Let'sMoveToTheMoon

Switching Feeds

2006-03-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

For the four of you that are subscribed to my feed through Bloglines or some other service and haven't switched your feed since I stopped using Blogger, you'll need to subscribe to this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/letsmovetothemoon

One Last Wordpress Update!

2006-03-09T20:10:00.000-05:00

Today my Wordpress blog has been finalized! I've got the system up and running (thanks completely to Paul/Rush, an admin over at BlogMad) and will be moving all of my posts over once I'm done customizing the template to my needs. I'd predict that within the next week I'll have everything all set and hopefully I should be able to redirect this page as well as change the RSS feed so that they all point toward the new site. The URL, of course, is http://LetsMoveToTheMoon.com, for all of those interested in checking up on my progress. Beware, I've not had much time yet.

Another Windows Vs. Mac Post

2006-03-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

Man. My aunt needed a new computer. She wanted a PC and not a Mac. She wouldn't know any better. *Sigh* Well, we bought her one. Now I've got the job of setting it up for her. We of course bought it from Dell because we have an account (yet another *sigh*). So this new Dell PC has about 3580957123 programs pre-installed on it that I've now got to uninstall. That should take about 20 minutes. Then, I've got to spend another 20 minutes installing programs to keep her from getting spyware and locking everything down. *Sigh* She shoulda' got a Mac.

T3h Google Drive

2006-03-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

Before getting to the meat of this post, I'd like to mention the fact that I am swamped with work for the next few days.

So I was reading TechCrunch and noticed one of their posts about the proposed Google Drive. Here's the link. Google Drive is basically going to be a method of storage for anyone who would like to to keep all of their data online on Google's servers. Of course, this is freaking out many people who've watched the Epic 2015 video. I think it'll be cool if they do this. I like the idea of Google taking over the world. It'd be fun to watch.

One More BlogMad Post

2006-03-05T21:45:00.000-05:00

I just have to post about BlogMad one more time (well, this probably won't be the last). Anyway, I've been using the service a ton lately. I've been doing a ton of surfing, a bunch of CageFighting (a dueling game thing), and a lot of browsing the forums answering questions and such. It's a fun time and my blog is definitely getting hits. Those who aren't seeing my blog through BlogMad should definitely sign up. I'll send you an invite if you leave your email address in the comments or something.

Bakin' Cinnamon Buns

2006-03-04T08:23:00.000-05:00

Tip-of-the-day-that-will-never-have-a-daily-repeat: If you don't have yeast, and you try to replace it with baking soda, vitamin c powder, and lemon juice, don't replace the vitamin c powder with more baking soda and the lemon juice with vinegar. Theoretically, it should work. It doesn't.

Gilligan's Island Theme Song - 2006

2006-03-02T21:01:00.000-05:00

I don't often post videos and I'm planning to stick to that method, but after seeing this I just had to post it. It's worth it, though. Oh, and I found this at Subfive while surfing BlogMad.

BlogMad Finally Open!

2006-03-01T16:01:00.000-05:00

After a long awaited private beta, BlogMad has entered the public beta stage! I got home to find an open BlogMad! Of course, it's still not an open sign-up; rather, it's invite-only. That of course is no problem if you're reading this and are interested in signing up. Leave a comment here (with your email address, of course) and I'll shoot an invite your way!

Writing About Podcasting is Fun

2006-02-28T21:23:00.000-05:00

I was given an assignment in English class to write an article on the topic of my choosing to be submitted to the periodical of my choosing. I, of course, chose a tech-related topic - podcasting. This paper was reviewed by my class a few weeks ago. I was hardly surprised to find that the only one to know what podcasting is about was the friend that I had already explained the subject to. Anyway, I'm halfway done. I wrote what I thought was the finished paper before reading the requirements of the magazine I'll be submitting it to. Now I've got to double the length. If I'm accepted, I'll make somewhere in the range of $300 for the article. That is, IF it's accepted. It's a good article, anyway.

Democracy - The Video Client, Of Course

2006-02-27T20:45:00.000-05:00

I haven't used it for a few months - back when it was called DTV and only available for Mac. I may, however, consider downloading it again. My only issue is that I'd like to watch all of my video in iTunes solely so that I can sync it with my iPod with video. It looks much cleaner than it did a few months ago and now that more people are using it there may be some good content coming (not that there wasn't a few months ago). I have to say, it was a nice program.

Rats!

2006-02-26T19:12:00.000-05:00

Literally. Yesterday some other people and I were working on a construction project at church. Our church has a pond outside in which we've seen muskrats in the past. This day, though, we noticed one seemed to be stuck in the fence surrounding the pond. We figured it'd be free in a few seconds, but after watching it we noticed it kinda was, well...dead. One of the other people worked it out of the fence (and that was quite a challenge, let me tell you) and then we kinda had a muskrat. We gave it a nice grave, but we're considering the idea of stuffing it. A mascot, if you will.

Today is BlogMad BugDay!

2006-02-25T07:46:00.000-05:00

Today is BlogMad's BugDay! If you visit http://forums.blogmad.net you can get an update on all of the BugDay news. To join the chatroom, visit this page. To get a sneak peek at the soon-to-come BlogMad site, go to http://fx.badc0de.net. At that site, you'll be able to see the BlogMad site in its completeness and even test out the features and submit bugs. Have fun!

Update on Move to Wordpress

2006-02-24T19:56:00.000-05:00

After a few weeks of no progress, mostly my fault, I'm finally getting ready to make the switch. Only a little bit longer and I should be ready to switch on over. Everything is ready to go on the domain and hosting end and soon Wordpress will be installed (most of those things thanks to Paul over at BlogMad). After that and a little bit of customizing on my part and the moving of all of the old posts over, I should be ready to go.

Your Own Site + Google

2006-02-23T21:52:00.000-05:00

I dunno how I didn't find this one earlier. I just stumbled across Google's Web Page Creator. I guess this is Google's website design tool. I tried to log in, but I was told that because of the demand the number of accounts are being limited at this time. Like Google should have any problem with demand. Oh well. I'll have to try it later.

Biting My Nails

2006-02-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

Not 'cause I'm nervous, just 'cause I bite them. I hate it. I've been doing it for a good 7 or 8 years now and I just can't quit. I've been able to stop once, but I picked it up again. I wish I'd stop. Anyone else have this problem?

The Video That Makes Me Want to Switch to PC

2006-02-21T16:35:00.000-05:00

I found this amazing video of Bill Gates doing a promotion for Windows 95 and video games. It's so hilarious. I know that if I saw this video back in the 90's, I'd definitely buy Windows 95. I almost begin to like Bill Gates after watching this video. Almost. Link. (Via Google Video of the Day.)

BlogMad Bug Testing Day

2006-02-19T21:09:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, February 25, BlogMad will be opening its doors to random people found browsing the forums to do a short, one-day beta test. Those chosen will be given access to the closed beta for this one day and will get a nice preview of all the cool features of BlogMad. Other things that will happen on this day will be interviews, games, tournaments, and random prizes. There'll also be some webcams set up to watch the admin team hard at work (yes, they actually do work - it's surprising). It should be a fun time and I'll definitely be hanging around.

Photoshop. That's So 2005.

2006-02-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

PXN8 is an online image editing program. It does some of the main features that novice users when editing images. It doesn't do anything hardcore, but why should one expect it to do so? I think that this is probably best for times when you've just got a picture that you want to take the red-eye out of and then pop onto Flickr (since it has a feature that allows you to send it right to Flickr). It's pretty convenient, not too web 2.0-y, and has some cool features. (Found via SarahInTampa.)

Burnin' Those Calories Playing Video Games

2006-02-18T17:44:00.000-05:00

So after reading the title you must know what I am talking about: Dance Dance Revolution. For those unlucky few who don't know what it is, you basically use your feet to hit arrows on a pad you are standing on when that arrow shows up at the top of the screen you are watching. It's easy once you get the hang of it. Anyhoo, I've been a fan for a few years, but haven't played in months. It is quite a workout. My legs are sore 2 days after playing (course, I played on the Heavy mode). Also, I burned 100 calories in 5 songs - according to their calculator, at least. Not bad.

