Warning

I received the following email today (thought I’d share):

Have you ever heard that a dog “knows” when an earthquake is about to hit?  Have you ever heard that a dog can “sense” when a tornado is stirring up even 20 miles away?  Do you remember hearing that before the December tsunami struck Southeast Asia, dogs started running frantically away from the seashore, at breckneck speed?  Do you know that dogs can detect cancer and other serious illnesses and danger of fire?  Somehow they always know when they can “go for a ride” before you even ask and how do those dogs and cats get home from hundreds of miles away?  I’m a firm believer that animals – and especially dogs – have keen insights into the Truth.  And you can’t tell me that dogs can’t sense a potentially terrible disaster well in advance.  Simply said, a dogs just KNOWS when something isn’t right – when impending doom is upon us – they’ll always try to warn us.!!

NIN Ghosts I-IV Still Waiting

[photo via NME]
Earlier today, 10 am, I read about the drop on the NIN Ghost I-!V album being self released by Trent Reznor. I was approved [permission to purchase by my wife] to purchase the 36 song, 320 kbs, MP3 edition for $5. The best deal, probably, is the $10 package. You would get the 36 song download and the 2-disc CD that is set to release on April 8. So I rounded up my Credit Card and…

I headed to the NIN Store. I selected the $5 package. I input my Credit Card information. Deone. I am going to recieve an email with the download link. Done…The download began and was finished in 3 seconds. Needless to say, the zip file was corrupted and only contained a cover.jpg file that you could not open. Even though the link said “This link will only work once” I decided to try again anyway. Nope, still no luck.

Trent Reznor can be trusted. I know I gave him my hard earned $5, but I know he will make good on it. I emailed the support [at] nin about my problems. Trying to help if they were trying to figure out what is going on. I tried again at 9 pm only to see a message on the site:

Unfortunately, the Ghosts I-IV site is down for the next few hours for maintenance.

We quietly released this album last night without any warning, and without any press. Because we know how devoted our fans are, we planned for an overwhelming response, and expected heavy traffic. To our surprise, the traffic was more than three times what we anticipated, and has only been getting heavier throughout the day. The response has been absolutely phenomenal, and we couldn’t be happier, but our servers have taken a beating, causing numerous problems with the download site. Our developers, who have been working non-stop to combat the surge of traffic, feel that taking the site down for a few hours to fix some crucial issues is the best way to get things running smoothly again. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience…

Like I said, I trust Trent. I will let you know when I recieve my download and plan to blog all about it. Review of the album too.

UPDATE: This morning by 11am I had the album downloaded. I listened to the whole thing right away. The album is purely instrumental, NIN style. Half of the 36 songs were exploring a new mix of sounds. While the other half sounded familiar. All the songs stirred emotions, tapping of my feet, or the banging of pens and pencils on my desk, but I still wished for Trent Reznor’s angst. I paid $5 for it and will say it was worth it. I just hope we get more Year Zero’s in between the ‘next experimental jazz fusion’ album projects.

Technorati Tags: music

News Update With Huckabee

I was watching Saturday Night Live’s, Weekend News Update, when they were doing a bit on the Republican race. The bit began with Seth Myers stating “…After his win in Wisonson on Tuesday John McCain has declared himself the Republican Nominee…While his closest rivalary, Mike Huckabee, stays in the race…Here is Mike Huckabee to explain why he is still in the race…

Mike Huckabee rolled into view, a classic entrance on the show, and… Well watch the clip.  Mike Huckabee was great. He has great comedic timing…Screams Gomer Pyle but still did very well. Impressed.

Two Pro’s For Huckabee:
1. Fair Tax Plan
2. Sense of Humor

Saturday Night Live by no means is Pro-Republican, and they reinforced that opinion tonight. Tina Fay, the guest host and past cast member that usually did the Weekend News Update, came on to do a ‘Vote For Hillary’ bit disguised as a ‘girl power’ bit. Everything was fine until she got to the ’schilling’ part of the bit.

…Our first true women’s Presidential hopefull canidate and feminist don’t find it necessary to vote for her…Oprah decides…

but it’s what I heard over the crowd applause:

…vote for Hillary she’s the new black…

Yep, Fey said it.. I recorded it and replayed it

Technorati Tags: Saturday Night Live, Weekend News Update, Mike Huckabee

Climbing, Ice, Mountain?

If someone asked you “Hey, do you wanna go ice climbing?” What is needed?

1. Ice
2. Mountain

Number one, ice, definitely needed for ice climbing. Number two, mountain, you’d think but…no. In Cedar Falls Iowa, instead of a mountain, all that’s needed is a grain silo. A college professor from the University of Northern Iowa offers an ice climbing class for college credits. If you watch the news clip, he explains how to get the ice to form on the silo. In Iowa, a third item to our ‘needed’ list…a garden hose.

…hook a garden hose up to a pulley system and send it up the silo…

A couple of things to point out. This is has been going on for awhile. When I was looking up the story, which I saw on the local news tonight, I came across another blog talking about it. That story was from 2004. The story gets around. The second point, the story I am linking to is from a TV station in California…Still wondering why people make jokes about people from the midwest.

