I’m adding a link to AllDumb.com on my sidebar right now. You have GOT to see the things they dig up on the net. To name a few: a site devoted to Sexual Moments in Video Game History, an anagram generator, a doll being sold on eBay that’s “probably not haunted”, and Google corrections such as this. Ha!

I can’t stop playing with this program Terragen! Here’s four more pictures I’ve made:

‘Tropics’

‘When Mars Had Water’

‘Arizona Cloudy’

‘Sunrise Mudfield’

I’m not going for creative names, just cool graphics. Enjoy.

Please excuse the large image size, but I had to post this. Using a program called Terragen, I created this image of a virtual landscape. It took me a few hours to learn the workings of the program, but it’s totally free, and it is easy to make really cool looking landscapes the first time you use it. If you have some time to blow (and I know you do), download this thing and send me the pictures you make!

While some people are using their coding skills for cool things, like Terragen, others are designing programs to spy on us, storing petabytes (I’m a computer geek and I still don’t see that term often) of data on our lives, with the hope of finding terrorists. Not only that, but because there was such an uproar when these kinds of programs were first proposed, they had to use the “backdoor” method and slip this under everyone’s noses.

Be careful what you watch while driving your Benz.

Apparently, the Air Force is already preparing for the coming wars in space. Oh yes, so imminent is a massive global war in space that we must get a jump on the technology, or we’re totally screwed. You have to read this quote:

“The ability to deny an adversary’s access to space services is essential so that future adversaries will be unable to exploit space in the same way the United States and its allies can. It will require full spectrum, sea, air, land, and space-based offensive counterspace systems capable of preventing unauthorized use of friendly space services and negating adversarial space capabilities from low Earth up to geosynchronous orbits. The focus, when practical, will be on denying adversary access to space on a temporary and reversible basis,” the document states.

To summarize, if you’re thinking about advancing science in the fields of astronomy, communications, or space exploration… think again, motherfucker. America’s gonna kick your ass before you get off the ground. We’re watching. Here’s the full article.

A moment of silence please. The world’s largest pig has passed on.

This weekend was a great time, except for some serious Saturday hangoverness. It’s amazing what a hangover can do to your mid-day plans. Nevertheless, I managed to make it to the thrift store and purchase one of five available copies of Operation (the game with the buzzing, light up nose). We actually found one with two fully-charged D batteries still in there!

Yesterday I went skiing at Boston Mills. It was just as half-ass as I’d remembered, but thankfully the snow wasn’t really just ice with grooming lines left in it, like it was when I was in ski club way back when. It was a nice day to get out, and the area looked really strange since it was the only spot with snow for miles around.

These are the coolest trucks I’ve ever seen. The Japanese are way cooler than us.

Just when you thought your parents kept too much shit laying around their house, this guy comes along and documents his amazing mother. There is no doubt that this is the most cluttered house I’ve ever seen. Take some time out and read the commentary, check out all the pics. His mom has to move a shload of boxes just to do laundry! Plants are dying because you can’t even walk to the area they’re in! Amazing shit. It reminds me of watching Cops for some reason.

Spongebob takes to blackface.

It’s starting to warm up a bit here in Cleveland. I’m not expecting spring to slap us in the face or anything, but it’s nice to feel the warm 35 degree breezes, as opposed to the 12 degree ice blasts. Fuck Punxsutawny Phil and his bullshit predictions. I say one more day of winter… how’s that? Jerk ass.

Our office is getting painted, and my little cubicle got done today. Looks nice, especially compared to the stark white we had before.

I just read that, last year, 4.83 BILLION gallons of sewage were dumped into the Cuyahoga River. If someone were to tell me there was even 4.83 billion gallons of WATER in the Cuyahoga, I would think that was a high number, let alone sewage, and let alone last year! Apparently, having our river catch on fire way back when wasn’t good enough. We’re hoping for mutated fish, and down the road, mutated people. (If we’re not mutated people already. Some would say we are.) My old friend NDR and I took two seperate voyages down the old Cuyahoga before, and the amount of wildlife we saw was pretty amazing for this area. Hearing this really pisses me off.

