30 June 2006

HAVING A BAD DAY OR "JUST PLAIN UNLUCKY"?

Another joke for today:

Check these out.... these are actual cases. When you think that things are not going your way... it could be worse.

Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and face mask.


A postmortem test revealed that the man died not from burns, but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive identification. Investigators then set about to determine how a fully clothed diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire.


It was revealed that on the day of the fire, the man went diving off the coast, some 20 miles from the forest. The fire fighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, had called in a fleet of helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and emptied at the site of the forest fire.


You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next, he was doing the breast stroke in a fire dip bucket 300 feet in the air. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

___________________________________________

Still think you're having a bad day?


A man was working on his motorcycle on the patio, his wife nearby in the kitchen. While racing the engine, the motorcycle accidentally slipped into gear. The man, still holding onto the handlebars, was dragged along as it burst through the glass patio doors.


His wife, hearing the crash, ran in the room to find her husband cut and bleeding, the motorcycle, and the shattered patio door. She called for an ambulance and, because the house sat on a fairly large hill, went down the several flights of stairs to meet the paramedics and escort them to her husband.


While the attendants were loading her husband, the wife managed to right the motorcycle and push it outside. She also quickly blotted up the spilled gasoline with some paper towels and tossed them into the toilet.


After being treated and released, the man returned home, looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle. He went into the bathroom and consoled himself with a cigarette while attending to his business. About to stand, he flipped the butt between his legs.


The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming. Finding him lying on the bathroom floor with his trousers blown away and burns on his buttocks, legs and groin, she once again phoned for an ambulance. The same paramedic crew was dispatched.


As the paramedics carried the man down the stairs to the ambulance they asked the wife how he had come to burn himself. She told them. They started laughing so hard, one slipped, the stretcher and dumping the husband out. He fell down the remaining stairs, breaking his arm.

______________________________________________

Still having a bad day? Just remember, it could be worse...

The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were being released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.

_____________________________________________

Still think you are having a bad day?

A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she chopped him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that moment, he had been happily listening to his Walkman.

_______________________________________________

STILL think you're having a bad day?

Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn, Germany. Suddenly, all two thousand pigs broke loose and escaped through a broken fence, stampeding madly The two hopeless protesters were trampled to death.

____________________________________________

What?! STILL having a bad day??

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits. There now, feeling better?

AL-GEBRA TERRORIST GROUP NOTED IN CANADA

A joke I read today:
This is a very serious threat, particularly for young people. Please take extra precautions in your lives. Please also share this important information with your friends, so that no harm comes to them too.

At Toronto's Pearson airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, and a calculator. Justice Minister Ann McLelland believes the man is a member of the notorious al-gebra movement. He is being charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.

Al-gebra is a very fearsome cult, indeed. They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on a tangent in a search of absolute value. They consist of quite shadowy figures, with names like "x" and "y", and, although they are frequently referred to as "unknowns", we know they really belong to a common denominator and are part of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the great Greek philanderer isosceles used to say, there are 3 sides to every angle, and if God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes.

Therefore, I'm extremely grateful that our government has given us a sine that it is intent on protracting us from these math-dogs who are so willing to disintegrate us with calculus disregard. These statistic bastards love to inflict plane on every sphere of influence.

Under the circumferences, it's time we differentiated their root, made our point, and drew the line. These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimal everything in their math on a scalene never before seen unless we become exponents of a Higher Power and begin to factor-in random facts of vertex. As an American President would say, Read my ellipse.

Here is one principle he is uncertainty of---though they continue to multiply, their days are numbered and the hypotenuse will tighten around their necks.

27 June 2006

Civil Engineers and the Interstate System

I have been reading about the design/construction of the interstate system back in the 50s and 60s in my recent copy of Civil Engineering magazine. I won't bore anyone with any details but I am going to share a few lines from the article (I believe some of you will find them entertaining).

...during the first ten years of interstate construction - the period from 1956 to 1966 that McNichol dubs the interstate decade - civil engineers became genuine road warriors, battling the earth itself to put down mile after mile of modern superhighways on which most of the public could hardly wait to drive.

...the interstate engineers were armed with giant new construction equipment in the 1950s and 1960s that enabled them to put roads where they pleased. In Divided Highways, Lewis writes: "Many reveled in the sheer joy of building without attention to the consequences.... Should a mountain prove too high, just blast the top off or tunnel through. Should a ravine prove too deep, just fill it with stone and dirt. No river, lake, or arm of the ocean should be too wide or too deep for a bridge or causeway."

