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| DGaussiran Atul StephanG Janine Elise Cassie H. Cassie C. Elliana T. Brittany P. Teal Creek Cattery Innocent Noise |
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| "In time, you will call me....Master." --Emperor Palpatine |
| Site last updated: 08 June 2010 |
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| "....and the sea shall grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home...." --Christopher Columbus |
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| 23 March 2008 Ellen Page A young up-and-coming actress, Ellen Page, at the age of just 21 now, has already been nominated for a "best actress" Oscar for her work in "Juno." Although she didn't win, she's been lauded as one of the best young actresses in recent years. I didn't know about her until I saw her in "Hard Candy," which is a dark drama, revolving around a 14-year-old girl who turns the tables on a would-be pedophile. Her character really kicks some psychological ass in this film, and her performance was exemplary. After seeing it, I was really curious about her other films. I found her in "Mouth to Mouth," in which her rebellious, runaway teenage character finds appreciation within a cult-like gang in the streets of Europe. |
| But there are consequences to running away, and she realizes it when her mother joins the gang and turns against her. A very brutal depiction of |
| of what can happen when you rebel, "Mouth to Mouth" is a must-see for any Ellen Page fan. However, Ellen gives a sly, witty performance in "Juno," written by Diablo Cody. As a teenager who finds herself pregnant by her best friend, she decides adoption is the best choice.....but her interaction with the would-be adoptive parents is priceless. You can see some video clips of Ellen Page on my Pics Page, where she hosted Saturday Night Live on March 1, 2008. |
| 25 March 2008 Audio Dubbing I don't know why so many people seem to have problems with this.....it's really a simple process, and requires just a rudimentary knowledge of file types, and cable connections. Analog and Digital types can be confusing, I'll admit that....but the conversion process is pretty simple. So I hope everyone can follow along, as I've updated my D/Load page with instructions on how to do it yourself. Do you have vinyl LP's that you want to make into CD's? Or cassette tapes that you'd like converted to CD's? How about songs on the internet that you'd like to save or burn to CD's/MP3's? I've got you covered. It may cost you about $5 or $15, for a cable or two, but it's always worth it to have these cables on-hand. Besides, the cost of the cable will pay for itself, depending on how many music files you want converted. Check my D/Load page for full instructions. If you have more detailed questions, send me an email or call my cell. Luv ya all, -B. |
| 12 June 2008 New Movies I've always been skeptical of buying used DVD's....until today. I purchased Disturbing Behavior, a favorite of mine, online last week. It arrived today, and although the case shows just a little bit of wear, the DVD itself is scratchless and pristine. I also purchased Spiderman 3 and The Faculty, but have yet to receive them in the mail. Provided that Sp3 and Faculty arrive in good condition, I'll be buying all older DVD's, "used," thru Amazon.com. New Car (sort of) The RGV's sunlight and salt-infused morning dew, working in tandem, have taken their toll on the rooftop of my car. I have several spots where the paint has crinckled up and worn through to the original primer. Today I decided to take action and re-paint it myself. This is a work-in-progress, so I'll include photos as I go....sanding, priming, sanding, priming, painting, sanding, painting, clear coat, etc., etc. |
| 23 June 2008 George Carlin (1937-2008) One of the most influtential comedians of our time has passed away. George Carlin, aged 71, died of heart failure this past Sunday. He was renowned for such on-stage rhetoric as "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," as well as "People I Can Do Without." If you're one of the people on my email list, you'll know what my favorite line of his was. George Carlin was known as a comedian for the counter-culture. He always took notice of our society's problems, as well as the problems that our government has never issued, whether the government-in-charge be Democrat or Republican. In addition, he questioned the English language, as it is, for what it's worth: Can you actually blow your nose? No....it's impossible. And are you acutally "taking a dump?" Where exactly, are you taking it? Are you taking it with you somewhere? Not likely. Very funny stuff. Some of his stuff is silly, and some is very thought-provoking. Regardless of what you