Real Rorrible Ramage rom Rita's Rath

Courtesy of my co-worker Steve's sister-in-law, without any further adue, a shot of the damage that Hurricane Rita caused in Houston, that was just too graphic that didn't make it on the air:



That's just turble. Thanks Steve.

Find Serenity Tonight

About an ecletic ragtag group of rogue anti-heroes 500 years in the future after an intergalactic civil war on a transport ship in the fringes of the galaxy trying to make ends meet with whatever they can do, while pursued by The Alliance due to precious cargo they are carrying. Rising from the ashes of a cancelled TV show Firefly on Fox, Serenity (the name of their Firefly class transport ship) came into existence when Firefly found an ever growing audience as DVD sales went through the roof and the fan response kept coming. Earlier in the year there were special preview screenings held all over the world, tickets selling out within minutes. Powers that be could see that this wasn't an ordinary run of the mill phenomenon.



The creator, Joss Whedon, shopped it to Universal Pictures where it finally was given a chance to prove its mettle to the whole world. With a story of epic proportions, characters that are defined and real, shiny space battles done by the kind folks at Zoic Studios who head up the CGI in the new Battlestar Galactica series, bottom line: it'll be the best scifi movie in the 'verse in recent years. It'll make you forget the travesties called movies from a certain George Lucas. Ahem. It's the Star Wars movie that people really wanted. Not just some CGI fest but heart as well. That's the core of a story. Without heart, it's meaningless. I'm telling you now, it's gonna be the next big thing in sci fi and be a runaway box office smash. Maybe I'm overhyping this thing. Just go see it, dong ma?

Website : http://www.serenitymovie.com/

*Umbrella Corporation, Where Are You?

Give the man an umbrella. Just watched getting Shep Smith getting smacked around in Galveston. Geraldo almost getting his nose broke again, this time from Mother Nature. My props to all the news reporters who have and are braving the elements out there in the hurricane weather. Sopping wet broadcasting live reporting the torrential conditions with debris, 100 mile wind and rain slapping your face around like a red headed stepchild. I can't imagine going out there at this time. I admire your work ethic, charging forward, the drive to grab the top story first hand. Some might say you're stupid. I say, way to go man. It's actually just probably part of the job description. Part and parcel of the reporter gig. Be there as it happens, when it happens, regardless of the conditions, no matter how horrid. I salute you. Stay safe. But heed my advice Shep, Anderson, if you see that 50 foot wave coming in towards you, RUN LIKE THE WIND!!!

Now the tornado and storm chasers, yous guys are certainly crazy. Maybe. But I sure love watching your specials on the Discovery Channel, showing the flying cows and farm tractors, just miles from massive tornadoes tearing up everything in its path. The sheer blackness in the sky is dang creepy that's for sure. That nature is such a spontaneous and unremorseful destruction machine. It's nature, not that it hates ya. It's gotta take some dedication and no fear to be chasing things like this for a living. I bet it's gotta be a rush to be so close to this beast that could suck the life right out of you in no time. I have a friend who lives in Oklahoma, smack in the middle of Tornado Alley. Scary for me to think bout living there, something could materialize at any time. But hey I guess we have the technology to track these things now. So maybe no worries? I don't know. We're not in Kansas anymore. Anyways if I was you, if you like see a big black thing that looks like a big big twister down the road, RUN LIKE THE WIND!!!

* Resident Evil video game reference.

Soft You Now, Fair Ophelia

Here's hoping The Powers That Be^TM and the people won't allow another tragedy to repeat. That's probably something that just doesn't need to be said. Well, with National guard activated, FEMA officials on the ground preparing, plentiful shelters for people to take cover in, I'm sure things will turn out OK, here's hoping. People, please listen to the authorities. As the Carolinas are being pounded with torrential winds and rain of Category 1 strength, all we can do is wait and see what damage this stepsister of Katrina is bound to cause. With the recent lessons learned, processes should be close to streamlined, if they ever needed to be, would be now. Be careful and be safe Carolina's. Ophelia could be one bad mother.

Bunch o' PDA

I'm here typing my first entry via a PDA running PocketPC, and lemme tell you, this is denifitely tickles me geek. Cool beans, I've never really fiddled much with this, so needless to say I'm like a kid in a candy store here. More later, I reckon I'm gonna amusey myself heeyah. Latah, peace.

