The great thing about America is that anybody can decide that any random day is a ‘world-somthing-or-other-day’. Official recognition from the powers that be aside, you can register a url, spread the word and plan events.
Here are some highlights and one is even today!

• International Talk Like a Pirate Day is today, September 19th. The site has tips on how to talk like a pirate in English and German, how to pick up pirates for both men and women and and English to Pirate translator for those who wish to participate.
• World Jump Day was July 20th, 2006. The plan was to have everyone in the world jump at the exact same time, just to see what would happen. I bet it would have caused global warming somehow. Since I didn’t participate I guess I’ve done my part to combat the problem.
• World Vegan Day is November 1st. I checked, you don’t get to eat vegans. Just the opposite. You’re supposed to eat, get this, plants, only plants.? No milk, eggs or cheese either. Sounds like a bunch of hippies to me.
• World Sousveillance Day, which may now be part of World Equiveillance Week celebrated in January of 2006, sought to bring awareness to the surveillance of public life by building owners, police and whoever else may be recording the goings on. They seek to equal things by…taking pictures of the cameras. They’re ‘watching the watchers’. Right.
• World Juggling Day was back in June. I’m dissapointed that once again both the blind and those without arms were under represented. It just sickens me to see such hatred in 2006.
• World Tuberculosis Day was presented by the World Health Organization and was one of those raise awareness lets see if we can get Bono to guilt American’s into sending money type things. Unfortunatly the key-note address could not be heard over the constant coughing of the crowd.
• World Leprosy Day looks to do what all the others do, only they have a much cooler disease. What do you say to someone with Leprosy? “So…leprosy huh? Um…that’s catchy, right?”

Let’s go out with a bang….

• World Rat Day is just what it sounds like, though it does limit itself to the ‘Fancy Rat’ that is sold in pet stores. I can see how it’d be a tougher sell, but they should consider including the more common rat as well. Sure they spread disease and are terribly ugly, they had a pretty big role in shaping the world as it is today.

C posted the following on a MySpace bulletin:

What is the oddest thing that has happened to you in the shower?? “That’s a long story.”

Two observations:? If anything odd happens to me in the shower, it’d better be a long freaking story and that’s a story I want to hear.

I was watching a documentary from the BBC Horizon program (it’s sort of like Nova on PBS) on dark matter. Prof. James Peebles from Princeton came out with this little gem:

Jerry brought to this enterprise a lot of astronomical knowledge that I didn’t have. I was trained as a physicist; the astronomy I know I picked up on the streets.

And exactally what street is it where you can pick up the kind of astronomy you need to research the stuff the universe is made of?

I was sure that this story had to be fake. It just seemed too good to be true. Now I can’t confirm the actual story as I’m just a lone blogger and…I don’t care that much. It did confirm that it actually is on the ABC News site though.

Kevin Lafferty works at for the US Geological Survey as a parasite ecologist. He’s been spending his time and our tax dollars checking out the effects of the parasites in cat poop on the human brain. Apparently the effects are dramatic:

Research has shown that women who are infected with the parasite tend to be more warm, outgoing and attentive to others, while infected men tend to be less intelligent and probably a bit boring. But both men and women who are infected are more prone to feeling guilty and insecure.

So…women who like cats are sweet and nurturing while men who like cats are dumb and dull. That’s the greatest thing science has done for us in a long, long time.

I would normally wait and add this to next week’s sampler, but this was just too good to wait.

It seems that a young X-Ray tech from France named Daniel Anceneaux went on-line one evening looking for some nookie.? Instead he met Juliette, a sweet, sensitive girl who had looks to boot.? After months of racey chat and emails they decided to meet.

On the appointed evening young Daniel went to the shore to meet the woman of his dreams.? There she was, standing on the beach wearing the white shorts and pink tank top she’d described.? With growing excitement Daniel approached his Juliet only to discover he’d been misled.

Apparently his dream girl wasn’t the girl in the photo she’d sent.? Instead she just scanned a photo of? rather curvey and mostly naked woman she’d scanned from a men’s magazine.? And who was the decietful woman?? Who was it that dared soil the Internet with her web of lies?

Daniel’s mom.

(source)

On Wednesday I went to the mall with my sister and brother-in-law to look at photographs of the newest kid taken at Picture People.? This is a place sort of like Olan Mills or other photograph studios, only more hip and quicker.? So…its the same.

