Month: June 2009

Thumb Sucking Adults

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog4 Comments

What is up with thumb sucking adults?  I’ve seen teenagers with a pacifier in his/her mouth or sucking their thumb.  Today we passed this lady in her car sucking her thumb while driving.

I’m not here to make fun of anyone but I just want to know why they do it?  I’ve been reading up on it and apparently it’s all psychological.  But there are problems associated with thumb sucking.  Such as your teeth grow so that your thumb can stay in your mouth and your tongue gets this white coating on it.  Your thumb also can get sores on them where the teeth are biting down on them as well as your skin becomes red and infected because of the constant moisture from the inside of your mouth.

Not only that but your fingers are digging in your purse or pocket, intermingling with objects outside of the mouth such as poles, door handles, money… etc.

It’s a disgusting habit and these adults need to grow up and stop sucking their thumbs and teenagers especially, it doesn’t look cool to either be sucking your thumb or have a pacifier on a necklace around your neck.  Come on, seriously, pick up a different habit because you look like you belong in a psycho ward.  It’s hard to look like a thug with a pacifier in your mouth.  If you come up to me with your jeans around your knees showing me your boxers with that street thug strut, don’t expect me to take you seriously when you have a pacifier or your thumb in your mouth.

Fly Problem

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I don’t know what it is about summer but all of a sudden there are fly’s all over the kitchen window above the sink.  It’s like that every year at this time.  When I go to take the dog out in the back yard I usually open the back door then we walk to the back gate and I let her out then I go back into the kitchen and close the door.  But even if I’m not opening the door they come in through the front door when we answer the door or when we are coming or going.

So about a week ago I was sitting in my room watching tv and the saying “you catch more fly’s with Honey than you do with Vinegar” came into my head.  I wasn’t thinking about the fly’s so I don’t know where that came from but it was like all of a sudden a light bulb turned on above my head.

I went into the kitchen and we had these honey packets from KFC from awhile ago that we never used, yes I’m the guy who saves ketchup packets and all the other “packets” lol.  Anyway, I put some on a napkin (yes, from Taco Bell lol) and put it on the ledge above the kitchen sink and left it.  Well, after a few days the honey had soaked into the napkin so you couldn’t even tell it had any honey on it, it just looked wet.

I threw the honey napkin away like 2 days ago and cleaned the honey off the tiles.  During the entire time I had that honey sitting there it was like all the fly’s had disappeared from existence.  They were gone.  None of them took the bait and landed on the honey and got stuck but they just disappeared.  That’s why I removed the honey but it’s been 2 days, the fly’s are back in full force.  So, I went to look for more honey packets to put on a little plate but we didn’t have any more, I’d used the last 2 but we did have some syrup.

Yes, I know what you are going to say, ants… well, they didn’t come when the honey was there so hopefully they won’t show up for the syrup lol.  But since I put the syrup out about maybe 10 minutes ago all the fly’s are gone again.  It’s almost as if they were offended by it or something lol.

Oh speaking of fly’s lol have you heard on the news about Obama killing a fly during an interview and then PETA came out against him saying he murdered an innocent fly on TV lol.  OMG hilarious.  They said he should’ve used this thing called Katcha Bug which is a stick with a little pyramid looking dome that you catch the fly in then set it free outside lol.  Ok whatever you say PETA.  I believe that dogs, cats, birds, elephants, lions, tigers and bears oh my all have souls but I mean come on, who freakin cares about a house fly whose life cycle is only 15-25 days anyway.  Who cares, KILL EM!

Star Struck or Struck By Too Many Stars

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

stars

This guy named Rouslan Toumaniantz tattooed 56 stars on this girls face after she asked for stars to be tattooed to her face.  Here is a quote:

“Toumaniantz claimed that Vlaeminck agreed to have the tattoos done: “Kimberley agreed to everything, she was very happy with my work. I have a witness who saw everything.”

Now she says that she is ugly, disfigured and can’t even go out anymore, not even to work.

By the way, she fell asleep during this procedure.  She fell asleep.  How the heck do you fall asleep while someone is putting needles on your skin especially on your face?  The only way someone is going to fall asleep and endure this much pain is if you have numbed your pain with some kind of drug or alcohol.  That is why it is illegal to tattoo someone while they are intoxicated because they can’t be responsible for the tattoo they are about to ask for because they might have been influenced to get it and they don’t remember.

Here is another quote:

He said that it was only when Kimberley’s dad saw his daughter that she changed her mind.

