Sunday, April 27, 2008

Chloe's a weiner!!!


Er... winner. I mean she's a winner. ;)

She won £50 in gift vouchers from the local Wilkinson's. She put her name in for the prize draw last month, and lo and behold, she won!

(I would love to show you pictures, but the kids have made the camera vanish. I'm sure it's in this house somewhere, but where... I have absolutely no clue.)

When you consider the mask-making contest she won at Waterstone's last month, the fact that this kid keeps saying "I never win anything" is utter rubbish.

£50? And she's FIVE.

I wish I had her luck!

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Darwin Awards: Wascally Wabbit

You can find the original here.

Wascally Wabbit
2008 Darwin Award Nominee
Unconfirmed by Darwin

Snowmobiles and alcohol are a dangerous mix. Then came the rabbit.

After a day spent partying and racing snowmobiles in the wilderness, a group of snowmobilers were headed back to their cabin, when up popped a jackrabbit! The snowmobilers gave chase. Several collisions were narrowly averted, and all the snowmobiles backed off... except one.

This snowmobiler kept his eye on the quarry and rapidly closed in. The rabbit darted aside to save itself. The snowmobiler closed in again. The rabbit ran toward the road, where there was less snow. Trying to ram his rabbit before it crossed the road, the man accelerated to Mach 1.

But the rabbit had other ideas. It darted into the culvert beneath the road. Witnesses stated that the snowmobiler never braked. There was a metallic crunch as the accelerating vehicle rammed into the culvert, followed by a blast that shattered the snowmobile into a thousand bits.

This brand of snowmobile had a fuel tank mounted in front. The culvert admitted the top of the snowmobile, then cut into the cowling, spilling fuel over the hot engine. The body of the snowmobiler was blown twenty feet back into the field.

The rabbit's whereabouts was unknown.

Moderator Bruce speculates, "Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd?"
Alternate title: "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow"

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

stop the madness!!!


I read this today and it just left me shaking my head. What the hell is the world coming to when people actually have to make the decision between being able to eat or go to work?

Ten years ago, when I first started working full-time, gas was less than $2 a gallon - and I remember my mom complaining that it cost too much! Back then, $20 would more than fill my tank. I was able to get back and forth to work for a week on that.

But now it's getting to be twice that, and from what I'm reading, people in the position I was in when I left the U.S. really are in a quandry over whether they eat more than mac 'n cheese for a week or they actually get to go to work. I would think it would be easier for those people that live in big cities or close enough to them to be linked into their public transportation system.

This is one of the reasons that I'm glad we moved here. Comparatively, the public transportation system out here is freaking awesome. I haven't needed to drive since we've been here, so I haven't. I haven't sat behind the wheel of a car in five years. I can walk most places I need to get to (living within walking distance of the town centre helps a lot,though), and those places that are too far to walk to, I can take the bus to instead. Even when Blake and I went to York last year, we walked the 500 yards or so to the Metro station, took that into Newcastle, and took a Virgin train down to York. It was the same on the trip back, but obviously in reverse. I couldn't have taken a trip that far in the U.S. as easily and as cheaply as I did that one.

What America doesn't seem to understand (and never has, really), is that if she had a reliable public transportation system in every city, town, and village, it would all but eliminate the need for cars at all. I'm sure there are some people that would still drive everywhere, just because they could, but I'm just as sure that there are a lot of people out there that wouldn't bother, because they wouldn't need to.

"It's a mess here," Goldstone said. "People just are not shopping and everyone's trying to figure out a way to get people back in their cars."

That right there tells you just how wrong the mindset is. They shouldn't worry about getting people back in their cars - if they had the money, they probably would be. It's about fuel companies asking ridiculous amounts of money and the American infrastructure being such that being without a car in 90% of America is deliberately crippling yourself. Why don't we worry about the poverty crisis or the home mortgage crisis first? I'd be willing to bet that if America worried about things like that first, the gas crisis would solve itself.

Stop worrying that people aren't out shopping or going on trips. Worry about why they're not doing that. And fix the problem, not the symptom.

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