mum

i don't feel much like talking about db comp weekend. our mixed team got 3rd place tho, so that was pretty awesome. a lot of other stuff happened tho. not so awesome stuff. i had sort of a breakdown of sorts. stress and tiredness. i dunno. anyway. for now, things are okay. just okay.

::beep::

+---------- Bizarre Answering Machine Messages  -----------+  

Actual answering machine answers recorded and verified by the International Institute of Answering Machine Answers.  

1] My wife and I can't come to the phone right now, but if you'll leave your name and number, we'll get back to you as soon as we're finished.  

2] A is for academics, B is for beer. One of those reasons is why we're not here. So leave a message.  

3] Hi. This is John: If you are the phone company, I already sent the money. If you are my parents, please send money. If you are my financial aid institution, you didn't lend me enough money. If you are my friends, you owe me money. If you are a female, don't worry, I have plenty of money.  

4] "Hi. Now you say something."  

5] "Hi, I'm not home right now but my answering machine is, so you can talk to it instead. Wait for the beep."  

6] "Hello. I am David's answering machine. What are you?"  

7] (From Japanese friend) He-lo! This is Sa-to. If you leave message, I call you soon. If you leave *sexy* message, I call sooner!  

8] "Hi! John's answering machine is broken. This is his refrigerator. Please speak very slowly, and I'll stick your message to myself with one of these magnets."  

9] "Hello, you are talking to a machine. I am capable of receiving messages. My owners do not need siding, windows, or a hot tub, and their carpets are clean. They give to charity through their office and do not need their picture taken. If you're still with me, leave your name and number and they will get back to you."  

10] "This is not an answering machine -this is a telepathic thought-recording device. After the tone, think about your name, your reason for calling and a number where I can reach you, and I'll think about returning your call."  

11] "Hi. I am probably home, I'm just avoiding someone I don't like. Leave me a message, and if I don't call back, it's you."  

12] "Hi, this is George. I'm sorry I can't answer the phone right now. Leave a message, and then wait by your phone until I call you back."  

13] "If you are a burglar, then we're probably at home cleaning our weapons right now and can't come to the phone. Otherwise, we probably aren't home and it's safe to leave us a message."  

14] Please leave a message. However, you have the right to remain silent. Everything you say will be recorded and will be used by us.  

15] Hello, you've reached Jim and Sonya. We can't pick up the phone right now, because we're doing something we really enjoy. Sonya likes doing it up and down, and I like doing it left to right .... real slowly. So leave a message, and when we're done brushing our teeth we'll get back to you.

missy blush

miss sixty has a new perfume out and i really like the bottle. but is it just me or does it also remind you of blush by marc jacobs or prada?

bug gulp

stefan gruber's big gulp is pretty cool. i really like the animation, it sorta of reminds me of the beatles yellow submarine.

musings

did you notice that they changed some of the talladega nights: the ballad of ricky bobby commericials? that bit when he's on 'fire' on the race track? he used to say tom cruise, and now instead he says oprah! it's still funny. but not nearly as funny! i mean, oprah is like a god to some people. but tom cruise, well, he just sorta thinks he's a god.

my mom bought white peaches yesterday at albertsons. do you kno wat the sticker on the peaches said? disney gardens! i don't kno why, but this sorta creeps me out. ..

good job

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. - A woman was wondering why she was having a hard time steering her car so she pulled into a gas station. The problem? There was a man's body wedged under her vehicle. Dominique Page, 19, apparently didn't realize she had run over the man as he lay in a Detroit street. "The young woman was the not first person to hit him," said Detroit police Sgt. Eren Stephens Bell. "He apparently was already a hit-and-run victim when she ran over him." Page discovered the body when she stopped at a gas station about two miles down the road. The Detroit News identified the victim as Edison Fowler, 43

 

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Goldilocks and the Three Bears sort of came to life when a woman came home to discover a bear in her kitchen munching on oatmeal. The bear came through an open sliding glass door looking for a meal, and found the container of oatmeal. "It sounds like a nursery rhyme, doesn't it?" West Vancouver police Sgt. Paul Skelton said. "At least we have a health-conscious bear on our hands." The bear wouldn't move when police officers came to the home, so they let him finish eating first. Once the bear was done with its meal, it left the house and headed towards a forested gully. "It ended the best it could," Skelton said

