...

All right, I just realized my past 4 entries have all contained 11:11 in some capacity.
Nothing to say, I just noticed it. Perhaps it's time to call the men in the white coats.

MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS..

I missed an entire work week because of the ice and snow.. as a result I have over a grand
less than a normal month, THIS MONTH. Cabin fever.. increasing... urge to kill.. rising!
Why do we have these stupid fucking holidays anymore? Does anyone still like them?
To me, they are to be treated like natural disasters, tornadoes and the like.
I tend to lock myself inside with plenty of stimulus, food and drink, and just wait it out.
Jingle bells might as well be air raid sirens to this guy. Bah humbug.

FUUUUUCK.

HAPPY 11:11!!!!

Perhaps Happy isn't the right word, but in generic holiday fashion it will serve for now.
I wasted my day on stupid shit and didn't even buy a lottery ticket. Fuck me.

November 11

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<<	November 2008					>>
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30
MMVIII

November 11 in recent years

2008 (Tuesday)

2007 (Sunday)

2006 (Saturday)

2005 (Friday)

2004 (Thursday)

2003 (Tuesday)

2002 (Monday)

2001 (Sunday)

2000 (Saturday)

November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 50 days remaining until the end of the year.

Contents [hide] 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances 5 External links

[edit] Events

• 308 - The Congress of Carnuntum: Attempting to keep peace within the Roman Empire, the leaders of the Tetrarchy declare Maxentius and Licinius to be Augusti, while rival contender Constantine I is declared Caesar of Britain and Gaul.
• 1215 - The Fourth Lateran Council meets, defining the doctrine of transubstantiation, the process by which bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
• 1500 - Treaty of Granada - Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
• 1620 - In what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod, the Mayflower Compact is signed on the Mayflower, establishing the basic laws for the Plymouth Colony. (Old Style date; November 21 per New Style date.)
• 1634 - Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery".
• 1673 - Second Battle of Khotyn in Ukraine, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski. defeat the Ottoman army. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz were successfully used.
• 1675 - Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x).
• 1724 - Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, a highwayman known for attacking "Thief-Taker General" (and thief) Jonathan Wild at the Old Bailey, is hanged in London.
• 1750 - The F.H.C. Society, also known as the Flat Hat Club, was formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the first college fraternity.
• 1778 - Cherry Valley Massacre: an attack by Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces on a fort and village in eastern New York during the American Revolutionary War, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.
• 1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Dürenstein - 8000 French troops attempted to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force.
• 1831 - In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising.
• 1839 - The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.
• 1865 - Treaty of Sinchula is signed in which Bhutan ceded the areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.
• 1880 - Australian Bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
• 1887 - Anarchist Haymarket Martyrs August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed.
• 1887 - Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal starts at Eastham.
• 1889 - Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.
• 1911 - Many cities in the U.S. Midwest broke their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through. (see The 11/11/11 cold wave).
• 1918 - World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France. The war officially stops at 11:00 (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) this is annually honoured with two-minutes of silence.
• 1918 - Józef Piłsudski comes to Warsaw and assumes supreme military power in Poland. Poland regains its independence.
• 1918 - Emperor Charles I of Austria relinquishes power.
• 1919 - The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the IWW.
• 1919 - Lāčuplēšu day - Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence.
• 1921 - The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
• 1924 - Prime Minister Alexandros Papanastasiou proclaims the first Greek Republic.
• 1926 - U.S. Route 66 is established.
• 1930 - Patent number US1781541 was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.
• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Taranto - The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
• 1940 - The German cruiser Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan.
• 1940 - Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in U.S. Midwest.
• 1942 - World War II: Nazi Germany completed their occupation of France.
• 1960 - A military coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was crushed.
• 1962 - Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.
• 1965 - In Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), the white-minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declares independence.
• 1966 - NASA launches spaceship Gemini 12.
• 1967 - Vietnam War: In a propaganda ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, three American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong and turned over to "new left" antiwar activist Tom Hayden.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal was to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
• 1968 - A second republic is declared in the Maldives.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.
• 1975 - Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam and commissions Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister, and announces a general election to be held in early December.
• 1992 - The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
• 2000 - In Kaprun, Austria, 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel.
• 2001 - Journalists Pierre Billaud, Johanne Sutton and Volker Handloik are killed in Afghanistan during an attack on the convoy they were traveling on top of.
• 2004 - New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.
• 2004 - Yasser Arafat is confirmed dead by the Palestine Liberation Organization, of unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.
• 2006 - The New Zealand war memorial monument was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.

