The Hilo Valentine’s Show that I did this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday went well. The Chinese New Year celebration brought in many customers to my booth. However, on Sunday business was dismal thanks to the decent weather. It was a bit early to be doing a Valentine’s show but it was fun, I made a ton of contacts, and many of my regular customers came out to buy from me.

I managed to convince many men that they should buy gifts for their wives, mothers, daughters, aunties, etc. It is rather humorous to me that men will say things like “What do you think my wife would like?” How would I know? The best men were the ones that took cell phone photos of *everything* I was selling and then waited for a response from their wives before making a purchase. That was great. Valentine’s Day is such an absurd holiday anyway…

To add to the horror of selling at a Valentine’s show, some guy informed me that he was “looking to settle down” and asked if I would like to go to dinner with him. It would seem that I found another potential husband at the show! Brian says this guy has a lot going for him – he’s well traveled, exotic, educated, has a good job, would be less annoying and demanding, and has nicer diamonds in his earrings than I have on my wedding band. Brian has proclaimed that I now have “options.” Apparently, Brian’s other “option” is about 18 and on crack. I think my option is better, thanks.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), I leave to go to Georgia for two weeks to visit my family, scope out potential venues for shows, and relax a bit. When I return, I will have a huge show in Honolulu to do, Brian is having a colleague visit for a week, and then his parents are coming for a visit. It should be a busy month!

Now, if I could just get rid of this migraine…

Popularity: 87% [?]

This article highlights a growing trend of Christian ministers turning to Scientology to create some kind of hybrid religion.

Brian and I are fortunate that we were able to pick up the giant book of Scientology and a bunch of books written by L. Ron Hubbard at the university book sale when he was working on his PhD. They are hilarious - they read like bad sci-fi novels and the logic is completely circular. The terminology they use is entirely ambiguous and the basis of the religion(?) is basically to pay your way to the top using the rationale that Scientology will make you more money so you will have more money to give! The most humorous part is that it really seems more like a giant pyramid scheme than a religion. The book is full of glossy pictures and ridiculous non-explanations (we can’t tell you what this level is because it’s secret!) and “laws” which Brian and I were able to tear apart with basic logic.

Having grown up in the Deep South and also having been forced to attend an ultra-conservative Southern Baptist (some members threatened to kill the minister if he hired an interim music minister who was a woman)  church for all of my childhood and teen years I can personally attest to the fact that Christianity was completely insidious and had some extremely creepy methods for recruitment and coercion into the faith which I will not get into now. Adding Scientology to Christianity is such a joke - but such an alliance is not surprising. Scientology as an organization has much more money to launch campaigns and it does not seem to have the number of factions that Christianity has - it will be interesting to see just how far Scientology can make its way into the realm of Christianity. Personally, I think I would worry about any religion that touts its celebrity factor as a selling point. Celebrities are stupid and should not be emulated!

I would be interested to hear any thoughts people might have on this subject…

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Take a look at this article: Mom gives birth to sixteenth child and wants more

How in the world could someone be a good parent to 16 kids, especially with very little children in the house? At least these people have the financial means to support these children and they seem to want them. But really, if you have to build “dormitory style” housing for your kids, do you not have a few too many? How could a child receive quality time in a family situation like that? If you sleep 8 hours per day that leaves you 16 hours that you can do other things with. The Dad has a real job so he obviously cannot spend even 30 minutes to an hour of alone time just talking to each child each day. The mother stays at home but that means that she is cooking, using the four washers and dryers, cleaning the 7000 sq ft home, and also they find time to reproduce (over and over again). These people could not be spending very much individual time with the kids. This does seem like irresponsible breeding to me. Do they NEED 16 children? Do they have a large farm? No. They just WANT 16 children. Could they not have had a couple of kids and adopted the rest? I mean, if you are going to have a ton of kids, why not help children that need homes rather than create more. At this point, they are just contributing to overpopulation, environmental damage (through trash, a giant house, no doubt gas guzzling cars to carry around all those kids, etc.) In addition, can any of these kids ever do anything they want? If one wants to play soccer and another wants to play lacrosse, do they let them or do they make them all play baseball because they can just drop off all the kids at the park because it is convenient? At any rate, these people seem rather creepy to me and the fact that this couple still has a good 10+ years of breeding left (or more) is frightening. Also, they seem to be ignorant of the conception process. The husband said, “I have asked Michelle if she wants more and she said yes, if the Lord wants to give us some she will accept them…” HELLO. This is not the virgin Mary we are talking about here. They had sex to make babies, it was not an immaculate conception! People who do not understand this should not make babies!!! Also, the bit about “she will accept them…” makes it sound as though she takes them only because the Lord is making a request of her. Is there a psychological disorder for someone who likes to make babies? If so, this couple has it. Alternatively, if they are not really sure about how this is happening, that might also be the problem.

