Fun with Mousetraps

Here we have a site devoted to the fun that can be had with mousetraps... the power of the mousetrap (apparently when not used to capture small rodents).

The author claims as a kid he didn't have many toys so he made his own out of found objects, including mouse traps. He made cannons, fireworks, cars, etc. Now there is a website covering such oddities and giving instructions so you can do it yourself.

Still confused? Yeah I was too... here's a picture

http://home.flash.net/~funtraps/

Happy 13 to my Boo!

My baby sister Boo turned 13 today! It's quite traumatizing to me to think that my little baby is going to be a woman soon. She's finally out of her awkward tween years and into the even more awkward teen ones. Soon it will be high school & boys, fitting in, not standing out (too much), being popular, getting the grade, getting the guy. It's all so harried.

I look back on my high school days, they really were some of the best years of my life, not to sound too cliche of course. They were also full of a lot of crap. Part of me wishes that I could go back and do it again with the knowledge I have now. As I can't I'm going to pass on some of the life lessons I've learned in the hopes that it will help my Boo get through her teen years.

• You are only young once, enjoy it while you can
• It is only four years and then it will all be over and you'll probably never see these people again
• Everyone has bad hair, face, make-up, clothes days' the trick is laughing them off and moving on
• The only way you get what you want in this life is by going for, no holding back
• Just because you think the guy you like knows you like him doesn't mean he does, make it known if you want him that bad fight for him
• When high school is over and done you still have your whole life ahead of you, anything that happens isn't the end of the world
• The popular kids weren't always popular they had to earn it, if that's what you want you can earn it to
• Don't label people, just be yourself, if you require a lable choose your own, don't let others label you
• Grades are important but so is having fun, find a balance
• If you think you'll look back ten years from now and regret passing up an opportunity, don't pass it up
• If you think you'll regreat something ten years from not don't do it
• Cherish the friends you have for the time they are in your life, friend come and go, it's the way it is, don't cry because it's over when it happnes, smile because it happened
• Family will always be there, even when friends are not
• Good high school grades help you get into a good University and that helps you get a degree, once you have that degree they will never ask if you were a D or A student, always remember that
• He may be your first love, he may be your only love, but then again he may not be, never bet everything on a man
• Don't let anyone talk you into doing something you don't want to do, you have to live with the consequences, they don't
• Don't do something just because someone thinks you should, do it because you want to do it

Quote of the Day

"Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place." - Ice T

Song of the Week

"One Pure & Holy Passion" - Passion

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me on magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You

To know and follow hard after you
To grow as your dicsiple in your truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you, my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you
Lead me on and I will run after you

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after you
To know and follow hard after you
To grow as your disciple in the truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you

Lord to know and follow hard after you
And to grow as your disciple in your truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you
Lead me on and I will run after you
Lead me on and I will run after you

Whatever Happened to Boney M?

Remember Boney M? 1970s? Disco stars? LOL Sure you do... well whatever happened to them? Talk about falling into obscurity. Well here's a little info on what exactly happened to cause the bands break-up in the mid to late 80's.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1787544.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boney_M

Saddam From Iraq

Here's a funny parody music video:

http://www.liquidgeneration.com/content/a55hat.aspx?cid=406

Quote of the Day

"Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn’t hold much water outside of Your Universe. Just listen. Listen until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor." - Hugh Elliot

Lego Church

After posting yesterday's blog I remembered a fwd I received. It depicts the Lego church. It's quite impressive so I'm going to post it.

The Lego Church:
How long to build it? It was about a year and a half of planning, building and photographing.
How many pieces of LEGO to build it? more than 75,000
How big is it? About 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet by 30 inches (2.2 m x 1.7 m x .76 m)
How many LEGO people does it seat? 1,372
How many windows? 3,976

It features a balcony, a Narthex, stairs to the balcony, restrooms, coat rooms, several mosaics, a nave, a baptistry, an altar, a crucifix, a pulpit and an elaborate pipe organ.

The Brick Testament

Here we go, the Bible as depicted in Lego, quite awesome, although not entirely sound LOL.

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

Guitar Hero

Have you guys seen this game? It's kind of crazy. You pretend to be a guitar superstar.

The game comes with a guitar type controller that has five buttons up the neck of the guitar and then two on the base. You have to hit the buttons in sequence while they scroll on the screen while "strumming" with your other hand.

