Burning Man

The man burns in 8 days...

I thought it appropriate given my littering complaints below...

Troubling Video

Yesterday I saw an extremely troubling video...you'll never guess what it was about.

http://www.uselessjunk.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=683

It looks to be part of a documentary on hornets and bees. It is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and was a bit upsetting to me as well. Not that I ever cared much about insects, however it brings to light a huge inequality in nature. It shows how a single hornet finds a bees nest of about 30,000-40,000 bees. It then goes back to its own nest to recruit about 15 other hornets, who all return to the bees nest. Then the slaughter begins...these 15 hornets decimate the whole beehive, snipping off the heads of every single bee in a matter of a few hours. I felt a bit sick after watching the video....I'm sure that anybody reading this would make serious fun of me, but watch the video before making any comments.

I'm thinking to myself, here are these honey bees, not bothering anybody, just trying to make a living and helping mother nature polinate flowers along the way. Then along comes evil incarnate, and slaughters every single one of them for a few days worth of food. There's just something not right about the whole thing. You expect a certain level of viciousness while watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, however this takes the cake!

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Along the same theme, the other week I went out for a bike ride. I haven't done so in years; I was riding my moutain bike, wearing my helmet, and a water bottle with ice water. I'm tooling around some backwoods areas, and find this large wasp nest attached to a fence. I had just seen one in the Museum of Natural History a few weeks earlier, so it interested me a bit. However, I didn't see any wasps going in or out of it. I waited for a few minutes, and saw no activity. Like a genius, I thought I would give it a little kick, yet I was ready to bolt if needed. Surely enough, I kick it, and wasps start swarming out of the nest! I run to my bike, waving my arms about my head as the wasps circled me. I jump on my mountain bike, have one leg over the seat while pushing with my other leg to get going, then pedaled my ass off! I made it out without a single sting, however was laughing out loud at how ridiculous I must have been...I felt just like a little kid again; it was quite refreshing!

Now, hornets and wasps are not the same, but I never the less want to return to the nest, spray it with some insecticide, then later return to put the nest in a plexiglass case for display. I'll let you know how that goes.

Life's Philosophies

There are a few philosophies that I live my life by...I'm slowly, but surely adding to this list as my life progresses. Feel free to adopt them, as I fell that they are beneficial for all:

1) Never backup more than you have to (when driving a car, that is). This little rule has saved me from no less than 3 accidents.

2) If you are backing up, and hear a strange sound, stop immediately, get out of the car, and check things out!
-My wife didn't live by this philosophy, and hence ran over her pocketbook, and crushed a $300+ blackberry.
-Generall, this is a good idea as well if you have kids. Usually once a year you hear about a child being killed because their parent backed over them in the driveway. I'm sure they heard or felt something upon impact, but kept on going.

3) Leave the beach cleaner than when you came!
-I always clean up my garbage, as well as any other garbage within my line of site, both when I'm arriving at the beach, and when I leave the beach. It makes me feel good, and will probably make you feel good too! And god help the person that I will someday witness letting their dog take a crap on the beach, and pretending that it didn't happen (I'll probably end up in jail that day).
-This is also falls under my general "Never Litter" policy, but I like the slogan I've come up with. I might try to see if New Jersey will sponsor it for public awareness.

4) Treat others with respect, until they treat you with disrespect; at that point, give them a chance to appologize. If they don't, then they become a mortal enemy.
-I have a few people on my s--- list. They will never come off the s--- list until I have exacted just revenge. I have about 6 people on that list as we speak; one has been on it for about 20 years, but I have not forgotten.

I'm sure I have a few others, but have never written them down, so I will post them as they come to me.

Complaints

Today I see this guy throw a cigarette box out of his window on the GSPway. Anybody who knows me knows how I hate litterers, so I am more than peeved after witnessing this. The guy then starts exiting at my exit, so I decide to follow him. After a 15 minute drive of following him, the guy turns into my development! Turns out, he lives 2 houses away from me! What a coincidence...haven't decided what to do to him yet...

This leads me to a more targeted complaint of mine...I hate smokers! They are generally rude and inconsiderate, and feel that cigarette butts are bio-degradeable. They litter our streets and beaches, and don't even think twice about it.

While living in New York City, I occassionally would witness somebody littering, and would be determined to intervene on Mother Nature's, and my behalf. Generally the offender would say something like, "mind your own business", and I would respond, "I am minding my business, now pick it up, and throw it away, or you're going to have a problem on your hands! (but only if I thought I had a chance at taking the guy)".

Some teenage girls were in the subway, and one dumped her dead walkman batteries on the ground. I go over, pick them up, and they are watching me. I then go over to the trash and spike them into the garbage can as hard as I could, one at a time. I think it was empty, because they hit the bottom of the can, and made a loud BOOM as they hit bottom. They thought I was nuts, and I think I scared the s--- out of them; hopefully taught them a lesson.

Anyway, this leads me to the most important point...DON'T FRIGGING LITTER, because if you push me over the edge by littering, and then mouth off to me when I confront you, both of us could be in a world of hurt!

Somebody Up There Doesn't Like Me

You know when something bad or unsettling happens to you, and you say to yourself, "Somebody up there doesn't like me!"? Well, here's the latest one that happened to me.

I decided to pick up my car from the mechanic (having new brakes, muffler, and oil change) by riding my bike to get some exercise. It is about 5 miles away, and is a hot day. Since it is a truck, I was going to put the bike in the back, and then drive home. I pay, get in the truck, press the "down" button to the back window, and guess what? It doesn't work!

The mechanic insists that it wasn't anything they did. I must open this back window every week, and it never exhibited this problem before. Mr. Mechanic doesn't have time to look at it right away, so I schlep back home on my bike...a bit longer of a ride than I had anticipated.

Now here is the real kicker...we get a call from them, and when they went to troubleshoot it, it worked fine! Unbelievable!!!

Classic....