 

ALOHA, Ore. - A woman was so taken by an attractive police officer that she called 911 to have the cop come back to her home. Lorna Jeanne Dudash dialed the emergency number and told the dispatcher that he was "the cutest cop I've seen in a long time," and asked for the "cutie pie" deputy to return. When the dispatcher asked why she needed the cop to come to her home, Dudash responded, "Honey, I'm just going to be honest with you, OK? I just thought he was cute. I'm 45 years old and I'd just like to meet him again, but I don't know how to go about doing that without calling 911." Well this got Dudash a date all right, but not the one she really wanted. She was arrested on charges of misusing the emergency dispatch system.

 

PRINCETON, W.Va. - It wasn't the Princeton's police department's finest hour when two of their officers followed a man right over the edge of a cliff. The 30-year-old suspect fell over a cliff near the West Virginia Turnpike Thursday while running from police. An officer chasing the man couldn't stop himself before tumbling over the cliff after him, and a second officer jumped off the cliff and landed in a tree. The unidentified suspect suffered serious injuries, according to Princeton Police Chief W.L. Harman. Sgt. W.E. Rose, whose fall was broken by a tree, came away with some scratches and bruises. His partner, Sgt. C.T. Lowe, was not injured.

unclear

oish, i guess i didn't make this clear but that last post. the last bit about running out of time. i didn't mean it in the sense of like... getting married or watever. i just meant how in general time is running out. our rents are getting older and most of us are still sorta figuring out wat they want wit their lives. i mean. i kno that we are still young but seriously... i'm really starting to feel the pressure of having to finally 'grow up' and i'm not even out of college yet. our whole lives we sort of keep looking forward to something. some benchmark. some coming of age thing. it never really seems real tho. as if it'll never really happen. next year, graduating college? that doesn't even really seem real to me. thinking about getting a real job. starting my retirement fund. really moving out. having my parents retire then eventually die... i mean... is that all really gonna happen? i kno that it is, but i just can't feel that it will. this growing up stuff, it's scary.

3d!

wow! i remember playing this as a kid and i'm glad that now i've found it online: 3d tetris. the version i played tho, i remember as being less confusing. but anyway, this version is pretty awesome too. :)

see-thru

          

i'm pretty sure i've posted this before, but being at home and having dailup makes me not want to go out and find interesting things online. and really, this deserves another mention: transparent screens - a photoset on flickr.

timeless

last night's satc's (sex and the city) episode was where charlotte gets married to trey (sp?) and carrie finally tells aiden that she cheated on him. i kno that i cry a lot when it comes to tv and movies and books and even songs, but i dunno. i just really really felt for her. :(

this postcard gets to me because of the word 'baby'. sometimes you love someone so much and yet things just aren't working. it takes two, as you well know. and even tho you don't want to give up, sometimes you just feel like you have to.

angel's wedding. we get to choose our own groomsmen, which i find funny because why is it that the women get the privilege? but anyway. they're mostly white guys, except for this one indian guy. who's appt the same height as reepal. originally i didn't want to pick him. because i thought it would be weird. but now... i dunno. i mean, picking him is like picking reepal. well, to me is anyway. reepal doesn't want me to get this guy. 'anyone else', he says.

god... we're all growing up... and time really is running out.

s-m-r-t

+----------------- Bizarre Police Reports -----------------+  

In Detroit, Oregon, a hunter thought he had found a severed human head in an abandoned mining shed and called the police. Deputy Larry Taylor realized it was just the head of a mannequin when he noticed a price sticker on the forehead.  
  
A California officer charged the driver of a white Mazda with DUI after driving down Pacific Coast Highway with the upper half of a traffic light pole laying across its hood. When Fonteno asked the drunk driver about the pole, he responded: "It came with the car when I bought it."  
  
The driver of an armored truck in Edmonton, Alberta appeared to be signaling for help as he repeatedly swung his door open. After six police cruisers chased and stopped the truck, it turned out, the driver had simply tried to fan fresh air into the cabin after the other guard had passed gas.  
  
In Boynton, Florida, Michael Harrison and Kevin Carter were arrested and charged with armed robbery and murder in their attempt to raise money to attend the police academy.  

