Saturday, August 13, 2005
So, one of the cats that lives next to Jordan's house got hit by a car. This is Mexico, so they don't have people who come and clean up roadkill — and the Pekin restaurant already got in trouble for cooking cats, so they've cut back on that dish (I kid you not — but it could be worse). Anyway, so this dead cat lay by the side of the road, occasionally getting run over again, and after a few days was pretty stinky… Now every time someone walks past they kick a little more dirt on top of it, so now there's a kind of “anti-pothole” in the road with a cat's paw sticking out of it.
I smashed my toe last night; stubbed it into a chair and flipped off my toenail. It didn't hurt as much as it probably looks like in the closeup here. I guess I must have been in a smashing mood or something because every
Pacifico I opened just broke off below the rim… But I suppose I was being a little aggressive in my bottle opening style.
Other than that, I did make borscht yesterday and had it for breakfast (like revenge, it's a dish best served cold). It's really good, but a bit too spicy… I only used two habaneros in the pot, but I guess the beets somehow amplified their flavor or something.
This story about a four star general being sacked after being
accused of having an affair is pretty crazy when you consider that the generals involved with the
torture scandal have been
promoted… now those are some nutty priorities. Well, I suppose if
nuclear war is on the horizon, the more amoral psychos you can get in power the better, right?
Saturday, August 13, 2005
The precursors to war on Iran (cough… what about Saudi Arabia… cough) are coming along nicely… Bomb caches in Iraq are being linked to Iran and “informants” (remember the people who told us all about Saddam's WMD program and how his soldiers were baby killers) are telling stories of thousands of nuclear centrifuges in Iran ready to weaponize uranium (and willing to do so). The US is considering blocking the Iranian President from even speaking at the UN (a pretty disturbing political move), and Iran continues escalating its nuclear missile program in preparation for invasion by either US or Israeli forces (and the insanity in coup-Iraq continues to ramp up — and don't forget Afghanistan).
Oh, and fearmongerrumor has it that Americans are going to start blowing up soon in shopping malls and subways, but don't worry — police are shooting to kill, and asking questions later. Actually, don't worry too much, because under new police recommendations, excessive sweating is grounds for public execution without trial — but in the eyes of the rogue prison-industrial complex government we're all potential criminals (well, if we're black anyway), all deserving of death.
What, humans are violent you say?
Bomb Mecca!
“We are a warlike species, you claim, and you show me films of Earth battles to prove it. But I have seen all the films about twenty times. Get some new films, or, so help me, if I ever get out of here I will empty my laser pistol into everyone I see, even pets.”
So getting back to the scandal treason in the White House, Scooter Libby has been confirmed as a CIA leak, and with indictments being leveled at not just Libby and Rove, but Bush and Cheney as well, Bush (no stranger to fascism) is madly appointing allies that he hopes can protect him (without seeking Congressional approval), and looking to fire those investigating him.
TomFlocco initially reported, and then (temporarily) withdrew, that these indictments included investigation into White House
involvement in the September 11th attacks (the US Attorney's Office isn't denying the story — simply saying “
no comment” for now). The 9/11 case is still far from closed — there is still investigation into whether the Pentagon and CIA actively knew about the attacks
in advance in specific terms… but the story that I think everyone should be hearing is
that of the janitors.
Multiple janitors who were working in the lower levels of the WTC on the day of the demolition have been giving eye-witness reports that munitions went off in the lower levels, synchronized with the plane attacks. Certainly the conspiracy claim that the towers were taken down by precision controlled demolition is nothing new, but adding over a dozen eye-witness reports makes it at least credible enough to warrant investigation? Unfortunately the 9/11 commission has refused. No rocking the boat!
Not entirely related but worth reading: Being There
Saturday, August 13, 2005
I know, I know, it looks like vomit on a plate, but looks aren't everything. It's tomato, peppers, zucchini, and onion on cellophane noodles with a garlic sauce of roasted sesame oil and tahini. I really like sesame oils, tahini, and other sesame-based products…
Yesterday I hooked up my video machine to the internet for the first time. I wasn't sure what would happen because it was running a pre-SP1 version of Windows XP, and you hear all these horror stories about how unpatched machines get pwned within fifteen minutes — longer than it takes to download the patches. It took probably about two hours to get all the updates installed, but I did a complete sweep of the machine, and it's clean.
So today I'll continue uploading and rendering BMEvideo content… As soon as we can get a membership system in place that site is finally ready to go live.
Today has been experimental drinking day. Sure, I drank a sixer of Pacifico and then some, but I also had some crazy Venezuelan anise rum made in the Andes (a gift; drinkable, but not the greatest), and tried a truly horrendous Mexican “beer additive” which pretty much makes your beer taste as if it was mixed 50/50 with soy sauce. Yack. Anyway, some pictures:
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| Thanks to my friend Marcos Pessoa in Brazil for this picture… no, I'm pretty sure that's not the knife he used to do the leg chopping! |
Japan is like the king of guerrilla nudism I think. |
My friend Bastard in Russia goes skinny dipping near St. Petersburg… You have to admit that the photo on the right is just begging for a giggly caption photo. |
Other than that, I have a variety of car projects on the go that I haven't mentioned before. I have bids in to become the Mexican dealer for two high speed amphibious sports cars, and in addition, I have offers in to cast molds off the two Adams Brothers designed cars below to bring them back into production.
It's quite likely that none of these projects will come to fruition, but hey, if you don't bite the fishhook, you'll never find out how good looking the fisherman is. Or something like that.
We all went over to Isla Espiritu Santo again today to go snorkeling. After about half an hour, Saira and Rachel were back in the boat relaxing but Michael and I were still in the water. The sea lions had been pretty reclusive and weren't in the water with us like last time, although they sure were hollering like crazy from their sunspots on the shore.
As we got a little close to the shore for his liking (lots of pups had just been born in the last month), the big dude — the king of the island — in the picture above started really freaking out, barking and truly getting agitated. I turned to Michael and said something along the lines of
“you know, I'm feeling kind of freaked out right now” and we booked it back to the boat as quickly as we could swim. At that moment the bull jumped off of his perch and started rushing toward us.
As it turns out, accelerating our pace toward the shore was probably the wrong call, because it meant that we ended up intersecting his path, since he can swim about seven times as far as us clumsy humans, aquatic ape or not. I think both of us just about had a heart attack as this grizzly bear sized sea lion passed about three feet underneath us. A moment later he was back up on the shore sunning himself, with a smug grin on his face as he watched us scamper back into our ponga boat.
Oh, and even though we were in a modest pango, it was yacht day or something out on Espiritu Santo as we passed a half dozen mega yachts. As you know, a sailboat is one of my dream estates, but Rachel is more of an oil sheik like character and expects to travel under power — I told her that dollar-for-dollar a power yacht kind of sucks in comparison to a sailboat when it comes to trans-oceanic crossing. She told me that this was the boat she expects me to buy her for her birthday and it was perfectly capable of any crossing I could throw at it.
I'm good at what I do and make a good living, but I think Rachel has overestimated my earning potential!