[edit] Births

• 995 - Gisela of Swabia, Holy Roman Empire Empress (d. 1041)
• 1050 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1106)
• 1154 - King Sancho I of Portugal (d. 1212)
• 1155 - King Alfonso VIII of Castile (d. 1214)
• 1220 - Alphonse of Toulouse, son of Louis VIII of France (d. 1271)
• 1493 - Paracelsus, doctor (d. 1541)
• 1493 - Bernardo Tasso, Italian poet (d. 1569)
• 1569 - Martin Ruland the Younger, German physician and alchemist (d. 1611)
• 1599 - Prince Octavio Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, Austrian field marshal (d. 1656)
• 1599 - Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, Queen of Sweden (d. 1655)
• 1633 - George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, British statesman (d. 1695)
• 1668 - Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar and bibliographer (d. 1736)
• 1743 - Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist (d. 1828)
• 1744 - Abigail Adams, First Lady of the United States (d. 1818)
• 1748 - King Charles IV of Spain (d. 1819)
• 1791 - Josef Munzinger, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1855)
• 1792 - Mary Anne Evans, English wife of Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1872)
• 1821 - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (d. 1881)
• 1836 - Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American poet and novelist (d. 1907)
• 1852 - Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1925)
• 1858 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian painter (d. 1884)
• 1863 - Paul Signac, French painter (d. 1935)
• 1864 - Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1921)
• 1869 - Gaetano Bresci, Italian-American anarchist (d. 1901)
• 1869 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (d. 1947)
• 1872 - David I. Walsh, 46^th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1947)
• 1882 - King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (d. 1973)
• 1883 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (d. 1969)
• 1885 - George Smith Patton, Jr., American general (d. 1945)
• 1887 - Roland Young, American actor (d. 1953)
• 1891 - Rabbit Maranville, American baseball player (d. 1954)
• 1898 - Rene Clair, French film director (d. 1981)
• 1899 - Pat O'Brien, American film actor (d. 1983)
• 1900 - Halina Konopacka, Polish athlete (d. 1989)
• 1901 - F. Van Wyck Mason, American author (d. 1978)
• 1901 - Magda Goebbels, wife of Nazi minister of propaganda, Josef Goebbels (d. 1945)
• 1901 - Sam Spiegel, Austrian-born American film producer (d. 1985)
• 1904 - Alger Hiss, American government official and spy (d. 1996)
• 1904 - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
• 1909 - Robert Ryan, American actor (d. 1973)
• 1912 - Thomas C. Mann, American diplomat (d. 1999)
• 1914 - Howard Fast, American author (d. 2003)
• 1914 - Henry Wade, American lawyer (d. 2001)
• 1915 - William Proxmire, American politician (d. 2005)
• 1918 - Stubby Kaye, American comic actor (d. 1997)
• 1919 - Kalle Päätalo, Finnish novelist (d. 2000)
• 1920 - Roy Jenkins, British politician (d. 2003)
• 1921 - Terrell Bell, American politician (d. 1996)
• 1922 - Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist (d. 2007)
• 1925 - June Whitfield, British comedian
• 1925 - Jonathan Winters, American comedian and actor
• 1926 - Harry Lumley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1998)
• 1927 - Mose Allison, American jazz pianist and singer
• 1928 - Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer
• 1928 - Gracita Morales, Spanish actress (d. 1995)
• 1929 - Hans Magnus Enzensberger, German writer
• 1929 - LaVern Baker, American singer (d. 1997)
• 1930 - Hank Garland, American guitar virtuoso (d. 2004)
