Lethologica

Have you ever scrambled for a word and just couldn't get the right one?  You go around asking everyone and they look at you funny.  Well, look up that word and tell me if it describes a condition you might be experiencing.

Nope.  I'm not giving you a link!

Street Art

 This street art painting are pretty cool .  I've never seen one in person but I wonder if people that see them are tricked into thinking they are real. :)

Photo Enforcement Tickets

I thought this was pretty funny! We've all seen the red-light photo enforcement cameras in intersections to catch motorists but this guy is or has beaten the system until now.  He has a boatload (Sam defines boatload in this case as 37) of pictures just like this sent to his house and he always returns them stating that it isn't him.

The law states you can fight it, but the photo on his driver's license doesn't match the photo captured by the intersection camera.  He refused to pay so a investigative unit followed him.

You can read about the "Monkey Driver That Won't Pay Fine" if you'd like.  Have you ever been busted by the camera?

2009 Little League World Series


Have you been watching the Little League World Series?  We have!  Our local Chula Vista team  Parkview Little League won today versus the only team that had beaten them in the tournament - San Antonio, Texas.  The earlier loss (3-6) was forgotten as Parkview ended the US Championship Game early by the mercy rule, 12-2.

I saw some of my friends on the tube when the cameras panned the audience.  Jess was at a football game so I was sending updates to her via text as they happened. She would then tell the rest of the parents at the game.

Now, Parkview will face Chinese Taipei in the the Little League World Series Championship game at Noon Pacific time tomorrow.  We're having a little carne asada and munchies at our game get together to cheer the team on.  :)

On a side note, has anyone noticed that of the 16 teams in the LLWS that eight are from the United States?  And that the United States (1 of the 8 teams) gets an automatic berth into the Championship Game to face the International Champion?  Doesn't it seem like this is a United States versus the World tournament?

The spoiled under-30 crowd

I got this e-mail today...How many remember this?


If you're 30 or older you'll think this is hilarious!!! Maybe!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill...barefoot...BOTH ways...Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!

Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass and we got "Licks" from the teachers and principals. Nowhere was safe , I even remember Grandma beating me!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or, you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no
multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards! And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

What's that smell?

Jess and I are walking down the street in China Town in San Francisco and I spot the following license plate.  I got my phone out and Jess knew exactly what I was going to do.  The other night I saw one that said, "LiL Terd" but it was too dark to get a clear shot.

What is the weirdest plate you've seen? Would you get a vanity plate? If so, what would your plate read?

Always buy the PRO version!

Somehow I think a small change was meant to be removed before the release version went out!  Another error that appeared in a project that I took over was, "Show me the money!!!"  Do you think developers should put these kinds of errors in their messages?

Hidden Images

What do you see in the image below?

How many do you see?

Vista SP2 Available

Microsoft has a new update for Vista. How many things will it break in the process of fixing issues?

Spinning Girl

Look at the spinning girl.  Which way is she spinning, clockwise or counterclockwise?  Based on how you look at the image, you can make it go the opposite direction!  Don't get discouraged if you can't see it right away.

Where is My Mind?

If you've lost your mind and are having trouble finding it, then there is still hope. Google can help you find it!  After you find your mind, try entering, "How to " and see what you get.  Or even, "How not to."

What kind of weird searches have you done?

First U.S. Face Transplant

Connie Culp, shot by her husband in the face was the first face transplant in the United States.  The husband received seven years for the shotgun blast that nearly killed her back in 2004, but she had years of recovering ahead of her.  As you can tell by the before and after photos that surgeons did a great job with what they had.

I admire the strength it took for her to come forward with her story and know that it would be difficult for many to face all the gawking and pointing.

Do you think that seven years was enough?  And secondly, would you go through a face transplant if you were in the same situation?

Headache Remedy

Jess and I were waiting around after basketball practice and decided to kill some time with an iPhone app.  As you can tell, her 10 year old won this round.  I don't think that tylenol will help in this case!

What kind of cool games do you have on your phone?

Texting Bus Driver Crashes

It is against the law to text while driving in California but people still do it anyway.  This bus driver from San Antonio was caught on video texting and getting into a traffic accident on the freeway.

