Xiang Xiang Lost and Now Nadi

Bred in captivity, released into the wild at five years old, and died less than a year later. Despite three years of "training in survival techniques and defense tactics," he apparently fell from a great height while fighting other pandas. So sad. Read the story here.

Nadi, a rare 40 year old white rhinoceros, died today at the San Diego Zoo. This endangered rhinoceros species' population is estimated at only 13 worldwide and only 5 roaming the wild. A sad state of affairs we humans have created on this planet. Read the story here.

Buy Bye Birdie

So I take my vehicle into the dealership this morning to get a manufacturer's recall taken care of. The courtesy driver is out and about so I go browsing through the new car lot. The Toyota Tundra caught my eye and soon a salesman caught me. We took it out for a test drive and I was impressed. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy I wasn't interested in buying a new car at this time so we went inside to run some numbers. If I trade in my vehicle with 21 payments still outstanding I could buy the $36,000 truck for $1 more than my car payment at this time. But then I would have 5 more years of a car payment. Should I or shouldn't I? Very tempting. Absolutely...not!

Totally Tasteless

A Dutch television network is stooping to a new low by creating the "Big Donor Show" in which contestants vie for a kidney belonging to a terminally ill woman. Unbelievable. Read the story here.

Time For Me To Grill

Snakes & Arrows

Rush rocks.

Curds and Whey

There are many things I think are inaccurate with Peter Parker aka Spiderman in his extemporization of an arachnid. The one that really stands out is his web, or more exactly, where it squirts out of. Shouldn't the web really squirt out of his butt or abdomen? Yeah, it wouldn't be a pretty site but accuracy is important. But just think. Spiders are creepy enough but imagine if they were like Spiderman and they could squirt their web out of their appendages. Yuck.

Black Rain

Ozzy is back and he rocks!!

Will It Ever End?

Had to put gas in the vehicle this evening. I went to a location near me that always has the best price around town and they were charging $3.23 a gallon. Still better than the prices at other locations. Grand total for 22 gallons...$71.04! Gas hybrids, hmmmm.

Power of Observation or Not

A little quiz to pass the time.

So I Can't Differentiate Between Java Beans & Fava Beans

This quiz displays a picture and you have to decide whether they are a computer geek or a serial killer. Have fun. Oh, 5 out of 10 for me.

Holy Reminiscence of Chris Daughtry, Batman!

See, this is why I'm not going to watch the show anymore...again. Sure, Blake can b-b-b-beatbox but his s-s-s-singing is so-so-o-o-o. Jordin is young, pretty, and can sing well but not consistently. My money was on Melinda to win but maybe all her supporters did get complacent. Read the entire story here.

In other news, I think I only come to work because of the free coffee.

That's So Dumb

Morons. Read the story here. Don't they realize they will never get that wasted time back? It's gone forever. Disappeared into the past.

O 68, O 68, I 18, I 18

I'm plugging this show purely for selfish motives. Hey, Bingo is a national past-time isn't it? With this you get all the excitement and dough without the cigarette smoke. How much more fun and excitement could you wish for?

No, No, Nooooooo!!

It's 8:10 and I'm watching a rerun of The Simpsons on FOX. Actually I've been watching reruns since 7:45. You see, I was watching a rerun of House which started at 7:00 but that abruptly cut off at around 7:20. The station was off the air for about 15 minutes and then House came back on. After about 5 minutes the show cut off again. After about another 5 minutes The Simpsons reruns started. 24 should be on now but there's a message that scrolls across the bottom of the screen saying the station is experiencing technical difficulties and they are trying to restore regular programming. They better show 24 in its entirety.

UPDATE: Apparently the local FOX affiliate suffered a catastrophic system failure which knocked out all of their program feeds. They have it fixed now and will air 24 tomorrow night at 10PM. Woo Hoo!

Change The Channel

I've probably said this before but I'm going to say it again. I can't stand having previews at the beginning of a DVD. A just released DVD is not too bad because the previews are current. But let's say you just bought a DVD movie that's a few years old. I mean who wants to see a preview of Big Momma's House today? And what makes it worse is that you can't skip the preview on a lot of DVDs. The best you can do is fast-forward through them. Battlefield Earth, oh yeah, Travolta and Whitaker at their best. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, a quality flick. And Mission to Mars, good cast but boring. At least I've got time to make the popcorn after I pop the DVD into the player.

