The dangers of walking while texting

It really was only a matter of time before we heard stories like this. I see people walking and typing on their phones all the time. Here in Seattle, walking and texting is nothing; I see people driving and texting, riding motorcycles and texting, and riding bikes and texting. This girl was lucky that she wasn't seriously injured, but I'm sure that's already happened somewhere else, and will happen again. People seem to forget how much concentration it takes to type a reply to a message. They seem to think their brains can easily handle doing multiple things at once when most people can barely handle doing one simple thing at a time.

I admit that I'm guilty of using my phone while doing other things. However, I do make a conscious effort to pay attention to what I'm doing when I'm walking, crossing the street, etc. If I'm walking and need to reply I simply step aside and type.

Defining atheism

There was a good diary on Daily Kos today about what an atheist is and isn't. I've suppose I've not really thought about in terms of applying a label, but I would definitely have to categorize myself as an atheist. Someone in one of the comments on the DK diary mentioned that an atheist can be thought of as non-theist, and that would definitely describe me. As the diarists mentions, I'm not opposed to there being a god (making me a "soft atheist" or agnostic) but I just don't believe that there is one.

I could probably blame being taken to southern baptist churches when I was growing up as the cause for being atheist. In reality, that just contributed to me being anti-religious, not atheist. I've thought since I was a small child, even while attending church, that all the dogma and pageantry of organized religion was just a lot of nothing. Even as a child it seemed to me that religion was all about keeping people interested enough to attend the church services and of course give money. I don't won't to turn this into a long diatribe about the evils of organized religion since we're about to go to breakfast and I don't have all day to type, so I'll stop this tack at this point.

Oddly I do believe that many religions have things to teach, but I also believe that it's not necessary to religions in order to have those thing taught (or to learn them for that matter). I also don't believe that we have to worship an unseen god in order for our lives to be meaningful and fulfilling. It just doesn't work for me.

In any event, here's the original diary for your reading pleasure.

Weekend this and that

Just wanted to drop a few lines here since it's too easy to get into the habit of not writing anything. Well, a "few lines" with me is usually a couple of pages...

There hasn't been too much to report, and that's OK. I'm still obsessing over tires, but when it comes time to buy I'll do what I usually do and go with my gut instinct and end up bring right in the first place. But, it gives me something to do and process so it's OK. I received in the mail the leveling kit I ordered. It will lift the front of the truck so that it's level with the back of the truck. It looks like it's going downhill all the time, so I'm looking forward to having it level. Now the challenge is finding someone local who can do it. I have one place I found but it seems kind of expensive so I need to do a little more digging. Once that is done I'll get the tires put on.

We did some house cleaning this weekend, and it was definitely due. It's amazing how dirty the house can get, and how nice it is when it's clean. I still have to go upstairs and clean the shower in my bathroom, but I'll do that just before I take my shower tonight. Real exciting huh?

Anthony starts school tomorrow...yay! He was able to get approved for "commissioner approved training" through the state which means they play for his tuition the first quarter and then pay him the equivalent of weekly unemployment benefits for the two years he's in school. I think it will be good for him to get more training and be able to do something different when he graduates. It should open up more opportunities for him than he has now. Plus it's not a bad way to ride out the current economy spending it in school.

Sadly I don't have lots more to report, but I guess that's good. I'm hoping we get back over to the boat in the new future and start getting it ready for the summer. We're going to have a lot of cleaning to do outside, and we need to have it hauled out to have new bottom paint put on. Those should all be easily doable. Just more things to do of course, but oh well.

But will it float?

On one of the several sites dedicated to large yachts that I read regularly, I ran across this interesting (for lack of a better word) project/proposal. At 150 meters (492 feet) it's absolutely huge; it's about 8 feet shy of the size of a US Navy destroyer. It wouldn't be the largest yacht in the world, but one of the largest. However, there's more to a boat than its size.

