Shangri-La .... or so it would seem

Chernobyl Bike Ride

Very interesting web site where a girl rides her motorcycle inside the death zone created by the Chernobyl disaster. The pictures are simply fascinating. You can see how life just stopped and people either died or were evacuated.

At one point, the girl find a classroom diary of a teacher where the last note tells that "their walk on Saturday has been canceled due to some unforeseen contingency."

UPDATE: Author took the site down. It is mirrored here.

A Crash of Rhinoceroses

Animal Congregations. I've always enjoyed the names of various groups of animals. We probably all know that a group of crows is a murder or a gaggle of geese. Here are some of the less known congregations.

A business of Ferrets
A tower of Giraffes
A bloat of Hippopotamuses
A cackle of Hyenas
A prickle of Porcupines
A streak of Tigers
A leap of Leopards
A wake of Buzzards
A watch of Nightingales
A parliament of Owls
An unkindness of Ravens
An army of Frogs
A shiver of Sharks
An intrusion of Cockroaches
A plague of Locusts

Profiler

Last night I dreamed.....

Todd Ian Paul and I were heading to the apartment near college. Car pulls up and asked Paul and me if we were going to college. We said yes, even though we weren't. They asked us to show them what class we were going to. So Paul and I walked over and found a classroom. On the way a female profiler followed us in. We went in and they were having class. The whole show interupted what was going on, but the professor didn't seem to mind. She then proceeded to ask Paul and I a bunch of questions about the school. Paul answered them very well, but I messed up once or twice. Once I referred to a former teacher and told her that she "used" to have her office in Rhodes. The profiler asked again, and I said she has her office in Rhodes-Robinson. I had trouble hearing her when she asked me questions, but that was on purpose to see my reaction. Paul was off the hook, but she continued to ask me questions to break me. I started to finally get the hang of it. The one thing that she never asked was where our class was or who the professor was. I had the answer already made up in case she did. Finally, we had won. She thought we were telling the truth and let us go. Paul and I proceeded to walk back to the apartment. Paul started to say something about it, but I shushed him thinking they had probably bugged us. When we got back inside the apartment, some crazy guy was running around outside. We saw him going by the windows screaming, so we all grabbed our guns and ran outside to shoot him. As we exited the apartment, the G-men were waiting for us and arrested us. Apparently, the crazy man was planted to trick us.

Fun Web Game

Enjoy it.

Red & Blue.

The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman

Jerry Seinfeld has started a series of online shorts that feature him and Superman hanging out. The first one is called "The Uniform" and features the voice of Patrick Warburton as Superman (David Puddy on Seinfeld).

Thanks to Lefty for finding this.

Garage Day

Today, my dad helped me clean out the garage. We took two loads to the landfill and one load of brush to his house to dump. The garage certainly looks a lot better than it did. We also jacked up the roof to keep it from falling in. I'm trying to decide whether to replace the roof or the whole garage. I would prefer the latter.

On the way back from the landfill, we picked up a hitchhiker. We passed him but then decided to go back and get him. He was a farmer that needed a ride to the convience store in town. It felt good to save him miles of walking

We had a big lunch at Twin Dragons (chinese buffet). I always eat too much when I get a buffet to make up for the cost. I had a gift certificate that my mom gave me so it was free today.

After driving back to my dad's house, he let me keep the truck. I can certainly use it around here.

Graffiti

Just playing around with photoshop again.

The photoshop tutorial is located at The Web Machine. Click on Photoshop and then on the left menu, Graffiti on Wall.

Animal Series

There has been a lot of animal talk around me lately. At the moment, I am watching a guy pet a king cobra (largest venomous snake). It is an enormous speciman that is over 15 feet long. The host is so excited that he is talking very fast and not making much sense.

"I've dreamed about finding this snake all my life. I never dreamed that I would ever find it."

And tomorrow night at 9pm there is a show on the Discovery Channel that is pitting a Shark versus a Crocodile. Scientists supposedly examine the strengths and weaknesses of each creature and build machines representing each to test their theories. You can vote online for who you think will win. The current vote is very close. The Great White Shark has 16,242 votes while the Saltwater Crocodile has 16,137.

Last but certainly not least, my friends and I have started an animal tournament. Your vote doesn't have to be logical. Feel free to vote for your favorite animal. The animal with the most votes advances in each round. Feel free to join in and give your opinions.

Visiting Dad

I drove up to my Dad's house this morning. I've been putting it off and decided I better go today or it would be another week before I could go. I decided to pick up my digital camera because my mom wanted pictures of the lambs that were born last week. When I pulled into the driveway, I was surprised to see a new red truck. I went with my dad last week to look at a couple of trucks in Brevard and I thought it would be a while before he bought one. He told me that he just couldn't pass up on the deal. It is a 2001 with only three thousand miles. And it was only $8,200.

Then I saw the Jacob sheep and the two lambs. They were fun to watch as they pranced about. Here is Reese, Arelia and their lambs.

Then I went inside and saw his new Dell computer. It is a very nice setup with a scanner/copier/printer combo to boot. A much needed improvement over the iMac.

