Crazy Lawsuit Game

First things first. So Joan said to me, after I told her what Slothy and Snopes said about tryptophan, that why would that do it? It's one of the 19 essential amino acids and it's probably in lots of food too. Science chicks are so sexy. So I thought about it, then snopesd it. And I stand corrected. I apologize for perpetuating the myth of tryptophan and sleepy turkey. It's those damn carbs again. Same thing with a chinese buffet.

Had an excellent relaxing holiday. Did dishes constantly. Not eating out creates lots of dishes. Scored an excellent turkey dinner for $20 from Publix cuz someone ordered it and never picked it up, so I got me about 4 pounds of turkey leftovers. I know you're jealous, but I'll send you a sandwich. Maybe Regan (ESC) has some leftover turkey recipes.

And I have a test tonight. No I shouldn't be taking it, but it's okay. I'm not bitter. I swear.

The pics below are from the trip Joan and I took to NYC/Long Island for a wedding in May. They're just to appease you until I get my Black Friday pics up, which will happen tonight, I promise.

And I have some great tips for guerilla photography. I used the "I'm holding my camera at my side and not taking pictures" trick. I would even look away while taking pictures. Awesome. I think only 4 people noticed I had a camera, and maybe one of those realized I was taking pictures. Suckers. Got some good pics, got lots of crappy ones. FYI, holding a camera at your side is great for taking ass pics (ewwwww, ass picks). It's an ass level camera. But I deleted most of those. I would've kept some great asses, but alas there were none.

I wouldn't suggest using this method with a 35mm camera. You'd waste a shitload of film. I took around 300 pictures and I'd say 80% are completely worthless, either blurry, assy or stupid.

So the pictures will be coming forthwith. Yes that's a word.

This is slightly blurry Times Square. And a cab and 4Runner. 

This is Joan's cousin's chameleon. It has passed away since May, but it was an awesome pet. 

So I'm at work on Sat. night. Joan is too. But tomorrow is nothing but a little house cleaning and cuddling under our warm blanket.

This will be short. But I went to the mall late on Fri. so it was more like a really busy day than Black Friday, but still got lots of pics. I will regale you with my tales and pics either tomorrow or Monday.

I have a test on Monday night. I shouldn't have to take it. I need .5 points to pass my qualifying tests and become a real doctoral candidate. I took a test which I'm fairly certain that I got at least 1/2 points on about a month ago BUT since the person who gave it hasn't graded it yet, I get to take another one because I'm not 100% certain that I got my half point. Jerk.

Until then.

Just read Catt's post yesterday about her son getting sucker punched and now has to go to court to get some justice because the school system is basically full of pansies who are too scared of parents and lawsuits to keep order in their schools.

And the same thing happened to Trash Jr. a few weeks ago. So it isn't just Virginia or Texas schools, but all over I imagine. And the Princess of Power posted on how a friend of hers was hit by a stray bullet fired in their school cafeteria and that was in '93, so it isn't just now.

School vouchers isn't a bad idea, but we shouldn't have to send our kids away from public schools. Public schools are funded, mostly under-, by the state, local, and federal government. But you don't just learn about books and trees and Macbeth. School is the first time that you really interact with society on your own. Other than that it's everywhere with your parents and hanging out on your street with your friends. So school is like the training for the real world. And in the real world there are consequences for your actions. If I did what random shithead did to Catt's son, I would be charged with at least assault and pay a fine and maybe spend some time in jail. Not suspended and get to sleep in and then wake up, watch TV, then play video games, eat lunch, more video games, nap, TV, video games, dinner, video games, sleep. And then go back to school the next day feeling refreshed and thinking to myself, "Shit, I should do that more often, that was GREAT!"

And big props to the two guys who ran down those little punks, I would've done the same thing. You can't do that and you need to be punished.

On a related topic, I have been occasionally catching Nanny 911 on Fox. It's not a good show. It reminds me of Iron Chef on FoodTV where chefs come and challenge an Iron Chef. It's kind of like Iron Nanny. There is a group of about 4 nannys, all complete with British accent of course, and they review a tape of the hellraising children and then pick a certain nanny to get these kids to behave in a week. Whatever, at least it's sort of a new idea for "reality" TV.

But the recurring theme I have noticed throughout the show is that the kids really aren't bad at all, the PARENTS are the ones who receive the most instruction. They are bad parents. And the kids learn to behave in a week. One week. The parents have had these same kids for years and they're insane. Bad parents, bad!

So maybe we need to bring parenting back into schools.

Mmmmmmm, tryptophan. Yep that's the magical substance in turkey that makes your dad and grandpa pass out while watching the Cowboys game. But you all knew that.

If you hadn't notice sometimes I state the obvious. My friends called me Capt. Obvious for about 2 days. Glad that didn't catch on. I'm still just MK. That's missionary kid. Still not sure what we're doing for Thurs. Joan and I are staying here, but her manager from Publix invited us to her place to eat dinner with her and her mom. Sounds okay, and it's easier to make food for 4 than 2. Just gimme some wine, excellent food and some good company and a soft couch for the post meal digesting and I'm one happy little clam. Happy as a clam, that's weird and you know some ocean crazed ship captain came up with that, "Arrrr, look at dat clam, he's so happy. Wish I was happy as a clam, (downtrodden) arrrr." Okay so he was a pirate captain. Quickie Tuesday post and now to share a few things that I encountered on my voyages through the electronic ether.

