Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 1:12:00 PM.

*just signed up for an eBay account* Yeah, I know, I am way behind the technology curve when it comes to this, but now I am really glad that I signed up. They have some good deals there, if you can find them, and eBay is fun to use. I have been bidding on some radar detectors and DVD's. I lost the bid that closed last night on the Escort Passport 8500 X50. My max bid was $290, but someone else bid "something more" within an hour before it closed, so I decided, well, $10 isn't that much more, so I'll bid $300. The retail value was $339.99, so I figured $300 was the highest I'd go. Once I bid it, I saw it wasn't enough and someone's max bid beat mine. I could of tried $305, but that's too much, so I just stopped bidding at that time. I just found out what the price was that the guy who beat me paid today since the betting was closed and the numerical value of the bets became visible. He bid $300, the same as what I bid, but since he bid it first, he got the deal. I don't really mind since I didn't lose anything bidding.

Today, I am bidding more more stuff, such as the 2nd best radar detector available (best available cordless detector), which has a retail price of $329.99, but right now I am the lead bidder of $204. The betting closes in a day, so I am sure I will be outbid if I do not keep going higher, but we'll see how it goes. I also am bidding on the anime DVD set Evangelion: Perfect Collection. It has a retail value of $129.99, and my current bid is $34.99, a really good deal if no one else bids.

I would have much different feelings on all this bidding if I did not have a job right now. Like, if I screw up, I will be wasting my own money, not my parents. If I was not working I probably would not be doing all of this.

UPDATE: I won the bid on one of the Escort Solo S2's. I had to stay up to right before the bidding closed in order to win. I was in bed at 11:30pm with my laptop making sure I got the last bid in. Props to Kristy for putting up with me not kicking me out :P Staying up was worth it. Like, half of all eBay bids occur in the last 5 minutes or so. Two guys tried to outbid me at T minus 3min and 2min, but I was able to get a bid in within the last minute. w00t! I lost the other radars I was bidding on, which was good, since I did not want to buy more than one radar. So far, I have paid the guy via Paypal, but have not received the item. It should be delivered 2-3 business days after payment, but I paid on Saturday morning, so I have a bit of a wait.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 11:26:00 AM.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 2:03:00 PM.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 1:10:00 PM.

UPDATE: Since yesterday (July 26th) when I first wrote this post, Kristy added commentary. If you just read the black text, the post appears as it did when I first posted it. I made her commentary invisible so you have to highlight the white space with your mouse in the obvious places, it's just more entertaining that way.

Greetings to the readers of Joe's blog. He asked me to read this post for accuracy about the trip to New Orleans that I gave him as a birthday present. Jokingly, I suggested that he allow me to add some guest commentary for authenticity, and, he agreed. It looks like the first phase of my plan to take over everything in Joe's life is complete. Now that I have infiltrated his website, absolute control is within my grasp. (As you can see, one of the many characteristics that Joe and I share is a desire to take over others, and perhaps, the world. [see his post titled Birthday DOOM! for more information.])

Last weekend was the best weekend I have had since I got to Louisiana. The three days were a birthday present from my (Joe left out inadvertently several adjectives such as beautiful, intelligent, beautiful, funny, and beautiful) girlfriend, Kristy. It all started Thursday night when she gave me a wrapped box with that stuffing stuff (otherwise known as tissue paper to people who have a decent grasp of using nouns) in it. I thought she was giving me boxers and socks, since she got that idea for a present stuck in my head. (I am tricky, tricky like that) Instead, two sheets of paper labeled "Romantic Weekend in Historic New Orleans" with an itinerary below the heading consisting of:

