Come To The Darkside!

Today was a baaaaaaaad day at work. I was talking with a co-worker, and I tried to explain how bad things were using a Star Wars reference. I told him how, if we were in the Star Wars universe, I would have gladly gone Darkside so fast today, just to be able to shoot lightning at peeps, and maybe even do the ol' Force Choke Hold like my boy Vader did once. Being able to shoot lightning at stupid people would come in handy, in many ways. Especially people who do not know what the red and white triangular street sign with the word YIELD on it means. But that's another post just dying to be written. There is a specific YIELD sign here in Paris where I would like to set up early in the morning, and all day long just count how many peeps obey the sign vs. how many don't. It would make a nice little pie chart, don't you think? Or is that just the geek in me. Grrrr.

Better get my lightning hands ready.

¿Qué decir?

I came across this article from the NBC Channel 5 website in the Metroplex. I'll post the text here to save time.

Man Ticketed After Failing To Heed Bilingual Signs

ARLINGTON, Texas --

An Arlington man says not knowing Spanish earned him a ticket after police stopped him in an area in McKinney with bilingual signs designated to accommodate day laborers.He got stopped on Highway 5 and Louisiana Street in McKinney."Most people that come into this area are able to notice there are signs in English and Spanish as well," said Lt. Scott Brewer.The Spanish language signs say "Prohibido estacionar y parar" and have English signs above them or facing another direction that say "No parking, standing or stopping.""It helps out in that they stay away from your property," said Jesse Raymundo of Magna Craft Furniture, a business in the area.Raymundo said the bilingual signs make it clear to everyone where day laborers and employers should meet."People now speak both languages and some people only speak one so it kind of helps out," he said.McKinney city officials said it has no plans to change its policy or signs."For us, it's a quality of life issue. We know that they're opportunities here, we've just taken the appropriate steps, we think, to make it go safely," Brewer said.

Now, at first glance, you would assume that the poor soul this article is about has been treated unfairly - after all, he doesn't speak or read Spanish, apparently. BUT - if you go to the article and watch the video provided, you can see a different story. The Spanish-language sign reading "Prohibido estacionar y parar" clearly have another sign below them, albeit at a different angle. And that sign is in plain ol' English. The guy's story about not seeing the English language sign? Pure baloney, IMHO.

Addendum

And yes, I recognize the irony of declaring my blog to be dead, and then just a few days later I post. So don't even think of trying to pown me by leaving some lame ironic comment.

I'm still laughing!

If you follow politics (and I do), you've no doubt heard about the McCain ad which compares Obama to Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears. I finally got around to viewing it on YouTube. Well, here it is, in case you haven't seen it already.



There is another ad, this time by Paris Hilton, responding to McCain's ad. Unfortunately, there seem to be copyright issues related to this one, seeing as how any videos on YouTube that I could find have been removed. Anyway, I heard the audio on talk radio this morning, and the jist of it was Paris, responding to McCain's ad, and then declaring she is running for president. She then presents her "platform" - and the sad thing is, her energy policy actually sounds halfway decent!!

I'll keep looking for that other video.

Post-Mortem Analysis??

This blog is dead. Well, maybe not dead, but dying. Certainly well into end-stage terminal cancer. I started this blog oh so long ago as an attempt to just put down some random thoughts and stuff, about things and such, a real stream-of-consciousness kinda thing. Which basically means I write what I'm thinking as I think it - think of it as a kind of realtime update from my brain to the computer. Unlike some people who type up posts, then edit them so they sound at least halfway coherent, I don't edit, other than to correct glaringly egregious spelling errors. And it shows.

Anyway, I had a whopping 3 posts last month, 2 or 3 each in May and April, but an incredible 6 in June. I never wanted to post daily, but I thought it would be more frequent than that. There's just not much going on worth posting, and I refuse to post "just" to post. So I think this blog is at least going on hiatus, which will affect all three followers tremendously, ha ha.

How Not To Cook Lobster

Found this while surfing the web aimlessly. Makes me laugh EVERY TIME!!

Say What?????

Read the article first, then come back for commentary. Don't worry, I'll wait.

What? Too lazy to click the link? Okay fine, I'll copy and paste it.

Largest Animal Shelter in U.S. Will House 2 Dogs Trained to Have Sex With Women

OKLAHOMA CITY — The nation's largest animal sanctuary has agreed to accept two dogs that authorities say were trained to have sex with women.

A mixed breed and a Labrador, formerly owned by Diane Sue Whalen of Tulsa County, have been accepted by the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, said Barbara Williamson, spokeswoman for the animal sanctuary.

The dogs — named Lucky and Buddy — will be taken to the no-kill sanctuary next month.