So, impressive size aside, what's up with this thing? From the bow it looks as if someone has placed an offshore oil platform on top of Noah's ark. I realize these are just renderings, but did the designer ever think that this boat might have to deal with things on the open seas like, say, waves? I would not trust going anywhere more than a few hundred feet away from the dock on that thing. On top of that, it's just plain ugly. I realize that a very expensive custom yacht is supposed to be a personal statement by the owner. I'm still trying to figure out what statement this would make. I picture it pulling into port somewhere in the Med and all the owners of the attractive yachts sitting on their decks snickering at the owner and his new yacht. I can't help but think it looks a bit like it was put together with odds and ends and scraps left lying around, sort of a hillbilly megayacht if you will.

I do applaud the designer for trying to break out of the mold and come up with something different beyond the typical big white boat that resembles a wedding cake. I just wish he hadn't made it so ugly. There have been several concept yachts that have been turned into reality, such as Predator launched last year. While it's not pretty in the traditional sense it does have a grace and sense of power (which it has plenty 0f) about it. The interior is also truly a work of art. There's also the yacht launched last year simply called "A". It's one of those designs that is ugly at first but elegant in its simplicity and ends up being attractive to the eye. It's also about the same size as the Maharaja project. Again, it's nice to see owners taking risks with new designs, but I'm very curious if Maharaja will ever be built.

Interesting time lapse "movie"

I ran across this video the other day and decided it was worth passing along. The photographer, realizing that the cities and towns they were passing made the clouds glow, aimed his camera out the window from a makeshift tripod while flying over the US on a night flight. It's interesting to see how many towns and cities pass by during the three hours from the Midwest to San Francisco. I thought it made for a very cool video. For the full effect, watch it in full-screen mode

A letter from Bill Gates

I'll start off by saying I'm biased towards Bill Gates. Yes, I know he was the head of the "evil empire" that foisted Windows 95 on the world. But, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given away billions of dollars to help fight many global social and medical issues. In the last couple of years alone, the foundation has given tens of millions of dollars to the research institute I work for to fund malaria and HIV research.

The Gates Foundation has also used their money and influence to change the way scientists share their research data. In the past, it was customary for researchers to keep their findings relatively secret, sharing it amongst colleagues only for peer review before it was published. The data was not shared with the world until it was published, and that was how researchers could make sure that their data was not stolen and used by someone else who could then take the credit. The problem with that method is that there may be other scientists in others parts of the country or world working on similar research, or research that could compliment what hasn't yet been published. Because of the secrecy, these scientists probably don't know about the other complimentary research being performed and the connections don't happen until after the data is published. Only then does collaboration begin with valuable time being lost and potential avenues of exploration not being discovered until possibly years later.

The Gates Foundation is changing the way that happens. Many of the grants received by the institute I work for to research diseases are broken up amongst several research institutes. There are stipulations in the grants that the various institutes must share their data on an ongoing basis as the research is being done. The idea is that instead of having 5 scientists in 5 different institutes (for example), you would end up (in this scenario) with 25 scientists in many areas around the world collaborating on their research, comparing notes, and using that power to come to conclusions, and possibly cures, faster. It's a true sea change in the scientific community, and it seems to be working. That has affected my work in IT by needing to come up with ways for the researchers to share their work outside our institute. The challenge has been to maintain data integrity and redundancy while allowing multi-directional collaboration with researchers across the world. It's been an interesting but rewarding challenge.

Now, what prompted me to start this post: Bill Gates began working full-time for the foundation a year ago and has posted his first annual letter on their web site. There is some interesting information in the letter, both factual about improvements that have been made, but also information about the foundation's goals. Whatever you may think about Microsoft's software and Bill Gates' role in that, I have tremendous respect for him and what he doing with the foundation to change the world for the better. Yes, he's spending his money on himself and his family, as well he should. But, he's also putting billions of dollars towards eradicating deadly diseases, hunger, and improving education. Plus, I believe that he is truly passionate about the goals of the Gates Foundation. He's not just there for publicity or personal glory. His stated goal to wipe out HIV in his children's lifetimes is admirable, and I think he has the money and the drive to make it happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

You can read his letter here. There are also slideshows at the bottom of the page that are worth watching. Incidentally, in the second slideshow, "Progress In Global Health", there is an image of Bill at my place of work conferring with one of our scientists who studies leishmaniasis (at 00:44). Sadly I wasn't at work the day Bill visited, but I was there when his wife Melinda came to visit (twice now actually) and she is equally passionate about the foundation's goals. She also spoke at a yearly fundraser for my place of work and helped us raise about $700,000 in one night towards infectious disease research.