Ever seen SuperSize Me? Well this guy is doing it cuz a friend bet him a grand that he couldn't drink Pepsi Spice, and only Pepsi Spice, for 45 days straight. Gross, and he didn't even taste it before he said yes. He can eat normally but the only liquid he is allowed to consume is Pepsi Spice with up to 6 ice cubes per 12 oz. So far he's gained about 13 pounds. And it's only been a week. And his urine is red and his poo, liquified eeeewwwwwwww, is also red, both presumably caused by the dye in the beverage. Whatever, but he's got a website and a blog. Enjoy, but not for the weak stomached.

Main Pepsi Spice site

Pepsi Spice Blog

And I just read on CNN.com how that Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich sold for $28,000. Whaaa? Sure it didn't grow mold on it for 10 years, but I'm sure we could find a preservative to do that. Anyone wanna go into the religious food novelty business? Or have any Jesus shaped animal crackers laying around?

Also saw how a group of dolphins herded up a group of swimmers to protect them from sharks in New Zealand. Wow. That's amazing. But the day when the dolphins realize that it is us that has been polluting the oceans, they're gonna be pissed and that Simpsons episode might come to pass and we would have to live in the ocean.

And anyone in the southern regions, is it warm there too? It's been highs in the lower 60s all week. And it's November 23. Crazy ass weather.

Look out! Homonym!

So we got to play mechanic this weekend with a friend's car. It's a black '04 Subaru WRX, turbocharged all wheel drive, great car. A turbo system basically routes the engine exhaust into one side of the turbo, the turbo spins and compresses air, and shoots this air into the engine which makes more power. We were replacing the up-pipe, which takes the exhaust from the engine up to the turbo. The stock piece has a pre catalyst in it and the new one does not, so it's less restrictive and that equals more power. Don't worry, there are still 3 catalysts left in the exhaust so it is still a relatively clean car.

We went over and started working on it at 10:30 am on Saturday. It was all going okay and then we ran into some problems putting some pipes back on, but we got through that and cranked her up and she was pumping oil onto the driveway. Fuck. And this is about 9 pm with a couple hours in there for meals and breaks. So we crawl down underneath her and see that a hose is disconnected. Hmmm, we figure it's the oil return line from the turbo cuz the turbo needs oil too. So we break until Sunday and he calls me at 9 am. Bleh early need sleepy, but the car gods wake my ass up and so I go over and help put that hose back on and we're done smoking a joint by 11:30 am. And the WRX sounds much better and it feels faster but I hadn't ridden in it previous to this install, so I can't be 100%.

So I went home, showered, Joan had just gotten out and said that she considered waiting for me but didn't. Oh well, her loss. We enjoy taking showers together. Don't know why, but I like it. So get cleaned up and head to the Olive Garden for lunch. The host gets our drinks, some other dude takes our order and finally 20 minutes later we see our waitress with our salad. Then she's gone for another 15 minutes. So we ask to see the manager and we score a free meal! Suckers! But I tipped her 10 bucks for the trouble. Then get home and watch The Day After Tomorrow. Typical disaster movie but with all of natural disasters, tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, etc.. And who the hell would be a paleoclimatologist. I like dinosaurs but dinosaur weather patterns? That's hardcore.

Nice relaxing weekend before Thanksgiving. Joan and I aren't doing anything. She has to test water on Black Friday and I was gonna go home to the Ham from Thurs. till Sat. but I DESPISE T'giving traffic. I think getting rear-ended (hehehe) by a minivan two years ago on my way home soured me on Turkey traffic. But we'll be going home for Christmas to see the fam. Joan hasn't even met my dad's family yet. So enjoy your short week, and be thankful that you don't have to work on Thurs.

And I'm addicted to shopping on Black Friday. See, I'm a patient person. I'm especially patient when I see people REALLY impatient around me. Cuz it's like a show. Just for me. I'm in line/in the store and I don't really care. I'm not Christmas shopping. I'm actually there to watch you, and if I see a great deal, I might wait in line. But sometimes that $5 food processor I don't need isn't worth waiting 45 minutes. We'll visit this topic closer to DAT (Day After Thanksgiving) day.

John: Tastes great or less filling?
Well, I would have to say tastes great. Who cares if you can have lots of the less filling stuff if it's crappy? So I want it to taste great. Interpret however you desire.

Catt: If you had an endless supply of money, what would you do? And what motivates me in school, what I plan to do with my degree, and if I could design the perfect class to take or teach, what would it be?

