Heading to Cali tomorrow!
Mood:  happy
Topic: ramblings
Wow, I haven't actually rambled on my own in a long time. Recently it's just been pictures and articles that I've been posting on here...

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'm heading to Sacramento for a wedding. A friend of the family is getting married tomorrow. My parents have known him longer than they've known me, so what does that tell you?

Well, I suppose that just tells you that he's older than I am...

Anyway, I am trying to plan a meeting between myself and my friend, Joe, from Cali as well. We were bestest buds when I lived in California a decade ago. We haven't seen each other in like 6 or 7 years. He's living in Fresno right now, so hopefully he can make the trip up to Sacramento on Friday and we can hang out.

I have been a little under the weather since getting back from Seattle last weekend. Hopefully I'm feeling better soon so me and Joe can hang out without any problems...

--Bryan

Self testiclularectomy
Topic: people who need help
Well, at Least He Won't Be Fathering More Fans...

Feb 8, 8:27 AM (ET)

LONDON (Reuters) - A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating England at rugby, the Daily Mirror reported Tuesday.

Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at a social club, "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off," the paper said.

Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking.

But after the game Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 yards back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had done.

Huish was taken to hospital where he remained in serious condition, the paper said.

Wales's 11-9 victory over England at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was their first home win over England in 12 years.

Giant Shoe
Topic: why others hate the US
Company Marks Centennial With Giant Boot

Feb 8, 8:05 AM (ET)

RED WING, Minn. (AP) - Red Wing Shoes will take a big step with a giant boot next week, when the Minnesota company celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Using ladders, cranes and special rigging, company employees and retirees have built a supersized "638-D" replica of the company's classic workboot No. 877.

The boot stands 16 feet tall and is 20 feet long. It required 80 cowhides, 1,200 feet of rope and 300 pounds of adhesives. The shoelace is 104 feet long. It has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest shoe.

The boot took more than a year to build. Employees said everything about the massive replica was properly scaled, so if a 12-story-tall man came to town they would have a roughly $100,000, ready-to-wear boot for him.

A Picture Share!
Topic: pictures


And here's how they decorated Jason's desk soon after...

A Picture Share!
Topic: pictures


Here's how they decorated my desk at work one day...

16 lb baby born
Topic: thought provoking
Well aparently the 16 lb baby was born due to the mother having diabetes. But I definitely know of some women who have large babies due to overeating...

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Woman Gives Birth To 16-Pound Baby
Mother's Diabetes May Have Increased Child's Size

POSTED: 1:32 pm EST January 21, 2005

SALVADOR, Brazil -- Doctors at a Brazilian hospital have delivered a boy weighing 16 pounds, 11 ounces. The baby is the fifth child born to a 38-year-old woman.

AP Image
Ademilton dos Santos weighed in at 16 pounds, 11 ounces when he was born.

Doctors say the baby was delivered by Caesarean section Tuesday at a hospital about 900 miles northeast of the city of Sao Paulo.

The baby is the largest born in the hospital's 12-year history.

A hospital spokeswoman said the mother is diabetic and women who suffer from the condition often have large babies.

The woman's other four children ranged in weight from 7 to 11 pounds at birth. But the hospital spokeswoman said the size of this newborn surprised everybody.

14 lb baby born in Oregon
Mood:  not sure
Topic: thought provoking
Something tells me that women in most countries wouldn't be able to feed the baby enough to get him/her this big, let alone give birth to it. You'll notice this baby was born via Caesarean section. I'm sure vaginal birth wouldn't be possible in the case of this large of a baby. Just kind of goes to show just how bad our eating habits have become: it's now leaking into the next generation in utero.

Then again, birth weight doesn't guarantee the size the baby will continue to be into the future. Just look at me...

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Ore. Women Gives Birth to 14 Pound Baby

Feb 3, 8:12 PM (ET)

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (AP) - Jacob Aaron Ryon is the size of a healthy 3-month old. Only problem is, he's less than two weeks old. Jacob weighed 14 pounds and 1 ounce when he was born to Wendy Bullock, 24, on Jan. 21 at Pioneer Memorial Hospital. He measured 24 inches.

"The whole hospital was a buzz," grandmother Aaron Miller said. "He's just a little man."

