Pepper Spray or Catwoman?

These two got pepper sprayed after refusing an off-duty officer's request that they hang up their phone as the movie began.

Imagine the smart ones...

If these guys were clever enough to steal brand new 70 cars worth $1.8 mil but stupid enough to park them all at a housing project, then imagine what kind of damage real criminals can do with identity theft. 

Terrorists to disrupt elections?

What are they going to do?  Find the seven people who plan to bother voting and prevent them from voting?

All they would do is cause us to want to vote more.  We don't care, until we're told we can't do something.   Then we'll prove we can. 

We're big, but we're slow... until we get prodded.   Kind of like a lumbering bear, I guess.

Money Might Have Decreased 9/11's Impact

This is an amazing minute by minute account of the morning of 9/11/2001 and how things could have been different.

Big A** Bumper Cars

In Charlotte, NC, vandals broke into the lot where the city's 130 garbage trucks are kept. Turns out Charlotte leaves the keys in the trucks. Bad Charlotte. So the vandals used the trucks like bumper cars, running them into each other. Twenty-two trucks were put entirely out of commission while another ten trucks suffered minor damage.  Where was this lot that no one noticed (saw or heard)  large diesel vehicles revving up, accelerating and crashing into one another?  (According to the article, many municipalities leave the keys in the trucks.)

Another James Lamb who is not me

Here's a James Lamb who's a sexual predator being held in a "hospital" now that his prison time is up. Some "inmates" are suing saying their constitutional rights are being violated by being held and that the incarceration is cruel because there's only one TV and one phone. But, they have access to adult porn...

James Lamb, Dad of Three

Ok, I'll stop claiming all these other people are me. But here's a James Lamb in Newcastle, Wyoming with two toddlers and a third kid on the way. (He knows what causes that, right?)

The funniest thing is that Mr. James Lamb is mentioned in the third paragraph, but then never quoted or mentioned again.

And on the eighth day, God created Lego...

Here's a church made entirely of legos. The designer has made some other cool stuff, too, but she doesn't link from that site, so here's a link to her other projects. Her favorite cat died on the day she completed construction, so she dedicated the project to her cat, which makes it more confusing than it really is.

Now you can talk to snobs from the comfort of your own home...

Man, the state of dating these days is kinda scary. I'm glad I'm not still out there.

Funny Advertising of the Week

I have to laugh at the advertising campaign for True.com, a dating service. The whole message of their campaign is that only single, non-felon-type people can be found in their date pool. But their campaign is so aggresively negative, that it just seems to put down the entire online dating concept and does a dis-service to their own brand. (Secondary complaint, they should have a pulldown or a checkbox where the user indicates their single-ness... more than just that it's part of the rules and that they prosecute people, there should be a specific "I state that I am single." checkbox. Or "Married? Try one of these other services where they don't seem to care." with links to other sites like Match.com or Yahoo!Personals where it's common knowledge that everyone is looking to have an affair.


To me, it's the same as the ads as the ads for Washington Mutual which tries to use people acting stupidly as a vehicle for humor but just ends up making it appear that all Washington Mutual customers and employees are idiots. (From my experience, you would have to be a fool to choose Washington Screwual over any other bank -- at least in this state -- but I don't think that's the message they're trying to convey.)

Fire Cheney

I guess there has been some talk of Cheney being left off the ticket.  That would be great.  link above

Monrovia, 30 years later

This PDF (link above) is a really cool look at what the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency has accomplished since it was established 30 years ago.  I find this stuff very interesting.  This is where I would be interested in going if I made a career change.

Day One Summary

Well, I walked about 5-1/2 miles today.  It was about 93 degrees out. When I got back, I weighed myself and weighed 5 pounds less than before I left.  Guess I sweated off some water weight.  Today I had two blueberry muffins and juice for breakfast, didn't really have lunch.  Had juice, split some ice cream with Lori, had some trail mix at the movies.  Had nachos with several glasses of milk for dinner and some more juice.  I also had some lettuce today.  I think it will work as a way to make myself full between meals.  I also did a bunch of jumping jacks.

Sprint PCS weenies

Places Sprint PCS has recently sucked include Indianapolis and St. Louis

Oh, the humanity

Stupid me, went and had a physical today.  It had been 5 years since my last one and we could lose our really awesome coverage if Lori leaves her current job, so I figured 'what the heck'.
 
I have tendonitis in my finger.  Looking online, it doesn't sound as scary.  I'll start icing the finger and trying to limit its use.
 
But, I'm also 20 pounds overweight.  Which incredibly sucks.  I mean, I knew I needed to lose weight and I knew that the weight just wasn't coming off.  But now I have a number.  So, a number becomes a goal.  And with that goal, I guess it's time to start cutting myself off.  Of course, that's just going to make me a whiney martyr.  I need to do it smartly, though, so I don't (a) put it right back on or (b) fail miserably.   I think the first step is to define what is now off-limits, for you all to see.
 
I currently weigh 197.  I will start by eliminating all of the following.  As the weight comes off, I will start slowly reintroducing some items because to go permanent cold turkey on all of this will kill me.
 
I am going to research some of the popular diet fads and pick and choose what I like.  Definitely more fruits and vegetables, far less sugars, and less breads.  (But not entirely no bread because there's nothing suckier than a hamburger patty you have to eat with a fork.) 
 
Lots more 100% juice.  Plain lettuce as a snacky item.   Dressing on the side when having salads at restaurants.  Fewer items from the Wendy's 99 cent menu.  No soft drinks period for the first 10 pounds and only diet soft drinks for the second 10 pounds.  Exercise.  Exercise had already been a component, but for some reason, not doing a whole lot for me.  I think it's been a combination of the weather and the baby.  I'd not been riding every day and I am way behind on push-ups and sit-ups, though nearly caught up on jumping jacks.
 