Podcast Current Events...For Me At Least

2006-02-17T16:50:00.000-05:00

There was a point a few months ago where I weeded out the podcasts I didn't listen to as faithfully as others. That was very successful. I went from over 40 podcasts to less than 20. I could listen to them all and only listened to the ones I liked. Now, I'm back to more than 30 and have even less times. I'll just do a little review of some of the ones I've recently subscribed to.

Valid Syntax is a podcast about open source programs. In it, Kreg Steppe, cohost of the ChuckChat Technorama podcast, discusses updates to programs, lists most frequently worked on programs, and chooses one product to highlight. Some of these that he discusses are quite interesting. Also, it's interesting to hear updates on some of these.

I've also recently gotten more interested in music podcasts, particularly Christian music ones. Some of the ones I've listened to are Lifespring, ICM Raw, The Bored-Again Christian, and View from the Pew Radio.

I've also recently discovered some video podcasts. One I find funny is Ask a Ninja. Some technology-related ones are InDigital, inFIVE, and Macbreak. I also watch the LifeChurch.tv video podcasts.

There are, of course, some older ones I'm into, like Podcast411, Leo Laporte's podcasts, ChuckChat (Technorama, ChuckChat Freestyle, and the Gmail Podcast), RevTim, Buzz Out Loud from CNet, and some others. That's more than I planned to cover and pretty much hits all of them.

Some Valentine's Day

2006-02-15T17:42:00.000-05:00

I'm not complaining about the day itself. It was fun. I received two balloons, one in the shape of a frog. I'm sad, though, since that one flew to the ceiling of a very high gymnasium. Gone, gone forever. *Sigh*

(Note: The balloon I had was a happy frog. This is purely an example.)

I'm a Liar

2006-02-14T21:50:00.000-05:00

Yeah. Not on purpose, though. I warned you it would happen. The Wordpress part is still going to, though. (http://letsmovetothemoon.blogspot.com/2006/01/whats-in-store.html)

Ahhh Synchronicity

2006-02-13T22:18:00.000-05:00

Sorta. The thought randomly popped into my mind to set up my three main computers with Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net). For those who haven't heard, Synergy is a piece of software that allows one to use multiple computers and monitors with one keyboard and mouse, almost like a software KVM switch. Almost. How convenient, you might say. Well yes. I'm currently running a Mac Mini, a Powerbook, and a Dell PC. The Mini and the Powerbook work so cleanly together. I am unable, however, to get the PC and the Macs to work together. I don't know if that's a feature that's allowed yet, but I'm disappointed it doesn't work. That'd sure make everything so convenient. Oh well.

I...Wait. I...Oh Man!

2006-02-12T21:34:00.000-05:00

Man. Since I've picked up posting again, I've determined that one has to post immediately when they have an idea or write it down as to not forget. To date I have forgotten an estimated 20 topics which I planned to post about. I decided to write this post because today I had planned on posting something when I got home, but now that I am home I forgot what that was. *Sigh*

Seemingly Random 80s Pop Tunes

2006-02-11T16:53:00.000-05:00

I watched the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics last night and enjoyed it. The whole dance thing in the beginning was pretty good and the model of the skier was pretty cool. The best part of it, though, was when the athletes walked in. In the background, music from the 80s, pop music no less, was playing as the athletes made their entrances. I don't think anyone picked up on it for a while, but about halfway through I noticed and then the announcers even picked up on it. My favorite quote from the whole thing was when one announcer said (I think this is exact) the athletes are walking in to "seemingly random 80s pop tunes". What a time.

Peace and Video Games

2006-02-10T16:51:00.000-05:00

Jack Thompson. I got the idea for this post after a class today. Anyone who's been reading tech news lately knows very well who he is (and so do many who haven't since he's had political fame years back). We all know that he is now standing against video games and is doing it fiercely. I'm not going to discuss whether or not I agree with the content of his message, but I will say that I disagree on the approach and delivery. He states that these games are responsible for murders and other violent crimes. The fact that he doesn't like violent games is alright, but when he repeats it and repeats it as well as goes to court on numerous occasions, compares the game-makers to horrific dictators, demands that games stop being produced, etc. etc., he does something which in my mind goes against what he believes in. One verse in the Bible states, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." By strongly saying these things, he's not living peaceably with all men. He's doing the opposite.

Freddy Prinze Jr.'s Tips For Web Design

2006-02-08T21:47:00.000-05:00

Ok so today on Digg there was a link to a website which gives web design tips. I must admit, the site is layed out pretty good and it looks like some of the tips are pretty good. I'll be reading over this more, especially since I'm currently in the process of designing a new website both for my blog and for my church. More interesting than all of this, however, is the fact that the creator looks a bunch like Freddy Prinze Jr., maybe combined with Bob Saget. Link: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/

BlogMad's Popularity and coComment

2006-02-07T20:59:00.000-05:00

First, I'll mention that BlogMad is now in the top 100,000 websites on the Internet. That's pretty impressive for a site offering pretty much no service at this point! Congrats to them.

On the coComment front, I've received my invite and tried it out a little but, but really haven't had any time to play around with it on the level that I'd like to. If you're interested, however, TechCrunch did a pretty good review of the service.

Man, I'm a Genius

2006-02-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

Today, my history teacher assigned us a project. Our assignment is to research one of the organizations that FDR set up with his "New Deal" program and to chronicle a few weeks in the life of a worker who had been job-less during Hoover's presidency in the form of a diary. When I read this, my mind jumped to blogging, but unfortunately the teacher is uninterested in that. *Sigh* Anyway, I thought that this concept would be interesting for a blog. You know, someone roleplaying as a poor worker in the thirties, blogging away. The idea's probably been done, but I thought it'd be interesting nonetheless. Oh, and I'm not gonna do it; it was just an idea.

Blog Comments Made Easy

2006-02-04T16:09:00.000-05:00

I saw this one on Robert Scoble's blog. A service called coComment is in the early beta stages. When it's released, it will be a place where a blogger or blog reader can go and register so that the comments that they make on blogs can be tracked and kept all in one place, instead of the current method of having to keep track of what blogs you comment on. For me to see if any of my comments have been responded to, I'd have to check tons of blogs daily. With this service, all of that will be kept in one place. Not only that, but they offer a feature which allows you to place some kind of object on your website to show visitors where you have left comments recently. I can't wait for this to come out.

Cheese, Gunpowder...It's All the Same

2006-02-03T23:37:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist posting this. I saw this article on Digg a few minutes ago. This lengthy exposition talks about the scent of moon dust, as well as its taste. The article is actually pretty long and goes into quite detail. I don't want to spoil too much, but the moon dust smells like gunpowder. So much for the cheese.

Edit: Me and these links. I knew I was going to forget something in my state of tiredness. Here's the link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/mmb/30jan_smellofmoondust.html

Update on BlogMad

2006-02-02T18:28:00.000-05:00

BlogMad entered the private beta stage yesterday. I received my login this morning and have been testing it a bit. So far, the services look quite promising. The games are interesting, the "surfing" feature is well done, and the system is quite good. The only negative point to me so far is the incompleteness (but it's in the beta stage, so that's alright). Aside from a few sections of the site that aren't quite complete yet, the service is looking mighty promising; I'd predict it going a long way.

Silly Rabbit, The Internet is for Kids

2006-02-01T17:02:00.000-05:00

I've been as swamped as an alligator for the last few days and I'm sure that'll continue for a little while. Anyhoo, something I've been thinking about is privacy. I've been on the Internet since I was quite young and have been exposed to message boards and online games, etc. for years. I was just thinking, I wonder how much information about myself I've given out without any thought. I realize I probably gave out too much, especially when I was younger. I'm curious what others' opinions are on this issue.

I know it is dangerous for someone younger to give out information about themselves, but these days with services such as Myspace, LiveJournal, Xanga, and other sites where young children and teenagers go and give out information about themselves, does one who does not participate in those services have to even worry? My logic is that any sicko in their right mind (*snort*) would just go to Myspace or an equivalent if they wanted to find some helpless young child. To do a detailed search on someone who has posted tidbits of information about themself all over the Internet seems quite silly to me. Course, so does the idea of going to a place like Myspace with that intention. What are your thoughts?

Why's That Couch on the Wall?

