This is a neat idea... something to try maybe?

'Daily Show' humor befuddles governor

Thursday, February 23, 2006; Posted: 8:19 p.m. EST (01:19 GMT)


ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn't in on the joke.

Blagojevich says he didn't realize "The Daily Show" was a comedy spoof of the news when he sat down for an interview that ended up poking fun at the sometimes-puzzled governor.

"It was going to be an interview on contraceptives ... that's all I knew about it," Blagojevich laughingly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a story for Thursday's editions. "I had no idea I was going to be asked if I was 'the gay governor.' "

Last night was the Pros versus Prospects charity game. I can't even describe how much I enjoyed seeing the old guard take on the new kids. I know the "new kids" have all been playing for 5-6 years and all but compared to people like Benoit Hogue, Guy Carbonneau and Brett Hull, they're just chilluns. It took about a period and a half for the Pros to really get in the swing of things. I'm not sure if they were taking it easy on the Tornado or themselves. I'm sure even being a few months out of nearly daily skating (like Brett) leaves one a bit off, let alone being several years away from it and having spent the last while on a bench (like Kirk Muller). The Pros put away 8 goals to the Prospects' 6... closer than I thought it would be, honestly.
This year, maybe I'll put away some moneys here and there for bidding on a signed sweater. It goes to charity (deduction! heh) AND I'd get a pretty sweater to wear to games. Moo ha ha.

Plumbers have been at the house for the past 4 days. They pretty much replaced all the drain-pipe under the house (eeeeeee!) and stopped several leaks that I'm sure were causing many of the cracks in the walls. Here's hoping that this means painting and selling aren't too far away. :)

Future-cars!


Driving the car of the future
By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Yakushima island, Japan

The blue sky seemed to vanish in an instant, as wild, grey thunderclouds raced across the mountains. Rays of sunlight broke through in places, brightening spots in the forest like searchlights.

There are few landscapes more dramatic than Yakushima, and few places with more weather; within seconds we were being pelted by our 12th rainstorm of the day. But none of this bothered Sachito Fujimoto, one of Honda's top engineers.

"It's the perfect climate for us," he said with a grin, and we climbed into the dumpy little blue car he was testing.

The Honda FCX isn't much to look at, but it's the closest thing to a genuine car of the future you can drive on public roads.

Colombian farmers launch Coke rivals
By Mike Ceaser
In Nasa Indian territory, Colombia

The Fernandez family has found new markets for the coca leaves, the main ingredient used to make cocaine, which are piled up in front of their home in the mountains of western Colombia.

But the project ought to worry Coke, Pepsi and Seagram's more than drug enforcement officials.

The leaves are destined to become ingredients in coca-flavoured wine, soft drinks, tea and cookies.

"The idea is to give [the coca leaf] a new image," says Jairo Pardo Fernandez, who with his six brothers and sisters tends the family's 60 coca bushes.

"People have always looked at coca as something bad, but it also has its good uses."

This entry doesn't want to be written. It's been typed out several times and duly erased. Self-censorship. I don't know why I bother. Every entry I make is done as a "note to self." I'm not informing anyone. I'm not educating anyone. There's no great purpose to it.

This morning blew chunks.

Yesterday's sharing of feelings is today's insane confrontationalism. Today's confrontationalism will be tomorrow's water under the bridge of Friends Can Share Anything.

If you stick your nose outside, you'll smell winter. It smells clean and cold and fresh. The birds are loving it, singing and preening no matter where you look. This morning, it looked grey and went and doom-like out there. The sun never really came out but it's...

I don't remember what I was going to say. My cat just jumped halfway into my lap and proceeded to dig his claws into my thigh while pretending to be on a trapeze. It was everything I thought it could be.

Four! Four questions in each list, AH AH AH!

4 jobs i've had:

1. cashier at a hardware and lumber store
2. caregiver for infants
3. receptionist at a law-firm
4. bedding plant manager

4 movies i can watch over and over:

1. Braveheart
2. Lost in Translation
3. Pretty Woman
4. Say Anything

4 places i've lived:

1. Red Wing, Minnesota
2. Buena Vista, Colorado
3. Sapulpa, Oklahoma
4. Kemp, Texas

4 TV shows i love:

1. Gilmore Girls
2. Scrubs
3. E.R.
4. Firefly

4 places i've vacationed:

1. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
2. London, England
3. Braidwood, Illinois
4. My Living Room

4 of my favorite dishes:

1. Spaghetti!
2. homemade enchilalas! :)
3. potatos au gratin
4. frog's eye salad

4 sites i visit almost daily:

1. flickr.com
2. nhl.com
3. warrenellis.com
4. cnn.com

4 places i would rather be now:

1. in bed
2. the zoo!
3. Puerto Vallarta
4. anywhere in London

4 bloggers i wish to tag:

1. noikle
2. Will
3. Justin
4. you.

Excerpt...


Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill... I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff... maybe, maybe not... But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house... God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives... God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war... God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."

It's not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.


...

Hundreds of dead pets found in woods
West Virginia investigates 4,000 pounds of discarded carcasses

From Michael McManus
CNN

Thursday, February 2, 2006; Posted: 7:00 p.m. EST (00:00 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of dead cats, dogs and other animals were found in two wooded areas of West Virginia, the state Division of Natural Resources said Thursday.

More than 250 dead animals have been identified, inventoried and photographed, the state said. They included animals with rabies vaccination and name tags, indicating they were pets.

Most of the animals were dogs and cats, but there were also mice, rats, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, hawks and deer.