The only way this is gonna work is if I'm accountable.  So, I'm going to be accountable to you, my internet audience.  My internet audience may number in the 1's, but my wife doesn't help my diet.  She lost weight while pregnant and has lost a lot since the pregnancy, and she's the one that introduced dessert after meals as a common thing.  (It was very rare, growing up.)
 
Another problem for me will be the snacky bad for me items around the house.  I think I'm going to have to ask my wife to sequester them to a single cabinet.  That way, it will be easier for me to mentally say "This cabinet is off-limits."
 
This is really a bummer for me.  Sweets are one of the few pleasures.  Sure, I enjoy my family, I enjoy my job.  Sunsets look nice.  Books, magazines and movies can be entertaining.  But I control this.  I put something into my mouth and it's a burst of pleasure.   I really enjoy the taste of many things and now I'm going to have to deny myself one of the true on-demand pleasures.  This sucks, sucks, sucks.
 
Time for a walk to the grocery store to buy lettuce.  Not sure if we need it, but it's a long ways from here.  Wish it weren't so hot out.

It's none of your business how many bars I have.

I could have sworn that I already complained on here about this advertising campaign... AT&T Wireless and their dumb "How many bars do you have?" TV campaign.

People with AT&T Wireless walk around with four blue bars above their heads and some other people with gray bars, usually 1 or 2, are shouting into their phones. So one of the AT&T Wireless people offers their phone to the non-AT&T Wireless person so that they can complete their call without shouting or being disconnected.

Question... how come the people with AT&T Wireless are never using their phones?

I suppose AT&T Wireless could claim that their customers had already completed their calls. But I think it's something different... people with AT&T Wireless realize that four bars does not a usable phone make. I mean, I had Sprint PCS and had four bars all the time and the phone was just plain unusable. I think when I had AT&T Wireless before that I often had many bars, but often a nice staticky call.

And, it's my experience that there would be far more gray bars and far less blue bars. I probably know 3 people with AT&T Wireless and 50+ people with some other company's service.

Of course, nothing sucks more than the suckiness that is the suckage known as Sprint PCS. In fact, it was recently noted that Sprint PCS sucks in Atlanta, New York, Tampa and Baltimore, to name a few.

Fore!

I, James Lamb, have apparently created a rather nice golf training course, and in grand English tradition, named all the holes.

Funny Advertising of the Week

I'll have the ad banners themselves later, but I have to laugh at the advertising campaign for True.com, a dating service. The whole message of their campaign is that only single, non-felon-type people can be found in their date pool. But their campaign is so aggresively negative, that it just seems to put down the entire online dating concept and does a dis-service to their own brand. (Secondary complaint, they should have a pulldown or a checkbox where the user indicates their single-ness... more than just that it's part of the rules and that they prosecute people, there should be a specific "I state that I am single." checkbox. Or "Married? Try one of these other services where they don't seem to care." with links to other sites like Match.com or Yahoo!Personals where it's common knowledge that everyone is looking to have an affair.

To me, it's the same as the ads as the ads for Washington Mutual which tries to use people acting stupidly as a vehicle for humor but just ends up making it appear that all Washington Mutual customers and employees are idiots. (From my experience, you would have to be a fool to choose Washington Screwual over any other bank -- at least in this state -- but I don't think that's the message they're trying to convey.)

Drinking and Shotguns in Your Pants Don't Mix

That was the headline I saw on MSNBC.com. The story is exactly as it says but I just thought that the headline was pretty classic.

Treat an animal better and they're tastier

An interesting article about a woman who's been crusading for better conditions for animals at slaughterhouses. Pretty cool. Turns out her work results in better tasting animals.

Democratic Ticket... What Can I Say?

1

2

It's so hard to choose... Ok, I won't choose.

1. I knew they were the party supporting same-sex marriage, but c'mon...
2. "I vant to suck your bluuuuud. mwahahaha."
3. Any second now, "Dreamweaver" begins to play.
4. Any second now, some 60's disco song begins to play and lights begin to flash.
5. Get a room.

I died.

How sad. RIP, James Lamb.

Is Outsourcing the Way of the Future?

With the amazing stuff JPL has been doing lately, why not rename it NASA and fire everyone at the other, old, cruddy NASA? (link above)

Michael Moore is fat

After reading all the inaccuracies in his new movie (Newsweek), it was just confirmation of my belief that he was a moron. But, then I read the two articles in Entertainment Weekly and I feel like I have a more rounded (ha) appreciation for the big man. But I am annoyed that he didn't work harder on this movie. But much props for Canadian Bacon. His next movie should be about what happens when he says no every time someone asks him if he wants to supersize it.

Traffic worsening

Ok, so not exactly news (link above), but 55% say traffic is worse and 33% say "much worse." One in 20 uses mass transit nationwide, but in the mid-East, it's one in eight, meaning that it's much worse out here in the west. It may be because we're spread out, but it's also because we don't have enough usable mass-transit. And because every time a new section of rail is opened, a union goes on strike and everyone pledges to spend money on roads instead next time because roads can't go on strike. (I wonder if they don't strike in the east because over there it's vital and over here it's just an afterthought and only low-income people* are affected.)

(*I know that's somewhat stereotypical, but there is some factual information about the income levels of people who ride trains and especially busses in this area.)

Oops, they did it again

Sold... every AOL member's screen name, real name, address and the type of credit card (not the card # or expiration date) -- link above. The employee that did it even had to pretend to be someone else to get as much access as he did.

War on Terror Unwinable?

Amazing interview (link above) with someone who used to be pretty high up in the CIA.