The power that highway engineers wielded during the 1950s and early 1960s helped produce what Lewis has labeled engineering hubris - the best or worst example of which is probably the proposal from the early 1960s to use atomic bombs to blast away part of the Bristol Mountains in Southern California to make way for a section of I-40. Lewis notes that the plan was approved by both California's highway department and the Atomic Energy Commission, which was eager to find peaceful uses for atomic energy. Ultimately, though, the idea was dropped - not for any of the reasons that might seem logical today but mainly because no one knew how long the radiation levels would remain too high in the blast area for road construction to resume...

26 June 2006

Youtube.com

As I was browsing the ESPN website I came across the second page... the writer talks about some of his favorite video clips on youtube.com. Well, I am going to provide a few of my favorites:

Paradise

Panthers 2003 Season to ACDC


Boys from the South

25 June 2006

10 points, 10 minutes

I play alot of Sea3D games. I have seen alot of different strategies. As with any activity
, I feel that I have become better through all of my games, wins and losses. I had one of my worst games ever though just a few days ago. I only scored 4 or 5 points!

But from that loss, I have emerged. In the last two days, two games I have played went remarkably quick. The first lasted into the 11th round but was completed in under 10 minutes!I know what you are thinking, that was only a three player game. Three player games are known for being fast paced. But I give you another:

It took me 8 turns and just over 10 minutes to win this 4 player game! I was impressed. But as with any settlers game, luck was a factor. Who knows maybe I' score only 4 points in my next game? But I know that I really enjoy scoring 10 points in approximately 10 minutes ;)

24 June 2006

Diverging Diamond

The Missouri DOT will be building the first diverging diamond interchange in the United States in 2007.

Currently, a typical diamond interchange exists where Front Street in Kansas City, MO passes under Interstate 435.

The existing configuration can be seen to the right and below. From a pdf of traffic volumes, I found out that the Average Annual Daily Traffic (ADT) is 80,400 vehicles/day and the Daily Hourl Volume (DHV) is 9299 vehicles/hour on Interstate 435.

One of the major selling points of the diverging diamond interchange is the elimination of the left turn conflict at the the ramp terminals. Without the conflict delay is dropped and the level of service of the intersection(s) will improve.

The reason that MODOT chose this type of interchange over a single point is that the existing bridges do not need to be replaced or widened. A singled point interchange would have cost approximately $11 million, while the diverging diamond is estimated to cost $6 million! Nearly half the price!


The downside to a diverging diamond is that the traveling public may find it confusing. Between the ramp terminals, cars travel on the left side of the road. Good signing and striping should show the traveling public how to drive a diverging diamond interchange. Americans are becoming accustomed to roundabouts and single point interchanges and concerns about confused drivers were washed away after proper signing and striping explained the situation.

To the right is an example of a diverging diamond interchange. This particular design was rejected in Ohio.





And to the left is a sketch I made of a diverging diamond interchange at Front St and I-435 in KC. This is just a rough (very, very rough) sketch. I have no idea how the one designed by MODOT will look, but this should provide a general shape and configuration.

I have found a blog that opposed this interchange concept: http://blogs.kansascity.com/.
I read with horror the Missouri Department of Transportation’s newest plan to maim and kill our inattentive, inexperienced and out-of-town motorists, along with anyone else who is in their way
Like I said, proper signing and striping will make this interchange work. The intersections are not all that different from a single point interchange intersection. This will make the Front Street interchange safer, because it will eliminate the left turn conflicts, decrease delay, increase level of service... overall providing better flow and eliminating traffic congestion.

The only thing gained by this “diverging diamond” interchange is the reduction of a handful of stop lights. This cost savings will be more than offset by the first liability lawsuit for wrongful death or personal injury due to this faulty design.

In your article about the proposed interchange at Front Street and Interstate 435, Susan McCubbins of the Missouri Department of Transportation said, “As long as they are paying attention, they should be OK.”

Ms. McCubbins, all I can say is, you are making a really large assumption about the driving habits of Kansas City drivers.

Saving $5 million dollars is a huge gain. With properly designed curves, supers, and sight distance and adequate signs and striping, a wrongful death suit will fall on deaf ears. Kansas City drivers have adapted to roundabouts, why cant't they adapt to a diverging diamond interchange? People are initially afraid of new/different road scenarios, but get over their fear once they realize the increase in effciency.