think about George Carlin, he will always be, in my mind, a comedic genius and a modern-day philosopher. A comedian who has thought through our political ideals, and has reached some very funny conclusions. Whether you agree with him or not, he is generally regarded as a "near genius" from the comedic republic. I am not a Comedian....I make no allusions to this. I just pass on funny texts and videos, when they come my way. And when I come upon something that George Carlin has to say, I feel obligated to forward it on to all my friends. Enjoy the following videos and pics (but watch out for the language)! The Original "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" The Updated "Seven Words" (some removed, some added) Fart Jokes |
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| 13 July 2008 Janine & Crystal in Spain In case you didn't already know, my sister Janine and her friend Crystal are in Spain for the whole month of July, on a school-chartered "study abroad" program. She called earlier today and had just returned to Madrid, having gone on a weekend vacation to Pamplona to see the "Running of the Bulls." She said it was awesome and disgusting at the same time. No, she didn't have any "PETA-type objections"......rather, the smell. Apparently the traditional drink during the event is Red Wine mixed with Coca-Cola (nasty), and everyone drinks 24/7 for the entire week. During said time, everyone vomits, pees, and craps in the streets. Yeah, they clean it up early each morning before each "Running," but the smell doesn't go away. Check out her ongoing blogsite here: http://www.janineinspain.tumblr.com. The Jedi Gym On a more uplifting note, check out the following video, a truly hilarious Star Wars parody: http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/sw_jedi_gym |
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| 27 July 2008 Hurricane Dolly Hits US - Mexico Border on 24 July 2008 It's been quite a few years since the RGV was hit with a bad hurricane, so many residents, including myself, were rather complacent before its arrival, especially because it was just a lowly Category 1 when out at sea. However, this one through us all for a loop. It gained just enough strength before landfall to become a Category 2 hurricane, and after it made landfall, it had the audacity to simply "hover" over the Valley for a good eight hours, dumping tons of rain in areas that didn't need it, like Raymondville, Arroyo City, and Rio Hondo. Damage was far worse than anyone expected, especially for such a "low-level" hurricane. Aunt Von's house on the Arroyo took some major damage, losing half the roof.....and the entire outdoor patio was gone, save for the concrete slab and bolted-down fish-grilling station. |
| You can see some pics she took on my Pics page. Also are some pics from South Padre, that a friend of hers shot. Although flooding was a major issue, most cities have declared their drinking water as "safe," and most flood waters have receded. McAllen and Edinburg did issue phone requests to residents NOT to shower or flush their toilets on July 25th, because they had no power at the wastewater treatment facilities (hence, sewage could start backing up into homes). But power was restored to most locations in the western areas of RGV by Thursday afternoon/evening, including my house. However, several areas in Weslaco, Brownsville, and South Padre STILL do not have power, and it's expected they won't have power until July 31st, or August 4th, at the latest. We all saw the consequences of Katrina, and although I believe the cities in the RGV have done an exemplary job of restoring everything in the past few days, it's VERY evident that the power companies and AEP need to find a way to be better prepared for hurricanes and other natural disasters in this area. |
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| 17 August 2008 - Part 1 Olympic Upsets, And Those That Were Expected I don't want to take anything away from the accomplishments of Cheng Fei, but I'm not too thrilled with the judges' scores. Alicia Sacramone performed excellently on the vault....she didn't fall, but did a minor hop on her landings. Cheng, however, fell flat on her face on the first vault.....and yet she still scored higher. After the rest of the gymnasts performed, this resulted in Alicia losing her chance at a medal (bronze, for vault). I'm no diplomat, nor do I have any expertise in IOC judging, but from what I've seen and heard on TV, it sounds like Alicia got screwed. And I agree. Alicia, if you ever happen to come across this website, I want you to know that I think you're the best. Keep up the good work, cutie....you're gold in my book! However, I think there's more of a political reason behind this rip-off. China is