I Hate Drivers (A.K.A. One More Reason to Hate Texas, Part II)

Here's my rant.


So last Thursday morning while on my way to work, traffic was busier than normal (for a late commute at around 9:50'ish a.m. in Los Angeles). Seeing that traffic is NOT going to get any better as I try to drive through Downtown on the 110 South, I decided to take a detour and exit the freeway through Chinatown.

And that's not much better either.

After exiting on Hill Street, in stop and go traffic, to make matters worse, a pedestrian has activated the crosswalk ahead at Gin Ling Way (at the back-entrance to the Chinatown gate). So there goes the light at the crosswalk...blinking red. Now, smart normal people understand that this blinking red light just screams, "DRIVER, NOW I AM A STOP SIGN."

Apparently an unintelligent weird person was driving behind me.

I was one car away from being at the front of the queue at the BLINKING RED LIGHT CROSSWALK. The guy in front of me is stopped - cars all around me are stopped because there is a BLINKING RED LIGHT CROSSWALK. Most everyone is taking turns stopping, looking both ways, and then proceeding. Such is NOT the case for the person behind me. The guy in front of me proceedes, and then I move forward to the front of the queue and stop (note: the light is STILL BLINKING RED).

However, Dork-Boy behind me, who is CLEARLY NOT PAYING ATTENTION must have thought to himself when I moved forward, "COOL, NOW I CAN DRIVE DOWN THE ROAD, TRAFFIC ISN'T STOPPED ANYMORE."

WRONG.

Yeah, Mr. "I'M-NOT-PAYING-ATTENTION-BECAUSE-I'M-A-DORK-'MOVED'-HERE-FROM-HOUSTON-FIVE-DAYS-AGO-DIDN'T-CHANGE-THE-CLOCK-ON-MY-MOBILE-SO-I-THOUGHT-I-WAS-ALREADY-LATE-FOR-A-NOON-MEETING-WHEN-IT-WAS-REALLY-10:00A.M.-SO-I-WASN'T-PAYING-ATTENTION-AND-I-OBVIOUSLY-COULD-NOT-SEE-THERE-WAS-A-STOPPED-CAR-IN-FRONT-OF-ME..." (a.k.a. Mr. Dork-Boy) hit me.

Sure, I would have totally NOT called my insurance company had Mr. Dork-Boy given me a straight answer. And maybe if he hadn't hid behind his girlfriend (the owner of the car) to negotiate with me, instead he hid in the car. Sure, I believe your "we just moved here five days ago to Glendale from Houston, and we took everything out of our car already and we don't have our insurance in here" lame-ass excuse. And, okay...so you STILL think it's after NOON when it's now really 10:17 a.m....I said you were incorrect, so don't hastily jump back into your car and leave. Bastard!

Deal with my insurance now biz-natch. And learn what time it is.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This just killed me. Startled all of my co-workers.

Dandelion and flame

Dandelion and flame
Originally uploaded by catmadogma.

Took my breath away when I first saw this. It's just gorgeous. Whispy. Intricate. Soft. Sexy.

Odd Stone #2

Odd Stone #2
Originally uploaded by joctaviothomas.

Another shot from my trip to Scotland in March. It's quite interesting. Very surprising to see as we were walking across the garden.

Albino Squirrel!

Albino Squirrel!
Originally uploaded by phlezk.

Thanks to "phlezk" you all know how large a squirrel's family jewels can get. And an albino squirrel at that too!!!!

Who Knew??? Another Reason to NOT Like Texas

Before you know it, "Big Brother" and its relatives will be implementing a "One Child Per Family" policy. Maybe when the Rolling Stones play anywhere in Texas again, they can make sure they censor which songs they can play. Maybe then can have Mick Jagger wear an unsexy flannel pajama set and have him waltz around the stage?

I swear, the only think I like about Texas now is the bats that live under that bridge in Austin, and Texas BBQ.

Anyhow...here's the article that got me ranting about Texas, again:



Texas college bars students from posing for Playboy
Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:31 AM ET
Reuters

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which bills itself as the world's largest Baptist college, has threatened to discipline female students if they pose for Playboy magazine, which is trying to recruit models from the college.

Playboy photographers came to Baylor's hometown seeking models for a photo spread on women of the Big 12 college athletic conference, of which the college is a member.

Baylor Vice President for Student Life Samuel W. Oliver sent an e-mail to women students this week warning that any who "associate" with Playboy would be subject to the university's disciplinary processes.

"Playboy is clearly antithetical to Baylor's mission and associating with the magazine would be a violation of the code of conduct," Oliver wrote in the e-mail. University officials said punishment could include suspension.

Read the rest of the story here.

This Makes Me Feel Icky Inside

And it BEGS the question, "What the F**K was she thinking???!?!?!?!"

 

 

ROSS COUNTY JAIL

Prisoner pat-down misses gun hidden in body cavity

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Aaron Marshall

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Move over, Bond girls.

A Ross County jail inmate hid a gun so well that not even the guards who did an extensive pat-down found it.

