What's Happening. (Weekend of 05/25)

Berea's Rib Burn Off - This event runs all weekend @ Cuyahoga County Fair Grounds
Friday, Noon to 11:00P Free.
Saturday & Sunday 11:00A to 11:00P.$5.00 until 7:00PM $8.00 after 7:00PM.
Monday,11:00AM to 9:00PM $2.00.
Entertainment- Saturday, 9:00PM Billie Currington. Sunday, 9:00PM Gin Blossoms.
Free Parking.

Cavs Playoffs - Sunday 8P @ The Q (What a lame name) - The Cavs are in the finals for the first time since 92' so head downtown and party your ass off. If the weather cooperates I'll be bouncing around down there well before the tip off.

Bow Wow - Sunday 6P @ The Nautica Pavilion - Lil' is all grown up and still pleasing crowds with his musical rhymes.

Gas Prices

As we all have seen in the last couple years gas prices have gone up and I am getting sick of it.

I am sick of it because I can't stand listening to all of the jackasses talking about it. The daily chatter around my office is mind-numbing. I hear things like "did you hear there are people that can't eat because of the high gas prices" and "those bastard oil companies make billions why are they charging us so much". Hey, if can company can make money selling a product I say "good show".

Of course my favorite is the email calling for a gas boycott on a certain day. What a joke, guess what retards, if everyone could go without gas the prices would already be lower. It is a little thing called supply and demand you should have learned about it in 9th grade economics.

So please people shut up about the gas prices for now. If they hit double digits then you can start crying again.

Niagara Falls Weather Report: Looks Like Rain

I have to head up to Canada for a bachelor party this weekend so I am sure the weather inside the peelers will be rainy.

This, That and The Other, One of Them is the Bible.

Rocker Prince is going to hang up his guitar and pick up the bible when he finishes his London concert tour later this year. Prince said "I just need to take some time off for study and travel." When asked what he was studying, he replied: "The Bible."Also a PR company helping to publicise the tour, said in a statement that Prince would be performing his greatest hits "for the very last time".

Damn U Prince, How can you stop playing your greatest hits? That is your best stuff. Let's Work this out buddy. You never know what The Future will bring, how can you say you will never play them again.

I Hate U, you must be Delirious from all of your touring. Come On just take a break after this tour, get yourself rested on The Holy River. Then once you are well rested Let's Go Crazy and have a greatest hits tour in America.

I guess this is just a Sign "O" the Times when a great musician leaves his Days Of Wild behind and turns to the Bible. The Truth is I can't blame the guy. I mean if I was livin The Good Life for all these years I would need a break also. Still ,Prince, once you get back from hearing the Thunder of God on Mountains of Sinai you have to go back on tour! And I Betcha by Golly Wow your show will be the Jam of the Year.

What's Happening. (Weekend of 05/11)

While I am sure there is plenty of stuff going on this weekend I have to take the weekend off. The last few weeks have been a real blur. I don't remember much but I know I was having fun and spending tons of cash. So this weekend I am just going to crash, I am looking forward to about 30 hours of sleep, 5 times more than I normally get in a weekend. If there are any note worthy events this weekend post them in comments.

You Asked for a Miracle, I Give You the F.B.I.

The F.B.I. foiled a plot by Islamic Radicals to kill soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

I am very happy that the F.B.I. was able to stop this before it happened but these have to be some of the dumbest terrorist ever. Their plan and training methods are laughable. Check out these quotes from the F.B.I.'s statement.

"Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible,". Wow, that is ingenious if I understand it correctly. Let's attack one of the bases of the most powerful army on earth with some rifles.

"They played paintball and test-fired weapons,". This one speaks for itself, just plain retarded.

Again I am glad the attack never happen but I think this quote sums it up well.

While authorities are glad to have arrested them, the individuals are "hardly hard core terrorists," one law enforcement source said.

Beer Pong

I beat the guy in the video below in beer pong this weekend. Unfortunately we did not have cameras rolling. You can see how skilled he is, just know I beat him so that means I am even better.

Save the Date

Arrr, this is a ways off but I thought it is worth mentionin'. September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So brush up on your fa'orite pirate phrases, it will be har before you know it.

The only thin' that will trump this is the, yet t' be scheduled, International Pipe Talk day.

A pence for an old man o'de sea?

More Info

Smoking Kills

The internet version 2.

As you may or may not know there is a new internet out there. Internet 2, which was built for speed, is still very much in its infant stage. So infant in fact that it does not have the redundancy that makes the real internet the internet. This lack of redundancy is what allowed a Boston area ragamuffin to bring internet 2 to its knees.

