that's just freaky!
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Weird shit
Here's today's horoscope:

You have been working hard over the last three weeks to find a refuge, LAUREN. Now that you have found people you can trust, you can feel at peace with yourself. You can confide your joys and disappointments to others. But, you should open up your heart and you will see that you have more than just one safe-haven.

what a freak!
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: black eyed peas
Topic: Weird shit
This story is from the weird news today:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw.
In a handwritten four-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Cleveland on Tuesday, paralegal Austin Aitken said, "To have the individuals on the show eat (yes) and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another in the house at the same time."

His suit added, "NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning (sic) and in most cases against their will."

He said the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he became dizzy and light-headed, and when he ran away to his room, he bumped his head into the doorway.

In a brief telephone interview with Reuters, Aitken said, "I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation."

A spokesman for "Fear Factor" said the show would have no comment until it sees a copy of the complaint. The spokesman said the program did feature a rat-eating scene in New York's Times Square on Nov. 8.

Over the years, contestants on the program have eaten some weird things, including ground-up spiders and live worms.


I guess that guy has never heard of that thing called a remote control! No, I didn't think that they would eat gross things on fear factor?? That guy is a moron. The sad thing is that either NBC will settle out of court with that idiot and he'll come away with thousands of dollars or he'll probably win in court. What is this world coming to???

This day ranks around 9.5 out of 10 on the weird-shit-o-meter
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Weird shit

I'll be honest; I wasn't in the greatest mood when I came in to work anyway. I'm not entirely sure when you could say my day started... perhaps at 5 a.m. when I opened my eyes and thought that it was snowing outside? I don't know if it really was snowing, but I swore that it was, and one of the times Kurtis got up, I told him that it was snowing, too. Maybe I was dreaming that it was snowing. If anyone else lives in the 21122 zip code and was up at 5 a.m., please tell me that I'm not crazy. At any rate, there were ice crystals on my car that looked like frozen snowflakes, so I still think that it must have snowed last night. The strange part of it though is that it looked like my windshield wipers had been used, because there was a streak across the windshield as if they'd been turned on and then the moisture had frozen. That's the best way that I can describe it. Maybe I was still asleep when I started my car? Who knows?

So I get to work and there are about 8 cars in the parking lot... fewer than yesterday, but that's not really all that weird. Turn on my computer and Christmas lights... the lights in my area were still off, and they were glowing rather nicely, so I decided to leave the lights off and just enjoy my pretty colored lights. An hour or so later, one of our wonderful Dallas Cowboys fans (who also thinks that he's God's gift to women) comes over and turns on my lights! I was quite enjoying my morning with the lights off! There is a plotter behind me where he gets his drawings, but there was plenty of surrounding light for him to be able to see which drawings were his when they came out of the plotter. I'm sure that he did it just to irritate me. Fortunately he didn't say anything nasty about the game, because I might have gotten a tad homicidal.

Kurtis emails me at around 10:30 saying that Kari had called The Body Garden (the spa that he got me, Kari & Brenda gift certificates to) was giving Kari the runaround about getting an appointment and he was thinking of just asking for his money back (he spent a nice chunk of change there and had had a bad experience with them to begin with) and getting GC's from somewhere else. I emailed him saying that Emilio Vincenzo (sp?) escape was comparable (if not cheaper) in price to The Body Garden and maybe they should contact them to see if they had anything open. He calls back saying that they don't have much open, etc... at any rate, the whole thing was turning into a fiasco and at this point I'm just hoping that Kari gets to go to the spa before they have to go back to Ohio. To further complicate matters, their car is acting up and they took it into the shop this morning.

