I am apparently easily entertained...

Last night I saw about the funniest dang thing I have seen in a long time... you may disagree, but I refer you to the post title.

My daughter has a pet toad named Lilly. She is a half grown American Toad and she really loves fire flies (lightning bugs). As we are in the midst of fire fly mating season, they are in abundance in our front yard and so the kids have been harvesting them and feeding them to Lilly (she ate about 9 last night). They told me the other night that Lilly lights up every time she eats one and I must confess I thought they were pulling my leg. They weren't. I spent about 30 minutes last night helping them feed the toad and laughing every time the toad would light up!! It was freaking hilarious. American Toads are like frogs in that they use their long tongues to snatch food and then basically swallow the bugs whole... so these fire flies have at least 4-5 flashes in them before dying in the toads belly and the light completely shines through even from her stomach. If they flash when she has them in her mouth, her entire throat lights up.

What can I say... I am just a big nerd, but I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I will try to capture the event on video and get it posted here at some point in the future.

Weirdness from the world of particle physics...

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/20/1158097.aspx

Mini blackholes?? Man, they are completely overlooking the true danger: Resonance Cascades!!

(That was an inside joke for any 'Halflife' fans out there)

Gotta end the work week with a good laugh...

Ah, the spirit of friendly competition

I thought this was funny (but also shows that Microsoft is not completely the evil corporation some make it out to be). Disclaimer: I've not yet tried Firefox 3, but plan to this weekend or next week.

The IE7 team bought a cake to congratulate the Firefox 3 team and delivered it in person.

As Pappy's Day winds to its close...

I thought I'd post a few remarks.

Happy Father's day to all my friends who are fathers. Hope you enjoyed the day... I went to church (had a great praise service and good preaching), went to the in-laws and ate BBQ and hot wings, got a Best Buy gift card and from my wife and kids I got a really good bike pump with a built-in pressure gauge (woo hoo!), did some work on my father-in-law's PC, came home and cleaned out my front gutters (which had several tiny Elm trees growing in the silt), played a bit of Battle for Middle Earth 2 (doing the 'War of the Ring' game: It's like the board game "Risk" but fun), and NOW I am typing on my computer and about to head off to dream land.

But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon...

OK so it wasn't quite that bad but WHOA it was windy today during my ride home from work. Riding a bike up the west slope of Blue Ridge with a 25 mph Southerly breeze is shall we say... difficult.

At one point I was huffing and puffing uphill on 79th just passed I-435 and suddenly I hit a downhill stretch I wasn't expecting. Then I looked up and had to sort of do a mental doubletake because unless my gyroscopes were haywire... I was STILL going uphill. Then it occured to me that what had happened was the wind stopped for a minute and I experienced a sudden and unexpected acceleration. It was actually kind of cool but then the wind started up again and the exhileration immediately left me. Anyway I think I burned a few extra calories today, which were compensated for with the Little Ceasars pizza my wife brought home. Mmmmmmm... Piiiiizza...

Now I think perhaps a Boulevard Lunar Ale and then bed. Tomorrow I'm riding again so I need my sleep ya know.

*Oh and the stress of the ride began to break my left pedal, so I stopped by Bicycle Shack and got a pair of metal pedals that should last me a while.

Feels good to be riding again!!

Last week I had my Powershell class followed by a busy weekend and then Monday and Tuesday I had to drive to Excelsior Springs after work to play drums at my church's Elementary Summer Camp (This was my daughter's second year as a camper... and my 6th year I think playing with the band there).

Anyway... this morning I was finally able to get back on the bike and trek in to work. I had a 12 mph average and it was a fantastic morning to ride. Going home will be on the warm side though (and the return trip has more uphills than the morning ride) but it's all good. I'm saving $4 of gas every day I ride plus getting my lazy butt into shape.

I also finally got a little bike tire pressure gauge to ensure I am not over or under-inflated (both can cause flats).

Speaking of biking... a friend of mine from church recently was, well sort of attacked by some jackhole driver who had cyclist road rage for some reason. He ran him off the road and rode over his bike and then came back for more a few minutes later. What the hell gets into peoples' heads to make them behave like that??? It really makes me want to get a conceal and carry permit, but perhaps a good tazer would be just as effective and probably more satisfying. So you ran me off the road and then destroyed my bike without any cause... well I am not angry enough to kill you but I would love to see you stagger and fall in agony as 50,000 volts tear through your central nervous system and temporarily paralyze you... thus giving me time to laugh in your face as I call the police (or if necessary throw your car keys into the trees and make a timely getaway).

He ended up with a broken thumb. He said he got the tags, but it was a temporary tag and the car was likely stolen anyway. Well it makes the ride more interesting I suppose...