Fire Breathing

Okay, first, I want to caution everyone who isn't smart enough to realize this already, but firebreathing is extremely dangerous. Equally important, don't tell Boudicca's kids about this post.

Since I've moved back to Michigan, I have; either at Ren Fairs, or at Swing dancing (not sure what fire breathing has to do with swing) seen numerous examples of good fire breathing. I've also seen some really bad examples of it at a bar not to far from here, where in one case the side of a guy's face caught fire because he did not wipe the excess fuel from his face after breathing it.


I have decided that this is something that I want to learn how to do, as it seemed a natural step from making campfires become towering infernos of fire. My first few attempts have been great successes, or rather, they didn't end with me in the hospital or badly burned. In talking with some performance artists, I have picked up the basics and can only say that it's a technique that's both easy and dangerous in it's simplicity. While rather exciting to do, I initially found in my first attempts that having a flame that close to my face is also a little scary.


When I feel that I am good enough, I'll be sure to post video of my attempts.

A Riddle.

There are four men in a room sitting around a table. Scattered around the room are 53 bicycles. One of the men has been shot. Why?

Most Memorable Event

I think the most memorable event from my trip was traveling through the mountains of Montana with zero visibility during a snowstorm. It got to the point where I thought about risking driving into open air to pull over to the side of the road. At the worst part, I could no longer see the road, the rumble strip wasn't making the rumble sound, and the safety markers were completely covered in snow and thus perfectly camouflaged. What makes this truly memorable during the worst of it, a wiggle wagon passed by me, and I was able to follow its tracks the rest of the way through the worst part of it and to the next truck stop. Needless to say, once my heart finally settled back into place I slept really well that night.

A good joke

"See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum. . . and one night. . . one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they’re going to escape! So they get up on to the roof, and there, just across the narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in moon light. . . stretching away to freedom. Now the first guy he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see he's afraid of falling. . . So then the first guy has an idea. He says, 'Hey! I have my flash light with me. I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me.' But, the second guy just shakes his head. He says. . . he says 'What do you think I am, crazy? You'd turn it off when I was half way across.'" -Joker (The Killing Joke)

A bad joke

a pirate walks into a bar with a paper towel on his head. The bartender, seeing this, asks why it's there. The pirate answers, "Arrr! There be a Bounty on me head!"

I'm Back

Suffice to say, it's been an odd year for me. I spent most of 2008 on the road with AMA Supercross, effectively placing my social (and blogging) life on hold while I drove a truck so that those who enjoyed watching it on TV could actually do so. Needless to say, I've learned a lot from that trip, some of which I'll share a little later on this week and on down the line. An additional deterrent from keeping up to date with my blog was a lack of internet at home, due mostly to a lack of interest in getting internet, as I had many books and games to catch up on, as well as getting back in touch with friends, and a lack of ability to access blogger while at work. Suffice it to say that my life has settled back to a semi-normal reutine, and that I will be able to better devote time to you, my reading public.

Also built into this time were two complete uprootings of my life and moving down to Georgia, then deciding to move once more back up to Michigan. So now I'm back in Grand Rapids, living in a much better apartment than I was previously, and will be much better about keeping the dust off the blog than I have been in the past.

Cheesy Beefy Melt -- Weekly PSA

I don't know about you, but I really liked Taco Bell's Cheesy Beefy Melt. I was not happy when they brought in the new item and got rid of it. So I did some research, and came up with a way to order it regardless:


Order the Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito as follows:

No Beans

Substitute Beef

No Fiesta

Add Sour Cream

Steam the Tortilla


Eat and Enjoy the cheesy beefy goodness!

Weekly PSA-- Problem Solving

Ever have those times when you've got a problem that you just can't seem to solve? Well, the issue is that you're focusing on the the problem, and when you focus on the problem you're never going to be able to find the solution. Stop thinking about what's going wrong, and begin thinking about what needs to be done to correct it.

