Pauls Rants and Revelations

So today is (or was) Thanksgiving. And while America is the only country to celebrate this (and even then, not the whole of it) I can’t help but feel somewhat excited.

Not for the wonderful dinners and time of family that comes with this holiday. No, what I am excited about is the sales that are going to be happening tomorrow. The “Black Friday” super sales that are almost as legendary as turkey day are what most people are talking about. Even at the family function we attended, some were talking about what stores they were going to hit up at 5:30 in the morning.

Its almost sad, really. I mean this is supposed to be a day of giving thanks but instead has turned into just a pre-cursor to a major commercial event. But then again, the basis of the holiday itself isn’t exactly saintly, so it’s probably for the best that it is just morphed into another commercialized day and quietly mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

-Cheers

I got a hold of some rather interesting products from a company called Vat19. At first I was a little curious about them as it was a somewhat off assortment of items.

Included in the package was a pencil, some make-your-own snow, and a DVD. Upon closer inspection these were not the typical incarnations of these ususally normal items.

Firstly, the Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencil smells. But not bad, mind. It smells like watermelons. My son was really interesting in this one because it smelled so much like candy so he got to play with this one. The second item, the Insta Snow Fake Snow Powder, was also intersting as I messed it up at first (only used half) but after adjusting to the correct amount of water, it was quite fun to play with and wold make a good decoration.

The last item, the Ambient Fire Video Fireplace DVD, was a looping variet of fireplace videos. Just pop it in your DVD player and you get a constant crakling fire (campfire, hearth fire, gas, etc) for your enjoyment. This would be good for those who do not have a fire place and want that classic Christmas feel in their homes.

Vat19.com also has some other interesting items, such as Electronics Charging Station (which I haven’t checked out yet) which would make great holiday gifts and would make the recipients take pause as these things, as the site says, are curiously awesome little things.

-Cheers

Just came across this via Digg video and thought to share some whitty hilarity with you.

Click to play video

If you can’t see the video click this link : Italians Vs Europeans

-Cheers

This is just too cool not to share with as many people as I can. Im a fan of the Steampunk style and a fan of Star Wars, so when I came across this I just has to rave about it.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS :: Steampunk Lightsaber

I originally found it via a Digg article here.  The article was a collection of various steampunk style object including, but not limited too, R2D2, a computer monitor, and laptop. Check out Digg for more but if you just want the article then by all means click here.

Now if only I could convince my wife to let me make one for myself. She just got her office back after my last project so I should probably hold off on it or a bit.

-Cheers

And now folks its time for some fun fun web traffic generating. In this segment, I shamelessly mention a bunch of buzz words that are sure to get a lot of traffic. How many can I fit into one paragraph? Lets find out

“Ron Paul commented on Waterboarding and Christina Aguileras baby Boobs while generating $5 million in donations. When asked about his Web Traffic Generating Secrets, a Super Mario Galaxy proponent said ‘Don’t harp on Britney Spears or I’ll smack you with my Nintendo Wii nunchuck. Meanwhile, Condi Rice assured us the Failing Dollar and Apple are in great shape for the 2008 Olympics.”

So how many was that? 12? I suppose thats good enough. If you got a better one leave a comment.

-Cheers

P.S. - Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Kittens. (had to get that last bit in there).

I know as much as the next guy that, eventually, there will be a zombie attack. Its really just a matter of time.

Of course, we all keep saying that but have you looked around recently? There have been more and more stories about zombies and zombie related happenings in the news latley.

Did you hear about the zombie figures they found on 3000 year old Egyptian hieroglyphs?

How about the guy who created the first (in my opinion) marketable zombie survival kit?

Have you seen Resident Evil 3?

The onslaught is coming. You, me, we’re all going to be fighting for our lives in a desperate struggle to get away from the undead masses and reach… where ever the characters reach at the end of the games and movies and comics.

Grab your shotguns, machetes, sticks of dynamite, and get ready. Cause they may be behind you right now.

-Cheers

November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness month. If you have not heard of it, then please, pay attention. If you have, then pay attention anyway.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that primarily affects a persons brain. Basically, blood stops flowing to certain areas of the brain that control memory. The effects of the disease are quite unpleasent mostly for the person’s loved ones who can only watch. The effects on the person is, well, no one really knows. The affliced appears dotty and out of it and will often mistake people for someone else.