Yeah, I know this sounds like a Gates love fest, but I'm really passionate about the research done where I work and I'm glad to see someone like Gates (with his influence and deep pockets, and therefore ability to bring about change) is also passionate about it. As federal funding for scientific research has all but dried up in the last few years (thanks to GW Bush's anti-science platform), the Gates Foundation has stepped in and more than filled the gap so that the very important research can continue.

Monday evening mish mash

My day ended up being much busier than I anticipated, but it was good. The day truly flew by. I have a new-old employee at work and that's changed the dynamic, for the better as it turns out. The young woman is someone who worked for me for three years up until last year when her husband took an assignment with his job in Japan. They were there for a year and came back in December. They arrived back in the states a couple of days after we opened up a new position in my department. I had had some issues with her attendance when she was here before but I talked to my boss about it, and then we talked to her and now there are some understandings in place, so I feel better about it. Plus, when she was there she did a great job, and all the users just loved it. It was hard to come up with a reason to not bring her back in after the attendance issue was settled. It's been good to have her there so far. I like her personally, and she does do a really good job. By bringing her in the size of the group I manage grew by 25% so it's changed the way we go about our daily routines. It's amazing how quickly we've already hit a stride and I'm really happy about it.

Saturday I booked tickets to visit my father and step-mother who live just outside Houston. They have been wanting me to visit for a while, and I've been wanting to visit for a while, and I'm finally going down there. They offered to pay my airfare and how could I refuse that? I thought it was really generous and they insisted and I'm very grateful. I was afraid it wasn't going to happen since fares when up by $190 in the last week, but then Saturday when I checked they had dropped $220 so I jumped at it and booked a ticket. I'm not sure what we'll do yet but I know we'll spend some time just hanging out, we'll do some sightseeing, we'll eat (we all love to eat), and who know what what else. I know it'll be fun. It'll be just me going and it will be the first time I've spent time with them alone in, well, decades. It will be nice to work on the connections just between us.

I'm very lucky in that I have a mother who's one of my best friends, and a father who I'm not quite as close with but very close and who's very supportive. I also had a step-father who was a huge positive influence on me who was also very supportive, and have a step-mother who is a wonderful person, a very positive influence, and just an all-around sweet, intelligent, and caring person. I've been very lucky, and blessed, in the parents department! And, I don't take any of it for granted.

A headline on Rex Wockner's blog today: No on 8: 'We messed up'. Really? Ya think...?

This is very cool. Be sure to zoom in, and in and in and in, and then start scrolling. The detail is incredible and it's amazing that the crowd, almost all of it, was captured in a single image. Does anyone even think that we'd have a scene like that were it John McCain being sworn in? I seriously doubt that we would. The picture definitely captures in history as it was happening.

Speaking of Obama, we went from a President for eight years who could barely put together a coherent sentence in English to one who can launch into a foreign language, like Indonesian, at the drop of a hat. What a welcome change.

Ever have days where you feel like this? I do. Most days!

What does that say about me that I feel as if my wheels keep coming off...?

Sunday mish mash

The weekend turned out to be much busier than I expected, but that's not a bad thing. I had expected to just veg most of the weekend but I came up with things to do, and I enjoyed being busy and active after all.