So all of that is mostly run-of-the-mill stuff, I know. At around noon, Kurtis calls me (while I'm on phones) and asks what I'm doing for lunch. I responded that I had no plans... and he said that our friend Nick (who lives in WV now) was going to be in the area and wanted to have lunch with us. He also says that Nick is driving his tractor-trailer and the only place he can think to park it is in the Harms parking lot. Okay, whatever - there aren't that many people here today. This is all fine and good, and I agree to lunch. Shortly thereafter, one of our inspectors comes in with his arm all bandaged up, and blood seeping through the top of the bandage... whatever it was, it looked pretty bad. I made some comment about it looking bad and he tells me that I should have seen it before - this is how it looks *after* it's been all cleaned up & taken care of! So I didn't ask how it happened, figuring that he would be asked enough times and I would eventually find out anyway. Shortly thereafter, I get a phone call from the Learning Years (remember, I'm at the front desk) which is the day care center in our little "Harms Square" area. "Hi, this is Stacey over at Learning Years... is Dan around? There's a weird-looking guy out here who parked his tractor-trailer in front of our building. My boss asked me to go out there and ask him why he's here, but I'm kind of afraid to do it. I'm a little freaked out, do you think you could send him over? The guy is out of the truck and is under it doing something that I can't quite see." Oh boy. Now am I going to admit that I actually know who this person is??? Of course. At least, kind of. "OH. I think that's Nick, an ex-employee... he's supposed to be meeting one of my co-workers for lunch and he must have just parked his truck there. He's harmless, but a bit eccentric. You can just walk out there and ask him to move it, he's not going to hurt you!" "It's just that you know, we're a day care center, he can't just park out here!" "I'm sorry, but Dan's at lunch, we don't really have anyone that can walk out there and tell him to move." I finally got her off the phone, feeling slightly guilty... at the end I really thought that she would just go out there and ask Nick to move his trailer. Right after I hang up the phone with her, a black Dodge Durango with dark tinted windows and DC tags pulls up in front of the building. Two guys get out, one in an officer's uniform and another in a semi-officer looking uniform. At any rate, he didn't look like a civilian. The inspector with the bandaged arm is outside talking to them, and they all walk in together. I jokingly said, "I didn't do it." They laughed and then walked into the conference room. I'm thinking "What the hell???" Two minutes later, Kurtis walks in and tells me that Nick has disconnected his trailer and wants the three of us to ride to lunch in the cab of his truck?!!? I proceed to tell him what the woman from TLY told me and that they don't want him to park there. Then I told Kurt there was no way in hell that I was going to ride to lunch in that thing. He said, "Fine, you just meet us at Garry's Grill." At that point I was thinking it would probably be better if I didn't go at all after that fiasco! *sigh* I decide that I should go anyway, how much weirder can it get, right? As I'm about to leave, the company gossip woman is hovering around the front desk and says "Did you hear what happened to so-and-so?" I said that I knew he'd injured his hand somehow, but I didn't know why the cops were there, etc. She told me that he had been at an inspection site somewhere and had been bitten by a secret service officer's dog! So the policeman that I saw was actually a secret service agent!! How weird is that??

At any rate, I get in my car and am about to go to lunch. I pull up to Ritchie Highway and am just about to pull out since there is a break in traffic... then I see an asshole in a minivan about 20 feet away going about 30 mph in reverse up the shoulder - headed straight for me, of course! Scared the shit out of me!! Fortunately I have cat-like reflexes and slammed Roxie into reverse before the bastard plowed into me. Oh, I was PISSED. So I threw up my hands, resisting to give him the "You're #1" sign and instead opting for the "What the hell are you doing???!" gesture. He responded by waving!!!! Oh, I was not happy. The funny thing about this (if there is anything funny) is that the exact thing happened to another guy at work last year... or maybe it was even this summer. Someone ran into him backing up Ritchie Highway and took off the front bumper of his car. We're in a really horrible location for accidents, I swear.

I get to Severna Park without any further incidents, but then when I'm getting ready to pull into the parking space, this #%)()*@#_)(* pulls FORWARD into it, so I almost run into her! Or should I say that she almost ran into me??? Ugh. Not happy.

So that's been my day! I haven't heard from my friend Chris yet... I'm hoping that I'll be able to see him while he's home for Xmas. If you remember, Kurt & I ran into him at the Rainforest caf? a few months ago while he was home for a friend's wedding. Well, I have stuff to do, so I guess that I'd better do it. Hope that everyone else had a far less interesting day than me!

holy crap!
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: velvet revolver
Topic: Weird shit
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A 60-year-old woman jumped on the back of a crocodile as it dragged a man from his tent in northern Australia on Monday, but was then attacked by the crocodile, which dragged her toward the ocean until it was shot dead.
The 60-year-old woman and 34-year-old man suffered broken limbs, cuts and bruises in the attack by the 12.6 foot crocodile, said wildlife and rescue officials.