It has quite an impressive track listing:

1. Opening licks
"I Love Rock & Roll" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
"I Wanna Be Sedated" - The Ramones
"Thunder Kiss '65" - White Zombie
"Smoke on the Water" - Deep Purple
"Infected" - Bad Religion

2. Axe-Grinders
"Iron Man" - Black Sabbath
"More Than a Feeling" - Boston
"You've Got Another Thing Comin'" - Judas Priest
"Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
"Sharp Dressed Man" - ZZ Top

3. Thrash And Burn
"Killer Queen" - Queen
"Hey You" - The Exies
"Stellar" - Incubus
"Heart Full of Black" - Burning Brides
"Symphony of Destruction" - Megadeth

4. Return of the Shred
"Ziggy Stardust" - David Bowie
"Fat Lip" - Sum 41
"Cochise" - Audioslave
"Take It Off" - The Donnas
"Unsung" - Helmet

5. Fret-Burners
"Spanish Castle Magic" - Jimi Hendrix
"Higher Ground" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"No One Knows" - Queens of the Stone Age
"Ace Of Spades" - Motörhead
"Crossroads" - Cream

6. Face-Melters
"Godzilla" - Blue Öyster Cult
"Texas Flood" - Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Frankenstein" - The Edgar Winter Group
"Cowboys from Hell" - Pantera
"Bark at the Moon" - Ozzy Osbourne

Bonus Tracks
"Fire It Up" - Black Label Society
"Cheat on the Church" - Graveyard BBQ (Winner of the "Be a Guitar Hero" Contest)
"Caveman Rejoice" - The Bags
"Eureka, I've Found Love" - The Upper Crust
"All of This" - Shaimus
"Behind The Mask" - Anarchy Club
"The Breaking Wheel" - Artillery
"Callout" - The Acro-brats
"Decontrol" - Drist
"Even Rats" - The Slip
"Farewell Myth" - Made in Mexico
"Fly on the Wall" - Din
"Get Ready 2 Rokk" - Freezepop
"Guitar Hero" - Monkey Steals The Peach
"Hey" - Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
"Sail Your Ship By" - Count Zero
"Story of My Love" - The Model Sons

Unused songs These can only be unlocked through the use of a PlayStation 2 cheat device.
"Trippolette" is also known as "Adv Harmony" by Andrew Buch. Codes can be found at [1].
"Graveyard Shift", performed by Windtunnel Syndrome. Codes can be found at forum.guitarherogame.com

(list courtesy of wiki of course)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero


Check out the official site:
http://www.guitarherogame.com/gh1/index.asp

Guitar Hero II comes out Nov 7.
http://www.guitarherogame.com/

Song of the Week

"A Reason to Believe" - Rod Stewart


If I listened long enough to you,
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true.
Knowing that you lied, straight-faced, while I cried,
Still I'd look to find a reason to believe.
Someone like you makes it hard to live without somebody else.
Someone like you makes it easy to give, never think of myself.

If I gave you time to change my mind,
I'd find a way to leave the past behind.
Knowing that you lied, straight-faced, while I cried,
Still I'd look to find a reason to believe.
Someone like you makes it hard to live without somebody else.
Someone like you makes it easy to give, never think of myself.

Someone like you makes it hard to think about somebody else....
If I listened long enough to you,
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true.
I'd find a reason, a reason to believe. (oh no)
And though I want you, you're just not what I need......

Someone like you makes it hard to live without somebody else.
Someone like you makes it easy to give, never think of myself.
Someone like you makes it hard to live without somebody else.
Someone like you, like you......
I'd find a reason to believe.......

I would find a reason to believe.

Away for awhile...

Hey all,
I know it's been a long time and I'm sorry for that. I'm just leaving a quick post... I'm going home to Ontario 'til the 12th of September and while there I'll only have limited internet access so I won't be posting much until I'm back. Fear not though. I fully intend to backpost all of August so there will be plenty to read come mid-September! :)

Amby

Mysteries of Canada

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here's an interesting site that lists a bunch of oddities, mysteries, ghost stories, biographies and neat stories about Canada. Kind of like "a Part of our Heritage" minutes on the CBC. LOL

http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/

Frank's Slide

Here in Alberta, not too far from Lethbridge in the Crowsnest Pass there is a place called "Frank's Slide". It used to be a mining community back in the late 1800's, but thanks to an avalanche is no more.

On April 29, 1903 in the wee hours of the morning 90 million tons of limestone fell from Turtle Mountain in just 90 seconds onto the unsuspecting, sleeping town of Frank. It was primarily caused by fault lines in Turtle mountains teamed with coal mining inside the mountain and a quick freeze the night before.

Of the 600 residents of Frank 70 were killed, into the 1920's houses were still being unearthed, the entire town was not destroyed, but many fearing a similar incident moved on to New Frank, which is the present town of Frank, AB. In 1911 a Royal Commission study found the North Peak of Turtle Mountain to be structurally unstable and any remaining residents of the original Frank moved on.


http://www.frankslide.com/faq.html
http://www3.sympatico.ca/goweezer/canada/frank.htm

Playing God

I don't remember if I posted the link to this article in a past blog, so I'll post it here. This is an article on God games & movies, it briefly discusses the movies Bruce Almight, Click, and the video games the Sims and Spore.

http://nymag.com/movies/features/17294/index.html?sssdmh=dm24.89144

I found it to be an accurate, albeit brief, representation of the role of man wanting to play God. I enjoy both movies mentioned and I am, as you know, an avid Sims player. I think that a little God play is harmless as long as that it all it is, play. As long as we remember we are lesser beings under God and not equals to Him, although made in His image. I believe a little God role-playing in a game or a movie isn't harmful, but the real harm is scientists and inventors who create & genetically alter and try to be "God".

