FREE RICE!

Better than the 'word power' section in Readers Digest, I've officially just wasted two hours on a great little website called Free Rice.

"Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple game that increases your knowledge."

Every time you get an answer right, the site sponsor donates 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger. It's addicting and fun, AND it helps end world hunger, what more could you possibly want? So far I have donated over 5000 grains of rice... and I can't stop playing. Don't like English vocab? Try French, German, Italian or Spanish? Or study your chemistry symbols? Multiplication tables? I liked identifying the country on a map or naming their capitals!

My only question is where was this site when I was studying so hard to be on the Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego show!

True Story...

Some find it sad, I find it awesome. I have more Wierd Al Yankovic cd's than any other artist. I sing along to so many 80's and 90's songs with Al's lyrics, and not knowing the real lyrics. Anyone who can make a living for well over twenty years as a musician, who's main instrument is an accordion and is still considered a rock star is my hero.

Prey on Me?

Dear all the people who make television series available on dvd,

I like collecting tv series on Dvd. I'm in a band and we like to catch up on all the shows we've missed while on our bus. Episode after episode we can watch without commercial break and definitely without having to wait a week between them, but still, you do have to wait until that season comes out on DVD. This is where I have a problem with a few of your shows...

I have patience. And this has nothing to do with waiting for these seasons to come out, but all to do with your changing of packaging and design. Why do you change your design scheme half way through a series?! If you start something, finish it, please!

Smallville for instance has really annoyed me. Seasons 1-4, same. Season 4, smaller box AND Smaller logo?! Then it changes again! Smaller packaging is fine, less material means less waste and probably cheaper for you and us(?)... but why move the logo and make it smaller, it would still be fine in the same place with the same size? Entourage, you do this too, but to a lesser extent. Or do you remember how lame the first Matrix dvd looks compared to the next two?!

Are you picking on those with OCD? Do you figure you can make more money from us when we have to re-buy the series in a fancy new 'official box set' because we can't stand to look at the mismatched set we have? I was on a movie set again last night I was reminded of a common word in your industry; Continuity. Although it may not exactly translate, I think it's still relevant here.

Please keep your designs consistent, cause I don't want to have to buy the box set too! Oh and if Star Trek can do it, so can you, right?!

thanks for your time,

SHaun

Prove it!

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-Edmund Burke

I was looking up this quote and reading a little about it yesterday and apparently there is no proof that this is Mr Burke's quote. No historical evidense that proves it was he who said it... but does that matter? We should be more concerned about what it says than who can take claim to it?

Then, out of curiousity, I googled it in google images to see what would come up. Here's what I found. Without doing any more research, I am going to assume that Captain America once said it... and that maybe he even said it first?!

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-Captain America

If the big one comes, I better not be in trouble...

So with all this down time I have from not being on tour, I went out and got a real job. I am now the "Safety Coordinator (slash) First Aid Attendant" on a construction site. By no means does that make me a carpenter. Sure I've hammered my fair share of nails and I've overseen a lot of carpenters work, but once again, I am no where close to being a carpenter. All that aside, it doesn't take a carpenter to put up a painting, right?

Well yesterday I was sent over to the owner of the company's beautiful home overlooking the ocean. I was instructed to "go and put up a picture in one of the rooms... oh and it's a large picture so make sure you find a stud!" I get there, he lets me in, and as I'm taking off my shoes, my measuring tape falls and makes a loud banging noise as it collides with the marble floor. Now I'm kinda nervous as he informs me to be careful because it's a "soft marble" flooring.

Why did they send the only non-carpenter in the company to go to the owner of a construction company's house? He'll obviously know I'm not a carpenter?!

I get to the room, see the large painting, measure a few things, find the studs and make a few more markings. Not too bad yet right? I pull out the 3" screws and the larger heavy duty bolts I was given to do the job. "You don't need those, they are WAY too big" I am told. So off I went to look for something smaller in the truck. I find some 2" screws while the owner shows me a 1" screw and says, "Maybe just a little bigger than this...?"

I don't want this painting to fall, and I need to go through more than just the drywall, that much I do know.

After putting the screws into the walls and having to redo one of them (due to picture sloping and something honestly not my fault but I won't bother explaining), it's finally up and the owner is happy. Then I find out a little more about the painting;

It can't be in direct sunlight because it is a pastel, OH and it's an original from the 18th century that his son bought for him at the Sotheby Auction in London.

I now wish I had used the heavy duty wall bolts. And I pray that no earthquake hits us anytime soon.

superhumans

Discovery channel has once again got me thinking.

Have you seen the show about the 'Superhumans' where there are people that can raise their own body temperature to above normal when they are in below freezing water? Or the solve insane mathematical equations in their heads, instantly? How about the blind man who was born without eyes and yet is a painter and paints with true perspective?
I liked the woman who 'tastes' sounds. She tastes 'bitter' when she hears a minor chord and others see colors with music.

All of these are incredible, but what freaked me out was hearing that one of my favorite movies, Gattaca, may not be that far off. This one doctor says that within the next ten years or so, humans will start being able to 'enhance' their pre-born children to have better genes, be more advanced in certain areas, or develop certain superhuman abilities...

Crazy. And fascinating.