2006-01-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

Today I was reading my RSS feeds as I tend to do and while perusing BoingBoing's, my eye caught onto a link to a page describing what a man and his friends did to a room in his residence. Apparently they decided that it would be fun to make the room look like it was sideways. I think this is a great idea. I read the instructional and man do I wish I could do it to a room in my house. Here's the link: http://zestyping.livejournal.com/97476.html

Have a Mac? Like Quicksilver? Have a PC?

2006-01-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

Well I do. I love me some Quicksilver. I use it a ton on my Powerbook. I was going through my RSS feeds yesterday and saw a link to Colibri. It's a program very similar to Quicksilver, but it's for Windows. In using it for the short while that I did, I noticed a few small bugs that it had. It seemed to slow up when doing certain tasks and crashed within the first two minutes of using it because I tried to view the Help file. It's nearly as impressive as Quicksilver and it makes for a good PC alternative. I'd recommend at least trying it out. (Found via http://uneasysilence.com)

Some of the Funniest Videos on the Web

2006-01-26T15:53:00.000-05:00

About a month and a half ago I discovered a website which I find to be very funny. Google Video of the Day displays some of the best videos available on Google Video. The name certainly explains it well enough that I shouldn't have to go into any further detail. There are a few sites similar to this, but I really enjoy this one (mainly because I haven't actually checked out the others too thouroughly). I've really enjoyed some of the videos I've found.

Edit: Fixed broken link.

Linux + Hotel Rooms

2006-01-25T15:46:00.000-05:00

= Beauty. I was just thinking today: Do hotel rooms use Linux services like MythTV? I was in a not-too-fancy hotel a few months ago and they of course had their own little TV system with video games, movies, and the like, but are they running Linux? They must be. Wouldn't a Linux OS like MythTV be a perfect fit? Imagine being able to offer the availability of recording of TV shows in a hotel. Record your favorite shows in the daytime or while you're out to dinner and then watch them when you return at night. Ok, maybe not, but it sounded good when I first thought of it, anyway...

What's in Store?

2006-01-24T20:25:00.000-05:00

Lots. In the coming weeks, I'll be switching over to Wordpress, finally. I've been kindly hosted by an administrator from the BlogMad forums, whose site I'll link to later. With that move will probably come a new design and a new lots of other things.

Also, I think the focus of my posts are going to be directed more towards independent and current media issues such as podcasting, independent music, services like Flickr, and other services and topics interesting to this sort-of theme. This doesn't mean I'm going to stick strictly to this theme, and I'll probably forget that I even posted this within a week, but that's what I've decided for now.

Lastly, I think I'll plug BlogMad again. I'll be getting into the beta within the next week so I'm sure I'll be posting more about that.

Ticketmaster and Flickr Images

2006-01-23T17:38:00.000-05:00

So we've all heard this story from places like Digg and probably other blogs. Ticketmaster allegedly (although obviously) stole an image from a woman's Flickr account and has used it on their site in a few places. No big deal, eh? Some people don't think so. There's been a big outcry against Ticketmaster since then and Ticketmaster's taken down the pictures. Now I can understand this if there are copyright laws and such, but isn't this kinda what we want to happen? With all of this talk about taking back the media and the users being the ones doing everything, isn't it a good sign that a large business like Ticketmaster would take a simple picture from an individual posting on their Flickr account? Man, I'd be honored if they did that to me. Course, I can see why she'd want to sue them. She'd probably make a zillion and a half dollars.

I Wish I Had a Blanket With Sleeves...

2006-01-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

I do now! I just came across the best product I've seen this week. It's called the Slanket. It's like a blanket, but with sleeves! I've always wanted something like that because I'm always using the computer with a blanket and am forced to lift my hands out of the blanket. Well, then my whole upper body is out of the blanket and that is quite cold. Now, however, I can purchase one of these Slankets and never have that problem again. I'd actually probably buy this, too, if it wasn't $65. (Found via BoingBoing)

Your Own Lil' Wiki

2006-01-21T13:18:00.000-05:00

I've recently come across one of the most cool things I've seen in a while. I'm not sure how many people know of this little webpage. It's called TiddlyWiki. Basically, it's an HTML file containing a wiki which you can save locally on your hard drive and customize with that AJAX feel. Using client-side scripting (I don't believe it's actually AJAX, since it isn't communicating to any server), you're able to create, modify, or delete any item or block of text on the page. It's all compressed into one HTML file so it doesn't need any kind of complicated file directory to store itself. I just can't describe it to give it enough credit; you've got to see it for yourself.

The official TiddlyWiki website can be found at http://tiddlywiki.com. I found a good tutorial for it which uses the actual product. It's a good example of what you can do and it's also informative on the use of TiddlyWiki. To get it for yourself, go to the official site and click the DownloadSoftware button on the left. Once on your hard drive, you can modify it to your liking.

Images of an Island Paradise

2006-01-20T11:03:00.000-05:00

I recently returned from an island called Grand Cayman which is located within a few hundred miles of Cuba. My family has a house there and it is quite a beautiful island. Periodically I'll post some photos that I've taken there. Click the image to enlarge it.

Best Second Act in Business to Get a Second Act of Business

2006-01-19T07:55:00.000-05:00

Disney in talks to acquire Pixar:

Jan 19, 2006 - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co. (dis.n) is in serious talks about an acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios (pixr.o), the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to this article and some various others, Disney's probably going to buy Pixar. This would make Mr. Jobs the top shareholder in both Disney and Apple. Not bad, eh?

Recipes...With Pictures!

2006-01-18T18:16:00.000-05:00

A few months back, probably last summer, I was posting casually on a message board and one of the other members discussed a website that he had just started up. His concept was to make a site where visitors could post their own recipes (how social and web 2.0-y) and even post pictures so that those interested could read a step-by-step process and follow along with pictures. I must admit, with the 235 or so recipes it has, this isn't the be-all end-all resource for recipes; however, the concept is very good and so far the recipes appear quite promising. I'd at least recommend checking out the site.

Best Blond Joke Ever

2006-01-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

I feel like a loser for even posting this since it's getting a lot of attention, but here goes: The Best Blond Joke Ever.

Steve Forsakes Me Yet Again

2006-01-16T12:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm a little late on this post since Steve Jobs' keynote at the Macworld Expo, but that doesn't downplay the sadness that I have. For Christmas, I desired and attained a very nice Powerbook. This Powerbook is a wildly beautiful machine, but having received it less than 3 weeks before Mr. Jobs released a brand new line of Intel-based laptops, not to mention the new version of the iLife suite, is kind of -- sad. I knew I should have waited. *Sigh* For now, I shall weep as I dream of a Macbook.

Bisquick and Blogging: An Update

2006-01-13T07:54:00.000-05:00

I'll begin my post with an update on the Bisquick situation. As you may remember from a post of mine from a few days ago, I had an issue with a package of Bisquick and contacted the company. They have since stated that they would compensate me and yesterday I received in the mail one coupon for a free package of Bisquick as well as one coupon for $1.00 off any of their food products. It's not much, but I'm impressed I got anything.

As for the issue of blogging, I'm specifically referring to BlogMad (<- disclosure, my referral link, in case you didn't notice). As I've mentioned in a past post, I've been accepted as a beta tester for their new service. Some of the beta testers have been granted access already, and others of us will be waiting until the first of February. Expect, therefore, in less than 2 weeks to be getting some updates on their service. I'll post about anything they'll let me.

Ode to Evolution

2006-01-10T22:20:00.000-05:00

Here's that little bit of a story I promised written by a friend of mine. It's a bit of a satire, and I got a little bit of enjoyment out of it. It's not a proper literary work and I don't know how well-written it is, but that's alright. As far as the author, we'll limit his name to Tom, for now.

Once upon a time there was nothing. By nothing I mean nothing! I’m not talking about when you see an empty field and say, “Wow there’s nothing out here!” I mean the absence of everything. There were no trees, no people, no air, no earth, and no universe; there was nothing. Millions of years later out of this nothingness rocks appeared. Now no one really knows why or how these rocks came to be, but believe me they did. This is not debatable, it is plain fact. You do not need faith as some people have (i.e. believing in something you cannot see and prove), this is fact it is science. Anyway, these rocks appeared out of the void and were just floating around for a while in nothingness until, in spite of a magnificently low probability, these rocks collided. This was no ordinary collision; in fact through this collision pretty much everything came into existence. The gorgeous sunsets we see, the beautiful animals and rock formations, the amazing balance of the galaxy as it rotates, the incredible human structure of trillions of cells; amazingly all of this came together by an astronomically impossible chance from a random collision of rocks.