But the Franco-Russian body artist has now offered to meet the cost of a laser operation.

Belgian newspaper ‘7s7’ quoted him as saying: “It will cost around €3,000, but I’ll pay for it. I’m not a criminal and I don’t want to start a fight with anyone.”

Toumaniantz, whose own face is full of piercings and covered in tattoos, said that he has learnt from the incident: “That was the first time that I’ve tattooed a customer’s face. I won’t do it again without written permission.”

The amount of money that she will have to pay to have the stars removed is $13,000 (converted to US dollars – according to fox news) and he has agreed to pay for half of it.  If he has a witness stating that she was happy with it and she asked for it then I don’t see why he should have to pay a dime.  But considering it was on the face and she wasn’t covered like he is with tattoos then he should have had her written consent first.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFEKjl0OOcU

Bike Cam Video

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

Here is that video on YouTube.  Yesterday I inserted it into my previous post but I figured it deserved its own post so here it is.  Note that it’s better to watch the video through YouTube because you can comment, rate and subscribe to my channel hehe.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYOZZi156CM

Bike Cam Vid Done

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

I got my bike cam video on the computer without issue (YES!).  I found 3 good songs to put in the video and used my Adobe Soundbooth to mix them like a DJ would lol.  I added the song then sped up the 20 minute video to 8 1/2 minutes so it fits with the songs.  It’s all ready to go, I just need to get it on YouTube.

I was a bit disappointed that the video was shaking so much, I mean from side to side because of the handlebars but when you are riding a bike you can’t keep it from doing that lol.  It is physically impossible to get the video to be still constantly the entire time.  Especially when it’s mounted to the handlebars.  If it were mounted on my helmet then perhaps that would be different but on the other hand every time I move my head up or down or left or right or behind me, the video moves too so it sees everything I look at which would be way more annoying lol.

Bike Cam Video

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

I went back on the bike trail today with my camcorder hooked up to my mount that I made and when I came home I immediately hooked the camcorder up to the computer and it didn’t fail the import, it failed on Saturday morning.  I’m still confused as to why it did that but that’s ok because watching the video showed me how much I need to stop moving the bike from left to right so much when video taping lol.

It’s always a learning experience right?

So anyway, now that I have it on the computer I can make it go fast and add some music to it.  It’s a 20 minute video but I’m going to speed that up so it fits about 2 or 3 songs so hopefully about 8 or 9 minutes.  I don’t want to bore people too much but at the same time I don’t want it to go so fast that you can’t see what’s happening you know lol.

So, I’m going to be working on that for awhile.  I can’t upload it to YouTube until I get some money because this program that I use which is the best program, Pinnacle VideoSpin.  It’s a free program with conditions.  You get I think 2 weeks free use out of it then after that you have to pay $15 for the codec, otherwise you won’t even be able to import your video into the software.  I’ve tried other programs like windows movie maker, I also bought Adobe Premiere Elements 3 and those 2 programs won’t let you make your movie for YouTube to be able to have it in widescreen.  Your video ends up having the bars on top and bottom but also on the right and left.  That’s no good.

So, until I get the codec for it when I get money then I will upload that video.  I’m also going to take the opportunity to do some other videos while I’m at it of some video games then just do them all on the same day.

Bike Video

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, ExerciseLeave a comment

I brought the video camera today on my ride and when I got to the bike trail I hooked it up and started recording.  My starting point was Truxton and Mohawk and my ending point was Manor St.  The whole video was 20 minutes and 25 seconds.

I turned the video camera off and put the camcorder back in the camera bag inside the grocery bag on the side of the rack.  I get home and watched it on the dvd player (which is actually a dvd recorder, I deleted a scene with me talking because my head was cut off) then I put the dvd back in the camcorder and hook it up to the computer to upload it.  Failed import. I don’t know why or what happened.  I put the dvd into the dvd drive and it also failed.

So what this means is I gotta do it again lol.  I was hoping to be able to take the mount off and put it in the camera bag for future use if I ever wanted to use it again somewhere else but I guess it will have to stay on the handlebar until I get it right.

I formated the mini dvd-ram (that’s what my camcorder takes, mini dvd’s, a dvd-ram is better though) so that tomorrow when I go back out there won’t be any reason for it to do that to me again.

My Weight Loss Journey

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

Ok, I know that I said that I wasn’t going to do any bragging because that always screws it up but I just can’t help it.