Think of the solution, not the problem

Mike Huckabee Ad:

Vote for Huckabee, or Chuck Norris will roundhouse kick you into nonexistence

A Soldier's Silent Night

I'm gonna be honest, this video brought tears to my eyes.

To all the troops out there, thank you.

This was Emailed To Me

A friend sent this to my email, and I thought it was too important not to share this stunning information.

Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are:

Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.

Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.

Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.

DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
Contributes to soil erosion.

Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.

Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.

Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.

Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere.

Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.

I scored 111 total of these

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 movies, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are a lot of movies on this list. Copy this list mail, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put the number next to the movies you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun!

( )Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x)Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
() Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
(x)Deep Impact
() KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
(x)Eight Crazy Nights
(x) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total so far: 17

() A Cinderella Story
(x)The Terminal
()The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
(x) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(x) The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 24

(x) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
()Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
()I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(x) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 30

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
() Child's Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
(x) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 38

(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(x) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
()Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
() Predator II
() The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George
Total so far: 49

(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
()ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
()Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 53

( ) Best Bet
() How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks!
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 59

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x)Sky High
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls (and skulls 2 and 3...lol)
(x) Cruel Intentions
(x) Cruel Intentions 2
(x) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
(x) Shrek 3
Total so far: 75

(x) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
() The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Kippendorf's Tribe
() A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
(x) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total so far: 80

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 86

(x) Baseketball
() Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x) Elf
(x) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 90

( ) The Jacket
() Kung Fu Hustle
() Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x)Monsters Inc.
(x)Titanic
(x)Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x)Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 93

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
() Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicle Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
() 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
Total so far: 96

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
() The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 99

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x)Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 105

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
111


tagging:

Blogfather Harvey over at Badexample

Only Great Minds Can Read This

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Because I got High . . . I thought you were Jedi

I talked with my mom about her progress in becoming a nurse, (she battled and won against breast cancer earlier this year, so had a bit of a setback) and she had thought that she had a year from when she finished the classes to get the rest of her hours in. Turns out it was a year from when the classes started, which ended in September (Maryland Law). However she's going to ask for an extension since she was dealing with cancer and surgery, which she just went back a couple of weeks ago to have some of the cosmetic stuff redone. The doctor said that he's only going to bill the insurance, and whatever they don't pay he isn't going to worry about. On Saturday I'll be driving up to MD to see them, and we'll be going to Gettysburg, Medieval Times, and other fun things.

In other news, I have a Facebook account, and this was recently sent to my inbox:

"I know you from the afroman video "because i got high". MAN, was i high when i saw that! but i still know it´s you. if being a jedi was a real religion and you really get all those powers i would totally be a jedi! it´s the only resonable religion! the force better be with you!"
- Isaias


my answer: um, thanks, I think.

Pirate's Prayer

Our cap'n, who art in Fiddler's Green, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as 'tis in Fiddler's Green. Give us this day our daily sea biscuit, 'n forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Fer thine be th' kingdom, 'n th' power, 'n th' glory forever. Amen

American Idol

So I was at the UGA @ Alabama game a little while back. We were doing a shoot for Are You Fan Enough, an On Demand show that focuses on the crazy antics of the fans, and them discussing the two teams that are competing. One of the fans told us we should go check out one guys house, because he was one of the largest contributors to that college. Well, on the fence was a sign marked private party, but being the good people we were, we completely ignored it and crashed the party with the camera rolling. Well, turns out it was the house of Taylor Hick's father, and they were throwing a tailgate party. Sure enough, Taylor Hicks was there in a baseball cap. My uncle didn't recognize him, and I didn't think he should have won so I kept my mouth shut. As it also turned out, his lawyer was there, and wanted to know who we were, and what we were doing. No one had told us to leave, but right now we're in a little bit of trouble with Comcast.


Update: We aren't in trouble anymore, and we can use the footage, though we've didn't put anything up showing who he is.

I'm not Dead Yet!