A large assumption about the driving habits of KC drivers? What, do most KC drivers ignore signs, signals, and stripes along/on the road? I doubt it.

I applaud the MODOT and their consultant, the KC office of Wilson and Company, for thinking outside the box to solve a problem at half the cost of a conventional solution.

23 June 2006

Nude In A Cubicle?

As I was browsing the forum at www.panthershuddle.com, I found a link to a song I found kindof funny. And here it is. I also did a little googling and came up with the lyrics:
“My Cubicle”
By: Matt Wall (?)
Parody on “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt

My job is stupid my day’s a bore,
Inside this office from eight to four
Nothin’ ever happens my life is pretty bland,
Pretending that I’m working, pray I don’t get canned.

My Cubicle, My cubicle
It’s One of Sixty two
It’s my small space in a crowded place
Just a six-by-six board booth
And I hate it that’s the truth

When I give a sigh as the boss walks by,
no one ever talks to me or looks me in the eye.
And I really should work but instead I just sit here and surf the Internet.

In My Cubicle, My cubicle
It doesn’t have a view.
It’s my small space in a crowded place
I sit in side there too.
And sometimes I sit here nude.

I have to admit that I do not share the same thoughts about my job or cubicle and that is not just because I am leaving the WSDOT in about a week ;) Maybe it is because my cubicle is 6' x 8'... Or just that I have learned that I chose the right profession, I love being a civil engineer!

21 June 2006

Down With Taxes!

An excise first imposed in 1898 will be stricken from the books as of July 31st of this year! The tax began as a source of funding for the Spanish American War and charged a 3% tax on long distance phone calls based upon distance (miles) not minutes (as calls a currently measured in)!

The tax has been charged to both cell phone users and landline long distance users (I am not sure about VOIP), so expect a little extra in your tax refund next year... or less to pay in if you are so unlucky.

For more information:
IRS
WebCPA

20 June 2006

Filling Up the Internet!

I have stepped my conquest to fill the internet with useless facts up a notch. I have made a post/edit to the wikipedia! I was looking over a list of American football terms and thought of one that was omitted... so I added it.
end around
a play, often confused with a reverse, where the quarterback hands the ball off to a wide receiver . The receiver motions/moves into the backfield as the ball is snapped to take the handoff and runs around the opposite end from where he lined up.

19 June 2006

Nickname Results

Last week, I posted about a nickname contest on the Carolina Panthers website. Well, the results are in. Apparently, they received over 2500 nicknames from fans! I had 4 (bold and red) make the honorable mention list, but without further adieu, here is the list:

Ten runner ups...

"Now" Atiyyah "now I don't" Ellison (Clay Erps)
Michael Gaines "Trains and Automobiles" (Brock Gilliam)
Justin "Home is where the" Hartwig (Jon Hester)
Jovan Haye "Batter batter" (Matt Carioto)
Dave "For he's a jolly" Kadela (John Symons)
"I better not go to the" John Kasay "Makes it" (Stacey Mathis)
Stefan "the gas and put it on" LeFors (Jon Young)
Ken "Cool Hand" Lucas (Cliff Cassidy)
"Red rover red rover send" Stanley McClover (Bob Hylton)
Mike "Take it out" Seidman (Steve Stillwell)

Grand prize winner...

Sean "Cuckoo for cocoa" Tufts (Mark Schnably)

Honorable mention...

Keith "Grizzly" Adams

Lorenzo Alexander "The great"

James "Mister" Anderson

Jason "Butcher" Baker "and candlestick maker"
Jason Baker "Can't be choosers"
Jason "Studa" Baker

Brett "I caught you a delicious" Basanez
Brett "Put the baby in the" Basanez

Chad "Float like a butterfly, sting like a" Beasley
Chad "Killer" Beasley
Chad "Mrs." Beasley
Chad "Spelling" Beasley

David "Cyrano de" Bergeron
David "Put another" Bergeron "the grill"

Taye Biddle "Diddle"
Taye Biddle "Me this"
Taye "Malcolm in the" Biddle

Jovan "Mutiny on the" Bouknight

Colin "Executive" Branch
Colin "Olive" Branch
Colin "Main" Branch
Colin "Judicial" Branch
Colin "All cars" Branch

Jarrett "Dubya" Bush
Jarrett "Two in the" Bush

Rashad "I can't believe it's not" Butler
Rashad Butler "did it"