Money: I would donate money to Greenpeace and the WWF, not wrestling, and probably travel to Africa and help Jane Goodall for a little with those cute little chimps. Then go up to Sudan and see if I can stop the genocide somehow. Donate some money to Nelson Mandela and his AIDS campaign in South Africa. I would set my family up with whatever they wanted. Then I would buy my island in the sun. Look into becoming my own country, then start setting up my motorsports park. BMX, motocross, rally, open wheel racing, drifting. Gasoline powered craziness. And some people are invited. I would have a few houses spread around. I would travel, alot. Donate money to the Humane Society. Read. Drive. Sleep. Sex. That would pretty much be my day. And blog.

School: What motivates me? Curiosity, endless pursuit of knowledge, and wanting to make a decent living to support my family. I never want to stop learning, whether in school or reading or seminars or talking to people in the street, you will never know even a portion of everything. I am a lifetime student.

Degree: Work in the industry for a large chemical company for 10-15 years then "retire" and teach somewhere. Don't know where, but Joan wants it to be somewhere with a good football team. We'll see. That's the short ans sweet answer and it's fairly accurate but by no means set in stone.

Perfect class: It would be one with lots of class discussions where I felt people actually learned something. And a field trip or two would be awesome. Either taking or teaching. I'll think about this one and get more specific later.

Vader: Favorite kind of car? Hmmmm, that's a tough one to ask car people. Like Transformers, hehehe. But right now, limitless money, I would have to say a World Rally Championship Subaru Impreza. They're about 300 grand if you can get your name on the list at Prodrive in England. But actual car I had to buy? I love Minis. They're so cute and mean. The Mini Cooper S Works would be wicked. Or a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, those are nice, but without that wing on the back. Yes I could keep answering this question, but I'll stop now.

Sid: How evil am I? Well, I think my evil rating was about accurate. I'm a little over a quarter evil. So evil enough to be a minion of evil, but not evil enough to have minions.

Socks: Hmmm. Pom pom socks are a little annoying, but are okay if you're under 11 yrs. of age. Toe socks. I've been considering this ever since I first saw them in the 7th grade. Someone wore them for our Halloween day at school, so they've always struck me as odd. But added bonus, you can wear sandals with them and really freak it out.

Feet: Nope, my feet are warm, but they do freeze very quickly. I love me some thick wool winter socks. Great for hiking or for sitting in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Princess of POWER!: Favorite song of all time: Bleh. I can't answer that question. I listen to way too much music to narrow it down to one song. But here's a list of some excellent ones: Vivaldi-Autumn, Spring is good too, so happy and vibrant, Bush-Glycerine, No Doubt-Don't speak, Aqua-Barbie Girl (Pfffffft, bwahahahaha), Hendrix-All along the watch tower, Doors-People are strange, Stones-Paint it black, and I had this tape of irish drinking songs recorded in a bar with actual drunk people, those songs were amazing, but of course I lost the tape.

Ang: If you had a superpower, what would it be? I've always been partial to mind control, so I choose that, but if that's taken, then either Mystique's shape shifting or invisibility. And yes I'm sure that says something about me, but I don't care.

Person: If I could be any other person, who would I be? Maybe John Kennedy, but I would go NOWHERE near Texas in November. I would really be interested to see what that did with history. Henry XIV lived pretty well, and I wouldn't mind telling French people what to do all day. Maybe Shaq, but that would be just to see what it's like being black and 7 feet tall. No I choose Denzel if I wanted to be black. Not that you asked that question.

Career: I've always wanted to be a writer for a sports car magazine. Get paid to write and drive cars and fix cars. Sounds okay to me. But realistically, I would be a pharmacist. The pharmaceutical industry is exploding and it would be easier to monitor them from the inside. And they get paid ass loads to count things.

Hope you have all enjoyed my answers and maybe learned something about me, or are just as confused as ever. But this was fun, and we should do it again sometime.

I donated blood today. First time ever. I was a little anxious. The last time I had a substantial amount of blood removed from my body was when I was 13 for an AIDS test required by our missionary insurance provider. So I'm 13, sitting on the table with the rubbery tube around my arm. I feel a little light-headed but okay. The nurse comes over, gasps, and asks if I'm okay. Well I was until you just freaked out. You're white as a ghost. Oh. Okay. So now what? So she leans the chair back and tells me to breath and that it'll all be over soon. Yay, AIDS free is the life for me!

Flash forward 11 years to Clemson, SC. I go in. Fill out the name thing and start reading over the pamphlet about who can and cannot donate blood. Sex with a man since 1977? Nope, but why 1977? Injected drugs? Nope. Had sex with someone who had injected drugs in the past 12 months? Nope, or Joan's got some splaining to do. Injected bovine insulin? WTF? Ew, hells no. Snorted cocaine in the past 12 months? Um, 12 months, no, but what does that have to do with my blood?

The yes answers were visited outside the country in the past 3 years? Yes, Dominican Republic for 2 weeks Christmas '02. Visited Europe since 1980? Yes, Germany, France, Italy for 2 months. Do I know that I can feel healthy and be positive for AIDS and still have it? Yup.