struggling to become known as a commercially viable nation, not just for exportable trinkets and toys, but for large markets as well....where China can import products from other nations. The IOC may not have any interest, but nearly every nation on the planet DOES have an interest in promoting China's commercialization. Whether the IOC judges have been influenced directly by China is a moot point....the women's gymnastics is a key point here: what are their ages? Does anyone really know? I doubt that even the Chinese government knows for sure. Regardless, and in all likelihood, the home nations of the IOC judges themselves have been pressured to give better scores to China's athletes, especially because it's the host nation. I sincerely doubt that any IOC judges have been pressured directly by China. Instead, I believe the judges' own nations have pressured them (the judges) to give preferential treatment for Chinese athletes' performances....simply to promote good relations in future business endeavors. Guo Jingjing Having said all that, I wish to give my supreme congratulations to Guo Jingjing, who has so far won 6 Gold medals in women's diving. She is by and far, the absolute BEST women's diver, singly or in synchro, in the history of the Olympics.....and she's cute as hell, too!!! Love you, Jingjing! |
| Alicia Sacramone |
| Guo Jingjing |
| Women's Volleyball - Poland I couldn't possibly close this article without mentioning the absolutely gorgeous girls of Poland's Volleyball team....I just wish they were slated to perform in "beach" volleyball, so I could see these amazingly beautiful female athletes perform in scantily-clad bikini-style uniforms. Regardless, they perfomed admirably in indoor volleyball tournaments. You girls ROCK! Michael Phelps Okay, he's a pretty cool dude. To win so many Golds in any one Olympics is pretty awesome. Go Phelps! |
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| Indoor Volleyball - Team Poland |
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| Michael Phelps |
| Cheng Fei |
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| Shawn Johnson |
| Shawn Johnson But hey, we can never forget our countries' favorite gymnastics girl....Shawn Johnson! She won our hearts at the World competition a few years ago, but she wowed us again at the Beijing Olympics. |
| So with most of the medals out of the way, I have to give BIG kudos to all the Americans on the Olympics teams. Thanks so much for your efforts, and may you be blessed to perform again in 2012! And for so many other athletes of other nations, I congratulate you on your well deserved wins. All of you represent the absolute best of your countries, and you all deserve to be held in the highest regard! I wish you all the best in 2012! And here's a personal message for Alicia Sacramone: you are awesome! And hey, the same goes for Nastia Liukin....keep up the great work, both of you are true athletes. Luv ya! |
| 28 August 2008 Music Okay, it's no secret that I play pool every Monday against my Dad. We play at "Fast Eddies," which is right across the street from my work address. The only reason I'm blogging about this, is because of the music. They have an updated version of a "Werlizter" there in the pool hall.....and the girls who run the pool hall have a tendency to use their free credits to play a lot of popular music. Listening to a lot of their choices, I'm tending to lean towards some of their pop-music choices. Here are some of my current favorites: Lindsay Lohan: Just a Little Bossy Madonna: Give it 2 Me I'm not your typical pop-music nut, but I've heard the tracks above so often that they're practically engrained into my skull. And once I found out that Lindsay Lohan was the singer of that first track.....well, that was a clincher. She's just way too cute. |
| 21 September 2008 TRUEBLOOD I can't say I've ever been a fan of any of HBO's cable-based series, such as Sex and the City, Entourage, The Sopranos, or Deadwood. I just never found the time to pay attention to any of them. However, I randomly caught the premiere of "TRUEBLOOD" a few weeks ago. Normally I tend to think of Vampire-oriented series as being totally lame (Buffy was pretty horrible, and that daytime soap Port Charles was a major mistake). If you want to create a Vampire-oriented TV series, then hey....you've gotta have lots of blood, sex, and violence. I'm glad that HBO picked up on this concept, because I think they've made a hit, and I've only seen the first three episodes! Anna Paquin, as the heroine, is of course a cutie, but I've also found her character's best friend, Tara (played by Rutina Wesley) is also one helluva major cutie, too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not just watching for these girls.....the storyline is very well written, so far. I'm eager to find out just WHY the vampire Bill Compton is so interested in Sookie (Paquin). Only time will tell. |