• 1930 - Hugh Everett, American physicist (d. 1982)
• 1930 - Vernon Handley, English conductor
• 1934 - Jim Perry, Canadian-American television personality.
• 1936 - Jack Keller, American songwriter (d. 2005)
• 1937 - Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat
• 1938 - Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater
• 1938 - Haruhiro Yamashita, Japanese gymnast
• 1939 - Denise Alexander, American actress
• 1940 - Barbara Boxer, American politician
• 1941 - Jesse Colin Young, American singer and songwriter (The Youngbloods)
• 1943 - Doug Frost, Australian swimming coach
• 1944 - Kemal Sunal,Turkish actor
• 1945 - Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua
• 1945 - Vince Martell, American guitarist (Vanilla Fudge)
• 1946 - Chris Dreja, British musician (The Yardbirds)
• 1946 - Al Holbert, American race car driver and team owner (d. 1988}
• 1950 - Mircea Dinescu, Romanian poet
• 1950 - Jim Peterik, American musician and songwriter (Survivor)
• 1950 - Ed Ordynski, Australian rally driver
• 1951 - Kim Peek, American megasavant
• 1951 - Marc Summers, American game show host
• 1953 - Marshall Crenshaw, American musician
• 1953 - Andy Partridge, English musician (XTC)
• 1953 - Kostas Skandalidis, Greek politician
• 1954 - Mary Gaitskill, American novelist
• 1955 - Dave Alvin, American songwriter and guitarist
• 1958 - Luz Casal, Spanish singer
• 1958 - Carlos Lacamara, Cuban-born American Actor
• 1959 - Lee Haney, American bodybuilder
• 1960 - Chuck Hernandez, American baseball coach
• 1960 - Peter Parros, American actor
• 1960 - Stanley Tucci, American actor and director
• 1961 - Jan Kuehnemund, American guitarist
• 1962 - Mic Michaeli, Swedish keyboardist
• 1962 - Demi Moore, American actress
• 1962 - James Morrison, Australian musician
• 1964 - Anabel Alonso, Spanish actress
• 1964 - Calista Flockhart, American actress
• 1965 - Max Mutchnick, American TV writer and producer
• 1966 - Alison Doody, Irish actress
• 1967 - Gil de Ferran, Brazilian race car driver
• 1968 - David L. Cook, American singer and comedian
• 1969 - Carson Kressley, American television personality
• 1969 - Kristen Wilson, American actress
• 1970 - Lee Battersby, Australian author
• 1971 - Jennifer Celotta, American TV producer and writer
• 1971 - Paul Chaloner, English TV e-sports commentator
• 1972 - Adam Beach, Canadian actor
• 1972 - Tyler Christopher, American actor
• 1972 - Leslie Mann, American actress
• 1973 - Jason White, American musician (Green Day)
• 1974 - Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor
• 1974 - Static Major, American singer (d. 2008)
• 1974 - Wajahatullah Wasti, Pakistani cricketer
• 1975 - Angelica Vale Mexican actress
• 1976 - Lisa Gleave, American actress and model
• 1976 - Jason Grilli, American baseball player
• 1976 - Jesse F. Keeler, Canadian musician
• 1977 - Ben Hollioake, English cricketer (d. 2002)
• 1977 - Maniche, Portuguese footballer
• 1978 - Lou Vincent, New Zealand cricketer
• 1980 - Willie Parker, American football player
• 1981 - Natalie Glebova, Russian/Canadian beauty pageant contestant
• 1981 - Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
• 1983 - Brittny Gastineau, American socialite
• 1983 - Matt Garza, American baseball player
• 1983 - Philipp Lahm, German footballer
• 1984 - Hilton Armstrong, American basketball player
• 1985 - Jessica Sierra, American singer
• 1985 - Robin Uthappa, Indian cricketer
• 1986 - François Trinh-Duc, French rugby player
• 1987 - Yuya Tegoshi, Japanese singer (NEWS, Tegomass)
• 1988 - Alexandra Kyle, American actress
• 1989 - Reina Tanaka, Japanese pop singer (Morning Musume)
• 1991 - Christa B. Allen, American actress
• 1992 - Trey Smith, American actor

