Take a pointless quiz about the English dubbed UK version of a Japanese game show that is shown in the US in a completly different way.
March 2004
Monthly Archive
Misc.25 Mar 2004 09:12 pm
Home Improvement23 Mar 2004 01:05 pm
As many of you probably know, I am still slowly recovering from Hurricane Isabel. I have finally removed the remains of my shed, and I am making good progress on splitting the wood left over from the downed trees. This weekend I decided to do something about the large stump from one of the trees. It was too big to pull out, and would have taken a LOT of effort and digging, and using the chainsaw in the dirt to remove. So I did what any other red-blooded American would do… I made it into a chair, with an armrest, and a beer holder.
Of course to make this happen I had to do many things with my chainsaw that my user manual warned could result in grievous bodily harm and/or death. In other words don’t try this at home, or at least don’t try this in my yard where I may be found liable. For info on the correct way to use your chainsaw, here is a great guide.
Now if I can just get some sort of shed up in the yard I will be about done with this recovery process. Hopefully, just in time to get behind on my spring and summer yard work.
Politics19 Mar 2004 12:22 pm
This article in the Washington Post gives me a bit of hope that democracy may still work. John McCain is one of the few Senators willing (and able) to speak his mind. I still wish the Repoblicans would invent time travel, travel back to 1999, and nominate Senator John McCain for President.
Maybe someone can convince him to run as an Independent this year, or maybe the Bush and Kerry camps will listen and focus on more positive issue, or maybe monkeys will flight out of my butt.
Politics19 Mar 2004 09:48 am
For anyone interested in the operation and history Virginia’s elected government, check out this page.
Politics19 Mar 2004 09:36 am
Virginia House Members don’t think it is important to truly fund education and transportation, but they have no problem taking $115 dollars a piece from state funds for 23 minutes of work.
“The floor session lasted 23 minutes, but that was long enough for House members to collect their $115 in per diem expenses. The Senate has decided to forgo the per diems during the special session.”
From this Washington Post article.
The article also mentions that the house plans on defying the Governor and going home for an extended period after Friday’s session.
Yesterdays update here also details the Senates effort to negotiate which has not been spurred the House into further negotiations.
Politics16 Mar 2004 04:12 pm
I usually don’t care enough to try and motivate people, but the Virginia Legislature is very close to leaving Richmond without coming to an agreement on the budget. I would ask that all of the VA residents reading this blog email their state Senator and Representative, and suggest that they finish their job prior to adjourning. Here is a list of contact information for Fairfax County residents.
It only takes five minutes to fire off a poorly worded email, or ten for one with no spelling errors.
Misc.11 Mar 2004 04:55 pm
The University of Texas at Austin has a great collection of maps available online. Particularly cool is the Online Maps of Current Interest section on the main page. This a great resource for enhancing your understanding of international news stories, as geography plays an important role in most political and economic decisions.
Travel09 Mar 2004 11:28 am
This weekend Katherine and I took a short trip to Orlando. Katherine was working half days to help with a new call center, but I was free to enjoy myself with my Mom and Stepfather.
I don’t have time to go over the whole weekend, but here are some highlights in roughly chronological order. Or you can just check out the pictures. On a side note, does anyone know why the iPhoto produced thumbnails look so grainy?
We arrived Friday night and checked into the Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld. This is a beautiful hotel, and my Marriott Rewards Gold status got us a free upgrade to the concierge level. Our room was one of five on the floor with a HUGE balcony. My favorite features of the hotel included the Koi pond, and the aviary in the lobby (the TV in the bathroom was pretty cool as well). We met my parents for a late dinner at a nearby Ihop, and were subjected to a forgetful waiter who liked to share too much info about his painful relationship with his mother.
Saturday Katherine went off to work, and my Parents and I spent some time at Universal Studios. The best ride was the new Shrek 4-D ride which combined a hilarious IMAX-type 3-D movie with a moving seat and some water spritzing. After work, Katherine went to the outlets, and then met us at the hotel. We then all went to the Mall @ Millennia to browse, prior to heading to the Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede for dinner. Dixie Stampede is a unique experience. The horse riding was great, the show was super cheesy (but that is part of the fun), and the food was ok. They don’t serve alcohol, but I really enjoyed myself. I don’t know if I could bring myself to pay the full ticket price, but it was definably worth the 19.95 per person rate that my parents received.
Sunday, Katherine again headed off for work. My parents picked me up at he hotel, and we drove the 200 feet to SeaWorld Orlando. Katherine joined us at the park around 1 pm and got to see most of the attractions with us. I took some great pictures of some of the shows and features at SeaWorld. I also attended beer school at the Anheuser-Busch Hospitality Center. It was actually quite interesting the Budweiser tasted much better than what I remembered from college, and the new pilsner Anheuser Word Select was pretty tasty! I also learned that all beer should be consumed from a beer clean glass (a glass only used to drink beer).
From SeaWorld we went to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel, and then to the airport to catch our 9:15 Song flight home.
I usually don’t like theme parks (mostly because of the price tag) but I had a great time in Orlando. I really needed a nice relaxing weekend, and the 86-degree temperatures and sunny skies were great.
Of course now I seem to have lost my acclimation to the colder Virginia weather. The freak thirty minute snow storm during my walk to lunch yesterday was rude reminder that it is still winter in the Mid-Atlantic states.
Politics04 Mar 2004 04:30 pm
In the first published report of casualties from Saudi’s Saudization policy, a number of ex-pat workers from India, Pakistan, Sudan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka were rounded up, arrested, and shaved! Of course the owners of the business not the workers are responsible for complying with the law. The ex-pats probably received the short end of the stick because they are guaranteed less protection under Saudi law than the Saudi national who owned the travel agency. Of course it could also be because the enforcement officials are as racist as the people who developed this policy.
To add insult to injury, the men were forced to pay for their unwanted haircuts.
Misc.02 Mar 2004 04:10 pm
If you are like me, you like to see a major news story from multiple angles. ibiblio.org has a great list of news archives to help you find another viewpoint on the issues of the day.
I am not quite sure why the International archives don’t include Canada or the U.S., but there are a lot of great resources there. For the linguistically challenged (like me) quite a few of the newspapers are in English.
