Who left when you arrived?

I was making my blog rounds today and Creepy Cupcakes had a cool post that I had to steal. : ) Click on the image below to be brought to a Web site where you enter your date of birth. It tells you who else died on your birthday (various years) and if there were any natural disasters that occurred in your birth year.

138,685 People

Natural disasters in 1980
1. Grand Island, Nebraska tornado outbreak
2. Kalamazoo tornado (K-zoo is an hour away from where I was born. I didn't even know about this until now!)
3. "More Trees Down" derecho (wind storm)
4. eruption of Mount St. Helens
5. United States heat wave
6. western Wisconsin derecho

Tons of people died on my b-day in various years but the only names I recognized were:

1999: Shel Silverstein - American poet & composer
1994: John Wayne Gacy - American serial killer (executed)
1977: Joan Crawford - American actress
1863: Stonewall Jackson - American Confederate general
1818: Paul Revere - American patriot
1774: King Louis XV of France

People who died in 1980:
John Lennon - Shot to death by a mentally ill fan. For those who grew up under a rock, he was in The Beatles. : )
John Bonham - Choked to death on his own vomit after consuming a large amount of alcohol. He was the drummer for Led Zeppelin.

I'm going to making another "death" post sometime this week. Stay tuned.

You're killing them!

I ran across some cool unique items today. Check out Hanging Harry and Dead Fred. They have other pals but I liked those two the best.

Creepy cool party decoration!

Here's something for your next dark get-together. They're quite unique and everyone will want to know how you did it. Check out the instructions here. I haven't attempted this project but if I ever do, I'll let you know how it turned out.

Vegetarians are screwed.

In my previous post, I told you that Twinkies are not vegetarian friendly due to the beef fat that's added. Bleh. There are so many products that you would think are safe for vegetarians but they aren't. One item is McDonald's french fries. This may be one you have heard of before. There was a law suit against McDonald's in 2001 brought on by vegetarians and people of the Hindu faith because of the fact that McDonald's fries contain a beef by-product and the public was not told. People who practice the Hindu faith consider cows sacred and someone had said that eating a cow was like eating their mother.

Prior to 1990, McDonald's cooked their fries in 93% beef tallow (fat) and 7% cottonseed oil for flavor. They switched to cooking their fries in 100% vegetable oil due to society concern over cholesterol. They omitted the fact that when the fries are initially prepared, a beef extract is being added to maintain their beefy flavor. In their disclosures, they put "natural flavoring" as one of the ingredients in their fries. By "natural flavoring", they meant beef fat.

Here was one of McDonald's responses to inquiries about their french fries:

The company uses a miniscule amount of beef flavoring as an ingredient in the raw product and it is not required by law to list it as an ingredient. Instead beef flavoring falls under the term "natural flavors".

According to the FDA, that is perfectly within the guidelines. I'm not going to get started on the FDA but let's just say I trust them as far as I can throw them...and they're a big organization.

So what do the french fry ingredients say now?

Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivitaves]*), citric acid (preservative), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (may contain one of the following: canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent. *Contains: Wheat and milk (Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients).

The crap that we eat is horrifying. Most of what we taste are chemicals made in a lab. One more thing I want to mention. TBHQ in the ingredients above stands for tert-Butylhydroquinone. Consume enough of it and you'll get stomach tumors, cancer and it can damage your DNA. Read that last sentence again. You know what else alters our DNA? Radiation. So eat enough fries and maybe you'll grow another arm? It's Chernobyl on a smaller scale.


Final note: McDonald's does not use beef products in their french fries in India due to the amount of people that practice the Hindu faith. They also do not use beef products in predominately Muslim areas such as Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia.

Twinkies are not vegetarian fare.

So you've decided to become a vegetarian. You're not eating any meat, poultry, seafood, or by-products of animal slaughter. So the occasional Twinkie is okay, right? Wrong! If you look at the ingredients on a package of Twinkies, you'll see numerous items, including some you may not be able to pronunciate. Over 30 of the ingredients are either made in a laboratory or are derivitaves of things like coal tar or petroleum. I'm not making this up people. One of the ingredients you'll see is "vegetable and/or animal shortening". So guess what Twinkie uses? Beef fat. Yep, as you bite into that soft pillow of sweetness, you're eating lard from a slaughtered cow. Um, gross.

Take this job and shove it!

I quit my job today. Yep, you heard (read) me right. I've been with this company for 8 years and even moved to another state while working for them. I started in a new position last fall and never got proper training. They would have me sit with people to learn some things and the rest I had to ask. Our auditors require that we have documented procedures but the auditors don't know that most of them are outdated. I knew, of course, because I tried to use them to train myself and found out they were inaccurate.

So what exactly led to my actions today? Mainly corporate drama. I had been relying on a couple co-workers to help me out when I had questions and I found out that one of them had been feeding me wrong answers on purpose and the other just wasn't listening to what I was asking. So I got in trouble for doing things wrong. When I explained that I had asked my co-workers for help, I was told that they weren't making these mistakes so basically it was my fault. Nice. In all the jobs I have ever had, this is the first where I got in trouble for mistakes. This is the first job where I've had multiple mistakes and even though the mistakes were being made because I was given incorrect information, my boss wouldn't even listen. She's buddies with the co-worker that was giving me wrong information on purpose so of course she sides with her and not me.