[edit] Deaths

• 397 - Martin of Tours, French saint
• 405 - Arsacius, intruding archbishop of Constantinople
• 537 - Pope Silverius, saint
• 826 - Theodore the Studite, saint (b. 759)
• 865 - Petronas the Patrician, Byzantine General
• 1623 - Philippe de Mornay, French writer (b. 1549)
• 1638 - Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, Dutch painter (b. 1562)
• 1675 - Guru Teg Bahadur Ji, 9th sikh guru (b. 1621)
• 1686 - Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French general (b. 1621)
• 1686 - Otto von Guericke, German scientist, inventor, and politician (b. 1602)
• 1724 - Joseph Blake (alias Blueskin), English highwayman (executed) (b. c. 1700)
• 1812 - Platon Levshin, Metropoitan of Moscow (b. 1737)
• 1831 - Nat Turner, American slave rebel (b. 1800)
• 1855 - Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
• 1862 - James Madison Porter, American politician (b. 1793)
• 1880 - Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger (hanged) (b. c. 1855)
• 1880 - Lucretia Mott, American feminist and abolitionist (b. 1793)
• 1884 - Alfred Brehm German zoologist (b. 1827)
• 1887 - Haymarket defendants:
  • - George Engel (b. 1836)
  • - Adolph Fischer (b. 1858)
  • - Albert Parsons (b. 1848)
  • - August Spies (b. 1855)
• 1917 - Liliuokalani of Hawaii, Queen of Hawaii (b. 1838)
• 1918 - George Lawrence Price, Canadian soldier, last person to be killed in W.W.I. (b. 1892)
• 1931 - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
• 1938 - Typhoid Mary, carrier of the typhoid disease (b. 1869)
• 1939 - Jan Opletal, Czech student, victim of Nazi violence in Prague (b. 1915)
• 1945 - Jerome Kern, American composer (b. 1885)
• 1972 - Berry Oakley, Bass Player and founder, Allman Brothers Band (b. 1948)
• 1973 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player (b. 1915)
• 1973 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
• 1974 - Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (b. 1894)
• 1976 - Alexander Calder, American artist (b. 1898)
• 1977 - Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (b. 1903)
• 1977 - Abraham Sarmiento, Jr., Filipino journalist & political activist (b. 1950)
• 1979 - Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (b. 1894)
• 1988 - William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor & organist (b. 1900)
• 1990 - Alexis Minotis, Greek actor (b. 1898)
• 1990 - Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet, proposed nine times for the Nobel Prize for Literature, winner of the Lenin Peace Prize (b. 1909)
• 1990 - Attilio Demaría, Argentinian footballer (b. 1909)
• 1993 - Erskine Hawkins, American trumpet player and big band leader (b. 1914)
• 1994 - John A. Volpe, 61^st and 63^rd Governor of Massachusetts, 2^nd United States Secretary of Transportation (b. 1908)
• 1994 - Pedro Zamora, Cuban-American AIDS activist (b. 1972)
• 1994 - Tadeusz Żychiewicz, Polish journalist, art historian and publicist (b. 1922)
• 1997 - Rodney Milburn, American athlete (b. 1950)
• 1998 - Frank Brimsek, American ice hockey player (b. 1913)
• 1999 - Mary Kay Bergman, American voice actress (b. 1961)
• 1999 - Jacobo Timmerman, Argentine writer and journalist (b. 1923)
• 2004 - Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1929)
• 2004 - Richard Dembo, French director and screenwriter (b. 1948)
• 2005 - Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, British photographer (b. 1939)
• 2005 - Peter Drucker, American management theorist (b. 1909)
• 2005 - Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American film producer and director (b. 1930)
• 2006 - Belinda Emmett, Australian actress (b. 1974)
• 2006 - Harry Lehotsky, pastor and activist (b. 1957)
• 2007 - Delbert Mann, American film director (b. 1920)

[edit] Holidays and observances

• Angola - Independence Day (1975)
• Maldives - Republic Day (1968)

Several nations celebrate, in some way, the end of World War I, the ceasefire of which went into effect at 11:00am CET on this day in 1918.

• Armistice Day in New Zealand, France and Belgium
• Independence Day in Poland
• Lāčplēsis Day (1919) in Latvia: the official date for commemoration of Latvian soldiers, who had died for the country's freedom.
• Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, including Australia and Canada.
• Veterans Day in the United States (called Armistice Day until 1954, when the name was changed, and the holiday was re-geared toward all military veterans)

Feast day of:

• Bartholomew of Grottaferrata in the Roman Catholic Church
• Martinmas in English-speaking countries, Feast of St. Martin of Tours
• Martin of Tours in the Roman Catholic Church
• St. Martin's Day in Croatia, the Netherlands, Germany, Flanders, Austria, Slovenia, Portugal and Malta
• Saint Menas in the Roman Catholic Church
• Soren Kierkegaard in the Lutheran Church

Popular culture:

• Opening of carnival season in Germany ("Karneval"/"Fasching" on 11-11, at 11:11), the Netherlands, and other countries
• Pepero Day in South Korea
• Singles Day in China
• Women's Day (1972) in Belgium

PYGMY HIPPOS...