However, this explanation is perhaps slightly oversimplified. When the rocks collided they did create our galaxy and a million other galaxies all with perfect balance orbiting patterns and such. It just so happened that on one of these planets, the 3^rd one from the sun in the Milky Way galaxy, a primordial soup was created by this happy collision. This primordial soup was the original form of life in the universe. It was basically a mass of cells. Even more incredible than the randomness of the collisions is that the soup turned into you and me. Isn’t it amazing how every person has unique personality, feelings, and thought which all come from soup? It’s all plain and simple scientific fact, and certainly no one can argue with it.

However, this explanation also may be simplistic. The more exact explanation is that the soup slowly turned into an ameba, and then it started to swim, and kept evolving till it could emerge out of the sludge and become a land animal. Eventually after millions of years of evolutionary progress it turned into an ape and then into us. Of course the uneducated might wonder why we have no fossils of intermediate species, or why there are still apes (which haven’t evolved), or why we don’t see evolution occurring today, but these are clearly obscurantist objections in light of simple science. I assure you there are simple answers to all of these simple-minded objections. First the reason we have no intermediate species is obvious to any educated person. The soup didn’t just slowly evolve through the eons into everything, it was punctuated. In other words, our evolution basically just skipped from one species to another. This leaves the original species, and the new one. There are no intermediate forms because they all changed quickly in short period, although the reasons for this aren’t really apparent or substantiated, this is hardly a concern.

Let’s take the ape to human change, at some unidentifiable random point in time all the apes would have started changing into humans and very few would have died during this period because it was short. And there is of course evidence in the fossil record. Lucy is obviously an ape in the process of transforming into a human. We can tell from the 40% of her skeleton we found that she was transforming. Her knee cap which was found several kilometers away and 200 feet deeper is obviously made for upright use while the rest of her is the normal ape posture. Since we have established that there need be no reason for intermediate fossils, let us move on to why there are still apes.

This is as clear as day to any educated person. Obviously their time has not yet come to sporadically evolve into humanness. Apes do not just slowly evolve and gradually grow human parts at regular and predictable times, they rapidly change and become humanlike without discernible reason, which makes it all the more fascinating and scientific. Last of all the reason we do not see evolution in progress is because we have not lived through any of these periods of rapid change. But clearly these periods will recur, we will see animals evolve again, and this proves our contention. I believe that I have proven beyond any reasonable or unreasonable doubt the obviousness of the science behind the ‘big bang’ theory of evolution.

Cold, Tired, and Happy

2006-01-09T18:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm always happy and frequently tired, but man was that trip cold. It was a ton of fun, anyway. I'm back now and in a few days I'll be posting one of the more interesting writings (not that there were really any that were bad) that I found to be funny. I'll be posting less for a few days because I'll be as busy as a migratin' sparrow (I'm not really very knowledgeable about the migration patterns of the sparrow, but that doesn't matter).

Ahh the Wonders of Language

2006-01-06T06:22:00.000-05:00

From about 3:30pm today to 4:30pm Sunday, I'll be off on a writer's retreat with some of my fellow English students. It shall be an interesting time. We plan to review each other's work before we attempt to get our articles published. My article, of course, is on podcasting, specifically Godcasting. Course, this is a silly project. I can get my work *published* on the Internet with no effort. Nonetheless, it will be a fun weekend. I'll post some more when I return.

Flat Pancakes, Emails, and Money

2006-01-05T16:29:00.000-05:00

So the other day we're buying our Bisquick and all is well. We get home and cook our pancakes and notice that they are flat and rubbery, so we assume there's no leavening agent in them. I emailed Bisquick expecting an automated response, and to my surprise a seemingly personalized email was sent to me; although, I assume it could have been prewritten and just selected for my case. Anyway, they claim to be sending me an "adjustment" for my purchase in the mail. I'm curious to see how this will turn out.

Airport

2006-01-03T20:18:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'd move to the moon, but my flight would get delayed. I've been in this Atlanta airport since 4:30. It's 8:30 now. My flight leaves at 9:10. It was delayed twice and we had to walk back and forth across the airport. That's ok, though. It's been a really humorous experience.

Back From the Dead...Maybe?

2006-01-02T22:32:00.000-05:00

Since my last post, I have been accepted as a beta tester of the new blog exchange service, BlogMad. This, as well as my ever-growing interest in any kind of web-related things, have inspired me to *consider* blogging again, probably even more frequently than I have in the past.

I'm not sure what the content of my posts will be, but it will probably be mainly stories that interest me that I pick up from surfing other blogs and news sites. I haven't decided if I'm going to make long, thought-out posts or short Dave Winer-style ones, but we'll see. That is, of course, if anyone reads this blog these days. ;)

The End is Nigh

2005-11-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

Well there have not been any new posts for a week. This is for a reason. Maciej has decided that he doesn't really have the *time* to post anymore. And because I never post, this is pretty much the announcement of the closing of our blog. We had a fun run, but we'll be done posting. I guess this could be an extravagant post, but this is pretty much all I had to say. I kinda figured his interest in the blog wouldn't last long, and it's ended now. Thanks for visiting our site in the past.

SWAT? At My House?!?!

2005-11-15T21:05:00.000-05:00

This is an incredible story that happened at my house today. No lie - it all happened. Sadly, I left for work at about 6:30am so I wasn't around to see it. Anyway, my mom was getting ready for work, and someone starts banging on the front door. My mom quickly opens the door and standing there is a small 55-or-so-year-old lady who, pale and shaking, manages to utter, "My mentally ill husband is chasing me. I need to call 911!" So my mom runs and gets the phone, dials 911, and hands it to the woman (the door is still open by the way). Approximately three minutes later, about six cops come flying into my development at like 90mph and they proceed to surround the lady's house and catch the guy. The police station is about 10 minutes away doing the speed limit, by the way. A cop then puts it in reverse and does a 180-degree turn into my driveway and the lady goes out to talk to him before going to the police station.

Isn't that incredible? I promise you that is the truth. The lady is a neighbor who lives about 6 or 7 houses down from us. Her husband locked her inside the house and pulled all the phones out and wouldn't let her leave the house, but she somehow managed to escape. The thing that kind of bothers me is that she probably knocked on all the houses' doors between her house and mine and no one opened the door. I know I have wierd neighbors and all, but still.

These SWAT Guys Are Good

2005-11-14T19:07:00.000-05:00

So your child makes a science project, it gets displayed, and the bomb squad blows it up.

Science Project

A 10th-grader at Frazier High School said the science project is something eighth-graders do every year. "You have to make it so it can pick up metal paper clips, but you can't use magnets," Tiffany Burton said. "I hated that project." I am glad that we have very smart officers protecting us.

Now You're Stuck

2005-11-12T09:14:00.000-05:00

Man Sues Over Toilet

This is hilarious. This guy uses the bathroom at Home Depot after someone had put glue all over the seat of the toilet. He is now suing Home Depot. That's horrible, yet strangely funny, in a sick kind of way.

Glad She Wasn't My Ex

2005-11-10T18:11:00.000-05:00

Glued Genitals

"A Westmoreland County jury on Friday ordered a woman to pay $46,200 to her ex-boyfriend for gluing his genitals to his abdomen." This crazy woman glued the guys package to his abdomen and glued his butt cheeks together. I hope I don't ever date someone like that.

Trouble in Paris

2005-11-09T06:50:00.000-05:00

I am sure that most of you have read or seen footage of what is going on in Paris. If not, here is the link:

Schools Burn

The violence is seen as the expression of pent-up anger by youths, many Muslims of North African and black African origin, at police treatment, racism, unemployment and their marginal place in French society. Honestly, I really do not think that burning schools and cars is going to help your cause. It will however, provide you with nice federal housing. This just makes it worse. What do you think?

Pirates...Today?

