Yes, that's right! For just $29.95 you can have your very own Sarah Palin action figure, courtesy HeroBuilders.com.
You can choose from three variations. They've got the plain one with her in a pantsuit, one with her dressed up as a school girl, and the "super hero" one.
I think I'll pass...
Since yesterday, Ike's forecast track has shifted dramatically to the left.
That's a good thing, and it leaves me cautiously optimistic about Ike. It's looking way better than yesterday, when the forecast had Ike pointed right at Galveston. Now it looks to be aimed more towards Corpus.
However, it's important to remember that Ike's still four days out and not even in the Gulf yet, so it's too early to sound the all clear. I don't expect to be able to do that until Wednesday night or Thursday at the earliest.
I'll be back tomorrow with another update.
According to the Atlantic tropical storm name list for 2008, the next storm that would form would be named Kyle since Josephine already formed and fell apart.
If Kyle should form really fast, would it kick Ike?
I got some inspiration from a song to send this in to GraphJam:
If you don't get it, listen to this.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| You Are 32% Abnormal |
 You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
I'd had a different one scheduled for this week, but I loved this one so much I had to move it up.
I'm gonna catch you, Taffy!
While we were up in Fort Worth for Gustav, we let the dogs out in the backyard at my aunt's house and stayed out to watch them. I decided to bring out my camera and the long lens (because she has a big backyard) and take some pictures.
The one above is a snapshot I just happened to get lucky on.
For those that haven't seen One Hour Photo, here's a quote that will explain what I mean:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary... the word "snapshot" was first used by an English sportsman by the name of Sir Andrew Hawker. He noted in his diary that almost every bird he shot that day was taken by snapshot... meaning a hurried shot taken without deliberate aim.
I've got tons of good ones I'll be able to run, but I'll hold off on sharing them until next month, when all the ones I have scheduled have run.
I have to admit, I knew a little more about McCain's Veep pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, than most people.
My grandmother had heard a rumor about her being considered on TV somewhere a few months ago and called up my aunt that lives in Alaska.
My aunt said something that really speaks well for Palin and what she's done. It was something to the tune of:
"I didn't vote for her, but I really like what she's done"
Politics being what it is, that's a pretty strong statement. Seeing as her approval ratings hover in the 80-90% range, it's safe to assume that it's a sentiment felt among many Alaskans.
Anyway, after that I did a little research on her and saw the things she'd accomplished in her short time as governor and I was very impressed. It was clear to me that she didn't just talk the talk when it came to change, she walked the walk.
Ever since then, she'd been who I wanted McCain to pick.
So, last week when I heard the news, the first phone call I made was to my grandmother, who was visiting her sister in Fort Worth, to see if she'd heard.
Needless to say we were both very happy with the pick.
And then, while we were evacuated to Fort Worth for Gustav, this story about Palin's oldest daughter being pregnant came out.
I could care less. That kind of thing's irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. First off, parenting shouldn't be on the table in the political realm. Secondly, even the best parents have kids that make mistakes and are, using Barack Obama's own words, "punished with a baby."
And then there was Palin's speech last night.
Her speech really impressed me. I suck at critiquing speeches, but I thought she knocked the ball out of the park last night. She was energetic, feisty, and got people fired up. She did what she needed to do.
For a more detailed analysis of her speech, check out my guest blogger K T Cat's breakdown of the speech. It's worth the read.
All in all, I'm really happy with the pick and her performance so far.
(The polaroid image above was made with the Polaroid Picture plugin for Windows Live Writer, which I've decided to give a try.)
Well, it was last night.
The first choir practice of every month we traditionally have cake to celebrate the birthdays that month.
Well, last night there was no cake.
I'm sure it was because of Gustav, but I couldn't help but think of the phrase last night when I saw there was no cake.
The only thing that kept me from saying the phrase was that I'm sure nobody else in the room would have gotten it.
If you don't get it, click here for an explanation.
Sunday morning, we made the call to pack up.
We had a really good route picked out:
It's not the way we normally go into Fort Worth, but the normal ways you'd go from here are both blocked off during mandatory evacuations because they cross other evacuation routes.