The Cleveland woman hid a loaded handgun inside her body and smuggled it all the way to her jail cell, where it accidentally fired when she was trying to hide it.

"While in the holding cell, she removed a .25-caliber semiautomatic from her vaginal cavity," Chillicothe Police Capt. Tom Hewitt said yesterday.

Victoria Lundy, 41, hid the gun in the toilet-paper holder. It fell to the floor and discharged. The bullet lodged in the ceiling as guards scrambled to quickly recover the weapon, Hewitt said.

Read the rest of the story here.

Stirling Castle Corridor

Stirling Castle Corridor
Originally uploaded by joctaviothomas.

Photo of of a quaint corridor at Stirling Castle in Scotland. Took during my visit on March 13th.

Holy Crap This is Funny!!!

Two Filipino boys seem to be lip synching to The Backstreet Boys either at school or an Internet cafe.

Only Two More Days Until St. Patrick's - And I'm in Ireland

Yup, my hubby and I have been vacationing since March 8th. We first spent about four days in Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling), and now we're in Ireland. [Sidenote: We were lucky enough to experience the first freakishly cold snow storm in Scotland.] We've been in Dublin since late Monday night, and we're leaving early tomorrow morning to head on over to Galway and Kilarney.

I'll update with more later and include some pictures of all of the craic we're having here!

Cheers!

This is Messed Up!!!!!!

Girl's prosthetic legs stolen for 2nd time

By Aarthi Sivaraman, Reuters

For the second time in three months, a 16-year-old California girl who lost a leg in an accident has had her artificial limbs stolen.

Melissa Huff, an Arcadia High School student who uses a $16,000 (9,000 pounds) prosthetic limb to play softball for the school team and another one, valued at $12,000, for everyday use, said both were taken from her bedroom on Tuesday.

"I was picking up my little brother from school when my mom called me and asked where I left the two prosthetic legs," Huff, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, told Reuters in an interview.

"I knew right then that it had happened again."

Lisa Huff, her mother, said she came home around midday on Tuesday and found the room shared by Melissa and her older sister a mess. Only the prosthetic limbs were missing.

Read the full story here on Yahoo!

Article and pictures featuring Melissa Huff on Ossur's Web site (a global orthapaedics company best known for its leadership in prosthetics).

So Much for Valentine's Day

Well, it's been about a week since I first got sick, and of course I wasn't feeling any better yesterday.  I woke up on Tuesday morning feeling so congested - as if an elephant was sitting on my chest.  And to make matters worse, I was coughing up a storm.  Oy.

 

Thankfully, my husband and I didn't have any grandiose plans of heading out to a fancy restaurant on Valentine's Evening where I could cough up a storm around other romantic diners.  Instead, we planned on staying at home and making homemade gourmet heart-shaped pizzas.  My husband took pictures of the pizza's.  I'll try to post one when they're available.

 

One pizza had garlic and herb dough (Trader Joe's), used traditional red pizza sauce (Trader Joe's), pepperoni, sautéed sliced mushrooms, baby mozzarella balls (Trader Joe's), and dried herbs on top.  Very tasty.

 

The other pizza had a traditional dough (Trader Joe's), used fig preserves (Trader Joe's) instead of a red sauce, crumbled cooked spicy Italian sausage, caramelized red onions, and baby mozzarella balls (Trader Joe's).  SOOOOOOO good!!!!!

 

We enjoyed a nice bottle of Cline Syrah with the pizza.

 

For dessert I made a velvety chocolate fondue, and served up peanut butter cookies, strawberries, pretzels, and pound cake to dip into it.  Quite tasty.

 

 

Whose Crazy Idea Was This????

Reuters - Wed Feb 8, 8:07 AM ET

Japanese maid costumed waitress Hinaka (C) serves coffee to a customer at a maid cafe in Tokyo's electronic district Akihabara, January 20, 2006. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)

I HATE...

...being sick!!!!!!


I woke up with the WORST sore throat this morning. And I don't think I'm getting any better ("achoooo"), because now I'm sore and achey. Icky.

Good thing I don't have any plans tonight, because I'm just going to go home and watch today's episode of General Hospital on TiVo while holding the couch down. Then I'll jump into bed to fall asleep while watching The Phantom of the Opera. That might be soothing????

Oy.

Is it time to go home yet?

...And One MORE Reason to Hate Texas

Texas Gubernatorial candidate wants 50% tax on "violent games"

Posted Jan 25th 2006 3:30PM by Ross Miller

Are you a Texan gamer? You might want to watch this carefully. The positive spin of Republican gubernatorial candidate Star Locke's proposal is the elimination of property taxes. However, as any Economics professor will tell you (much to the chagrin of his or her students), there is no such thing as a free lunch - so what's the catch?

According to the Amarillo (registration required), Locke would propose a 10-percent tax on soft drinks, a $10,000-per-abortion tax, and a 50-percent tax on violent video games. Of course, violent games is a very subjective term - that's why he proposes a 10-member board that will determine which game is violent enough. "Once it's reviewed," Locke says, "the tax would be levied swiftly."

 

Read the rest of the article on Joystiq.