This careless hobo discarded his cancer stick on to a mattress under a bridge. The mattress eventually caught fire and melted a fiber optic cable. This cable was a key link between Boston and New York. Officials expect to have the cable repaired in 48 hours.

Frank Sanmocker, an engineer with MCI, questioned "Why was this hobo wasting his money on smokes ? He should be using that money for food or shelter. Also if I was homeless I would use a mattress to sleep on, not as an ash tray. What was he thinking?"

I have an answer for you Frank. If the vagabond was a good decision maker he probably would not be homeless. Just a my 2 cents.

On Sale Now

Tickets for Twilight at the Zoo went on sale May 1st. This is the best event at the zoo every year. Get your tickets now because they sell out fast.

More Info - scroll down
Buy Tickets

Business 2.Uh Oh

Business 2.0, the tech savvy business magazine published by Time, does not follow their own advise.
On Monday April 23 the magazine's editing system crashed wiping out the June issue. Apparently the back up server failed to back up.
"If it had happened a week later, we would have been in trouble," said Josh Quittner, the editor.
"The text had all been copy-edited and sent off to the lawyers, so it had been saved as e-mail," Quittner said. "But the page layouts were truly gone, and our heroic art department had to rebuild all the art assets."
I can't believe something like this would happen to a national tech magazine in 2007. I back up my important data in two places, one local and one off site, and I don't have any thing all that important. Lucky for them their art department is so "heroic" because clearly the IT department is not.

What's Happening. (Weekend of 05/04)

An Evening in the Amazon - 05/04 - 6P - 10P - Cleveland Zoo Rain Forest - Another zoo event! This one is an auction to benefit the Cleveland Ad Association's scholar ship fund. Price is $40, food and beverages are provided. Not sure if there will be booze but I always enjoy kicking around the zoo after hours.

Cinco de Mayo Party - 05/05 - 6P - 9:30P - Blind Pig W. 6th - $20 bucks gets you all the Coronas and tacos you can handle for 3 hours.

Finally!

The bridge was finally destroyed yesterday.
I have to say it was worth the multiple trips and delays. The blast lasted about 5 seconds but it was much louder and more visual than I expected it to be. I figured there would just be a couple of muffled bangs and the thing would crumble. As you can see in the video the left side of the bridge was really blasted. Unfortunately the video does not give you a feel for the actual power of the blast.

Bridge Demolition Update

Looks like they will give it another go today (5/1) at 6P. The viewing area is the same as before. Thunder storms are predicted for this afternoon and officials are concerned that lightening could cause problems.

Fulton Rd Bridge Status Report

We had a Blurtiful turn out for what I guess we could call the first "organized" Blur outing. I want to thank all 15 of you that woke up in time for 5:30A breakfast, especially Sandra and Kim for picking up the tab for my breakfast and offering to running the cameras.

The weather could not have been any better, if you like it cold and rainy that is. The turn out was huge probably around 1000 people showed up.

The bridge implosion was not quite as spectacular as I thought it was going to be. I guess that has something to do with it not quite going as planned and the bridge was not destroyed.

The original blast was supposed to take place at 8A but that was delayed when some people sneaked into the blast site, awesome. When they hit the charges at 8:30A there were a couple blasts but nothing fell. They tried again at 9:30A this time a small part of the bridge fell but most of it was unaffected.

The company conducting the demolition blamed faulty wiring for the blast not working. They finally took out a section of bridge over the train tracks but I was long gone so I did not get any pictures. The blast will be rescheduled Monday when ODOT meets with the blasting company.

Again I want to thank everyone for coming out and enduring the crappy weather and several delays. Hopefully our next outing will be more of a blast.

New Pet or Computer Mouse?

Why choose when you can have both!

Make one for your self, you can find the directions here.

I'll give you a quick break down.
1) Kill a mouse
2) Scrape out its guts
3) Cram a mouse (PC kind) in the mouse.

Yes this mouse mouse is fully supported by PETA.

China's Claim to "Make it Rain" Confuses Strippers

China is planning to make it rain for several days before the start of the 2008 Olympics but to the disappointment of strippers across the country they are not talking about tossing out stacks of $1 bills.

China plans to use a process called cloud seeding to cause more rain to fall in the days leading up to the opening ceremonies. They are hoping this will reduce the chance of rain on opening day and also help decrease air pollution.

Full Story

Fulton Rd Bridge Recon

I conducted a sweep of the demolition site yesterday. I complied my findings in a Google map you can view here. Click on the links on the left side of the map for descriptions of the locations. There are several good spots so hopefully we will have enough people there Saturday for some game day scouting.

