Category: Uncategorized

Yet another case of life imitating Seinfeld:

Authorities said they arrested 13 people and seized more than $500,000 in cash after breaking up a smuggling ring that collected millions of beverage containers in other states and cashed them in for 10 cents apiece in Michigan.
…
A total of 15 people were named in a 67-count warrant issued as part of Operation Can Scam, Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday.
…
The scheme defrauded the Michigan Bottle Deposit Fund, whose proceeds are used to pay for environmental cleanup efforts.

The source article even mentions the Seinfeld link.

But at least Kramer and Newman didn’t get caught by the authorities.

I haven’t watched wrestling in a few months, so I can’t say I know what’s going on with the storylines, other than hearing that Vince McMahon’s illegitimate child is a midget.

But back at WrestleMania, I was shocked (shocked!) to see that Ric Flair was only featured on the card as part of a dark match. I’m guessing that because he’s been shuffled down the card, he’s seeking other career opportunities, like financing loans.

For some reason, I don’t think the Civee and I would have gone with the Nature Boy for our car loan.

Saturday was my 30th birthday.

Because of the car situation, The Civee and I spent the day looking at cars. By the end of the day, we had made a deal to buy one. Throughout the day, we had to fill out so many forms that I was confusing my birthyear with the current year, and on at least two forms I had interpolated the two dates. The Civee and I had a laugh about it. But the damage was much more extensive.

Shortly after arriving at work this morning, a co-worker from HR visited me with two forms that I had filled out on Friday (the 14th). On one, I had signed and put the current date of 14 September 1977. And on the other, even more inexplicably, I had the current date as 15 November 2007.

This really isn’t surprising, because sometimes, while writing checks, I’ll write the year as 2004. Nice to know I’m barely 30 and already senile.

I’m glad this week is over (in the weekday sense, not the literal sense).

Both The Civee and I have been sick all week. I had a root canal done on Tuesday. And a few hours after said procedure, an uninsured, unlicensed driver did this to our car:

We’re both okay and dealing with the insurance company to get it fixed. Till then, I have to go in the other side and climb over the middle. So yeah, driving anywhere is real fun right now.

Last week, the Civee and I were on vacation in Canada.

We spent a week at Lake Duborne, outside of the town of Blind River, Ontario, a 10-plus hour drive from Columbus. The place was remote, and the vacation was fun.

We arrived at the lake sometime after 3:00 a.m., and while I was dead tired from the drive, I had to take a few minutes to look at the stars. It was a clear night when we got in, and it was easily the best view of the night sky I ever had. You could easily see with the naked eye the haze of the Milky Way. Not to mention all the constellations, like Jerry the Cowboy, and Alan, the Cowboy.

We spent our time there doing a variety of outdoors activities, like boating, fishing, swimming and hiking. We went into the town a few times and I was amazed at the popularity of the local Tim Horton’s. We went in for some after dinner donuts, and I counted about 40 people just hanging out. And every time we drove past following that, the place was packed. There were a few other places in town to eat, but in Blind River, Tim Horton’s is the place to go.

The best part of the trip was the hike up to ‘Fire Tower,’ a mountain whose peak used to be home to a fire lookout tower, that, about 30 years ago, burned down. We docked near the shore at the bottom of the mountain and took an hour and a half to hike straight up the peak (a week later, and I’m still sore from the hike!). The view was pretty damn good, and you could even see Lake Huron, which is a few miles away. Here’s a fake-panoramic shot from the peak:

To give you an idea of where this is topographically;

View Larger Map

Because we were among the mountains and tall trees, I decided for the week, to not shave and let my beard grow for once. It’s much less pathetic than I thought it’d be and it actually looks right now like I have a beard. I’m going to keep it and see what happens.

Sixteen years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee publicly announced this thing called the World Wide Web on Usenet, which was then the dominant form of information sharing on the Internet.

Happy Web day everyone!

I was disappointed earlier this week to find out that next month, the Weekly World News would cease publishing its print edition.

While never a subscriber (or regular purchaser), I have bought my share of issues, mostly using them as bathroom-area wall decorations in college. They say the Web version will still be published, but the Web version of the world’s only reliable newspaper isn’t that great.

Now I’ll have to get my all my news from people at the bus stop.

Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld and famously made an ass of himself last year, is going to Cambodia to find himself.

From the link:

the comedian is visiting remote temples in Cambodia, following the teachings of a Hindu monk. In a recent Los Angeles Times interview, the comic admitted he has lost his sense of humor, adding, “I’m taking time off to feel myself out, get to know myself and appreciate other people.”

Sometimes, you know, life does imitate art:

In real life:
-Michael Richards played Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld.
-Cosmo Kramer was based off of Kenny Kramer, real life friend of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.
-After the fictional character based on him became one of the most popular television characters ever, Kenny Kramer started (a hilarious) reality tour.
-Michael Richards goes insane during a live performance.
-Michael Richards goes to Cambodia in Southeast Asia to find himself.

In “art:”
-The biography of Elaine’s boss, J. Peterman, is based off of stories bought from Cosmo Kramer.
-After the book becomes a bestseller, Cosmo Kramer starts (a pathetic) reality tour.
-J. Peterman goes insane while at work.
-J. Peterman runs off to Myanmar (not the discount pharmacy), in Southeast Asia to find himself.

All I have to say is the world works in strange ways.

Last week, the Civee and I went to see Transformers. (She tagged along because I’ve watched a bit of General Hospital in the past few weeks).

While I was looking forward to the movie for a while, I was prepared for the possibility of disappointment. Ugly robots, only one of the original voice actors and the director of Pearl Harbor trying to make a movie about transforming robots meant this could have been a very bad movie.

But it wasn’t. I really enjoyed it. Some of the action scenes were hard to follow, the Tranformer “deaths” happened too easily and I had questions about some of the plot points, but those were minor issues.

The action was great- and it was neat seeing things from a “human scale” (even if that made it hard to follow). John Tuturro and his character were a nice surprise. The idea of transforming robots didn’t seem that ridiculous (even if the scene outside Sam’s house was a bit of comedic relief). And Optimus was the same Optimus Prime character (“Freedom is the right of all sentinent beings,” “One shall stand, one shall fall) that he was back in the days of Generation 1.

Best of all, he didn’t die this time.

To:

and:

Sorry I didn’t get around to sending you a card this year, Big Stein.