I've moved: www.livejournal.com/users/avarusmentis

Cat Cloning, $18,000 off - now only $32,000!

Yup, now you can have your cat cloned for only $32,000. I thought this site might be a joke like penguinwarehouse.com, but it's referenced in this article by CNN about genetically engineered hypoallergenic cats ($3,500).

Scooby-Dooby-Doo... Can you hear me now?

Scooby Doo was one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid. I remember it used to come on every day at 4. Shortly after I got home from school and my 40 min bus ride. The anticipation of waiting for it to come on was almost to much and the commercials were unbearable. Nevermind the day it got cancelled... So anyway, it happened to be on this morning as I was getting ready for work. There was the usual slightly cheesy monster / ghost, the over confidant bad guys, someone disappeared or gets lost, scooby eats scooby snacks, etc... Everything seemed normal, then, I heard it. The 'chirp'. But no, it couldn't be... I pressed the 'skip back 10 seconds' button and watched again. It was... It really was... The bad guys were using Nextels. That's so wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong. What next? Will the Mystery Machine start running on soy beans and solar power; maybe Shaggy could use a nice Tungsten E2 Palm Pilot to track his inventory of Scooby Snacks and count his carbs.

Tornadoette?

So yesterday around 6:15pm I was driving on 69W, just about to exit onto 127S. Up ahead, my view partially obstructed by the on/off ramps, it looked like there was a fire. I could see smoke rising up and quickly building and getting thicker. It looked like it was right next to 127 and I would have a clear view of what ever it was as soon as I came around the ramp. What I thought was smoke, was really dust. It was swiriling up in the beginnings of a tornado and was about 200ft away from me. I stopped under the overpass along with many other cars. The road signs started twisting side to side, my car started rocking and shaking, then it slowly dissapated. There was still a opaque cloud of dust across the road ahead. When I started driving again there was a 180 degree wall of dust around me. I've definitely never seen anything like that. I took a picture with my camera phone while I was sitting under the over pass. It's pretty poor quality, but better then nothing.

Sunset

Some photos of the incredible sunset last night:

7ish El Azteco on Saginaw

Chris: "Katherine can be my date, you can be her date, then you'll be your own third wheel."

MDW

ha, yeah, so I'm finally updating... Last weekend was great. I guess what sticks out most is sitting in Denny's with Chris, Katherine, and Maggie. The conversation ranged from pending doom to Chris cutting his front yard with scissors to oreos to more pending doom and to how we all should have our names hanging from our crotch like the Madagascar characters hanging from the ceiling in Denny's. Otherwise I got a lot done in general, nothing of much interest though... Hmm, I guess this post is going nowhere and getting kind of boring so I think I'll stop right ..... here.

Geez, it's been a while since I've updated. I seem to have had no time to do so lately. I will soon...

It's Forever ... for Ever

It seemed so strange to get up this morning and have to come to work. I think I became very detached from work with everything that was going on this weekend. It's almost like I live two
different lives. Like the men you hear about on TV that have wives and children in two different cities across the country that don't know about each other. Fortunately I don't have to hide one from the other, although they do step on each others toes now and then.

I spent a lot of time at the art fair. I went with Angela, Abbie, and Chris on Saturday and with Heather D, Chris, and Katherine on Sunday. I have some photos, but haven't taken them off my camera yet. I'll post them soon.

Abbie bought this photo from an extrodinarily nice photographer, Emerson Matabele. She loved the picture and it had a quote by Carlos Castaneda's, an author that both her and Sam have been reading a lot of lately. She wanted the smaller $30 size, but all he had that specific photo in was an $85 size. He told her it would be $85 + tax which would come to $50. That alone was very nice of him, then as she handed him 2 twenty's and a ten. He only took the two 20's, hugged all of us, smiled and said "It's forever" or was it "It's for Ever"... The name of Abbie's soon to be born daughter...

Persistance is Key

My car is getting an oil change today so I had some food from Famous Taco delivered. I was paged to the front office when the driver arrived and I heard this conversation as I walked down the hall:

Receptionist: "He'll be right up"
Delivery Driver: "Famous Taco!"
Receptionist: "He's on his way"
Delivery Driver: "Famous Taco!"
Receptionist: "Yes, he'll be right with you"
Delivery Driver: "Famous Taco!"
Me: "Hi"
Delivery Driver: "Famous Taco!"