Jordan "Baby you can drive my" Carstens
Jordan "Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny" Carstens
Jordan "Dude, where's my" Carstens
Jordan "Picture on milk" Carstens

Drew "Golly/Shazam, Sergeant" Carter
Drew "Magna" Carter
Drew "Welcome Back" Carter

Marcus "King of his" Cassel
Marcus "Home is his" Cassel
Marcus "Sand" Cassel
Marcus "Windsor" Cassel
Marcus "Storm the" Cassel

Vinny "Chattanooga" Ciurciu
Vinny "Chugga chugga" Ciurciu
Vinny "Ah...ah..." Ciurciu
Vinny "Catholic" Ciurciu
"My cousin" Vinny Ciurciu

Keary "Nat King" Colbert
Keary "On my wayward sun" Colbert

Casey "Non-Dairy" Cramer
Casey "Cramer vs." Cramer
Casey "Cosmo" Cramer

Thomas "Crash" Davis
Thomas "The Train" Davis

Jake "Dude, you're gettin' a" Delhomme
Jake Delhomme Ranger

"Da song remains" DaShane Dennis

Na'il "Ain't just a river in Egypt" Diggs
Na'il "Check out my new" Diggs
Na'il "Nice" Diggs
Na'il Diggs "And Stratton

Chris "Ice Cold" Draft
Chris "99 cent" Draft

Atiyyah "The hun" Ellison
Atiyyah Ellison "Wonderland"

Seppo Evwaraye "But loose"

Todd "If you have to ask, you can't a" Fordham

DeShaun Foster "Australian for running back/touchdown/football"
DeShaun "32 ounce" Foster
DeShaun "Shank redemption" Foster

Michael "Capital" Gaines
Michael "Net" Gaines
Michael "X-yard" Gaines

Chris "High stakes" Gamble
Chris "I'm in no mood to" Gamble
Chris "Life is a" Gamble

Nick "Comings and" Goings
Nick "...the tough get" Goings
Nick Goings "Goings, Gone"
Nick Goings "Back to Cali"

Otis "Eleanor" Grigsby
Otis "My man" Grigsby
Otis "The Great" Grigsby

Jordan "By the" Gross
Jordan "That's just" Gross
Jordan "Where the green grass" Gross
Jordan Gross "Anatomy
Jordan Gross "National product"
Jordan Gross "Point Blank"

Geoff "The constant" Hangartner

Karl "Weird Al" Hankton "vich"

Jermaine "Laurel and" Hardy
Jermaine "Party" Hardy
Jermaine Hardy "Har Har"

Justin "Purple" Hartwig
Justin "Quit playin' games with my" Hartwig

Jovan "Musk" Haye

Alex "Wait till we get our" Haynes "on you"

Efrem "Zimbalist" Hill
Efrem "Boot/Hamburger/Strawberry" Hill

Brad "Powerful upright bagless" Hoover
Brad Hoover "Dam"

Lynzell "Action" Jackson
Lynzell Jackson "5"

Keyshawn "Truckin'" Johnson

Dave "Dude, you're gettin'" Kadela

John Kasay "and the Sunshine Band"
John Kasay "misses we'll still love him"

Maake "Waiki-" Kemoeatu

Jeff "Fit for a" King
Jeff "It's good to be" King
Jeff "Prom" King
Jeff King "Of the road"

Micah "Neither" Knorr

Stefan "May" Lefors "Be with you"
Stefan "Pedal to" LeFors
Stefan "That's what friends" LeFors

Ken "Skip to my" Lucas
Ken Lucas "Come out and play?"
Ken Lucas "I'm your father"
Ken Lucas "Membrane"
Ken Lucas "Skywalker"

Kris Mangum "P.I."
Kris ".357" Mangum
Kris ".44" Mangum
Kris Mangum "Force"
Kris Mangum "High"

Richard "U.S." Marshall

Evan "Do the" Mathis
Evan "Judge" Mathis
Evan "Praying" Mathis
Evan "What's my favorite subject?" Mathis

Kevin McCadam "And subtract 'em"

Stanley "Four-leaf" McClover
Stanley "50 ways to leave" McClover
Stanley "Crimson" McClover

"This" Justin McCullum
Justin McCullum "Like I see 'em"

Mike "Friend, role model and" Minter
Mike "Long, cold" Minter

"Steely" Dan Morgan
Dan "Captain" Morgan
Dan Morgan "Donor"
Dan Morgan "Meets the eye"
Dan Morgan "Mindy"

