boy Scouts whose projects contributed to these trails.

representation inflation

While watching the "parade of nations" I noted discrepancies between the number of athletes listed and the number of people walking into the stadium. Examples:

• Vanuatu listed 3 athletes, but had 9 people (including the flag bearer) walking in
• Gambia listed 3, 9 people walked in
• Benin listed 5, 10 people walked in
• Mauritania listed 2, 6 people walked in
• Barbados listed 8, 13 walked in
• Burkina Faso listed 6, 14 walked in
• Niger listed only 1, but 11 walked in
• San Marino listed 4, but 10 walked in
• Congo listed 5, but 11 walked in
• Iraq listed 4, 10 walked in

There were certainly others, but the above were small enough to count easily and happened to be on screen as I type this. Something about having more people than listed athletes walk into the stadium offends my sensibilities.

Contrastingly, Albania listed 11, but had only 5 people enter the stadium. Bravo for bucking the trend.

I am pretty sure that Palestine is not a country, yet they walked in as if they were.

very refreshing

We watched episode 61 of Gene Simmons Family Jewels tonight. Gene was on the USS Nimitz and was extremely supportive of and complimentary to the sailors there. This was the third episode of the show where Gene has interacted with the US Military. Each time he has been genuinely humble and grateful to the military. It is great to see a rocker who is openly patriotic.

6 for Rix

Rixblix tagged me.

Tag Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My six random things:

• I have never broken a bone
• Summited Mt. Whitney (tallest mountain in the US outside of Alaska)
• I am the inventor on 2 US Patents and an inventor on 2 more
  
• Boxers or briefs? Neither, I wear boxer briefs
• I've been in 47 of the 50 states
  
• Family has been in North America since 1639 which makes me a native since my ancestors were here before there was a United States of America

I'm supposed to tag 6 more bloggers but I won't because I am generally opposed to chain letter type things, but I made an exception and (partially) participated in this one just for Rixblix.

the absolute truth about jury selection

This is how John Edwards and other vermin like him got rich.

my blogger bash defloration

A very interesting and enjoyable (surprisingly so for an INTP like me) night attending the blogger bash. Initially I seated myself at the bar and took stock of the scene. I recognized a couple of the attendees. Thank you to Sue, Diane, Jaded and Katie for drawing me in.

Good choice of location. Tough to beat $1.25 drafts!

You know how when you listen to someone on the radio and develop a mental picture of that person? Then you see the billboard advertising that radio person and he doesn't look like your mental picture? I had that same experience tonight. Some people have posted pictures of themselves on their blogs so they were not a surprise, others haven't and were. I imagine others had the same response to my presence.

Everyone I met was very friendly, interesting and non-judgmental. It was a much more diverse crew than I expected. I was anticipating a narrower slice of the population taken from the digerati area of the pie.

For Rixblix who was not there: you missed seven hotties including one wearing panties that were white with light blue stripes. I estimate a 7:1 ratio of stripe spacing to stripe width, but was unable to determine whether it was a thong. I can provide additional description of her and other hotties upon request.

melrose memories

BTG wore a skirt today that hearkened me back to the glory days of Melrose Place business attire. Damn good for a Monday, hopefully there will be more of that in the future. Check 30 seconds into this clip for a reminder of what it was like.

interesting plate

I saw a license plate today "S_N_EM_1". I was curious to see the person(s) who so boldly proclaimed their lifestyle. But I didn't see the car's owner so the mystery will remain.

where did it all go?

I got my annual Social Security report in the mail. According to the statement I have paid $50,769 in SS taxes and my employers have paid $51,190. I would gladly forego all future SS payments if I could have my $50,769 under my control and ownership. Getting even a portion of my employers' "contributions" would be icing on the cake. I want to opt out of this Ponzi scheme!! Let me keep my earnings and I won't ask for or expect anything when/if I retire. Is that $101,959 in an account with my name on it? NO. It has been squandered on ethanol subsidies and every other asinine thing the feds do with my tax dollars. If it had all gone for bullets and tanks and killing terrorists and other Constitutionally proscribed things, I wouldn't mind, but it didn't.

My employers and I also have each ponied up $12,082 to the Medicare system. Again I would rather have that money myself and get nothing from the federal government when/if I retire.

selfless then selfish

I took the boys to the Chillicothe Shore Acres Pool this afternoon so J could have some time to herself since she has had a long week with those two and I checked out for a couple days following the head shrinking Tuesday. We had a good time. G was too afraid to go on the big slides, but had a good time with the rest of the facilities and J2 enjoyed himself all around. I was even able to avoid being too distracted by hotties in bikinis to keep track of both boys.

This evening I went to Old Chicago to play trivia and catch up on the current mini-tour. The sad bartender was there looking a little less sad than usual. She was wearing shorts (first time I have seen that) and her legs looked great!

I wish J was awake so she and I could talk.

older dudes and urinals

I have noticed a trend among older guys leaning against the wall behind the urinal while taking care of business. The common pose is leaning forward with one forearm against the wall and resting his head on his forearm while his other hand takes care of aiming. This is weird to me. I try to touch as little as possible in bathrooms. These guys go out of their way and increase contact with bathroom surfaces. I have not seen anyone under 50 doing this. I do not plan to adopt this old guy behavior when I get to that age.

the economy is NOT that bad

How do I know this? Because of the advertisement for a new store at Grand Prairie touting its fresh baked biscuits for DOGS! No more whining about the economy until this place is out of business!

not routine yet

Another shrink appointment this evening. Since starting the head shrinking process I have had a few flashes of insight while going about my usual activities. Puzzle pieces I hadn't put together before, connections I hadn't made. Still far more questions than answers. Maybe now at least I am asking better questions and more open to answers than I was before.