Profile Reminder

I hope I have convinced anyone who is OCD enough to view this blog on a regular basis that Robot Chicken is possibly THE BEST TV show ever and that you should all watch it. It comes on late at night so you may need to tape it. Do people still "tape" crap anymore? They used to, I think now everyone has a DVR or Tivo service or whatever. So Tivo it. The show is only 15 minutes and there are no commercials, so it does not take long to watch. And it is funny.

Someone dropped a very interesting comment the other day. They said I should watch Plan 9 From Outer Space - which is famous for being the worst movie ever made. It is daytime, then nighttime, then daytime again - all in the same scene. There is the police car that is a Ford, then a Chevy, then a Dodge, then a Ford again - all in the same scene. There is the airplane cockpit with the flight controls that look a whole lot like pie tins painted black. You can see the strings holding up the UFOs. There are pointless voice overs. Bela Lugosi dies during the filming of this movie, so they get some guy to put on a black Bela style cape and run around with the cape covering up most of his face so you do not notice it is someone else. The announcer guy tries just a little too hard to emote. It really is the greatest of all the bad movies.

And how do I know this? I own a copy of the movie on DVD. See, there was this Playstation 2 game called "Destroy All Humans". You are this alien guy sent to Earth to...well....destroy all humans. You have to collect human DNA for some reason. and how do you do this? By using your super alien mind control powers to cause brains and brain stems to pop out of people. Then you collect them. And for fun (or if people are shooting at you) you have the alien death ray. If you just want to be a prick there is the super atomic mega anal probe of death.

The game is very loosely based on the movie. Supposedly. I say "supposedly" because the movie was about alien body snatchers who wanted to create zombies for some reason. Not collect DNA. But whatever.

Anyone who pre-ordered the game got a free copy of the movie. Of course I did not do this, but when I went to Game Stop to buy the game I mentioned that I should have pre-ordered it just to get the move. They had extra copies (few people wanted to take this gem of a movie with the game) so they gave me a copy.

The people working at the store thought that the movie was a joke. Something made for the game, just to drum up some fake hype and sell more copies. They had no idea what they even had! Morons. But I got my free copy.

Also Plan 9 From Outer Space is the only movie listed in my profile under "favorite movies". So yea, I think I have seen it already :)

My favorite book as listed in my profile is "Navigation Rules, Inland and International". Fun reading there! Did you know that if you see a green light and a white light you are looking at the starboard side of a power vessel underway at night? Well you are. And if you see ONLY a green light you are looking at the starboard side of a SAILBOAT under wind power at night. If you see only see a white light you are either looking at the stern of a vessel (you are overtaking) or you are looking at something that is at anchor. A red light over a white light means a commercial fishing boat is engaging in operations and is limited in its ability to maneuver. Three short blasts on the horn means "astern propulsion". A short blast then a long blast, followed by three short blasts, then three more short blasts then four short blasts then three long blasts followed by one short one long 2 shorts then one short blast means someone just called you an asshole using morse code. .- ... ... .... --- .-.. .

Pretty cool huh? There are more sound signals, light signals, and even day shape signals. I could list them here, but then that would be a lot of technical writing and I am far too lazy. So you just have to buy your own copy of the navigation.

Pirate Pete says "Ye scurvy bilge rats can be downloadin a PDF file of all thar rules for free".

I went by the Castle Harbor sailing school place today because I just happened to be at the marina where the school operates out of today. I got their propaganda and checked out the 20 footers that they start people out on. I am going to do this. I decided there that for some reason, I have to learn the valuable skill of sailing. It is for some reason "very important". I do not know why, it just is. So once things are just a little more stable and I save up a few bucks, I am going to go for it. And I am also going to challenge their twin engine power boat handling test.

Lost Day

It seems I missed a day of posting. Not that anyone noticed. I could have been abducted by aliens and given a butt probe and nobody would have noticed.

And this brings up another question. Why would aliens from another solar system tens or hundreds or thousands of light years away come to such a primitive backwards planet just to give furless apes anal probes? You would figure that with technology to travel at or above the speed of light they could do stuff without having to probe primitive life forms.

But I was not abducted by aliens, or given any probes or whatever.

In other news, it seems there are a few sailing schools around me. I have narrowed the choice down to three places.

1. Biscayne Bay Sailing School. These guys offer American Sailing Association certification, and I would get time on a Hunter 306 sailboat. This is a fine 30 footer live aboard. The cost is $500 for the basic class. At that point I will have basic keelboat certification from the ASA. This seems to be a good program.

2. Castle Harbor Sailing Club. This outfit offers different certification (US Sailing) but it is pretty much the same thing. I have to check about the length of the class - it seems that Biscayne Bay Sailing School has a longer program. But Castle Harbor rents sailboats. And if I go through them I can join the club and get a discount on future classes and boat rentals. I could even get checked out on their 17 foot powerboat and be able to rent a 25 foot twin engine powerboat for some real offshore trips. But I do not want a shortened program. I would rather go to a better program to learn, then get checked out on a Castle Harbor 20 footer and then join them for the boat rental discount. The intro class is 2 days (probably 16 hours) for $395 and the basic keelboard certification is another $195.

3. Shake-A-Leg Miami. The intro class is $335 for 16 hours of instruction, and then another $525 for a 20 hour US Sailing basic keelboat certification. Shake-A-Leg Miami does a lot of charity work with kids - mostly kids with disabilities. They also offer hourly boat rentals.

Tropical depression #8 is churning away. I am slightly concerned about this one. You see, it is going to stay to the north of Puerto Rico. And it is projected to get stronger.

Now here is why this one is concerning. IF the Bermuda High holds, then the storm will be steered at or very close to Florida. Now "Florida" means the keys to Jacksonville - a pretty big area.

But the Bermuda High could give and allow upper level winds to dip south. If this happens then a nice path will be formed - with the Bermuda High to the east and upper level winds to the west. This would keep the storm away from FL but could pose problems for The Bahamas - unless the storm is steered away from The Bahamas too.

Or it could dissipate, or hit some other land mass which weakens it. Who knows. It is far too soon to make any real predictions. Nobody knows what the jet stream will do, or how the high pressure over Bermuda will hold up.

But this is the first storm this season that stands a chance of hitting Florida. Exactly what the chance is nobody knows, but it is safe to assume it is either 0% or 100% (it will either make landfall in Florida or not). I will be watching this one for the next few days to see how it goes.