Total Recall

I've got the day off so I took my vehicle into the dealership for some required maintenance. They tell me that there is a recall notice for the lower ball joint in the front suspension. The recall went into effect in January of this year. I'm just wondering why they don't send something in the mail to inform you of the recall. What if I had decided against taking my vehicle into the dealer? What if I just took it to Jiffylube for an oil change? This goes for just about anything you buy and have to register it. I know it's just a marketing ploy but if the manufacturer has your information why not use it for recall notices? Of course the dealer has to order the parts so I've got to come back at a later date to fix the problem. It figures.

The Devil's Handiwork

That would be Sudoku. I've become addicted. It's a wonderful tool to eat away time when I should be doing something important.

My One Cent

A couple of famous individuals got away with it recently in my opinion. That would be O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake. Maybe Phil Spector will be next. But we still have Paris. Of course she only violated probation by driving on a suspended license. A misunderstanding according to her but then again she wouldn't have been on probation if she had not been caught driving under the influence in the first place. Bad Paris. Now she thinks it's unfair and cruel and doesn't deserve going to jail for 45 days. Poor Paris. Notice of intent to appeal have been filed on her behalf.

But this is what really chafes me: a petition to Governor Schwarzenegger to pardon Paris. Oh, please pardon her because she provides "beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives," states the petition. It even goes on to say "If the late former President Gerald Ford could find it in his heart to pardon the late former President Richard Nixon after his mistake(s), we undeniably support Paris Hilton being pardoned for her honest mistake as well, and we hope and expect the governor will understand and grant this unusual but important request in good faith to Ms. Paris Whitney Hilton," the petition says.

I'm rolling my eyes with my arms outstretched to the heavens. Apples to oranges, people, apples to oranges. Aaaagh!

You Have Nothing To Worry About

The circus was fun. The kids really enjoyed themselves. The show had twelve performing animals in all. There were six dancing horses, five Frisbee catching dogs, and an elephant. There was also only one ring. I seem to remember from my youth that there were three rings and lots of animals including lions and tigers. Perhaps the venue prevented the other rings from being used? The souvenir stands accepted credit cards. I guess times have changed.

The Circus Is In Town

The Greatest Show On Earth® is here. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's circus is where we'll be at on Sunday afternoon. Courtesy of a friend of mine who bought us tickets to the show. Ordinarily I would not buy tickets to a circus because I feel sorry for the animals. But I must admit that when I saw the Ringling circus when I was a little kid, I was really impressed and enjoyed it a lot. So I had to think about my objections to the treatment of circus animals or seeing my daughters' happy, smiling faces as they watch the show live. I figured my conscience would survive a couple of hours of animal commercialization. We shall see.

Find f(x) if f (1) = e

Basic math skills. Basic math skills. Basic math skills.

I'm not talking about calculating the derivative of a function but simple division. What is 60 divided by 7? You may even use paper if you need to. Or even a calculator. Just as long as your answer is 8.57142 or there abouts. If you can't handle basic math then you obviously shouldn't be in a position where you deal with numbers. Or money. It's bad enough that high schoolers working at fast food joints can't give back correct change but an adult manager at a super electronics store? Give me a break.

And I think Walmart sells censored music CDs. Those f*^%!#$ as^&%$#@.

Way To Go Idaho

I have been getting frustrated trying to find some information that would prove that I'm not just imagining things or going crazy. I have memories of an amusement center located inside Dallas Love Field airport in the mid 70s. I think it took up one of the airport's concourses and contained a roller skating rink, ice skating rink, theaters, arcades, and snack shops. One admission price allowed you to use all the facilities. I think I even saw parts of a sci-fi classic movie, Logan's Run, there. That would place the time frame to 1976. I even recall the T.V. commercials advertising this place had The Beatles' All You Need Is Love as the background music. What the heck was this place called and why can't I find anything about it?

Save It For Someone Who Cares

The other day I drove by a "church" that had double glass doors at the entrance. It was in the afternoon on a weekday so there probably wasn't a service going on. The parking lot was also empty and the curtains were drawn behind the front doors. I thought that was rather odd. Drawn curtains at the entrance. What are they trying to hide? It reminded me of traveling carnivals and the side shows proclaiming you could witness the Amazing Gorilla Woman or Slithering Snake Man if you were brave enough to enter the curtained entrance way. As if the curtains were some magical tome that would blind us from the flim-flam and sham of great proportions that would soon follow. Wait, that's odd...I hear thunder on a perfectly clear day.