I'll spend the rest of my life here

Hmm, so yeah, it's been a few days... I usually post while I'm at work, but it's been so crazy this week I haven't had time. Anyway, I went to get my hair cut last night and was reading an article about Bhutan in the May issue of GQ magazine. The guy writing the article went to a bhuddist temple built on a cliffside. Probably similar to this cliffside temple also in Bhutan. He said something like, "I was greeted by a 10 year old boy. He said that his parents had just given him to the temple and he would spend the rest of his life there." That's hard to imagine, 10 years old and your entire life is already planned - you already know where you will be when you're 30, 50, 80...

Ghost Cookies

I think it was Saturday. I walked into my house and it smelled like cookies were baking. Like exactly as if there were freshly baking cookies in my oven. I have no idea where the smell came from and it disappeared pretty quickly. How odd...

2:58pm | just outside my office

Ah, you've got to love randomly overheard conversations taken out of context:

"you gotta do something NOW when you crap your pants. you can't stick around..."
"if I had the power, I'd crap your pants right now as you walk away"

Yeah, if I had one superhero power, that would be it, to be able to crap other peoples pants.

Um, yes please.

This goes right along with my last post:

ALifeUncommon**** (4:02:25 PM): i seriously wannna kiss in the rain
ALifeUncommon**** (4:02:28 PM): ive never done that
ALifeUncommon**** (4:02:30 PM): just get soaked
ALifeUncommon**** (4:02:33 PM): and kiss

Through your eyes

Sometimes I think I'm weird when it comes to things I find really attractive and beautiful. Like yesterday, I was turning right (south) onto Waverly off of St. Joe around 8 on my way to Espresso Royale for open mic night. The sun was just setting. As my gaze went from the beautiful sunset on my right to the line of stopped traffic on my left I saw something even more beautiful. A girl. She was watching the sunset too, more then watching it, lost in it, part of it. The look in her eyes reflected more of the beauty of it then any mirror ever could. I wanted to stop and ask her sit in the grass with me until the sun disappeared, then lay back and look at the stars.

Blame it on the weather

See how much todays weather might be affecting your:
Attentiveness
Reflex and Reaction Times
Aches and Pains

Also interesting:
Tonights Sky
Air Stagnation

Wow, I'm guilty of a felony

THE MICHIGAN PENAL CODE (EXCERPT)
Act 328 of 1931

750.532 Seduction; punishment.
Sec. 532.
Punishment—Any man who shall seduce and debauch any unmarried woman shall be guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not more than 5 years or by fine of not more than 2,500 dollars; but no prosecution shall be commenced under this section after 1 year from the time of committing the offense.

History: 1931, Act 328, Eff. Sept. 18, 1931 ;-- CL 1948, 750.532
Michigan Compiled Laws

Hmm, so it is ok to seduce a married woman?

I almost forgot to tell you you're beautiful

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we just told people how we felt about them without restriction - the good things. When you find someone to be a simply beautiful person, you just tell them. When there's someone you really want to get to know, but can't find the right words or moment, you just tell them. But that almost never happens. We may find subtle ways to express those things, but in very indirect ways. Ways that always leave us an out and never commit us to revealing what we really feel. We carefully place our true feeling in the shadows of our insecurities and dance around them. We take turns revealing only the smallest pieces so in the face of rejection we can protect our dignity, turn off the lights, and say, 'oh no, that's not what I meant at all...'. Why can't we just come out and say what we feel? For a moment I thought, but then what fun would life be? Just for a moment. Then I realized just how much more fun it would be.

Celebration Cinema Ad

I just got the proof for my ad that will be running at Celebration Cinema in a week or two. Check it out. It's 2mb so it may take a few min to load if you're on a slower connection. It will be running on all 18 screens for 2 months. Let me know if you see it!

Crushed garlic, mixed with Mediterranean cheese and seasoned with army socks

Yup. That's one of the many descriptions of the smell of a Durian, a tropical fruit grown in southeast Asia. It's also been described as smelling like:

"fruit in a plastic bag that has been forgotten three weeks in the sauna"

"vomit, dead rats guts and rotten banana all rolled into one"

"a city dump on a hot summers day"

"fermented onions"




The smell is so bad they are banned from many hotels, subways, and apartment complexes.