Wow, completely forgot about my blog for a while, but now its time to brush off the cobwebs and the ten pounds of dust, and start afresh. I now live in Georgia about ten minutes from my aunt and uncle, and my cousins, and second cousin. I'm finally back down in the South where I belong.

I've begun watching the Star Wars films in order, Episodes 1-6, and its got me thinking. I don't think the Empire is really all that evil, and low and behold, I found someone else who agrees with me, and even backs it up pretty well.

You can go read it here, or you can just scroll down a bit farther, as I've pasted it from the website to here.

Back to my other topic. I decided to move down to Georgia in order to basically start life afresh. I've felt for a long time that I like where I'm at as far as personal growth, but that the area I was in was filled with too many people who knew the old me, and would judge me based more on that than on what was truly myself. Then too there are a number of things about my past that are tied to Michigan that I regret, and felt that the easiest way to close the chapters on those parts of my life would be simply to relocate to a new area. More on what I'm actually doing down here later.

While a bit warmer than Michigan, the weather in Georgia has been great. There's been very few cloudy days, some great thunderstorms, and my neighbors are much quieter than the ones in my apartment complex in Grand Rapids. Believe it or not, I actually left the white trash in the apartment complex and now live around much better neighbors. Overall stress is down, though so is social activity, as I'm still getting to know the area. I don't yet know where all the groovy hip kids hang out ;-) .

Well, that's enough for now, look for something new on Friday or Saturday, as I feel like it.

Star Wars:

It's a difficult leap to make--embracing Darth Vader and the Emperor over the plucky and attractive Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia--but a careful examination of the facts, sorted apart from Lucas's off-the-shelf moral cues, makes a quite convincing case.

First, an aside: For the sake of this discussion, I've considered only the history gleaned from the actual Star Wars films, not the Expanded Universe. If you know what the Expanded Universe is and want to argue that no discussion of Star Wars can be complete without considering material outside the canon, that's fine. However, it's always been my view that the comic books and novels largely serve to clean up Lucas's narrative and philosophical messes. Therefore, discussions of intrinsic intent must necessarily revolve around the movies alone. You may disagree, but please don't e-mail me about it.

If you don't know what the Expanded Universe is, well, uh, neither do I.

I. The Problems with the Galactic Republic

At the beginning of the Star Wars saga, the known universe is governed by the Galactic Republic. The Republic is controlled by a Senate, which is, in turn, run by an elected chancellor who's in charge of procedure, but

has little real power.

Scores of thousands of planets are represented in the Galactic Senate, and as we first encounter it, it is sclerotic and ineffectual. The Republic has grown over many millennia to the point where there are so many factions and disparate interests, that it is simply too big to be governable. Even the Republic's staunchest supporters recognize this failing: In "The Phantom Menace," Queen Amidala admits, "It is clear to me now that the Republic no longer functions." In "Attack of the Clones," young Anakin Skywalker observes that it simply "doesn't work."

The Senate moves so slowly that it is powerless to stop aggression between member states. In "The Phantom Menace" a supra-planetary alliance, the Trade Federation (think of it as OPEC to the Galactic Republic's United Nations), invades a planet and all the Senate can agree to do is call for an investigation.

Like the United Nations, the Republic has no armed forces of its own, but instead relies on a group of warriors, the Jedi knights, to "keep the peace." The Jedi, while autonomous, often work in tandem with the Senate, trying to smooth over quarrels and avoid conflicts. But the Jedi number only in the thousands--they cannot protect everyone.

What's more, it's not clear that they should be "protecting" anyone. The Jedi are Lucas's great heroes, full of Zen wisdom and righteous power. They encourage people to "use the Force"--the mystical energy which is the source of their power--but the truth, revealed in "The Phantom Menace," is that the Force isn't available to the rabble. The Force comes from midi-chlorians, tiny symbiotic organisms in people's blood, like mitochondria. The Force, it turns out, is an inherited, genetic trait. If you don't have the blood, you don't get the Force. Which makes the Jedi not a democratic militia, but a royalist Swiss guard.