So I pass and can give blood. I hop up and she asks if I feel okay. Yes, how do you feel? But I am kinda hot, but it's probably the room. She tells me to look away, and I do, but look back in time to see her stick that gigantic needle in my arm. So weird, but cool. I want a tattoo now. Do the fist pumping thing (context you pervs). And am done in about 7 minutes. Nice blood flow. She starts taking tubes out and stuff and then I feel REAL light-headed and woozy. Hey maybe you should lay down. Okay. So after about 10 minutes of drinking a Sprite and lying down I feel a little better and sit up. 5 minutes. Okay I'm ready for my free T-shirt and snacks now. Mmmm, generic fake Hostess products and 8 oz. Cokes. So then I'm sportin' with my orange bandage with pride. And to whomever receives my blood, You're Welcome, and be more careful next time.

I still have that "I have weird facial hair" post coming. And I was going to do a post today inspired by the worst bumper sticker in the world about hate-mongering but I don't want to do that today. Maybe tomorrow.

Today I choose the randomness of religion. Joan and I both feel that religion is fairly random. Let me explain.

I was born into a Southern Baptist family and raised as such. Some of my friends were also raised in Protestant homes. And some of these friends are just as crazy as the other Southern Baptist people. The ones that everyone loves to hate for being narrow-minded. Yep, those. So we don't really discuss religion with those friends. Mostly because he is the moodiest male I know and I think it would upset him too much. Yeah, I just said that. He's REALLY moody.

But eventually down the line I came to the conclusion that religion is based primarily on what religion your parents are. Unless you have extremely open-minded parents who presented you with the basics of all religions and let you decide which one you wanted to follow, if any, then your "choice" in which religion to follow was pretty much set. But the image of two parents teaching their 7 yr. old about world religions and then saying Choose! is an entertaining one.

So a couple of my friends are "hardcore" Christians, meaning that they think that believing in God is the ONLY way to get into heaven, which is what they were taught and never questioned it. BUT if those same friends were raised in an Islamic household then they would believe that following the teachings of the Koran to reach, crap I forgot what Muslims believe happens after death, but they would follow the Koran. And they would most likely believe that all other religions are "wrong".

Personally I think that Buddhism should catch on. You never hear about Buddhists bombing abortion clinics or murdering Dutch filmmakers, "Christians" and "Muslims" respectively.

But please let me know if you hear of any militant Buddhists. Try and keep an open mind people. It's the only way we're all going to get along.

Just saw a bumper sticker on a Taurus out front. It read,
Knowledge is Power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard. Be evil.

sounds about right.
The other bumper stickers were Native Texan and What we really need is a Moment of Science in public schools.

The all time worst bumper sticker I've ever seen was on the back of a beat up old truck down the road from Clemson, it read,
If I knew it was going to be this bad, I would've picked my own cotton.
Huh.

I'm leaving up my "ask me a question" post for a couple days. Not everyone is a daily visitor to Crazy Lawsuit Game like myself and a few others.

I want to take a quick quiz. Do any of you have any pencil marks or any other school related body modifications? Both Joan and I have pencil lead marks on our bodies. Mine is between my thumb and wrist on my right hand and Joan's is above her right eye but below her eyebrow. Both were accidental, I was walking by a guy's desk and he was flailing his arms about and Poke! I got jabbed. With Joan she was jumping or something and someone had a pencil in their hand and Jab! She got poked. And now we both have permanent marks on our bodies. Battle scars if you will.

But I was just wondering if we're freaks, very likely, or if this is a common ocurrence in school yards everywhere. Joan also has a tattoo, a small butterfly above her waist over her right ass cheek. And those are the only body modifications in my household. But I want to get something done, but I can't decide what and I really want it to mean something. Not hey I have a tattoo. Also I know that I will be hooked on it, and I can't afford another hobby/lifestyle right now.

So I was walking out of class last night at oh, 7:20 pm, and I hear SQUEAL! SCRAPE! What the devil was that? I look to my left and a car is sitting sideways in the right lane. What the hell is that guy doing? He's the worst showoff ever. So I notice the car isn't moving and he's walking around it. Hmmmm, I got nothing better to do, I'll go investigate. I am a curious fellow. So the right side of his car is fine, nothing wrong at all. I get to the left side of his car and his left tire is perpindicular to his car. Yuh huh, it's jutting out sideways. Uh, I think your car's broke. So I go inside and get the number to a nice local tow truck guy who has given me a tow before and is only $30-$40 as opposed to $70-$100. So we're talking, just chit chat, he's a mechanical engineer undergrad from NY, but his 'rents just moved to ATL and now they're moving to St. Pete near Tampa in FL. And actually the same thing happen to his brother. Huh. Then the tow truck guy gets there and looks at it, says the lower ball joint came off and that when he was backing up he should've heard a clicking sound. He said that he did but that his old crappy Oldsmobile made so many sounds that it was hard to distinguish the bad ones. But imagine if that would've happened on the interstate? I'm fairly certain Clemson would be one undergrad short. Lucky he was on campus doing 20 mph.

Moral of the story is if you hear a clicking sound when you're backing up, might wanna have that checked out. And don't take the interstate to the shop.