Gas Still Hurts, What a Bunch of Hot Air

The inevitable was reached. I got more gas today. $25 bones and I don't even reach the 3/4 tank, I can't imagine driving a gas guzzler Tahoe or Suburban, and I don't wanna. Sheesh. Getting a scooter sounds more and more enticing now. Even my coworker rides a bicycle. Well at least I guess it's barely over 3 bones a pop here. But still. Pretty soon this will cost an arm. Already has. And it's a Monday. Great.

Air conditioning is busted at my work. Or the unit that serves my part of the office and surrounding area. ARRGH. Let's just say the temperature is perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes if there were an actual body of water in here. Pond. Wait. The frozen A/C unit up in the ceiling is melting right now, drip drip into the trash can. Maybe we will have a mosquito farm after all. Darn, we're indoors. Grab your citronella lamp!

In other news, I discovered the coolest thing since sliced bread. I guess I've been living under a rock. I downloaded Google Earth for the first time and it is so cool. A lot cooler than Yahoo Terraserver or whatever that thing was. I remember someone showing me a satellite pic, But Google Earth went all out. You can look for streets, restaurants, landmarks. I was just visiting St. Peter's Basilica at Rome. Awesome. I used DirectX mode, but I don't have a Pentium 15 so it's kinda slow in refreshing images. But way cool nonetheless. I'm impressed Google. Speechless.

Airport's Got a Terminal Illness

I'm never gonna do this again. This is the first time I've done this on a domestic flight - you know, buy a ticket from one carrier, but the flight is in actuality "operated" by the partner airline, which makes you check in with the operating carrier. I only had a carry-on bag with my collapsable clothes. Goodness knows how they would have handled my check in baggage. American Airlines + Alaska Airlines. Lots of A's, B- service. I can understand if this was international flight which you are flying to an international port, and then checkin in there. But I'm just doing the domestic thing, I should NOT have to exit the gates, go all the way to the otherside of the airport, stand in the security line again, go through x-ray again. Taking off shoes, belts, watches, cell phone, lint. At LAX I had asked a counter lady what to do, she said it was a quick walk. Well, it was not a quick walk, and I walk pretty fast. Hassle. Did I mention the Alaska Airlines self checkin's didn't print out any boarding tickets? So I had to stand in line for that. Hassle.

On the way home from my trip, it was a layover at Norman Mineta San Jose California International Airport. That airport is a mess. I can understand why they're building a new airport. (Poster) I can't believe this is an international airport. Do you know how we exited the 737 plane? No it wasn't your standard jetway thing-a-ma-bobber we normally use. No, it's a little rinky dink stair ramp that the airport homeys just rolled right up. We're not exiting a puny Cessna people! How dare you force us to be exposed to the elements for 5 minutes as we walk in the outside heat for minutes until the actually arrival gate. Well at least there was minimal shade nearing the door. I tell ya. Well at least they had a Burger King, which I eventaully chowed down a lunch with a Double Whopper. But the large fries I got was all burnt! Well slightly burnt. How do you burn fries!? Don't you just put the fryer in the oil, turn the timer on and sit there til it goes 'Ding'? I mean c'mon people.

In conclusion, an open letter:

Dear Airlines,

To better serve your patrons, both international and domestic, I ask that you consider streamlining the process which your ticket-holders go through to avoid unnecessary hassles and lost lead time. A big hassle being having to go to a completely different terminal to re-check in on a domestic connecting flight, having to re-check in itself should not be required, and re-enter the security check points is a hassle. I don't know what all is required behind the scenes, but rest assured it these are taken care of, then will your customers be satisfied 100%.

Sincerely,
Disgruntled Customer

Foaming At The Mouf

I made my foam today. I mean I made my bed just now. Well yeah. We're all crashing at a friend's place, so I got this really cool foam thingie bed complete with sleeping bag. I'd like a mocha latté, lots of foam. Made me a huge omelet which rivals IHOP. Anyways, yesterday went to the Space Needle. That was as lot of fun. Ate tons. Sampled the cuisine of many many small villages. We pruned the hedges of many small villages. It's a sweater!! My little buttercup has the sweetest smile. You know Jefe.

You know, tired of watching the news. Katrina coverage is getting old. Not not important, just the same newsmedias running it to the ground. CNN, now complete with dramatic montages of images .I remember the other day, Anderson Cooper blabbering on about a family with handicapped children who were found dead and they had a collection of salt and pepper shakers in their cabinet, and Nancy Grace going all ballistic going off on how sad that is. Yes that is sad but people run this thing to the ground. Just do your part. Anyways and now with Rehnquist's passing, you know the next couple weeks will be debating on who what when. Chris Mathews arguing with yadda yadda. Maybe Zell Miller can come back and challenge him to a rematch.

