Star Trek vs. Simpsons.... Boyyeeeee

Bush Claims to be Literate... LOL

So Bush's latest kick is that he is trying to 'dispel his image as an intellectual lightweight' by claiming that he has started to read books more. Bush tells us gullible American populace that he has so far read 60 books this year.

Oh come on! Let's do the math here people. 60 / 8 months (we are just entering September) = 7.5 books per month. Now, using a little math that comes out to around 1 book every 4-5 days.

I'm not sure which books he is reading, maybe Curious George, or Presidency for Dummies, but no one can read that much, AND be the president at the same time. Shit, even in college I didn't have to read that many books. Maybe if he was a book reviewer, but he's not.

What a moron. Don't believe it, don't be fooled. Use your brain.

Burger-Powered Super Rats Take Over London!

Now would be a bad time to go to England, as it seems a new species of super powered rats are taking over London. Apparently the average, feeble human can only flee about 10 feet before they encounter another one.

Ok, I am exaggerating a little, but check out this news story about how fast food is making the rat population bigger in size over there.

I for one welcome our new mutant-rat overlords.

A Love Story

Courtesy of rense.com

Cool Survival Kit

Check out these cool survival kits that you can make at home out of an Altoids tin.

The have verions ranging from the tiniest, up to a wilderness survival kit. Pretty neat.

The Grays Released

'The Grays' has been released. It's best to get it online as most of the bookstores that you could walk into don't carry many copies, and hide them in the back of the store for some odd reason.

I'm a third of the way through, and what a book! Full of suspense and great writing. Knowing that this book is fact-based fiction only makes it even more interesting, also questioning and wondering if what you're reading is the fiction or the fact part. I would recommend it.

I can't wait until this comes out in the theaters next year, hopefully the production studio, Sony Pictures, doesn't dork it up the way the made-for-tv-movie of 'The Stand' turned out.

Straight Trippin'

Check out this video ya'll! It's of a DEA special agent giving a safety lecture to some kids when he accidentally shoots himself in the leg. What a dumbass.

Just say no to guns kids.

Taking Shape (Phase V)

After a bit a digging and grunting, I have gotten some of the edging and breeze pathway material down. You can see now the yard starting to take shape. While there is still a lot more to do, this gives me hope. I'm working on the steps now to try and get rid of the mound of gravel in my driveway as fast as possible.

V for Vendetta

"People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people."

To see what this country may one day become if we stay on the present course, just see this movie.

Great movie. By far the best I've seen in a while, especially if you also are a bit wary of all our rights being slowy taken away and every move monitored.

Pa-who?

The Dodgers seem to be slowly taking over the NL West, leaving the Padres and the Rockies behind. If some other team doesn't put a stop to their winning ways, all hopes could be lost soon.

It also doesn't help that the Padres lose at home all the time. And that the Rockies lose 2-1 in an 18 inning game to the D-Backs.

Rain Go Away

I would have some more pictures here, but the recent heavy thunderstorms have turned the yard into a bog / swamp / mud hole / marsh / quagmire and I've been unable to get any substantial work done.

However, I did at least get one section of the path done, looks good. The rest is a mess. Maybe I'll be done around 2008 or so.

Digging Sucks (Phase IV)

Now that the trees are in, it was time to move on to the next phase; paths, steps, and the like. You can see I have to plan for irrigation to run under the paths later by placing access sleeves. I will be getting the path material soon, should have pictures of that soon.

Mrs. Greenthumb (Phase III)

So the last of the trees were installed the other day. May I present you with McIntosh and Gala apple trees, both semi-dwarf; what would life be without a bit of dwarf in it.

A-aaaaa !!!

So it finally arrived. After some monkeying around trying to get this PAL Region 2 DVD to work with my NTSC Region 1 DVD player, success!!

And Then Came The Rain...

So just after our nice trees were installed, a super thunderstorm decided to dump about an inch of rain in about 30 minutes on the yard. It was straight out of the bible man, flood city.

Dr. Greenthumb (Phase II)

After spending by Bling Bling jewelery money on trees instead, we finally got everything except the apple trees installed. Looks much better, and can't wait for the fall colors and shade that comes with them.

The Grays Part 1

Whitley Strieber has updated his journal again, http://www.unknowncountry.com/journal. If you didn't know, Whitley has written another book, this one called 'The Grays', which is due out August 22nd I believe. It is already under production by Sony studios to be released as a movie in 2007 I think.

And if you also didn't know, the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' was based on his co-authored book 'The Coming Global Superstorm', which inturn is based off Whitley's true account as told in the book 'The Key'. Believe it or not!

Go read, think, and be merry.

Trees and a Patio Set

This weekend we picked out some trees for the yard. Trees are bling bling, but we beat some of the cost because there was a 40% sale. With delivery and installation, on a tree-by-tree basis, the cost came to about 110% of the original tree cost.