So we got in around 8:00 and there are two staff members present.? One is a young guy, probably just two or three years out of high school.? The other was, I am told, also a guy, though some debate lingers.? Here are some of the observed facts: breasts, womanly curves (hips and butt) and a very thin and neatly trimmed mustache.? When Aroesmith’s Dude Looks Like a Lady came on the radio while we were in the shop, R and E were barely able to contain their laughter.

But it was the other guy who was to help us on this evening.

So the other guy was trying to sell pictures to R and E while I tried to entertain myself.? I asked: “So, you guys shoot softcore porn in here at night, right?” He says, “No” and then winks at me.? I look at R and E and they look at me.? “Did that just happen?” we ask with our eyes.? Then the dude goes for his wallet!

“No!” we all scream.

“It’s not bad,” the guy insists.? “Let’s just say dating the assistant manager has its benifits.”

He shows us photos of his plus sized lady in various, fully clothed poses.? We’re polite.? We smile and nod.? “Very nice,” we say.

Weird!

I was stumbling around the web this evening and came across a blog that wasn’t all that interesting but had a neat flashing link that took me to this site, a Blogger’s Disclaimer. I won’t ask you, my loyal reader(s), to read this entire thing. Instead, I’ll give you some of the best bits and my thoughts.

If you have a real life relationship with the writer, remember that communication is very important. View weblogs as online journals, no less sacred than a diary hidden between the mattresses.

Sorry kids. If you think your blog is as sacred as your diary, you probably need to go back and read up on how the WORLD WIDE WEB works. There is no privacy – you should not expect any.

If they do not want you reading it, or suddenly stop posting entries, ask them why and if necessary, stop going to the site. It is important that as a friend, relative, co-worker or whatever you may be to the writer, that your presence at their weblog not impede their ability to express themselves.

Once again, if you post something on the web, your rights to have any say over who reads it are pretty much gone. If you don’t want your mom reading about what you do alone in your room, best not post it on the web there chum.

Never use anything off a person’s site, be it writing, images or html code, unless they say otherwise. People are very attached to their work and don’t usually respond well when others help themselves to it.

This one I really don’t have an issue with. I just thought it’d be ironic.

DaimlerChrysler released information on the 2007 Chrysler Sebring today.? Here’s a run down on some of the surprising features.

• A 20 gigabyte hard disc drive that includes Music Juke Box for organizing music and pictures to the hard drive
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) provides both MP3 connectivity and downloading of WMA, MP3 and JPEG files onto the hard drive
• GraceNotes database installed on the hard disk drive, which provides song identification, including title, composer, artist and title
• Playlist creation capability to provide easy access to files
• Voice memo recording, which allows a message up to three-minutes long to be recorded using the microphone integrated into the rearview mirror
• Radio screen, which can display movies when Sebring is stopped
• Heated/cooled front cupholder for keeping cool beverages cool and hot beverages hot. Cupholder can heat beverage to 140 degrees F or cool to nearly freezing at 35 degrees F
• MP3 play capability
• Available fold-flat front passenger seat
• Cabin air-filtration system

So it has a nicer television, a bigger hard drive, and better stereo system than my in home equals.? It also has what amounts to a hotplate and a fridge as well as a flat folding front seat which can serve as a table.

With gas prices what they are, I thinking of getting one so the car itself can be the destination.

Mythical Lady Friend: So where are we going tonight? (as I open the back seat door for her.)

Me: I thought we’d have some dinner and catch a movie.

MLF: Sounds great.? What movie? (As I shut the rear passenger side door and climb into the front seat to grab a few DVDs from the convient center storage bin and hand them to her.)
Me:? (I pour her a bottle of wine from the icy cool cup holder before I start heating some water to cook up some raman noodles for dinner and climb into the back.) So what’d you decide on?? We need to start watching the movie soon, I’ve only got about two hours of battery life left.

I was leaving work the other day when I noticed that some unknown person had placed a plastic shark and a plastic alligator (or is it a crocodile?) under a tree at the edge of the parking lot.? I returned that evening to take this photo.? Today I noticed that they were missing.? I don’t know if the grounds crew took them, their owners reclaimed them or if they got tired of waiting and left on their own.

No matter their fate, its always nice to see something random.? (photo? after the? jump) Continue Reading »

When I first found this page I thought it was a joke.? I went a little deeper and discovered that they take themselves quite seriously.? Adherents.com offers statistics on what people believe.? For some reason they’ve taken the time to write some very in depth essays on the religious beliefs of comic book characters.

Though I’m not a huge comic fan I’ve been known to haunt the racks on comic book day, mostly with Grady and Garold back in the Cleveland days, so I’ve decided to include a few favorites.? Continue Reading »