Friday, July 23, 2004
2:00pm	Depart from Baton Rouge
4:00pm	Arrive, the Queen and Crescent Hotel in New Orleans
7:00pm	Dinner Jazz Cruise on the Mississippi River, Steamboat Natchez, Toulouse Street Warf
Saturday, July 24, 2004
9:00am	Breakfast at Mena's Palace in the French Quarter
10:00am	Sightseeing, Shopping, and Relaxing, French Quarter and Riverwalk, Downtown New Orleans
2:00pm	Streetcar Ride through Garden District, St. Charles Street.
6:00pm	Dinner at the Red Fish Grill, 115 Bourbon Street.
9:00pm	Harrah's New Orleans Casino, Canal Steer at the River
Sunday, July 25th, 2004
11:00am	Checkout from the Queen and Crescent
12 noon	Sunday Mass, St. Louis Cathedral
1:30pm	Lunch, Pat O'Brien's
3:00pm	Leave for Baton Rouge

*(As you can see, I have the obsessive compulsive need to schedule every second in my life. DON'T JUDGE ME!)

Well, it looked nothing like this. It had lots of graphics and many fleur-de-lis' (she had to satisfy her fleur-de-lis fetish). (I do like fleur-de-lis) This was one of the best birthday presents I have ever received. I was really surprised when I saw it. This trip was the most thoughtful thing a girl has ever done for me. (AAAAAWWWWW!!! Gag me with a spoon)

The cruise was lots of fun. We were able to walk there from our hotel, which in itself was awesome. The Queen and Crescent was in downtown New Orleans so Bourbon St. was two blocks away and the Mississippi was about 20 minutes away. The dinner on the cruise was pretty good. They had very good spinach (Gotta love Joe's attention to detail. Can't you almost taste the spinach? Silly rabbit!). We finished dinner shortly after the cruise started, so we were able to spent most of the cruise above deck watching the sites (such as a huge number of LA's petro-chemical plants, oh, and of course, New Orleans, even saw some homes along the way). One of Kristy's friend's parents lives near where we cruised by, but we never saw them. We got a photo of us on the steamboat with an awesome background: a huge petrol-chemical plant :P How cute. (Really, it wasn't that cute. Some old guy and a huge smoke stack are in the background of our first photo together.)

The next day we got up and ate breakfast at a little, but very good place called Mena's Palace. It had a good breakfast. It cost less than the hotel and had much better quality. Kristy is really easy going when it comes to what to do sometimes. (I guess he is referring to the occasional times when I'm NOT snapping my whip and yelling that we are 3 minutes and 48 seconds off schedule??) We just walked around until we came to a restaurant that looked good, which happened to be one of the first ones. There was only one table left when we got in there; it was a two seat table next to a window. Perfect. After that we walked to the French Quarter. There was a lot of cool stuff for sale there. Kristy went purse shopping there. (He makes it sound like I took four hours to shop for purse! I only looked at three purses while we were walking around and bought one, which took a total of 5 minutes) Apparently, you are supposed to haggle with the people before you buy what you want to buy. Just looking at some of the stuff on the French Market was fun, like the very odd hot sauces. We went to many other stores around that area. I got 4 cans of escargot, 1 can of octopus, and some Cajun seasoning from one of them. Mmmmm... snails and octopi in butter... (Tulips are my favorite flower if you are looking for something to send to the hospital when I go in to get my stomach pumped from eating snails and octopus.)

The streetcar ride down through the Garden District was fun. We got on it near the hotel (we went to the hotel to clean up after walking through the French Quarter). I got to see many old homes in the Garden District. Kristy had this whole day planned out well. She told me a few things about the houses as we went through the streets.