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| 21 November 2008 Yep, Them's Some Big Ass Lemons! About 2 years ago, I helped my Dad plant a "Valley Lemon" tree in the back yard. Last year it was still pretty little, and only produced about two or three tiny half-dollar-sized lemons. This year.....WHOA! It only produced 5 lemons, but these suckers are ENORMOUS! And yes, that's a U.S. Quarter in the picture, so you get the idea of scale (Click the pic to enlarge). A couple months ago, when the lemons were still green (but huge), a few USDA guys stopped by the house, to check the tree for "psyllids," which are little bugs that can carry a bacteria known for killing citrus fruit. They spotted the tree from the street (which is easy because all citrus trees have ficus-shaped leaves, but they're not glossy) |
| Anyway, the guys inspected the tree and found that yes, it had psyllids on it (as nearly all citrus trees do), but they tested negative for carrying that bacteria. But the weird thing was, they asked...."hey...what kind of citrus tree is this?" (And these guys are experts, who inspect citrus trees every single day!) My Dad said, "It's a Valley Lemon." They said they'd never seen lemon fruits that big! And neither have I, nor my Dad. I'll admit that I sprayed it several times--during its first year--with Miracle Gro, but I didn't spray it AT ALL this year....it just got watered about once a week with tap water from the hose. We still don't know why, or how, it produced these GIGANTIC lemons, but we're hoping for more of the same next year! Incidentally, the lemons are extremely sweet yet still tart as hell.....but they're so big, you can bite into them like an orange! YAY!!!! We got us a Mutant Lemon Tree!!!! |
| 22 November 2008 I'm The Proud Owner of a Cat-House! No, not what you're thinking about, you pervert! I just built a "Winter Chateau" for my cats to enjoy during cold nights. I took my sisters' old computer desk and converted it into a two-story bed for our cats. The desk had been sitting out on the back patio for several months, and I noticed that "Little Girl" aka Missy, and "Little Boy" aka Rusty, liked to sit on top of it at night. But when winter rolls in, they need a warm place to "crash." During warm nights (which is most of the year here in South Texas), Rusty stays out all night, while Missy prefers to come inside by 10pm. And during their time outside, they enjoy "guarding the yard" and/or chasing moths, mice, or other critters that don't belong in their territory. But during our few winter months, they don't often have a good place to stay warm in between chases. Once a year, I converted a little cardboard box into a "bed" with a beach towel inside to accommodate the cats. But since Rusty and Missy don't always get along, I felt they needed separate "apartments." So, I took my sisters' old desk and recycled its parts back into iteself, to create a two-story "Winter chateau" for them. You can see from the pics below what I mean. Using the standard complement of hand- and power-tools, consisting of a power saw, power drill, flat-head and phillips-head screwdrivers, and a box of wood screws, I cut the "computer storage" section of the desk away from the "leg storage" section. From the left leg of the desk, I cut a piece to serve as a shelf, which I then inserted into the unit using the standard shelf holders which came with the desk. From the top left of the desk, I cut a piece to serve as backing to the unit, to cut down on cold winds/drafts.....I then drilled pilot holes through it and screwed it onto the back of the unit. After construction, I cleaned it up and put some clean beach towels into both compartments....and I'm happy to say that both Missy and Rusty have approved! I went out for a smoke about an hour ago, and there they were, Rusty on top and Missy on the bottom. Kinda sounds like Missionary position for cats? Weird. Anyway, they like it, so I'm happy as well. |
