The other day I recieved an email that really irritated me.  It has nothing to do with abortion or gun laws or healthcare or any issues at all.  Rather, it was nothing but ignorance intended to make the ignorant masses happy with themselves by getting "righteously" angry at someone else.


First off, here was the email I got:

( here is the original email )

And this was my reply:

( reply to the email )

So for quite a while, if not so much recently, my living room light would turn on by itself.  The first few times I found it on when I came home from work or woke up in the morning, and so brushed it off as forgetting to turn it off.  Then, paying more attention to it, I found that after making sure to turn it off before I left or went to bed, it would still be on when I got up / home.  The light is activated by a wireless button, so I passed it off as some random radio waves or someone's garage door opener or something.  Then a couple times I saw it turn on while I was home.  A little creepy, but I still passed it off as random radio waves, though I did like to joke that my house was haunted.

Until tonight.  I was watching Dollhouse, the new show on Fox, and movement caught my eye.  My empty glass slowly and steadily moved about 2 inches on the coffee table of its own accord.  My first thought was it built up enough condensation that the water lifted it and it slid until there was no more water under it.  So I took a closer look - completely dry, nothing to slide on (not to mention it had been empty for some time so wasn't cold enough to have said condensation).  I thought maybe it was greasy - I'd ordered a pizza and eaten it there.  No grease on the table and the glass was not easy to move.  And the table is level, and nothing bumped or moved it.

It sounds rediculous, but it really was just like a movie or those ghost shows - it simply slid slowly, steadily, and in a straight line, where no other factors should have been able to move it.  Even the thing with the light, I can't really pass that off anymore - it was doing that a lot (almost every day) for a month or two, and hasn't done it since.

I'm still a skeptical person, but I think, while I've always accepted the possibility, this has proven to me that such paranormal activities do exist.

It's funny - even as Obama is making history in his innauguration, the First Lady has become nothing more or less than a fashion statement.  Every time I see something about her, it's always about how great she dresses and where she got the outfit she's wearing that day.  And all this following the big (if brief) controversy over Palin and her wardrobe.  Sad.  Just sad.  I hope this isn't what we have to look forward to in the next 4 or 8 years.

We all like to bitch about the rich and their stinginess, say they do what they can to keep us down, and they should be putting out more to help us in the economy.  I've heard several people say "If Bill Gates would share just some of his money our deficit / national debt could be nearly wiped out."  Well here's to all you naysayers.  In this past year alone -

Warren Buffet, the world's second-richest man, donated $31 billion to charites. (yes that's Billion, not just Million)
Bill Gates donated $36 billion.
William Hilton, heir to the Hilton hotels, is giving away 97% of his wealth
George Kaiser, of the Oil and Banking industries, "plans to increase his gifts 'until I die with one dollar left, assuming I can get the timing just right.' "

So there you have it.  Whether we admit to it or not, we all like to think the worst of the rich just because they have more money than we do.  Let's just keep this in mind next time we try to complain that they are greedy and don't give anything to those in need.

You can read the full article in more detail here - The Top 10 American Givers

Why is it whenever the ground gets even slightly damp from even the suggestion of rain, the power at my house flickers, just enough to shut off my internet for a few minutes?  Suck.

In an online news article discussing the changes Obama plans on making using executive orders:

"President Bush has limited federal spending on stem cell research, a position championed by opponents of abortion rights. Obama has supported the research in an effort to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's."

Nowhere in the article did it discuss why stem cell research has been limited.  I'm not sure how I feel about it myself, but I'm can't say I'm a big fan of it.  Now appearantly there have been advances in artificial stem cell research (normal cell that are engineered back to a near-stem cell state) and I'm all for that.

And "opponents of abortion rights?"  Really?  Abortion is a right now?  (With the exception of the mother's life being in danger) Killing an unborn child is a basic human right?  I mean come on people, have we completely forgotten the other A word - adoption?

Had  a weird dream last night.  I came home to find my house had been broken into.  They took my tv, but the motorcycle was the strange part.  They didn't actually steal the bike; they removed the front wheel and took that.  Appearantly they also brought 3 other motorcycles from somewhere else and put them in my garage as well, all of them also missing the front wheel.

That's about it, the dream didn't go very far, I just thought that was rather odd.

So after getting everything turned off and put away and brought inside and altogether ready for a big storm......nothing happened.  Ike passed by to the east, we got the very western edge of it.  Enough to make a light steady rain all day with occasional light winds.  To tell the truth I actually feel kinda......let down.  After all the excitement and confusion (a hurricane headed for Dallas, wtf?) I guess I had built myself up to expect this big event, and instead got just another rainy day.  Also I kinda rather like storms.  Not full hurricane-strength storms, but by the time Ike made it up here it was weak enough to have been not too bad yet strong enough to have been......enjoyable.  So anyway, there you have it.

