National Geographic 2004 article

This guy has the best job. He gets to see all the great sites in China.

My computer now makes ping pong noises when I surf the net. Perhaps it is that little demo I recently installed. Very Very tricky.


This will stand as a famous article. I was reading Winterson's site and caught this story.

"Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great."

Where has this blog gone and what is its future?

Above are a few older pictures. The first is of little Jaymie looking very big in Times Squire.(This actually may be the last as Blogger is being very odd, almost unusable taking an hour to load four pictures) The others are mostly of me looking silly at my sister's wedding (lower right feeling very tall even at 6'0), me in 8'th grade with the parents, me looking manly on a canoetrip etc etc....(Blogger is still acting up so I doubt I can get these pictures on)
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I've been blogging for a bit over a year now. Before that I used HTML, what little I knew and wrote a very basic site. I think my problem over the last year or so has been time as in having none. I have periods where I get home at work at 6pm every night but many more where I get home and have time for dinner before bed. I do not mind this and do not mind being busy at work or with family. I guess this blog has suffered of late and has in a way strayed from its original intent. A lot of blogs seem to be a type of personal diary of the everyday life of their authors. I never intended mine to be like that but more for an outlet for funny sites and just a light hearted place to occasionally stop by at. I also wanted this to be a place to host some pictures for family members.
What this blog has become is a place where I sometimes go, when I rarely have time, to post something that interests me. There is a direct correlation with how much time I have and how often I update this site. I did try to get an RSS feed going for this site last week. I think that is a huge waste of time and does not interest me all that much. I like keeping the site small. I kind of wish this site was not owned by Google. It seems like any phrase I write has a chance to get a huge amount of hits due to the power of blogger.
I can see any phrase anyone types to get to this site. I recently ran a post on the hottest actors of 2004. This somehow got tons of hits through Google for one reason or another. My sister has been getting quite a few hits lately. She has a very very public job and is easily identified, poor girl.
Anyways I'm still here and hope the best for anyone who reads this. I have the entire night off to do nothing so perhaps I'll actually update this site. I do have some pictures from a month ago I need to add.

In a completely random thought I think The Olive Garden is the best restaurant in Maine.
The Portland and Augusta Olive Gardens are always busy with a usual 1/2 hour wait. The service is among the best(IHOP is actually the best) and the free breadsticks and soups/salads cannot be beat. With so many great Italian restaurants, this is the finest. I also read that a new Olive garden will be built in Windham. I just wish they built more. We often do not go because of the long waits. I recommend the stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes.
I would also have to rate Walter's as one of the better Portland restaurants. The price is a bit higher however but Walter's is great to go to a few times a year. The Calamari cannot be beat and the seafood is fresh from the harbor.

As far as going out to eat at various restaurants in the Portland area, I would guess very few people eat out as often as I do with the exception of my aunt. The local food critics will never call a "chain" restaurant better than a local restaurant. I love the local places to eat such as Walters and the Back Bay Grill, especially with chef Robert Hartman. I did notice the Caesar Salad Burger has gone up to 9 dollars. That's a great burger especially with the curry popcorn. (If any local owner actually sees this site you should be aware that every Portland restaurant website copies each other, just an fyi).
I am a bit worried that the chain establishments are cheaper, better, and less crowded. This is a bit unfortunate after seeing Walmart and Home Depot destroy the local Mom and Pop businesses. Don't get me wrong: Walter's and the Back Bay Grill are superior(and Katahdin), however we seem to always be going back to the chains such as: Uno's, Chili's, and ofcourse Amato's). As far as the latter is concerned I think every person who ever experiences a Maine Italian and then moves away from Maine will be missing something very important. I have friends who moved away from Maine. The normal first reaction when returning home is to have a real Italian sandwich.

DVD'S, bringing new life to TV Shows

Not many posts from me lately, too many hours at work.
I thought some of these box covers were a bit funny. Battlestar is a great show but these other three? All I have to say is they bring back memories both good and bad.
I remember watching Fame as a kid. Fantasy Island gave me nightmares for years and it wasn't the little guy but some ghost episode. The Partridge Family I never saw thank goodness.
Danny Bonaduce has a really good reality TV show on right now. Its worth checking out.
I just thought these were kinda silly and random.

Bees!

I recently saw an interesting show on TV about Bees. I was quite the bee killer as a child. I used to have a hatred for bees after getting in a nest and getting stung 100 times.
You name it and I probably did it. Sometimes I would try to cover yellowjacket nests with rocks and get quite a few stings. I remember throwing a rock at a giant wasp nest and the whole nest fell to the ground and exploded with wasps which ofcourse became very painful for me. Even when I wasn't after them they found me. I once randomly leaned against a post and heard an interesting crunching sound which ofcourse became very painful.
Whats interesting is that after doing many stupid things in my youth and getting stung hundreds of times I somehow became a bit allergic to stings. One sting now makes me puff all up and sometimes get sick. In hindsight I would not do that again but also I grew up in an area absolutely loaded with bees, yellowjackets, hornets, and wasps.

Cute Puppy

This guy is a hurricane survivor. The little ShiTzu puppy looks so cute.

This spoof is really only understandable by those who are a bit geeky. Nevertheless, its very funny stuff.

Lost just one the Emmy for best drama. Three more days until season two starts and we have our Wednesday night Lost party.

Valkenburg

For any family members interested I found some pictures from another blog site of Valkenburg Holland. I have to say it looks a bit touristy but I guess thats ok except the big line for the caves.

Doom's site has this little creation which looks both unsafe and silly. I suppose it would be fun to chase the annoying little girl who lives next to me and is always on her big wheel.

I'm soo Blue : (

This little guy has the distinction of being very different from all his buddies.(Lobsters do not actually have "buddies" as they kill each other on sight.) He's a one in a million blue lobster. I've seen light blue lobsters before but this one is a fine specimen. We went to a lobster hachery while at Acadia last weekend. It was pretty cool and helps a good cause.

We had to watch Napoleon Dynamite atleast once as well. Besides being a cult classic, this is a nice film for the family. They have not seen spongebob yet which is not cool at all. They got me into Spongebob back in the day. /Sigh I had Scooby Doo and the Brady Bunch when I was little but ofcourse Spongebob is superior, well maybe close to the Brady Bunch.

Playing with my parent's scanner.

I'm looking pretty sweet in my Blazer! This one is a toss up for worst outfit.
Notice Jaymie's rocking outfits. We have her here with her rocking plaid jacket with the big 70's buttons, collar up ofcourse. I was basically a big toy for my sisters. Below we have me and my ice cream truck(from college) and me being the super baby with my awesome green towel then kicking back a few cold ones. Obviously this is the first time I have ever used a scanner. I grabbed the first pictures that I could see.

Maine Accents

I went to a bar doing Karaoke last weekend. This place was hopping so we decided to check it out. I have to say that most of the patrons were really good. These are the kind of people that practice up for the big weekend.

Anyways, a Beastie Boys song comes on "Fight for your Right to Party"The people who were singing had the thickest Maine accents.

The line goes something like: We'll kick you out of the house if those are the clothes your gonna wear, we'll kick you out of the house if you don't cut that hair.
Substitute Weyaa and Hayaah. My brother in law was dying laughing.