I decided to continue my recent trend of cleaning out closets since I've had such good success. First came the guest room closet a few weeks ago. That was so nice when it was done I was inspired to clean out the attic space that's an extension of the master bedroom closet. Surprisingly the master bedroom closet was in OK shape so after that came the office closet. It was a true mess; it hadn't ever been organized since we moved in so it was more than ready for a makeover. It took two full days but, while not a model of organization, it's much improved. Out came two full bags of garbage and a box-full of recycling, an older printer/fax machine, lots of outdated computer parts, and several unused containers for refilling the fish tank. In went a lot of organization and new laser printer that we got on sale the day after christmas. It's nice to be able to find things without stuff falling on me, and I just feel better when things are organized and neat.

in any event, the next task was to clean off a single shelf in the closet on the ground floor under the stairs. I installed the shelf when we first moved in to store hats and gloves on, but it became overcrowded in time. Sadly it was overcrowded with mostly hats and gloves; there wasn't a lot of other junk o n the shelf. We ended up getting rid of about half of what was on it so it's again organized and usable. Anthony ended up putting some things under the house for long-term storage so again the "cat closet" as we call it (because the cat box lives under the stairs in there) is usable.

After that, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and do some work outside. Both yesterday and today were some of those perfect winter days we have in Seattle. It started off cold both days but there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was incredibly clear. It's nice to have a break from the rain and clouds and see the mountains and enjoy some sunshine.

So anyway, the outside work... The snow in December damaged a lot of the plants out front and they needed tending to. We have two ferns that grew like crazy since we put them in ground and almost every frond was broken by the weight of the snow. We also had a "heavenly bamboo" plant that had grown a little too fast and was top heavy, and then got bent over by ice that needed help. I cut everything back to healthy plant material and cleaned it all up and it's looking OK. I think most, if not everything, will grow back in the spring. The only thing I'm worried about is a jasmine plant that was almost dead when I put it in the ground three years ago. It took off and had become huge and really attractive. Unfortunately all the leaves are brown on it, so hopefully it'll sprout anew.

Today we met a couple of friends for breakfast, friends that I realized we hadn't seen since Thanksgiving. Was a nice time with them. Anthony and I took a short nap while Jayson ran some errands with a friend. Anthony and I then headed to the gym and after that the market. I finally have a chance to sit at home and do nothing, but I just realized the time and that means that I need to start dinner. Ugh...

One task I want to get done tonight or tomorrow is to check airfares to visit my father and step-mother. They want me to come out for about a week (they're just outside of Houston) and I am really looking forward to it. I want to get that planned and on the calendar for early February hopefully.

I can't believe it's almost 19:00 on Sunday. The weekend flew by. I need to go back to work tomorrow to relax!

Christmas and a movie review

As usual, I'm not very timely with this, but I figured I'd put together a quick update of my christmas weekend. I was lucky enough to have Wednesday through Sunday off, so it made for a nice break from work. The holiday itself was low-key, and that was fine. Anthony, Jayson, and I opened our gifts to each other that morning, then fixed a nice dinner. We had set spending limits this year for gift buying, and it didn't seem to diminish the gifting experience (at least from my perspective). I don't need or want that much stuff so whatever I get is usually a nice thing to me, and I don't see the holiday as an excuse to get free stuff. Jayson's friend Madhu(sp), whom I call Mondo, came over for dinner and they went to the cafe that Jayson volunteers for to serve food for the evening. Like I said, a very low-key day, but nice.

Before they left for the cafe we all watched Mama Mia! on DVD. I actually enjoy a lot of ABBA's music; it's a requirement in the contract I signed when I chose the gay lifestyle after I was converted. But, I'm going to say something that will threaten my standing in the gay community: I didn't like the movie. I know, part of being gay is liking Barbra Streisand, Cher, Project Runway, and this movie. But, I thought it was just not very good. It wasn't that half the cast couldn't sing any better than I can yet were still cast in a musical. It wasn't that I have a problem with the format of a musical where the cast breaks into spontaneous song and highly choreographed dance with an unseen band/orchestra hidden somewhere on the beach (I'm used to that from the classic, good, musicals like My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music). And it's not that I can't enjoy a lighthearted movie that is merely meant to be fun for a couple of hours. Meryl Streep did her usual excellent job - I would be hard pressed to find a role I didn't like her in - and the rest of the cast was quite likable as well as long as they weren't singing. In the end, I just didn't think it was a very good movie. It was nothing more than a vehicle with which to get ABBA songs out to a new generation of listeners. When there's one hour and 40 minutes of movie, I expect more than 12 minutes of story. The songs seemed gratuitously placed into the script, chosen not because they fit well but because it was a song that was popular and it needed to be in the movie. I found myself annoyed through much of the movie because the songs just seemed to be dropped into the film. The story actually seemed to get in the way of the songs at times. As for it being a happy movie, it was almost sickeningly deliriously upbeat. I half expected Hannah Montana to make a cameo and start bouncing around the scenes. I would have been happier putting on ABBA's Greatest Hits, which I do have on CD, and looking at some still pictures I took of Greece when I was there. I guess I'll just turn in my gay card now before the gay mafia knocks on my door and demands it back.