The attack occurred around 4 a.m. as the man slept in a tent with his wife and child on the shores of Bathurst Bay, 186 miles north of Cairns in Queensland state.

"The crocodile walked into the tent and dragged the man out," said Stephen Pemberthy from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which airlifted the injured campers to hospital.

"A 60-year-old woman in an adjacent tent heard the commotion and jumped on the crocodile," Pemberthy told Reuters.

The crocodile let go of the man and bit the woman, pulling her toward the water before another person shot it dead.

The injured campers managed to set off a rescue beacon, capturing the attention of government wildlife officials in the area who were eradicating wild pigs.

The wildlife officials evacuated the campers to a nearby ranger station at Lakefield National Park and the Royal Flying Doctor Service flew them to a hospital in Cairns.

The man suffered a broken leg and arm and cuts and bruises, while the woman had an arm broken in the attack.

Bear Passes Out After Only 36 Beers
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: Sarah McLachlan
Topic: Weird shit

Thu Aug 19, 2004 08:23 AM ET


SEATTLE (Reuters) - A black bear was found passed out at a campground in Washington state recently after guzzling down three dozen cans of a local beer, a campground worker said on Wednesday.
"We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around," said Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort, 80 miles northeast of Seattle.

The hard-drinking bear, estimated to be about two years old, broke into campers' coolers and, using his claws and teeth to open the cans, swilled down the suds.

It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge.

Wildlife agents chased the bear away, but it returned the next day, said Broxson.

They set a trap using as bait some doughnuts, honey and two cans of Rainier Beer. It worked, and the bear was captured for relocation.

more fun weather!
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: Melissa Etheridge
Topic: Weird shit
Check it out!



At least we're getting all of this crap this week instead of next! There's also a big line of thunderstorms headed straight for us right now. It should be nice and nasty by the time I'm leaving today. It'll start just before I get off work, I'm sure of it.

Ahh... looks like no exercise for me tonight! I lifted weights at lunch, so at least I've done something. Guess I'll have to break down and bring my clothes to work out in tomorrow so that I can use the gym at work. Looks like the weather is going to be crappy for the next 4 days or so. Figures! Oh well, I'll get my workout walking around the mall, right? ;)

That's what I'll do, I'll just do a few laps through Mills. I'm willing to bet that it's close to a mile around the whole loop. I think the whole mall is something like 2.5 million square feet. That's pretty big!

Well, it sounds like it's finally about to rain, so I'd better post this before we lose power.

odds
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: LOTR soundtrack -- may it be (Enya)
Topic: Weird shit
Found this on a site, thought some of them were interesting. Who knows how many are correct, though... I don't know where they came from, I'm sure over half of them are erroneous.

Odds that an American adult does not want to live to age 120 under any circumstances: 3 to 2

Odds of injury from fireworks: 19,556 to 1

Odds of injury from shaving: 6,585 to 1

Odds of injury from using a chain saw: 4,464 to 1

Odds of injury from mowing the lawn: 3,623 to 1

Odds of fatally slipping in bath or shower: 2,232 to 1

Odds of drowning in a bathtub: 685,000 to 1

Odds of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip: 500,000,000 to 1

Odds of being killed sometime in the next year in any sort of transportation accident: 77 to 1

Odds of being killed in any sort of non-transportation accident: 69 to 1

Odds of being struck by lightning: 576,000 to 1

Odds of being killed by lightning: 2,320,000 to 1

Odds of being murdered: 18,000 to 1

Odds of getting away with murder: 2 to 1

Odds of being the victim of serious crime in your lifetime: 20 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Odds of being considered possessed by Satan: 7,000 to 1

Odds that a first marriage will survive without separation or divorce for 15 years: 1.3 to 1