Another tidbit of Cleveland news I just heard is that they are planning on replacing and updating the Innerbelt. For those who don’t know Cleveland, the Innerbelt is where our highways join up and run through downtown. It’s the most crowded part of our highway system, though I-480 gives it a run for its money these days. If they stop traffic in the morning for even a few minutes, all hell can break loose. One morning I was commuting downtown from my old hometown and a nice old fella decided to go the wrong way on the Innerbelt. I waited on a bend in the road, unable to even more towards an exit, for over an hour and a half. Fortunately I can drive through the city these days, avoiding the highway altogether. Still, this is an alarmingly stupid idea. The east side DOES need access to a highway, badly, but this is not the way to do it.

My stepbrother and stepsister-in-law just had their 2nd baby! Griffin is his name, and he is a wee cute thang. His older sister (who’s 3) has held him a bunch already, both redheads, which adds up to major cuteness. Anyway, I’ve become some sort of double-uncle or something. Do I get another stripe on my shoulder?

On the L.

Ahhh long weekends. Nothin’ quite like ‘em. I had a blast in Chicago, hanging out with Benny Boy, riding the L, drinking, eating sushi, and of course, flying to and fro. The wedding was fantastic as well. There was a rehersal dinner on Friday at Harry Caray’s, which had a nice little private area for the party. We mingled a bit, smoked in “the nook” which had no ventilation yet was identified early on by staff as the designated smoking area, and of course, we drank. The ceremony was held at the Newberry Library, which was a very nice place indeed. After the ceremony was over, they moved the chairs out of the way and we drank and mingled in the lobby area. After about a half an hour they moved us into the dining / reception area, where there was a fantastic band playing: Snatch, Inc. (I thought they had a website, but I’ll have to re-check the business card.) They are a soul, oldies, funky groovin’ band that’s been around for a long time. I guess Chris saw them a while back and knew immediately that they should be his band of choice. No doubt about it. I met the band manager / roadie / son of the trombone player, who then introduced me to the band. I also met the owner of a restaurant called Coobah, which we found reviewed the very next day in the New York Times. Later I found myself totally hammered and unable to hold a conversation, so I hopped a cab, and in an unexplained drunken hurry, walked the last little bit. It took me until about 2pm to feel like a human being again.

One strange thing that went down in Chi-town is that Ben and I saw two pigeon wings laying on the ground (photos soon). Now, if there had been a torso, head or any other part of a pigeon nearby, perhaps we would not have found it so odd. It was just the wings, seemingly removed by force, sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, waiting for us. Could this be some kind of voodoo curse? A warning of some sort? A feline serial killer? One thing’s for sure, I could make a profitable Hollywood movie based on that alone.

Instead of tracking down news stories containing one more reason Bush sucks and is ruining the world, today I am going to post some more uplifting links. Starting off with Meat Hats. Yes, hats made of meat. The ONLY downside I can see to this is a potential for offensive odors late in the day.

Some girl completely suspended against a wall by duct tape alone.

This one is pretty good: Donald Rumsfeld’s fighting techniques.

I can’t believe nobody thought of this until now: (or maybe they did but I just now saw it)

Ah hahahaha!

Finally, a story about retaliating against those Viagra punkasses who keep sending us all e-mail: Clicketh Here. Includes detailed accounts of taking Viagra in church!

Word up. I’ve been sick for a few days; my stomach is rebelling against American cuisine. The other strange thing is, I’ve had a headache every single morning this week. I swear to god my bed beats me up while I’m asleep. Some good news is that my computer is back up and running at home. I wasn’t quite sure what the fizzuck was going on, but it seems that clearing everything off has solved the problem. I can get back to flight simming, which I haven’t done in almost 2 months. My first flight will be Lauda flight 164 from Phuket, Thailand to Vienna, Austria in a Boeing 767-300. From there I’m going to fly a Spanair flight from Vienna to Madrid, Spain. Whee!

I heard there’s a new Paris Hilton video out, and though I haven’t confirmed it, the site offering it is: TrustFundGirls.com. Supposedly you can watch it five times before you have to pay for it. So go get your fill, coz it costs $50!