Ok, here is how it has been going down.  Last year in October I started riding my bike with the intention of eventually getting to the bike trail.  I was doing 1 mile a day and gradually I went to 3 miles then 5 and so on until eventually I was doing 10 miles a day on average.  Then I had my accident.  Ok so I started out at 244 and then I went down to 227.  That’s 17lbs.  Pretty good right?  Well then because of the accident I stopped riding until April.

From November 20th the date of the accident until April 14th when I finally started riding again I had gained 10lbs.  So I was now 237.  So I start riding again and now it’s June 12th, today was weigh in day and I weighed in at 221lbs.  Well, if you count starting in October at 244lbs then my weight loss is 23lbs total.

Or, you could think of it this way, I gained 10lbs and I lost it again so technically I lost more than 23lbs lol.  Ok yeah I didn’t think that would fly.  Or you might think well technically since April at 237 and now I’m 221 I’ve only lost 16lbs.  Well, whatever, I could from 244 to 221.

But, that was my weight this morning.  You are supposed to weigh yourself in the morning after you do your “duty” in the bathroom lol.  Who made up that rule?  Ok so that was 221 BUT… before dinner I weighed myself again and I was 220 WOOHOO lol.

My point is, I made it out of the 240’s, I made it out of the 230’s and now, I’m almost out of the 220’s and that is all that matters.  I cannot wait to get into the 210’s so that I can get into the 200’s and so on.

Ok, enough bragging for one day.  If I keep bragging then I will jinx myself and I don’t want to risk that lol.

Free Bike Tripod

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike2 Comments

It seems that our tool shed attached to the back of the garage seems to be more useful than I ever thought.  Before Stargate SG-1 came on today I went out there hoping to be able to make a homemade tripod for the bicycle handlebars and I wasn’t quite able to make something that was acceptable.  There was a 50/50 chance that it could still fall off and break lol.

So I came in the house and watched SG-1 and while I was watching it I started thinking more about it.  I wondered if maybe there was a screw that would fit in the camera on the bottom.  So I patiently waited for it to end then ran out there lol.

I was right, there was one that was the perfect size and it was long enough, although it could’ve been longer but it ended up being the right fit.

I was going to use the technique that I found here and I tried, I had an old dollar light that the light had broken years ago and I kept the mount for it for this very purpose.  I got the nut out, drilled the hole in it no problem.  But, when I put the screw in and then tried to tighten it the plastic broke so that was no good.

So then I went back into the tool shed and I started thinking what to do next.  I have a new dollar light so I thought well, I guess I’m just going to have to use that and just buy another one.  However, as I was trying to take out the nut I glanced over at the cabinet in the indoor patio which has tools in it and saw the garden hose repair stuff.  A light bulb turned on above my head.  I looked at the light mount and told it that it was its lucky day and that it has gotten a reprieve, for now.

So I grabbed the green garden hose piece that has 2 screws, 1 on each side and it mounts on the outside of the hose then I took it out to the table in the back where my drill was already set up with the right size drill bit and I held the hose piece inside my finger while I drilled into 1 of the screw holes.  Perfect.

I put a little piece of rubber inside the top part of it then put it onto the handlebar and screwed in 1 side with the screw it came with then I put in my long screw that fits perfectly into the camera and I put a nut on and tightened it at the perfect angle.  Then I put another nut on the screw so when I put the camera onto the screw then I just tighten the 2nd nut to keep the camera in place.

Here is a picture:

hpnx1204

So tomorrow when I go out on my bike ride I will have the camera inside the camera bag right inside the Townie Basket and then as soon as I get to the bike trail I will mount the camera and then start filming from there.  It’s much safer to ride with the camera attached while on the bike trail.  I’m just too paranoid that I’m going to have an accident on the streets then have the camcorder fall and break into 10 million pieces.  Besides, I’d rather just focus the video on the bike trail and not the streets.

WordPress 2.8 Upgrade Issues

On By Michel McDonaldIn BlogLeave a comment

Just giving a heads up that yesterday I tried to upgrade my WordPress to version 2.8 and it gave me nothing but problems.  Before I did the upgrade I backed my entire blog folder onto the computer just in case and it was a good thing that I did because I ended up having to delete the blog folder completely and replace it.

It’s not back to the way it was though, I’m having issues with uploading photos and when the blog loads in internet exploder there are errors on the page.

I am going to wait a week to see if WordPress decides to fix the issue and give us a new file to download.  I say “us” because apparently I’m not the only person having issues with it.