The Rose

Signs of Spring

It must be spring. I received my annual notice from the fire department about brush clearance. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't appreciate their concern. It's just a pain in the ass having to comply with all their regulations, under threat of being fined. A little bit of rain every few weeks, with days of sunshine in between, and my yard gets very lush and overgrown. The other day I was trimming back, and my wife spotted a rose in full bloom on the vine-like plant coming over the wall from my neighbor's yard. It took a little doing, but I managed to get it for her. She took this picture of me, it came out way trippy looking I thought. Blogger isn't letting me upload right now, though, so I'll post it some other time... provided I remember!!!

Can You Blame Me???

Look at the ass on you!!!

How the fuck can I pass on you?
Here's some pictures of the little hottie who so inspired me to compose the post, "Seduction".

The first time I ever heard Lil Rob's "Bring Out The Freak In You" was when I first got in and turned her key. She's all that, yo!!! I did a review on Epinions about her, starting out with the first paragraph of that post :Þ If you didn't read the comments to that post, I also sent a link to it to Mazda's E-mail feedback, and they replied "It certainly sounds as though your Mazda MAZDA6 5-Door is meeting those expectations so far! We sincerely appreciate your enthusiasm. Moreover, we hope you enjoy many more pleasurable miles driving in your Mazda MAZDA6 5-Door! Zoom-Zoom!"

Another neat little perk is that this is equipped with Sirius satellite radio. Its been added on, and its way over towards the passenger side, but its pretty cool!!! I had always been of the opinion that why would you pay $10 a month to listen to music you could download and burn onto a CD, but after having it for a while, I can see the attraction. There's a station for music from the decades 50's to the 90's, a station for both classic and current hard rock and alternative, a Stones only station, a couple comedy stations.... and many others from genres I'm not really so much into!!! One of my favorites is channel 16, The Vault. I checked out their site, and you can sign up for a free three day online trial, so if you like listening to music on your PC, there you go!!!

Granny's Groove

This was in the paper the other day. Guess everybody knows now!!! Makes you wonder, huh??? Where do you go to get one of those???

Africa

My parents took off Monday evening for a trip to Zimbabwe, Africa.

The flight ends up being 40 hours!!! 20 over to England, a four hour layover, then 20 more hours to Zimbabwe!!! That's almost too long to be flying.
They are going down for three weeks altogether. They are going to be volunteer assistants at a hospital down there for something like 10 days. One of their friends did this a while back, and ended up midwifeing a birth. My mom is hoping to be able to do the same. I hadn't realized that part of the reason they are doing volunteer work like this is to be able to claim it as a deduction on their taxes!!! Very clever. Did I ever make mention that my dad made a second trip down to New Orleans??? I'm thinking not.
They are going to visit a game park and Victoria falls while they are down there, too. I purchased a 512mb memory card for my camera last weekend that I loaned to my dad. He has two more, as well as a gig and a 16mb and 128mb. Hope he fills 'em all up with good pictures!!!

Oh yes, speaking of pictures, I should note that these are from Dimijian Images. Great pictures!!!

Who Else Did I See at Disneyland???

This is the train that Walt Disney had in his back yard. I took note of the name, isn't that what Serenity sometimes calls Lilly??? See, it wasn't just the chickens that made me think of ya!!!

Pank Says...

Look who I saw at Disneyland!!!

Seduction

She was a real looker. Not flashily overdone, but smartly and sexily dressed down in an understated way. The type who might not turn a lot of heads, but once you got a halfway decent look, she would keep drawing your eyes back to her like a magnet. I think a lot of it was the color she was clad in, an eye-popping scarlet hue that clung to her every curve like a second skin. Not a tiny little thing, but perfectly portioned with delicious curves.

Something told me that she was mine for the taking (albeit if for only a short time), although I wasn't sure who was actually taking who. I drew close to her and my nostrils were filled with her scent, subtle and clean. Her voice was surprisingly low toned, a deep, husky but decidedly feminine voice, like honey over gravel. "Come on, big boy, take me for a spin..." she seemed to purr. Who was I to refuse??? We both knew what we wanted.