I Said Near the In N Out Burger

The Tucson area welcomes their first In N Out Burger with a huge turn out.
By 2P on opening day there were 106 cars in the drive-thru lane. Workers started telling customers to expect a 2 hour wait to get their food. The wait time for walk up service was also similar. On the plus side people in line did get free lemonade while waiting.

Just click bypass when you get the 403 error
More info and updates

What's Happening. (Weekend of 04/27)

This will be the best weekend ever. Forget the draft and the NBA playoffs a bridge demolition is going down this Saturday.

The Fulton Rd. bridge (the one that crosses over the Cleveland Zoo) will be destroyed with explosives this Saturday (4/28) at 8A.

I will definitely be going to watch this. The suggested viewing area is the park area on John Nagy Blvd. which is off Ridge Rd. north of 480. I am going to do some recon and see if we can get a better view from the neighborhood to the north east of the park. I'll post my findings when I get them.

The park opens at 6A so I want to arrive there or the alternate location around that time to get the best viewing spot. If anyone wants to join me we can meet up at the Ihop on Brookpark just west of Tiedeman @ 5:30A for some tasty eats before we hit the park.

I would also like to get video and still images of this event so I could use your help. The first lucky reader to comment on this post then make it to Ihop gets a free breakfast and gets to be camera person for the day. See you all Saturday.

Crazy Russians

Russia is planning to build the world's longest tunnel (see artist concept drawing, left).
The tunnel will run between Alaska and Siberia. At a length of 64 miles it will be twice as long as the current longest tunnel.
The project is expected to take 10-15 years to complete and cost an estimated 10-12 billion dollars.

Full Story

What's Happening. (Weekend of 04/20)

World Party - The Cleveland Zoo - Sun - 10A - 5P - This is kind of a hippy Earth Day type of event but it is at the zoo so I am down.
In addition to the hundreds of exhibits on display, folks can pick up a tree to plant in their yard, hear live music, and watch awe-inspiring tricks performed by zoo animals. And there'll be green-home designs, which show visitors how to light and heat their abodes naturally.

NBA Playoffs - Start Saturday at 12:30P the Cavs don't play until Sunday. I'll be downtown Sunday for the game.

Road Trip!

This is perhaps one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

The unique design of this giant, Mouse Trap inspired Rube Goldberg-style contraption was cleverly gleaned from the memories of childhood, twisted out of scale, then sketched beyond life size. It features an enormous construct of crazy stairs, a flame-throwing lamppost, careening bowling balls, and a hand-built, 30-foot-tall crane capable of lifting and dropping 5 tons! The object of this vaudevillian encounter is to "accomplish by complex means what seemingly could be done simply"! So our lucky players get to lift a 400-lb cast-iron bathtub 13 feet into the air, crank cranks, load springs and turn impossibly huge gears, all in a supreme effort to crush a trinket of meaning (say, a 1,200 lb pumpkin) under a falling 2-ton bank safe! The Mousetrap is impressive as a static sculpture, but it is the motion, started by a human, that is the heart of its existence.

This larger than life size Rube Goldberg machine will be on display at this years Maker Fair. The fair is held at the San Mateo fair grounds in San Mateo CA on May 19th and 20th. I'll be attending if anyone wants to join in.

Fair Info

This Story Really Burns My Ass

Japan's leading toilet manufacturer Toto is offering free repairs to 180,000 toilets after some of them caught fire.

There have been three incidents of the electric bidet accessory in Toto's Z series catching fire.

"Fortunately nobody was using the toilets when the fire broke out and there were no injuries," a company spokesman said.

"The fire would have been just under your buttocks," she added.

Toto is a pioneer of high-tech toilets with built-in bidets, which are popular in Japan.

The Z series features a pulsating massage spray, a power dryer, a "tornado wash" flush, and a lid that opens and closes automatically.

It is not sold outside Japan.

The offending loos were all manufactured between May 1996 and December 2001.

Another Zoo Mishap

This one took place in Argentina and unfortunately was fatal.

Melisa Casco, 19, was attacked by a Giant Anteater and died after an operation to amputate one of her legs.

Casco worked at the Florencio Varela zoo outside Buenos Aires as part of a conservation and reproduction project involving endangered giant anteaters. They are usually not aggressive, but allegedly this was a prank gone amiss.

Federico Santiago thought it would be humorous to fill Melisa's back pack with ants moments before she entered the habitat. Santiago figured it would trigger a reaction from the ant eater but he had no idea it would be so violent. None of this has been verified (or reported anywhere for that matter) but I think this is how it went down.