Obama Fever Grips The Land

The ticket scramble this morning reminds me of trying to snag concert tickets in the 1970s, only this is presidential candidate Barack Obama, not KISS, Led Zeppelin or Bruce Springsteen we're talking about here.
The Enterprise this morning carried a breakout box giving readers information on where and when they could score tickets to Obama's rally here Thursday.
However, despite the box clearly stating that tickets would be available no earlier than 9 a.m., people before that began pounding places such as Rio Rita's, Novrosky's and other establishments that the national Democratic Party headquarters had targeted for ticket distribution.
Communication problems within at least one of these establishments resulted in an owner not even knowing that his place was a ticket center, and he began forwarding callers to The Beaumont Enterprise - which IS NOT a place to get an Obama ticket.
After an hour or so of madness, we've determined that the information in this morning's newspaper and online was correct as far as we can tell, and all the confusion has been cleared.
However, if you want to see Obama, you better get a ticket fast, because I sense there is a frenzy out there that is going to escalate as the ticket well runs dry, perhaps before day's end or even in a matter of hours.
Stay tuned!

Jumper Man

Well, our jumper survived:

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx/?mkt=en-us&vid=076c94a9-1714-42c9-874c-434e586cd887&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:be59aa39-e555-47d8-82ba-c83dc9ba3296,8f681602-85d3-4c71-8c5e-5c2b8cacc926,6ad5bb18-54cd-48a5-b752-9897d61aba1f&from=MSNHP&tab=m17&GT1=10856&wa=wsignin1.0

But he used a chute ... this time.

Is This Dude Nuts Or What?

This guy is going to jump out of a plane without a parachute tomorrow on "NBC Today."

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx/?mkt=en-us&vid=076c94a9-1714-42c9-874c-434e586cd887&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:be59aa39-e555-47d8-82ba-c83dc9ba3296,8f681602-85d3-4c71-8c5e-5c2b8cacc926,6ad5bb18-54cd-48a5-b752-9897d61aba1f&from=MSNHP&tab=m17&GT1=10856&wa=wsignin1.0

Sure, he's got some amazing outfit that allows him to glide instead of drop like a rock, but it's still crazy.
He says no one has done it before. Well, no one has done it intentionally, but I do know of a guy who survived a chuteless fall.
I don't remember his name, but I met him back in the early 1990s when he was a professor for Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
While parachuting from like 10,000 feet up, his main and backup chutes failed, but instead of becoming a greasy spot upon landing, he not only survived the fall but managed to get up and walk away with only some scratches and bruises.
He somehow came in at an angle and did a long slide into home plate in a ploughed field.
I occasionally ponder the idea of making a parachute jump, but then I think about the Southwestern professor and dismiss the notion.
I get enough danger and thrills just taking State Highway 105 to and from work without getting into a wreck.

Timewaster Of The Week-Feb. 25

In this trippy, bizarre game, you use your mouse to wing an eyeball into the heavens:

http://www.vivalagames.com/play/throwme/fullscreen.php

You get snared into things that can propel you higher and higher.

The objective is maximum forward progress.

There is an occasional glitch. I got caught in something, hit the space bar, exploded and got flung millions of miles into space. At the rate of descent, I figured it would take 30 minutes for the eyeball to come down, followed by sequence of long bounces, so I bailed out.

All This Political Attention Is Kind Of Nice

Texas hasn't had a key role in the Democratic primaries in decades, but with Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama in a tight race this year, the Lone Star State is getting pounded with campaigning. Texas on March 4 is seen as a possible must-win state for the staggering Clinton campaign.
Our home phone rings frequently with pre-recorded messages from both camps. Campaign ads on television are peppering prime time.
Meanwhile, at work, I'm getting dozens of campaign news releases a day, sometimes as many as one every 15 to 30 minutes. Of course, everybody else in the newsroom is getting them, too, and they all feel the need to forward them all to me.
Today, former president Bill Clinton will visit with Hispanic leaders and then hold a public rally outside the Jefferson County Courthouse.
With less than two weeks to go before the primary and early voting under way, I expect Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama to visit Southeast Texas, one of the state's last Democratic strongholds.
So not only is Texas important, but Southeast Texas is a significant target as well.
While all the phone calls, TV ads and e-mails are annoying, it's nice to be something other than a non-factor after the Super Tuesday vote this month.