And an arrogant royalist Swiss guard, at that. With one or two notable exceptions, the Jedi we meet in Star Wars are full of themselves. They ignore the counsel of others (often with terrible consequences), and seem honestly to believe that they are at the center of the universe. When the chief Jedi record-keeper is asked in "Attack of the Clones" about a planet she has never heard of, she replies that if it's not in the Jedi archives, it doesn't exist. (The planet in question does exist, again, with terrible consequences.)

In "Attack of the Clones," a mysterious figure, Count Dooku, leads a separatist movement of planets that want to secede from the Republic. Dooku promises these confederates smaller government, unlimited free trade, and an "absolute commitment to capitalism." Dooku's motives are suspect--it's not clear whether or not he believes in these causes. However, there's no reason to doubt the motives of the other separatists--they seem genuinely to want to make a fresh start with a government that isn't bloated and dysfunctional.

The Republic, of course, is eager to quash these separatists, but they never make a compelling case--or any case, for that matter--as to why, if they are such a freedom-loving regime, these planets should not be allowed to check out of the Republic and take control of their own destinies.

II. The Empire

We do not yet know the exact how's and why's, but we do know this: At some point between the end of Episode II and the beginning of

Episode IV, the Republic is replaced by an Empire. The first hint comes in "Attack of the Clones," when the Senate's Chancellor Palpatine is granted emergency powers to deal with the separatists. It spoils very little to tell you that Palpatine eventually becomes the Emperor. For a time, he keeps the Senate in place, functioning as a rubber-stamp, much like the Roman imperial senate, but a few minutes into Episode IV, we are informed that the he has dissolved the Senate, and that "the last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."

Lucas wants the Empire to stand for evil, so he tells us that the Emperor and Darth Vader have gone over to the Dark Side and dresses them in black.

But look closer. When Palpatine is still a senator, he says, "The Republic is not what it once was. The Senate is full of greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest in the common good." At one point he laments that "the bureaucrats are in charge now."

Palpatine believes that the political order must be manipulated to produce peace and stability. When he mutters, "There is no civility, there is only politics," we see that at heart, he's an esoteric Straussian.

Make no mistake, as emperor, Palpatine is a dictator--but a relatively benign one, like Pinochet. It's a dictatorship people can do business with. They collect taxes and patrol the skies. They try to stop organized crime (in the form of the smuggling rings run by the Hutts). The Empire has virtually no effect on the daily life of the average, law-abiding citizen.

Also, unlike the divine-right Jedi, the Empire is a meritocracy. The Empire runs academies throughout the galaxy (Han Solo begins his career at an Imperial academy), and those who show promise are promoted, often rapidly. In "The Empire Strikes Back" Captain Piett is quickly promoted to admiral when his predecessor "falls down on the job."

And while it's a small point, the Empire's manners and decorum speak well of it. When Darth Vader is forced to employ bounty hunters to track down Han Solo, he refuses to address them by name. Even Boba Fett, the greatest of all trackers, is referred to icily as "bounty hunter." And yet Fett understands the protocol. When he captures Solo, he calls him "Captain Solo." (Whether this is in deference to Han's former rank in the Imperial starfleet, or simply because Han owns and pilots his own ship, we don't know. I suspect it's the former.)

But the most compelling evidence that the Empire isn't evil comes in "The Empire Strikes Back" when Darth Vader is battling Luke Skywalker. After an exhausting fight, Vader is poised to finish Luke off, but he stays his hand. He tries to convert Luke to the Dark Side with this simple plea: "There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you. . . . Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy." It is here we find the real controlling impulse for the Dark Side and the Empire. The Empire doesn't want slaves or destruction or "evil." It wants order.