My prayers do go out to the people in Houston and other areas affected by Ike.  Just because I like storms doesn't mean I don't care about people who go through all that.

Copied from a Sever Weather Alert on weather.com -

Special Weather Statement

MONTAGUE-COOKE-GRAYSON-FANNIN-LAMAR- YOUNG-JACK-WISE-DENTON-COLLIN- HUNT- DELTA-HOPKINS-STEPHENS-PALO PINTO- PARKER-TARRANT-DALLAS- ROCKWALL- KAUFMAN-VAN ZANDT-RAINS-EASTLAND-ERATH- HOOD-SOMERVELL- JOHNSON-ELLIS- HENDERSON-COMANCHE-MILLS-HAMILTON- BOSQUE-HILL- NAVARRO-FREESTONE- ANDERSON-LAMPASAS-CORYELL-BELL- MCLENNAN-FALLS- LIMESTONE-LEON-MILAM- ROBERTSON- 412 PM CDT WED SEP 10 2008

...HURRICANE IKE WILL SUBSTANTIALLY IMPACT NORTH TEXAS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY...

HURRICANE IKE WILL MAKE LANDFALL ALONG THE MIDDLE TEXAS COAST DURING THE EARLY MORNING HOURS SATURDAY. THE HURRICANE WILL MOVE QUICKLY NORTH... GENERALLY ALONG THE INTERSTATE 35 CORRIDOR OVER THE WEEKEND. AT THIS TIME...IKE IS EXPECTED TO WEAKEN TO TROPICAL STORM STRENGTH BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON AS THE SYSTEM MOVES INTO CENTRAL TEXAS. BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON... REMNANTS OF IKE WILL BE NORTH OF THE RED RIVER.


WHILE THE STORM WILL BE WEAKENING AS IT MOVES ACROSS NORTH TEXAS... SUBSTANTIAL IMPACTS ARE LIKELY. WIDESPREAD HEAVY RAINFALL OF 4 OR MORE INCHES...STRONG WINDS...AND ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE ANTICIPATED. ADDITIONALLY...ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF THE TRACK OF THE CENTER OF THE STORM.


...WIND IMPACTS...

ALL OF NORTH TEXAS WILL EXPERIENCE STRONG WINDS AS A RESULT OF IKE. OVER CENTRAL TEXAS...INCLUDING THE WACO/TEMPLE/KILLEEN AREAS... SUSTAINED WINDS IN EXCESS OF 50 MPH WITH GUSTS TO HURRICANE FORCE ARE POSSIBLE SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY. FURTHER NORTH...SUSTAINED WINDS OF 40 MPH OR HIGHER ARE EXPECTED WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH ACROSS THE INTERSTATE 20 CORRIDOR...INCLUDING THE DALLAS/FORT WORTH METROPLEX LATE SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. HIGH RISE BUILDINGS MAY EXPERIENCE EVEN STRONGER WINDS AT ROOFTOP LEVEL.


CITIZENS AND THOSE WITH INTERESTS ACROSS NORTH TEXAS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR POWER OUTAGES AND TAKE PRECAUTIONS TO SECURE OUTDOOR MATERIALS AND BELONGINGS THAT ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO STRONG WINDS.


...HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLOODING IMPACTS...

WIDESPREAD HEAVY RAINFALL OF 4 INCHES IS LIKELY LATE SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY WITH LOCALIZED AMOUNTS TO NEAR 8 INCHES POSSIBLE. THE WIDESPREAD AND HEAVY NATURE OF THE RAIN WILL LEAD TO RAPID RISES ON RIVERS...STREAMS...AND CREEKS WITH FLOODING LIKELY.


...TORNADO THREAT...

ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF THE CENTER OF IKE AS IT MOVES ACROSS NORTH TEXAS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.


THE MOST SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS FROM IKE WILL DEPEND ON THE EXACT TRACK AND SPEED OF MOVEMENT. THE STRONGEST WINDS AND GREATEST CHANCES FOR VERY HEAVY RAINFALL AND TORNADOES TYPICALLY OCCUR TO THE EAST OF THE CENTER OF THE STORM. MORE SPECIFIC DETAILS ON THESE IMPACTS WILL BE PROVIDED IN LATER FORECASTS.

So after gas broke $4 a gallon, I decided it was time to quit thinking about it and active look for a new bike - specifically a Kawasaki Ninja 250.  At 70mpg with the amount of driving I do, it would literally pay for itself and then some with the gas it would be saving.  So I picked one up for the price I was looking for, and so far has been pretty close to its claim - I've gotten 65mpg.  Plenty of power for highway riding too.  And insurance went up by a whopping $9/month.  So I'm happy.  Here's some pics: