Flickr

homer4k. Get yours at 

flagrantdisregard.com/flickr

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Ten 4 Tuesday???

Since everyone seems to be on the Ten for Tuesday kick (and you know who you are!), I thought I would give it a try.

1. There is an appalling lack of decent TV shows for some reason. (Okay, I snagged this one from Dee, but it is still true until next January, when we can all get LOST!!)

2) I wish I could have been alive to see the Eagle (the LEM from Apollo 11) descend and touch down on the Moon. (I'm watching an Apollo documentary on PBS right now, which made me think of this)

3) Sometimes Congress does something that makes you think that maybe, just maybe, there is hope for them after all - not passing that idiotic $700 billion bail out fiasco. Go Representatives!!

4) Another space-oriented tid bit: I think if I ever get a dog again I shall name her "Laika", or in Russian, Лаика. That is the name of the first dog to orbit Earth, launched by the Soviets in 1958. There were others the Soviets launched earlier, but they just made sub-orbital flights. Лаика actually made it to orbit. The name, in Russian, literally means "barker" or "howler". It also refers to a Russian breed of dog. Anyway, I think tha would be a cool name for a dog.

5) Making lists is hard to do while playing Mob Wars.

6) Speaking of Mob Wars, my death count (number of times yoy've been killed) is now lower than my kill count (how many peeps you've wasted). My kills outnumber my deats. Oh yeah.

7) I could really use another week of vacation. I still have a week left, but I better save it for the holidays, maybe.

8) Oklahoma drivers just don't get it.

9) I got a gift certificate for my birthday - received from my sister - for Amazon. There are so many things I could order that I am still deciding. Overload!!

10) Yay, I'm done with the list!!


Sunday, September 28, 2008

Mob Wars Update

Some little punk on Mob Wars called Sunshine Bruiser (Level 40 but dinky as all get out) is online right now (it's about 9:30 PM). He attacked me without checking out my stats, as I usually do before I attack somebody, in order that I don't accidentally attack an UberMobster who will promptly kill me or have me killed. Anyway, ol' Sunshine didn't bother to check and find out that I outclass him in every way, just about. He gave me 3 damage points, but I damaged him by 50!!

That's not the worst of it. Sunshine then, after he lost bigtime, proceded to attack me AGAIN!!! So I decided to 'make him an offer he couldn't refuse', as we Italian mobsters like to say. I attacked him once, and it put him in the hospital. And I've been keeping him in the hospital for almost an hour now, cuz Sunshine will pay a doc to heal him, and then BAM!! I send him back to the hospital.

Foolish young Jedi. Your pitiful band of rebels has no chance against this armed and fully operational battlestation! (Read that in the Emporer Palpatine voice - it's much better that way)

Of course, the Rebellion did manage to blow up the second Death Star. And there were cute Ewoks. lol

If anyone out there would like to join my mob, just send an invite to me. My screen name is homer4k, and my Facebook profile is here.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

They're Here!!

I just saw a commercial for some satellite service like Dish or Direct TV. I didn't pay attention to who it was for because I was watching the commercial itself. It starts out with Carole Ann (the creepy little girl from Poltergeist) in front of the TV saying "They're here!", then cuts back to the parents asleep in the bed. The dad (Craig T. Nelson) wakes up - except hes the modern day Nelson, not the one from 1982 (when Polt. was released). He then explains why the TV was all snowy - he had cable, not satellite.

Anyway, this is similar to the Terminator-themed commercial for some satellite service or another. I wonder what other classics they will spoof?

I'll try and get a link to either commercial posted soon. Too much going on right now. (That was a joke). Well, not really - it's time to log into Mob Wars and bank my funds before someone gets them!! lol

(edit) Found the Terminator ad on Youtube. No luck on the Poltergeist one yet

Road Trip To Antarctica!

Ever thought about visiting Antarctica? I always thought it would be cool, until I saw this video.



http://view.break.com/487339 - Watch more free videos

All I can say is "TURN UP THE HEAT!!!" You know it's VERY cold when the frost is forming INSIDE your house (or base, or whatever).

Friday, September 26, 2008

Stumbleupon Rocks!!

Puppies- Rottweiler/Lab Mixed


I found this video while stumbling through the web (www.stumbleupon.com) and these pups are very similar to Snickers when she was a pup. Of course, she had no real tail, just a duck tail, but still, these pups here resemble her as a pup quite a bit.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Random (or not) Videos From YouTube



This is too cool - first someone did the Lego Bible. Now, it's Lego Johnny Cash!!

I am waiting for someone to do a Lego LOST at some point. Hmm, I wonder if it's already on YouTube?




And even more Johnny Cash - in Lego form.







