Let it snow!
Here in south Texas nobody gets excited about a forecast that calls for some sleet or freezing rain. But talk about snow and everyone’s ears perk up!
All Texans will agree with this
This is a forward that I got tonight and I wanted to share…
Please note that Texas is the only state with a legal right to secede from the Union . (Reference the Texas-American Annexation Treaty of 1848.)
We Texans love y’all, but we’ll probably have to take action since B. Hussein Obama won the election.
We’ll miss you too.
Here is what can happen:
#1: Barack Hussein Obama becomes President of the United States ; Texas immediately secedes from the Union .
#2: George W. Bush will become the President of the of Texas .
So what does Texas have to do to survive as a Republic?
1. NASA is just south of Houston , Texas . We will control the space industry.
2. We refine over 85% of the gasoline in the United States .
3. Defense Industry–we have over 65% of it. The term†Don’t mess with Texas ,” will take on a whole new meaning.
4. Oil – we can supply all the oil that the Republic of Texas will need for the next 300 years. Yankee states? Sorry about that.
5. Natural Gas – again we have all we need and it’s too bad about those Northern States. John Kerry will have to figure out a way to keep them warm….
6. Computer Industry – we currently lead the nation introducing computer chips and communications–small companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer, EDS, Raytheon, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Intel, AMD, Atmel, Applied Materials, Ball Miconductor, Dallas Semiconductor, Delphi , Nortel, Alcatel, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
7. Medical Care – We have the largest research centers for cancer research, the best burn centers and the top trauma units in the world, as well as other large health centers. Dallas and Houston have some of the best hospitals in the United States .
8. We have enough colleges to keep us going: University of Texas , Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice, SMU, University of Houston , Baylor, UNT ( University of North Texas ), Texas Women’s University, etc. Ivy grows better in the South anyway.
9. We have a ready supply of workers. We could just open the border when we need some more.
10. We have essential control of the paper industry, plastics, insurance, etc.
11. In case of a foreign invasion, we have the Texas National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard. We don’t have an Army, but since everybody down here has at least six rifles and a pile of ammo, we can raise an Army in 24 hours if we need one, “Country Boys know how to Surviveâ€. If the situation really gets bad, we can always call the Department of Public Safety and ask them to send over Chuck Norris and a couple of Texas Rangers.
12. We are totally self-sufficient in beef, poultry, hogs, and several types of grain, fruit and vegetables, and let’s not forget seafood from the Gulf. Also, everybody down here knows how to cook them so that they taste good. Don’t need any food.
This just names a few of the items that will keep the Republic of Texas in good shape. There isn’t a thing out there that we need and don’t have.
Now to the rest of the United States under President Obama:
Since you won’t have the refineries to get gas for your cars, only President Obama will be able to drive around in his big 9 mpg SUV. The rest of the United States will have to walk or ride bikes.
You won’t have any TV as the Space Center in Houston will cut off satellite communications.
You won’t have any natural gas to heat your homes, but since Mr. Obama and Al Gore have predicted global warming, you will not need the gas as long as you survive the 2000 years it will take to get enough heat from Global Warming.
Signed, The People of Texas
P.S. This is not a threatening letter – just a note to give you something to think about!
SLEEP WELL TONIGHT THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU!!
The Knack
I had forgotten about this video clip until a friend sent it to me the other day. The best part is when Dilbert’s mom asks the doctor if Dilbert will have a normal life…
Chad Vader
I remember watching the first Chad Vader episode a few years ago and today I got bored so I was browsing youtube and found out that they made 8 episodes. I posted them all here in order to save people time from searching for them.
The whole storyline centers around the protagonist Chad Vader who is the younger brother of Darth Vader. Chad works as a manager at the Empire Supermarket. It’s hilarious to see how Chad interacts with customers and his employees.