My maternal grandmother had it when I was growing up. She was always quite happy to see me because I resembled my grandfather a bit so she always mistook me for him. But it was painful to visit her as she was constantly forgetting things and never really there.

At that time there really wasn’t much that could be done but in recent years more accurate testing and diagnosis has been developer. In addition, a few new drugs are available now that can lessen the effects of the disease. But what I want to talk about is what you, yes, you, should do right now.

Go and locate a testing facility around your area that does screening for Alzheimer’s. Any of the links on the page will take you there. Also, read up on the successful aging tips provided by the Alzheimers Foundation of America which will help you our probably more than you know.

Also remember that just becuase we are racing for a cure, that doesn’t mean we should brush aside those who have it right now. To make a difference, or to give an early holiday gift, consider donating to the AFA to help take care of those who are suffering with this disease now.

OK. I’m done. Now go and get a screening.

-Cheers

More and more stories are popping up regarding what could be known later as the downfall of the USA. Articles on the failing of the dollar, failures of our leaders, and ridiculous steps people are taking to ensure public safety are some of the more prominent ones.  All this is telling me that a revolution is coming; and it isn’t going to be pretty.

I was, and still am to a point, proud to be an American. But the acts of our leaders and the mockery of our allies, not to mention what must be outright laughter of our adversaries, has really shaken what little faith I have left in our government.  The fact that some are going before congress asking for the head of Cheney, for none other than high crimes against the people, is just the latest indicator that something very, very bad is going to happen in this country. But it won’t come from outside; it will come from within.

Whether it will be in the form of an awakening, a revolution, or, quite possibly, an armed revolt of the people is still uncertain. I would hope that it is more of an awakening than anything else. If an armed revolt were to happen, it would be very bad for the government as, being the most armed country on the planet, private citizens with weapons greatly outweighs the police and armed forces combined (somewhere around 80 million).

On a more cheerful note, I believe that things will get straightened out in a (mostly) peaceful manner. A couple of impeachments is a start, and a good one, but lets make sure that we don’t replace one bad apple with another.

-Cheers

If anyone has read The Mist by Stephen King, then they could see how interesting this could be as a movie.

The premise is that a scattered group of townsfolk are trapped in a super market when a mysterious mist (hence the name) rolls in and brings with it some, well, unfriendly things.

I wont spoil it for you (although the trailer does a good job of it for me) but it does remind me of time when a buddy of mine and I were heading through a somewhat dangerous part of L.A. when we got cornered by a group of gangsters. This ‘friend’, as I refer to him in type now, unceremoniously pushes me forward toward the group, vaults the wall we were against, and disappears into the alley. I was seriously standing their with a classic ‘what the fuck’ expression at the behavior of my friend; enough so that the gangsters were even saying “Man, thats fucked up.”

Turned out that they were only playing, and let me use a phone to call a real friend to come and get me. It was an hour before she showed up but my and my new gangster friends passes the time by playing Super Punch Out on the SNES (at which I sucked at).

OK. Enough reminising. If you are interested in it, I would suggest reading the book first as the book is always better then the movie. But if you just like movies (or cant read, which if you cant then why are you reading this post?) then by all means just see the flick. Either way you won’t regret it. Until, that is, you go to sleep that night, anyways
-Cheers

SO I just read all the press releases (well, most of them anyway) and it has been confirmed that Google is going to be puting a phone onto the market.

Their big pich for it: its open. No contract locks or fucked up service snafus. In fact, they will offer phones that come unlocked so you can take them to whatever carrier you wish.

The reason I’m really digging this is because their first contractors for service for thei new phone, called Android, will be Sprint and T-Mobile. As a Tmo customer, I think this is awesome. As a company, they couldn’t have made a smarter move.

Tmo and Sprint are the smalled service providers so it will bolster their numbers and also provide a decent enough test bed to hammer out the kinks before going with the larger AT&T. You can read the play-by-play from Engadget here.

They didn’t talk too much about what features the initial phone will have but it will probably have google apps bundled on it. I also think this will be a serious contender with the iPhone and its land-locked contracts with AT&T simply for the fact that it is open and can be used on a great variety of devices.

It will be an interesting thing to watch in the coming months, thats for sure.

-Cheers