Do you text while driving?

The Swine Flu

Are you concerned about all the coverage on the swine flu? I've seen reports of people buying up masks and hand sanitizers.  I think that people are going to flood the emergency rooms soon at the slightest sign of the flu just to be safe.

Will the standard measures: washing your hands, covering your mouth if you cough, and practicing standard hygiene, work in this situation?

Quick, Quick...what company makes Tamiflu?  Not that anyone would try to profit off this.

The Chase

I know what I'm having for dinner!

Air Force One Low Flying Stunt Goes Bad

Fom the  AP Story 
Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe defies the imagination," Bloomberg said. "Poor judgment would be a nice ways to phrase it. ... Had I known about it, I would have called them right away and asked them not to."




Would you have authorized this?

Chat With Strangers

I heard about site that allows you to chat with strangers. The purpose is:
Omegle is a brand-new service for meeting new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick another user at random and let you have a one-on-one chat with each other. Chats are completely anonymous, although there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like.
There is a  New York Times article about it so I tried it out.  The site randomly picks one of the 2400 anonymous people that were online at the time and asks you to say, "Hi."  I went through several chats and found out that that it is exactly what you would expect from a random anonymous chat.

At least it makes it much easier to disconnect from the chat since your name is: "Stranger."  You don't have to worry about going invisible or blocking anyone.  This might be good for a post secret type of thing if you need to get something off your chest but that's about it.

What does this mean to you?


Is anyone even surprised by any of this? Imagine what it truly means when your kid says, "I'm bored!"

Fart Loading

I went to Wings N Things for lunch and noticed that the place was packed with many people standing even though there was a seat by the window!  How lucky of me, so I took a seat after ordering.  After a few seconds, I look up and see a big guy sitting in front of me and then notice what his shirt says, "Fart Now Loading..."  Now I know why nobody wanted this seat.

Should I have moved?  Luckily, nothing was in the air!

Instant Tan


"Honey, the bottle says, 'natural looking tan.  Nobody can tell the difference!' Whatcha think?"

Have you ever used a "bronzer?"

Huge Rat Attacks Park


How would you react to the huge rat?

Optical Illusion

Tell me what image you see on the left.  Don't answer too quickly as you might miss something! :)

I haven't done one of these in a long time and my daughter likes these so don't be surprised if you see more on here.

thepiratebay.org crew found guilty!

All those in the torrent scene were waiting to see what the verdict would be in the thepiratebay trial.  Although polls by those that use torrents overwhelmingly thought they would be found not guilty, they were found guilty in Sweden.  Of course nothing really earth shattering happened and here's the press release from the pirate bay.

The four:  Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstrom were sentenced to a year in jail and to pay about 3.6 million USD.  The huge media companies celebrated a big win since this service has almost 4 million users.  A never-ending cat and mouse game between the media giants and file-sharing community.

Note that the pirate bay doesn't have any copyrighted material but downloading a file from the site allows those using p2p to get the desired copyrighted material.

The case will be appealed, and this will drag on.  You can still get to http://thepiratebay.org/.

... is too long a word. Try using a shorter word.

10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

I was trying to see how many entries there were for 1 followed by a bunch of zeros by using google.com. That number you see above is 1 zero short of the max before you get the error: "... is too long a word. Try using a shorter word."

There are now 51 people with that number indexed. Yes, I'm the 51st. See what I resort to when I'm bored?

Ashton Kutcher versus CNN

In the blue corner we have Ashton Kutcher, and in the red corner we have CNN. Who will be the first to get 1 million followers?  I thought so, you don't care either!  :)

I think that Ashton has a good chance for being a single entity and not a giant media company but I guess the internet is a great equalizer, right?

Do you have a twitter account?

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover!

Did you hear about Susan Boyle? She's a 47 year old that hadn't been given the chance to be a singing star so she went on the TV show in Britain, Britains Got Talent with that Simon guy from American Idol.

She's never been kissed and self-proclaimed ugly duckling. The reaction from the audience before she starts singing is "Ewwwww." But just watch what happens after she starts singing! Check out her performance here (YouTube) The song is: "I dreamed a dream", from Les Miserables.