Chad Vader #1
Chad Vader #2 The Date
Chad Vader #3
Chad Vader #4
Chad Vader #5
Chad Vader #6 New Job
Chad Vader #7 The Plan
Chad Vader #8 Chad vs Clint
Get ready for winter
I received this video in an email from a friend of mine. The first time I watched it I almost gagged because even though I am from Texas where it hardly ever snows, everyone knows not to eat yellow snow… This video changes that misconception.
Let’s eat some yellow snow!
ISS Animation
I found a really cool animation of the ISS online today showing piecewise each component being added to the space station and what it will look like when it is complete in 2010.
Here are the top ten interesting facts that I found on the ISS…
- The Space Station is the largest manned object ever sent into space, encompassing 43,000 cubic feet of living and working space – the equivalent of two Boeing 747’s.
- Assembling the Space Station will require 45 launches – 36 from the United States and nine from Russia – and 1,705 hours of space walks, which is double the number of hours U.S. astronauts have walked in space since the beginning of the space program.
- When fully constructed, the Space Station will be visible to more than 90 percent of the world’s population.
- Humans need a little less sleep in space because our bodies do very little work in a microgravity environment. It takes no effort at all to raise your arm, hold your head up, or move large objects.
- The Space Station consists of 70 separate major components and hundreds of minor ones, all of which will be assembled for the first time in space.
- Astronauts aboard the Space Station will spend more time working on experiments than anything else. Many projects require teamwork, so astronauts frequently work in pairs.
- The Space Station circles the Earth every 90 minutes.
- The human body tends to lose muscle and bone mass rapidly in space. To fight this loss, at least two hours of strenuous exercise is built into every astronaut’s daily schedule on the Space Station.
- The construction of the Space Station is a collaboration of 100,000 people, hundreds of companies, and sixteen nations spread over four continents, among them the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
- The Space Station is the most expensive single object ever built. The United States’ participation has been estimated at $96 billion – a figure that nearly equals the combined cost of all of the Apollo missions to the moon.
What is woot?
When I first heard about Woot a month ago I thought it was a cool idea for a website but then it quickly became frustrating. The whole idea define Woot is to only sell one particular item a day at their online store at a cheap ass price until it is sold out and then a new item is sold the next day and so on and on. The frustrating part is that if you don’t check everyday you miss out on what you could of bought if only you didn’t forget to check. Even though I like Woot, I like shirt.woot better.
Shirt.woot is the same principle as the regular Woot website expect they sell t-shirts designed by a different artist each day. I haven’t bought a shirt yet, not because I don’t like the choices… I just haven’t pulled the trigger yet, I’m waiting for one that jumps out at me.
Enchanted Rock
My big adventure this weekend takes me and some buddies to Enchanted Rock (right past Austin) to do some hiking but it ended up being more rock climbing then hiking. I hadn’t ever really being hiking before, maybe a few times in Panama when I was wandering around the ranch but I didn’t do much rock climbing since I didn’t have a clue where I was or how to get help if I wandered off by myself. I had a blast but I was really surprised how windy it was when we made it to the top of Enchanted Rock.
I was curious about how this huge rock got its name so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Wiki says that there is evidence that humans have been wandering around the Enchanted Rock as far back as 11,000 years. That number is surreal to me, I can’t even imagine that far back; I wonder how much that area has changed since then?
If you take away the concrete parking lots the whole area looked like those old westerns I used to watch as a kid. I kept expecting a good old-fashioned cowboy and Indian shot-off behind the boulders. It looked like the perfect place to send some smoke signals. The whole experience was amazing, being able to get away from the city and almost step back in town.
Wikipedia goes on to describe some of the folklore of local Native American tribes describing magical and spiritual powers to the rock (hence the name ‘Enchanted Rock’). While attempting to hide from Anglo settlers in the area, the Natives would hide on the top two tiers of the rock and, since they were unable to be seen from the ground below, they believed the rock made them invisible. The first European to visit the area was probably Ãlvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1536. The Tonkawa, who inhabited the area in the 16th century, believed that ghost fires flickered at the top of the dome. In particular they heard unexplained creaking and groaning, which geologists attribute to the rock’s night-time contraction after being heated by the sun during the day. The name “Enchanted Rock” derives from Spanish and Anglo-Texan interpretations of such legends and related folklore. (quoted from Wikipedia.com)
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- This is where the hike starts
I want this cell phone
I can’t find this phone anywhere in America so I may have to order it from Europe. What do you think is it worth the hassle?