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| 03 December 2008 New Digital Camera (for work) John bought a new digital camera this week....I tested it out today during a photo-shoot for Hamlin Pools, one of our newer clients. Although I've only used the camera for two days now, I've gotta say that I'm TOTALLY IN LOVE with it!!! It's a Canon EOS 50D (SLR), with a 28-135mm lens. We still need a wide-angle lens for it, but the camera rocks nonetheless. At 15 Megapixels, this sucker yields exceptional resolution. One thing I really like about it is the AI/IQ for brightness--you can use the LCD for previewing your shot beforehand, and often you'll see undesirable shadows. But once you focus and take the shot, the camera adjusts the brightness levels automatically, even without the use of the integrated flash mechanism, and it produces a great picture! Another nice feature is the auto-focus mechanism within the viewfinder.....the viewfinder has a central grid super-imposed on it, like most manual cameras, but when the auto-focus feature is enabled, it flashes these grid-points in red, where the focus is determined. This really comes in handy when you're trying to take multiple shots of any one subject/object from various angles, and you don't have the luxury of time on your side. Anyway, click the pic below to read more about this amazing camera! Pick one up if you have the means....it runs around $1400 US. Also, there's an example pic to the right of the camera.....this is a pic I took myself, today, during the Hamlin Pools photo shoot (so you can get an idea of the quality that the Canon EOS 50D produces). |
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| 03 January 2009 Happy New Year! I hope everyone's holiday went well....my Christmas was nice and quiet. Funny--I received two different hot sauce gift packs this year! Julie (with Janine's keen eye) got me a "Louisiana" brand gift pack, and Mother & Randy got me a "Dave's Gourmet" brand gift pack. Both are awesome, and I'm currently enjoying a few of them. "Dave's Gourmet" has a sauce called "Insanity".....and it's no joke! Jaime, Elise, and Kenny and I all tried just a little dab of it on our fingers, and holy crap!!! This stuff is pretty damned serious! Just a teaspoon of it in a full vat of chilli will make it "5-Alarm." Not kidding.....it's THAT HOT!!!! Click the pic to enlarge.....try all the varieties, if you dare! |
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| New Movies I've added about 25 new movies to my DVD collection over the past month. One favorite of mine was "A Clockwork Orange" (1972). A lot of people have mixed feelings about this movie.....I think it stems from the fact that people tend to "feel dirty" after having watched it. There's a lot of violence and torture during the flick, so there's your "X" or "NC-17" rating. But the film itself is really a social commentary on the lack of "justice" and "fairness" in human nature. The main character goes about attacking and torturing various innocent people, then goes to jail for a short period, during which he undergoes a "re-conditioning" behavioral experiment that should make him a more acceptable person in society. The re-conditioning process, |
| however, does not take, and it's obvious that he has not truly paid for his crimes against humanity. It's a cynical and bitter view of human nature, but one that's painfully true: life's just not fair. If you've never seen "A Clockwork Orange," then I highly recommend that you see it. You may not like it, but it will open your eyes to tyranny, injustice, and people who are just plain evil. I Dream of Jeannie On the lighter side of everything, I recently downloaded the complete series of "I Dream of Jeannie," (1965-1970). I can't presume to peer into the mind of George Lucas, but I have no doubt that the origin of Princess Leia's "gold bikini" was a derivation of Barbara Eden's "genie" costume from the hit TV Sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie." I remember watching re-runs of the show on WTBS when I was just a little kid.....that skimpy little outfit she wore was so hot.....even being a little boy of age 9 to 11, I knew she was the woman I wanted to be with....WOW!!! |
| 30 January 2009 New Video Card and Monitor Two weeks ago, my GeForce 7950GT video card died.....I was getting ramdom lit pixels during the BIOS POST, and nothing displayed once Windows loaded. I could only get to my data by booting into "Safe Mode." Luckily I found a sale price on Newegg.com, for an EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+, for $160. I've installed it and I'm up and running again, but to my dismay, my monitor is conking out.....it's a 19" ViewSonic CRT, and has served me well for several years.....up until about 4 days ago (2 days before I installed the new video card). Everything in a circular area in the middle of the screen is blurry....Very hard to read text. So I went ahead and ordered a new monitor. Jumping into the 21st century, I purchased an LCD flat panel--a 22" widescreen Acer panel that's gotten great reviews on Newegg. It should be here in a few days, and I'll post a review of it once it has arrived. In the meantime, I'd like to say that this new 9800GTX+ card is a MONSTER!!! It's super-fast, but also noisy as hell when running graphics-intensive apps/games. When I turn on the PC, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner.....I'm not kidding. And when running games like Crysis or FEAR, it's super-loud. Awesome frame rates and smooth video delivery, but LOUD! I'm thinking of buying some noise-cancelling earphones to wear during gameplay....otherwise I'd have to turn up my speakers so loud, just to overcome the videocard's noise, that they'd wake the dead! |