Timewaster Of The Week-Feb. 18

This one is awesome:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/future-weapons/games/cannon/cannon.html

You adjust the tank gun's elevation and projectile velocity to blow up stuff.

It just doesn't get much better than that. The sound and scenery are great.

The best part is that there is no time limit, so you can leave it up all day, come back and take a few shots and then go back to work, change a diaper, put a few more boards in the new laminate floor or whatever.

Dollars, Cents and Sense

The machine accepted $20 bills, and a 20-stamp booklet, costing $8.20, was needed to take care of business.

After feeding the $20 into the machine at the Dowlen Road post office, I began to wonder where the change would come out. There didn't seem to be a place for bills to pop out.

And there wasn't.

Instead of the expected 80 cents in change, a $1 bill and a $10 bill, I got the 80 cents in change and the rest in goofy $1 gold coins that I didn't know existed. They clanged loudly into a hopper at the bottom of the machine. I retrieved them and stood there bewildered, staring at them in my hand and providing Assistant Managing Editor Chris Clausen a chuckle as he just happened to walk into the post office at that moment.

Like many Americans, I don't care about $1 coins, and there have been a lot of them over the years.

The first were silver dollars, minted beginning in 1794. Since then, there has been the Seated Liberty, Trade, Morgan, Peace, Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollars, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_(United_States_coin).

Now, joining them, we have the Presidential Gold dollars, which I had never seen before until yesterday at the post office, even though they started coming out of the mint last year.

I thought I'd hit the jackpot in Las Vegas when the machine spit them out. In some ways, they're kind of cool-looking. However, they also look like the coins for the games at Chuck E. Cheese.

George looks rather angry and psychotic here. "WHERE'S MY WIG POWDER!?!?! GIMME MY WIG POWDER!!!"

I suppose the dollar coins are useful for something, such as stamp machines and toll booths, but I feel rather uncomfortable laying 'em on some cashier who probably doesn't even know what they are.

Nevertheless, I want to get rid of all 11 of them I acquired yesterday. I blew two of them on lunch, and tonight, when my kids' "Adventure Club" at the church concludes with the usual offering, the boys will have these gleaming cold coins to toss in the plate, perhaps making them the envy of their peers.

That leaves seven more to dispense. Maybe I'll just stick 'em in the bank, or maybe I'll find curious ways to spend them.

Either way, the next time I need stamps, I'll probably just stand in the long line and get my change in bills.

Timewaster Of The Week-Feb. 11

I've taken a fancy to this one:

http://www.yoarcade.net/shooting/horizonofwar.html

Wave after wave of military things come, and various weapons are used to blow them to bits.

There doesn't seem to be any end to it. I managed to up my ranking from an inaugural 300,000th to about 69,000th to about 16,000th.

Timewaster Of The Week-Feb. 4

I stumbled across this interesting little site awhile back:

http://www.findyourspot.com/

You fill out a survey, asking everything from climate to religion, and it tells you what American city best suits you.

I've filled it out several different ways, and towns in North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, Utah and Oregon keep popping up. I like small towns better than big ones, by the way.

I filled it out again today, and here are my Top 10:

1.) Grand Junction, Colo.
2.) Hickory, N.C.
3.) Hendersonville, N.C.
4.) Springville, Utah.
5.) Gainesville, Ga.
6.) Coeur' dAlene, Idaho.
7.) Maryville, Tenn.
8.) Boone, N.C.
9.) Mount Vernon, Wash.