Tell me what you think.

How to File for an Extension

IRS LogoThe April 15th filing deadline surprised you this year and you're wondering how to file an extension.  What to do?  You can go to the IRS website and download form 4868 (Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return) and mail it in.  That's it.

There are several e-file methods that you can use and most will let you do the 1040 basic stuff for free but charge you to send in your state forms.  All require you set up an account and fill out the basic information.  Information easily transfers to other forms including the extension.  You'll get a confirmation that your filing was sent and you should go back to the site you used to e-file and confirm that the IRS accepted it.

If you're in the state of California then you can get an automatic extension until Oct 15th, 2009 to send in your forms.

If you owe money, then you better pay by April 15th, because you're still required to pay up regardless of the extension.  I'm not a tax professional so don't blame me because you waited to the last minute!

Easter Eggs

I can't really remember going on an Easter Egg hunt but this year, I helped fill some eggs for the kids.  Somehow a few sports eggs managed to sneak into the basket!  Can you spot them?

My girlfriend used this photo as her phone wallpaper.  :)  Are you or did you go to an Easter Egg event this year?

Out of Bounds Photography

I stumbled across this website, Out of Bounds.  If you like photography and photoshop then you'd appreciate how cool this is.

I have enough photoshop skills to do this so I'll have to round up a photo and try it for myself.

What do you think of the gallery?

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University

If anyone has taken this class, the one thing that you'll always remember is: "SELL THE CAR!"  I wonder how much this poor guy will get for his?  Or maybe he's driving this so that in 50 years by the time he's retiring he'll have 12.5 million dollars. $x.xxx invested at 12% compound interest for 50 years.  You'll have to take the class to see what I'm talking about!  :)

Do you drive a car you can't really afford to impress your friends or keep up with the Jones'?

GPS Navigation - Unknown Road

It's a little after 10:00 p.m. and we want to get home after a long day of volleyball matches.  Heather loads up the GPS and taps on current location in the start field and our hand-held tells us that we're on an unknown road.  After a few minutes it finds us and we're on our way.

Here are some of the things I'd like to see in the next version but doubt that they'll get implemented:

Turn-By-Turn.  As cool as the radiating little blue dot is on the purple road is, this is the most requested.  Touching the phone could be seen as texting and get you a ticket.  My friend got a warning so it does happen.  Version 3.0 maybe :)

Next waypoint signal.  This would let us know via some sound or vibration that we were approaching, and let me know the distance.  Maybe allow me set the distance.

Re-calculate route.  We missed our turn, or needed to stop somewhere off the route.  Let me get back on track.

ETA Display.  This would be for fun and the it would show based on our current speed what our ETA is.  Either setting average speed or actual would be nice.  A setting or toggle would suffice.   As it is, the display says something like, "1 hour 45 minutes with traffic."  "@78 mph: 1 hr 12 min."

What do you want to see?

It's Final

What am I talking about?  Many of you know and many wondered what took so long, but everything was signed  this afternoon.

Starting New Business

Today is the first day of my new business venture.  Let's see how it goes!  :)

Can you hear it now?

Train HornI found this test on one of my friend's facebook profile today and took the test even though it was meant for teenagers. Since I'm slightly over 25, I didn't expecting to hear anything but boy did I hear an annoying high pitched noise.

Let me know if you hear something.

Snapple Real Fact #44

Snapple Facts


The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps.

What would you do if you didn't have to sleep?

Slow Pedestrian Crossing

It's amazing how that slow pedestrian crossing becomes a very fast pedestrian crossing when you turn your lights on, rev up the engines, and peel out towards them! :)
Do you hate it when pedestrian go at a crawls pace while walking in the crosswalk?

http://www.in-n-out.com

We all went out to IN-n-OUT Burger and this is how many crew members were working behind the counter!
I've never seen that many at any one time and as they called our order I asked the girl, "You don't need proof of the order do you?"  She looks at me and tells me that they aren't allowed to ask for proof but to just give the customer the order.   
When they called the rest of our group's order, the girl saw me go up and she laughed because she knew I was going to take the order even though it wasn't mine.  She ended up bringing it to our table.

Do you like it animal style?