After that, we went to the hotel to change clothes for dinner at the Red Fish Grill, what has been voted the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans for the past 4 years. That was a really nice place, great atmosphere, really good food *blackened red fish with crawfish patties* mmmmmm... Kristy had known a head of time to order a dessert that took 20 minutes to make. (The menu said to order dessert with your entrees because it takes 20 minutes to prepare so I ordered dessert when we ordered our entrees. If that makes me a genius, so be it.) Damn that was chocolaty. :D

Next was Harrah's casino. Kristy does not gamble, (It isn't like I am against gambling, I just can't justify wasting money on little colorful chips when there are so many beautiful pairs of shoes at Dillard's just looking for a good home.) but she brought me there just to see it or to gamble a little. I did very well playing craps at UF, so I figured I would try my luck at Harrah's in craps. I joined the cheapest table ($10 minimum bid), and put in $30 worth of chips. It was just my luck that the person rolling the dice threw a 7, everyone loses. For some reason beyond me, I got $3 back, so I lost $27, a little over an hour and a half's hour of work, in about 10 seconds. I am never going to gamble for money again (except if it is like, against my friends, so then its not so bad if I lose, better my money to go to a friend than a huge casino). (I told him that next time he wants to waste money, we could buy a mini craps table like you see in those cheesy mail-order catalogs. We can play pretend-craps and he can just give his money to me to help the homeless shoes.) Kristy was just like, "I'll sit down you go have fun" when I actually was going to gamble after walking around the casino a few times. Well, that didn't last long. There was one craps table there with a $500 minimum bid. Damn, some people have way too much money to spend. After the casino, we just called it a night and went to bed early. Saw some of "Rush Hour" before going to bed. Sleep was good.

The next day we got up, had breakfast at the hotel to save some time. Went to mass at St. Lous Cathedral. It was huge. We had some time to spare before we got there so we walked around Jackson Square. We got our picture taken in the square with the cathedral as a backdrop. It turned out really well. (But it would not have turned out so well if we had done that stupid "prom pose" that Joe wanted to do. No one does that pose except at prom. What are we, in eighth grade?). After mass we went to Pat O's for lunch. I had some really good shrimp Creole while Kristy had some shrimp pasta. After a nice walk back to the hotel we checked out. When we got Kristy's SUV back from the valet, we noticed my radar detector was stolen. No one but the valet had the keys and there was no damage to the car. I filed a complaint and will be talking to a manager about it this evening. Everything else though had been great this weekend. I am really happy with Kristy's birthday present. (Watch out, friends of Joe. The brainwashing is almost complete. You won't even recognize him when I get through [insert evil laugh here…Muwah Hah Hah])

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 9:47:00 AM.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 7:06:00 AM.

I, Robot, a great movie and a huge success for Will Smith, has a theme of why communism will never work.

I, Robot showed that people were not happy when their lives were controlled. That is what VIKI wanted; that is what happens under communism. When everyone's lives became controlled, they revolted. Our free will does not allow communism to work. That is why the USSR failed. That is why all nations that follow in their footsteps will fail. I, Robot was not only an awesome movie, but a triumph for capitalism.

Here is some proof from the movie to back up what I have said (aka: "References" section of some sort)
1) VIKI wanted to protect all humans from harm by forcing them to do as she commanded. She thought she knew better than all people on how to run everyone's lives. The communist party took over Russia thinking that they could orchestrate everyone's lives better than the people could themselves, and by doing so, create pure equality.

2) VIKI wanted to put an end to war by controlling all nations and thus protecting humans from harm in battle. The God given sprit of free will that each human possesses prevents us from being happy when every aspect of our lives is controlled, even if that control prevents us from engaging in war. The goal of communism appeared to be to take over the world, as the USSR extended its influence over Asia. Because of the USSR's influence, many Asian nations, most notably China, Vietnam, and part of Korea, became communist. VIKI and the USSR had the same goal.

3) The corporation that VIKI was a part of was called USR. Its similarity in acronym to the USSR is obvious.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 12:14:00 PM.

The Washington Times reports:
Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday.

The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said.

They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation.

The sources said al-Douri, who is related to former Vice Chairman of the Iraq Revolution Council and Saddam's right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was captured after Iraqi police intercepted an e-mail message in which he set a meeting with another former Baath official.