The things of my own that I have currently in mind can't be said here yet..
so instead, here's some Pygmy Hippo Info (or P.H.I.)

The pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa (the scientific species classification means "of Liberia", as this is where the vast majority live). The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal. It is one of only two extant species in the Hippopotamidae family, the other being its much larger cousin the common hippopotamus.

The pygmy hippopotamus displays many terrestrial adaptations, but like its larger cousin, it is semi-aquatic and relies on proximity to water to keep its skin moisturized and its body temperature cool. Behaviors such as mating and giving birth may occur in water or on land. The pygmy hippo is herbivorous, feeding on whatever ferns, broad-leaved plants, grasses and fruits it finds in the forests.

A rare nocturnal forest creature, the pygmy hippopotamus is a difficult animal to study in the wild. Pygmy hippos were unknown outside of West Africa until the 19th century. Introduced to zoos in the early 20th century, they breed well in captivity and the vast majority of research is derived from zoo specimens. The survival of the species in captivity is more assured than in the wild: the World Conservation Union estimates that there are fewer than 3,000 pygmy hippos remaining in the wild.^[1] Pygmy hippos are primarily threatened by loss of habitat, as forests are logged and converted to farm land, and are also vulnerable to poaching, hunting, natural predators and war.

Finally drawing again.

I tried painting for a few months. I like it, but I don't think I have the patience required yet.
The good news is that the recent things that have occurred in my life have somehow made me start drawing again. Pen and ink has always been my favored mode of stylus-based expression, particularly freehand drawings. Now I'm done with the paint for a bit and am going to do large format pen and ink drawings on bristol board. Hot damn.

THE MIND IS A NICE PLACE TO VISIT...

But I wouldn't want to live there.

I'm actually relieved that I have work again on Wednesday. Too much time to think, and too much to think about is a bad combo.

I AM THE GOD OF MY BACK YARD.

Today I braved the webs and nests of a zillion orange, spiky spiders who are now

plotting under a rock, the details and machinations of my imminent demise.

I hate yard work and see it as mostly completely unnecessary, but my landlord bitched me

out last time I didn't rake leaves and pull the weeds.

I guess it really would be much better if the whole goddamned world was paved with immaculate, nuke-green

lawns at the cost of bazillions of gallons of fresh water.

Anyhow, I'm writing a song for the new Bloodfreak called "Night of the spiders/Day of the flies"..

and I think I have my inspiration now.

I swear to all that is holy, I was out there about an hour, my nose started itching a bit, got stuffy..

I forgot about it because I was busy, sweating and generally uncomfortable anyhow...

After I finished and came in, I went to the bathroom to wash off.. was compelled for some reason to 

blow my nose in the sink (I know, gnarly). Well, imagine my surprise when I examined what shot out my nostril

and discovered a mass of tiny spider guts and legs.

It wasn't this spider, this was just the biggest, hairiest bastard I could find, and he stayed still.  Click pics for enlarged views.

Van Drunen's still got it...

This disc is the shit. Gives me hope when one of my all time favorite vocalists in the history of metal can still give me gooseflesh.

BEST GODDAMNED THING EVER!!

I just mixed Haagen-Dasz Vanilla-honey-granola frozen yogurt
equal parts with fruit cocktail. This shit is AMAZING.

M.P.D. by choice

I've made the personal decision to spawn multiple personalities.
Yes, I'm going to accomplish this on will alone... mostly.