Stockholm, Sweden - Customs officers in Stockholm, Sweden arrested a woman who had tried to smuggle 75 live snakes in her bra. The officers became suspicious when they noticed how the woman kept scratching her chest.

yes!

don't you hate it when you're listening to the best new song on the radio and the dj doesn't tell you wat song it is or who sang it? well yes.com lets you scroll the playlists of any radio station within the last 24 hours hours. pretty awesome no? now if only their site name made more sense...

sunday

yesterday we went out for tsai's bday. we took her to lucielle's. which has great food. problem was tho, that since it was so freakin hot no one was hungry. i barely ate at all. well. i also had two big breakfasts (db was cancelled cause of the storm so we went to denny's). anyway. ting bought a mint n chip ice cream cake which was really yum. but we think that they put it in the fridge and not freezer, so by the time we got it, it was already melting a bit. ...actually the whole experience at luceille's yesterday was a bit weird. the servers... anyway. after that we went back to tsai's and talked for a bit. came back early tho. cause people had to drive to irvine or la.

when i got back home tho, all the lights inside were off. so i thought they were all upstairs asleep. i had some leftovers to put it the fridge so i was walking by the sofas when my mom say 'stephanie ah'. scared the living daylights outta me! i screamed and nearly dropped my food! oish! appt it was too hot to sleep upstairs and she didn't want me to put on the alarm while she was down there so she said my name. ...

factual

+----------------- Bizarre Science Trivia -----------------+  

A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense heat.  

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.  

Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.  

An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long.  

Natural gas has no odor. The smell is added artificially so that leaks can be detected.  

Sea water, loaded with mineral salts, weighs about a pound and a half more per cubit foot than fresh water at the same temperature.  

The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminum.

The Chinese were using aluminum to make things as early as 300 AD Western civilization didn't rediscover aluminum until 1827.  

The largest hailstone ever recorded was 17.5 inches in diameter - bigger than a basketball.

romance

CORPUS CHRISTI - Police in two Texas cities are looking for a man who apparently severed his own finger and mailed it to his ex-girlfriend along with a letter. An unidentified 32-year-old woman in Corpus Christi called police Friday when the grisly package arrived. The only details of the letter police released was the phrase: "This is the last chance to touch you," the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Tuesday. Investigators said the finger was cut cleanly and appeared to have been washed. There were also some threats, which relate to a previous incident of family violence earlier this month between the couple, police said.

 

PROVIDENCE - A former handy-man has won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that has given him a 10-year erection. Charles Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it. But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment."

 

BEIJING - A woman in has been charged with accidentally killing her husband with a sword after he refused to make her dinner, the Shanghai Daily reported.   Police said Tang Xiaowan, 25, who has been practicing swordsmanship since she was young, had often forced her husband of three years at swordpoint to carry out her demands. Her husband, Li Weidong, refused to cook dinner because he was late for work. Police said Tang picked up her sword and put it on Li's chest when she apparently slipped, stabbing Li by mistake. Li died in the hospital from loss of blood.  

NEW DELHI - Husbands in India have found a new way to make some extra cash - they rent out their wives to other men. Atta Prajapati rents out his wife Laxmi to a landowner for $175 US a month. She is expected to live with the man, look after him and his house, and even have sex with him. The Times of India reports that several men rent their wives to other men on a month-by-month basis. These husbands are cashing in on the shortage of single woman in India, caused by the fact that many parents abort female fetuses, preferring sonsto daughters. The reason for this is because a daughter's parents usually have to pay the groom's family a  dowry, which is often a big financial burden. 

deep

Amin Maalouf - Ports of Call

"Those who speak too loudly make it impossible for themselves to act." (p59)

hot as...

holy moly poopie pie it is hot as hell!! today i went to our db car wash from nearly 10am to sometime after 2.30pm. guess how much money we made? like $260some! yay! i think people felt bad for us, being outside in that sort of heat. oish. but this was good. our competition fee was $250 so this covered it all! yay! oh, btw, thanks to robert, who doesn't even row wit us anymore, for coming out and helping all day. and esp thanks to ting who showed up, got her car washed, and stayed on further to wash other people's cars!! wowie! btw, we washed a porche today? homie donated $20, thanks guy!