The whole thing reeks of BS. I had all I could stand so I put my documentation together to show that I wasn't making these mistakes on purpose or because I was guessing at how to do things. I met with Human Resources, told my side of the story, handed in my badge, and adios! It's sad that I had been with the company for so long and I don't have another job lined up. My health insurance is due to terminate next Tuesday. This economy is awful so I'm crossing my fingers that I can just find some part-time gig to get me by. My gut tells me that I made the right decision so it's all good. Things will work out in the end, I'm sure. Wish me luck!

I feel like such a rebel. hee hee

When you care enough to send the very best.

There are some people on this planet who really get under my skin. I wish they'd take a long walk on a short dock. I don't have the right amount of middle fingers needed to show these people just how I feel. Top offenders are as follows (in no particular order):

1. People who go under the speed limit.
2. People who pull out in front of me and I have to slam on my brakes.
3. People who use the 10 and under checkout lane when they have wayyy more than 10 items.
4. People who don't go when the light turns green. If I have to wait more than 3 seconds, you're either getting honked at or a nice hand gesture.
5. People who take a Sunday drive on any day of the week, including Sunday. This technically goes with item #1. If you want to take in the scenery, do it some place where I'm not.
6. People who ask how you're doing but don't really care like at a checkout lane. I know this can be an automatic thing but it's rude when someone asks you how you're doing and you respond with a, "Good, how are you?" and they don't respond.
7. People who blare their music in a quiet area. They're only doing this because they think they're cool. I can assure them that they are not.
8. People who screw up food orders. I said NO BEANS dammit!
9. People who hurt others for their own personal gain.
10. Liars. Nuff said.

For all of those lovely people out there, here's your prize:

If you wish to buy this, click here. If you're one of those people who are on the list above, I'll even put a bow on it. I won't be needing any bows though because people who visit my blog, would never be on that list. : )

Water, water everywhere...

...and not a drop to drink. This quote taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet from the early 1800's. I'm a big fan of water and want to keep abundant clean water around from many years to come. Tomorrow is World Water Day. A day where we can begin to be more conscientious of our water usage. Below are a few tips on how to conserve and make good use of the water we have. Most are obvious but I included them just in case they're new to you.

1. Shut the water off when you're not using it. For example, when you're brushing your teeth. Only turn the water on when you need to rinse your toothbrush.

2. If you have indoor plants or herbs, set out buckets to collect rainwater and use that instead of tap water to give your plants/herbs a drink. Or if you don't have a place to collect rainwater, for some reason, use what's left in your cup when you have a drink of water that you didn't finish. Don't throw it out...use it!

3. If you've got a leaky faucet/toilet, get it fixed.

4. Spend less time in the shower and use a low-flow showerhead.

5. Watch how much water you're using for washing clothes. If you're not putting a bunch of clothes in the washer, don't select "large load".

All simple things to do!

If you leave near Fort Lupton in Colorado, be careful around your water!

Will we ever learn?

I talked about what happened with Travis the chimp in this story. Yesterday I came across two other recent situations involving primates. The first story comes from Planetsave.com:

A chimpanzee at Sweden’s Furuvik Zoo has been observed chipping at concrete to create discs to throw at visitors. He even made weapons at night to throw at visitors when the zoo opens in the morning.

While Santino the chimp’s retaliatory ways are amusing, they’ve also impressed scientists who believe this is the first evidence of a non-human animal being capable of making plans for the future.

“It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including life-like mental simulations of potential events,” said Mathias Osvath, a scientist who studied Santino for over a decade. “They most probably have an ‘inner world’ like we have when reviewing past episodes of our lives or thinking of days to come. I would guess that they plan much of their everyday behaviour.”

Osvath’s observations are only one of many studies that show that non-human primates are capable of some human-like thought. Another recent study showed baboons are capable of matching pictures and recognizing objects.

Unfortunately for Santino, the zoo didn’t think his stone-throwing ways were very cute. They’ve castrated the 31-year-old chimp, thinking it may lower his hormone levels and make him less aggressive.

The second story comes out of Thailand. Leilit Janchoom and his wife purchased a monkey named Brother Kwan. They bought him so he could climb trees and fetch coconuts for them to sell. Mr. Janchoom did not allow the monkey to rest and would beat him if he refused to climb a tree. It is thought that Brother Kwan eventually snapped and dropped a coconut on Mr. Janchoom's head, killing him on the spot.

Animals are smart, people, and you can't treat them badly or try to make a wild animal your pet because 9 times out of 10, they will get their revenge.

Alternative toys for the rest of us.

So I'm into the darker side of life, in case you didn't know yet. : ) I have a little wish list of things that I would like to buy someday. Things that I can't find at stores around here in my little conservative part of the planet. I thought I would share some of my finds for those who may be of like mind. Enjoy!

BEGoths dolls : If I were able to purchase any two, they would have to be Angelica Noir and Annabelle Lee.

Teddy Scares : My favorite of these is Sheldon Grogg.

Emily The Strange : In particular, Bad Bootsy.

Gorey Details : They have tons of fun toys. Like Skullboy, Lenore stuff, Furry Bones Bunny, Furry Bones Kitty, and although these aren't really toys, they're still pretty nifty. They even have Coraline dolls.

Who says we ever have to grow up?