Whalen, 54, and Donald Roy Seigfried, 55, were charged with felony crimes against nature after Whalen's adult son found more than 150 tapes of his mother performing sex acts with her dogs and a blue heeler owned by Seigfried. Seigfried was accused of filming the acts.

The dogs were placed in the Tulsa Animal Shelter following the arrests. While Whalen relinquished custody of her dogs, Seigfried is fighting for ownership of the blue heeler, named Merlin.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered that the dogs be examined by a veterinarian and found suitable for adoption before being placed in homes. Both of Whalen's dogs have been deemed adoptable.

The dogs were neutered at a Tulsa veterinary clinic. Jamee Suarez, president and founder of the Oklahoma Alliance for Animals, said the dogs are healthy and are recovering from their surgeries.

The Oklahoma Alliance for Animals is a nonprofit organization that works with the Tulsa County sheriff's office on cases involving animal cruelty.

Volunteers for the organization will drive the dogs more than 1,000 miles to the animal sanctuary in Utah. Once there, the dogs will become candidates for adoption.

"Each dog (at the sanctuary) is treated as an individual," said Williamson, the sanctuary spokeswoman. "We felt we could help these dogs."

A deputy who investigated the case had recommended that the dogs be euthanized and wrote in court affidavits that they had been trained to rape.

Williamson said euthanizing the dogs would have been "the easy thing to do."

"These dogs are totally victims," she said.

The sanctuary has room for 2,000 animals, mostly dogs and cats. Williamson said there are that many "urgent pleas" every month asking the shelter to take in animals.

Animals that are not adopted live permanently at the sanctuary.

(Taken from the Fox News website)

Okay. Where to begin?

It's not the fact that these dogs were mistreated.

It's not even the fact that they were trained to ...... well, you know what.

The thing that struck me as...uh...kinda weird is how the son of one of the alleged criminals found 150 tapes of his mother engaging in sex acts with the two dogs.

I mean, what do you say at a time like that? "Uhh, nice photos, Mom"?

I kinda feel bad for the son mentioned in the article. Finding those tapes of your Mom would just be.....weird.

Some Observations

1) The campaign to save our local Starbucks is well underway - I had come up with the name S.O.S. (Save Our Starbucks) but it would appear that this name is pretty prevalent all over the internet. In fact, another local blogger already used it in a post about (surprise surprise) saving our Starbucks. As did yet another local blogger. One of the baristas suggested to me that, besides the usual of contacting the corporate website, etc etc, it might be useful to check out www.mystarbucksidea.com, and leave a comment there. I did, and I also searched for other comments along the same idea of keeping ou Starbucks alive. There were several already posted. You can check out that link, but you may have to create an account there.
I prefer Starbucks to our other local coffee house, Paris Coffee. For one thing, *$ has better tasting sugar free syrups. But even moreso, the employees at *$ here are great. Excellent service, friendly, and very free with advice on how to improve your drink. For example, I usually order a triple grande skinny cinnamon dolce. Why three shots of espresso? I like the darker flavor it gives the drink, and the caffeine boost is good, too. :) One day, the girl in the drive through suggested adding one packet of Splenda - it enhances the dark flavor and takes most of the bitterness out.

2) I have a new variety of apple I like. Years ago, it was Granny Smith all the way. Always sour, usually crispy. Then came Braeburn - a much sweeter taste, but sometimes mealy. The came Gala - another sweeter variety. Today I saw a new one - Jazz. Sweet tasting with a perfect hint of sour. And the three that I've eaten so far were all super crispy.

3) The peaches on sale at Krogers are just as good if not better than what you might find at the Farmer's Market.


That's it for now.

Storms!!

Last night, after a delicious trip to Fish Tales to celebrate Mom's birthday, I was driving back to Paris. While we had been eating, a cold front had pushed through, bringing with it a line of storms, along with some fantastic lightning. I decided to drive a little further southeast to get closer and got a couple of decent lightning pics. You can see more here on Flickr.

Update to Kennedy Sucks

Hmm, I figured I be getting some hate email just from the post title alone, ha ha.

Anyway, yesterday the SC issued a decision on the DC handgun ban - they upheld the constitution (GO SCOTUS!!) and affirmed the right for citizens to keep and bear arms, just like the 2nd amendment says. Go figure. Anyway, I got to thinking - regarding the previous post. If someone broke into my house, and I found them trying to rape my child, and I have my handgun (which is protected under the 2nd amendment), I could theoretically shoot and kill the rapist - legally. So why is that okay, but executing a child rapist is not? Just food for thought.

And yes, although I do have misgivings about the state applying the death penalty for child rapists (where no death occurred), if someone was raping my kid, you better believe I would shoot them dead (with my constitutionally protected handgun, of course!)