Odds that a celebrity marriage will last a lifetime: 3 to 1

Odds of getting hemorrhoids: 25 to 1

Odds of being born a twin in North America: 90 to 1

Odds of being on plane with a drunken pilot: 117 to 1

Odds of being audited by the IRS: 175 to 1

Odds of having your identity stolen: 200 to 1

Odds of dating a millionaire: 215 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Odds of writing a New York Times best seller: 220 to 1

Odds of finding out your child is a genius: 250 to 1

Odds of catching a ball at a major league ballgame: 563 to 1

Odds of becoming a pro athlete: 22,000 to 1

Odds of finding a four-leaf clover on first try: 10,000 to 1

Odds of a person in the military winning the Medal of Honor: 11,000 to 1

Odds of winning an Academy Award: 11,500 to 1

Odds of striking it rich on Antiques Roadshow: 60,000 to 1

Odds of getting a royal flush in poker on first five cards dealt: 649,740 to 1

Odds of spotting a UFO today: 3,000,000 to 1

Odds of becoming president: 10,000,000 to 1

Odds of winning the California lottery: 13,000,000 to 1

Odds of becoming a saint: 20,000,000 to 1

Odds of a meteor landing on your house: 182,138,880,000,000 to 1

Chance of dying from any kind of injury during the next year: 1 in 1,820

Chance of dying from intentional self-harm: 1 in 9,380

Chance of dying from an assault: 1 in 16,421

Chance of dying from a car accident: 1 in 18,585

Chance of dying from any kind of fall: 1 in 20,666

Chance of dying from accidental drowning: 1 in 79,065

Chance of dying from exposure to smoke, fire, and flames: 1 in 81,524

Chance of dying in an explosion: 1 in 107,787

Chance that Earth will experience a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years: 1 in 5,000

Chance of dying in such a collision: 1 in 20,000

Chance of dying from exposure to forces of nature (heat, cold, lightning, earthquake, flood): 1 in 225,107

Chance of dying in an airplane accident: 1 in 354,319

Chance of dying from choking on food: 1 in 370,035

Chance of dying in a terrorist attack while visiting a foreign country: 1 in 650,000

Chance of dying in a fireworks accident: 1 in 1,000,000

Chance of dying from overexertion, travel or privation: 1 in 1,428,377

Chance of dying from food poisoning: 1 in 3,000,000

Chance of dying from legal execution: 1 in 3,441,325

Chance of dying from contact with hot tap water: 1 in 5,005,564

Chance of dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000

Chance of dying from ignition or melting of nightwear: 1 in 30,589,556

Chance of dying from being bitten by a dog: 1 in 700,000

Chance of dying from contact with a venomous animal or plant: 1 in 3,441,325

Chance of dying from being bitten or struck by mammals (other than dogs or humans): 1 in 4,235,477

Chance of dying from a mountain lion attack in California: 1 in 32,000,000

Chance of dying from a shark attack: 1 in 300,000,000

Chance of having a stroke: 1 in 6

Chance of dying from heart disease: 1 in 3

Chance of getting arthritis: 1 in 7

Chance of suffering from asthma or allergy diseases: 1 in 6

Chance of getting the flu this year: 1 in 10

Chance of developing schizophrenia: 1 in 100

Chance of contracting the human version of mad cow disease: 1 in 40,000,000

Chance of dying from SARS in the United States: 1 in 100,000,000

Chance of American man developing cancer in his lifetime: 1 in 2

Chance of an American woman developing cancer in her lifetime: 1 in 3

Chance of getting prostate cancer: 1 in 6

Chance of getting breast cancer: 1 in 9

Chance of getting colon / rectal cancer: 1 in 26

Chance of beating pancreatic or liver cancer: 1 in 9

Chance of beating thyroid or testicular cancer: 9 in 10


I'm hoping that those cancer odds aren't right! THat seems awfully high.

From 'The Daily Whisper'
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Weird shit
Ozzy Voted Alien Ambassador
Where there's water, there must be life, therefore Mars must have aliens. Internet pollsters recently voted Ozzy Osbourne as the favorite to represent Earth to our alien brethren. Other top choices included Tony Blair, George Bush, and Simon Cowell. What a bizarre perspective aliens would get of humanity!

