Great Moments in Cognizance

So I made a delivery to Season's Hospice yesterday, and there was a woman sitting with the nurses at the nurse's desk. She said I looked familiar, that I dated someone she knew. She asked me my name, and I told her, to which she replied, "Yeah, Joe, you used to date... [name removed]" "Tammy" "Tammy, yeah. I used to cut her hair." I went with Tammy when she got her hair cut short... once. This woman remembered who I was from meeting me once, about 8 years ago. I thought it was worth a mention here.

(I decided not to publish Tammy's last name, as a courtesy to her. I only know of 2 people who regularly read my blog, but with the internet you never know what kind of freaks might wander in.)

The Big Pictures

I was going to post more pictures, but I don't have a way of resizing them, and the 6 I uploaded used 43% of my monthly bandwidth limit. So I'll post more when I get back.

Fucking space shuttle.

Shady Internets

Jeremy and I are sitting in front of a closed Panera Bread right now so I can connect to the internets. It's not the same one I uploaded pictures from earlier; like you cared. Apparently, in July, there's a thunderstorm almost like clockwork, around 5 o'clock, everyday. There was one when we picked up the car yesterday, and another one just after we got done looking at apartments for the day.

Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Downtown Disney after eating at Planet Hollywood. Oh yeah, O-Rock 105.9 is the best radio station ever. Better than whichever station you usually listen to. Time to head back to the hotel and sleep.

The voyages of the starship Discovery...

Ok, so I admit I've been crossing my fingers, hoping that the launch of the Space Shuttle would get delayed at least a day, so I could see the launch when I was in Florida. The original launch time was today, just over an hour ago, and I'm not going to be able to be in Titusville to see the launch until at least like 5 or 6 o'clock tomorrow. As launch time approached, things kept sounding better and better (for me).

First they said the hurricanes didn't affect anything and there was a 70% chance they'd launch on time. Looming clouds changed their prediction to 60%, but they were still confident they'd launch on time. Then a protective window covering fell off and damaged two tiles of the heat shield, which could have posed a problem, but they fixed it pretty quick. Now, a faulty fuel gauge has grounded the mission until at least Monday*, when I'll be less than an hour west of the launch pad.

I kind of feel bad that I was hoping it would get delayed, and now it actually is... The shuttles get delayed all the time just before launch, so this actually isn't out of the ordinary. I was actually fairly sure it would get delayed, because many launches do, and this one is particularly important that there aren't any problems. Well, I get to see the shuttle launch for the first time since I woke up to see pieces of Columbia re-enter the atmosphere. Yay for me.

*Scott saw something on the news that said the shuttle is going to launch Saturday right as I was reading an article about the launch being delayed until Monday. Whichever, I just hope it isn't delayed any more than Monday.

37 Nanosecond Photo

Ah, the smell of fresh electronics. The battery is charging up right now, but keep an eye on my photo blog in case I decide to upload something.

P.S. I have a humorous screengrab I took yesterday that I was going to post here, but I'm too lazy to do it right now. I'll probably do it later.

Money... It's a Hit.

One of my favorite bands, Pink Floyd, recently overcame their issues of the past to play together again for the Live 8 concert in London. I went to Pink Floyd's site a couple weeks ago to find their front page plastered with this nice little quote regarding the Live 8 concerts:

"Like most people I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the third world. It's crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of it's GNP to the starving nations. Any squabbles Roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if re-forming for this concert will help focus attention then it's go to be worthwhile." - David Gilmour (Emphasis mine)

So the Live 8 concerts are ending, and the numbers are coming in. I can't say I'm suprised who handed Africa the most money. Those damn, greedy, apathetic Americans. By a long shot. (And the article is from a Scottish news source, so American-media-haters beware).

PRIVATE American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns.

Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government. American churches, synagogues and mosques alone gave $7.5bn in 2003 - a figure which exceeds the government totals for France ($7.2bn) and Britain ($6.3bn) - according to numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which deal a blow to those who claim moral superiority over the US on aid.

Ouch. Don't give me that do goody good bullshit. 15 times more? Of course, most Europeans like to spin it, and talk about "GNP" and exclude private donations. When you don't tax the shit out of your citizenry, they're able to donate their own money. Lee over at Right-Thinking shares my sentiments, and I got the link to the article from there.

Blog fun

For the three people that read my blog... Jeremy started a blog of his own. Except I'm one step ahead of you, Jeremy, as I started a photoblog a couple days ago, here. The idea is to buy a digital camera in the coming months, and sort of document my time in Orlando. I could buy the camera, if Jeremy would give me money. :p

Colon Comma Left Parenthesis

If I'd known it was going to take that long, I wouldn't have gone. I think I missed the storm, too. There wasn't much lightning, and the rain was pretty weak the whole ride down. Suck. I asked for a receipt for the cream soda I purchased at a Kwik Star, so I had proof that I went, but I'm too tired to scan it and post it (as that would entail several steps you probably don't care about). I'm off to dream about next summer's hurricane season in Florida...