So fine, everyone else is doing "Ask me a question" post. Fine, I'll do one too. And I'll try to answer all questions to the best of my ability. Any question at all. I will censor no questions. This is a Free Speech blog.

Let the games begin!

So I just downloaded FireFox 1.0. So far I'm really impressed. It's nice and wicked fast too. IE just got really really slow yesterday, so sorry Bill, but I think you'll do okay without me using IE, but I still use my Xbox religiously, so you got me there.

If you wanna give it a whirl, clicky click

RUN! Mozilla!

Ok, just encountered one issue. It didn't automatically convert my pasted link into html. Hmmm, wonder if I can change that.

A groupmate of mine defended his dissertation yesterday. It was rough, but he made it through. He said that it was draining but that it's a right of passage to have a tough defense. It's not like they're gonna make it easy. But he is now a PhD chemist. Congrats Fred, we'll miss ya. I can't wait till it's my day sweating in front of my committee of 4 or 5, my entire career basically depending on what those 4 guys say. Crazy, but I'm glad it's not here cuz I have LOTS of work to do before that day comes.

So I drove Joan to class last night. No reason, well I didn't want to go back to work, so there's a reason. But she went to class and I went to Barnes and Noble but before that I went to a local head shop that is across the street from Greenville Tech. They're pretty paranoid, as they should be, and you can't say bong or any other herbal reference in the room. They actually made me leave once cuz I read bong out loud. Paranoid. So I go in yesterday and on my way in I get belly flashed by a black lady who had just gotten a new belly piercing. It looked good too. Yay for piercings! In I go and ask if I can go into the "tobacco" pipe room. We don't have it anymore. What? Where did it go? We got shut down by the DEA. WTF!?!?!? So I say that's fucked up, buy some incense and leave.

When did this happen? Did the DEA close everyone down or just Greenville. I'm gonna make some calls today, but that really slipped under the radar. Not that I watch local news, in the interest of not becoming stupider, but I doubt they would've mentioned it anyway. But what was interesting, after I said that it was fucked up, he said Not enough people got out and voted. Damn right. Damn right.

And so I realized a few months ago that I am becoming political because I am not happy with the current state of this country and the only way to change it is from the inside. Well the only legal way. I could riot and storm the streets and cause mayhem, but I won't cuz I'm a good citizen and I have some respect for society.

Don't know what to post about. I'll come up with something later. I have some errands to run at lunch. Gotta go to Wal-Mart for cheap tires for the Saturn, then to the bank. Bleh.

Sunday morning is either about waking up, breakfast, church, then lunch, then nap. Or it's about sleeping in, getting the paper, breakfast, and then TV, nap, cleaning, gardening, or any other activity that didn't get done during the week.

But I'm at work cuz that's what grad students do. We work, all the time. No schedule, no clocking in. As long as we work, no one cares when, for the most part. It's nice but you also have to watch yourself. It's really easy to not work at all too.

Last night I played Halo 2 on Xbox Live. Amazing, and you can talk to your teammates over it and it's pretty fast and usually clear. So I played with some friends from Alabama. I suck, but that's okay. I don't strive to be the ultimate Halo player. Grand Theft Auto, maybe.

I've recently started downloading music again. Calm down Metallica and Britney, I'm not downloading your shite. But I downloaded some Beastie Boys, and I will donate some money to Free Tibet, and Run DMC. Thanks guys, you kick ass.

I started back in '98 before Napster was huge. It was awe-inspiring. Free music whenever you wanted. And when I lived in the dorm using Samford's T1 connection when everyone went home on the weekends, it was blazing fast. Fastest I ever saw was about 300 kb/s, as opposed to 20-50 kb/s now with crappy slow DSL at home. Clemson's T1 is fast too.

Weather is cooling down here. It got down to about 45 last night. And yes I'm gloating you northern(Not North/South cuz I hate that shit, but it is still a direction) freaks. Most of my life I lived in the Tropics and it dropped into the 60s very rarely, maybe 5 days a year, okay maybe 10, so I am spoiled and accustomed to warm weather. And I have never had a real winter. I want to one day. We'll see.

That feels good. Nice lazy at work Sunday blog entry. Enjoy your Sunday no matter how you choose to spend it. And pour out some of your 40 for a fallen homey. ODB is no longer with us.

Ol' Dirty Bastard is no longer with us. He collapsed and died in a recording studio Saturday. He would've turned 36 on Monday.



We'll miss your drug arrests, welfare scams, and insightful lyrics.
Wu Tang Clan ain't nuthin to fuck with!

Thank you Evil Sid. I'm working on upping my evil rating. But at least I'm over a quarter evil.

No, I'm not a Renaissance Festival person. Never will be either, but I had to read alot of olde english and middle english in high school and I guess some of it stuck.

Hmmmm, I was going to post on my strange facial hair patterns, but now I'm inspired to tell you about a past job. So my facial hair can wait, and I now have time to post some pics of my facial hair. Actually it's my brother's facial hair but ours is exactly the same, and you can judge for yourselves if him and I look like twins.