Her radio was on, playing Lil Rob's "Bring Out The Freak In You"

Let's get N-A-S-T-Y

Get ready for a nasty time

All the nasty things we can do

I wanna bring out the freak in you

Let me bring out the freak in you

I like seein you

Can't help but think nasty thoughts about me and you

All them nasty things we can do

Let me bring out the freak in you

There's somethin I see in you

I definitely see me in you

Doin what nasty people do

Can you blame me? Look at the ass on you

How the fuck can I pass on you?

Classy lookin freak, nasty attitude

I just have to be havin you

It must be like heaven just to handle you

The only thing I could think: Damn, she even has her own theme music!!!

To look at her, you would think she was the quick type, but she was full of delightful surprises. She wasn't going to leave me hanging, but was fully prepared to take me all the way, but on her own terms. As we began moving together, I thrilled to her touch. She felt as good as she looked, and she looked even better up close like this. It was as though we had a low level telepathy going on between us, she went exactly where I needed her to be at the very moment she should. We were on our way, and eager for the time that was to come...

Zoom zoom....

And yet ANOTHER Monkey Experiment (or) “Why Do We Do That?”

In my searching for information for the Shock the Monkey post, I also came across this monkey experiment. I think this is my favorite of all that I found. I think it shows a lot about not only monkey nature, but human nature too. If you've ever been in a company where they have some stupid thing they do (and who hasn't???) you will appreciate this.

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, all of the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result, and all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon the monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be attacked.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not? Because as far as they know, that's the way it's always been done around there.

More Monkey Experiments

Here's a little something I found while I was searching for information for my last post. Still a monkey experimentation, but with a less grim ending to this one!!!

MONKEY EXPERIMENT BADLY EMBARRASSES DUKE

DURHAM (Oct. 13)--Duke University neurobiologists succeeded Saturday in engineering the first ever mind-to-matter technology, using brain implants in monkeys. The implants sent brain signals to a robotic arm, which responded directly to the monkey's thoughts by reaching and grasping.

Unfortunately, a female monkey then wandered into the area, causing the robotic arm to grasp a twelve-foot-high light pole and begin stroking it up and down with loud metallic scraping noises.

"It was very embarrassing," said Duke University neurobiology professor Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis. "We're trying to build in one of those seven-second delay things they use on talk radio."

Shock the Monkey

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS A DESCRIPTION THAT YOU MAY FIND DISTURBING, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE FOND OF MONKEYS!!!


The post that Granny had on her blog the other day about monkey spanking reminded me of this story. I didn't catch all the details, so this is completely from my leaky memory. I searched all over for some reference to the story to verify or confirm details, but I found nothing, so I have no way of determining the truth.

We're all probably familiar with Peter Gabriel's song "Shock the Monkey". One day several years ago while I was listening to the radio, before they played the song, the DJ told this story about the origin of this song.

There was an experiment done on a lab monkey. An electrode was attached to its brain on the area that is activated when he has an orgasm. By pushing a button, the monkey would have the sensation of having an orgasm. The experiment: they gave the button to the monkey to see what he would do. The monkey died 17 minutes later, never once taking his finger off the button.

Guess if you gotta go out, that's the way to go, huh???

Rolling the Sphere

This is in Tomorrow land at Disneyland. They installed this giant stone sphere back in 1998 (I think) when they re-opened Tomorrow land. That was the first time I took my oldest son to Disneyland, I had won passes for the grand re-opening by calling up KLOS and having our pet parrot answer the phone for them. Every time the phone would ring, the bird would say "Hello... Hello, what's up???" Anyway, I've always been fascinated by this sphere. I can't go by it without going over and playing with it for a while. It sits on a stand with pressurized water underneath it, so it is semi-suspended and always moist. You can come up to it and push it in various directions and eventually get it spinning that way. There used to be water jet fountains all around it that would do dancing water patterns, but I guess they probably got tired of people complaining about getting wet and having park visitors trying to spend soggy money or something.

Smoke Screen

I was helping Sammy out at work today by cutting out a die plate for him on my CNC. The main part that needs cut is an 1/8" aluminum plate, and it is backed up by a piece of 5/8" die board (which is basically plywood with very thin layers of wood, about double the amount of typical plywood) The only minor complication with doing this is that I can't run the flood coolant while I'm cutting it or the die board gets soaked and ruined. I was using a can of aerosol cutting fluid instead. Only thing about doing it this way is that it makes a lot of smoke!!! I was cutting it in three passes, and after each one adding more cutting fluid. About halfway through it looked quite a bit like when you open up an industrial sized smoker barbecue in there!!! The owner came over with a very concerned look on his face. I said to him, "looks bad, doesn't it???" He asked what was happening and I explained to him. He was thinking that next time I should cut an extra board and cut it out before, then cut the aluminum with the flood coolant going, and throw that board away afterwards!!! He just doesn't get it, I don't think.