bitch slap

well well! themintpages sends out these email notices each time someone comments on your review. and normally it's just spam comments, but occasionally you do get a real one. so today i go check a review and this is what i found: "I love this eyeshadow I wouldn't use anything else i guess you just have to know how to put make up on" ... ... . . . yeah. subtle dig eh? i wonder wat i ever did to this girl? oh, and btw, i do kno how to put on makeup. i also kno how to use punctuation (spelling is a different matter but anyway...)

walking stick

 holy moly it's been a long time since i've updated here. i don't really have any 'amusing' news tho... just a rather gross one. look at the picture on the right. that's keira knightly. look at how freaking skinny she is! i mean, how can anyone who weighs that little think they look good? that's just nuts. and i've never really payed attention to posture or anything, but after looking at this picture imma make sure to start standing up straight.

catch up

have been busy lately wit db stuff. beach and pool practices, meetings, paperwork, tshirts. here's a link to the graphics on our shirts (altho we're not going wit this company). also, somewhat strangely (i think at least) we're getting sleeveless shirts. ash grey muscle tees, to be exact. i think some people aren't gonna like that they're sleeveless. i mean, i'm happy wit it; i always roll up my sleeves anyway. but eh. watever. oh, that design btw. tom works for paul frank. not the retail store. he does computer stuff for them. so he asked a guy to come up wit something and this is wat he did. pretty nice huh? we had a couple other designs which the team voted for but this one was by far the winner. of the other shirts, one was a bit ugly, another uninspired, and another was just okay. that one reminded me of the top of a boba cup tho. the circularness. anyway.

in other news, i've been reading quite a bit more than usual. oh! on monday buena park library guild bookstore had a buy one get one free sale. i was ecstatic! hehe! i am sad tho, cause i didn't wind up buying a couple books that i'm still thinking about. :( oh well.

happy belated 23rd bday tsai! (it was yesterday)

and if you've ever wanted to spice up your plain cheesecake, just add a bit of jam or jelly. so much more yum!

quotations

Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

"One Christmas we received gifts from our mother and father, who lived separately in a heaven called California, where we were told they could have all the oranges they could eat. And the sun shone all the time." (p 42)

"Bailey and Mother encouraged me to take dance, and he privately told me that the exercise would make my legs big and widen my hips. I needed no greater inducement." (p 184)

"I wanted to be a woman, but that seemed to me to be a world to which I was to be eternally refused entrance. What I needed was a boyfriend. A boyfriend would clarify my position to the world and, even more important, to myself. A boyfriend's acceptance of me would guide me into that strange and exotic land of frills and femininity." (p 238)

word

right & wrong

i got an email from i-to-i (the org i did my teaching in china trip thing wit) about how thailand is desperate for english teachers. it's for an 11 month contract starting august. .. i want to go. .. i have this problem. i like to run away from things instead of confronting them head on. right now i feel like going to thailand. or really, anywhere but here. i'm tired of immature relationships and trying to keep the peace. cause really, where's my peice?

human relations are hard. today i was in a bank and there was this child. quite young. could walk but not really talk. anyway, it kept looking at me (i've heard that even children spend more time focusing on good looking things than regular or ugly things. haha). but i just wasn't in the mood to humor it. so i ignored it and kept reading. it drooled on the table. disgusting. but my book was really good. sometimes i think it would fun to just buck all conventions. do exactly as i please.

there was a studyon polite cities mentioned in the chinese edition of the current reader's digest. they went to the most populated city of many counties and did stuff, i dunno. anyway. ny is #1. bombay is #40, last. asian countries did not fair well in relation to western counties. this 'study' pisses me off. wat makes you think that you're right in your standards of politeness? in the article, they complained that in asian counties people just crowd up against you. cause asians don't care much about personal space. but westerners value their personal space and don't like it when strangers get too close. but in japan, people don't directly say no. they think that's rude. they might not like your idea but they won't tell you flat out that they think it's a bad one. and really, isn't that sorta more polite than the american sense of 'just say no'? talk about ethnocentricy...

update

so my back is better. yay! it was stupid tho. after i came back from practice that day i told my dad about my back pain and how i couldn't row and i wasn't going out wit the girls cause i thought i should rest. a few hours later my dad reminds me that i should wash his car. ...uh, yeah. anyway. i was gonna wash it today but my mom took it out, so i washed hers and mine instead. i'll do his romrow.