I hope everyone had a good holiday and enjoyed whatever they did!

How to heat a high house

This will most likely be boring to anyone but me, but oh well! The layout of our house is somewhat unique and creates its own challenges. Our house is four levels and three stories high. All the "public" rooms are on the ground floor. One full flight up is a bedroom and bathroom. 1/4 of a flight up and across the hall is another room we use as an office (read: full of heat generating computers). 3/4 of a flight up from that is another larger bedroom and bathroom. One end of that room is a closet that is open to the room and at the back of that is a finished attic space that is open to the closet. Each room has electric wall heaters on individual thermostats. Yhere is a gas-fired "wood stove" in the living room on an electronic thermostat that stays at 68 when we're home and 63 overnight and during the day when we're gone.

The problem has not been generating heat. The problem has been how to distribute the heat evenly throughout the house. The gas stove in the living room is more than capable of heating the entire house. The problem is that the stairwell acts like a chimney and most of the heat goes right up to the top of the house, as it would be expected to do. So, we close the door to the top-floor bedroom to keep the heat out. The problem with that is with it being in the 20's outside, that room then quickly cools down into the 50's, which is way too cold. And, all that heat just pours into the office. If we leave all the doors open, the office gets even hotter than the bedroom. The heat seems to congregate at the top of that level and then add to the heat in the office from the computers. If we turn down the heat from the "wood" stove, the ground floor gets too cold to use and it seems silly to send heat upstairs to rooms we don't use that often.

So, how to keep from freezing in some parts of the house and burning up in others? We could use the electric heaters in rooms that are closed off but those are expensive to run. Going to bed in a 50 degree room is not a fun thing, believe me! The solution that seems to work the best is, believe it or not, a curtain. We used a tension rod to hang a set of curtains (simple attractive ones) across the hallway at the bottom of the flight that leads to the office. We have the option of keeping the curtains fully closed, opened in the middle slightly to allow some heat up, or opened all the way to all lots of heat upstairs. So far it's worked pretty well. When we have the curtains closed all the way the heat seems to be pushed back to the living room ceiling (which is open to the stairwell, and it heads back down the living room.

So that's our high-tech solution to keep the house temperature regulated without spending lots of money heating individual rooms we're not using. I'm surprised that a simple curtain could be so effective at keeping the temperature regulated within our tall narrow house, but as long as it works I'm happy!

Happy Solstice

So, after today the days begin to get longer. Having all this snow on the ground is a great way to officially welcome winter...it certainly feels like it right now! When I first moved here over 10 years ago the short winter days seemed interminable. The short days seemed to go on and on and I thought we'd never have more light. Now winter seems to come and go very quickly. Just when I get used to it getting light late and dark early, it begins to change. Either I've simply adjusted or I'm getting older and time is just moving more quickly (or both).

I hope everyone enjoys the shortest day of the year and is happy to welcome winter!

Walkin' in a winter...thunderland?

I woke up to almost 2" of snow on the ground this morning, which is really beautiful. It's even nicer since it means a work at home day for me. What woke me up was the LOUD clap of thunder that rattled the entire house. About 5 minutes later there was another bright flash and half a second later another clap almost as loud as the first. I've never seen it snow with thunder/lightning before. It's definitely interesting. It's still coming down right now but I'm guessing it will taper off and stop soon.