I was right. Here is the first Season of LOST, in Lego form.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Just a quickie post tonight (or this morning, whichever you prefer. Local time is 12:53 AM as I begin writing this). I have enjoyed the Astronomy Picture of the Day ( or APOD) website for years. Basically, a new photo related to astronomy in some fashion is displayed each day, along with commentary. But yesterday's and today's photos are pretty cool, even for APOD.




First, this APOD photo above (for Sep 19 2008) shows a star very similar to our Sun. But check out the small fuzzball above and to the left of the star, about 11 o'clock. That is no star. It is a huge gas giant planet (we have those here in our star system as well - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) massing about 8 times the mass of Jupiter. What you are looking at is an actual direct image of another planet. Now, astronomers have inferred the existence of so-called extrasolar planets time and time again, other planets orbiting other stars. But this is the first time we've ever gotten an visual image of another planet outside of our Solar system. I think that's something of a milestone.





Next up we have the APOD for Sep 20, 2008. It was taken during the Aug 1 total solar eclipse, and the photographer used 55 separate exposures, ranging from 1/125 to 8 seconds. Normally in a solar eclipse, you can't make out the details of the lunar service. But here you can. I just liked this photo for some reason.

There's actually alot more stuff I could blog right now, but it's getting late so I'll try and post something tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Animal Rescue 911

Operation Hummingbird Rescue was a complete success! Here's a quick recap.

1) Apparently, a little hummer flew in the back of the store yesterday before closing time. I never got him to fly out, so he stayed inside overnight. No food, which is bad for hummers.

2) This morning, I found him motionless on the floor. Animal Rescue quickly went into emergency mode - I mixed up some sugar water (25% sugar by volume, as recommended by Wikipedia), filled a Styrofoam cup which I had cut low so he could sip the sugar water, and placed the cup in front of the bird.

3)Within minutes, he began to sip - gingerly at first, but eventually he was guzzling it down. And then he flew off.

4) Mission Accomplished! Another successful rescue by your local Animal Rescue Team (but not cats - they can just die)

Monday, September 15, 2008

Some Youtube Fun

This video makes me laugh every time I watch it. The model falling down is worth a chuckle or two. But it's the news anchor's belly laugh as he watches the clip over and over - THAT is what makes me crack up every time.


Irony

...and yes, recognize the irony of declaring my blog to be dead, then suddenly I am posting more frequently than ever.

I Am A Total Geek!

I downloaded the first season of LOST. I was just now watching LOST on the SciFi channel, when I recalled I had this particular episode(Pilot, Part 2) on TV also on my computer. So I started VLC player (it runs circles around Windows Media Player 11 or whatever number they're on now) and played around a bit, and now I have my computer and the TV playing the same episode of LOST almost perfectly in synch. Maybe 5-10 milliseconds difference.

Dang, they went to commercial!! Blast, now I have to resynch it all over again!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Some Thoughts...

My sister sometimes creates lists of things on her blog. I don't know if I can reach 10 in this post, but we'll see where it goes.

1) The Hurricane Ike frenzy here in Texas is reaching epic proportions. I actually read on the net today that Galvestonians living in certain low-lying parts of the city were warned by the National Weather Service that refusing to evacuate Galveston means certain death.

Certain death?? DEATH??? Isn't that a bit...uh...extreme? I thought so at first, but after doing a little research on Galveston, it seems that things really are bad. I'm just not used to hearing the NWS say things like "certain death". Usually it's stuff like "Tornado Warning" or "Flash Flood Watch". Then they go on to explain that a tornado watch means the conditions are right for the formation of tornadoes. I wonder how they explain the "Certain Death" alert? "We've just issued a Certain Death alert for Galveston County until 10 PM this evening. This means that conditions are right for YOU TO DIE!!!!"

Ha. I just made myself laugh trying to visualize that weather bulletin.

2) Not all people are insensitive, ignorant blow hards. (But alot of them are). I was in the drive through at Starbucks today, waiting for my latte (yes, sugar free, with nonfat milk, so its only 75 calories - and very good!). I was at the window waiting, and I saw some kid walkin across the drive thru in front of me. He was 18-20 or so. I watched him stop at the trash bin - you know. the one they locate along the drive thru so people can throw out trash? Well, apparently, people had been throwing out ALOT of trash today, because the trash bin was brimming over with trash - no room for any more. Anyway, I assumed the kid was going to toss something in as he walked up to the trash - but he didn't. Instead, he pushed on the overflowing trash (causing some water to spew forth - ewww...garbage water (Homer fans should catch that reference)). He managed to push the extruding trash down into the barrel, clearing the entryway for more trash from peeps' cars. Watching this, I assumed he worked there and was coming in for his shift (he wasn't in Starbucks uniform yet)
I got my latte, pulled forward and said something to the kid about getting the garbage water all over himself while clearing the trash. He nodded and said "Yeah, man, I don't even work here, but I can't believe how insensitive and uncaring some people are, making a mess of things and not even trying to clean up. So I thought I'd do it for them."
I was suitably impressed. For his good deed, he got garbage water all over himself. But I thought it was still a nice thing to do. Alot of us "old fogies" (I can just hear Gil laughing right now - one of my coworkers, he is. Gil is 70-something years old, and he calls me "just a pup" sometimes.) -- anyway, alot of old fogies have a negative impression of today's youth. This rep isnt ENTIRELY undeserved, but the old peeps tend to generalize and apply this negative impression to all the kids today. It was nice to see one of these kids doing a nice thing for no reason, and not for some reward. He didn't even know anyone was watching.