my job search is not doing so well. bah. altho harry called me tonight and asked if i could go over a couple times a week and help out his brother, felix. of course i said yes! problem is tho, his brother has a bit of a hearing problem (he has to wear a hearing aid), which in itself isn't a problem, except that i don't think he can hear my voice very well. i think my register is too high or something. i used to call his house, to speak to harry, and felix would pick up and end up hanging up on me because he thought there was no one on the line, even tho the whole time i saying hello and can i talk to your brother and stuff. yeah. so hopefully we'll find a way around this. i'll try to speak in a lower tone and maybe this will do something? also, maybe you can help me a bit. his mom wants him to practice speaking (cause he's shy and doesn't make many friends). so i was thinking i'd go to the library and pick up play scripts for kids and we can do that out loud. not, like, act. but read. play parts. i think that'll be more exciting than just talking you kno? but if you have any suggestions on wat to do, please comment. :) thanks!

infiniti

i had heard about this on kroq too, but ting sent me this link as well: one red paperclip. it's about a guy who traded a paperclip for some stuff and traded that for some stuff and eventually traded for a house. pretty amazing huh?

rip off

holy shit ticketmaster is expensive! so i ordered four tickets at $27.50 each. and the final price was $158.25. so a whopping $48.25 was tagged on in fees and stuff. ...wtf? that's more than one whole other ticket! jesus.... oh, btw, i bought tickets for lion king on jan 6th of next year. but seriously. wtf? and you kno they have like a monopoly on online ticket sales. so basically, unless i were to drive up to hollywood (and i'm not even sure they sell them at their box office this far in advance), i'm forced to buy thru ticketmaster. wtf? jesus... for that daphne loves derby concert thank god reepal was able to get to pomona to buy those tickets for way cheaper. =\ grr...

heavenly

bertand smith's acres of books. fieldtrip anyone?

together

why do people get into the relationships they do? a guy i kno is dating a much older woman (10+ years). he's quite inexperienced in women. and from her background, i'd say she's probably more experienced than most. but appt they're together. now, i can understand why he's wit her. he doesn't really kno any better. and she's his 'type' anyway. but why is a mid 30yo dating a rather immature mid 20yo? maybe i'm just cynical but i'm thinking she wants something of him...

another guy i kno is in a relationship wit a girl who is nearly 5 years younger than him. me and other friends have been observing thier interactions wit each other and we've come to the conclusion that he doesn't even like her anymore. and yet they're still together too.

yet another guy i kno is appt breaking up wit his girlfriend of about 10 months. they've been living together since january i think. and they had even seriously talked about eloping. but she's sorta crazy. and she has put him thru all sorts of hell. however, he's talked about ending things before, to no avail, but hopefully this time he'll get out of it.

but in good news, another friend of mine has recently gotten back together wit a girl he previously dated. unfortunately, before, their relationship had ended rather badly, but they've decided to give it another go. so, good luck homie! :)

btw, did you ever notice that the word 'together' is actually 'to get her'? interesting, no?

elderly

oh dear. my back has been hurting the last couple days. i dunno from wat tho. and i can't remember when it started hurting. but it was at least friday night. then yesterday after i came back from la / monterey park i helped my dad wit some yard work. and even tho my back was hurting then i felt bad for him, you kno? so i helped out for the next couple hours. after that i took a tylenol before i went out wit the girls. and my back was hurting quite a bit then, but really only when i moved. then this morning i went to db. the first hour i just called so it wasn't so bad. but then i tried rowing for the next hour and i seriously just couldn't. and now. i'm f*cked. it just hurts. even as i'm sitting still. nice huh? and like... it helps when i massage or punch it. but i think maybe i've done that so much that now i'm also maybe a little bruised there? cause now whenever i put my hand there, it hurts. ...lol. so uh... yeah. i hope it goes away before next sunday. cause geez, we only have like two practices left before competition. oish.

hyper

+---------------- Bizarre Coffee Facts --------------------+  

Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a cure for scurvy, gout and other ills.  

In Italy, espresso is considered so essential to daily life that the price is regulated by the government.  

In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family's pot filled with coffee.  

Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can kill the average human.  

