healthy -- yay!

i just ran across an interesting article -- the rankings of the health of all the counties in the country. my county is really healthy -- #6 of 39, my older son's is a touch less -- #12 of 39, and my younger son's is number one -- #1 of 32.

i need to get ready for work, but later i want to peruse this site more and see what exactly they're talking about. how healthy is your county?

short-sighted, greed- and ego-driven stupidity

honestly, you just have to shake your head when you read about nuclear power. obama is pushing for more nuclear plants in this country, calling them a necessity (2 new ones are soon going to be built in georgia) and yet acknowledging there are problems (e.g., storage and disposal of nuclear waste).

in light of the problems in japan the last x-days, there can't be any doubt that there are many problems with this technology. "we don't have a lot of experience with this," says one guy. well, duh. and yet, let's insist on going ahead with plans even though they have problems and are missing solutions. after all, we'll figure it out at some point, right? let's not count on it.

there's even an article which calculates the earthquake risk of u.s. plants. the one with the biggest potential for trouble isn't in california -- it's in new york.

but really, after looking back at all the times that man has tried to improve on nature and totally messed it up (like, bringing in kudzu to the u.s. to control soil erosion and having it run out of control, or bringing in a toad in australia to control the sugar cane beetle and the toad becoming a bigger, poisonous problem), how can anyone with half a brain assume that nuclear power is a good answer? only after solutions to the obvious huge problems had been found, would i consider the technology might not be suspect. but we're not there yet, guys. not by a long shot.

oh, look at the boats .... no, don't look

and if you want something different .... go here. some of her stuff is (ahem) really different.

you know, you have to wonder .... what would one's sex life be like if we'd been born in another country. america is just so repressed.

a different way of thinking about it

So .... do you like these?

Daddy Long Legs

A Pair of Lovers

We Were Made for Each Other

Well then, you'll like all of these!  And you can find more on his blog.

sorta like pig latin ....

oh wow, this is beyond cool! have you seen these guys? i've never heard of them, but that doesn't mean anything.

watch this video first -- it's a riot, whether you have the sound on or not. then watch this one, which is the making of the other one. they're singing backwards!!! hilarious!

spring forward, fall all over the place

personally i think daylight savings time is stupid. the whole thing just suddenly appeared one day and i've never reconciled myself to it. (you go, arizona!) it's a lot like the metric system, only we were able to head them off on that one.

regardless, this article is interesting. and be sure to read the part about yawning. i was wide-awake until i got done with it.  :)

bring it on!

oh goody. there's a new movie (just shown at sxsw) which is a sci-fi thriller dealing in parallel worlds. it looks great and as much as i don't really care for jake gyllenhaal, i want to see it. it's called Source Code and it's directed by the same guy who did Moon. i didn't want to see that one since it sounded sad and frustrating, although the performance by sam rockwell is supposed to be beyond superb, but i'm really curious about this one. the director for both, duncan jones, is david bowie's son. whooooooaaa .... what must that have been like?

earthquakes and tsunamis and melting ... oh my!

a partial meltdown is underway?? what in the world does that mean for all the rest of us? i've never really bought into the nuclear thing. humans are notorious for screwing up nature and anything else laying around so it's a given that someday at some point someone is going to somehow mess up things nuclear. of course, who counted on it being mother nature? still .... you'd think someone would have thought about that possibility. let's just hope they're able to get things under control before more lives are lost locally or abroad. those people in japan are having a terrible time!

new book

i've been trying to buy the new book, Delivered to Eternity by Laura Yirak, and can't get it done. since we don't have a kindle, i downloaded the app 'kindle for pc' last night and it self-registered. but when i tried to buy it, the site said we didn't have any applications to play it on. so i figured it needed time to get its records straight and i tried again this morning, but it's still saying the same thing. i went through all the info the amazon site gives about the kindle for pc, but the information isn't the same as what my app shows. good grief. so i finally sent them an e-mail about it. who knew it would be so hard to spend money?!

moms and mars

and then there's Mars Needs Moms. i don't know about that one -- it looks like it's not quite as much my style as Rango. still .... it might be good. i guess i'll see it when it's at netflix.

wild western

did i already mention Rango? i saw it billed as an animation for adults, so i watched a couple of clips. this one is pretty dang good.

woo, hoo!!!

the daughter-in-law's book will be available tomorrow on amazon!!!

buy it!! you'll like it!! it will pull you right in to several story lines!!

look for Delivered to Eternity, An Alesta the Vampire Book by Laura Yirak.

you can't go wrong!

if someone had done that to my kids .....

did you read about the father who vows to kill his son's murderer when the murderer's released from prison 12 yrs before the end of his sentence because he's had 'good behavior'?

reading about it was just disgusting. what was rhode island thinking to put this guy in jail for 40 yrs anyhow? he killed a little boy and ate his flesh. the guy is a total sickoid and letting him loose in society is unjustifiable.

in all the articles i read, there was only 1 comment where someone said the guy should be given a chance. oh come on -- take off your rose-colored glasses. how old are you anyway? and what's your religion?

i agreed with the rest of the comments.

repeating and repeating and repeating ....

my maternal grandfather was supposed to have been a sort of math wizard. i, on the other hand, missed out on a semester of math when we moved, and never recovered. so even though i know that math has some beautiful things (tessellations, mandlebrot sets), i usually stay away from it if at all possible.

now .... i discovered this little thing about pi. it is three-plus delightful minutes and i wish you the joy of listening to it.

so silly

if you want to take 2+ minutes and watch something funny/silly, watch this -- jennifer aniston's sex tape (sic).

up and up again

and then there was the group who floated a house off into the sky with 300 helium-filled balloons. they wanted to see if they could duplicate the movie Up!

of course, the house was not a typical house and there were two hot-air balloon pilots installed within, but still ..... each of the balloons was 8' tall and took a whole tank of helium, but still ..... only 300 balloons? no, i don't care for a ride, thanks.

she could be a great, great, great, great, great, great, great .....

did you read about the 23 yr old woman who is a grandmother? she gave birth when she was 13 and her daughter gave birth when she was 11. they are gypsies and getting married young is normal for them.

M-class sun events

oh goody -- we're supposed to be able to see the northern lights tomorrow night and the next night. apparently it's a Kp=4 forecast. i know, i know -- it sounds like something i would make up, but no. at that designation, we should be able to see it along with people in spokane wa, great falls mt, grand forks nd, sioux falls sd, minneapolis mn, oshkosh wi, grand rapids mi, and ottawa canada.

oh pooh -- every single time we hear of a good chance of seeing it, we have cloud cover. we will have clouds and/or rain for the next 7 days. dangit!

her book

my daughter-in-law has written a book. she's never written one before. she tried to contact an agent, but didn't have much luck, then realized she could publish online.

i'm not sure how she's going to do it, but her mom and i have given her tips, i've done some proofing on it, she has a cover and artwork, and she's decided on a title: Delivered To Eternity, an Alesta the Vampire book.

the story is great! it has several things going on and is very well written. it's hard for me to realize it's her writing. not that it's HERS, but that she's never done anything like this before and it's just very very good.

i'll let you know when it's available.

and another one

on the other hand, i could probably afford the tata pixel. its 'zero turn drive' is a kick. and it doesn't look too shabby either.

this is the one

i have just found my ideal car -- the renault captur. it is so beyond any expectations of a cool car i might have envisioned, that i can hardly stand it. the fact that it is not in production, and probably would cost more than i could possibly afford, are minor details. i am totally in love.