Jayson braved the roads and drove to work. Anthony went out to wait for the bus only to find out that it wasn't running today due to snow, so he turned around and came back home. I'm assuming that since I didn't hear anything from Jayson that he made it to work OK. I probably could have driven in but I have the option of working from home, and I really didn't feel like getting out the scrape all the snow off the truck. There's a lot of windshield and window area to clean off. I'm much happier sitting at home looking at the snow, plus I think I'll get out into with the dog in a little while.

Jinger awr the way

I had the pleasure of having lunch today with a good friend at a local phở restaurant. Phở makes for a nice warm cheap lunch on a cold winter day. However, the restaurant made the unfortunate decision to play an all-Asian selection of christmas carols. They were recorded by, apparently, the same Asian singers who re-do the latest pop hits which are then sold in street markets all over Asia. I heard music very much like this in markets throughout Hong Kong and Bangkok. It sounds like four or five Asian women all singing together, no harmony, over a monotonous continuous beat that sounds as if it's being played on a Windows 3.1 MIDI keyboard. Who needs Madonna singing Madonna when we can have Asian singers pretending it's karaoke night singing Madonna?

In any event, we were first treated to a 25 minute-long medley of every single christmas carol ever written, including some that I didn't know were christmas carols (who knew that Happy Days Are Here Again had anything to do with christmas?). Several song later - although who could tell where one song ended and the next began - the highlight of our lunch: Jingle Bells. Sadly it came out sounding like "Jinger bewrs, jinger bewrs, jinger awr the way". And all this to the same monotonous beat. If nothing else it made for entertaining background noise, but I wish it had been slightly further in the background.

Because smelling like ground meat just screams sexuality

There are so many things wrong with this, and so many jokes about "whoppers" and "where's the beef" that just don't even need to be said, but WTF? Who wants to walk around smelling like a piece of ground up meat-like food product?

This is a serious marketing fail if you ask me. What kind of person would buy this? I guess it's not enough these days to smell freshly showered and clean. Apparently one is only really truly seductive when he smells as if he's been standing near the dumpsters of the nearest BK, downwind of the flame broiler exhaust pipe. Just watch out for stray dogs.

Who knew the term "gag gift" was meant to be taken literally!?

The Evolution of Beards (well, sort of)

Via BoingBoing, the "hierarchy of beards". Sadly, it's a rather inaccurate hierarchy since many of the styles are not called in reality what the poster calls them. It's obvious that the poster is only designed to look like it's from the Victorian times as many of the names are made up and many popular styles are missing completely. Still, it's interesting to compare some of the styles and see different iterations of them.

I wear the "Hyneman", apparently named after Jamie Hyneman (popular 19th century TV star), although my moustache isn't as long as in the drawing.

Speaking of beards, the best beard site on the internets is still All About Beards. There's lots of good information, and eye candy, for beard aficionados.

Hello again

I've been actively avoiding posting anything here recently. I just didn't feel like I had anything I wanted to say, or that what I had to say wasn't worth passing along. Life the past month or so has been the status quo, which I suppose isn't a bad thing. Since I returned from my trip to Oregon (late September) it's been pretty much just home and work and back home again. My big excitement at work is that I moved to a new disk with a very large window. I gave up some privacy (okay, really just a semblance of privacy) for light and a view. It's been a good trade-off so far.

There hasn't been any real excitement since my trip to OR. That was just a plain old good trip. I love spending time with my mother; we always have a good time, we think very much alike, and we enjoy the same things. The trip was a great break for me. We would sit at home and talk, go visit small towns, wander through old cemeteries, shop some, and were always on the lookout for food. I miss having her closer so that we can do those things on a regular basis. I know it's kind of late to be saying so, but I'm very grateful for her letting me go down there and for all the nice things she did while I was there.