Milk as an additive to coffee became popular in the 1680's, when a French physician recommended that cafe au lait be used for medicinal purposes.  

Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.  

The average cup of coffee contains more than 1000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavor.  

Until the 18th century coffee was almost always boiled.  

When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit.

obedience school

"How To Train A Woman" by Maureen Dowd
The New York Times, July 5, 2006

...Amy Sutherland struck a chord with her recent Times essay -- still high on the most e-mailed list -- about how she successfully applied the techniques of exotic animal trainers to change some annoying traits of her husband, Scott...

''The central lesson I learned from exotic animal trainers is that I should reward behavior I like and ignore behavior I don't,'' she wrote. ''After all, you don't get a sea lion to balance a ball on the end of its nose by nagging.''

She began using ''approximations,'' which means rewarding the small steps toward learning a whole new behavior. ''With the baboon you first reward a hop, then a bigger hop, then an even bigger hop,'' she wrote. ''With Scott the husband, I began to praise every small act every time: if he drove just a mile an hour slower, tossed one pair of shorts into the hamper, or was on time for anything.''

She also learned the concept of ''incompatible behavior,'' training an animal in a new behavior that would make the annoying behavior impossible. To keep Scott from crowding her while she cooked, she set a bowl of chips and salsa across the room...

Helen Fisher, a Rutgers anthropologist and the author of ''Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love,'' speculated that it might be easier for men to train women because ''women are better at reading the emotions in your voice, better at seeing things in their peripheral vision, better at seeing in the dark. So just the man's tone of voice as opposed to even the words could be rewarding.''

Both sexes would be better off following the lead of animal trainers and ignoring irritating bad behavior.

''Women are more verbal,'' she said. ''But that doesn't mean that men aren't manipulative. I think both sexes are busy manipulating each other. Women will nag and men will tease. There's a kind of teasing that's just cloaked nagging.''

She observed that it may be hard for men to use compliments to alter female behavior because women give and get so many polite or insincere compliments from other women that they're immune to flattering words.

''Men and women tend to get intimacy differently,'' she explained. ''Women get intimacy from face-to-face contact. We do what we call the anchoring gaze. It comes from millions of years of holding your baby in front of your face. Men tend to get intimacy by doing things side by side, because for millions of years they faced their enemy but sat side by side with their friends.

'If I were a man rewarding a woman, I'd do it in the format women find intimate, which is face to face. I'd go straight up to her, while she was doing the dishes, I'd turn her around face to face, and I'd say: 'Thanks so much for being on time last night. It meant a lot to me.' '' (You might also tell her that you will not only finish the dishes, but that you want to finish the dishes.)

Training your mate may be essential in an era when everybody is more connected and yet less. A new study in the American Sociological Review suggests that Americans may be getting lonelier and more isolated, with people relying more on family and making fewer close friends and confidants from clubs and the neighborhood than they did 20 years ago. So if they lose a spouse or partner, their whole social safety net can disintegrate...

celebs

celebdaq. it's a little bit like trading stocks and a little fantasy league. weird huh? the amount of time people have on their hands these days...

and david hasselhoff must be really stupid. or really really tall. cause otherwise i just can't explain how he manged to to hit a chandelier while showering...

mirror, mirror

so if i've been asking you 'a lot' recently if you like me or not. rather than getting snappish and telling me that i'm annoying you, why not try to figure out why i'm feeling this way? could it possibly be something you're doing (or not doing)?

i dislike people who don't engage in constant self-examination. yes, it is much easier to blame others, esp for problems you are took lazy to figure out. but that doesn't really accomplish anything now does it? rather than pointing fingers at others for wat could possibly could be your mistake, why not look to yourself first and see if maybe you did anything wrong. and if so, why not try to fix that?

if you are constantly thinking that others are doing things wrong or find that you often disagree wit others on how to do something, then maybe you should realize that the world isn't filled wit as many idiots are you think. maybe you're that idiot.

that's hot

such a pretty necklace from castaway jewelry. it's like the perfect summer necklace.

re-white

+- Bizarre Facts About the Original Version of Snow White -+  

The Grimm fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is much different from the Disney version. Here are some examples of how the tale was different:  

The Queen doesn't ask for Snow White's heart - she wants the princess's lungs and liver. When the hunter brings her the boar's innards, the Queen - thinking they're Snow White's - has them boiled in salt and eats them.  