Anyway, our evacuation was as smooth as it could be. We got to Lufkin in about two hours, the same amount of time that it'd normally take to get up there, and a vast improvement over the 20 hours it took during the Rita evacuation.
The only bad traffic we hit the whole way was in Jacksonville, which was purely a creation of all the stoplights in town.
The dogs handled the trip up really well, sleeping a good chunk of the way.
My time in Fort Worth was short and uneventful. The dogs didn't adjust to being up there too well at first, but they could have been a lot worse. Monday I went to Wal-Mart to get an oil change and then planned to do lunch with Twitter friends @shika and @GadgetVirtuoso but I was forced to cancel the lunch.
Why?
My cousin and grandmother decided they wanted to go home then to beat the traffic and avoid getting caught up in the massive rains expected from Gustav on Tuesday.
I hated missing lunch, but what could I do?
The drive back, which was my normal route, went smoothly.
Man it felt good to be back home.
It turned out to be little more than an inconvenience, which I'm thankful for.
I'd rather not be inconvenienced like that again, but I'll settle for that over coming back to a torn-up town any day.
Today I'm going to start back to my normal blogging.
I'd like to take this moment to thank K T Cat again for filling in for me while I was gone. providing us with a video from Red State Update and A Sarah Palin fact.
Let me know if you ever need me to help you out a little K T, I'd be honored to fill in for you anytime.
I'm going to miss Sarah Palin's speech tonight.
I was actually planning to watch it, but I called my church up this morning and found out that we'll be having choir practice tonight.
Guess I'll be watching it on teh interwebs sometime later.
I'll probably blog what I think about it.
When Sarah Palin cooks snake, it doesn't taste like chicken. It tastes better.
And I'm back.
Gustav ended up not doing much here, I don't think we even got any rain today.
I got in last night about 9 PM and the winds were about 20 MPH gusting to 30.
I'm going to keep K T Cat on as a guestblogger for a few days while I settle back into normal life down here.
I'm already unpacked and everything, but I am so worn out. Two long drives following two nights of less than adequate sleep is enough to take it out of just about anybody.
I'll have a post about the experience in the next few days, but I'll take this moment to applaud the local officials, TxDOT, the DPS, and everybody else involved in making the evacuation process as smooth as possible.
To give you an idea, Lufkin is about a 110 mile drive away. During Rita, it took us around 20 hours to get there. This time it took about two.
And I'll also applaud the NHC for their forecasting of Gustav. They were very accurate, even five days out.
Enough for now, I'm off to bed.
(Note: I scheduled this post last night, I'm not really going to bed at 6 AM, it's a little before midnight right now)
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| You Are: 40% Dog, 60% Cat |
 You're both smart and in charge - with a good amount of attitude. However, you do have a very playful side that occasionally comes out! |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Unless the track shifts to the east fairly signifigantly, we're planning on leaving for Fort Worth tomorrow morning.
Watch my Twitter page, I won't have time to update the blog before I go and I doubt I'll be able to get web access much up there.
Hopefully this is just a minor inconvinence and I'm back in a few days.
Update: To provide some links.
SciGuy - Written by the Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger, I've found it's one of the best places to watch when it comes to the tropics.
The Beaumont Enterprise - Local rag. They had really good post-Rita coverage.
KFDM, KBMT and KBTV - Local TV stations. All have video.
We're not going yet.
My grandmother, who's been in Fort Worth visiting her sister, decided to come back today because "Gustav isn't coming here."
It's very possible that we won't catch the brunt of the storm.
But it's very possible that we will too.
With the days that have gone by, the forecasts that we're looking at now are much more accurate than the ones we were looking at, but it's still far from a done deal.
Locally, special needs evacuations began at noon today and a mandatory evacuation will begin at 6 AM tomorrow morning. Probably what we'll end up doing is waiting for Sunday night or early Monday morning to make a decision for ourselves on whether or not to get the hell out of dodge.
That kind of timeframe will narrow things down and allow us to make the best decision.