YTMND

This is another random thing I came across in my myspace blog search, it's a site that lists random and usually over-used fads, saying, pics, sound clips, etc. It doesn't honestly make a lot of sense, but if you are bored and have time to kill check it out. LOL

http://www.ytmnd.com/

" A popular internetz website founded by Max Goldberg in 2001 using the domain www.Yourethemannowdog.com , using the sound clip from Finding Forrester, a movie about a black kid and Sean Connery. This website quickly spiralled out of control and is currently a picture-sound-text based site where users make thousands upon thousands of fads. Some of the fads are good, most of the fads are absolutely overdone. The real goldmine is in the site, those not shown on the front page."
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ytmnd

MyDeathSpace

Here's one, I found this as I was looking for the articles for the blog the other day on MySpace & teens. This is a site that is "an archival site, containing news articles, online obituaries, and other publicly available information." it has sections on people from MySpace who have become deceased.
http://mydeathspace.com/

There's an article on it here:
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192500882

Song of the Week

"Sweet Violets" - Children's clapping song

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a . . . .
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs,
And told her that she had such beautiful . . . .
Manners that suited a girl of her charms,
A girl that he wanted to take in his . . . .
Washing and ironing and then, if she did,
They could get married and raise lots of . . . .

Chorus: Sweet violets, sweeter than the roses,
Covered all over from head to toe,
Covered all over with sweet violets.

The girl told the farmer that he'd better stop
And she called her father and he called a . . . .
Taxi and got there before very long,
'Cause someone was doing his little girl . . . .
Right for a change and so that's why he said,
"If you marry her, son, you're better off . . . .
Single 'cause it's always been my belief,
Marriage will bring a man nothing but . . .
Chorus:

The farmer decided he'd wed any way,
And started in planning for his wedding . . . .
Suit, which he purchased for only one buck,
But then he found out he was just out of . . . .
Money and so he got left in the lurch,
Standing and waiting in front of the . . . .
End of this story which just goes to show,
All a girl wants from a man is his . . .
Chorus:

MySpace

So have you all noticed this MySpace craze that's been picking up momentum for the past couple of years? A little crazy no? I mean I'll admit I have a MySpace, I suppose people contact me on it, I suppose I could respond, quite frankly I wouldn't even know how. I don't know why these little tweeners run home to their computers & their MySpace relationships as if that is the be all and end all of entertainment!

Have you read the news about these "relationships" that's some scary stuff! I've read a few articles now where teens or tweens are lured in and then kidnapped, or molested or raped when they go out to meet people in real life that they found on MySpace. Oh you want to see the articles? Ok, here's some:
• Molestation http://www.da.saccounty.net/pr/060602%C2%AD%C2%AD_Richard%20Alan%20Butenhof.htm
• Teen goes to middle east http://www.lynnclassical.org/MySpaceArticles2005_2006.htm
• Another blog about some MySpace incidents http://betterthenblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/myspace-is-devil-or-its-full-of-sexual.html
• These two met on myspace, she 14, he 18. They killed her parents. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/borden_and_ludwig/index.html

Now I'm not saying that MySpace is all bad, I have connected with some high school friends through it. I've also known (know) people who have met "the love of their life" on MySpace, my friends of course all being out of the "teen/tween" category. I just think that parents need to be more careful with what they are letting their kids do on the computers, especially in open forums like MySpace.

Oh and did you hear about the people who post suicide notes on MySpace and actually do themselves in? Yeah it totally happenes, creepy no? Here's some articles 'bout it:
• A 20 yr. old soldier http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12518853/
• A 17 yr old teen, the original suicide http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=6d8134fbbe964d76f864b3b9682dcb19
• The original suicide note was posted here: http://www.myspace.com/jloveb it is no longer on the site and the site has been taken over as a tribute of sorts.
• A picture post of the original site: http://jblr.ytmnd.com/

There's also creeps out there who just post inappropriate stuff that is totally accessible to minors, now I know the whole internet is accessible to minors, but bad things posted on MySpace are particularly accessible as one can come across them clicking from profile to profile unaware of where the next click may take them.
• Man graphically brags about sexual encounters with high school girls. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217060,00.html?sPage=fnc.technology/homecomputing
•Threats against fellow students lead to charges http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=4621990&nav=3YeX
• Kids pretending to be older than they are to get on MySpace http://www.ccs.k12.in.us/Creekside/Counselors/chicagomyspace.htm

Comcast Part Six

Another thing I dislike about comcast subscribers is those people who are in an outage or without service and have digital phone as well as internet. They CALL in (on something right?) and rant at me about how they can't be without a phone for ___(insert any number of days here until next available appointment) as they have children or a sick relative or some other necessity that warrants a phone.

Hello people!! What are you calling me from then?!? Oh and I know it's your cell phone because you gave me a number to pass on to the tech to reach you at that was this phone's number, so don't tell me you can't be without a phone! You're not without a phone, you're using a phone!! You are simply without a LAN line! Give your head a shake people!