Sean "Father" Mulcahy

Adam O'Connor "Ye faithful"

Billy Parker "Out front/in the back/over there"

Jared "Hunt and" Peck

"Orange" Julius Peppers
Julius "Banana/Jalapeno/Habanero" Peppers
Julius "Caesar salad with" Peppers
Julius "Doctor" Peppers
Julius "Fresh ground" Peppers
Julius "Haussen" Peppers "Inc."
Julius "Red Hot Chili" Peppers
Julius "Salt and" Peppers
Julius "Sergeant" Peppers

Kyle "Look out, he's gonna" Ralph

Jamal "That" Robertson
Jamal "Veklempt" Robertson

Mike "I'm gonna git you" Rucker
Mike "Off his" Rucker

Nate "Mustang" Salley
Nate "Lay down" Salley
Nate "Long tall" Salley
Nate "When Harry Met" Salley

Chris Samp "emum"

Mike "Aluminum" Seidman
Mike "Simple" Seidman
Mike "Vinyl" Seidman
Mike "You wanna step out" Seidman

Adam "Alligators in the" Seward

Steve "Street and" Smith
Steve Smith "and Wesson"
Steve "John Jacob Jingleheimer" Smith
Steve Smith "sonian"

Adam "Fix me a bologna" Stenvich

Albert "Ingrown" Toeaina

Sean "Built Ford" Tufts
Sean "H.R." Tufts "nStuff"

Mike "Another Brick in the" Wahle
Mike "You need me on that" Wahle

Al "I am William" Wallace

Chris "Hostess" Weinke
Chris "Nudge nudge wink" Weinke
Chris "Rip Van" Weinke
Chris Weinke "Blinky and nod"

Travelle "Of course you realize this means" Wharton
Travelle Wharton "Hears a hoo"

Garnell "Girls Gone" Wilds

"Touched by" DeAngelo Williams

17 June 2006

More F.E.A.R Screen Caps

One thing I did learn from defeating fear is that the main character has mother issues... similar to Francis on the late show Malcolm In The Middle. Well, after defeating fear, I have decided to take it to another round/match.This time on the most difficult setting. As I have began to replay it I came across a few signs I missed the first time.
Trespassers will be prosecuted?! Oh oh... I better be careful not to get caught.
No firearms?! But those guys trying to kill me have guns! How am I supposed to fight back? I could use slo-mo and try to sneak up and punch/kick them, but that usually only works on 1 guy. The others catch on after that.

And the most vicious, cutthroat, evil enemy in the game: Alma. She appears to be a little girl early on, but she is (or should I say was?) a young woman.

16 June 2006

Swings and Signs

I was strolling... er... wandering through a local park in Yakima. Everything seemed typical/normal. A slide, a swingset, the usual playground equipment in a park. But notice the yellow sign next to the swingset below? I wondered, what could that sign be for?
So I got a closer look:Why would adult supervision be required for a swingset?! I can see the reason for any child under 6years old, but this sign seems to include all children. I find this to be a joke. I grew within a half block of an elementary school. From the time I was 7 or 8 years old, I would go over to the playground there alone or with other kids from my neighborhood.

There are alot of good places for a sign like this... a beach for instance. But America's children have been using swingsets unsupervised for years. I can only remember one abnormal story related to a child and a swingset. ;)

Time to take a page from a friend's pseudonym and end my rant ;)

15 June 2006

The End of Fear

Or at least the end of the PC game entitled F.E.A.R. I really enjoined this game. Now the story is way more complexed than your typical FPS (UT). It is probably more on the lines of AVP2 (another great game). I definetly recommend this game to everyone. And here is the ending screenshot for the game (before the credits roll).

FYI, the mushroom cloud is no big deal, but that girl clinging to the helicopter is... er you don't want to know ;) Anyone who does try this game, make sure you waqit through the credits, a bit more of the story is revealed after the credits finish.

14 June 2006

F.E.A.R. Screenshot

The PC game FEAR has cleared up alot up for me. So OSHA is wrong, safety is last ;)

13 June 2006

Google Earth

A new version of google earth (4.0) was released and it contains many new high res images... including some from my future home: Pierre, SD. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be any new ones for Yakima though.