This weekend I’m going to Chicago for my friend Chris’ wedding. It will be held ON Valentine’s Day. Awwww. Just a quick flight over to Chi-town via a Continental Embraer 145. That’ll be the smallest plane I’ve flown on. One side only has a single seat, the other side has two. I managed to get window seats again though. Yay. I’ll be staying with my friend Ben, who’s fantastical blog is directly linked from this site.

Speaking of linked from this site, get yo’ ass over to AlterNet and read the new article from Michael Moore. He just wrote an open letter to Bush about his lack of National Guard duty. There’s a link to the transcripts of a press conference on the same topic, which is a really funny read. I think there’s a video, too, maybe that’d be worth seeing. The press keeps asking the same question and the press agent just repeats his answers. Essentially, the documents Bush located are blurry and difficult to read. They don’t prove anything, and even the press repeatedly asked how they were supposed to read it. On top of that, in the Moore article he talks about how the pay stubs don’t even mean he did anything, they are just saying he was receiving pay. Read the article.

I was reading my poetry class notebook yesterday from around 1998-1999 and man, I sure was a different person back then. You had to critique poems that you glued or taped into your notebook, and dammit, I thought every one of them sucked back then! Some I am almost ashamed to have disregarded, because they were very well written. The strange thing is, my teacher really liked me and was very encouraging. She was more tolerant than I knew at the time. One thing I held on to is my disgust for pop culture, and conformists. Anyway, it was an interesting trip back in time.

Rock out.

The weekend was a good one. Friday night was one of the best practices The Moon has ever had. We went from 9pm until almost 2am, and worked on yet another new song. The demo is now TOTALLY COMPLETE; all 9 songs are recorded and mastered. Based on said accomplishment, we decided a party was in order for Saturday. Turns out Saturday was also Kenny’s birthday. How lovely. So we had a nice gathering that night, consumed plenty of highER-end brew that John picked up, and spent all of Sunday recovering. I had a mean case of the hiccups from eating too much mexican food earlier. You know, if you can’t get rid of your hiccups for a while, it really puts a damper on your drinking pace. I had to make up for it with some Jim Beam later on.

I’d like to thank Bush and his military cohorts in Afghanistan for ensuring I can score opium with greater ease. Production of opium in Afghanistan has hit a record high recently, which means the US will certainly be enjoying some ‘red rock’ sometime soon. Now that you’ve probably dropped the cost of opium, Bush, why is my gas 19 cents more than a few weeks ago? If you’re going to lie to America, waste our money on wars we don’t approve of, and oust foreign leaders thereby creating a country in “controlled chaos”, can’t you manage to lower the cost of oil? I have to admit, even the conspiracy freaks are at a loss now. It really wasn’t about oil?

GW Bush was on Meet the Press, but of course they didn’t ask any questions that he couldn’t easily lather propaganda over the top of. Someone DID come up with some great questions, but apparently was ignored. If only we could ask good questions with a decent sized audience. The guy’s not exactly “open to public criticism”, nor does it seem he’s even aware there are people who criticize him. (Other than the whole draft-dodging, national guard dodging thing) Then again, how can you allow criticism when all it would take is one well-informed citizen to ask the right questions, and his four years (cartel, regime, agenda) would be over in a heartbeat?

Please observe the breast uncovering to your left.

Yesterday, on my way to deliver muffins! I was waiting in my car while the longest funeral precession ever passed by. The brand of the muffins was Otis Spunkmeyer. Who the hell thought that was a good brand name?

Though I wish this had been around when I was in high school, a new website called RateMyTeachers.com is up and running. The name is self explanatory, and my alma matter is on there as well… however, most of the teachers names have changed since I was there. In fact, some of the teachers are people I went to school with!

This is really freaky. Some baby was just born with two heads. It only has one body, and the other head has things resembling ears and a nose, but nothing functional. They’re going to perform surgery on it, in hopes of saving it from being the Biggest Freak in the World. Imagine a full grown adult carrying another head on top of his/her head. You’d probably cause people to faint.

Last night I went out to the bar with JoAnn, John and my lil bro… got mildly sauced and had a fantastic fish sandwich there. Is it just me, or do the shadyest places have the best food? The best chicken fingers in the known universe can be found at Carousel Lanes (a bowling alley) on Ridge and Denison in Cleveland. I swear they’re the best.

I’m hungry, someone make me a sandwich.