George Clooney > Hugh Jackman

So apparently Hugh Jackman is now the 'sexiest man alive'... pft... i disagree i find clooney waay sexier!

There's MY personal breakdown.

1. George Clooney
2. Jensen Ackles
   
3. Johnny Depp
4. Brad Pitt
5. Leonardo Dicaprio
   
6. Ewan McGregor
7. Orlando Bloom
   
8. Jared Padalecki
   
9. Matt Damon
   
10. Samuel L. Jackson
11. Ben Afflec

somewhere too far down to be worth mentioning.... Hugh jackman

(edit) oh how can we even THINK of having this kind of list without stating... Cary Grant! If he wasn't dead he'd be number one in my book.

EDIT: Honorable mentions: Matthew McConaughey, David Bowie... forgot those two!

Edward is a FAT cat

It used to be more subtle, you'd have to pick him up to see his developing fat rolls.... well now all you gotta do is look at him as he walks around.

Lil eddy... is a whopping 10 lbs now! We haven't weighed the others yet but they aren't 10 lbs that's for sure!

and yet he still whines for more food....

Not So Mixed, Mixed Nuts

Ok so we had this can of mixed nuts... they actually apparently need to inform us that there is "less then 50% peanuts!". Well it's true there is less then 50& peanuts!! There's a WHOPPING 49.99% of them!

Look don't get me wrong, I love my peanuts... but come on it's MIXED nuts how is 49.99% peanuts MIXED??? This baffles me! It's like, here have a can of peanuts with a side of 'insert all other nuts'. Can't they like, make it in more equal portions? I can never find a can of mixed nuts that's actually 'mixed'. I declair Nutism!! Those nutists are trying to force their peanut propaganda on us!

But seriously, how about some "less then 10% peanuts!", or "absolutely no peanuts guaranteed!"

Consoles (wii, ps3, 360.. insert other) might be amazing, but pc still kicks gaming butt.

12 reasons PC gaming is better than consoles

1. Mouse and keyboard support

Well, duh. Console kids who have grown up with a controller in hand might argue, but there's still no better way of playing just about any game in any genre – not just shooters – than the combination of keyboard and mouse. It just works, offering orders of magnitude more precision and speed than fiddly analogue sticks.

2. High screen resolutions

While Microsoft and Sony scream about 'true HD' in their games – but in many cases don't actually deliver it – the PC has been happily running games at 1080p and above for yonks. In fact, the near-HD default res of 1,280x1,024 is very 2001; even a medium rig can handle 1,600x1,200 or more these days.

3. Free mods

Were you a raw naif, you might be forgiven for thinking that LittleBigPlanet et al single-handedly invented the idea of (nnnggh) 'user generated content'. But guess what? PC gamers have been coding mods (modifications) such as add-ons, total conversions, unofficial levels and all manner of other gubbins for… well, pretty much forever. And then distributing it for free, for the sheer love of it.

4. Upgradeable hardware

With the aforementioned higher resolutions and textures, chances are a new PC game already looks better than its console counterpart right now. But even if you can't run it with all the visuals tweaked to the max, processor and graphic cards prices drop so quickly that it's hardly bank-breaking to refit your rig in a year or so, for better graphics and more speed.

5. Cheaper games

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo's licensing and publishing costs inevitably drive up the cost of every single game released, and even pre-owned games tend to be far pricier than the PC equivalent.

6. You're not tied to one online service

Imagine not having to rely on a single, central server such as Xbox Live or PlayStation Network whenever you go online. Imagine not having to suffer downtimes, silly licensing agreements, or daft console-restricting DRM. Oh wait… that's the PC online, isn't it?

7. No extra dosh needed for playing online

Okay, this only applies to Xbox Live, but who's to say that Sony might not start charging for PSN as it keeps haemorrhaging money? And yes, Xboxers can use the free Silver service, but really – why would you?

8. Unlimited storage space

The Xbox 360 is limited to whatever can fit on a DVD (or, if you're unlucky, more than one). The PlayStation 3 has to struggle with turgid Blu-ray access and enforced installs. PC games, meanwhile, just sit happily on the potentially unlimited storage space of your hard drive. Easy.

9. Save game hacking

Like modders, PC gamers are rabidly enthusiastic about pulling apart save games and data files, fiddling therein, and finding ingenious ways to cheat or fix corrupted files. Try doing that with your Wii.

10. Unofficial fixes for older games

PC games such as Vampire: The Masquerade often get unofficial, free, support long after publishers have gone kaput and official support is abandoned, thanks to the tireless efforts of their fans. Bug fixes, enhancements, new hardware support – it's all there.

11. Abandonware

The geek term for 'old games which you can't buy any more'. There are a huge number of classic PC titles out there from years gone by, and many thousands are available to download, legally, for free.

12. No red ring of death

Well, you only get this on the Xbox, of course, but the last thing you want your gaming machine to do is to completely konk out. At least when a PC goes wrong, it really goes wrong. Like, with fire and everything (possibly).

Only proof and facts please....