In the original story, the Queen tries to kill Snow White three times. The first two attempts fail. Since the Queen uses the same disguise all three times, we have to assume Snow White is a little short in the brains department.  

The dwarfs - who don't have cute names - do put Snow White in a glass coffin. But the Prince doesn't wake her with a kiss. In fact, kissing her never enters his mind. He just thinks she's pretty (albeit dead), and wants to keep her around his castle.  

On the way back to the castle, servants carrying the casket trip and drop it. This dislodges the poison apple from Snow White's throat and she's revived.  

In this tale, the Queen makes it back to her castle after apparently killing Snow White. A little later, she's invited to a wedding. The wedding, it turns out, is Snow White's. When the Queen arrives, Snow and the Prince have a pair of red-hot iron shoes waiting in the fireplace. The Queen is forced to wear the shoes and dance until she drops dead.  

[From Uncle John's 4-Ply Bathroom Reader]

celebrate!

so last night we had a family bbq which was pretty good. we had baby back ribs and korean bbq. so yummy! and afterwards we had two different kinds of 'cake'. the quotes are because one of the cakes was cheesecake. lanny's kids came over and they were hilarious. they kept sucking on and throwing some lemons that they found in our backyard (fallen from our back neighbor's tree) and they wanted to eat it. lanny told them that no, the couldn't. but they really really wanted to so she peeled one and gave them each a little bit and you should've seen the look on their faces!

later on i went to jose's house for a fireworks 'extravaganza' lol. and while i was there i got hit wit a firework thing! jon had launched something up and i was looking out at his neighbor's stuff and something came down and hit me in the right arm. then it bounced off and hit me in the left arm. oy! i got burned a bit (holli had me put on some mustard which she said would help it no longer burn [i don't think it really worked...]). looking at my arm today, it's a little swollen and i have this funny circular burn. but my arm actually hurts a bit too. the thing that hit me fell from pretty high up so... i dunno. you can't see a bruise or anything but i'm pretty sure i have one. but anyway. later on a firework tipped over and it shot out and hit jose's brother in the ass! it was really scary but also pretty funny. lol. later he showed us his shorts and there were three burn holes. oish! he said that he was okay tho. altho i'm thinking that he'll also be a little sore for a while. bleh. but anyway. all in all i had a pretty great july 4th. :)

geo

+--------------- Bizarre Geography Trivia -----------------+  

About one-tenth of the earth's surface is permanently covered with ice.  

According to National Geographic, Mt. Everest grows about 4 millimeters a year: the two tectonic plates of Asia and India, which collided millions of years ago to form the Himalayas, continue to press against each other, causing the Himalyan peaks to grow slightly each year.  

All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official.  

At 840,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world. It is three times the size of Texas. By comparison, Iceland is only 39,800 square miles.  

Disney World in Orlando, Florida covers 30,500 acres (46 square miles), making it twice the size of the island of Manhattan, New York.  

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.  

Europe has no deserts - it is the only continent without one.  

Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city in the US to put fluoride in their water.  

St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in the US.  

The border between Canada and the U.S. is the world's longest frontier. It stretches 3,987 miles (6,416 km).  

[www.corsinet.com]

doh!

"I read the most illuminating article the other day. An audit has just been published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency which revealed some rather creative expenditures of federal relief dollars. And as we all know, when we say 'federal' dollars we're really talking about your dollars.  
  
"FEMA was hoodwinked into paying for season football tickets, a tropical vacation, a divorce and a sex change operation, among other things, by not so scrupulous victims of last year's hurricanes. And sometimes it wasn't even disaster victims who have been stealing your money. Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster relief  agency.  
  
"The audit concluded that up to $1.4 billion - perhaps as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in assistance expended after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita - was spent for bogus reasons. How big of a bureaucracy do you have to have before $1.4 billion slips through the cracks?  
  
"Well, in case you have felt like you haven't done enough for those who are less fortunate than you did recently, you can take comfort in the fact that the homeless from New Orleans and Mississippi have enjoyed, at your expense, an all-inclusive, Caribbean vacation, season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games, Adult erotica products in Houston and "Girls Gone Wild" videos in Santa Monica and Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio."