Timewaster Of The Week - April 30

Deal or No Deal!

http://www.mooarcade.com/games/play-6203-Deal_or_No_Deal.html

I got a lousy $10 on the first try but $100,000 in the second.

I Finally Get The Whole Springsteen Thing

While I was obsessing over Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and AC/DC in high school, many of my buddies worshipped Bruce Springsteen.
I didn't get it.
I found his music boring and undynamic. It didn't speak to me. I wanted the roar of an expertly played guitar and high-pitched screaming vocals, the kind of eardrum-pounding energetic rock that made me want to drive my car into a wall.
So when some buddies came up with a batch of tickets to see Springsteen in Houston on "The River" tour, I declined.
And I've regretted it ever since.
My buddies came back changed people, holding up that Springsteen concert as the greatest ever, a life-changing experience.
At first, I didn't buy it, but almost 30 years later, having heard countless times about Springsteen concerts, I finally realized that maybe I'd really missed out on something special.
I vowed to go see him the next time he came around - and I did.
Springsteen more than lived up to the hype last week at a concert in Houston.
With no opening act, Springsteen and the E Street band marched out on staged and blew the place away one song at a time for almost three hours. The new songs blended right in with the classics. Another impressive thing was when, 5 minutes before Springsteen came out, someone went on stage and changed out the set lists. I get the impression he really thinks about the night's audience - even on the fly as folks are filing in.
Few, if any, rock acts can match the power, energy and enthusiasm of Springsteen and his band. And just when you think things can't get better, he takes it up a notch. A highlight for me was when Texas music legend Joe Ely joined him on stage during the encore.
Springsteen is kind of like the Grand Canyon. You really can't understand and appreciate it unless you're there. Photos and videos don't do it justice.
Anyway, if you get a chance, just go.
Here's the set list, which I lifted off http://www.brucespringsteen.net/ :

Cadillac Ranch
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Atlantic City
Magic
Because The Night
Candy's Room
She's The One
Out In The Street
Livin' In The Future
The Promised Land
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
The E Street Shuffle
Terry's Song
Devil's Arcade (Tour premier!)
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
Thunder Road
Always A Friend (with Alejandro Escovedo)
All Just To Get To You (with Joe Ely) (Tour premier!)
Rosalita (Tour premiere!)
Born To Run
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
American Land

Timewaster Of The Week-April 21

Arrest mugshots!

http://mugshotdujour.com/

Lots of funny ones in there. In some cases, it's what their T-shirt says that makes it funny.

Village Creek State Park Is Awesome

The boys are just about the age where camping and other outdoor adventures are in the cards.
We did a test run Saturday at Village Creek State Park, just east of Lumberton, just north of Beaumont.
Mom needed a break at home, and the boys needed to be hiked ragged, which I estimated would be about a quarter mile before the whining and demands for shoulder rides began.
We packed lunches and walking sticks and headed out early to take advantage of the cool temperatures. Enhancing the adventurous nature of it all, I took a rural, tree-lined back road to get there, thinking that would be better than the freeway.
We were there within 30 minutes, and it only cost $2 to get in. (Kids are free!)
Selecting the Village Creek Trail, which the wife and I only got to see part of in 2001 thanks to Tropical Storm Allison's flooding, we headed out along a pathway primarily composed of sand that would not look out of place in Cancun.
Along the way, I noted poison oak, muscadine grape vines, birds, snakes and various other flora and fauna.
The trail, which mostly runs along the creek, is gorgeous, and there are spooky bogs, swamps and water holes along the way.
The trail ended after a mile in a swimming hole, which is a wide bend in the creek with sand that's better than what can be found on Bolivar Peninsula. The water was relatively clear and inviting, but way too cold for getting into. (We didn't have swim trunks anyway.)
There was some minimal, requisite whining on the way back but no shoulder-ride requests. That underscored the entertainment value of this two-mile hike.
Afterward, we did a round of high fives, had lunch and goofed around on a little playground before heading up in mid-afternoon.
Village Creek State Park, fresh off Hurricane Rita repairs, might just be one of the best I've seen, and I've been to dozens of state parks between Sabine River to El Paso. It's certainly a Southeast Texas gem that probably gets overlooked.
It has day use-picnic facilities, miles of trails for hiking and biking, fancy campsites with all the hookups and more remote campsites without all the bells and whistles.
Here's more about it: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/village_creek/
Here's a crummy cell phone picture taken at the swimming hole:

Ho Hum - Another Wild Hurricane Season Expected

William Gray and his merry band of storm predictors at Colorado State University said 2008 will see another busy hurricane season.
The forecast is for 15 named storms between June 1 and Nov. 30. Eight will become hurricanes, and of those eight, four will be major, or Category 3 or bigger with winds of 111 mph or greater. Long-term averages are 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 intense hurricanes per year.
Read more here: http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu
The storm forecasters said it would be a "well above average" year but not as busy as 2004 and 2005.
I've already got my gas cans ready to go.
I have to say, though, that I'm not too crazy about the names:
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gustav
Hanna
Ike
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paloma
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
It seems like most of these are names that parents haven't been giving to kids since the early 1900s, like Hurricane Gladys or Hurricane Ethel.
And Hurricane Nana? That's something you name a kid's safety blanket or a grandmother.
I think it's time for a Hurricane Brian. There hasn't been a Brian in a very long time.
According to this - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml - there isn't one on the books through 2012.
There was a Hurricane Brian when I was a kid, like in fifth grade, during a time when I tracked storms on the charts that came on the backs of paper grocery store bags. I wanted it to be a big, powerful hurricane, but it became a little pipsqueak that swirled harmlessly out into the mid-Atlantic. I can't even find any Internet information on it.
Today, I'd like a big, powerful Hurricane Brian, but after two hurricanes since 2005 in Southeast Texas, I'd prefer it dance alone in the mid-Atlantic.

Techno Viking

This has been around for a while, but someone pointed out to me just a few days ago.

He's one of those Internet sensations, and it's one of the strangest things on the web.

Several of the people I've sent it to asked me whether it was shot in Berlin, which I believe it was.

I suppose Techno Viking could exist only in Berlin. Maybe I should go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1nzEFMjkI4

Test Your Awareness

Self-explanatory!

http://revver.com/video/733670/test-your-awareness-do-the-test/

Texas Temblor!

Everything is bigger in Texas, except maybe earthquakes.
But we had one this morning just south of San Antonio, measuring a measely 3.7 on the 10 point 10-point Richter Scale, according to a Houston Chronicle story. The epicenter was pegged about 10 miles south of Poth in Wilson County, and 12 miles west-northwest of Kenedy in Karnes County.
As earthquakes go, this is small.
This site has some Texas quake history:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/texas/history.php
Mostly, any shaking in the Lone Star State is caused by massive earthquakes elsewhere, although there are some faults way out there in West Texas.
I just hope the home insurers don't try to figure out a way to capitalize on this.

Cue The "William Tell Overture," Baby

Pop music is littered with songs about making love all night long. Mick Jagger sang about it in "Some Girls." Color Me Badd sang about it in
"I Want To Sex You Up." Lionel Ritchie sang about it in "All Night Long." And Barry White sings about it in ... well ... just about every song.
But really, is there anyone out there who makes love all night long? Shouldn't they consult their physician?
Now comes a study that says sex might be more sprint than marathon.
Sex therapists in a survey concluded 3 to 13 minutes was best for sex, according to an Associated Press story, which also noted that the survey results be published in the May issue of Journal of Sexual Medicine.
In a recent Domino's Pizza commercial, a man suggested to his woman that they make love while they're waiting for their pizza to arrive within 30 minutes, and the woman replied, "So what will we do with the other 28 minutes?"
According to the sex survey, he would need to last at least 3 minutes for her to be satisfied, but they should be done and dressed long before the pizza dude arrives.
These guys have the right idea: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/255806/
So there's no need to put on Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." "Revele" might be all you need.
Here are some all-night-long songs off the top of my head:
Rolling Stones - "Some Girls"
Color Me Badd - "I Want To Sex You Up"
Lionel Ritchie - "All Night Long"
Def Leppard - "Pour Some Sugar On Me"
W.A.S.P. - "Harder Faster"
Barry White - Discology
Exile - "I Want To Kiss You All Over"
Rainbow - "All Night Long"
AC/DC - "You Shook Me All Night Long"
Cinderella - "Shake Me"
Can you think of any other songs about making love all night long?
Drop 'em in the comment box.