Well, here is the new image of my future apartment building and workplace:

12 June 2006

Nicknames

Any football fan has heard some of the nicknames that Chris Berman gave players on ESPN's NFL Primetime highlight show on Sunday nights. A few examples:
  • Eric "Sleeping with" Bienemy
  • Tom "Here's a story of a man named" Brady
  • "Hey, you, get off of" Mike Cloud
  • A.J. "Touchy" Feely
  • Brett Favre "Egnoogen"
  • Jon Kitna "Kaboodle"
  • Amani "It's not a" Toomer
  • Vince Workman "My way back to you, babe"
Well, Panthers.com is having a contest for best Bermanesque nicknames for Panther's players. Current Panthers already with Berman nicknames are:
  • Jake "Daylight come and me wanna" Delhomme
  • DeShaun "Bananas" Foster
  • Mike "After Dinner" Minter
  • Chris Weinke “Dinky Dunky”
  • John Kasay “at the foot”
  • Brad Hoover “vacuums his way into the endzone”
Now, as a diehard panthers fan, I had to try to come up with some nicknames... and here they are:
  • “Scary” Keary Colbert
  • “My cousin” Vinny Ciurciu
  • Michael “capital” Gaines
  • Reggie Howard “Johnsons”
  • Jeff King “of the endzone”
  • Kris Mangum “P.I.”
  • Dan “the captain” Morgan
  • Julius Peppers “QB, mmm!”
  • Mike “QB Wrecker” Rucker
  • Adam “not a steward” Seward
  • Steve “where’d he go?” Smith

11 June 2006

Cobloggeration, it's gonna be a thing!

Wow! Urbandictionary.com accepted my definition submittal! Check it out, I know my example usage is kindof lame but my creativity is with video, not words ;)

09 June 2006

Luck For The Daring?

At least myself anyway...

Luck was with me today and not just because of my shirt or my goatee... as I exited my apartment this evening to procure some nourishment I caught a glimps of not one, but two rainbows in the sky.


Actually, I discovered that I will not have to take the tax hit whenever I decide to remove my funds from the Washington State retirement system... I can roll it over into an I.R.A.! I might even be able to take it directly into the SD system (I haven't checked on this yet).

...yeah, I know, must be a slow blog day ;)

08 June 2006

TV Shows I Like...

As many of you know, I take some enjoyment out of collecting tv shows. Between DVDs and recording the shows with my tv card I have managed to complete many former shows and stay up to date on many current shows.

Completed
  1. The Twilight Zone
  2. Farscape
  3. Firefly
  4. Malcolm In The Middle
  5. SeaQuest DSV/2032
  6. Futurama (unless rumors of it returning are true)
Up To Date
  1. Family Guy
  2. How I Met Your Mother
  3. Supernatural
  4. The Dead Zone
  5. The 4400
Impressive, huh? Thanks.

07 June 2006

Sasquatsch

The pacific northwest is known for it's sasquatch sitings, so what kindof Washingtonian would I be if I didn't find one before I left? Well, I'll never find out because while I was visting Mt Rainier on Saturday, I accidentally photographed one of these mysterious creatures as I tried to take my own picture ;)
But what about the wendigo... what am I going to do about him? Stay tuned...

06 June 2006

Mt Rainier

Last Saturday, I dared to leave Yakima and proceeded towards Mt. Rainier National Park. The route I took involved two different roads that only recently opened up for the summer: SR (state route) 123 and Stevens Canyon Road (a national forest service road).
The first thing to do when making this journey is to have the proper footwear:
WELLIES!

A typical view I had while traveling towards the park:
Just kidding, the roads weere actually remarkably clean and in great shape (surprisingly). This is a side road less than 1000 ft from the visitor center. Here is what civil engineers are capable of even in the middle of the Cascades:

Paradise is at 5400ft?! I always imagined a tropical beach... ;)Snow levels at Paradise:Paradise Valley... Paradise Valley Road can be seen at the opposite side.

And the beast itself... MT RAINIER!