It's hard to watch a friend close themselves to a belief you believe in. I recently had a friend who had an interest in mormon beliefs, but has become closed minded to the point where there has to be PROOF, evidence, FACTS for him to believe anything. He believes he has stepped up and become a better person because he can admit he doesn't KNOW there is a god, or anything. Because he knows that it is impossible to know any of that.

He calls people of religion arrogant in their mindless beliefs, yet he fails to see his own arrogance in his need for proof and facts. His lack of being able to open his mind, his need to fight my beliefs with 'facts'.

I tried to bare my testimony that I DO know there is a heavenly father, a god. Who watches over me, has helped me throughout all my trials. That I know this because of the feeling, a clearity I have in my mind. Because of a feeling which goes beyond feelings and emotions alone.

And yet... it only falls to deafened ears, he calls my belief arrogant because I have no proof. Yet he cannot see his own, and I being the way I am have a hard time walking away. He picked the fight, and I fell into it. I called him arrogant and tried to show him his own hypocrisy. Yet in doing so I eventually realized that I could never have helped my own case.

I should have walked away, told him simply how I felt, and walked away. I should have told him my testimony, and told him to believe as he wishes... and walked away.

Chinese Censorship...

Oh one more thing to add. Not related to olympics but a good example of the Chinese censorship.

Norm I don't use wikipedia as a ful source... but it's the easiest place to find this with everything there and i don't feel like typign anything up. if you want more info/sources just look it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

It's a lot to read but it's worth it... especially when you realize that the whole thing is basically censored, and they attempt to delete it out of history.

China at the Olympics.+ Global Warming

America sure isn't popular, and it does kinda suck in it's own ways. But it could be worse. Just take of a look at a few examples of China during the olympics this year.

1. Yang Peiyi - At the opening ceremony of the Olympics a young Chinese girl Lin Miaoke sang the song 'Ode to the Motherland'. Howver it was later found that she was actually lip-syncing it. So what's the big dealio? People lip-sync all the time and it DOES sound better 99% of the time. Well guess what the girl wasn't singing in the track, Yang Peiyi was.



"News reports indicate that the adorable little girl who sang that cheesy song "Hymn to the Motherland" at Friday's opening ceremony was actually lip-syncing. Which in and of itself wouldn't be that big a deal — after all, Pavarotti lip-synced in Turin, and that little girl is way cuter than Pavarotti — except that it turns out that pigtailed Lin Miaoke wasn't the singer who was supposed to appear. Instead, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who won a nationwide singing competition, was replaced at the last minute when a Chinese Official, watching rehearsal, declared that Yang's buckteeth made her unsuitable to appear on television. Now Lin Miaoke is China's newest star, appearing on television all over the place."

The ceremony's music designer himself has even made the following statements: "The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression."

Yang Peiyi is quoted as being happy to be chosen to sing at all.

Why is this kind of thing allowed to happen, why wouldn't the parents sue, or the government stand up for the child? Why are both these girls treated as accesseries? It's all simple, china is a communist country. Communism believes in the 'good' of the country. They put the country first, the people 2nd. It's based on the majority. What their leaders believe is good for the majority, and as I give more examples you'll see even more of it.

4. Under aged gymnats - Sure, the Chinese are smaller and shorter and less curvy then caucasians..etc. And gymnats tend to look less developed/shorter/younger anyways. However with at least TWO of the Chinese gymnants there are online records and many things which have been dug up as sources which state them as being underage for the events. In gymnatics you MUST be 16 to compete in the olympics. You could just say, well the olympic officals did look into it, but when you really look at how they 'looked into it' you'll realize they didn't really do much other then look at their passport and files to confirm birthdays.

There is no 'proof' that they aren't 16. But there are many findings out there which state them as being something like 14.. etc. (Can't remember and I'm too lazy to go through all my sources again).

But with the though of how china is communist, how the government allows children to be seen as accesseries deciding who is beautiful or not. You can't help but wonder.

5. All previous achievements are meaningless - Liu Xiang in Athens '04 won the gold in 110 metre hurdles. He was expected to do well at the '08 olympics. However he withdrew from the games on august 18th, after walking off the track after a false start.

Now the above is not the reason for this on the list. If anything his injury has nothing to with it... simply introducing him i suppose. THIS was an interview taken before the beijing olympics. THIS is what's wrong the the picture:

"Sun Haiping, head coach of world 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang, believes he will be able to tap into Liu's full potential at next year's Beijing Olympic Games, where the athlete will try to defend his gold medal on home soil.

"Liu still has potential. We still have work to do to dig it out in order to win a gold medal in Beijing," Sun said.

There have been doubts whether Liu, who set the world record at 12.88 seconds last year, still has any more room for growth. But Sun insisted that Liu continues to show improvement in recent trainings.

"We have set up a very detailed training plan and competition schedule for him," Sun said, adding that Liu feels he has improved in recent training sessions.

"Officials from the State General Administration of Sports once told us if Liu could not win a gold in Beijing, all of his previous achievements would become meaningless. So we have to take everything possible into consideration to keep him in a top form," the coach said."