3) I have always liked Charlie Gibson on ABC News. While alot of the other 'big-wig' anchors are pretty liberal (even thought they porport to be objective - but the liberal bias does come through often), Gibson, while a liberal, has always manged to not let it affect his news-telling. However, in his interview with Governor Palin (part of which was aired yesterday) he revealed a shockingly biased approach to Palin. Gibson did ask some tough questions - and he should. I have no problem with that. But several times he asked some loaded trap questions, attempting to either catch her in a mistake, or put words in her mouth. I have never seen him do that with anyone else he's interviewed. I hate to say it, but the liberally-biased mainstream media has been engaged in a fortified campaign to smear and belittle Palin. Since these liberals think of themselves as the progressive, enlightened ones, I would have thought that they would be championing a woman with the chance to be our new vice president. But they are trying to throw her under the proverbial bus - except Palin refuses to go down. I like her - the way she handled Gibson last night was superb. And I've lost several points of respect for Charlie Gibson.

4) Palin lost a few respect points with me last night as well. When talking about nuclear weapons, he pronounces 'nuclear' as 'nook-yular'. -5 points for you, Governor.

5) Mob Wars is adddictive. And I need more people to join my mob. Please, please please send me an invite. My Facebook profile is here. You can add me as a friend, then send me an invite for Mob Wars if you've already started playing, or I can send you an invite to play Mob Wars and join my mob.

6) Following on the heels of my first observation (see #1 above) about the NWS, here's another bizarre tidbit. NWS officials in Galvestion are recommending to the stay-puts that they write their social security number on their arm using a permanent marker, in order that will be able to identify the bodies.

!!!!!!WOW!!!!!!!! These NWS guys are hard-core.

7) Watching a hurricane make landfall is something I'd like to do someday. But not this weekend.

8) Dang, I'm out of things to add to the list. So eight is all you get this time.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Political Stuff

I'm looking forward to the VP debate coming up on Oct 2. Palin vs. Biden - sounds like a boxing match (which it might actually turn into!)

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Thoughts On Mob Wars

Do you play Mob Wars? I know I do. (Pathetic attempt to sound like Andy Rooney, sorry)

The whole thing began with my sister. She needed more mobsters, apparently, in order to do more jobs on this game she was playing. She begged me to join (well, begged is a little strong, ha ha, but more dramatic) so I caved in and signed up. I had no plans to actually play the game, of course.

And then I decided to kinda just check Mob Wars out. Not to play it, mind you - just to see what it was all about. And then my brother-in-law asked me to join his Mob as well. And I started playing, and now I actually have several times a day where I experience a desperate need to check in on my mob, to make sure I haven't died due to a hit put on me (Thank you, Big Breasted Bertha, for my first death). And it has just snowballed from there.

There is a screen in Mob Wars where you can check out the stats of rival mobs. From there, you can also access the attack, punch in the face, and hitlist buttons. The funny thing is that when you check on the status of your own mob, the same screen appears, along with the punch in the face/hitlist options.


I figured that Mob Wars wouldn't actually let you punch yourself in the face.

I WAS WRONG!!

I clicked the punch link, and lo and behold, I got a status message saying "You punched yourself in the face, dealing yourself 6 damage".

I wonder if the hitlist option works on yourself. It would be like committing suicide, I guess. Suicide by mobster.

You're right, that was lame.


Note: If anyone would like to join my mob, I would be grateful. I still need 5 more mobsters so I can smuggle drugs by sea. Look for me on Facebook and add me as a friend and I'll send you an invite to join my mob.

My profile on Facebook is here



PS - I just saw a preview for the Simpsons season opener - the 20th season!!! The Simpsons has been on for a fifth of a century. How cool is that??

I've got a bad feeling about this...


That's no moon. That's a space station!!

Uh, no. This is really Mimas, a satellite of Saturn. But the resemblance to the Death Star is uncanny. Maybe Darth Vader is out there, about to attack Earth, ha ha.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Privacy Invasion???

Watch this funny yet disturbing video about Google's Street View available on Google Maps. And whatever you do, don't look behind you!!