So I worked one summer, the summer preceding grad school, for an advertising company. *Yawn* No wait, it gets better. This advertising company had been hired by Red Bull North America Inc. to educate consumers about their product. Personally I love Red Bull, the company and beverage. Their marketing strategy is to start on the street. In new markets they send out Consumer Educators, me, and hand out cans of Red Bull to people "who need energy". So basically we drove around in a rental Camry, why? because we were supposed to get a cool Red Bull truck with the giant can on the back from ATL but it was in an accident and didn't make it. So we had the Red Bull Camry and drove around to different places handing out Red Bull and educating consumers. Telling them why it's good, what's in it, what all that stuff I just said really is, etc...

So one day we're in Homewood, small suburb of Birmingham and home to my grandfolks, and drive past one of Homewood's parks. I spy with my little eye some people fighting with swords and helmets and shields. HOLY SHIT! Stop the car! So we pull a Uey? U-turn and head back to the park. It's some real live medieval reenactors complete with chainmail, broadswords, daggers, maces, and various other weapons that D&D players dream about, or other weapons about which D&D players dream. (Thanks Catt!) And they are sweating up a storm. So they obviously need some energy. So we bust out the camera, take some action sword shots, Red Bull flows from the heavens and all is well in Oxmoor Park in Homewood, Alabama.

But I loved Red Bull before I started working with them, and still love it. They only sponsor "extreme" athletes. Basically if you don't play a major sport, you might get sponsored by Red Bull. And as I understand it, if you are sponsored by them, they pay for everything and you just have to do your best and wear the blue and silver and the red bull with pride. They sponsor car racing teams, No not fucking NASCAR, motocross riders, kayakers, kite surfers, wind surfers, etc. I'll link the list here.
Sponsored Red Bull athletes by sport they even have a breakdancer and bull riders, how cool is that!

So that is why I love Red Bull, the energy drink is delicious and yummy and crack in a can, and sugar-free now too and tastes exactly the same, and they sponsor some great athletes in sports that otherwise would get no recognition.

And I should've stolen that Red Bull hat cuz they also don't have any purely Red Bull apparel. Only Consumer Educators and sponsored athletes get to wear Red Bull clothes. Put that on my lifetime regrets list.

On Vader's suggestion, I'm reading a book written by Alexa Albert. It's called Brothel and is about her doing some graduate research on condom use and breakage at the infamous Mustang Ranch in NV, where prostitution is legal and regulated. But she turns her research into a social study also, interacting with the women and learning from them. I'm about half way through. It's very interesting, but I've always been interested in the fringes of society. I'll post more on it later once I'm done.

One thing that struck me as odd is that alot of the women still have pimps. They split their earnings 50/50 with the brothel and then give their money to a pimp. Still not sure why, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Alexa states that the traditional role of the pimp, protection and finding johns, is played by the brothel but that some women still have pimps. I'll let you know if she comes to a conclusion on why she thinks this is. I don't have enough of a pschology background to even venture a guess as to why that is.

I do believe that prostitution should be regulated. It is going to happen so we might as well make sure that they're healthy and clean. And it is much safer. I'm sure the Green River Killer wouldn't have has as many targets if those streetwalkers in Washington lived and worked in a brothel. Or the ones that keep getting killed in Oklahoma, I think, by truckers. So sad.

But why should we care about those girls? Well then, why should we care about anyone we're not related to?

On a completely separate note: I know that I'm not supposed to end sentences in a preposition, but I don't think I ever learned how to fix it, and now I'm stuck with it. Unless someone can learn me right.

This will be my last political blog entry. But not really.

Nation's Poor Win Election For Nation's Rich

Oh, it's The Onion which is fake news. But it's still funny.

So Ashcroft quit. And I know that makes some people happy. And I suppose that some don't like it. But I do know that fear is not a viable political tactic. But damn it's effective.

So I finally called my friend's mom last night. He is a Marine reservist and got deployed about 3 months ago. I haven't said anything about it because, well I don't know really. Maybe if I didn't talk about it, he would come back sooner?

But he's doing ok so far. He's about 4 miles outside of a Marine base in Iraq. I know where sort of, but after Mike's blog drama, I won't get into it. But he is guarding Saddam's munitions bunkers while they are destroying them. I'm sure he has some stories that he could tell, but I think he's hesitant to tell his mom and dad too much cuz they worry, alot. So hopefully I can talk to his sister around Christmas time and get the lowdown. And he got engaged before he left too. Nice girl.

But Base is a smart guy and I know he's coming home. I wrote him an email and am gonna write him a letter too, just to cover all my bases. But he is one of my closest friends, Cornelius being the other, and I hope that we get Iraq's democracy set up really quickly and get our boys and girls out.

Update: And also I'm pretty sure Nov. is National Diabetes Awareness Month, so that is the web button over there. Both my mom and maternal grandfather have diabetes, and I get heart disease from my dad's side. Aaaaaahhhh!