Odds are that we'll go.
I'll check in again tomorrow morning.
A way to combat rising sea levels associated with climate change has been found!
Get the details here.
(Yes, I know, this post briefly appeared yesterday. It was supposed to be scheduled for today, but didn't schedule)
I swear to you I am not making this up!
Me: Hello?
Some country-sounding guy: You back that trailer up into my truck I'm gonna whoop yo ass, boy.
Me: You got the wrong number.
Country-sounding guy: ...
Me: *click*
This all in response to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin being selected as McCain's Veep:
isfullofcrap The press much be shitting themselves with glee. Come November, they can accuse America of being either racist or sexist. 23 minutes ago from web
fatelvis04 @isfullofcrap So Cynthia McKinney's our only safe choice, huh? 22 minutes ago from twhirl in reply to isfullofcrap
isfullofcrap @fatelvis04 - I wouldn't even choose her in a Pokemon fight. 19 minutes ago from web in reply to fatelvis04
Tots4Masses @fatelvis04 @isfullofcrap Ignoranthatingracebaiter I CHOOSE YOU! 17 minutes ago from web in reply to fatelvis04
As far as my thoughts on Palin? I'll blog them later.
Update: Houston Keys (Tots4Masses above) has whipped up a relevant image.
I was hoping that we'd have a better idea of where Gustav would be heading today.
We don't.
So, it's just another day of wait and see.
We should have a much better idea of what we're looking at either Saturday night or Sunday morning once this thing enters the Gulf.
Right now I'm keeping an eye on SciGuy's live chat on Gustav to pick up some info.
Also, I've made some arrangements for the blog to get a little fresh content if I should have to go. K T Cat has graciously accepted my invitation to guest blog if I have to evacuate the Justin's Random Thoughts Global Headquarters, an invitation I extended because I probably won't have much access to the interwebs in Fort Worth.
Hopefully it's not needed, but you never know.
Thank you K T!
I plan on updating tomorrow. We might be leaving then, but I'm thinking that how murky things look we'll probably wait until Sunday to make a decision.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
This is a pretty cute one of Petey from over the weekend:
What are you doing?
Fair question, seeing as I hadn't shot any in a few months.
More coming over the next few weeks.
Well folks, it's still too early to know anything solid since Gustav is a good five days out and the forecast could go as much as 300 miles each way, but Justin's Random Thoughts Global Headquarters is still very much in the cone of uncertainty.
And a bit closer to the middle today.
Overnight everybody got thrown a left hook when Gustav's center reformed south of where it had been, followed by rapid intensification, throwing everything out of whack.
I topped off my gas tank yesterday just in case we have to pack up and get the hell out of dodge come this weekend.
And, today, I reiterate something I said a couple of days ago:
The Obamessiah gives what I think should have been his Sermon on the Mount tonight at Invesco Field.
Will I watch?
No.
It's not because I dislike Obama in any way. I'm just not interested enough in hearing some politician ramble on.
In that same note, I won't watch McCain's speech next week either.
Now, when the debates come around I'll watch. I don't know why, but I've always felt that debates were interesting to watch, even if not much comes out of them.
Update: Or not. I'm pretty bored, so I think I'll watch. Maybe I'll even blog it tomorrow... Or not.
I'm feeling a little better about Gustav than I was yesterday.
Granted the margin of error on a forecast five days out is something like 300 miles either way, but the latest forecast from the NHC has it sitting right off the coast near New Orleans next Monday morning.
This doesn't mean we're out of the woods by any means here at Justin's Random Thoughts' Global Headquarters, but it does make me feel better about it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing Gustav on New Orleans, or anywhere else for that matter, but I don't wish it on us either.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next day or two.
Gustav looks like the first storm that will pose a serious threat to us this season.
Not that you can read too much into the historicals, but an equivalent storm hasn't come close to this part of the Texas coast since 1915 according to the map.
Here's to hoping it won't.
I'll just keep a watch on it for now, since it's well more than a week away from these parts.
At least it doesn't have a gay name like Edouard.
