Streakers To Become Sex Offenders?

Streaker or Sex Offender? Laws Don't Always Differentiate

Last November 12 college guys went streaking with pumpkins on their heads in Colorado.  I just heard about this this morning on the Fox News channel.  They 12 are facing sex offender status for their antics because they were nude.

Are you joking me?  We are all born naked.  Not one of us is born with a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt saying "I was just in the birth canal and all I got was this lousy t-shirt".  That is such a joke because there are countries in Africa where people live as nudists.  There are even nudist colonies in America.

What about all the people who are naked on their webcam posing for porno websites?  What about all the people who pose naked for PlayBoy and Penthouse and all the other nudie magazines?  What about all the women who show their tits during Mardi Gras?  Are they going to be sex offenders?

These 12 college guys should've been given a ticket, maybe a few hours of community service and a slap on the wrist and that's it.  They shouldn't have to register as a sex offender just for being naked.  They weren't raping and molesting women and children so give them a break.  It was a college prank for Halloween.

This government needs to lighten up.  They are such tight ass prudes.

Make Your Own Cigarettes

I woke up this morning to the sound of my doorbell.  I stumbled out of bed and went to the door and there was nobody there.  I said "hello?" and the neighbor kid popped his head out and said "oh did I wake you up?"  I said "yes, you did".  He said "oh well never mind" I said "wait, you woke me up, what do you want?"  He said "I just wondered if you would do something for me but I know you probably won't want to do it".

Kid, if you know I won't want to do it then why are you waking me up?  SIGH!  - by the way, he is 21 lol I call him a kid because he acts like one.

Anyway, he wanted me to go to the store to buy a pack of Newport Cigarettes for him.  Not just the store next door to my house but the store a block away.  I don't think so.  It ain't happenin'.  I told him no because I quit smoking in 1996 and I swore that I wouldn't go running errands for people wanting to buy cigarettes like I did for people when I did smoke because I'm trying not to support that habit.  Yeah I know, douche ex-smoker right?

So I remembered when we first moved to Bakersfield we met this guy named Troy and he rolled his own cigarettes with this little hand held machine where he placed a cigarette tube with a filter on the end (it looked like a cigarette but it was empty) and he put the tobacco in the machine and he did a slide motion with the machine and pulled the filled cigarette out.

So I went online and did a search for it and found 2 products.  They aren't cheap.  I didn't find the hand held one but these are still good I guess.  There is the PREMIER Excel Cigarette Injector Machine at Amazon for $34.99 or you can buy it used for $20.  Then there is the Top-o-matic Cigarette Making Machine W/handle which is a bit more expensive for $79.99 but you can buy it used for $35+.  I'm sure that any cigarette store sells these for less than you can buy them at Amazon, who knows.  I haven't been to a cigarette store because they opened right after I quit smoking.

But with these machines you can make your own cigarettes for $1 a pack.  That's pretty good right?  When I quit smoking the generic cigarettes were .99 cents per pack with tax so about $1.07 total.  Hell when I started smoking in 1985 cigarettes were about $1 a pack for the regular brands.  Now cigarettes are like $5-10 per pack so I think that this is a good thing to suggest to my neighbor so he can roll his own for a lot less.

The reviews that I have read say that the cigarettes you buy and the ones you roll taste about the same.  All you do is buy your cigarette tubes with the filter already on.  Those are about $2 for a cartons worth of tubes which adds up to .01 one penny for each tube with a filter on it.  The tubes w/filters are all different.  You can buy full flavor or lights or menthol or menthol lights etc.

Then you buy your tobacco which is about $20 for a can or bag.  I actually don't know how much they cost.  I went to PipesandCigars.com and found this one particular brand called Drum and it's about $21.99 for the can.  I don't know how many cigarettes or packs or cartons that rolls though.  But you can buy them in your local cigarette shop I guess, they will tell you how many packs you can make with each bag or can.

I am certainly not promoting cigarettes here but I can say that the goverment is screwing people out of their hard earned money by raising these bullshit taxes for cigarettes and I think that people should stop buying the pre-rolled cigarettes and just roll your own.  It's time to give the power back to the people and let them decide how much they want to pay for a pack of cigarettes.

It takes less than 10 seconds to "inject" your own cigarette with these 2 machines I linked above.  You can make an entire pack of cigarettes in about a minute or 2.  Hell, you can just roll a whole cartons worth and use the box that the empty cigarette tubes came in to store all your cigarettes then go out and buy a tin that looks like a pack of cigarettes or a cigarette holder like they used to use back in the 20's -50's (remember I Love Lucy?  They always had those things).

Watch this video I found.  Oh, it's not me by the way hehe.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LarY6qeopBY

Edit: I found out that the tobacco to make 1 carton of cigarettes is now up to $29.  YIKES!  But that still beats $45 for a carton I guess.

Hook Worms

Well we just came home from the vet at PetSmart.  Our poor defenseless toy chihuahua has hook worms in her.  Poor baby.

