Meet Me in St. Louis

Take some time out of your busy schedule to swing by the St. Louis Science Center on Saturday, February 6th to get some knowledge on earthquakes. 10am-2pm

I'll be there, along with many other nerdy, knowledge friendly people demonstrating what earthquakes can do, how they are caused, what to do if you are in one (as well as after), and what a person can do to be safe (and I'm sure there are other things too).

I will have my home-made shake table on hand as well!

Come on, you know you want to!

What's Going On?

I'm either having a stroke or everyone on Twitter today is really confusing!

Want to know where the earthquakes are happening? Go to these sites:

• US


• Mediterranean

Want to know about any event? Go here:

• ubAlert

WHO AM I?

I am a famous leader.

I was born in Corsica in 1769 and died in 1821.

My military battles were well documented.

I was the greatest military genius of the 19th century.

I declared myself Emperor.

I was called the “Little Corporal.”

In 1815, I pushed it too far at Waterloo.

I told Josephine, “Not tonight.”

WORD

truculent: 1:feeling or displaying ferocity 2: deadly or destructive 3: scathingly harsh 4: aggressively self-assertive

NaBloPoMo Day Two Post Two -Taiwanese Toilets

Mac and cheese, or rather some tube like noodles and cheese is what I'm having for dinner. I'm a lousy cook but can bake fairly well. I'm left brained and it's obvious. I'd like to be less nerdy, but I can't, never could really. Some people claim to like it and think it's cute...but some how I suspect "cute" really means something equivalent to "look at the girl who can't walk but tries so hard, you can't help but adore her effort"...I'll take what I can get I guess.

Anyway, as I promised, a blog a day. I'll give you some words and a story and be on my merry noodle eating way!

Taiwanese Toilets

I'd been out of the country before...Mexico, Ireland, and now Taiwan. It was a school Fellowship to see the earthquake damage of Chi-Chi Taiwan. It was a treat to go, and I had almost decided not to even send in the application. But I did, and I was accepted, and I went. I was nervous as anyone could imagine, going alone to a country that was of Chinese language, nothing of which I could speak or understand.

I was alone, did I mention that? I was meeting a handful of other students in Taiwan. Fortunately for me, I managed to meet one of those students in Detroit before heading into Taiwan. Thankfully I didn't have to be scared alone! We could be scared together. Anyway, cut to the chase, we had a crazy driver that got us to our hotel, then I realized I'd left my money at home. Luckily I had just come from Ireland less than 24 hours before, so I did have money on me! I'm certain I cried for about 2 or three hours before I passed out from exhaustion. Then the adventure was on!

The trip was all in all, very cool! I learned a lot, met really great people, became adventurous with food (you'll eat anything if you are hungry enough), and got to see some very unique things in a part of the world I may have not seen otherwise.

The part I want to tell you about is the toilets. In many of the places we traveled (with the exception of hotels/rest stops/finer dining establishments) the men's restrooms/bathrooms/water closets/what-ever-the-hell-you-call-it were traditional toilets with a seat and tank and a lid and a flusher. I know this because of the conversations we had with the boys. In the women's restrooms/bathrooms/water closets/what-ever-the-hell-you-call-it were holes in the ground. Yes, a simple pipe that came up to collect waste. Imagine my surprise when I walk in to use the toilet and open the stall door and see a hole! I walked back out and saw the universal "chick in a dress symbol"...yep girls in here. I stood and looked. A girl walked in, went into the stall, I saw her squat, I saw her "waste", I cringed. Really? This is how I have to do this? Camping style? Well okay...only had three beers by now and have to squat. Okay, I'm used to hovering, how hard can this be? Well about five minutes later I braved the stall, I squatted, I wasted...it was a toilet experience I'll never forget!

Words...

feeling fist:The fist used to express deep or extreme emotion during a song, in which the singer extends a fisted hand and brings it back in towards the body with intensity of emotion.

In Use: When singing Hungry Eyes on the karaoke machine, Joe impressed us all with a perfect feeling fist.

pitching wedge: Someone who only looks good from far away.
ride on dubs: To drive a car with 20-inch or larger rims.
lappy: Short for laptop computer; especially old and outdated models.
midnight gardening: The act of passing out or falling over in foliage after large amounts of liquor have been consumed.
no homo: Phrase used after one inadvertently says something that sounds gay.

In Use: His ass is mine. No homo.

Complete the Impossible

I will complete the impossible! I will design a floating stair! Oh yes! It shall defy gravity! It shall withstand an earthquake! Oh yes this is an architects idea! You just wait and see, I'll be sure to keep you updated on this progress!

Now, on with the word of the day:
yoink!: An exclamation that, when uttered in conjunction with taking an object, immediately transfers ownership from the original owner to the person using the word regardless of previous property rights! [Editor's note: If I had to guess, I would say this probably came from Scooby Doo]

In use: Though I cherished my automobile, I had to purchase a new one when my cousin politely snuck up behind me and exclaimed "Yoink!" while grabbing my car keys.

The Answer is Yes

News headline today:

Italy's Earthquake: Could Tragedy Have Been Avoided?

The answer is "yes"!

Ask me about it one day, it was my Master's thesis topic. I can talk for fucking HOURS about this subject (although very technical (I am an engineer), so only those of you willing to look up a few terms are allowed to speak to me about it)!

Absolute passion of mine, saving lives from the unnecessary! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE people; don't ignore engineers when we encourage you to do something. Once in a lifetime comes eventually. Sadly, once in a lifetime killed a bunch of Italians this week! That of course leads me to whole new topics of genocide and Darwinism; I will spare you though, far too crabby to write more today.

Go to the following sites for more info on safeguarding your home, what to do in an earthquake, and other information.


Your Home and Earthquakes

Earthquake Safety

What to do in an Earthquake

If you have questions about earthquakes, ask me!


Word of the day:
ya smell me?: Variation of "ya feel me?"; which is a derivative of "You know what I am saying?"; which is short for "Do you understand what I am trying to explain?".

Drew, I Think You'll Dig Today's Word

Ah, what a beautiful morning it is! It's freezing and there was a significant earthquake in Italy, wonderful! (Give me a second to clean up the sarcasm spewing from every pore)!

So my friend Clint (or at least I'm claiming him as my friend) is in Italy for work. I Facebook'd him this morning as soon as I found out about the It'y earthquake to make sure he was okay, and he is! He was about 400 miles from the epicenter (for states people, that would be from about St. Louis, MO to Columbus, OH). Likely enough to have felt it, but considering that I do not know what the soil and ground conditions are, it is hard to say for certain. I feel I have some authority in this disposition as I did after all write my Master's thesis on seismic retrofit of existing structures. This did require some research into the effects of earthquakes of any magnitude and distance.

Anyway, enough bragging about the my splendid intelligence (damn it, more spewing sarcasm, what a gooey mess)!

As you might have noticed, I like to encourage people to look at sites or images, whatever it may be, that I find interesting. Sometimes I like those things because they were creative, or odd, or right up my alley. In any case, I hope you take the chance to at least click on the links. It's very exciting for people to see how many hits they get on a website, to see who refers them, and to get noticed. People like to be noticed, as I'm sure you do too!

On that note, here is a list of sites (from previous blogs):
O'Connell's, my favorite place to have a few (has the best bartenders)
Art work by Jason Potter, graphic arts guru!
Dan Z., yet another amazing artist.
My blog crush Justin, awesome sense of humor!
HOK Life-what's going on where I work (my cult in other words)
A book I want to read!
I LOVE, and I mean LOVE books, especially pop-up books, so these two books are on my "Buy this for me" list! Nightmares, and phobias!
Something else on my "buy me this" list!
For foodies!
For bookies! (ha, not that kind)


If you have some cool sites, send them my way, and if I like them as well, I'll stick them in a blog and encourage people to read!


Words of today and the weekend (Drew, I think you'll dig today's word):
(weekend's word)
sauce: Very good. Amazing.
In Use: The TV show CSI is sauce.

(today's word)
porkchop: Police helicopter.
In Use: The porkchop is hunting for perps tonight.

It's a nice day out ...

I'm sitting inside, staring at the computer with much to vent about but no ability to do so at the moment. There is a time for venting at work and then there is a time for venting at home. This is a home moment.

It's a beautiful day out and I should enjoy the weather, but the moment I go outside, it's over; motivation is gone and the desire to be outside overwhelms me. I have to avoid the temptation, sort of like avoiding a giant slice of chocolate cheesecake with caramel!

I can say on a totally different note though, that the earthquakes we recently had (still having) at least made this a good month. Month=April. 'Twas my first earthquake of any significance. I don't use joyous to sound negative, rather scientific, but this was a joyous occasion. If you ever want to talk earthquakes, ring me up, I will chat until you are sick!

It's not that I have ADD or anything, but I need to change the subject a couple more times, so here is a new topic: I was reading my friend's (Mike) blog and he writes so well, it makes me jealous that I can not only write that poetically, but that I can't release emotion or feelings in such a way. If something doesn't spew as out mathematical or logical, there is no point. That can be so frustrating.

Again new topic: I made dog shampoo yesterday, with vinegar, water, dish soap, and glycerin. The dogs do not smell like wet dogs, or like vinegar! It's so cool! Really dude, try it, 1 pint of everything except glycerin, you only need 4 oz or that stuff. I also added some drops of lavender oil to my mix, and it smells awesome. I love lavender, my favorite smell!