Jenny, The Bloggess and co-writer of Good Mom / Bad Mom, did a post yesterday about the marketers that contact her via email every day, and goes in-depth about an exchange with one such company.
Of course, the post left me wondering something:
"Why don't companies email me wanting reviews of their stuff?"
Cause, ya know, if someone wanted to send me a new computer (ideally a laptop) to review I'd totally review the shit out of that thing.
Assuming I could keep it, of course.
So, if you've got a brand-spanking-new laptop you can bear to part with and want reviewed, my email address is justin@jrtblog.com.
Just don't expect me to be anything other than brutally honest.
(And, no, I'm not expecting to get any emails from this)
I sing in the choir at church, so anything that helps me during the service is great.
I'd been using a tear-out in our bulletins to mark the hymns we were singing, but I felt like doing something else. Some of the folks around me had these ribbon things they used and other folks had other various ideas.
(Fun Fact: Post-It Notes were invented by a choir member at a Methodist church as a way for him to mark his hymnal.)
Well, I didn't invent the Post-It Note, but I did something that works similar to the ribbon idea, with a little help via a suggestion by my grandmother.
I took a note card, cut it down small enough to fit into the spine of my hymnal, punched five small holes in it, and tied a string of yarn to each hole.
Stick the thing in the spine and you get this:
Should do the trick.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| You Know Your States |
 You've got a pretty good handle on US geography. There's a good chance you've visited at least a dozen of the fifty states. |
Big swing and a miss on how many I've visited though... it's more like seven.
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
The Obamessiah has anointed Joe Biden as his number two man.
It just seems odd to me that Obama, the bastion of hope and change that he is, would select someone that's been serving on Capitol Hill for 35 years.
To put that in perspective for you: When Biden was sworn in, Obama was eleven years old.
Sure smells like change to me!
(Oh, and if you must ask, I call that new image "Pocket Chance We Can Believe In" because when Obama's done taxing us that's all we'll have left. I plan on using it whenever I do a post about Obama.)
K T Cat did a post the other day about BMX being an olympic sport.
Give it a read.
Personally, I just can't get enough of this video:
It looks like fun!
That might be one of those things I'll have to add to my bucket list.
Beers with Demo has an interesting observation involving both Bigfoot and the Edwards-Hunter affair.
Check it out here.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
When I built my computer two years ago, I took some pictures thinking that I'd do a blog post about it.
I got tired of taking pictures really fast, so I stopped. but I still got a couple cool pictures before I did.
Maybe it's just the geek in me, but I've always found that pictures of computer guts can look pretty cool.
In retrospect, I should have used this picture instead of the stock one from FreeDIgitalPhotos.net for this post on Wednesday.
There's no way I'd give a hotel a good review if they did this:
That's just creepy!
We've been getting a lot of rain this week. Nothing too bad in this part of town (although there was some minor flooding in parts of town yesterday).
It's not welcome so much for the rain (although we do need it) as it is the cooling off that it's done.
Summers here are brutal. The average day is a very himid 92 with a 20-30% coverage of afternoon thunderstorms.
Yesterday it never got above 80, and that's with long enough breaks in the rain to get some stuff done outside.
It felt like October, which is probably the nicest month of the whole year in these parts, this afternoon when I walked the dogs.
Alas, this kind of weather is forecast to go away in the next few days, and we'll be back to a hot and sticky 92 this weekend.
October can't come soon enough.
This has to be the strangest defense I've ever heard of:
Houston's 14th Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a local doctor for indecent exposure.
The court rejected the argument by high-profile attorney Dick DeGuerin and his associate Neal Davis that the doctor could not have exposed himself to an undercover cop because that which is alleged to have been exposed is too small to have been seen.
It's a column worth reading to the end if just to see the details of the defense and how it was concocted.
(Note to my regular readers: The only reason I wrote this post is because there's not much help for this situation to be found on Google. Don't worry, I won't be blogging about stuff like this much.)
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| Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
When I went to this template, the biggest thing that annoyed me about it, by far, was the little dotted underline thing under the timestamps. I just hated how it looked.