While the fruit 'smells like hell' it 'tastes like heaven'. It's said that the pleasure of this fruit alone is worth a trip to southeast Asia - "Once you are into them they are almost addictive" The taste is described as:

"The pulp tastes good like a butter-similar vanilla pudding, going hand in hand with the taste of almonds "
"the pale yellow flesh had an appealingly creamy, custardlike texture and a very weet taste"
"Durian's flavor reminds me of the finest vanilla custard"

However, others describe them as:

"Smells and tastes like gasoline, with a mild oniony flavour"
"the flesh of an animal in a state of putrifaction"
"like a cross between banana, garlic and something you'd drag out of a garbage can"
"Durians taste like warm beer and cheese with a high note of urine"

Yeah, that's definitely something I have to try. Seriously. The durian is so loved in Indonesia, they even have Durian flavored condoms. Yeah, I'm SURE you're wondering 'Where can I get a Durian?' At the Oriental Mart in East Lansing. I think I'll get one tonight or this weekend...

Wood Laptop?

Yup.



Wooden Laptop

Point Control

Haha, I just got this e-mail from where I take my fencing lessons. It may not be as funny if you don't know fencing terms, but it's still pretty amusing.

Sent : Wednesday, May 4, 2005 4:02 PM
To : GLSC List
Subject : [GLSC] To the guys at GLSC

I've been meaning to email the men folk for a couple of weeks. Basically I need you guys to work on your "point control" while using the bathroom. Someone is "punching to the left" when the facilities are in use. David does not use the back bathroom and Tom is not here during the week so I know this is a male fencer issue. In other words, "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat"....or perhaps more appropriately... "If you miss and hit the rim, wipe it off or you'll piss off Kim."

Perspectives of Love

[ I changed the second message a lot to make it more generic and to 'protect the innocent' but it's the basic idea ]


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe L
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 12:22 PM
To: '*********'
Subject: RE: Interesting..............

[...]

What has he done (or neglected to do) to make you feel this way?


-----Original Message-----
From: **** [mailto:******@*******.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 1:30 PM
To: 'Gabe L'
Subject: RE: Interesting..............

There isn’t one thing in general, it is just that he doesn’t make me feel loved or needed. [...] I feel like something is missing on his part. [...] He says I should know how he feels without him having to tell me and just the fact that he is always with me should be enough for me to know how he feels.
[...]
I am the kind of person who has to know what the other person is thinking, feeling, etc. So we are just opposites in that respect. He says he is working on it. But I haven’t seen any changes. Maybe I am being stupid.


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe L
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 2:33 PM
To: '*******'
Subject: RE: Interesting..............

I think part of the problem is he is expecting you to understand and see his love from his perspective and ‘reality’ – being around you 24/7 may be a huge thing for him. Wanting to be around someone that much may be a thing he’s never felt or wanted before and to him that’s love and his expression of it. However, to you, that’s a normal thing, nothing special...

Same goes for you. The way you feel and express love is through much more direct, romantic, and intense means – staring into each others eyes in a candle lit room whispering how crazy in love with him you are... To you, from your perspective, something like that is probably an incredibly beautiful thing and expression of love, but to him it may just be words... He may think you love him not because you tell him, but because you are spending so much time with him.

So you’re not being stupid by any means, it just seems like your concepts and expressions of love and loving another person are very different, or like you said opposites. What can you do about that? That’s the hard part... I think you and him simply have to talk about it. Especially since it’s been a problem since your relationship began, but more importantly, it’s making you unhappy – THAT is what he should care about. I know that’s one of his least favorite things to do, but communication about those kind of things is way too important to brush it aside because it maybe be uncomfortable.

To be continued...

Ok, I know my older posts are not accessable for some reason. I will try to fix that later today. FIXED!

Also I have lots of things and pictures to post from the weekend. Hopefully I'll get to that today too. So much for getting any real work done at work :-P See below:

Wow, where to begin... Actually, I'll begin in a bit I have to resize some photos for this post...

