Olympics

Watching the olympics right now. USA crew won the regatta. Rio looks like trash, which is sort of expected. I mean, have you seen the Incredible Hulk?

Sick days

Work has been pretty terrible over the last few weeks with a project to find, what has seemed to become a needle in a haystack. This past week, Alex had been sick with either the roto virus or the noro virus.  For I actually sort of hoped I would catch it before the end of the week, not only for the work but, but also to get it over with as quickly as possible. I believe I actually did.  Ironically, though, I didn't start feeling sick until I came home on Friday. It has been a bad couple of days, but now I think I'm on the mend. The only problem is, I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Musings on a Warm January Day

Today I spent 8-10 long hours between lengthy meetings and excel spreadsheets getting work done. It was 72 degrees today as well. Good thing I was indoors all day!

To top everything off, I came home and got a stomach bug. Life is good! 

Found something interesting enough to post about...

So I was reading on foxnews that thunderstorms create positrons - which are anti-matter.  All we need now is a way to harness it and then we can power our starships with gamma rays.

Shattering news from Sony

I was perusing the internet and came across this article that Sony has decided to... wait for it... discontinue the walkman.  Isn't it 2010?  I guess they wanted an even 30 before they killed it.

Here's to rockin' to Bon Jovi and Skid Row!

errr...

Little Buddy Rough and Tough

What do you do when your dog is taken to the pound for being a nuisance?  How about ride to the pound on your tractor with some wire clippers and bust him out?

That's what Edwin Fry of Hydro, Oklahoma did.  When asked about driving the tractor he said, "Oh, yeah. It's got seven gears. It'll even lay a little scratch once in a awhile."

Apparently this guy rode his tractor mower all the way to the pound, cut his dog out and started back for home.  He was caught by police on the way back (wonder why) and unfortunately, his dog ended up being euthenized after all was said and done. 

Oklahoma Earthquake 2

Today we had another earthquake just outside the city of Norman. This time it was a 4.2 (although initial reports had it at a 5.1). When I was on my way to work, we had a good montage of statements from people who felt the effects of it.

My personal favorite:

"I knew that it wasn't squirrels shaking the roof because they can't do it that much."

Squirrels - shaking the roof?

Up and Up, but where?

Target, at some time in the recent past decided to have a marketing overhaul to its brand name. Most Target shoppers are familiar with their food line called Archer Farms and the Target brand with the store emblem on it for the sundries. Well, Target decided to change it's namesake brand name to Up and Up. What they probably didn't anticipate were the consequences of that name in the feminine hygene section of the store.

Up and Up super tampons. Nice.

Cross-Dress Burglary

I was reading the news and found an article about a cross-dressed burglary. The incident happened early this morning where a woman in Oklahoma City woke to find a man in a dress stealing her purse.

It turns out the guy was her ex-son-in-law.

The best part of the article is her statement when she aknowledged who he was. She said, "Ends up that's my ex-son-in-law, so that's awesome."

Awesome? Really?

What happens 9 months after a snowstorm?

It's September, and last December, the most snow fell ever on Christmas eve - 14 inches. What do you get when you're cooped up for 3 days on a holiday?

Yeah, I know it's obvious - pregnant.

Earthquake - Oklahoma Style

I was watching the news with Alex this morning and they reported on a 4.0 earthquake that we had in northeastern oklahoma county. This is quite powerful for Oklahoma (although we have many more earthquakes in OK per year than CA).

During the report, they interviewed two ladies who live in the area. One of them said, "I thought that someone took the John Deer tractor and hit ma' trailer."

That's exactly what I think when the ground starts shaking - tractor to the trailer.

Jball on YouTube

I found this looking at funny plays in baseball. Here's the clip. I recommend that you only watch the first part since it's all in Japanese:


So, would this be a catch in the MLB?

Mary Poppins...

eat your heart out

Sorry I couldn't resist

burning carbon

A while back, I bought me a cast iron skillet. Cast iron is pretty nice, if you know how to use it. One thing to know about cast iron, though, is that it has a coat of carbon that is called seasoning. That's what makes them black - and somewhat stick proof.

Tonight, when I got home, I decided to cook myself some chicken. I always like to preheat my skillet, so I turned on the burner and went to watch tv for 5 minutes. I guess that I turned the burner on too hot, because I soon had smoke going through the entire house. Fun.

Anyway, I cooked up the chicken for about 5 minutes on both sides, poured a can of chicken broth on it and then seasoned it with some rosemary and garlic seasoning. (Now, here's the beauty of the cast iron) I put that in the oven for about 25 minutes (12 minutes each side) and cooked up some mashed potatoes on the stove-top. Aside from the smoke everywhere, the food turned out to be pretty good.

Finally, an update

So here's the scoop. For the past few months, I've been working 2 jobs and working my tail off to get a better position at work. I'm now what we call an aligned underwriter at the Hartford. This is to say, I am assigned certain territories and I make decisions on behalf of the company for those states. Good times. I have also given up on my second job which consisted of making leather goods for horses. That was pretty fun, but phew! it was tiring to work 12+ hour days and 6 days a week.

Oh and Alex is working at Jamba Juice.

Oh well, it's probably going to be a while before anyone reads this since I haven't posted in a while.

Seriously?

Please stop the MJ thing NOW!!!

About Rand...

I honestly feel like, after reading Atlas Shrugged that I have discovered a major revelation about society and politics. It is as if I didn't quite understand something, but I do now. I will say, It is a very cumbersome book to read, but completely worth the time and effort.

Atlas shrugged is about the human spirit and how it is giving way to the government. It involves industry versus rediculous measures taken by the government, and as Rand likes to call them, looters. It was written in the mid 1950's for those of you who don't know, and it is scary how things are playing out today are similar to what goes on in the book. I recommend it.

Here's a quote from the book that I thought was great. I'll call this the "title track" of the book. You'll get my meaning when you read it. Francisco, an apparent playboy heir, is trying to explain to Henry Rearden, an entrepreneur/inventor why he should quit his business (even though at this point in the book, we don't understand that's what he's trying to get him to do).

“Mr. Rearden,” said Francisco, his voice solemnly calm, “if you saw Atlas,
the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood,
blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but
still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the
greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders – what
would you tell him to do?”

“I…don’t know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?”

“To shrug.”

Does this sound familiar?

First of all. I've not written anything for a bit because of a 2 job run that's going on right now. While I've been busy doing that and dealing with Alex's surgery, I've also been reading. Here's a bit from Rand's Atlas Shrugged:

It was the chance conversation of two men somewhere behind her that came beating
suddenly against her closed attention.

“But laws shouldn’t be passed that way, so quickly.”

“They’re not laws, they’re directives.”

“Then it’s illegal.”

“It’s not illegal, because the Legislature passed a law last month giving him the power to issue directives.”

“I don’t think directives should be sprung on people that way, out of the blue, like a
punch in the nose.”

“Well, there’s no time to palaver when it’s a national emergency.”

“But I don’t think it’s right and it doesn’t jibe. How is Rearden going to do it, when it says here—“

“Why should you worry about Rearden? He’s rich enough. He can find a way to do anything.”

Instructions: Replace "Rearden" with "America." Think cap and trade. Fabulous.

Swine Flu

With all of the fuss about the swine flu going on. I have to ask the question: Why do they hand out anti bacterial handwash when dealing with a virus?