After literally hours of messing around, I found a way to get rid of it through CSS, thinking that there was some CSS code somewhere that was creating it.
That's not the case at all.
The timestamp is in a <abbr> tag similar to the one pasted below:
<abbr class="published" title="2008-08-19T14:00:00-05:00">2:00 PM</abbr>
The code works to show more info about the timestamp when you hover over it.
After figuring that out, I wrote up some CSS that will get rid of the underline but will keep the underline for any other <abbr> tags that I choose to use.
abbr.published {border-width:0px;}
Yes, folks, it really is that easy.
Related: Info on the <abbr> tag.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see any of the preseason games this year, as they're not aired in the Beaumont market for some reason, but I'm going to try to do some predicting anyway.
First let's look at the schedule:
(The team names for home games are in ALL CAPS)
Sun. 7th @ Steelers 12:00 PM - I think this one could go either way, but I'll give it to the Steelers since they're at home. LOSS
Sun. 14th RAVENS 3:15 PM - Home opener against a team that struggled last year. WIN
Sun. 21st @ Titans 12:00 PM - A tough one to call either way, but I'll go the same route I did with the Steelers game. LOSS
Sun. 28th @ Jaguars 12:00 PM - We always tend to play up when we face the Jags. WIN
Sun. 5th COLTS 12:00 PM - Yes they're the colts, but we're at home. WIN
Sun. 12th DOLPHINS 12:00 PM - Should be an easy one. WIN
Sun. 19th LIONS 3:05 PM - Another easy one. WIN
Sun. 2nd @ Vikings 12:00 PM - I think we can pull this one off. WIN
Sun. 9th BENGALS 12:00 PM - Can the Texans tame Ocho Cinco? I think so. WIN
Sun. 16th @ Colts 12:00 PM - Can't see us winning in Indy. LOSS
Sun. 23rd @ Browns 12:00 PM - Could go either way, but it's on the road. In November. LOSS
Mon. 1st JAGUARS 7:30 PM - The Texans' first Monday night affair. Seeing how they turned it up a notch last year on the Thursday night stage, I think it's safe to say they'll get this one. WIN.
Sun. 7th @ Packers 12:00 PM - Lambeau? in December? After a short week? I could be wrong here, but I don't see it happening. LOSS
Sun. 14th TITANS 12:00 PM - Another one I'd be glad to be wrong about, but Vince Young in Houston scares me. LOSS
Sun. 21st @ Raiders 3:05 PM - Easy one. WIN
Sun. 28th BEARS 12:00 PM - The Texans will wrap up the regular season and (hopefully) a playoff berth with a team that I expect to struggle this year. WIN
I'm not guaranteeing they'll do that record, but I don't think they'll go below it.
This year I'm expecting a few things. Mainly I'm expecting Mario Williams to continue showing us all why he was picked #1 overall and am hoping that Amobi Okoye will start coming into his own too. With those two dominating, O lines will really struggle.
I'm also hoping to see Matt Schaub continue to show why we traded for him and have a good year. Maybe not tear the league up, but have a good year, especially since we're looking like we'll actually have a running game this year.
And no, I'm not going to post a nude pic if they go below it this year. Or should I? I'll think about it and get back to y'all on it.
The great thing about idiots is that there's always a bigger one somewhere:
see more pwn and owned pictures
Since then, it turns out, the legit day spas have been having issues:
Massage therapist Crystal Christoffers has had to "strong-arm" more than one client and end the session when he wanted a bit more than the typical massage.
"Massages are for healing and getting better," said Christoffers, who works at Calder's Mane Event and Day Spa. "It's not sexual in any way."
However, after Beaumont police raided the Sun Spa and the VIP Spa earlier this spring after an undercover investigation of possible prostitution at the businesses, the therapists at Calder's got more than just a few calls from potential customers wanting something erotic.
I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that, when something like that happens, the perverts come out of the woodwork like that.
But it's not something you'd think of.
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| Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
I'm making some changes around here.
As you can see, I've gone to a new template. I like this design more and it works better with some of the other features I've added.