I don't have enough faces for each and every fucker in this world. Nowhere near enough smiles, real or conjured to get by.
And remember, even though I'll have multiple faces, I still have the same amount of money, so don't get any idears.
Sometimes, when a business goes tits up, hey, that's the fuckin' way she goes.
No one likes it, but sometimes you have to bear the brunt with shareholders and such.. There are quite a few interesting people fighting over the puppet strings as I type this, let me tell you. Perhaps most would be tolerable, polite even.
However, I trust there are at least a few bastards in there who would do things I've never even imagined. ME me that is.
There's too much work here to be done for one Dave.. what year is this? 1984?!
Someone has to step up and delegate, and I guess that someone is me.
So, if you have the great displeasure to know me or of me, stay on your guard...
because you never know what you're going to get. One second we might be enjoying a scintillating, intellectual conversation and I'm my usual, meek, quiet self.. A dog barks and the next instant, I'm a raving, homicidal, tear-you-to-the-fucking-bone, mindless ape of human battery.

Then again I could be a 3 year old girl who wets the bed, who the fuck knows?

"HAVE YOU SEEN ME?"

Ten minutes after this pic, my cat Merle put the smackdown on this poor guy.
I was going to let him go after the pics, but he flew off and Merle canceled his beetle-ass. R.I.P. At least I got a good pic of you before you shuffled off this mortal coil. Click pic for larger pic.

CROWS REALLY ARE SMART

Today at lunch, I went to Burger King. Big mistake.
I wasn't even hungry, just wanted to get out of the office.
Anyhow, I got one of those steakhouse burgers and it was foul.
Perhaps it would have tasted better if I was hungry.
I'm not much of a fry fan anymore, so I usually toss them out
the window so I can watch the birds eat them.
Usually, pigeons, seagulls and the odd other bird will show up.
This time it was a shitload of pigeons and one crow.

The pigeons were having a shitty time trying to eat the fries, but they
ate them quickly by breaking them apart with their beaks before wolfing them down.
The crow began picking up one fry after the other until he had about 6 crammed in
his beak, then he simply flew off to eat them in private.
That bird was the most badass entity I've encountered in a long time.

Found this article:
Birds don't have an elaborate cerebral cortex, therefore their day-to-day functioning was believed to be strictly based on their genetic programming, making them almost robotic in nature. However, in the 1960's, neurologist Stanley Cobb found that the avian brain is all together unique system. Rather than a cortex to provide intelligence as the case is with mammals, he found that birds have developed a part in the forebrain called the hyperstraiatum to perform synonymous functions. Crows, ravens, and magpies appear to have the largest hyperstriatums, as well as the largest overall brain size among birds. Moreover, these corvids have brains that contain an exceptionally large number of brain cells. From "Bird Brains," by Candace Savage, she writes: "Crows, ravens, magpies and jays are not just feathered machines, rigidly programmed by their genetics. Instead, they are beings that, within the constraints of their molecular inheritance, make complex decisions and show every sign of enjoying a rich awareness."

Crow enthusiast L.Kilham says that crows and ravens exhibit a decision making ability, citing the following example: A male crow is eating his food in front of a man. Is the crow going to do as usual by going to the nest to feed the female? No, possibly afraid to alert the man of the nest location, he decides to hide the food under some tuft of grass to attain later when it is safe.

Additionally, ravens may have the innate ability to cogitate object numbers--count in a sense. German ethnologist, Otto Koehler, tested this theory by presenting a raven with a group of objects, ranging from two to six in composition. Beside the group of objects were a set of five boxes, each labeled by black dots, two to six. The raven's lob was to match the number of objects with the number of black dots on the lid of the box, whereupon a food reward would be relinquished. Apparently, in trial after trial, the raven successfully accoplished the counting task.

Moreover, crow and raven intelligence is evident by their seemingly mastery and manipulative powers over other creatures in their domain. They often let others do the work for them. Ravens will call wolves and coyotes to prospective food sources so they can open up the carcass, making the meat accessible to the birds. And often, they will wait for birds with specialized foraging skills to make a catch (e.g. blue heron and crane), then cunningly, utilizing cooperative tactics, seize the catch for themselves. A British authority, Sylvia Bruce Wilmore, says they are just "quicker on the uptake" than most animals including the well-thought-of mammals that humans associate intelligence to. Apparently Ms. Wilmore has many animals about her home including a tame cow which she claims dominates the other animals. Well, the crow possibly sensing this, has reportedly picked up the cow's leash to parade him around the home turf!