Jacob, who was delivered by Caesarean section, was so big he busted out of newborn-sized diapers and his one-piece sleepers. A nurse had to run to the store to get him bigger clothes, Miller said.

Jacob is one of the biggest newborns in Central Oregon in recent memory.

Doctors at Mountain View Hospital delivered an 11-pound girl in 2000, administrator Rick Nader said. At St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, a 13-pound baby was likely the largest ever born there, spokesman Todd Sprague said.

Proud mother Bullock, who is 6-feet tall, doesn't mind the extra load.

"I'm just happy he came out healthy and strong and I made it through," she said. "He's perfect."

Last month in northeastern Brazil, a 38-year-old woman gave birth to a 16 pound, 11-ounce baby boy named Ademilton.

Here's a thought...
Topic: thought provoking
I heard on the radio earlier today that a petition has been started to convince Ashley Simpson to stop singing altogether. So far they had gathered over 275,800+ signatures begging her to stop singing...

Then it hit me. It's obvious that her family (and specifically her famous singer sister, Jessica), not her talent, got her foot in the door and got her a record deal.

And then another thought crossed my mind. How much better off our whole world would have been...how much less pain and suffering would exist in this world...if only Simon Cowell was her brother or dad.

* smiles and dreams about what "could have been" *

What does that tell you?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: ramblings
I happened to notice on the television today that there were three infomercials on, all at the same time, and all selling the same thing: the "Little Giant" ladder. What exactly is the benefit of overloading the few non-cable channels (6, 8 and 54) with the same product?

Steaming pile of cow dung...
Topic: ramblings
As Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) said in Jurassic Park, "That is one big pile of shit..."

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Massive Manure Fire Burns Into Third Month

Jan 28, 8:15 AM (ET)

By KEVIN O'HANLON

MILFORD, Neb. (AP) - Urban dwellers who enjoy dining on filet mignon at five-star restaurants would probably just as soon not know about David Dickinson's dilemma.

Bad for the appetite, you know.

But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure.

Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market.

Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it.

While city folks might have trouble imagining a dung pile of such proportions, they are common sites in rural states.

In July, crews fighting a blaze in a three-acre manure lagoon at a dairy farm in Washington smothered the flames with more of the same - a blanket of wet cow manure.

In December, Montana officials ordered the owner of a horse feedlot to extinguish a large manure fire that sent a stench over a nearby town.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has informed Dickinson that his smoldering dung pile violates clean-air laws and is working with him to find the best solution to extinguish it, said agency spokesman Rich Webster.

Simply dumping water on the heap is not the answer, Webster said, because of concerns about runoff to any nearby water source.

Dickinson first tried using heavy equipment to spread out the smoldering pile and extinguish the fire.

"But the problem was, it started in another spot," he said. "We've also had the fire department out a couple of times."

And still it burns.

No one is sure how the fire started, but a common theory is that heat from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile eventually ignited the manure.

Wilma Roth, who manages a restaurant along Interstate 80 about a mile north of the feedlot, said her customers have complained about the smoke, which wafts for miles.

"I'd just as soon forget about it," she said.

Dickinson said the smoke is not particularly malodorous - although that comes from a man who works full-time around manure.

"I guess it's just all perspective," he said. "To me, it just smells like smoke. I really don't know how to describe it."

Decades ago, most farmers and ranchers kept their own cows and pigs until they were shipped to market and slaughtered into filet mignon, hamburger, pork chops and bacon.

And with all those animals spread far apart at thousands of farms, it was easier to dispose of the manure.

But huge feedlots - where animals are shipped to fatten on a high-grain diet for their last several months - have become commonplace.

Dickinson has an average of 12,000 animals on hand, each eating about 25 pounds of feed daily, resulting in as much as nine pounds of manure a day per animal - some 54 tons every 24 hours.

Most big feedlots spread the manure over farm fields or compost it to spread later or sell commercially to gardeners.

Farmers in several states are experimenting with using the methane gas from livestock manure to produce electricity. The manure is heated and produces methane gas as it breaks down. The gas is collected and used to power a generator, which sends electricity onto a power grid.

Dickinson acknowledged that while some folks see the humor in his predicament, he takes the fire seriously.

"It's a nuisance, and obviously we are trying to get it resolved," he said. "Everybody's been really patient."