2005-11-05T20:54:00.000-05:00

Cruise ship Britons attacked by pirates

It is not everyday that you hear about a story like this. I had always thought pirates were a thing of the past but I guess I was wrong. How does one go about trying to take over a 10,000-ton ship? Machine guns and rocket launchers might be a pretty good start. Luckily this thing had what is called a sonic blaster to repel the pirates. I didn't know such a weapon existed but it sends out high-powered vibrations and is the size of a satellite dish. I would love to get one of those for my car!

Crazy Fans

2005-11-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

Fan Steals Ball from Green Bay's Favre

A spectator ran on to the field and stole the ball from Green Bay Packers' quarterback Brett Favre during the Cincinnati Bengals' home victory on Sunday.

This is awesome. Usually you have some drunk guy run onto the field and get caught and taken away. I have never heard of a fan running onto a field and stealing the ball from a player. If I was Favre, I would have dropped him. This kind of stuff is hysterical though. I was at a Philadelphia Phillies game once and about 10 people ran out onto the field at different points during a 3-hour rain delay. The greatest was a streaker who dove headfirst into a huge puddle of water on the big tarp covering up the basepaths. He started pretending to swim and then succesfully ran around the field avoiding at least 10 security guards. Unfortunately, as he ran toward his buddies and dove headfirst over the railing, he was spear tackled by a cop and taken away.

Things Don't Just Happen in Nightmares

2005-11-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in forever. A bit of an update: we're considering switching over to Wordpress now that I've acquired my own server which is adequate to host a website. We're starting to get more readers and are interested in having more control. On to the story.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/31/pastor.electrocuted.ap/
Texas pastor electrocuted when baptizing a woman in church.

This is the kind of thing that you don't even want to happen in a nightmare. At our church, every time there are baptisms I cringe when I see the microphone lying there just waiting to roll into the pool. Of course, we use a cordless microphone and I am not sure if that would have the same effect, but I don't really want to find out. This pastor was baptizing a woman and needed to use the microphone to speak to the congregation, goes to use it, and drops it in the pool, electrocuting himself and eventually dying from this. What a horrible thought.

You Lookin' At Me?

2005-11-01T17:57:00.000-05:00

I found this guy hanging out in my front yard.
Praying Mantis' are neat little things.

Plug It In, Plug It In

2005-10-31T15:14:00.000-05:00

I was at training all day today, and upon returning to my desk, I find two women standing next to the large format printer next to my desk. They are just staring at it completely dumbfounded. They ask me if I know how to fix the printer because it is broken. Instinctively, I look at the display where lights should be on. No lights. I ask:

Me: "Did you try restarting it?" Lady: "No."
Lady: "Where is the power button?" Me: "So I guess you don't know how to turn it on."

(Restarting it did nothing, by the way.)

Me: "Is it plugged in?" It wasn't.

Honestly, I have been meeting more and more of these kinds of people. It's not that difficult to check the basic necessities. So please, next time something isn't working, please check to see if it has power and save a person like me the trouble, ok?

Israel Wiped Off the Planet?

2005-10-29T09:04:00.000-04:00

This story kind of disturbs me. Iran's new hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told a group of students at an anti-Israel event today that Israel must be "wiped off the map" and that attacks by Palestinians will destroy it, the Iranian student news agency, ISNA, reported.

Wiped Off the Map

I know that Israel and Iran do not get along, and I would assume that this is because of religious differences, but this is just crazy. Iran's president just said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth, hasn't there been all this talk about Iran and nuclear weapons recently? Is Jerusalem the next Hiroshima? What is to prevent Iran from using the nukes, and Israel going back at them? To look at it from another perspective, the Bible makes it clear that countries will turn on Israel, but I won't get into that. I am just curious to see how the rest of the world will respond to President Ahmadinejad's comments.

Male Road Rage

2005-10-28T18:21:00.000-04:00

After being a lady basher in the last couple of driving posts, I'd like to share an experience about a male driver. I'm doing about 45mph on a bridge and watching two pickup trucks coming up kinda fast on my left, one green and one red. The red one pulls up next to me, and the next thing I know, it just disappears. He had hit his brakes real hard to send a message to the tailgating green truck driver. Afterward, the green guy makes it very obvious he is angry by swerving like crazy. They start drag racing down the road and the red guy cuts him off. After what I thought was some nifty manuevering in between traffic, the green guy pulls alongside of the red truck and literally changes three lanes forcing the red truck onto the grass on the side. I have only seen this once in my driving career, but it was not this bad. Usually it happens over one lane but the green truck crossed three lanes in an attempt to hit this guy. Afterward, I got sandwiched in between the two.

I still think 9 out of 10 bad drivers are woman. I wouldn't necessarily call this bad driving, just some road rage. There is a difference.

I just won the lottery!!

2005-10-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

Not really, but imagine you won 300 million dollars. What would you do first with it? I was thinking about it today and trying to figure out what I would do with it. First, I don't think I would tell anyone besides my family. 300 million will make you a lot of friends that you didn't know you had and I wouldn't want to deal with that. I don't think that I would flaunt it either and go on a ferrari and yacht shopping spree, although a Ferrari would probably be the first thing on my mind. I think I would help my parents pay off all their debt and help a lot of people that I know need some financial help. Still, a Ferrari would help get me there faster, that leaves me with $299,700,000. What would you do?

Is He Dead?

2005-10-25T20:03:00.000-04:00

Considering my recent exposure to the deceased, I found this story rather humorous. I cannot imagine being told someone is dead and then watch them wake up. If I was in the cadaver lab at work, I think they would have a fresh new dead guy. Check it out:

Dead Man Wakes Up

"They told me to call the doctor, to sign the death certificate (and) they will not have to take him to the morgue, that the funeral home can come and get him," said Golson's niece, Kimberly Golson.

I wonder how you call back the family members you had just broken bad news to and explain that he really isn't dead? Overall, this whole situation probably classifies as a Top-10 creepy experience.

Female Drivers: Part II: SUVs

2005-10-25T19:10:00.000-04:00

The New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania region has been rainy for the last two weeks. We are experiencing what's left of Wilma at the moment. Please read the post about two down from here before reading this one. Earlier last week, I was ranting about how 9 out 10 women drivers are terrible. My solution was to install rocket launchers on my car to dispose of the problem. Today's topic will be more specific, female SUV drivers.

Scenario 1. I am driving in the rain behind a Nissan Armada, (I think that it is one of the biggest SUV's out there) cruising along at about 45 mph. All of a sudden, the SUV hits the brakes and slows down to what I figured to be between 3-7 mph. I figured there was something in the road, like a deer. To my surprise, the driver had slowed to turtle speed for a puddle. Ok, this puddle was a little bigger than the average puddle and was maybe a foot or two into the road. YOU HAVE A HUGE SUV MEANT FOR CLIMBING MOUNTAINS!!! I do not understand how a vehicle of that size would have to slow down to below 10 mph to traverse this puddle. There was no traffic in the oncoming lane, a simple passing manuever would have been enough. What the heck...later on in the road after I had calmed down, the driver turned and upon passing I saw a woman behind the wheel.

Scenario 2. I pull up to an intersection and am making a right turn. No turn on red so I wait. SUV behind me decides to start hitting the horn. She is on a cell phone. Enough said. I wait till the light turns green and make the turn. About 1000 feet down the road the two lanes merge, I am in the right and she is trying to pass me on the left. A V-8 engine should be able to take my dinky Honda Civic no problem. She decides to pull even with me and there we are heading for the merge. I win and she is obviously frustrated and performs a very illegal manuever in which she tried passing me in a shared left turn lane.

Is it just New Jersey and the surrounding area? Maybe I just pick the wrong time to drive. I actually looked up rocket launchers on Google and tried reasoning the feasability of such a task. All I need is a couple thousand dollars...

ADD can get you out of anything...

2005-10-23T19:38:00.000-04:00

Some quick opinions before I post this article concerning ADD. I wonder how many kids are out there that are misdiagnosed with ADD. Then I look at how made kids today have ADD and compare it to 10 years ago. I think the numbers would be something like 25-1. There are special ADD only classes. This problem didn't exist 10 years ago, at least I don't remember it being this bad. Anyway...