So yesterday, where was I. Space Needle was quite cool. Not as tall as Taipei 101 nor CN Tower, but cool to see the city up high. Enjoying the weather in Seattle. Hasn't really rained yet. Uh, couple more days left, fun stuff. Gonna see more sites and eat a lot more I tink. Drink tons more Starbucks. And then sample their competitor's (Seattle's Best Coffee - SBC). Not that SBC. So like yeah, I also bought some fresh wild Alaska smoked salmon. And it is dang good, loaded with plentiful Omega 3 fatty acids to combat my own fattiness. Yeah.

I Seattle, Do You?

So I'm here in the land of Bill Gates, er well not really, that's really Redmond I tink. So I'm here in the land of Washington, where highway signs bear the silhouette of our founding father. Where Starbucks began as a little coffee bean store. Where...OK I don't really know much about Seattle. What I do know is I had some Starbucks today, had some good eats, a touch of gastro. People drive like 40 on the freeway. Slow enough to drive Miss Daisy. Call me Morgan. Freeman. So anyways I'm on the 405 freeway. No, not the 5 lane California freeway. This is a 2 lane with an HOV lane with cars that should be ticketed for driving under the speed limit. Why so slo!!!!!!

Anyways. That and today I spent too much money crossandwiches at LAX during my layover this morning. I mean, $3.29?! C'mon, Katrina knocked out the oil, not Jimmy Dean. Why the heck charge so much for a frickin Crossanwich? So I had 1 and 1 Biscuit sandwich (ham egg and cheese). Which was supposed to be sausauge but apparently those monkeys in the back couldn't tell that ham looked nothing like sausage so you can give me no excuse. But actually that ham was quite good and I enjoyed it. I guess I should be thanking those FOB foreigners manning the Burger King in there. I won't.

So I had one of those co-sharing flights where airline A is operated by airline B. Thanks for making it so convenient by putting my connecting flight in a completely different Terminal. A building a long time ago in a land far far away. Quite a hassle. You had to basically get out and do the whole get in line security and all. Take the belt, shoes watch, etc. Not convenient. Not to mention the guy's like telling everyone, "Use the check in machine to get your boarding pass." I go through the process on two machines, and it printed out NO boarding passes, I had to get in line like the rest of them and get the person to print it. Oh, this e-checkin booth was not really right. It's like asking you to input flight #, and then pick your flight from a list, then the city, too much. Don't you already have all the info from my ticket file? You need some third party efficiency consultant to come in and streamline the operation. Cuz it aint working. Go watch Office Space. There's efficiency. Peace.

I Got Gas, And It Pains Me

Holy schmoly, I experienced it first hand today. So gas prices are rocketing faster than you can say antidisestablishmentterrianism. Whoa nelly, I had to instigate for the first time a personal monetary cap of $35 schmackaroonies today, hoping just hoping it would stop before then while filling up my tank all the way. No such fortune. $2.97/gal for premium where I am. I guess that's really good, still sub-$3.00 compared to the age 3 and up crowd. Some places are reportedly at the $6 a gallon. That's a buffet dinner where I come from! Sheesh. Any more money spent on my gas today I would started bawling profusely at the shell station, watching my funds slowly but surely getting liquidated ito petroleum only to be burned away into the ether, one once at a time, disappearing forever. And that's not even filling my tank up all the way, almost hit my Full mark but just doesn't quite make the cut. Not quite. So I think I'll be taking less road trips needless to say.

I really hope this gets taken care of. How bout cars that run on solar powered energy. Maybe we should revisit again. Or a Segway for everyone. That'd be a sight. Maybe I'll dig out my skateboard. Wait, I was never a skater. Or poser. Never wore Vans. So 80's. I'm remembering my youth now. Thanks for reminding me. Or not. Maybe they can invent the Hoverboard later on, you know that I wouldn't mind getting. You know, the one Marty McFly had. Now that was before its time and was way cool. The stainless steel car that was the Delorean. Mr. Fusion. Awesome. You know I think I'm digressing. A car that could run on trash. Now that would be something wouldn't it. Throw in that old banana peel. Empty SPAM can. Old chicken bones. Let's work on the alternative energy folks. Mind my ignorance if we already have some working prototypes out there. Hybrids are cool. Go Hybrids. So anyways, I really hope the powers that be fix this for the rest of us. There's always breaking out the ol' bicycle which I haven't touched since college. Perish the thought. Schwinn, lose or draw. Peace.