Ok, I'm finally finishing this post and it's only taken me 3 days. So this weekend... Friday night there were two parties I wanted to go to. I started out at Dan Knaggs Cinco de Mayo party around 11. It was unusually quiet there for one of his parties so I left around 12:30 for Rachels Stereotype party. That was quite a contrast to say the least. There were people practically spilling out of the house, people in the yard, on the porch, on the roof... jumping off the roof.... Some great stereotypes too. I only knew about 4 people there, but ended up talking to a lot of new people. Oh that reminds me, I got invited to this drunk girls birthday party this saturday. I don't really know her, but who knows, I might go... Talked to several very cute drunk girls, but every time, as I was about to say, 'hey, you should give me your #' their friend would come along and say 'lets go, were leaving'. Grrr.... So as people started to leave that party around 2:30 I headed back out to Dan Knaggs party. I knew that one would just be really getting going and it was. We went truck surfing out in the field. Me and Dan in the front, Joe Kenny, Matt D. and another guy I don't know in the back. I took my camera to get some photos, but stupidly I forgot to put batteries in it. The next day I realized I had the battery in my pocket the whole time. Oh well...
Joe Kenny always seems to break something. Keep in mind this is Dan's parents house and a VERY nice house at that. Probably $300,000 +. Well, Wednesday night Joe broke a lawn chair and outdoor table by throwing all the deck furniture over the side of the deck. Why? I have no idea, but there was a shopping trip planned for Sunday to replace it before Dan's parents got back. On top of that, Sat night, oh around 5 am, Matt D. pushed, kicked, or did something to make Joe fall and break a wooden spindle on the stairway. Not just break, but split, like vertically. I really should have taken a picture. I thought Dan was finally going to get mad. I've never seen him get mad, hardly even annoyed. Even when Carter colored on his dog with a permant marker, but I thought ok, now he's going to be pissed. Nope. He just said, "I'll fix it tomorrow... hmmm, I'll have to use the walnut wood polish on that one...." Apparently Joe Kenny has broken many a spindle, only to be glued back together and touched up with some wood polish. Too funny....
Saturday was my last creative welding class. I made a pretty cool sculpture. I'll post a picture soon. Nothing much happened Saturday night. Hung out with Chris a bit.
Sunday was lots of fun. I went to the Creole Gallery to see the graduating LCC photo students exhibit and portfolios. I think I spent 3 hours there and could have stayed 3 more. So much incredible stuff. I took a rather sneaky photo of Angela from down the street, hehe :)
Actually, it kind of looks like I captured some famous movie star out in her every day clothes trying not to attract too much attention. Don't forget me if I make you famous!


Later, back at Leitrim, Chris, Erin, Jeremy, and I played hacky-sack with a empty water bottle for quite a while. That was way more fun then it sounds like. Oh yeah, and Jeremy also made the bottle levitate :)

Hmm, what else happened... Abby tried to eat Chris's nose:
















And I took a pretty good picture of Sam:


So yeah, that's about it for now...

$10.00 trip to the future?

Ok so, you put $10.00 in this fund. In 500 years @ 5% interest it will grow to over 38 billion dollars and you're betting that will buy you a ticket to the future on a yet to be invented time machine. Yeah, that's definitely an interesting concept:

The Time Travel Fund

What Brilliant Advertising...

Mmm, Bird Saliva...

Last night was a great night, but I'm definitely paying for it today. Geez, I've been saying that way too much lately. Amy and I went to the Oriental Mart in East Lansing when I got out of work. If you've never been there it's a store about the size of a typical Kroger, maybe a little smaller. It's full of food and drinks you're never seen much less heard of before - like literally 95% of the things I've only ever seen there. Amy got a can of star fruit juice. It was pretty disgusting. What I got sounds disgusting, but actually tastes quite good. It's a drink made from "white fungus, birds nests, and rock sugar". It's made from the same type of birds nests that bird nest soup comes from. It's the nest of the Swiftlet Swallow - "They construct their nest with glutinous strands of starched like saliva produced by a pair of large, salivary glands under their tongue " It's quite a delicacy in China and a bowl of birds nest soup costs about $40 - $60. If you think that sounds really gross, consider that we eat honey which an insect swallows, regurgitates, chews on for about a half hour, then spits out.
So after that we took a lot of pictures (see below), drank a lot of Asti, got drunk, Darryl and Rob came over and we all sat in the hot tub. The end.

Ohh, how beautifully appropriate...

from Time Magazine

Spot Removal (post Addition)

one really drunk guy (Carter)
+ one slightly drunk but mischievous guy (Jeff D.)
+ one permanent marker (black Sharpie)
+ one dog (a pointer)
a dog with an extra spot

Even funnier was Dan Knaggs coming in and half laughing, half mad (if that's even possible) and saying "What the hell happened to my dog?" and "My parents are going to be pissed." Funny thing was, the spot actually looked pretty good and with a little blending by me almost matched, but later, a brillo pad and a little water removed most of it.

Ah, that was great, but another 2am night. I'm so tired. It's been like that all week except for Monday. Tues was open mic night then I went to Leitrim land for a while. Last night was wino Wednesday at Dan's. Tonight Amy's coming over. Friday there are two parties both of which should be really good. I still need to think of a stereotype to go as if I go to Rachels party. Hmmm, any suggestions?