None of which is to say that the Empire isn't sometimes brutal. In Episode IV, Imperial stormtroopers kill Luke's aunt and uncle and Grand Moff Tarkin orders the destruction of an entire planet, Alderaan. But viewed in context, these acts are less brutal than they initially appear. Poor Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen reach a grisly end, but only after they aid the rebellion by hiding Luke and harboring two fugitive droids. They aren't given due process, but they are traitors.

The destruction of Alderaan is often cited as ipso facto proof of the Empire's "evilness" because it seems like mass murder--planeticide, even. As Tarkin prepares to fire the Death Star, Princess Leia implores him to spare the planet, saying, "Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons." Her plea is important, if true.

But the audience has no reason to believe that Leia is telling the truth. In Episode IV, every bit of information she gives the Empire is willfully untrue. In the opening, she tells Darth Vader that she is on a diplomatic mission of mercy, when in fact she is on a spy mission, trying to deliver schematics of the Death Star to the Rebel Alliance. When asked where the Alliance is headquartered, she lies again.

Leia's lies are perfectly defensible--she thinks she's serving the greater good--but they make her wholly unreliable on the question of whether or not Alderaan really is peaceful and defenseless. If anything, since Leia is a high-ranking member of the rebellion and the princess of Alderaan, it would be reasonable to suspect that Alderaan is a front for Rebel activity or at least home to many more spies and insurgents like Leia.

Whatever the case, the important thing to recognize is that the Empire is not committing random acts of terror. It is engaged in a fight for the survival of its regime against a violent group of rebels who are committed to its destruction.

III. After the Rebellion

As we all know from the final Star Wars installment, "Return of the Jedi," the rebellion is eventually successful. The Emperor is assassinated, Darth Vader abdicates his post and dies, the central governing apparatus of the Empire is destroyed in a spectacular space battle, and the rebels rejoice with their small, annoying Ewok friends. But what happens next?

(There is a raft of literature on this point, but, as I said at the beginning, I'm going to ignore it because it doesn't speak to Lucas's original intent.)

In Episode IV, after Grand Moff Tarkin announces that the Imperial Senate has been abolished, he's asked how the Emperor can possibly hope to keep control of the galaxy. "The regional governors now have direct control over territories," he says. "Fear will keep the local systems in line."

So under Imperial rule, a large group of regional potentates, each with access to a sizable army and star destroyers, runs local affairs. These governors owe their fealty to the Emperor. And once the Emperor is dead, the galaxy will be plunged into chaos.

In all of the time we spend observing the Rebel Alliance, we never hear of their governing strategy or their plans for a post-Imperial universe. All we see are plots and fighting. Their victory over the Empire doesn't liberate the galaxy--it turns the galaxy into Somalia writ large: dominated by local warlords who are answerable to no one.

Which makes the rebels--Lucas's heroes--an unimpressive crew of anarchic royals who wreck the galaxy so that Princess Leia can have her tiara back.

I'll take the Empire.

Maryland, Gettysburg, and my truck.

Working at Biolife has certain benefits. Included in the benefits is three weeks paid vacation and eight personal days. I decided to take my first paid vacation this past week. I was going to take it sooner, but my mom's surgery and recovery prevented that from being a good idea. Because it would have been too expensive to fly, I elected to drive down to Maryland which is also costly, but in this case still cheaper to flying when you add in gas to get to Detroit, parking for a week, the plane tickets and then the drive back to Grand Rapids. More on the truck later. My mom is doing better, though I've found out that she's going to have to have yet more surgery due to the kind of medication she's going to need to be on to help reduce the chance of the cancer coming back, which is something she's really not looking foreward to having. In the past she's always come back from surgery must faster than the normal person, and this time its taking longer for her, which is frustrating. Other members of my family are doing well, though my younger brother and sister can't seem to understand that mom isn't able to take as much right now.