Yesterday, I surfed on to CNN.com and saw that they had a little street documentary about the Big Mac and how McDonalds is putting nutrition labels about calories, fat, sat. fat, sodium, etc right on the wrapper so that all people who eat a Big Mac and fries know they are eating a billion grams of saturated fat, tons of calories, and enough sodium to make any blood pressure medication manufacturer happy. And the Americans they interviewed by in large said they did not want to know what they were putting inside of their bodies! Most of the British people they interviewed DID want to know what they were putting in their bodies. Why do Americans have to be stupid? They also asked people how many calories they thought were in a Big Mac and the french fries. One woman seriously said “10 calories.” When they told her the Big Mac had 560 calories she was in shock. Ten calories? Are you kidding me? How can you NOT know what a calorie is and how much is in your food at least enough to hazard a reasonable estimate? People are dumb!

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Big excitement today. We went to the post office after Brian finished at school so we could send our half.com sales. A very interesting couple was in front of us. It was a man and a woman (married) who had been married so long that they looked like each other down to the texture of their hair. Frankly, the man would have made a more attractive woman than the woman did. After that most interesting experience we went to Target to buy random items like dish soap (because I am too cool to buy it at the grocery store…or something), water filters, and other stuff that we needed. Then, we needed to head down to the City Center mall downtown to buy some new weight lifting gloves for me. Of course, City Center is the only place that stocks Harbinger so it necessitated a visit… The bus ride down was quite interesting. Some weird old guy got on the bus and started randomly pulling out change and preventing other people from getting on the bus. Then he took his taped up cane and sat down on the bus and ate a hamburger. That smelled just dandy. I smelled it before I saw it. Yuck. Also, you are not supposed to eat or drink on the bus… However, that did not stop a guy from arguing with a bus driver about being on a power trip over not allowing him to bring his open container drink on the bus. The guy probably would have spilled it all over the floor. It also seems that half of the Columbus ghetto decided to ride the bus today. That is always an interesting bunch…

Popularity: 7% [?]

After a brief excursion to the pool yesterday we decided to go to the movies. We saw Madagascar and enjoyed it. The behavior of the parents and kids in the theater left much to be desired for but we were able to see the movie nonetheless. Sidenote: It is somewhat horrific and humorous that the movie theaters keep advertising that the nachos “now contain real cheese.” I am not sure what they contained previously but I am sure that they are probably every bit as inedible as they were previously. Do people really eat this stuff? And why would people put butter-like goo on their popcorn? It is not even butter, it is butter-like goo! I digress.