The report could not be authenticated by the interior ministry or the national security department, but the paper noted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari made a surprise request recently to Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resume inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Found this via Blogs for Bush

UPDATE: The US government has denied that there were 3 nuclear warheads in Iraq. *sigh* I am tired of having our government play the final round of "hide the nuclear warhead" with Saddam. Btw, has anyone heard any news of the US trying to interrogate him? It's just a feeling, but I think he knows information that would be of benefit to the US.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 11:10:00 AM.

Article: Unfairenheit 9/11
I really hope every American knows that Fairenheit 9/11 was filled with lies and half-truths. I have seen people that have taken Moore's "work" at face value making no effort to question him. This article does a great job of exposing them. Here are a few excerpts:

Moore portrays Bush as lazy, taking too many vacations. He shows a shot of him "relaxing at Camp David" side by side with Tony Blair. But the photograph is on-screen so briefly that if you sneeze or blink, you won't recognize the other figure. A meeting with the prime minister of the United Kingdom, or at least with this prime minister, is not a goof-off.

"More interesting is the moment where Bush is shown frozen on his chair at the infant school in Florida, looking stunned and useless for seven whole minutes after the news of the second plane on 9/11. Many are those who say that he should have leaped from his stool, adopted a Russell Crowe stance, and gone to work. I could even wish that myself. But if he had done any such thing then (as he did with his "Let's roll" and "dead or alive" remarks a month later), half the Michael Moore community would now be calling him a man who went to war on a hectic, crazed impulse. The other half would be saying what they already say -- that he knew the attack was coming, was using it to cement himself in power, and couldn't wait to get on with his coup."

"Moore asserts that Iraq under Saddam had never attacked or killed or even threatened (his words) any American. I never quite know whether Moore is as ignorant as he looks, or even if that would be humanly possible... Saddam boasted publicly of his financial sponsorship of suicide bombers in Israel. (Quite a few Americans of all denominations walk the streets of Jerusalem.)... In 1993, a certain Mr. Yasin helped mix the chemicals for the bomb at the World Trade Center and then skipped to Iraq, where he remained a guest of the state until the overthrow of Saddam." Where not Americans at the 1993 World Trade Center bombing?

"Moore goes into great detail to expain Bush's close relationship to the Saudis." Then why did Moore's evil Saudis not join "the Coalition of the Willing"? Why instead did they force the United States to switch its regional military headquarters to Qatar? There is no "close" relationship.

The entire article goes much more in depth and brings up many more points.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 9:51:00 AM.

We all know of Stephen Hawking. He is the guy that pioneered the understanding of black holes -- the matter-consuming vortexes created when stars collapse -- in the mid-1970s. The problem that faced him back then was where matter and energy went when they entered a black hole. His theory was that the matter and energy is brought into a parallel universe.

Now he has a new theory. The black hole eventually dies and the matter and energy is released back into our universe. Hawking: "It is great to solve a problem that has been troubling me for nearly 30 years, even though the answer is less exciting than the alternative I suggested." Some "Star Trek" fans have become depressed to learn that parallel universes no longer exist.

I think I can speak for everyone (yeah right...) when I say we will all miss no longer having the possibility of traveling to parallel universes via a black hole. But I guess on the plus side, if you ever are sucked into a black hole, you can have the comfort of knowing you will be spitted back out once the black hole dies, but in a horribly mutilated state, probably in the state of a tiny dot less than the size of a tick, while mashed together with random objects, like a crushed hocky stick sticking out of your ass.

Hawking has previously insisted that the holes emit radiation but never cough up any trace of matter consumed, a view that conflicts with subatomic theory and its view that matter can never be completely destroyed.

Source: CNN Science and Technology

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 6:32:00 AM.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 2:59:00 PM.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 8:16:00 PM.

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 9:42:00 AM.

The Most Useless Test Ever

Which Annoying Internet Entity Are You?

What Invisible Thing Are You?

Belched up with tidings of comfort and joy by Joe at 2:39:00 PM.