Rita now strikes. And boy, does it ever strike close. As of this writing, the winds are picking up and the rain has begun. The only thing I am concerned about by this point is the loss of power. What will I do without my precious connection with the rest of the world?

I should write about lots of things but meh... you know me -- LAZY.

It was nice knowing you. The Big Easy is now the Big Toxic Soup Bowl. Katrina has beaten down on you and turned you hideous, not that you were too lovely before -- but you had appeal.

A snippit of how marvelous the site would be:

"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win."

All hail our new Overlords -- the fire ant.

What's happening today? This is an excercise in muscle relaxation. By continuously keeping my finger moving I am working the muscles in my arms ever so slightly in order to keep them loose and from clinching up anymore. As for my back and legs, my typing skills with those parts of my body are not quite as accurate.

The shuttle launches in about half an hour. This is a good thing. Hooray space.

Man who run in front of car get tired. Man who run behind car get exhausted.

Foolish man give wife grand piano, wise man give wife upright organ.

Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.

Man with one chopstick go hungry.

Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails.

Man who eat many prunes get good run for money.

Baseball is wrong: man with four balls cannot walk.

Panties not best thing on earth! but next to best thing on earth.

War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.

Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.

Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.

It take many nails to build crib, but one screw to fill it.

Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.

Man who stand on toilet is high on pot.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.

Man who fart in church sit in own pew.

Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

What is one to do when moved into a new office? Have a bit of nostalgia of course. What's a better piece of history than the lovely bricks known to us all as Legos. These things filled many hours of my life with fun and creativity. Now they're filling people's wallets with profit. Check out this auction for ONE mask for a figurine.

Other bits of Lego lore is this amazing site of real castles created from plastic bricks. Pwnage! My personal fav is the Conway Castle. An amazing piece of puzzle work and planning. Enjoy your past, love toys!

FYI, the pirate set was always my favorite. Owned about 90-95% of all the set from '91-'95 ever made.

So, it's Tuesday, but it's like it's Monday. Day after holidays just delay the worst day of the week. So, what do we find ourselves with on this start of the week? Crazy cop activity for starters. Cutting in line will get you a good few hours in the pokey where you and 19 others can suffocate in your little box.

What other events are there? I have advice for you all. When cleaning your room, please remember to remove all sharp objects out of your bed when done. Yours truly happened to have left a sword laying in bed. Night time comes and low lights. Jump in bed, and what do you find right in front of you? A shiny piece of metal trying to whack you. Luckily no appendages were removed and my skin is in fair condition.

There may be other pieces of news out ther, or comments to make, but right now I have to go back to freezing my balls off. Or rather, I'm desperately hoping they thaw out before permanent damage is done. Was just pointed out to me that I should actually be hoping that my car is not stolen at this moment than worry about freezing testicles.

Had something else to write before this, but wasn't able to leave myself a note about it quick enough, so we'll go from there. Today was an odd start for a morning. Walked with an arrogance in my step. Thinking about the things I want in my materialistic schema -- the easy one to have.

Here's the things I'm starting with. Linky goodness provided!!

Would like a new daily driver -- Merc maybe?
New Phone. Razr sound good? (let's not forget the headset)
A little Bling for my fing in the shape of a ring.
Need to tell time right?
Pimp tight poker chips. Ok, no linky, too lazy.
And of course, pimping the Cruiser for the weekends:

Hood
Exhaust
Turbo (polished of course)
And a ton of other various things.

That's just a start of some of the things I desire. The list will no doubt grow over time, but this is a start. Depending on my summer expenditures, the phone and headset may be mine within a month or two. We shall see how things work out. Hell, who knows, I may go crazy and buy some of these things soon on a crazy whim... cuz that's what I do and all.

Something noteworthy occurred to me within the last 14 hours (not sure when during that time, just during that time). Today, right now in fact, is the last time I will be working this particular job. Sounds good huh? Well, come Monday, the new job begins and life as we know it changes. Not much really changes. Still going to be working for the same organization.

What does change then -- other than title and pay? Hours. I'm effectively doubling the amount of time spent on the job. A job that when hired, assumed wouldn't start until the beginning of next month. Yet, here I am, without my precious two weeks of freedom. Heading straight into the land of no time off. Good game American work force.

On to another matter at hand. Tiredness. My body is completely drained of all energy. Waking up in the mornings is now a struggle for survival. Menial tasks become more menial, and simplistic tasks become daily challenges. It's not a lack of sleep. Sleep does not change anything about this. Sort of relates as to why next week is not wise for me to begin my new job. *sigh* It will go away. Like everything else, this will go away.

The background: Jeff Van Gundy makes comments about officiating of Yao Ming. Gets fined 100Gs.

Friend was telling me this morn about the idea that it's probably not best for the commisioner of basketball to do anything too drastsic about this situation. Why? Let's see, Yao Ming equals the resurgence of interest into the NBA. Piss off the community that loves him, you piss off your fan base and your cash flow.

Let's also not forget that Yao Ming is OWNED by the Chinese government. A government not entirely happy with the American Dream you see. If Stern decides to "handle" the issue, what's not to say that China won't "handle" Stern?

David Stern is going to be the cause of the next awkward moment in global concerns. The last one was called the Cold War. This might be called the Stern Standoff.

In the end, David Stern needs to quit being a pompous jackass and look into the claims by much of the league with officiating. The day after Van Gundy's complaints, thousands were witness to probably the worst called game in basketball history.

Time again to plug the events of the world. Ok, so maybe not so much the world, but the close circle of people I associate with. Coming in July is Mike/Sara wedding. Details, go here.

The Jar is graduating, his party is coming up. Details here:

Graduation Party
May 14th, 2005
6:00 PM - Midnight or later
American Legion Hall
3720 Alba
Houston, Tx

Something about be there fuckers -- *shrug* I dunno, I only pass this stuff along.

For those of you that enjoy choir, good music, and/or old school video games, then this link is for you. It is a few minutes long, but the sound is amazing and I wouldn't mind listening to it over and over again. The acting is not really worth much, but some of the stuff is pretty funny if you remember 8-bit life. Mortal Kombat reference was a bit obscure and should be removed from it though.

Enjoy!

As a second note, those of you interested in the whereabouts and layout of Area 51, the great tool of Google's satellite mapping system has helped us. Moreso, a very interested Live Journal user was kind enough to do an extensive report on the area.

Really worth the read, but apparently now because of it, you are no longer able to zoom in as close as you could before on the maps. Not sure if that is just for this particular area, or all areas. I could see my swimming pool when I searched my place.

Enjoy some more!

Too much global drama in the world the last couple of weeks. Let's take some time to enjoy ourselves in the best possible way. Typically that includes poking fun at some disadvantaged citizen, and why should that be any different today?

Like this guy for example. Sent to a Chinese prison to be beaten and who knows what else? Why? Because they said he murdered his wife. Truth of the story? His wife left him, and then found another man. Now if that's murder... damn, we're all in a heap of trouble. Of course, the fact that the dude's name was She probably doesn't help things.

Also, our good friends over at Google decided that for the one year anniversary of gmail, they would up the amount of storage space to 2 Gigabytes!! Doubling the already large amount of space. Actually, it's a continuously running count of increased space. Originally thought this was an April Fool's joke on us all, but no, my mailbox space keeps growing. Other nifty features in the works are the removal of file limit size in messaages. Yay! (Pretty sure gmail is now available for all to get, but if you would like an account let me know)