| 16 February 2009 Janine Is Engaged to be Married! Yep, my little "older" sister has accepted a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Kenneth Cantu. Kenny popped the question during their St. Valentine's day dinner-date, complete with a diamond engagement ring. They stopped by the house late Saturday night, and I shot a couple of pics of the new "happy couple." Congrats to my sis, and I hope it works out well! |
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| Video Divine An update to my previous entry.....the 9800 GTX+ is still a monster....loud, but supreme in rendering and in games. I've since received the Acer x223w, a 22" widescreen LCD. It's almost perfect, except for one semi-dead pixel in the upper-left-hand-corner of the screen. It's bright red on dark backgrounds, but goes to normal on white or semi-bright backgrounds. In any case, it's not that much of a bother considering the price I paid at only $160. The pic on the left shows the difference in size between my old 7950 GT-KO, which was a single-slot |
| PCI-Express card. The 9800 GTX+, on the right, is a dual-slot card (takes up two spaces within the chassis). The right-hand picture is of my new 22" Widescreen Acer LCD, on my physical desktop. She's really SWEET!!!! |
| 06 March 2009 More Movies...Some are Great, Some are Crap I just added another 19 movies to my collection....I haven't watched some of the new ones yet, but the older ones are true classics, such as "The Money Pit", "Four Rooms", and "Erik the Viking". Another new one is "The House Bunny", starring Anna Faris. Elise told me that it was kind of a "girly movie," but I still thought it was hilarious, and it has a great soundtrack as well. In addition, I kept wondering about the character "Oliver" in that movie....his voice sounded so familiar.....turns out, he's Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks! I'm a nut for romantic comedies, and Tom Hanks is well known for them.....so I guess his son Colin is attempting to carry on with family tradition, haha. |
| 20 July 2009 End of the Steppers I'll be discontinuing the "McHi Steppers" sub-domain from my website as of December 2009. Elise & friends graduated in May 2009, but I'll keep the site up until December 2009, just for freshman Steppers. If you're a Stepper alum, or a parent, I have a bunch of archived Stepper pics and videos....send me an email if there is something you want....I'll be happy to provide it, if nothing for more than your own personal home video collection. :) |
| 23 July 2009 Chevron vs. Ecuador A few days ago, I made the mistake of posting a message about Chevron Oil Corporation and its ongoing legal battle in the country of Ecuador. Inside of one day, my site was hit with well over 500 visits. Normally, my site gets only around 100 visits per month. And what I posted was pretty much copied/pasted info from news websites.....and it was fairly incomprehensible. However, I want to provide the best news sources for anyone who is still searching for this info.....so here's the facts.....Democrats be damned. The plaintiffs in Ecuador claim that Texaco Inc, now owned by Chevron, are responsible for toxic waste dumps in their country. Their claim(s) are shown on this website: http://www.chevrontoxico.com However, Chevron Corporation has shown that Texaco followed every Ecuadorian law during its operation in said country....and Chevron has done the same. The fact that Ecuador's citizens are now suing Chevron, with the backing of their court system, is an indication that Ecuador's government is not a stable environment......it is questionable at best, and corruption within their court system and politicos is something to be severly scrutinized by any company that wishes to do business within the borders of Ecuador. To rebuff the Ecuadorian's claims, Chevron Corporation has a response-video: http://www.chevron.com/ecuador/?Videold=EcuadorLon |
| 26 July 2009 Site Clean-Up It's been a long time coming.....but finally I need to clean-up my site and remove non-essential files that were previously associated with clients. So if you're a friend or personal client and need some of these files, then you'll have to request them directly from me. I'm not going to list them, because they're proprietary......however, if you need files previously stored on one of these sub-domains, please email me, and I will make the files available to you. |