It's Tuesday. Hmmmmmm, what to post about. We ate at a sushi place in town. Scary I know, but it was pretty good. It was all you can eat night. Basically it was just a roll with different sauces made repeatedly. I think it was mostly avocado, cucumber, tuna, rice and seaweed of course. And I also saw some cream cheese and a crab stick or two. Pretty good actually. But I still like choosing.

Ever since my dad went to the market in Costa Rica, where he bought squid, shark, swordfish, and various other crazy foods, I have been trying to keep my mind open about new dishes. You don't know you don't like something until you try it. That's why I'm starting to come around on eating onions. I still can't stand thick raw slices on burgers or anything for that matter, but stewed, sauteed, grilled and they're pretty good. Especially those sweet purple ones. Those are tasty.

But I always encounter people who don't like sushi or would never try it. I don't know why. It's really good and yummy. And some doesn't taste real fishy. Tuna, not at all, Salmon, a little. But stay the hell away from mackeral. Yeesh, I almost died when I tried that. It could've been that certain place, but I don't plan to try it ever again. But some sushi definitely has interesting tastes and textures.

This is by far, the lamest, on the spot blog entry ever. But I'm not really awake yet either, and Halo 2 comes out today. Yep, another video game, and Gran Turismo 4, racing game, comes out soon also. So guess what I'm doing over Christmas break?

Hopefully, I'll come up with a better blogolog entry later today.

Got my Halloween pics up. Their large, both dimensionally and file size, so it takes a while to load. Wouldn't even attempt it with a modem, you poor poor internet junkie.

But you can click on them all and resize them and download and make T-shirts. Whatever you choose. And I will try to answer all questions accurately.

http://people.clemson.edu/~ssteple

This site is also linked under my last linky section. It's the first crappy website by me.

Seminar proceeded without a hitch. I freaked myself out by practicing my talk about an hour before I was supposed to give it and messed up on alot of stuff, but I got it together when it counted.

It was a research proposal, so everyone was relatively nice. My advisor helped me out with one question. A new faculty member asked how we would test for a certain property. I sat there with a blank look on my face. No freakin idea. Then Advisor pipes up, "Seth, what is the honest answer to that question?" I don't know, I say. That's exactly right. You either know how to do that or you have no idea. If we wanted to test that property, we would send it to someone who knows how. Whew, thanks Advisor, I needed that.

So it was a success but I have to keep at it. Still lots of work to do before I get that oversized piece of paper from the University and 2 upper case letters and one lowercase letter after my name. And then of course the 2 in front of my name. But I can't dwell on that too much. It's so far away, but I can see a very dim light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still really cold and dark.

As tradition holds, the seminar speaker is taken out and endrunkened. That's right, endrunkened. For free, which is awesome, and it balances out cuz everyone gives seminars. So shot, shot, drink, drink, shot, shot. Pretty drunk, not stumbly but ain't driving nowhere either. So Joan calls from work and I say, Come pick me up please. So she does and we pick up 2 friends and go back to our place and fire up a celebratory hookah. Yummy. Good Times were had by all.

Went shopping at a local organic grocery store yesterday. Way too expensive. The things I like to buy there are things that you can't get in "normal" grocery stores. So I bought some jerk seasoning, insert pun here, some black bean corn salsa, baked red corn tortilla chips, miso soup mix, kosher salt, some Patak's hot curry paste for Joan's South African co-worker, and some meat department sausages that are gonna be awesome. So good, and then we stopped at Moe's Burrito hut and I had a really good taco salad and Joan had some crazy nachos. I love Moe's, and the Carrboro Burrito Hut because it employs an evil blogger.

So yet another week starts. Another Monday. Another day, another dollar.

So I'm coming home for lunch like I usually do so that I can spend a little time with my sweetness before she goes to school in the evening. So la di da, I'm driving along and see that someone is pulled over on the street that my apt. is on. Damn that sucks. Then I turn and see that the car pulled over has Focus taillights. Oh fuck, but there are a few Focii around the 'hood so still no biggie. Yep, I see that little helpless South Korean face I love so dear sitting on the side of the road with her window rolled down. Muthafuckass, as Kate the Peon put it so eloquently. My day just got a whole lot worse.

Ugh, I hate that bottomless feeling that you get in your gut. So Joan gets home and I ask her if it's a big one or a little one. Big being 10 or more over and little being 9 or less with fines of $126/4pts. and $76/2pts. respectively. She says 60 in a 25. What the FUCK! Holy shit. Seeing as how that's 15 mph away from TRIPLING the speed limit, I'm deeply concerned. She says it doesn't concern me. I say it does cuz she's gonna be on our insurance one day plus she already had her license revoked for tickets a few years ago. And that we have to pay for it. She says that she'll make her parents pay for it. But it still sucks ass. And there is a distinct possibility of her getting another ticket. And I really don't wanna drive her ass around.

She explains where the cop was sitting and says that there is no way she was going 60. The cop was sitting near a turn that you cannot safely take at more than 55 mph and even then it's a little scary. So I think I'm gonna challenge it. There's lots of resources online that are very helpful. I think I can beat it. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to beat it, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah, the fine for that is going to be $440 and 6 pts! Damn, so it's worth it to fight it. That's a nice chunk of change and she doesn't need any
more pts on her license.