The bill was $235.02 YIKES!  But, I guess it's worth it.  That wasn't for the medicine though.  The medicine was only $14.  The rest was for all the tests and just to walk in the front door.

Apparently these hook worms live in the dirt and a dog can be walking around in the dirt or even laying in the dirt sunning themselves and the hook worms latch on to the feet and then the dog comes in the house and licks her feet and then the worm gets swallowed.  They drink the dogs blood inside of their intestines.

Here is the link for Hookworms at the Mar Vista Animal Medical Center website.  The medicine that they gave us is called Panacur.  It's a cheap medicine but it works.

I hate knowing that my dog got this.  I'm going to have to clean out the back yard and just take Flower outside in the front yard with the harness and leash and pick up her poop with a plastic bag for now.  I don't want her to be in the back yard by herself until I can get out there and clean it up.  I wonder if there is a spray that we can spray on the dirt that will kill all life in the dirt.

I'm also going to have to give her a bath and wipe her paws everytime I bring her back inside the house so she doesn't lick anything that she might have picked up.

Discouraging

I bought my new bike wheel on April 13th, I think.  My first ride was on April 14th so I'm going to assume it's the 13th when I got the wheel.  I have 2 weeks worth of riding in my log which technically is only 3 days per week.  But in those 2 weeks I haven't lost 1lb.  It's a bit discouraging when you ride so far and get no results from it.

I guess in all fairness I wouldn't lose the weight so easily with only 3 days per week but I've just stared exercising again so it's not going to be easy on my legs to just get back into the routine again.  I mean, when I first started riding last year I only rode for half a mile before my legs were just killing me because I hadn't ridden in so many years.  And it took me 2 weeks just to get to the point where I was riding for 6 miles a day.  Then I went up to 10 miles a day then next thing you know I was able to ride 18 miles.  That of course was only 2 days that I did that.  I knew it was too much so I went back to 10 miles per day.

My point is that I've started up again going 10 miles a day instead of easing myself into it.  So it's a bit discouraging that 30 miles a week gives me no results.

That first week that I was riding Chip got his check on that Friday so he wanted to go to Hometown Buffet on Sunday for dinner when he got off work.  Then the very next day was his day off and he took me to China Town Buffet.  Oh and plus we went to Taco Bell.  I knew I wasn't going to lose weight that first week but come on, the buffets and Taco Bell were a bit much for someone who is working so hard to lose weight.

The 2nd week I wasn't even trying hard enough to eat right.  I'd have a bowl of cereal for breakfast or some days just toast then go ride and eat a Tiger's Milk bar when I got to the half hour mark when I took my break to give me the strength and energy to get back home.  But then I'd come home and I was so hungry that I'd end up eating 2 sandwiches.  Some days I'd eat a whole box of Macaroni and Cheese (cooked of course duh lol).  That's definitely not good for trying to lose some weight.

I've taken the last 2 days off.  The day before yesterday I took off because I had ridden 2 days in a row and my legs just needed a break.  Then that day I couldn't breath through my nose so I took yesterday off thinking I was coming down with a cold but I was fine.  I'm still a little stuffed up.  But I'm taking today off too because it's Chips day off.  Plus our dog doesn't seem to be doing too well for some reason.  I don't know whats wrong with her.  She might be constipated or she might be sick.  We can't take her to the vet so we're watching her.

This week I have to really focus on what I eat and I have to try hard to get motivated to ride because I don't want to be discouraged.  I need to lose this weight.  We're talkin 90lbs here that I have to lose.  I have to try so hard to eat less to shrink my stomach so that I get full faster so I don't overeat.  I'm going to try the best that I can.  I don't have any money until Friday though so I have to eat what we got in the house.  I'm going to buy a head of lettuce though to try and eat some salad for lunch today and maybe for dinner too.  That should help start getting my stomach smaller.

I think one of the things that is stopping me is the stress from thinking about it too hard.  They say that stress raises your Cortisol levels which makes it harder to lose the weight.  I've been documenting my every move (my rides that is) so maybe that is causing more stress than anything.  Plus the stress every time I weigh myself.  UGH!

I think the new plan should be to write down all the info from the bike computer but not think too much about it.  Try my best to start eating salads and maybe even sliced cucumbers and carrots etc.  Just eat veggies as much as possible to help with my hunger pangs.  And maybe put the scale in the back of the car so Chip takes it to work with him so I don't have any way of weighing myself every day.  Just do my weekly weigh in.  Or maybe a month weigh in.  That should help if I only weigh in once a month.

Oh that reminds me.  (I'm sorry, this post is getting too long.)  A few years ago I think I was 212lbs and so I started eating salads.  I wasn't restricting myself on what I put in it.  I put sliced olives, hard boiled egg or tuna, cucumbers, carrot and I used the salad mix (not head of lettuce) and I used ranch dressing.  I didn't weigh myself at all for 3 months and I got down to 170lbs.  All of a sudden I weighed myself and that was the end of the weight loss.  Weighing myself put stress on me to keep losing weight so I was constantly weighing myself and the weight started coming back on.  Maybe I should just act like I'm not trying to lose weight and eat the salads again but not weigh myself ever again lol.