Like the star ratings system, where you can rate the posts. Decided to kill that one because it looked a little funny with this template
And the biggest one would be the embedded comment form.
That's right, the comment form is now on the permalink page. It's still a little screwy, as the feature's in beta, but it does all the things that the old one did, although it's a little different.
Of course, there are still a few things to take care of:
And that's all I can think of, but I'm sure I'll figure out more as I go along.
Obama's convention speech at Invesco Field sounds impressive, but I was thinking about it the other day and I realized that he's not aiming high enough.
Seeing him speak seems to really affect people. If you don't believe me, just watch the video to the right.
Sometimes I get the feeling that Obama's supporters aren't merely supporting a candidate, but that it's something closer to a religion.
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.
I just figure that, since it's like that, maybe he needs a grander stage. After all, shouldn't his acceptance speech be something as epic as the following that he has?
I've been to Denver. Denver itself is flat as a pancake, but the mountains aren't far to the west.
I think that the man that, according to Nancy Pelosi, is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time" should have a much grander stage than Invesco Field for ObamaMania. You know, something of biblical proportions:
The Second Sermon on the Mount
That's a truly biblical scene, appropriate for a candidate of his stature.
After the speech, maybe he can feed all the people there with five loaves of bread and two fish.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| Your Punk Band Name Is... |
 |
Uh, no. Though I do have a rock I brought back from a trip to Colorado that I named "punk rock."
Seriously.
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
This week I've got another shot from the horse ranch we'd taken one of my mom's dogs up to to be bred:
I really need to get off my ass and shoot some more pictures for this...
Yesterday I volunteered my day at Some Other Place.
Let me explain for a minute...
Some Other Place is a local charity group that, among other things, operates a soup kitchen on weekdays.
The name comes from people who are looking for help being told to go some other place to get help. Quite clever I think.
Anyway, yesterday I helped with their "Back-to-School Store."
As I understand it, parents apply with Some Other Place to get help for getting their kids set for school. Those that are accepted are given a time to come in and get new clothes and school supplies for their kids. Free haircuts are also offered for kids who want them courtesy a local stylist/barberette/whatever you call people who cut hair these days. My personal preference is "the chick at Sport Clips," but I know that's not the proper term.
Now that I think about it, with the weird names they have for positions, it's probably something along the lines of "hair maintenance professional."
But enough for that little dodge off topic.
I was put to work as sort of an escort (no, not that kind you perv!), taking people through the various stations and helping them get the stuff for their kids. Not a hard job at all, seeing as the people at the stations did most of the work (going through the clothes, getting the school supplies together, etc.).
I don't have any remarkable stories from the day, but my grandmother did. One of the children she was escorting through was trying on a pair of pants (we had makeshift dressing rooms set up). While he was in there, his brother popped in, took the pants he'd been wearing and ran out. Mom corraled the kid pretty quickly and didn't seem too amused I'm told, but my grandmother certainly was.
In the afternoon I was asked to make a run to Sears to pick up some more clothes as soon as they had our order ready. Knowing it would be most of an hour, my grandmother suggested I take her car and swap it out for my PT since we rode up together in her car. When I got back from that I took another family through, training two people who'd shown up for the afternoon to do the escort thing while I was at it.
After that I headed off to Sears, figuring everything would be ready by the time I got there. It wasn't quite, but I only had a ten or fifteen minute wait, which wasn't so bad. When it was finished and bagged up, I pulled my car around to the back and loaded the ten or so very large bags filled with clothes into my car and headed back to Some Other Place.
When I got there I got lucky. Someone who'd parked right by the door was leaving just as I pulled in and I snagged their spot, went inside, and recruited a couple of people to help me bring in stuff.
When we got it all in, the volunteers working the shirts and pants tables sorted through what I brought and madness erupted at the shirts table, as Sears had sent us a very wide variety of nice shirts for the kids in all sizes, a stark contrast to the bland polo shirts that we'd had before.
After I got settled down from that I took one more family through and was done for the day. I headed home worn out after a long, rewarding day.