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| 29 August 2009 Found Hidekun on Facebook I was looking at some 10-year-old photos I have on one of my hard drives, from my time in the Navy.....so I decided to do some searches for my old buddies on Facebook. Lo and behold, I found my favorite bar-hopping buddy, Hidekun Hah, from my time at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command near Charleston, SC. We had a good chat via Facebook IM this evening, and he's now an actor/stunt artist living in Los Angeles. He's done some performances on iCarly, Dark Blue, and Nip/Tuck, as well as several commercials. His last performance was in a Chilean feature called "The Fighter," due out on DVD pretty soon. He said that tomorrow morning he's scheduled for an early morning shoot, for a show called "Mommy & Me," starring Mr. Baywatch himself, David Hasselhoff. Hidekun will be performing as a Japanese hotel concierge. Good luck on your performance, Hidekun, and best wishes for all your future acting opportunities! Check out Hidekun Hah's profile on the Internet Movie Database here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3215567/ |
| 08 June 2010 FOREWORD: My Political Views: Make no mistake--I don't care for Obama at all....he's been pretty much all talk and rhetoric, no action. Besides, I'm not a demon-crat. I'm fairly middle-of-the-road, leaning toward conservative views on foreign policy and domestic economy.....I'd prefer that our tax dollars are spent HERE in the USA, combating poverty and homelessness, rather than sending money abroad to godless nations that continually support violent uprisings against possible democracies....or to Islamic nations whose leaders are hell-bent on overthrowing peace-loving capitalist or socialist nations like the US and the UK. However, I also tend to have a few liberal views, such as the right for a pregnant woman to choose abortion....albeit only in cases such as rape, incest, or when the pregnancy may harm the life of the mother; also, I don't care about gay marriage....if you love someone, and they love you too....I think gays should have the right to legal marriage....their marriage is not going to affect anyone else outside of their home. And gays adopting children? Well, that's really no different than a straight couple adopting children.....they both want the same thing: the right to adopt a child.....and if they're unable to produce a child on their own, yet really want to raise a child..........then there's no argument against the love they will give to that child.....many children with so-called "Real" parents might wish to be removed from their biological parents and be adopted by couples who are REALLY interested in raising and protecting children. I'm certainly not accusing any parents of neglect or abuse, but let's face it....there are plenty of "unworthy" parents in the world. BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico: Since you know I'm no Obama-lover, you know I'm fairly disappointed with our President's apparent lack of enthusiasm in getting the spill cleaned up. However, I was slightly surprised with his interview with Matt Lauer yesterday.....disappointed that Obama has discredited the Office of the Presidency by using "curse" words on Live TV......he's apparently looking to "kick some ass" for the spill and the lack of clean-up. I wonder if he's going to kick asses in his own administration, as well, for their lack of progress in overseeing BP's paltry attempts to cap the spewing well-head. I used to work for an off-shore drilling platform manufacturer......Varco/Shaffer, about 11-12 years ago. They were top-of-the-line, and had contracts with Conoco, as well as other domestic and foreign oil companies. As far as I know, they had an exemplary record for safety concerns aboard their rigs, at that time. Maybe Obama's administration should look into implementing safety controls from Varco/Shaffer, and instituting those safety controls on ALL foreign and domestic off-shore drilling practices. I can't say anything about BP since I've never had a working contract with them.....but hey, results are in the statistics of history......and this spill is going down as THE WORST in the history of oil spills. So, BP.....you'd better get that well-head capped ASAP....if not for your investors, who expect you all to reclaim as much crude as possible, then at least for the residents of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, whose lives and incomes are dependent on fishing those waters; and the incomes of those people dependent on the marshlands.......and last but NOT LEAST....those indigenous species of fish, shellfish, waterfowl, and reptiles that thrive in the estuaries, arroyos, marshlands, islands, and keys all along the coasts of Texas, Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. |