After the movie, we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen where we had an enjoyable meal complete with screaming families. I simply do not understand why CA Pizza Kitchen always has screaming babies and toddlers in it. Why do people bring their kids to such an adult restaurant? It does not have a playground or pizza that would interest a little kid. Furthermore, most of the kids we have seen there are under two. Yesterday, we had the misfortune of sitting next to two families with two little babies who were not terribly loud and their bouncing toddler who enjoyed taking his shoes off and doing gymnastics on the booth seat (which was long and I had the misfortune of sharing it with him). Then the people that sat behind Brian were screaming at their kids. Then, a baby started crying out a few tables away. The mother, in all her maternal brilliance, hit the baby on the head with a menu. I am sure that child will be a productive member of the prison system by the time it is 18…

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Today, I spent the day with both of my grandmothers. This was quite fun. First, I picked up my crazy grandmother who informs me that she is happy to be leaving “this fenced in place.” Her retirement home is not fenced in at all. Nonetheless, she continued to talk about random bizarre things. She also kept rambling about having a stroke in her leg. This is a change from referring to her unconfirmed mild stroke as a “cerebral accident.” In addition, the stroke was obviously not in her leg… We then arrived at the hospice and my other grandmother was not happy to see my crazy grandmother. My crazy grandmother kept referring to her room as her new apartment and asked how many residents lived in the “assisted living facility.” My crazy grandmother absolutely does not understand that my other grandmother has cancer and is dying. She continues to ask if my grandmother is going into remission or if she is getting better. It was decided that we would go out to lunch given that my grandmother is sick of sitting around the hospice. After much debate, my grandmother decided that she wanted to eat at Burger King because she did not think she looked presentable enough to go to a regular restaurant. I think it had to do more with not desiring to sit that long with my other grandmother, which I cannot blame her for. My other grandmother complains that this is not a healthy choice. Of course, this did not stop her from eating a whopper and french fries. Then I had to listen to a lecture about how they could never be vegetarians because vegetarians do not eat healthy. Apparently, I am missing something. I had water and they had 500 grams of artery clogging fat. Anyway, we decided to go back to the hospice after that and walk around the sensory gardens. My grandmother insisted that she did not wish to ride in the wheelchair but rather wanted to continue walking using her walker. We walked around and went to see the Koi in the pond. Then my crazy grandmother kept asking if a baby alligator lived in the pond. Yeah, sure, an alligator lives on a hospice campus. The she tried to climb down a hill to procure (read: steal) some Irises in the water. Of course, this necessitated me chasing after her and dragging her back up the hill as she nearly fell in the water. Of course, this would not be the first time I have dragged her nor would it be the first time she has almost fallen in a large body of water. She frightens me… Then we had to walk across some sod, which was quite flat to get back to my grandmother’s room at the hospice. My grandmother was having some trouble pushing the walker so I was helping her. My crazy grandmother thought she should just push the walker out from under her and somehow this would help. Fortunately, I was able to hold her up and she did not fall when my crazy grandmother decided to do this. On one good note, my grandmother has gained weight since moving into the hospice. I believe this is the result of me bringing her milkshakes and chocolate éclairs all the time. This is not something I would normally do but when someone weighs 75 pounds they need all the fat they can possibly get. Certainly, I do not think cholesterol is something she should worry about given her situation and willingness to die. I am quite happy that she has gained so much weight though despite the fact that the cancer is taking so much out of her.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Today, I spent the day with both of my grandmothers. This was quite fun. First, I picked up my crazy grandmother who informs me that she is happy to be leaving “this fenced in place.” Her retirement home is not fenced in at all. Nonetheless, she continued to talk about random bizarre things. She also kept rambling about having a stroke in her leg. This is a change from referring to her unconfirmed mild stroke as a “cerebral accident.” In addition, the stroke was obviously not in her leg… We then arrived at the hospice and my other grandmother was not happy to see my crazy grandmother. My crazy grandmother kept referring to her room as her new apartment and asked how many residents lived in the “assisted living facility.” My crazy grandmother absolutely does not understand that my other grandmother has cancer and is dying. She continues to ask if my grandmother is going into remission or if she is getting better. It was decided that we would go out to lunch given that my grandmother is sick of sitting around the hospice. After much debate, my grandmother decided that she wanted to eat at Burger King because she did not think she looked presentable enough to go to a regular restaurant. I think it had to do more with not desiring to sit that long with my other grandmother, which I cannot blame her for. My other grandmother complains that this is not a healthy choice. Of course, this did not stop her from eating a whopper and french fries. Then I had to listen to a lecture about how they could never be vegetarians because vegetarians do not eat healthy. Apparently, I am missing something. I had water and they had 500 grams of artery clogging fat. Anyway, we decided to go back to the hospice after that and walk around the sensory gardens. My grandmother insisted that she did not wish to ride in the wheelchair but rather wanted to continue walking using her walker. We walked around and went to see the Koi in the pond. Then my crazy grandmother kept asking if a baby alligator lived in the pond. Yeah, sure, an alligator lives on a hospice campus. The she tried to climb down a hill to procure (read: steal) some Irises in the water. Of course, this necessitated me chasing after her and dragging her back up the hill as she nearly fell in the water. Of course, this would not be the first time I have dragged her nor would it be the first time she has almost fallen in a large body of water. She frightens me… Then we had to walk across some sod, which was quite flat to get back to my grandmother’s room at the hospice. My grandmother was having some trouble pushing the walker so I was helping her. My crazy grandmother thought she should just push the walker out from under her and somehow this would help. Fortunately, I was able to hold her up and she did not fall when my crazy grandmother decided to do this. On one good note, my grandmother has gained weight since moving into the hospice. I believe this is the result of me bringing her milkshakes and chocolate éclairs all the time. This is not something I would normally do but when someone weighs 75 pounds they need all the fat they can possibly get. Certainly, I do not think cholesterol is something she should worry about given her situation and willingness to die. I am quite happy that she has gained so much weight though despite the fact that the cancer is taking so much out of her.