Busy Weekend

I have had a busy weekend. Of course there was Disneyland all day Friday. Saturday we had to go shopping (after doing quite a bit of sleeping, I had to take nyquil the night before) since that didn't get done Friday, then Sammy called up and wanted to go bowling. Took the boys, my oldest shamed us all by bowling 106!!! I was impressed!!! Today we visited my wife's grandmother, her birthday was last week. We took a cake and present, then went to my parent's house where my dad and I wet-sanded the primer he has sprayed on my Falcon last Wensday. Its close to ready for paint!!!

I missed out on chatting this weekend. I hear Pank got herself a mic and webcam, so she needs her picture taken. And while I was at Disneland on Friday, I saw something that, for some reason, reminded me of Lilly and Granny....

Got Gumbo???

Disneyland was a lot of fun!!! Expensive, but that is to be expected when you go there. A family of four is already out $228 by the time you park and get in the front gates. I ended up spending almost $350 altogether. Oh well, that's the nice thing about money, no matter how much you spend, you can always get more!!! That, and it doesn't do you a bit of good unless you spend it on something.

We did get our money's worth, though. Ended up staying until midnight. The boys were real troopers, even though you could tell the younger was
tired at the end, getting upset at just about anything. Space mountain has been re-done, and I approve of the changes!!! Its darker than it was before, and a lot of the aesthetics from the 70's or whenever it was originally built have be re-done. The headrests are now fitted with stereo speakers, and they play some techno music. Very cool. Another new arrival is the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Its an interactive ride, where you have a laser pistol and get to take shots at the evil emperor Zurg for points. A ride that I had only been on once before that I revisited was The Indiana Jones Adventure. Usually it has a ridiculously long line for a ride that isn't that fast or anything, so I usually don't go. They have a thing they do now, though, where you can scan your ticket and it gives you a pass to come back later and avoid most of the line. We did that for space mountain, and since the younger is too small to ride my wife and my oldest went while the younger and I played in Toon Town, then I went back and took him again. On our way back, we stopped in Adventure land and scanned the tickets for the Indiana Jones ride, then to Frontier land for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. If it wasn't for that program, I probably wouldn't have gone on the Indiana Jones ride, but since I did I gained a new appreciation for the ride. It really is quite epic in scope.

In New Orleans Square (which seems to not have been much effected by Katrina) there is a little restaurant that I remembered from the last time we were there. They serve gumbo in a bowl made of sourdough bread, and its GOOD!!! We dined there for dinner, and that's what the picture at the top is of. Yummy, yummy gumbo!!! Mmmmmmm!!! The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed down, and we heard from a park employee that they're re-doing it, with Johnny Depp as Capitan Jack Sparrow!!! How cool is that???

Going to Disneyland

I just ran away from home
Now I'm going to dizz knee land
I just crashed my car again
Now I'm going to dizz knee land
I just robbed a grocery store
I'm going to dizz knee land
I just flipped off President George
I'm going to dizz knee land
I'm going to dizz knee land

I just tossed a fifth of gin
Now I'm going to dizz knee land
I just got cuffed again
I'm going to dizz knee land yeah
Shot my gun into the night
I'm going to dizz knee land
I just saw a good man die
I'm going to dizz knee land
Come on...I'm going to dizz knee land

Kicked my ass out of school
Rolled me out into the streets
Hitched a ride on a monkey's back
Headed west into the black
I'm going to dizz knee land

Those are the lyrics to a song by a group called Dada. I've always loved that song, I highly recommend it. Its from probably 15 or more years ago, back when they were doing all those "I'm going to Disneyland!!!" commercials. Back then who would have thought the line "I just flipped off President George" would once again become applicable???

Anyway, that's what I'm doing tomorrow!!! I'm looking forward to it. They are doing a promo right now for SoCal residents where when you go one time to either Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure, you get free passes to go to the other within the next month. I should have some good pictures to share on returning.