As I've recently become interested in studying the Civil War, yesterday my father and I went out to Gettysburg and toured the Battlefield, or atleast, the Museum located at the battlefield. The battlefield was closed due to a bad snow storm. A couple days previously the weather had been in the 80's. The museum was nice, and they have an electronic map which shows with lights the progress of the battle at Gettysburg, its interesting how close the CSA came to winning that battle.
After the Museum visit, we walked around downtown a looked in some of the shops, I bought a CSA bowie knife, which features R.E. Lee astride his horse on the handle, and on the blade lists the states of the Confederacy.

I found out that my truck shouldn't have been able to make a 9hr drive to Maryland. Part of the engine is self destructing by rubbing against something else, the water pump was barely hanging on, the muffler wasn't muffling . . . I was unaware of all of this. The only thing I knew was that the truck didn't sound right, the cure for which was turning the radio up and placing tape over the warning lights. Before you go into a panic, no I didn't really place tape over the warning lights, although I did turn the radio up (Engines are much louder without the muffler).

So now my truck is being fixed before I can drive it back to Michigan, luckily that shouldn't take too long.

My eharmony Report

I don't know if I'm seriously going to consider using eharmony, but I thought I would check it out anyway. I did all of their questions, and this is what they've come up with:

This week, Agreeableness.

You are best described as:
TAKING CARE OF OTHERS AND TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

Words that describe you:

Fair
Considered
Collaborative
Responsive
Sensible
Diplomatic
Contemplative
Indulgent
Rational

A General Description of How You Interact with Others

You are important. So are other people, especially if they are in trouble. You have a tender heart, but you know how to establish and keep personal boundaries. You are empathetic and compassionate, but you also believe that it's best if people solve their own problems and learn to take care of themselves, if they are able.You are deeply moved by the needs of others, but you know that if you don't take good care of yourself, you'll wind up being of no use to anyone. So yours is a thoughtful compassion. You strive to be fair and sensible, taking care of others while also taking care of yourself.When someone really is in trouble, you like to collaborate with them toward a solution; they do their part, you do yours. You consider carefully, and respond in a sensible way; they do their part, and together you move through the difficulty. You seldom act impulsively; rather, when a problem arises, you take your time to think through the situation. This contemplative quality usually means that you'll arrive at a diplomatic solution, one that's fair for the other person and also fair to you. It's frequently a win/win situation.

Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward You

For people who are ruled by tender-hearted compassion, your more diplomatic response to problems might seem too cool, too focused on fairness and not filled enough with sympathy and selflessness. For them, when someone's life is on fire, what is needed is not collaboration but rescue. And the person who experiences their life on fire may resent the time you take to contemplate. "I need you, and I need you NOW! This isn't about fairness, it's about the fire." "All deliberate speed" may seem too deliberate and not fast enough, either to the more compassionate or to people in genuine trouble. At the other end of the spectrum of compassion, those who believe people should take care of themselves may find even your thoughtful sympathies too soft. They expect people, themselves included, to work their own way out of trouble. They are convinced that the helping hand you lend just fosters dependence and is not good for the development of character, either in you or in the person you assist.

Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You

Many people, perhaps the majority, will come to appreciate your balance as a compassionate person. The more they get to know you, the more they will admire your thoughtful compassion for others and its compliment in the sensible ways you take good care of yourself. Those whom you help will appreciate the way you leave them with their dignity by expecting them to collaborate in their own rescue. Those who are more tender-hearted will find in you a balance they lack; when they've run out of energy because they fail to take good care of themselves, you will still have enough compassion left to lift others out of trouble. Even the tough-hearted, those who believe people should solve their own problems, might come to admire your tenderness which they don't find in themselves. So the people you help will be grateful, and the people who see your balance between self and others will admire you. Certainly, balanced is not bad at all as a way to be known among your friends.

Speak English Dang It!

I know that some people can speak another language in addition to english. If you're out in public and want to converse with friends of yours that can also speak a different language, that's fine with me. However, if you're in a work place that centers around customer service, it should be a condition that around your customers you speak in the dominant language of whatever country you are in. I find it highly rude to walk into a place of business and find that two employees are conversing together in another language that the majority of the people around you don't know.