YouTube Movies and TV Shows

I'm a bit behind in the news.  I know that YouTube has movies and TV Shows or they just added that recently.  Yesterday I watched "The Blue Lagoon".  I never saw it.  It came out in 1980 and I was 10 at the time so I wasn't able to see it for obvious reasons.  It's rated R.  Not only that but I'd have to be an adult to really get it.  So I watched it and really understood it.  Such a sad and happy ending.

Anyway, they don't have a whole lot of movies and TV shows yet because they just started but I'm sure they will have every movie and TV show ever made available for all to see.

I usually watch TV shows on Hulu because they have them like the very next day usually after airing on TV.  Sometimes I have to wait a few days after the show airs on TV but it's not too long.  And you can subscribe to TV shows on Hulu so they email you to let you know a show is on their website so you don't miss it.

This will certainly put Netflix out of business if people are able to just watch their movies right from YouTube.  Netflix is going to have to think fast and lower their prices and offer unlimited viewing through their website to compete.

The movies and tv shows you watch on YouTube do have commercials.  I was thinking that perhaps watching YouTube movies is like stealing from the actors and the production companies but the commercials probably make up for that.  The Blue Lagoon had like 10 commercials, it was all the same commercial just played every 10 minutes or so.  So that probably pays for it all so YouTube can continue showing them for free.

It's the same thing as watching regular TV, you still have to watch commercials, but only 1 commercial, not 2 minutes worth of commercials.  More like 1 30 second commercial.  I think that I can handle being interrupted every 10 or so minutes by a 30 second commercial and be able to watch it for free than have to wait for the movies to come in the mail via Netflix and have it scratched and unplayable or have it come to me broken or never even receive it at all.  Which has happened to me by the way.  But that's another blog post for another time.

All in all I give YouTube a big thumbs up for making it available for free.

RapidShare AG Scam

Today I was sitting at the computer looking at YouTube videos and my email program told me I had email.  So I went to look and here is this one email from a business called RapidShare AG showing me my account information.  Then a 2nd email which came at the exact same time from PayPal showing that I had been charged €29.99 EUR.

At first I thought it was just another email phishing scam asking me to click a link and give up my password so I just opened a new browser and manually typed www.paypal.com.  I entered my password and sure enough there was that euro dollar charge and they did the exhcange rate thing so the total that will come out of my checking account in 3 business days is $37.34.

So without hesitation I searched for the PayPal phone number and called them and told them "I DID NOT AUTHORIZE THIS!!!!"  I told the guy on the phone that I don't even know what RapidShare is and he said it's a file sharing website.  How did he know that?  Perhaps PayPal knows about this yet they are still allowing people to be charged for this?  I don't know.  He walked me through the process of disputing the claim but said it could take 10 days.

10 Days?  It only takes 3 days for them to take the money directly out of my checking account.  I only have $18 available until my next check.  So I called Bank of America and told them what happened and I told them that I talked to PayPal about it and I wanted to make sure that they don't get their money from me through my checking account which should be in 3 days.  Well, that costs $20 and like I said, I have $18 available so now I gotta put $2 in the bank to cover my ass because if they take $20 and I have $18 they're going to charge me $20 insufficient fund fee lol.  That's $40.

Why should I end up having to pay $40 when I'm the one being scammed?

OK so I went to the Google search engine and found out that this is indeed a scam.  Someone didn't just sign me up for this website or service, this company somehow got my PayPal password and they charged me for an account that I never asked for.

I was going to call them because PayPal has all the details but they are in Switzerland.  I can't call Switzerland!  First of all they would probably put me on hold for 20 minutes and my phone bill would skyrocket.  I could use my PSP with Skype but then I'd have to pay Skype more money to make a international call.  The details also provide the company email address so I emailed them telling them that I disputed the claim with PayPal so they might as well just reverse their charge because they are not getting any money from me.

So now with all that out in the open, I have to go to the ATM machine to deposit $2.

UPDATE: This transaction did go through to the bank on that Monday which means the stop payment thing through Bank of America didn't take.  In fact when I called them they said that it wouldn't have worked anyway because that is supposed to be for a monthly stop payment, not for a 1 time stop payment.  I don't know why they were going to use that then if that wasn't for what I needed.  Gawd!

Our dog Flower had a medical emergency so Chip had to call his brother to ask him to NOT cash my rent check which means that since it did go through to my banking account I didn't go in the negative so I don't have to worry about insufficient funds fee... for now.

The refund did go through with PayPal and the money is back in my PayPal account.  However, they didn't put it back in my checking account.  I wish they just put it back where they got it from.  But, I think I'm going to just leave it in there just in case something happens like this again.  Also it's good to save money right?

So everything worked out in the end.