The BFG

This is the top secret manual on the much coveted, "BFG." :)   How many of you know what I'm talking about?

What kind of computer games do you like to play if any?  Card, puzzle, board, fps, etc...

2009 President's Day

It's raining in San Diego!  I didn't need my iPhone to tell me that it was but here's my question for you guys...If you're in Kansas and there's a tornado going on, do you have a little tornado icon on your display?

I'm doing web programming, updating the BV webiste site, Church website, and wrapping up a sign-up site.  Working from home but at least in in my sweats and keeping toasty :)

What did  you do for the holiday?

Valentine Strudel

What do you think of the strawberry strudel? What are you doing or what did you do for your honey for Valentine's Day?

Have your VD celebrations changed over the years? Do you guys just see it as another day?  Or do you do the "we don't need a day to make it special?"

Or how many dread this day because you can't think of anything to do for your partner?

Beer Money

I ran across this homeless guy on my home from work the other day.  I noticed from the off-ramp that after anyone gave him money, he would do a little celebration dance and even from a distance I could tell he wasn't homeless.  He just didn't fit the profile so tell me if you disagree.

As I pulled up, I lowered my window and he immediately saw my badge and said, "aw dude, you ain't no cop are you? I ain't doin' nothing wrong!" I grinned and asked, "lemme check out your sign."

He holds it up with a very proud look as if he spent countless hours crafting and refining the verbiage he would use to convince everyone to hand over some spare change.  I snap the photo and he tells me that one of you guys even gave me some money.  I drive off and he waves at me shaking his sign side to side.

Double Rainbow

It's been raining in San Diego now for about a week now but I don't mind since I like the rain except while driving to and from work.  What do you think of the double rainbow?

I actually took this with my iPhone while Heather and I were at a volleyball tournament up in Anaheim.  We set up a tent city outside and I snapped this in between games right after the girls finished eating.

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea has been living with me since October 2008 right after Jess brought her over when her place got flooded.  It's really her kitty but I'm just taking care of her for the moment.

She's developed some routines and wakes me up every morning about 5:20 a.m. regardless of whether it's a work day or not, runs to the phone when she hears Jess' ring tone, and waits for me to come home.

It seems as though Jess and Heather are double teaming me to get a Beagle...How long before I give in?

Is $hit Creek on Google Maps?

This is an actual street view of the infamous location:
Have you ever been there?

Answer Only 5 Simple Questions

Have you ever received a call like this?

Caller: Hello Amanda! You've been chosen at random to participate in a short five question survey.
Victim: How did you get my number?
Caller: Would you like to participate in this survey?
Victim: No. I don't participate in surveys.
Caller: Okay, good, good, good.  Survey question number one - No.  Now on to question number two.
Victim: I don't do surveys!
Caller: Okay.  Why not?
Victim: Because they're stupid and waste my time.
Caller: Okay, good, good, good.  Survey question number two - "waste of time."  Only three more questions!
Victim: OMG you tricked me!
Caller: How did I do that?
Victim: By asking me questions!!!

The Dentist Office Visit

Has this ever happened to your kids after a dentist visit?  I think this is the original but there a lot of mash up versions out there that are pretty funny.

www.hangintherejack.com

Jack hit by bus!. Is it true?! Is the giant head dead? Rumors have it that he is in critical condition with the prognosis changing by the moment.  Getting hit by a bus on Super Bowl Sunday is a sad way to make the news.  Our prayers are with you, Jack!

Official statement from Jack in the box can be viewed: at hangintherejack

Please leave well wishes for him in the comments section and they will be passed on to him or his family!

Panhandlers

For the last five years, on and off, I've seen Dave standing at my off-ramp.  During a red light he walks down the row of cars carrying his sign, "Everybody needs a hand sometime.  God bless you."  Sometimes people give him money and he seems appreciative.  When the light turns green he heads back to the intersection with a pronounced limp.

I've always wondered what he does with his money.  Is he buying some booze, kicking back under the bridge?  Or is he going around the corner and counting his take for the day? It's rumored that some panhandlers make $400 a day.  But who knows.

Do you give money to panhandlers?

