Web Sites I Like

Here is a list of many of my favorite web sites, and what I like about them. I will update this list from time to time.

Humor

• Overheard in New York
• Overheard in the office
  
• The Onion News Parody
• Late Night Joke Archive Leno, Letterman, and more without the hassle of watching them.
• Tom Tomorrow
• Political Cartoons collected from all over the world.
• Bore Me The best from your inbox. All those silly jokes, pixs, vids, etc in one place.
• Post Secret ... strange...
• Watley Review - almost believable fake news.
• Dumbass Daily - News from the shallow end of the gene pool (NSFW!)
• Timothy McSweeny Lists - Intelligent humor
• ZUG - Great pranks and scam-the-scammer stunts.
  

News

• BBC World News
• Watching America What the rest of the world's press is printing about us.
• North Korea News "Dear Leader's" official mouthpiece from the hermit kingdom. I don't know to laugh or cry. These guys are truly out to lunch. I would have this under "Humor" if they didn't have nukes.
• Ananova Quirkies - Real stupidty and truely offbeat news.
• CNN Offbeat - Offbeat news... strange and weird
  

Science

• MIT Optical Illusions
• Scientific American
• How Stuff Works - Ever wondered how something works? Here are the answers.
  

Travel

• World Time Server Easy to find the time anywhere on earth - or to coordinate future phone calls.
• TerraServer USA USGS satellite photos. See your house from space!
  
• Google Maps with satellite photos. Great tool!
• Google Earth - Go anywhere on the planet in 3-d. Wow!
  

Shopping

• Epinions Lots of feedback from real customers of everything!

Entertainment

• IMDb The ultimate source of info about any movie.
• Number Stations , Conet Project Shortwave signal stations, espionage, & secret signals
• The Gallery of Transport Loss These guys insure cargo ships & planes. Lots of photos & vid-clips. For those who fly, or operate boats, you will love this.
  

Blogs I Like

The blogsphere keeps getting bigger and better. Here I list some of the blogs that I enjoy following, and why. I will add to this list from time to time as I discover new blogs I feel are worth the time to read.

• SV Sandpiper my brother! :-)
  
• Rantings of a Sand Monkey An intelligent Egyptian with a wry sense of humor
  
• Little Green Footballs political - calls it as he sees it
• Right Thinking from the Left Coast political - A sane voice!
  
• Syria Exposed A Syrian who sees through the BS
• E-nough! French/American relations
  
• Drew Curtis' FARK.com Fantastic, funny, and interesting little news stories every day
  

Going home!

Got my airline tix's today! Flying home Aug 19. Have to fly back Sept 4, Labor Day Weekend. I get to stop in Tokyo both ways. I don't think I will have time to get into the city. Should be something different. I've never been there before.

I went though work's travel agent and they quoted me $11,800 AUD! Yes, over ten thousand dollars to fly between Perth and Los Angeles. I called my local travel rep and she got me a flight for $2200 AUD, about $1700 USD. Much better.

Also got a letter from the landlord. They are letting me stay for two more months. But they want me out by Aug 23, two days after I leave to LA. So I guess I will have to move house before I take off. I'm looking forward to this trip. Yea!

I'm not bored. Honest

Well it seems that my helpful contribution to the world in regards to publishing the discount cross-reference in the Entertainment Guide is unappreciated. *sob*

So I think an expanded rebuttal is in order to the questions posted by my sister:
1) You have waaaaay too much time on your hands and your hobby of collecting European leader bobbleheads isn't really paying off like you thought it would.

You know... I just thought they were gonna be the next Beanie Babies. Who knew?

2) You have difficulty sleeping and don't get porn pay channels on the cable box.

No. There is no porn here in Western Australia. The don't offer it cause it isn't legal. You can't even go buy porn mags that are more explicit than a Victoria's Secret catalog. The only thing you can do is mail order it from companies based in the capital of Australia, the ACT, where it is legal.

However, there are plenty of brothels in Perth, and Australia for that matter. They are not illegal here. They are not technically legal. They just are not illegal. They have been de-criminalized. They are rather large businesses and are well known and perfectly accepted as just another business in town.

So one has to wonder why a man can't buy a dirty mag, but can visit a brothel. I think it has to do with the labor unions, and the past labor oriented governments. The bottom line is, they don't want anyone doing anything that doesn't require at least one person getting employment from it.

Just like you can't buy a newspaper from a news rack. You have to find a news-shop and buy the paper there, from a human. You can't buy stamps from a vending machine. You have to stand in line and buy them from a clerk at the post office. It all means that every transaction involves two people. The customer and the vendor.

One thing that has me puzzled is why they let Aussies pump their own fuel. Why don't they have laws like in Oregon that requires a teenage pump monkey to do the job for you. Perhaps they just have not thought of it yet.

3) You have undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder and this sort of activity is "soothing" to you.

You ain't far from the truth there. :-) Actually, I'm just a cheap bastard. I don't like saving only 25% when I know I could have saved 50%.

4) You have lost your job, are too embarrassed to admit it to your family and friends, and just made this list to keep you busy and make sure your Excel skills stay sharp.

I wish. I would love a break.

Babies

Last week I hooked up with Louise for breakfast in Cottesloe. Since she is not working right now, it is pretty easy to talk her into going out, as long as she doesn't pay. It was nice to catch up with her.

On our way into the cafe, she ran into a friend of her's who just had a baby. The new mother had the baby in a pram (baby carriage) all wrapped up from the chill. Since I know nothing about kids and babies, I said nothing as Louise cooed and did all the "what a beautiful baby" stuff. Finally, I figured it would be impolite of me to not at least acknowledge the kid. So I asked the mom, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

The mom just looked at me in silence for a minute. She blinked her eyes in shock and said "Boy babies had penises and girl babies have vaginas. Can't you tell it is a boy? It That is why I put a blanket with blue dots on it. If it was a girl, I would have used a pink blanket."

Well excuse me for not undressing your kid to determine the gender. Yes, I know how girls and boys are different. True, I had not noticed the subtle color difference in the blanket. I try to not make assumptions based on stereotypes, so even if I had noticed, I would not have assumed anything more than it was simply a blue blanket. Perhaps next time you take the baby out, draw a beard and mustache on him so you won't be offended by questions like mine.

Louise aplologized for me later. She explained that her friend is a medical doctor and throws terms about like 'penis' and 'vagina' like nothing. Plus, she is a new mom, which I assume means they are hyper-sensitive about anything that might be interpreted as negative about their baby. Perhaps she interpreted my question as "Your baby boy sure is feminate!"

One more reason to avoid people with babies. Frankly, I don't care what their gender is. They are all the same for the first year any how. Nothing but screaming poop machines. And they look really old and weird too.

I guess there is some truth to the old joke: "Q: Why are babies so cute? A: So you won't kill them".