Drunk worker awarded $10K compensation

So there is this guy that comes back to work completely drunk and pees in a trashcan, or as they call it in Australia, a rubbish bin. After getting fired, he files a lawsuit for discrimination against the fact that he has ADD and gets 10 grand out of it claiming that the office did not meet his needs. If he was working for me, I would have beat him to a bloody goo and then made him clean up the trashcan. I know that would cost me way more than 10 grand but whatever. How crazy is it that someone can come to work drunk and urinate in the office and be rewarded by the legal system?

I Got Mooned by a Dead Man: Worst. Smell. Ever.

2005-10-21T13:16:00.000-04:00

WARNING: The reader may find some of this disturbing...

How many of you have held a real, deceased human head? Probably none of you and funerals don't count. I work for an engineering company that makes medical implants for the body. We have a cadaver lab on-site and lucky me gets to use it. The bodies that we get are either bodies that have been donated for science or ones that no one has claimed. Furthermore, we get body parts, that's right, body parts: heads, torsos, spines, arms, and legs. It makes sense - why get a whole body when you only will be working on the leg? Grossed out yet?

Usually I don't deal with the "specimens;" I just see them in their plastic bags. Today was different. I was burning some X-rays onto a CD in the lab and the lab manager asked me to help her move three torsos. I got all scrubbed up and went to work. We removed the torso from the plastic bag and began to cut through the layers of packaging that it was in. I wasn't really thrilled with touching the corpse so I backed off. By the look on the the manager's face, I could tell that it was nasty. She wrapped it up in some sort of special paper and prepared it for the surgery the next morning. The second one was obviously a male because he was alot bigger. She grabbed one end and I proceeded to grab the other one, except my end kept wiggling back and forth, almost like a...head, and that is exactly what I was holding. It took me a second to figure it out, and then I just put it down and thought "No way, I'm not touching a head," and was called a chicken. This guy wasn't bad, but the first part I saw was a butt and then the rest was uncovered. He didn't look or smell too bad but literally, it looked like someone had ripped the arms and legs out of the poor guy. Ok, the final one...

I refused to go to the head end so I made the lady do it. As soon as we cut the plastic bag off, the most incredibly putrid smell hit me. I can't even begin to describe it. Just imagine a dead animal that has been in the sun for a couple of days and multiply that by 1000. I just stopped breathing (if I had taken one more breath, I would have passed out), quickly put him down, and ran out of the room. Honestly, you might be creeped out by this post, but it does no justice to what I had to do today. It gave me a whole new perspective on death which I will post later on in the week once I stop shaking.

In conclusion, today I experienced a new #1 worst smelling thing in the world, and I was mooned by a dead guy. All in the name of science.

Female Drivers...

2005-10-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

I am sick and tired of being on the road with female drivers and I have had enough. I drive 3 hours a day to get to work. The average person drives something like 10000-15000 miles a year; I triple that. I cannot count how many times I have almost been in accidents because of women who are doing everything but driving.

I have seen women doing their makeup, eating cereal and soup, talking on two cell phones at once, and blow-drying their hair both using blowdryers and their car vents (yes, the vents that blow out air). Explain to me how you can see when your head is pointed down and you are leaning over the vents and using both hands to mess with your hair? I have watched them swerve, change lanes, fail to yield, cut people off, and swerve across 4 lanes of traffic and then get angry at me when I glare at them. My personal favorite is driving in the left lane at 40mph giggling on the phone in a 60mph two-lane highway. I could go on forever.

Now I know a bunch of angry women will start saying stuff about how bad their husbands are at driving. I DON'T CARE. I know that there are terrible male drivers, my dad is one of them. I know there are good female drivers, my mom is one of them. However, 9 out of 10 bad drivers out there are woman, and I exclude teenagers and old people. Don't argue this with me, I drive probably more than any of you. I have come up with several solutions to this problem. Tell me your favorite and I will run for freaking president and get these passed.

1. Women will not be allowed to operate motor vehicles.
2. Women will not be allowed to operate SUVs, trucks, or anything bigger than a VW beetle.
3. Women will not be allowed to Drive Under the Influence (DUI) of anything General Mills and Campbells soups related, Any form of portable communication device, or anything related to makeup (various kinds of lotions and blowdrying hair also fall in this category).
4. Drivers who pass a "good driver" test will be issued rocket launchers to personally take care of the problem.

I vote #4. If you come up with any more DUI for #3 post them and I will add them to my list.

Goose - 1, Hunter - 0

2005-10-15T11:05:00.000-04:00

I have been on an animal theme recently. I hope you don't mind. This is something that I would fully expect to happen to me if I went hunting. A hunter in Sweden was knocked out by a goose that his son had shot and killed when it dropped out of the sky.

Goose - 1, Hunter - 0

I guess if you're a goose, that's the best way to go.

Alligator Bites Woman Trying to Feed It

2005-10-13T18:33:00.000-04:00

Ok, this is just plain stupid. I mean, maybe if your the Croc Hunter or whatever, but seriously, don't feed the animals means don't feed the animals!

Alligator bites woman

"A 25-year-old woman in Melbourne, Fla., was treated at a hospital Thursday after an alligator jumped out of the water and bit her hand as she tried to feed it by hand, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission news release." Luckily for her it was only a 3-foot gator.

People do stupid things, but come on. Actually, I helped my brother reach into an alligator cage once down in Florida because there was an alligator tooth lying on the ground. It was like 8 feet away and we found a long stick and were in a race with the alligator that was making his way over to us. Eventually we reached into the cage and got the tooth but ended up losing it somewhere. Still as dumb as that was, I would never try to FEED AN ALLIGATOR BY HAND!

Dogs used as bait

2005-10-12T18:54:00.000-04:00

I don't know how true this is, but I thought I would post it anyway. It seems the wonderful French controlled Reunion Island has an interesting practice of using stray dogs as bait for sharks. Check out the picture on the site:

Dogs used as shark bait

I know that stray dogs and cats can be a problem, but this is just sick.

Agile Little Mouse

2005-10-11T22:07:00.000-04:00

That is one fat little mouse...anyway...A friend showed me this video and I though I would post about considering the snake/alligator post below.

Agile mouse

Honestly, if that was me, I would be doing the same thing. It's too bad for the mouse he is in a glass aquarium and you cant keep jumping forever...

That New Car Smell

2005-10-11T10:33:00.000-04:00

"One of the best things about having a new car could be bad for you. New research finds that much loved "new car" smell is produced by harmful chemicals. "

New Car Smell

According to a recent study, the pleasurable scent has been linked to harmful chemicals--volatile organic compound (or VOC)--which releases chemicals from glues, paints, and vinyl. Somehow I am not surprised at this, but I think it is terrible news. I love the new car smell. My Civic (pictured above) had it for a couple months, but after putting 26000 miles on it in a year, it is all gone. I wonder if these new findings will have any effect on the "level of exposure" that car salesmen will now be able to have. I doubt it will happen, but it is possible! That would suck, "I'm sorry you have reached your new car smell exposure for the week, you can't sell any more cars!"

Non-Stop Drinking

2005-10-10T10:21:00.000-04:00

Here is a priceless idea: "Fans of non-stop drinking may soon be able to cut down on time wasted ordering refills, thanks to a beer coaster that can tell when a glass is empty."

Personally I don't drink, but as an engineer, I think the idea is gold. Read the article below:

Refills without a word

The coaster, fitted with sensors, measures the weight of the beer and sends a signal behind the bar when it's time for a refill. Anxious drinkers can also attract the attention of staff by waving the plastic mat, thanks to a motion sensor. I thought about this idea and it could be applied to restaurants all over the world. Think about it, the waiter/waitress is already running around like crazy, I have experienced waiting for a refill many times before the waiter takes notice. This way, a little red light or something just shows up. It would save time and it would keep people happier. It would also minimize interaction between server and customer, but thats not always a bad thing!

Sony Patents 'Real Life Matrix'

2005-10-07T09:59:00.000-04:00

"The Japanese entertainment giant Sony has patented an idea for transmitting data directly into the brain, with the goal of enabling a person to see movies and play video games in which they smell, taste and perhaps even feel things, it was reported today."

