OOF 08

Okay folks, back at Shiva Vista this year. And we have three events planned... dust storm or not.

1) Flame pass. We're gonna try another flame pass. The first half of this video displays the five skills that breathers should practice for flame passing: Breath, sustain without torch, hit torch (with someone else waving the source torch), two torch (carry the flame from one lit torch to another soaked one about a meter away), hit-two torch (someone waves the source and you light a soaked torch)/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7895407968074807928&hl=en

2) Breather's box. The second half of that video shows the skills needed for the breather's box, a scary idea I came up with that's never been successfully done.

3) Best stunt. As determined by the fire breathers entering the contest, best breathing stunt wins the coveted Brass Balls award.

And if we get more than 100 people, we still need to Crush the dutch.
http://www.geocities.com/burningbreathers/

7 words George Carlin can't say on television...

Mister Conductor is still fucking alive bitches.
Sigh, the angriest comedian and one of the smartest verbal comedians EVER died after 71 years of snarky sarcasm.

Poo

So, one last time
"rat shit, bat shit, dirty old twat!
69 assholes tied in a knot
Yaay, lizardshit, FUCK!"

G'by George. We loved ya. We'll miss ya.

I'm sold

So, after much debate and thought, I think I'm finally sold on a sustainable technology: Hydrogen.

After seeing the various types of hydrogen vehicles, I'm impressed. There's one that is just a modification of a standard Internal Combustion, petrol burner. Plus, there's a new "solid H" way of storing hydrogen without pressure, that can even be used as crash resistant padding. These solid cells could be charged up anywhere (like Kramer Junction) and transported anywhere where a H genny happens to be. But there's more. Through small electrolysis combined with solid-H tech, small, home solar units could be used for long-term fuel creation and storage. No more battery waste or short lifespan issues. ANY electric source can be used for electrolysis (byproduct: breathable oxygen), with the electricity stored onsite in the form of Hydrogen, nearly permanently, and now, safely with the solid H tech.

On the flip side of the coin, I have an enemy, too.

First and foremost pollution problem seems to be [drumroll please]
Single serving plastic containers. Not just bottled water, but plastic iced coffee, shakes, drink boxes, cigarette wrappers, bottles, disposable lighters, jars, toilet paper wrappers, tissue box seams, magazine wrappers, and so much more. My favorite quote on the subject is:
"We've created a substance that will last almost forever and instead of using it for things we want to last, we use it in things we throw away after a single use."
This goes WAY beyond the "paper or plastic" issue, but digs into nearly everything you do. All of this stuff is ending up in landfills and in the oceans. They block light, kill animals, dampen sound, etc.

I've kicked the daily petroleum habit. Though I go through shoes faster because of it. My office is nearly paperless and both businesses produce less waste than my home. My home produces about 1/3rd the average american home, and I'm working ion taking that down to 1/4. SS plastic is next. No more plastic cups for shakes. No more disposable lighters, canvas shopping bags (already there), etc.

That's not very knife....

So, a few of you may know about Angry Guy. He's the fellow that lives downstairs and sounds like he has tourettes syndrome. He throws things, screams obscenities; a real piece of work. But despite all this, we've managed to stay civil ... until recently. He's been much worse the last few days.

The other day, I was coming back from a walk and he was coming out of his apartment. I gave him a nod, and he shouted something back that i didn't hear through the headphones. I pulled them off and said "sorry, didn't catch that.."
"I called you a Bitch!" he snapped.
So I casually replied, "well, you're a loud-mouth off his meds, Whatcha gonna do?"
"I'm gonna fuggin KILL you, Bitch"
Fortunately, I have a couple of inches on him, so I'm able to do the moove where you move in real fast, tall and wide; then stare down at him menacingly. I did so and added something like "you don't wanna try that with me"

This was pretty novel to me. Later I'd realize that move was the very first time I'd done it. Normally on a death threat, even with someone I wasn't too worried about, I'd try to be getting out of it as fast as possible. I'd have butterflies and the shakes pretty bad. But this time I was completely in control. Essentially, for the first time, I was the Alpha, not a big talking Beta, but fully Alpha.

Instead of keeping the shakes under control, I watched time stretch out and examined the situation and my options. He oh so slowly reached into his pocket (from my perspective) and fumbled for his knife. I knew what was coming based on other neighbor's reports. I knew I could trap his arm in his pocket and disable him, but I didn't want to make the first strike. I knew I could dodge this guys best strike, or even use a little judo to redirect him if need be.

So he finally gets the knife out (probably took a whole second, but it was clumsy, even from a normal time perspective), then he had to fumble some more to get it open. While he was at this, the manager popped out of the apartment across the hallway (still putting on his shirt, too... busted!) and got between us. Well it was pretty much over at that point.

Not really a fight. Not really a problem. But definitely a change in me. I can't explain it. I mean, part of it is the 5htp, I'm sure. If I had had this happen before I adjusted my serotonin, I would have been in a dark spiral for a month. But none of that either. I can't believe that serotonin is linked to Alpha/Beta behaviors. Weird...

I'm sooo in trouble

So, my all-time favorite cookie has always been the nestle tollhouse. I've never been able to get enough of them.

Recently, I discovered that they have pre-made tollhouse dough in a tube. Yeah, I know, 'bout time. Give me a break, my mom always made them from scratch. My only way to keep from gorging on them all the time was the fuss it took to make them.

Well, now I've managed to figure out how to make them (well) in my toaster oven (4 at a time). And I can just roll up the tube and keep some in the fridge. I can have my favorite warm melty cookies any time I want.

So much for losing weight... :o/