And my seminar is freaking tomorrow, so for right now I'm pretending that it was all just a vision and that this little incident is going to take place on Saturday. Ah, delusion makes me feel better. Back to work.

So I read Catt's post about what we, everyone, does now. So you voted. Good for you. But now those other people you voted for, senators and congressman, are your representatives in the House and Congress. And they vote on bills and such. And they vote how they think their constituents would want them to vote. So you need to let them know how you want them to vote.

I made the comment that it always felt hollow whenever I would email Congressman J. Gresham Barret, 3rd South Carolina District representative. But he, or his office, always does get back to me with a letter at the very least. Usually it's a "Thanks for letting me know how you feel" letter like this past one that I was supporting a graduate student tax break. Basically we would be able to write off $1,000 of living expenses on our taxes. Another was for medical marijuana. He wrote back and said that although we disagreed he wanted to thank me for writing him.

All these letters are on my fridge too. So come look if you don't believe me. So I guess it doesn't feel so hollow. But I still want to do more.

Do you believe that if you eat enough carrots you will turn orange? Joan said she had a roommate who only ate carrots and a couple of other things and she looked orange. I want to do this experiment myself but I don't want to have to eat carrots for every meal. Any volunteers? Come on, it's for science.

Looks like W. is gonna call off the U-Haul vans cuz he's stayin at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for another 4 years.

Congrats to all the Republicans out there who made this possible. Just don't screw up our country, even though you won and control the House now, we're still half of this great nation too. Please don't forget that.

Oh, and make sure you don't get knocked up cuz you probably are gonna have to keep it. Abstinence is the best!

Update: Also I hope that you're not gay cuz voters just narrowed down the states that could possible allow you to be happily or unhappily married. So tell all your homosexual friends to not move to Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon or Utah.

And all you potheads wanting to move to Alaska for legal US of A herb got denied 57 to 43, but that's not bad.

But Montana's medical marijuana passed 62 to 38. Yay sick people in Montana, relief is on the way!

And the initiative to expand Oregon's medijuana got denied by 58 to 42. Limited weed and no gay marriages? What is this Alabama?

Enjoy our new hardcore rightwing country for the next 4 years.

Woohoo, after much effort on my part, I voted. My driver's license came apart so I had to glue it back together this morning. Of course I forgot it at school. So I grabbed my passport and Joan and I headed to First Baptist Church, our poll site. You can't use this. Why? It doesn't have your address. Crap. I'll be back. Jump in the rental Focus, go to school, get my ID and go back to church.
My name is flagged and I need additional ID because my old license has my old address on it. Crap, but I can use a utility bill. So I leave again and go home and grab my Pickens County tax receipt with my current address. You're free to vote. Yay! And I was commended by the nice people working on my dedication to voting. Well, it's my job ma'am.

So I cast my vote, electronically on the cool touch screen thing. Had no idea there were like 8 presidential candidates. Good job televised debates, letting everyone hear from all sides. Bastards.
So I voted for Kerry. Not that it matters in this bastion of Bush country. But I wanted my vote to count for the total, just in case Kerry wins the popular vote but loses the electoral vote, so I can bitch and moan like everyone else.

Voted for the Green party for Senate. I didn't like the smear campaigns run by Inez Tenenbaum or Jim DeMint, despite the cool names. And I wrote in my name for my Congress district cuz I had J. Gresham Barrett. He sucks and doesn't represent my interests. But I know I do. And the loser is running unopposed. So I wrote in my name. Hope some other people did too.

And all the other offices were Republicans running unopposed and was lazy and didn't want to write in my name 6 more times, so I just conceded and voted for them. And I voted Yes to get rid of the ridiculous mini bottle law. And no on something else. I saw something that said "let corporations determine for themselves" and voted No cuz corporations shouldn't regulate themselves, that's what corrupt officials are for.

And in the city elections, voted for the unopposed mayor, and randomly chose 3 councilmen. They should've done more to inform me if they want me to actually vote. But I should've researched some myself. Sorry Clemson. I let you down.

And that's my voting story. And no long lines. Keep your fingers crossed. Come on democracy, don't fail me now!

Kidding. No Sloth ranting wanted over here. I haven't voted yet, but Joan and I are going to go after lunch around 2:30 or 3. Lines shouldn't be too bad then. Not that I think there will be lines. After all, the elderly who live to vote, go early in the morning. But I doubt there will be lines at my voting spot anyway. They have lots of polls here, it's really nice.

Lots of propaganda still flying around. Even Osama Bin Laden came out with some.

Bin Laden's goal is to bankrupt the US

He's criminally insane, but as comic books teach us; Villains are rarely stupid. No one that can orchestrate the deaths of thousands and bring the most powerful country in the world to its knees is stupid. He's definitely up there one of the most all time evil people in the world.

Very powerful and scary article.

Go vote and make a difference! Let your voice be heard!