Sod this for a game of storm-watching

The 80% chance of rain we had tonight seems to be following in the footsteps of last night's forecast; the line of T-storms is ending just south of Olmsted. It's 2:18. Time to drive to Decorah.

Noooooo!!1

This is the best You're The Man Now Dog website... ever.

Fweakin Sweet

Vodka has a way with making any otherwise tasty chemical and making it gross. But, there's a bad ass storm going down, so I'm going to go to bed. Good night, Neverland.

Imagine all the Islamofascists...

Looks like one radical Muslim has figured it out.

Arguably Iraq's most popular Shiite group, followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have packed away their guns and now speak of "political resistance" rather than martyrdom in battle.

Once dismissed as an upstart, the portly al-Sadr has been transformed into a respectable political figure, commanding the loyalty of key lawmakers and several Cabinet ministers.

You know what? Agree or disagree with him, he's telling his followers to put down the guns and I respect him for that. Please, resist us on the political battlefield. Hopefully, this is a signal that things will truly turn around in Iraq.

If only for a day...

...it felt good to get the fuck out of this pit.

And the shitting owls and the puking orangutans were cool, too.

Always a Groomsman, Never a Fuck Buddy

I'm so stupid. I should be asleep (3 hours ago). But since I couldn't sleep, I took the personality test on OkCupid, and I'm The Boy Next Door. The description is great...

On paper, most girls would name the Boy Next Door as their ideal mate. In the real world, however, you're often passed over for more dangerous or masculine men. You're the typical "nice guy:" without just a touch of cockiness, you're doomed with girls. A shoulder to cry on? Okay, sure. But never a penis to hold.

Hilarious, but the next paragraph is a bit frightening...

More than any other type, Boys Next Door evolve as they get older. As we said, many find true love, but some fail miserably in the search. These tarnished few grow up to be The Men Next Door, who are creepy as hell, offering backrubs to kids and what not.

I'm not too worried. Not yet anyway. I think I'll be working on that cockiness over the summer.

FSKB Science

I heard about this news story last week, but didn't blog on it. There's a debate over the function of the female orgasm.

Evolutionary scientists have never had difficulty explaining the male orgasm, closely tied as it is to reproduction.

But the Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant - doing their part for the perpetuation of the species - without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose?

It goes on to talk about a book written by Dr. Elisabeth A. Lloyd. She asserts that the female orgasm serves no purpose; that it's an artifact of the development of the fetus. Like nipples on men. Yeah, I didn't really care about it all that much either, except when I read the whole story, I saw this theory from another pair of doctors...

Among the theories that Lloyd addresses in her book is one proposed in 1993, by Dr. R. Robin Baker and Dr. Mark A. Bellis, at Manchester University in England. In two papers published in the journal Animal Behaviour, they argued that female orgasm was a way of manipulating the retention of sperm by creating suction in the uterus. When a woman has an orgasm from one minute before the man ejaculates to 45 minutes after, she retains more sperm, they said.

Furthermore, they asserted, when a woman has intercourse with a man other than her regular sexual partner, she is more likely to have an orgasm in that prime time span and thus retain more sperm, presumably making conception more likely. They postulated that women seek other partners in an effort to obtain better genes for their offspring.

So they're saying women are hard-wired cheaters. I don't really believe that. I just liked the wording they used.

Adventures of Link

I added a handful of links on the sidebar there. Right Thinking is my suggested reading, the others are just a bunch of the bookmarks I had in my "Political Crap" folder.

The Truth Can't Find It's Shoes

Ever run into a foaming-mouth liberal and listen to them go off about the 100,000 Iraqi civilians that have died since the war began? Well it turns out it's less than a quarter of that figure (and that's including both civilian and military casualties). Of course, those rabid lefties certainly cannot be swayed by facts, and Tim Blair has a round-up.

Peter Erdman in the Toledo Blade imagines how much better things might be under President Kerry:

Over 100,000 of Iraq’s people would still be alive.

They might still be alive even now, if Kerry had told George W. Bush about that secret plan of his.

Have a look. Mark Twain is often dubiously attributed with the quote, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." I think the truth lost its shoes somewhere.

A New Hope

I ate at Panera today, and in the parking lot was a little hatchback with a bunch of bumper stickers. There was a System of a Down sticker, something that looked like another band sticker, and a 93X Rocks sticker back there. But down at the bottom, there was a W sticker, a Bush-Cheney sticker and another that said, "I miss Ronald Reagan." It's good to know I'm not the only person in Rochester with a political identity crisis.

Islamofascist Padawans

I'd like to take a moment to point out one of the big problems we face in the world, specifically regarding Islamic fundamentalism. Look at this picture. That little boy has absolutely NO IDEA what any of them are screaming about. Kids learn behaviour as they grow up, and this is the behaviour a large portion of Muslim children are surrounded by their whole lives. Sad, really.

Desperation

If you want a reason NOT to use the free services of plentyoffish.com... this is definitely it.

Take note of the response to "Do drugs?"

Thanks, eHarmony, for refusing my patronage. /flip