Play with a Spider

Someone sent this one into me:

Poke and prod the spider with  your  mouse ,  also 'grab' one of its legs with your mouse by holding down the left button and  drag it around  the  screen  --  tell me it's not alive!


Also anywhere on the map hit the space  bar while the left mouse button is held down and it leaves little bugs, watch the  spider go after them.  This is totally  crazy and creepy too!
  
Click here: Play with a Spider

Caylee Anthony Doll

Image of Caylee Anthony DollThe Caylee Anthony doll will be sold soon.  The company that is selling the doll states that they are giving a portion of the sales receipts to charity.  My first question is: "How much?"  Tell me what you think about a company trying to make a profit off a murdered little girl.


Would you buy this doll even if it's labeled a "Tribute Doll?"

Romantic Date

Haven't decided where to take your honey for Valentine's Day?  I have the perfect date idea so none of you go and tell J because we wouldn't want her surprise to be spoiled now would we?

Just kidding!  I saw this poster at lunch the other day and wondered how many of you would  take your date to one of these on Valentine's Day.

It's 7:01 a.m.

Every morning at 7:00 a.m. a parking lane becomes another regular "rush-hour" lane downtown.  There are signs posted that there is no parking starting at 7:00 a.m.  As I pass by I notice the little parking enforcement vehicles around the corner ready to pounce.

Many times I see tow trucks ready and sometimes they're towing at 7:01 a.m.  Every now and then I see the car owners running out to save their car but it's all in vain because that ticket is already written up - sorry.

What was different today?  Nothing really except for a huge tractor trailer and three of those little enforcement guys standing around wondering what to do?  Do they have one of those monster tow trucks?  I wish I could have pulled out my folding chair and just watched.

And yes...I had a huge grin on my face.

Question #45

When you purchase something from a vending machine and use the exact change, do you check the change slot anyway? 

First Volleyball Tournament of the Season

I was up at 4:00 a.m. and ready to go up north to Costa Mesa for Heather's first travel volleyball tournament in the Gold Division.  The parents get the girls to a meeting location and then head up as a team to the venues...Sleep, talk, or just zone out?  Four of us went to watch Heather play.

Heather is in Royal Blue
Girls on Volleyball Court
The girls did very well in my opinion and it was much more interesting to watch than high school volleyball.  Heather is a Libero so it was really cool when she heard "pipe," and got a back row attack - she killed it!  :)

Jess asked that I text updates from the matches as she does when her kids are playing.  Seems like between us we got all the sports covered.

Of course I also "watched" the NFL Conference Championships with a little help of my iPhone.  The Cardinals got a scare after leading by a huge margin then putting it away late in the game.

So,  if you remember from reading my blog what happens after a softball tournament on the way home, then you'll know she slept all the way home from the volleyball tournament also!  :)

Overall, the girls won 4 out of 6 sets in three matches.  Good way to start!

Elephant Dung Count Reveals Thriving Population

I wonder how long it took for this Job Opening to fill?  "We've found an alternative method to count elephants. You can be pivotal in this ground-breaking research. Apply Now!"

Chula Vista a Boring Place to Live?

I heard on the radio that Chula Vista, Ca was on the In Pictures: America's 10 Most Boring Cities by Forbes Magazine.

The funny thing is that the picture they choose isn't in Chula Vista...or is it?

Gimme a Boost!


How many moms would find this useful?

What I Ate Today

For lunch I had: Carne Asada Nachos Supreme and a 12 oz Pepsi.   For dinner I ate: A burger and fries.  The perfect concoction for a heart attack!  But I still think I'm gonna get killed by someone texting and driving!

How healthy did you eat today?

It looks like a gate

What the heck is it then?

What ever it is, someone doesn't want you to go through that gate that isn't a gate.

Value Every Minute

To realize the value of one year: Ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realize the value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of one minute: Ask the person who has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realize the value of one second: As a person who has survived an accident.
To realize the value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won the silver medal in the Olympics.

Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.

What Forklift?

While J and I were shopping I noticed this sign.  She knew exactly what I was going to do.

I wonder how many forklift operators have been driven away and how long it took for the driver to finally discover that they had a "guest" in their trailer?

Do you know where I took this?