Technorati Tags: ice climbing, grain silo, university northern iowa

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Smoking Mom Worries About Noise

 Yup, that’s right.  Mom-to-be Mellisa Williamson is concerned the noise from near-by construction will be harmful to her unborn child.  Apparently the cigarette smoke has already killed off way too many of her brain cells to connect the dots to the obvious.

Don’t Judge Too Quickly

Whiskey

On the last day of school, the children brought gifts to their teacher.  The florist’s son brought the teacher a bouquet of flowers.  The candy store owner’s daughter gave the teacher a pretty box of candy.

Then the liquor store owner’s son brought up a big, heavy box. The teacher noticed that it was leaking a little bit. She touched a drop of liquid with her finger and tasted  it.

“Is it wine?”  she guessed.  “No”, the boy replied.  She tasted another drop and asked, “Is it champagne?”  “No”, said the little boy…..”It’s a puppy.”

Theory on Accounting Scandals

Today I had a discussion with various professionals, all licensed in their particular fields and the topic of licensing exams came up.  While there were no accountants present, someone mentioned that the CPA exam is rumored to be the hardest licensing exam around, with a pass rate of 20% to 30%.  I was floored!  Then as we continued to talk someone referred to their licensing exam and that they had a several hundred question multiple choice exam.  That’s when it hit me – on each multiple choice question, assuming 4 possible answers, you have about a 25% chance of getting it correct.  Now, within the past 30 minutes since I had this revelation I have not done any statistical analysis, but shouldn’t this mean you can, at a minimum, pass the exam 25% of the time by randomly guessing at questions?

If this is true, then a 20% to 30% pass rate would indicate a good possibility that most people who pass the CPA exam don’t pass because they know it, they just successfully guessed at enough of them to pass.  The end result – an army of CPA’s out running companies who pass based on odds, not on knowledge.  Doesn’t this explain the constant news flashes of company after company that have “accountanting scandals”?  There aren’t scandals – there just aren’t any people that really understanding accounting.

The Sexiest Man Of The Year

Matt Damon: People’s Sexiest Man Of The Year – Entertainment on The Huffington Post

Technorati Tags: Matt Damon, Team America, People

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NBC Going Green…Does Green Mean Enviroment Or Money From Advertisers?

After five days of NBC’s Green programing and I have to ask, Does NBC care for the environment? or Have they developed a week of programing around an advertisement for Green products?

I am not sure if NBC really cares about the environment, but it is obvious they are recieving advertising dollars in the name of environmentalism.

The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is brought to you with limited interupts thanks to Toyota…The Prius. The interruption, an ad for the Prius, where designers are building a model of the Prius out of twigs, string, and leaves. Then the ‘Prius‘ bio-degrades back to nature. What is Toyota claiming? The parts used to build the ‘Prius‘ are bio-degradable?

How about recieving ‘Green Tips’ from cast members of your favorite show? Monday night ‘Chuck‘ cast members told me about some ‘Green Tips’ sponsored by Home Depot’s Eco Options.

But it really got annoying when the SITCOM’s (drama’s too) had environmental issues actually written into their plots.

Bionic Woman, tried to watch it for the first time this week, turned it off when she (Jamie the Bionic Woman) attends an environmental awareness gala. Who, that are REALLY green, attend gala’s?

Life, not my kind of show, but watched a clip on the NBC.com Green Is Universal site where they have a cheesy scene walking around a solar farm. I guess one the characters is looking to invest in it. Well, needless to say they run out of gas in front of the solar panels. They very hot red head, terrible acting abilities, tries to sell the irony.

Tonight, sent me over the top.

30 Rock, whose shtick is shilling for NBC and GE goes overboard. Jack creates a mascot, Greenzo (played by Schwimmer) to sell NBC & GE’s green initiative. I got disgusted when Al Gore’s big fat head came onto the screen. Loved the ‘Inconvenient Truth‘ but the guy has a big head.

Scrubs, they got in on the act too! Last season sell outs! I liked their episode but…The janitor is inspired after watching the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ to make the hospital more green. J.D. receives a Prius from his brother.

ER, a show I won’t watch, goes through an energy usage study.

Of course it isn’t stopping there. There are still 2 more days left in the week! Friday, a night I don’t watch network TV, but on the NBC site I see that Deal or No Deal is going to have a special ‘Green Guest’. Two shows I would never guess or even foresee have a Green plot. Friday Night Lights, a show centered around a high school football team, questions their less then ‘Green’ lifestyle. Las Vegas conveniently host a Green conference. I’m surprised they didn’t host an Inconvenient one.

How much does it cost for a Green company to buy their way into a script? Are we talking Super Bowl advertising prices? If Toyota had to pay, then did Al Gore? because all Al Gore is, is a shill for his movie. When has Gore paid for anything, I don’t believe he even pays for his own carbon offsets.

Enough spite.

If there is going to be any good that comes from this, it is going to be more informed neighbors. Neighbors who might have thought about becoming more ‘Green’ but might have been inspired to find out more. Maybe even take bigger steps at becoming more ‘Green’.After this post, I probably also contributed to NBC’s ad revenue…

Technorati Tags: NBC, Green

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