Dad also showed me his progress on the Reedmobile. The car that he is building is pretty much done with only a few modifications left. (Airbags and a roll-cage would be nice)

Then this afternoon I headed over the parkway to meet Todd and Ian to celebrate Todd's birthday. We headed over to the Japanese restaurant and had a huge meal. We got a good meal and show from the cook (only Japanese cook there). He threw a few shrimp on my plate for an appetizer. Since I am allergic to them, I added them to Ian's total. The chef also got me with a sauce gag. He asked if I wanted to try a really hot sauce and then poured it all over my shirt. Only to look down and see that the sauce was nothing more than yarn.

Wireless DSL for Macintosh

I went back to Howard's today and worked on getting his powerbook wireless internet. The solution turned out to be really simple. Every powerbook G4 has airport (wireless card) built in. So to communicate with the 2wire homeportal, all I had to do was turn it on.

I also fixed a few other things and had a great salmon dinner. Juanita went all out (she always does). It reminded me of Salsa's restaurant downtown. Again, I'll try to post the recipe when I get it.

If you want to know how to get the airport to work with the 2wire homeportal, read on.

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First, your 2wire has to be wireless. In your powerbook, go to system preferences and click on network. Under location, I chose 2wire Alternate. And then under show, select airport. Under the Airport tab (appears after you select airport above), select join a specific network. 2Wire(followed by three numbers). The password is the 10 digit code on the bottom of the 2wire homeportal preceeded by a $.

ex. $0987654321

Hit apply now and you should be online. You should now have an airport wireless symbol up in your menu bar by your clock. You can see an image here of what I am talking about.

AirPort: How to Join an Encrypted Wireless Network

Shoot Around

Lefty, T-Bone and I went shooting today. T-Bone took his Desert Eagle and I took my shotgun. Jim and Audrey were great hosts. They gave us a tour of the place and showed us all the guns they have. I wish I took some pictures of them. Jim brought out a 44 magnum revolver as we grabbed our guns.

We set up some cans for targets at the top of the drive and walked back down. Todd let me shoot his desert eagle first and I proceeded to miss everything. His handgun gave quite a kick and when you weren't firing it, you could see the fire shooting out the barrel. After missing with both handguns, I grabbed my shotgun and started laying down the law on those cans. We had them filled with water, so when my buckshot hit them, water was pouring out over a dozen holes.

Audrey then shot her snub-nose pistol (I think it was a .357). We all shot pretty much every weapon we could get our hands on. Then Jim brought out his 375 rifle. He used an old propane tank as a target and we all got way back in case there was still some gas left in it. Unforunately, there was no loud explosion, but it did leave an impressive hole through the tank. I shot the 375 a couple of times and hit on my second shot. Jim explained that it was for dropping rhinos and cape buffalo. He also showed us where he shot through 1/2" thick metal. After we were finished, he scared me by shooting their goldfish pond. Water sprayed everywhere as I ducked for cover. He wanted to see what the bullet looked like after going through eight feet of water. (There weren't any fish in the pond.)

For dinner, Audrey fixed us pork chops, scallops and all the fixings with pie for dessert. If we had stayed much longer, I would have fell asleep on the couch.

Ion 2

We found out later that Ian's old car had thrown a rod. So the engine needed replacing and that would run him a few thousand dollars. The worst part is that he still owed money on the car. I think everyone advised him to just get another car if he could and take his losses. I certainly wish I did with my old Escort. I replaced the engine and the transmission and it was barely going after that. I ended up trading it in for $1000, but it was pretty much worthless by the end.

I drove Ian to the Saturn dealer this afternoon. He wanted to see if he could work out a deal for another car or have to have a new engine put in his old one. We talked to a nice salesman who pointed us out to the Ion 2's. There are three types of Ions and the Ion 2 were getting $2,500 cash back. This looked like the only car Ian could get because he still owed money on his old one and didn't have enough to pay it off. We looked at them and they looked good. I was more than a little concerned about Lefty getting another Saturn, but this seemed like the only way to go. After we test drove one, Ian's mind was set on getting it. So he figured out a down payment and we talked to the finance guy.

Things went from good to great. Ian's old car was going to be paid off with the cash back and the down payment. His monthly payments were actually going to go down. And to top it all off, he got 0% financing. He couldn't have been happier. It turned out very well for Ian and I think he made the right decision.

Limo Service and DSL

I've been driving to work and back this week. Tonight, I had to go to Howard's do some work for him though. So Todd was able to come over and pick up Ian at 7pm or so. I drove to Howard's and installed DSL for him. Unforunately, Bellsouth sent a bunch of stuff that was wrong. Howard will have to deal with sending all that back and getting his money back. I hate the Sales team, but they do this all the time. It probably took me 10 minutes or so to have DSL up and running on his Macintosh OS 9 desktop. Then I proceeded to install wireless for his Macintosh powerbook OS X laptop. The pcmcia card only works with windows so I was stuck. I went ahead and set it up to work with ethernet cable, but Howard wanted wireless.

For dinner, Juanita fixed us mutton with all the fixings. I'll post a recipe here after I get it from her.

I had to leave before I got the wireless set up, so I will have to come back next week.