Matrix

Well we have all seen this in the movies: people having stuff implanted in their brains and they can see, taste, and smell things that aren't really there. I wonder if this is really a possibility. I have studied the brain before and the stimuli that occur are essentially action potentials (electric signals). Theoretically, you could zap certain areas of the brain and make them respond. I wonder if they could find a way to do the reverse of that, and maybe record our dreams?

Python Bursts After Trying to Eat Gator

2005-10-07T09:54:00.000-04:00

"A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said."

This is crazy, I have never seen or heard such a story before. It kind of reminds me of the whole, "If a cat eats a mouse but chokes on the mouse and both die, who killed who?" Read the story below:

Pythons Eats Alligator

The article claims that they have captured over 150 of these pythons over the last two years. Since when are pythons living in the Everglades? This is what happens when you "release" your pet into the wild. I wonder what kind of exotic animals are living in my area...

Healthcare Today

2005-10-06T07:50:00.000-04:00

Iatrogenic causes, illnesses caused by the medical profession, are the third leading killer of Americans. Its kind of ironic, eh? The healthcare professionals that are supposed to heal us are responsible for over 225,000, if not more, deaths a year. US healthcare was recently ranked 12^th out of 13 countries in a health survey. Japan is the world leader in healthcare with ratios of something like 3 patients to a doctor.

A new "state of the art" hospital opened up recently nearby myself: $163 million, 262 beds, and 1200 doctors and nurses. That’s close to a 4:1 ratio: you would think that the healthcare would be better huh? I’ve been to that hospital a couple of times since its opened; never have I seen such chaos and so many people complaining about the doctors, nurses, and everything medically related. It makes me wonder why our healthcare is so bad. The numbers for iatrogenic deaths are staggering (the link to the article is below). It almost makes me scared to visit the hospital again. Usually I, as do most of us, don’t think about these things. I grew up in Europe where doctors would come to your house and treat you there. Here in the great US of A, we go to the fancy doctors' offices where we wait for hours at a time to be seen for fifteen minutes and get charged a hundred bucks. Our questions aren’t answered, and ask anything medically related and you'll get the response, “Lets see what the lab results say.” Healing no longer depends on any sensitivity of the charismatic ability of the doctor. I find this very odd.

My mom recently needed to see a specialist, but the primary doctor would not let her go see the one she wanted because the insurance wouldn’t cover her. What does this mean? In order to see the best doctors, I need to have the proper funds. It really makes you think, without insurance, you pretty much can’t get healthcare.

Everything nowadays is medicalized. The pharmaceutical companies have a drug for virtually everything. Ten years ago (and I can now say that and actually remember) I do not remember a single child being diagnosed with A.D.D. Today, schools are divided into the normal classes, and the special ed classes. If the child acts up, Ritalin is the answer. Is it really though? Drugs for stress, for depression, for anxiety, for virtually everything are popping up. I can almost guarantee that if I go to a doctors office today and complain of a fake symptom, I can be prescribed some pretty strong medication without a second thought. Herbal remedies are a thing of the past; drugs are the answer to everything. Pharma makes close to 500 billion dollars a year, and it is estimated to hit a trillion dollars a year by 2010. The government has the FDA set up so that no one can get to Pharma because it is such a moneymaker. Its amazing how many people are dying in Africa from illnesses that have vaccinations or treatment, but we choose to purchase drugs for our kids because a “professional” said there is something wrong. I’m tired of being told how to handle my own health, drugs are not the answer.

There are good doctors out there, don’t get me wrong. There are legitimate problems that require medication, but what if…what if we actually took time to take care of our bodies? No more MacDonalds twice a week, no more potato chips and soda. Exercise just once or twice a week. Get out and stop watching the TV for hours upon end. What about the premature baby born two months early? Hundreds of thousands are spent to keep it alive, what if we had spent a thousand dollars to make sure the mom was in good health and physical condition. Healthcare is simple, I don’t need a doctor to tell me how to live my life. The food that we eat here is crap, every fast food joint, frozen TV dinner: chicken that has never seen the sun. I’d like to ask how many of you actually can make chicken soup from scratch? When was the last time you peeled potatoes? I actually had a funny situation happen recently. I had a nice big tasty Whopper from Burger King but ended up not eating the entire thing. I gave it to my dog, who sniffed it and walked away. I thought it was odd and was convinced that it wouldn’t be there within an hour or so. It was still there the next morning…

Is US Health really the best in the world?

45.8 million Americans without insurance

(This article was posted about a month ago. This is a repost.)

Bored? Play games? Check this out!

2005-10-04T19:46:00.000-04:00

I have seen all of the free game sites out there: Pogo, Miniclip, Yahoo!, and AddictingGames, to name a few, but came across this site which really impressed me. Some games are simple, some are harder, but the graphics are really good and the games are fun to play. Check it out!

Orisinal

I promise you it will keep you amused for hours, there are no other games like this. My favorite so far is the frog one called Hydrophobia!

Track Terrorists!

2005-09-28T19:30:00.000-04:00

I suppose I could come up some witty comment about the FBIs new terrorist tracking operation, but I would rather that you just see it for yourself.

FBI tracking device

I feel much safer now! For more great Javascript goodies like this one, check out Kurt's Free Dynamic HTML, DHTML, and Javascript Scripts.

Reality TV

2005-09-28T16:25:00.000-04:00

I've recently determined that I really like reality TV. I lied. I've always known that. Anyway, there are quite a few reality shows on TV right now. We've got Survivor: Guatemala (CBS), Survivor: Africa (OLN) The Amazing Race (CBS), The Apprentice: Donald Trump, and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (NBC and NBC), not to mention a few other miscellaneous new ones that only 5 people will watch. My TiVo hard drive is already nearly overflowed, and these shows have barely started. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up, and hopefully you'll leave a comment if you like any of these shows.

Intelligent Design ?

2005-09-25T19:31:00.000-04:00

‘Intelligent design’ faces first big court test.
Parents sue after alternate to evolution added to science curriculum.

Intelligent Design versus Evolution

Let me start off with some quick background. Parents are suing a Pennsylvania school district for teaching intelligent design. I don't feel like rewriting the article so read it above. As a Christian, I think intelligent design should be taught, but that's my opinion. Even if I wasn't, I would still want it to be taught because I would accept it as a theory. Teaching it does not mean you are forcing religion on anyone. Evolution itself is a scientific theory, though widely accepted as true (yes, I know what theory means as a scientific term). I don't want to argue which one is right, I have made my choice, but rather I want to ask what's so wrong about teaching intelligent design.

This country was founded on God, it's on our money, in our pledges, etc (yes, I know the history of all of that, also). If you don't believe in God, then fine, that's your decision which means that intelligent design to you is a theory. I don't have any kids, but when I do, I would want them to make their own decision based on what they want to know. Evolution is already taught in schools as true so it's not like intelligent design is taking over or anything, it's just an alternative. As I see it, there's no seperation of church and state or anything else of the matter. God has already been kicked out of courthouses and schools. Fine, but then intelligent design still should be accepted as a theory, and dont give me that "you're forcing religon on my child" crap. What about people who believe in God? They have to put up with all the evolution? Oh that's right, they have no say. Last I checked, saying that intelligent design is also a theory of how the world came to be has not forced anyone to become a priest or a monk. Then again, if you don't believe in God, then why worry about it?

I don't know, I guess it all depends on how you approach it. I stand by what I said above. Let me hear it...

How long will you live?

2005-09-23T16:28:00.000-04:00

This is a question we all would love answered: How much longer do we have here on Earth? I found a neat site that is willing to give you that answer. It estimates what age you will live till based on your lifestyle, eating habits, and overall behavior and health. Check it out:

Age Calculator

It predicted that I will live until the age of 89, so according to them, I still have 68 years left. Let me know what everyone gets.

Its Homer!!

2005-09-21T09:19:00.000-04:00

I am a big fan of the Simpsons and I came across a great link with a variety of Homer songs.

Includes favorites suchs as:

Mr Plow

Floss It
Under the Sea
Native Homer

These are great clips and hopefully you enjoy!

Sing with Homer Soundboard

New Opera Browser

2005-09-21T08:50:00.000-04:00

Ok, so maybe it's not new, but it is now free and I highly recommend it. Opera 8 is "most full-featured Internet power tool on the market, Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And because we know that our users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse."