05 June 2006

favorite fives... part 2 ;)

I love cobloggeration... favorite fives.
see.
1. Mt Rainier.
2. Missouri River.
3. La Framboise Island.
4. My family's dog, Scruffy.
5. My pickup after a wash.
smell.
1. Strawberries.
2. Fresh Roasted Coffee.
3. Lemons.
4. Air after a thunderstorm.
5. Fresh baked cookies.
taste.
1. Golden Phoenix General Chicken.
2. Golden Phoenix Mongolian Beef.
3. Lemons.
4. Irish Cream Latte.
5. Insanity Sauce.
hear.
1. Waves hitting a beach.
2. Gaelic Storm.
3. Fiddle.
4. Jessica Andrews.
5. Palmerton's fire alarm... I heard it so often I grew accustomed to it ;) LOL
feel.
1. A kayak paddle in my hands.
2. The fabled "COMFY CHAIR" (Request that Carbon Valley post a pic of it).
3. Polarfleece (winter only).
4. A football.
5. Cold water (don't ask).

As stated in the original post: what about you? I want to know. share some.

04 June 2006

More Screenshots

More screensots from the game, FEAR. Apparently, the game makers were fans of the movie Event Horizon (as am I).So that is where the janitor is hiding the cadavers...
Don't worry, I have already picked out my favorite Rainier pics to blog about... it will be soon ;)

03 June 2006

Screenshots

Well, I have continued to make progress in the strange world of a FEAR operative. As I sneaked around an empty research laboratory, I discovered this atrocity:
How can they leave this kind of mess right next to that sign?! Despicable. Then I found my self trapped in a cramped cubicle:
And in one particular cubicle in an office building I snuck into I found a lone cubicle containing a red swingline stapler! I now know what office I am occupying!
And now back to sorting through 234 jpegs of Mt Rainier...

02 June 2006

Games

Since leaving college my gaming days are well behind me, but I still manage to play a little from time to time. I am almost always willing to play a game of Sea3D and earlier this spring I picked up a copy of Madden 06 (PC version) to quench my football thirst (the arean and europe leagues don't cut it).

But today I bought the first new FPS I have played in a long time: FEAR. From the Sierra site:
F.E.A.R.™ (First Encounter Assault Recon) is an intense combat experience with rich atmosphere and a deeply intense paranormal storyline presented entirely in first person. Be the hero in your own spine-tingling epic of action, tension, and terror… and discover the true meaning of F.E.A.R.

An unidentified paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound, taking hostages but issuing no demands. A Special Forces team is sent in by the government to contain the situation, but contact is severed as an eerie signal interrupts radio communications. When the interference subsides moments later, the team has been obliterated. Live footage of the massacre shows an inexplicable wave of destruction tearing the soldiers apart before they can even react.

In light of the desperate situation the F.E.A.R. team is assembled. As part of this elite classified strike team created to deal with the most unusual and shocking of threats your mission is simple: Eliminate the intruders at any cost. Determine the origin of the signal. And contain this crisis before it spirals out of control.

  • Hyper-stylized combat for breathtaking cinematic quality action
  • Gripping supernatural storyline for spine-tingling intensity of play
  • Multi-player action with multiple gameplay modes and all single player capabilities
  • Advanced graphics and physics for visceral movie-like experience
  • Enemies with special abilities and A.I. so intuitive it’s like battling living, breathing players
So far it is a fun game, it has been very earier walking down corridors not lnowing what will popout at me! Actually, the AI is great. The enemy soldiers will hide and sporadically fire shots back at me or even send reinforcements to try to flank me. No rambo style, run into the room guns a blazin' here... no not like serious sam at all. IGN even gave it a favorable review.

I am not very far into the game, but there is one character that I keep bumping into that really freaks me out... kindof Conchita Campbell as a firestarter... enough said ;)

01 June 2006

Burn, Burn!

Where have I been? Well, myself and three others from my squad at work ventured out to Asotin, Washington for a field visit of a stretch of highway to be overlayed with 0.15ft of new asphalt. We were verifying permited access points, permited utilities, and the scope of the project. We also looked for safety issues that could be addressed in the project, for instance, rasing guardrail to an appropiate height and new guard rail to keep cars out of a drainage "hole." I believe we estimated that it was 10 feet deep.

We actually stayed in Clarkston, WA. Which is across the Snake River from Lewiston, ID. I wonder what these two towns were named after? ;) Actuall, they are just another set of twin cities. On the Idaho side, Hell's Gate can be found... er I mean Hell's Gate State Park. It is the entrance to Hell... er I mean Hell's Canyon, which apparently can only be entered by boat... sounds cool. Maybe I will return to this part of the nation for a vacation sometime...

Well, while I was away the mice did play! ;) I see that my spark of synergistic cobloggeration has began to spread into a whole forest fire/grass fire/sagebrush fire... does sagebrush burn? I suppose it is dry enough ;)