This weekend was pretty unusually awesome, having a couple firsts, quite a few naps, and a ton of free food. On Friday night I had the opportunity to go with the Musch’s and various other people from church to my first Armenian Food Festival in Frisco, where we met the coolest guy ever - I think he was friends with someone from the church. Anyway, he bought us practically a whole table of food - that´s one cool guy.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, because the night lasted longer) we weren’t home until after midnight, which compounded my lack of sleep, as I had to get up at 7:30 for volleyball. Again that was an awesome activity, and for the first time ever we had one of the Smith’s on attendance! Unfortunately, though, Jason chose to cop out and sleep in, so the Smith numbers were limited to one.

Lastly, TJ tayed over at our house after work on Saturday! That may seem a bit ordinary, but for some reason between all the campouts, backpacking trips, hikes, biking trips and other random activities that the Turnquists have been doing with the Dahlkes, that never happened. Weird.

Postcard From One Redneck to Another

Dear Cletus - I´m writin´ this real slow cause I know you cain´t read very fast. We don´t live where we did when you left. We read in the paper that most accidents happend within ten miles of home, so we moved.

Our address is the same, we took the house numbers from the last place and kept them so we wouldn´t have to get new ones.

The place has a washing machine. The first day mama put four shirts in, pulled the chain and we ain´t seen em since.

It only rained here twice this week. Three days the first time and five days the second time.

I know it is cold where you are so we´re sending you a coat. Mama said it would be too heavy to send in the mail with them buttons on it, so we cut´em off and put´em in the pockets.

We got a letter from the funeral home. They said if we don´t make the last payment on Grandma´s funeral bill, up she comes!

My sister had a baby this morning. I ain´t heard whether it´s a boy or a girl, so I don´t know if I´m and uncle or an aunt.

Uncle John fell in the big whiskey vat. When they tried to pull him out, he fought them off, so he drowned. We cremated him and he burned for three days.

Three of my friends went off the bridge in a pick-up truck. One was driving, the other two was in the back. The driver got out ´cause he rolled down the window swam to safety. The other two drowned, they couldn´t get the tailgate down.

More next time, nuthin’ much is happenin´ around here.

First, the findings from DNA analyzation are not nearly as astounding as might be inferred from Mr. Cameron’s “600 to one” odds. The only thing that can be shown from the DNA collected from the bodies are their general familial relations to each other. They have no data to show the body’s previous lineage or to otherwise give any hints to its identity, as they have no outside DNA to compare it with.

Secondly, the names listed on the ossuaries were all among the 16 most commonly found in Israeli graves, out 72 personal names found in total - and, in fact, the inscription “Jesus, son of Joseph” has been found multiple times before (see page two of linked article).

This documentary strikes me as nothing more than a moneymaking sham - albeit a brilliant one - and certainly not science, at least based on what has been made public so far. The finding isn’t even the new discovery that the filmmakers seem to imply it is, as it was originally unearthed in the 1980s and published in both 1994 and 1996. Furthermore, Amos Kloner of Bar Ilan University - the man who led the first exploration of the tomb - doesn’t even buy the story, stating that “It’s nonsense.” If the original archaeologist himself doesn’t even buy this, why should we? Its just one more Hollywood spin.

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well, for example, the other day I went downtown and went into a store. I was only in there for about 5 minutes and when I came out there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I went up to him and said, “Come on, man. How about giving a retired person a break”? He ignored me and continued writing the ticket.

I called him a “Nazi.” He glared at me and started writing another ticket for “having worn tires”. So I called him a “member of the doughnut eating Gestapo.” He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, I didn’t care. I came downtown on the bus and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said “Hillary in ‘08.”

I try to have a little fun each day now that I’m retired.

Interestingly enough, Dr. Seuss never earned a doctorate, was actually named Theodor Seuss Geisel, and pronounced the “Seuss” as “Zoise” - such that it rhymed with “voice.”

Internet Archive: Wayback Machine

A cool one to check out is http://www.whitehouse.gov - it was absolutely pathetic until the end of 2001. Other sites to look at are napster.com (especially April 30 / July 21 2002) where you can see the revolutionary software’s surge in popularity and later crash due to court rulings, and google.com, where you can see the company’s development into arguably the most powerful and omnipotent force on the internet today. Crazy.

[flv file]

We called animal control thinking they’d just move them, but no - they shot them. Now we just have a 5 foot deep bloody hole.