I'm always on the lookout for new browsers and I have tried them all, and I think this is the best one I have seen. I love the tabbed browsing, all the completely customizable features, and the mouse gestures. I do alot of browsing and I think that the mouse gestures is the coolest feature of this browser. I think you can download an extension for Firefox but it is already integrated here. Also, you can save browser sessions, take notes on each page, integrate email, and the browser opens right up to the last page you visited. Its really easy to learn how to use, and I intend to make it my browser of choice so check it out!

Download Opera Now!

Our Apologies

2005-09-20T07:41:00.000-04:00

Much to our surprise, we just realized that our RSS feed link (http://feeds.feedburner.com/letsmovetothemoon) wasn't working. I know, I know, you don't have to say it, you weren't going to use it anyway. It is working now, though. If for some reason it doesn't work, please let us know! Thanks and we hope you enjoy!

Lets Move to...Mars??

2005-09-19T11:48:00.000-04:00

So there are supposedly detailed plans to send humans back to the moon by 2018 and perhaps even to Mars.

Nasa details Moon and Mars Plan

I think it's cool that we are going back to the moon: honestly I would love to go, wouldn't you? There is, after all, a new space shuttle, lots of funds available, and so forth; however, what sense does it make? So we will bring back a couple moon rocks and I'm sure society will be better right? We are going to spend $100 billion dollars to send three people up there, and its just going to be one expensive vacation for three people. If anyone was able to go I would go, but really, I think it is pointless. Okay we did it in the 70's, it was cool, but what's the point now? Honestly, I don't see a space colony being built anytime within the next 50 years, and I dont think any country has the means to do so. One, it would cost too much money, and two, the right technology isn't available. What do you think?

Bored?

2005-09-16T19:46:00.000-04:00

I was browsing through some old links I had saved and came across this link:

Funny Horses

It's one of the most entertaining things I have found online, have fun clicking on the horses!

Wisconsin - Vang kills 6

2005-09-16T11:23:00.000-04:00

Vang tells his story to the jury

Hopefully you have all heard this story about this guy, Chai Soua Vang, who is on trial for murdering 6 hunters and shooting at two more. This guy claims that he was lost in the woods, was scared and confused, got approached by a bunch of hunters who started messing with him, one guy took a shot at him, and he responded by blowing away 6 of them. Honestly, I can see that happening: someone is on your property so you go out there and are stern in what you say. Given that he is foreign, it's possible that there were some racial slurs in there. Maybe Vang was acting in self defense, but look at the facts. Six people dead, I don't care what the reason was. Look at the facts.

Mark Roidt - head shot - dead
Dennis Drew - Stomach - dead
Willers - back of the neck - dead

Then the guys "pursues" two of them running away...

Robert Crotteau - the back of the head - dead
Joseph Croteau - shot 4 times, final shot back of the head - dead

Let me get something straight here, 4 of these guys were shot in the head. He claims he took his scope off as well so he must have been one heck of a shot. His reasons?
While saying on the stand he wished "it wasn't happening," Chai Soua Vang contended that three of the hunters deserved to die.
"Why did Mr. Crotteau deserve to die?" Lautenschlager asked.
"Because he was the one who confronted me and called me names, and that's who he is," Chai Soua Vang replied.
Joseph Crotteau deserved to die "because he accused me of giving him the finger and tried to cut in front of me to stop me from leaving." And Laski deserved to die because he had a gun, he said.

Yeah, great reasons to shoot everyone in the head. Self defense? I say more like maniac who needs to be locked up forever. What do you think?

Kids put in cages...

2005-09-13T15:40:00.000-04:00

CLARKSFIELD TOWNSHIP -- Authorities found children locked in cages in their adoptive parents' home Friday, according to the Huron County Sheriff's Office.

Okay, I realize that kids can be bad, but this is just sick. This story isn't in the national headlines but it is worth looking at. Somewhere in Ohio, police found 40" x 40" cages in the bedrooms of a house. Yeah so? Kids were forced to sleep and spend time in them, locked up like animals. Some even had alarms rigged so that they would go off if one tried to escape. According to police, there were two 3-year-olds, two 7-year-olds, two 8-year-olds, a 1-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 9-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a 14-year-old who were living in the house. The article makes some claim to the children having some medical conditions, but there is no way kids should be kept in cages. I have never heard of a story such as this, but it makes me wonder how many other sickos are out there that treat their kids like this. What do you think?

Read the whole story: Children found in locked cages

Google Tip of the Week - Image Search

2005-09-13T14:59:00.000-04:00

This isn't quite a "tip," but still a fun thing to do. I've always enjoyed this. Here's what you do: first, think of a question like "Where do babies come from?" or "Where will I go to college?" Basically, think of any question that you'd like. Then, type it into Google Image search (without the quotation marks, of course) and see what you find. Some are really funny, some aren't (see my examples). I suppose this would work better as some type of forum game, but if you wish, post the first image result in the comments.

Here are mine:

Where do babies come from?

Where will I go to college?

Ninja Lady takes out purse snatcher

2005-09-11T19:52:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen this already, you have to watch it, I thought it was incredible! This guy tries to steal this lady's purse and she absolutely destroys him. This is how purse-snatchers should be dealt with.
Purse Snatcher

How dumb can you be?

2005-09-09T10:37:00.000-04:00

So I am in an elevator on the second to last floor the other day. We get in to go down but for some reason it goes up to the top floor. The door opens and there is a very confused woman standing there. She asks, "Is this elevator going down?" (WHERE ELSE WOULD IT GO???) I look at my friend and without missing a beat, I answer, "Nope, its going up." The lady looks at me and answers, "Ok," and steps back. The doors close, and we go down. I mean honestly, if your on the top floor of a building, how can you not know whether it's going up or down? There's also little lights above the door that tell you! I thought this was a one time thing, but it happened again on the following day!

SHOULD SADDAM HANG???

2005-09-08T15:05:00.000-04:00

Iraqi president calls for Saddam’s execution

Should Saddam hang? It seems almost inevitable that he will get the death sentence. Imagine being the lawyer in that trial! Anyway, Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, claims that Saddam has tried to assassinate him 20 times and should be given a death sentence 20 times. Saddam is due to go on trial October 19, and seeing how the majority of the "politicians" in Iraq are against Hussein, with no influence from America of course, it's not looking too good. The question I would like to ask is, "What will hanging him accomplish?" So you kill him and put him out of his misery, now what? What about a life sentence in a prison? Maybe, but would that prison be in Iraq? Would he suffer and be tortured or would his cell remind you of a nice little hotel? What do you think?

His lawyers are denying that Saddam confessed to "war crimes" (Saddam's Lawyers). In the article, they repeatedly refer to Saddam as President Hussei. Interesting, huh?

Stop IMing, start Skyping!

2005-09-08T13:36:00.000-04:00

Ebay in talks to buy Skype

"The Wall Street Journal reported today that eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) was in talks to buy Skype, whose person-to-person (P2P) software is used to enable Internet-based phone calls. As one of the earliest firms to focus on voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), Skype has gained significant market share, racking up some 50 million downloads of its software."

If you have never used Skype or if you don't yet know what it is, let me fill you in. It's like a telephone, except you use your computer and a microphone and there's nothing to pay. I downloaded this program a couple of weeks ago and have been able to talk to relatives in Poland for free. It sure beats paying long distance minutes. Anyone with a computer and Internet connection can use it. It's great for when you are doing stuff on the computer and all your annoying friends decide to IM you at once. Just shut them off, pick one, and just talk to your computer. (Warning: People may think you are a little weird.) Try it out at Skype.com!

This post has nothing really to do with eBay, the article just got me thinking about Skype!

Google Tip of the Week - Web Cams!

2005-09-07T22:32:00.000-04:00

Type one of the following into google:

inurl:"view/index.shtml"
OR
inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="

It lists a variety of live webcams all over the world! Cafes in Finland, street cams in China, city hall views, live office webcams! Try it out!!

Florida Trip

2005-09-07T20:27:00.000-04:00

I was in Florida last week and watched an amazing sunset over the lake at Epcot...