Yep, I think they would all be a great representative of us earthlings! Well Tiffer just IM'd me, so I'm going to chat with her for a lil bit then hopefully catch Idol tonight.

Fair thee well, loyal readers!!

Guinness book of world records
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: That band that was formed with the remaining members of RATM and Chris Cornell??? I can't remember their name..
Topic: Weird shit
Doh, I just remembered.... Audioslave!


Anyway, this is a little disturbing and even rather depressiong. See the Guinness Book of World Records page by clicking here.

Here is the text from the page in case you don't feel like leaving:

Longest Surviving Headless Chicken
On September 10, 1945, a Wyandotte chicken belonging to Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, USA, had its head chopped off, but went on to survive for 18 months. Mike's owner, Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorada, USA, fed and watered the headless chicken directly into his gullet using an eyedropper. Mike eventually choked to death one night in an Arizona motel.

FIND OUT MORE
Sceptical scientists thought it was a hoax, so one week into Mike-the-headless-chicken's physically-altered life, farmer Lloyd Olsen packed Mike up and took him on a cross-country tour from Fruita, Colorado to the University Of Utah in Salt Lake City. The axe blade, scientists discovered, had missed the five-and-a-half month old Wyandotte rooster's jugular vein, and a clot had saved the chicken from bleeding to death.

Because Lloyd had aimed the axe so high, most of the brain stem was left at the top of the spine. One ear had also survived. Mike, it seemed, had lost the power to see and to cluck, but could still hear and think. Mike was also growing, weighing 1.1 kg. (2.5 lb.) when he first lost his head, and developing to a respectable 3.6 kg. (8 lb.) by the time he passed away.

Celebrity status was guaranteed when a manager took the chicken on a national tour, and his story was reported in well-respected news magazines Life and Time. Like many legendary celebrities, Mike's life ended in a hotel room. Mike began to choke and Lloyd was unable to find the eyedropper to clear Mike's esophagus. It was the end of the road for Mighty Mike. Gone but certainly not forgotten, Mike's life is celebrated each year by Fruita residents, who simply remember him as, "a big, fat chicken who didn't know he didn't have a head".

I miss LAB
Mood:  blue
Now Playing: LAB -- Considerate Apathy
Topic: Weird shit

I'm not really sure why I thought of them, probably because I was thinking of bands that I haven't seen in a while that I should check out again since I have dependable transportation. Anyway, I was looking at the Buzz Poet's site and then I thought about LAB (Live Alien Broadcast). It's a shame that they broke up...they were a lot of fun to hang out with, too. I'll never forget NYE 2001 in Baltimore...that was certainly a crazy night!

Thinking about all that makes me want to start a band, hehe. There are an awful lot of female fronted bands out there now -- just look at evanescence, two freaking grammys! Why can't I do that? Ya know? American Idol my ass!

Anyway, I think that Kurt and I are going to some open mic thing tonight in Annapolis that his friend is hosting. Since we're there, I want to stop at Tower Records to see if they have any of LAB's old albums. I've already bought them twice, hopefully the third time is the charm!

We're also going to see LC next weekend at the Recher for their CD release show.. I'm a little anxious about that and seeing all of my old friends.

Tai is sitting in my lap as I'm posting this entry... I really need to get up and take a shower, but I don't want to disturb him -- he's just purring away! He's on the verge of sliding off of my legs, but he doesn't seem to care. Goofball.

Valentine's Day was wonderful, by the way...we had filet and ribeye cooked expertly on the grill as well as some enormous yummy crabcakes... then cookies and brownies to finish up. Kurt made a great valentine's day mix and we listened to that for 3 or 4 hours on the wireless music thing... it's pretty neat not to mention handy to have.

Well I'm going to upset Mr. Tai and get him off my lap so that I can cleanse my stinky body.

Oh, and P.S. I have to part with Roxy (my car) tomorrow to have her hood fixed at the dealer. Hopefully they'll give me a nice car as a loaner. Maybe an RSX... or that 350Z that was in the showroom!! haha, yeah right.