If only I'd thought to bring my camera and take some pictures.
There was an article on the local paper's website yesterday about the reconstruction of Beaumont's Main Street. I'd link the article, but I can't find it on their website anymore.
Anyway, they attached the text from a fact box to the bottom of the story. The box contained what was obviously a typo when it said that the project cost $6.3 billion.
Of course, I knew better than to think that the half-mile of street, along with sewer, drainage, and other improvements wouldn't cost that. The article itself stated that it cost $6.3 million, which sounded closer to the real number.
But that got me thinking: What would it take for a half-mile of street to cost $6.3 billion? The only thing that I could think of is that if the street was paved in gold.
Being the kind of person I am, I decided to mess around in Photoshop some and see if I could see what that would look like.
I took an image I shot on Dowlen last week after Edouard to use as a base.
An extract and cover overlay later, I came up with this image:
It actually turned out a lot better than I thought, and took less than half an hour to whip up.
If you ask me, a street paved in gold isn't all that appealing. New concrete streets, which look almost snow-white sometimes, drive my light-sensitive eyes nuts. But I honestly think this would be worse.
And that's not even considering the glare you'd be sure to get off of it.
...is politics.
Which has to be exactly why I saw ads for both McCain and Obama while watching them yesterday.
Now, to those of you in battleground states, it might seem odd that I'd mention that I saw a commercial, but you have to realize that Texas isn't exactly one of those states where they're fighting tooth and nail for your vote. All I can say to y'all is that, if it's anything near as bad as what we dealt with from Obama and Hillary back in February/March you have my deepest sympathies.
Obama ran an ad I'd never seen before during the daytime coverage. Either late morning or early afternoon, I'm not sure which. All I remember is that it was about his flawed energy plan.
McCain's ad, which I saw during prime time, was the infamous "Celebrity" ad.
I'd seen this one before because, when this one came out, it got so much attention on the news.
I'm not even about to start going into what I think about that ad. That's been discussed too many places to even bother bringing it up here.
Is it too much to wish that I could just be left alone during the Olympics? I mean, really. Sports is my great escape from all the stupid bullshit going on in the world. Why do you have to take that from me?
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| You Should Play the Guitar |
 You can teach yourself almost anything, even if it makes your fingers bleed. You're not really the type to sit patiently through a music lesson - or do things by the book. It's more your style to master the fundamentals and see where they take you. Highly creative and a bit eclectic, you need a wide range of music to play. You could emerge as a sensitive songwriter... or a manic rock star. Your dominant personality characteristic: being rebellious Your secondary personality characteristic: tenacity |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
see more dog pictures
Sadly, our dogs would probably react the same way if we asked for it.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
A shot from the observation point on the Texas side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The same place where I got that awesome bird picture.
What you're looking at is the hydroelectric plant that is part of the dam there.
Call me crazy, but I thought this was a pretty cool shot.
Throughout the night, the talk from the local TV stations was that Edouard would end up being a lot like Humberto was last year.
It turned out to be nothing near as bad.
It was windy and we got some rain, but that was about it. Neither were as bad as Humberto.
The worst that was along our street was that a neighbor's trash can blew over.
Parts of town reported limbs down (As you can see from the above shot outside of a local grocery store) and sporadic power outages, but all in all it was no worse than a bad line of thunderstorms moving through.
I've got some pictures up that I took during a trip out to get some dry ice that we needed not because we didn't have power but because our freezer died over the weekend.
I had some fun with the captions, so be sure to poke around a little...
Right about the time this posts we should be beginning to feel the effects of Edouard. I'd say if we are for sure, but I wrote this post last night and scheduled it to post now.
Anyway, here's things to watch if you want to stalk what's going on in these parts:
My Twitter - I might do some live-twittering. Depends on things. Even if not, I'll probably send a text or two to keep it semi-updated.
SciGuy - Written by the Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger, I've found it's one of the best places to watch when it comes to the tropics.
The Beaumont Enterprise - Local rag. They had really good post-Rita coverage.
KFDM, KBMT and KBTV - Local TV stations. All have video.