Let me present to you the new Sony Ericsson W902.
Would you go to outer space?
I was reading BBC’s website today (because I don’t trust getting my news from the communist news network) I ran across an article about today’s launch. Not only is Endeavour bringing the new Leonardo module to double the living space on the space station, they are also bring a water regeneration system. This new system distils, filters, ionizes and oxidizes wastewater into fresh water for drinking. So basically the astronauts are recycling their piss into drinking water, which after all the reverse osmosis is perfectly safe it reminds me of my two favorite questions I get about working at NASA.
Whenever I meet someone new they always ask me the same questions:
1. What do I do at NASA and 2. Would I ever want to be astronaut/go into space. I just combine those questions together because I think they are essentially the same thing. I will answer the first question when I have more time and you can check out my portfolio for a more formal answer. So this brings me to my second question, would I ever want to go to space? From all my experience working here he answer is simple. I most definitely would not want to fly in space. Don’t get me wrong it would be awesome to experience living on the moon and mars for a few days, maybe a few weeks but I would miss everybody I knew back home on earth. Not to mention you would barely have any leisure time. You would constantly be checking and rechecking all the equipment making sure everything is working correctly (life support, guidance, propulsion). The food would always be room temperature because there is no refrigerator and no microwave. It is super noisy with all the computers and machines running and above all you have a water shortage. Now I think that if I had to I could get over drinking my own pee to survive. But now I ask you… would you be able to drink someone else’s pee? They say that you can taste of smell anything but I’m sure it’s still hard to swallow knowing where this water came from.
They found an Indian on the moon
In case you haven’t heard, India’s probe Chandrayaan 1 landed on the lunar surface this morning. Most of my coworkers think that this is a statement for India as India is trying to prove itself as a global power. That’s funny because most Americans still think of India as a desert with people riding around on camels. Honestly this lunar probe wasn’t really a big surprise to me. There are so many Indian engineers at Johnson Space Center already; hell my NASA manager is Indian.
I remember when I was at A&M I saw students from India all over the engineering buildings. If you own a Dell computer and you have to call customer support, there is like a 99% chance that there will be an Indian on the other end trying to help you fix your computer. This is just another example of how the rest of the world is catching up or even passing the US as a powerhouse.
Anyways… I was curious what the hell this probe was going to do on the moon. I did a little bit of research and basically for the next two years, Chandrayaan 1 will map a three-dimensional atlas of the Moon and also check for the presence of water-ice with the help of instruments built by India and other countries including the US, Britain and Germany.
I can’t image China being very happy about India beating them to the moon, because I know China had their eyes set on the moon a long time ago. I’m curious to see how China will respond with a probe/rover of their own.
Hopefully as other nations such as China and India set their sights on the moon Americans will kick NASA’s ass into getting us back on the moon again.
Nike Leave Nothing Commercials
If you haven’t seen these commercials yet…Â You’re welcome…
Nike always has some of the best commercials, I’m going to see if I can find some more of my favs.
This video is not only bad ass because of the CG with the season changes, but I love how they use the Last of the Mohicans theme song. These commercials are two of my favorites from this year.
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This commercial is an oldie but a goodie…Â man I wish this was a real ride
Chicks dig the long ball
I used to love this video back in the day.
New Star Wars live action TV series
I’ve heard about this awhile back but I never wrote about it until now. Geroge Lucas has been working on a Star Wars live-action tv series that is supposed to launch in 2009 but I won’t hold my breathe. I don’t even know if they have started filming yet, let alone have the cast all picked out.