Back at home, Thanksgiving kicked off the holidays. We were invited to our friends Jim and Doug's...actually it's Doug's house but they shared the hosting chores. There were about 10 people total and it was a nice way to spend the afternoon/evening. Plus, they cooked everything. Well, everything except for the vegetarian alternatives I ended up cooking for Jayson. And now that Thanksgiving is done we're putting up all the Christmas crap...er, I mean decorations. I'm not big on Christmas decorations, and as a whole the holiday has lost most of its meaning for me since I was a kid. The holiday was a big deal for my family when I was growing up. It was always secular in nature, but my parents made sure it was a special time for my sisters and me, and it was a very special time. After growing up and the death of the grandparents it wasn't as special. As I've gotten older, it's become even less so, especially with the fact that the holiday seems to start in August, at least if you go by the displays in the stores. So, I guess I have Christmas burnout. I do enjoy the time spent with friends and family, but I guess I'm not sure why that can't happen any other day of the year. I'm also not sure why we're supposed to buy gifts for people just because it's December 25th. If I see something I think someone will like, I prefer to give them that gift any other day of the year. Oh well...end of rant!

Just in time to bring out the Christmas clutter we had started getting the closets and spaces here at home organized. We're got a lot of clutter to get rid of and the closets have become messy. It's surprisingly rewarding to get rid of things and get spaces cleaned out. We're talking about getting rid of the larger dining chairs that seem to be taking up too much space and putting our antique chairs back in place. And, I want to change the red we have on the walls to a brighter red. So, more projects...

So, you can probably see why I haven't posted much here recently. I don't have much to say!

Google images meme

Via Romach... I didn't feel like being overly productive at work today so I took advantage of him tagging all his readers to do this. You're supposed to:

A) Answer the question below then do a Google Image search with your answer. Choose a picture from the 1st page of results and display it with little explanation.
B) Tag 5 people to do the same once you’ve finished answering every question. I don't normally tag people online so anyone who feels compelled (and hasn't done it yet based on Romach's tagging) should do it.

1. The age you will be on your next birthday : 41

2. A place you want to travel to : Myanmar (Burma)

3. Your favourite place : Venice, Italy

4. Your favourite food : Mashed potatoes

5. Your favourite pet : Basenji

6. Favourite colour combination : Hunter green

7. Favourite piece of clothing : Jock strap

8. Your all time favourite music : Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Seans

9. Favourite TV show : The Simpsons. It's become very common, but I still like it.

10. First name of your significant other : Jayson

and Anthony

11. Which town do you live in : Seattle

12. Your screenname / Nickname : Grrrowler

13. Your fist job : Bus boy

14. Your dream Job : Naval architect

15. One bad habit that you have : I crack my neck

16. Worst fear : Drowning

17. Things I would like to do before I die! : Go skydiving

18. The first thing you would do if you get £1,000,000 : Buy a bigger boat

19. My husband(s): Jayson and Anthony

20. What present would you like for your next birthday? A hairy cowboy would be nice...

Dear Russians: Lighten up already

There surely must be bigger problems in Russia than the undermining of the culture by a cartoon. What is it with these nationalists and religious groups that take themselves SO seriously? Even a cartoon making fun of how serious they take themselves is taken too seriously and they get up in arms over it. In this case the TV station that shows South Park in Russia is being taken to court. What a great use of the court's time and resources. Just lighten the hell up...

Lifestyles of rich and clueless

She didn't realize how big the house was getting based on the blueprints? Maybe the architect should have done a mock-up for her after saying "Hey, you've already got a living room you can land a small plane in. I think it's big enough."

But then again, everyone needs a gift wrapping room.

50 is the new 36?

While I respect the woman for what she's accomplished, I'm not a huge Madonna fan. I don't dislike her music, but I don't love it either. That fact notwithstanding, tomorrow is her 50th birthday (talk about it is all over the internets), but Kabbalah priests have somehow determined that her spiritual age is actually only 36. I'm not sure if that's good news or bad for her. Her body is still 50 years old, no matter what the priests say. I've always thought that having an "old soul" was a good thing. So does the fact that Madonna's spiritual age is less than her body's age mean that she's really just immature?

Maybe I've underestimated the value of religion all these years. If it can make Madonna 36, maybe it could make me 26 again. Then again, I'm guessing that my spiritual age would come out to be something like 82 so maybe I don't want to know. I wonder if Oil of Olay clears up spiritual crows-feet...?

On a slightly related note, why would anyone with such control over her image like Madonna allow a picture this bad to be published?