We are going to have 2 Austrian Pines, 1 Chanticleer Pear, 1 Autumn Blaze Maple, 1 Prairiefire Crabapple, 1 Semi-Dwarf Gala Apple, and 1 Semi-Dwarf McIntosh Apple. Yes, that is 7 trees. Including the other trees on our property, that totals 12 trees.

They're getting installed this week, so stay tuned for pictures. We also picked up a patio set from Home Depot at the 40% sale. It's a week for 40% off. Too bad I can't get 40% off my monthly mortgage.

Retaining Wall Finished! (Phase I)

So they finally finished the darn retaining wall, took 'em long enough. Enjoy the pictures.

Rockies Rock the Padres in 10

What a stunning victory last night. The Padres had the lead most of the game and it was an 8-6 Padre lead going into the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs. Then our favorite hero Trevor Hoffman comes up to get the save.

Ever since the break, T-Time has been Loss-Time. He has blown 3 of 6 saves I believe. Back to the game... Hoffman gave up a 2-run shot with 2 outs. Then in the bottom of the 10th, a stunning come from behind win was pulled off by the Rockies with a great sliding play at the plate.

Check out the video highlights over at ESPN.

Flash - a-aaaaa! He'll save every one of us!

I'm attempting to get a DVD of Flash Gordon off of eBay. In case you don't know this movie is hard to come by. Will keep you folks updated.

That Darn Fat Cat

Apparently I'm in the wrong business, because Exxon Mobil earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.

Now that is just ridiculous. Then we have to hear them whine about, "it's not our fault gas prices are so high...", yeah whatever. This disgusts me. You can read the article for yourself.

The End of Man?

Whitley Strieber has updated his journal again today, http://www.unknowncountry.com. The 2nd post within a week. Very strange, things are quickening. You can view my post below for a glimpse as to what the latest journal entry is about. I will leave it up to you to read it on your own and come to your own decision.

That's All Folks

Well, we've done it finally... we as a species have almost destroyed the Amazon. I say almost because it is only a matter of time before it is destroyed completely, and we as a species go with it. How you ask, severe drought. Returning again for the second straight year. More of this and the forest is done with.

Read the full article to find out how exactly this planetary resource is vital to us all. It's sad you know,... with all the brain power we have to propel us into the future, we waste it on things like religious wars, debating gay marriage, immigration, etc...

I'm off to prepare for the future, what little of it left there is.

Cult Classics

And while we're on the topic of great movies, how about he all flashback to these great cult classics.

Ice Pirates! What more do I have to say. You have ninja robots, pirates, and silly humor.

If you never saw Cherry 2000, go see it. It's not going to replace your top movie slot, but it's a classic. It's a guy meets robotic-take-home hottie, guy loses robotic-take-home hottie family movie.

Buckaroo Bonzai, man! Look at the cast why don't you. Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, and Peter Weller. Plus it was made in 1984!

And Army of Darkness, pure and simple nonsense.

Aeon Flux = Good Movie

If you haven't seen this movie, go add it to your Netflix queue now. Good acting, great action, sweet plot line, and skimpy outfits, what more could anyone ask for. Did I mention the skimpy outfits?

I would have to give the movie 5 out of 5 stars for action and plot. If you've seen it, let me know what you thought. And if you're looking for some confirmation, check out the Netflix reviews of this movie, the only ones I actually trust.

Landscaping Sucks!

This is one of the times you can say, "If you want things done right, you should do them yourself." However, if it involves heavy lifting in blazing hot sun, I will gladly pay someone else to do it.

But why does it have to take so long? It's been 3 weeks since this contractor started our retaining wall, but there are constant issues. For one, they seem only able to work on Wednesday afternoons, and they never call to give me updates. At least now I can start deducting .5% / day since they are over their contracted period.

Once they're done, I'll post some pictures.

Ryder's New Digs!

Here is Ryder with his brand new collar. What do you think? I just got back from the Bay Area where they had this cool collar, I just had to get it. Ryder seems to love it. Bella didn't get one because she has a small neck. And what does a small neck mean? A small head with very little content. But we still love her.

Missing Time and the Future

Whitley has updated his journal today, http://www.unknowncountry.com, with a very interesting entry about missing time, time travel, and the future. You'll have to read it a few times to fully understand some of the concepts, but I think it's worth it.

While I have not experienced missing time that I know of, I often wake up around 3:33 am, and not just because of Bella the dog pacing across the bedroom carpet; what a noise, let me tell you. It is at these times that I think we all are most able to access what is out there, we only have to brave enough to conquer our fear of trying.

8,461' Up

So a few weeks ago Shino and I went to climb Bear Peak over in Boulder. It was a longer trip than expected, about 7 miles round trip, but I think it was worth it.

Shino was tired, so it was slow going up the ridges to the top. Once she reached the top though she was happy. Check out the view down to Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville and beyond. We signed the log book at the top telling the world that we were there!

By the way, this is 8,461 majestic feet up. Gotta go much, much higher to get up to a 14er baby.