From what I have read online, the new series is going to take place between episodes III and IV or “the dark times†when the empire really starts to take power. The show sounds like it will be a mix of Lost and Heroes with the episodes being told through the eyes of different the characters and then everything eventually comes together. I hope that Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters have more of a role in this series.
I just read on imdb.com that George said the show will be an HBO series and he described it as a combination of “Deadwood and The Sopranos in space.†Luckily I liked both of those shows because of the action and the twists, so I think this series will be fun to watch and I’ll be looking forward to the show starting soon.
I’ve been keeping up with the Clone Wars animated series pretty regularly. It’s a nice break to go back to basics and watch thirty minutes of cartoons for a week. I like the animation and the dialogue can be cheesy but I recommend checking out the series if you are a star wars fan.
Here are a few of the sites I like to occasionally checkout for anything Star Wars related.
Wookieepedia
theforce.net
Did you know Mexico had a space agency?
I went to an all hands meeting at work last week and my manager was giving the up the quarterly pep talk about how well we are doing on the contract and some updates with the company by telling us that the company is expanding which is always good because there’s more opportunities within the company. Then she tells us that we are going international. We are opening up an office in Mexico because apparently Mexico is starting up a space agency (AEXA), who knew?
So this got me wondering what other countries had a space program that I wasn’t aware of… I knew the major international partners like Russia (RKA), the European Space Agency (ESA), Canada (CSA) and who can forget the Taikonauts from Japan (JAXA). The newest ones that I knew were coming into their own have been China (CNSA) and India (ISRO) because they have been in the news lately. I did a little bit of research and discovered that Bangladesh had a space program. To see the complete list check it out here.
Lets see how far we’ve come
To continue with the Aggie theme…
There’s a spirit
After watching the disappointing losses to Tech and now to OU I found this video to remember what it feels like to not only to win, but what it felt like for my school to have a great football team. We will be champions again!!! Gig’em Aggies!!!
Yeah recess…
Everyone knows that Democrats and Republicans see night and day on almost every issue. I think of myself as Republican but there are some valid points that Democrats make that I agree with. With that bein said it doesn’t matter which side of the fence you are on, this video my brother sent me is hilarious. It shows views the most extreme views of democrats and republicans from the other party’s point of view.
Shoes
This post is a work in progress… I was talking to Ray on the phone the oher day and we started talking about the shoes that we used to wear back in the day.
Here are a couple ones that I used to sport and I kind of wish I could still buy a few of these.
Nike Air Zoom Flight
Year of Released: 1996
FACT: At first glance, they bugged you out right? Tell the truth. Pods growing out of the sole. Eyes in the back of your heels. But was there a purpose to the design? Was it more than just aesthetics? Nike “scientists†had heard about a kid from Oakland that was going to buzz by all the other point guards in the league and into MVP status. Then they found out that he was a sneaker fiend, so they no longer wondered if he would actually wear the Air Zoom Flight. They put it on his feet, and it began showing up everywhere. People fell in love with the shoe, and with the player, Jason Kidd.
Nike Air Raid
First Released: 1992
FACT: Tinker Hatfield was the designer of Nike Air Raid. Some people think the double strap system is just there for the look of the shoe, but it is actually what keeps the foot very secure. The ‘X-look’ appearance of the shoe led many people to associate it with Spike Lee’s Malcolm X.
Charles Barkley
Reebok pump
Ken griffey shoes
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2764815146_34f0ec02fd.jpg
How many MPGs does my body get?
I found this website that will tell you how many miles per gallon your body can produce assuming you consumed enough food to equal 1 gallon of liquid food mixed with water. You take a short survey and the website will tell you approximately how far you could walk before you passed out ran out of gas.   Apparently my body is a equivalent to a mid-sized sedan. I can’t tell if that’s good or not because personally when i hear the word sexy and 4 door sedan just doesnt come to mind. But on the other hand now-a-days everyone wants a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon so for now it’s up in the air whether its a good thing not. Weigh in with your opinion.