For some entertaining reading on Disney urban legends, check out the section of Snopes devoted to such things. One of my favorites is the basketball court inside of the Matterhorn. The whole Snopes site is great entertainment.

The Murder on My Street

To Park or Not To Park

That is the difference between my transmission going into park and not. The left one is the one that was in the tailshaft when I opened it up, and the one on the right is what the one I replaced it with looked like. It probably only costs something like twenty-nine cents if you could buy just one, but I had to buy a $3.99 assortment of 18 of them. I'm very pleased with the results, and also very thankful to Sam, a guy who is another student in my dad's auto body class. He works at a transmission shop and knew exactly what needed to be done, and was good enough to come over on his day off and help me take care of it. I told him I owe him one, if he ever needs anything custom fabricated or CNC'd, just let me know!!!

Different

While I appreciate your concern and advice and life experience lessons that you share

Your situation and mine, while similar in some respects, are not the same

We all have our own path to walk in our lives; I can see yours has served you well

I wish you the best, and thank you for your encouragement

I hope that my path leads to a similarly happy place

Headlights in the Mirror

I peered at my darkening instruments through the gloom. The voltage was lower than ever, near to the bottom peg. Not good. I was pushing her faster than I should, faster than is really safe on the narrow, slightly winding two lane blacktop. I gave her a little bit more. The road was deserted at 4:30 AM and this was a dire situation. I could tell something was amiss in the electrical, but I wasn't going to stop to figure out what, because I knew I would be stranded. Only a little more than a mile from home, I hoped the battery would hold out until I made it.

70+ in a 30 zone. Here comes the stop sign by the school. I braked hard. I wanted to make it back, but I wasn't going to go blowing a stop sign. Just as I started braking I saw lights coming up from behind me, and fast. A million things ran through my head. One major theme: whatever this was, it wasn't good.

The past couple of days had more than their share of "not good" moments, in my opinion. Being thrown in jail was currently at the top of the list, but being thrown in jail a second time would surely trump that. Fifty thousand dollars bail. An even tie for the highest bail amount of all the other common criminals, drunks and addicts in the overcrowded cell. The other guy who got the same bail amount was a gang member, arrested for suspicion of murder. We were processed at the same time, so we had a double bond of sorts.

Being released on my own recognisance after twenty three hours was the high point. I missed a day of work and was headed in early because I had already been behind before the long weekend. Now this, my car running only on its rapidly draining battery and impending doom closing fast from behind. I did not think I would make it in a whole lot earlier than the normal time, if at all.

I stopped at the sign, looked both ways, and proceeded like I had some sense. Headlights had stopped behind me, and as I pulled away the whole light show that I had suspected was lurking in the blackness above came on. I pulled over to the side of the road and killed the power-sapping, rapidly dimming headlights. I knew I was expected to turn off the engine, too, but I could not bring myself to do so. There was insufficient juice to roll down the window, so I opened the door and got my hands out where they could be seen. An amplified voice commanded me to turn off the car, and I bellowed a reply offering my reasons why I wasn't doing so. The officer stepped forth warily and tenatively gave heed to my explanation. He quickly verified that there was no one else the car.

I was queried, something to the effect of "WTF is going on here???"

"My car is wounded, officer. I don't know exactly what, but I'm trying to get her home before I have to find out what towing companies are open at this hour."

"May I see your license and registration??? Am I going to find anything.... interesting when I run them???"

*Nervous, uneasy laughter from me* "Ummm, yea, well, actually.... You see, I was released on my own recognisance not even ten hours ago... trumped up charges, I don't think the judge will give me a minute more of jail time when the facts of the case come out..."

"What happened???"

"Long story, but in a nutshell...."

"You were really flying coming down the street here"

"Yes I know. I was trying to get it home before it dies completely."

"Wait right here for a minute."

He retreated to the shelter of his cruiser. After a rather short period of time he returned with my papers in his hand. He sighed heavily.

"What should I do???"

"I would REALLY appreciate it if you let me get my car home before it dies completely and let me switch cars and get myself into work."

He considers for a moment, looks down at my papers, then hands them back to me.

"OK, that's what I'm going to do. Watch your speed and be careful."

"OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME!!!"