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Tigger gropes women!–That is just pathetic…

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Tigger gropes women!–That is just pathetic…

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Man admits stuffing $73 of shrimp in his pants…

By The Associated Press

(1/21/04 - BETHLEHEM, PA) — Not many guys would admit to having a shrimp in their pants.

But Johnny Rodriguez did. He’s pleaded guilty to stuffing $73 worth of shrimp down his pants.

According to records in a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, court, a store worker saw Rodriguez with his trousers undone October 12th last year. The clerk confronted Rodriguez and told police that Rodriguez began removing bags of shrimp from his unbuckled pants.

But he ran before police arrived. Authorities say he made off with four bags of the seafood. The judge in the case has deferred sentencing. –ABC News Link

Better shrimp than lobsters I suppose…

Popularity: 5% [?]

Man admits stuffing $73 of shrimp in his pants…

By The Associated Press

(1/21/04 - BETHLEHEM, PA) — Not many guys would admit to having a shrimp in their pants.

But Johnny Rodriguez did. He’s pleaded guilty to stuffing $73 worth of shrimp down his pants.

According to records in a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, court, a store worker saw Rodriguez with his trousers undone October 12th last year. The clerk confronted Rodriguez and told police that Rodriguez began removing bags of shrimp from his unbuckled pants.

But he ran before police arrived. Authorities say he made off with four bags of the seafood. The judge in the case has deferred sentencing. –ABC News Link

Better shrimp than lobsters I suppose…

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Someone stole my eBay account and decided to sell over $10,000 worth of Apple Cinema displays. Some of these people paid this guy too. He is not very bright considering he actually changed my password using his local IP address. Brilliant.

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Someone stole my eBay account and decided to sell over $10,000 worth of Apple Cinema displays. Some of these people paid this guy too. He is not very bright considering he actually changed my password using his local IP address. Brilliant.

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I just woke up a little while ago to get online so that Andy could tell me that he’s being possessed by a demon. He’s trying to find an exorcist to get it out. He’s like a family member to me but the guy has gone off the deep end. I don’t know how to treat someone who thinks they are demon possessed. I told him once he becomes sane again to let me know.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I just woke up a little while ago to get online so that Andy could tell me that he’s being possessed by a demon. He’s trying to find an exorcist to get it out. He’s like a family member to me but the guy has gone off the deep end. I don’t know how to treat someone who thinks they are demon possessed. I told him once he becomes sane again to let me know.

Popularity: 6% [?]