Weather Underground's Edouard page - Good info and graphics related to the storm.
I'll probably blog about it once we get everything back.
It's pretty much over, expecting just some rain off and on the rest of the day. I might blog in more detail later, I might not.
Bottom line: it wasn't bad at all. We had a thunderstorm roll through Sunday that was worse.
I refuse to call that thing in the Gulf Edouard. I mean, seriously, who the fuck spells their name that way?
A pansy, that's who!
Eddie's already lost a lot of respect from me!
Anyway, despite my mom calling me freaking because some idiot on the local emergency team told her the worse case scenario (which is very, VERY unlikely at this point), I'm not expecting this to be much of a concern.
Anywho, like Humberto last year, I'll do some live-twittering if it gets interesting (check it out here). And I'll have pictures. If it should start getting interesting, of course.
And, y'all, don't do something stupid like stand out under your car port and watch the storm roll through.
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| Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Dear @Twitter,
I love you. I love your service.
But you know what I don't love about you?
All the fucking spambots.
It seems like I can't post an update without having some spambot "follow" me.
Seriously, it's to the point that I hesitate updating because I know I'll have to go and block one or two of these bots.
I know enough about tech to know that this has to be some sort of automated process.
I beg you, please find a way to stop this shit from happening. Add a CAPTCHA requirement to follow people. Don't allow following via the API. Limit the amount of follows that people can do an hour.
Just do something.
Sincerely,
That had to be a very interesting night...
see more pwn and owned pictures
Remember kids, always make sure your little man wears a raincoat when he comes out to play.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| HowManyOfMe.com | ||
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Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
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| Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Another way to save gas brought to us by K T Cat over at The Scratching Post.
Because, as we all know, every cent helps.
I wonder how many hits using that as a Technorati tag will get me...
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
This is a shot from Bruiser's first Christmas back in 2005:
Hey, I've got a Santa toy!
Yep, we got all the dogs Christmas-themed toys.
All the books that I was forced to read through school jaded me pretty badly, and before last year I don't think I'd read a book that I wasn't forced to since my junior year of high school when I read Big Trouble, Dave Barry's first novel, that was recommended to me by a friend. The book's worth reading, the movie was awful.
Anyway, last year I picked up a couple of books from the 24: Declassified series just to see how I liked them. The first one, Operation Hell Gate, kept me gripped from beginning to end, finishing it in just three days. Since then I've read all the books in that series except for Trinity, which I've got and plan on reading later this year, as well as The Godfather, which was an awesome read as well.
A while back I set off on reading the entire Hannibal Lecter series (Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising) after having seen the film versions of all of the above with the exception of Hannibal Rising.
I ordered a set with all four of the books off of Amazon and, choosing to read them in the order they happened, started reading Hannibal Rising, finishing it over the weekend.
It started off somewhat slow, so I had a little trouble getting into it. Jury duty helped with that a lot, as I left myself at least a good half-hour to read in the jury impaneling room every day. I got through the boring stuff and it started getting interesting.
I read it a little bit on and off for a while after that, then last week I found myself at the point where I couldn't put it down.
Of course, having never seen the film, I had no idea at all what to expect. That probably helped a lot.
I'm gonna have to go rent it sometime soon.
Anyway, I'm a few chapters into Red Dragon now and I'm digging it.
"Don't throw in the sponge"
- Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli
Yesterday at church we had a going away luncheon for Dr. G., who served as choir director for both our church and Lamar (the local university). He's moving up to Wisconsin, where both him and his wife have gotten jobs teaching at universities near each other.
Dr. G's from Argentina, so sometimes he gets English sayings wrong. One of his students from Lamar said that once, about the point in the semester where everybody gets tired and everything, that Dr. G told them "Don't throw in the sponge," and that it's become a bit of a catch-phrase around the music department since.
Dr. G's am amazingly talented director who's gotten more out of us than we would have ever thought we were capable of, and he will be missed.
(The above picture of Dr. G taken from Lamar's website for the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance)
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| Your Pimp Name Is... |
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Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