As an athlete and as someone who is friends with athletes i cannot believe someone would even THINK such. They don't mention anything about how great it is if he gets sivler, or bronze. It doesn't MATTER to them unless he makes antoher gold. If he can't make another gold his last gold medel is meaningless.

6. Athletes MUST get gold - Josef Capousek of Germany, was the Chinese headcoach for the national canoeing team. However he left only 44 days before the olympics. Why?

"Capousek said he was officially sacked because the performance of the Chinese team had dropped and that it stood no chance to win a gold medal at the August 8-24 Games.
He said the Chinese canoeing federation said his contract had a clause he "must" get a gold, while the translated German version of the contract named gold as the aim."

Alo from capousek, "nobody can guarantee a gold in any sport...but here, anything less than gold means nothing."

7. Athletics programs - Chinese children (gymnast among others) are taken from home and live and study and practice their sport. They also become ill equipped for an education. There are training academies all over china with totals over 250, 000. The athletes don't live with their families, they hardly even see them.

Yang Wenjun is a good example of the above.

"Yang Wenjun, a C-2 rowing champion at the Athens Olympics, told The New York Times that he was ill-equipped to go to college or start a business. He recounted officials' threats to withhold his retirement income if he quit before the Beijing Games, adding that it was "not possible to survive without those benefits". While Yang and his family have received numerous rewards for his achievement (including white collar jobs, stipends, performance bonuses, endorsements, and an apartment), he has not seen his parents in three years."


8. e Air quality issues - pre-olympics the air pollution is stated as "at least 2 to 3 times higher than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization."

During the oylmpics, the air pollution didn't improve nearly as much as they had promised it would. Many coutries where even so concerned about the air pollution they made sure their athletes spent as little time there as possible, with teams setup off shore in neighboring japan and korea. at least two foreign athletes withdrew pre-olympics because they suffer from asthma and feared the massive pollution in beijing.

If you take a look at some of the number/schematics of the pollution levels you'll see alarmingly high levels pre-olympics, and still well over WHO reqs during the majority of the olympic games.

People in America and the UK are all gungho on 'go green' and 'global warming'. We can't even drill for our own oil resources in the US because of it, but what people fail to realize is that even if america and the UK go green or find alt resources, oil is too deep in the roots of technology and this world. We don't just use it for cars, it's used in plastics, shampoo.. etc. But best of all, Americans and people in the Uk aren't even contributing anything to it in comparision to places like china.

China doesn't care about this global warming stuff, they don't care if the pollution is at severe levels. It's all about what's good for the country.

9. Risky food + water - Because of the above air pollution + china's lack of reliable food most athletes broguht their own water and food supplies.

Take a look at this, written by a former chinese resident who still eats chinese products.

"I often marvel at the fact that I can go into an American supermarket and buy virtually anything on the shelves without concerns about threats to my personal health and safety. This was not the case when I was living in Shanghai a few years ago. Grocery shopping in China can be very stressful because of the constant doubt about the quality of the products you purchase.

I relied on a lot of ongoing discussions with other fellow expatriates as well as local Chinese friends for their knowledge of product safety. Unlike in America, where the press is free to report on food contamination, it is well known that the controlled Chinese media does not have this ability. Most people rely on word of mouth to learn which food products to avoid. For those without contacts to local authorities or political connections, the quality of the information passed on informally is always questionable."

The End of Days

Many people hate America. Many American's aren't so fond of their nation either. America is not what it used to be, and at the rate things are going we'll only fall farther and farther. So Obama might bring change, maybe his stuff is for good. Maybe McCain would have been better. I personally think they both suck. I dislike Obama more, and I personally disagree with even some of his most basic beliefs, and desires for this country. But regardless of it all, I do know one thing. There is nothing Obama, McCain or anyone can do.

The lord tells us through revelation, through prophets, and scripture that the 2nd coming is nigh at hand. What does that mean exactly? It means anything wrong with this world is only going to get worse. It means that our nation will stand on the thinest of threads. The edge of the knife, and that only those who are righteous can save it. It means there will continue to be wars and rumors of wars. More hurricanes, more earthquakes.

If our nation is to hang by the smallest of threads, can you imagine how bad that is? Consider the following, if the 2nd coming comes to pass around a time when our nation stands on the edge. Then would that not mean that what must happen shall surpase things such as the civil war, wwii, the great depression... etc.

Think about it. Think about what must happen to our land, and our freedom. What kind of threats we must face, as a people, as a family, or as individuals. While it's rather depressing to think about, you also have to realize it will happen for a reason. We cannot become stronger if we do not face trials, and despite whatever may come if we stay righteous we can prevail and become ever stronger because of it.

Another tihng to consider is this, we are told we are a 'select' generation, chosen to come at this time. We are here because we have the strength it will take to pull through, we were born here and now for a reason. We are here because we have what it takes to make the difference, to make history in our own way, to spread light and truth to others and to support and lead each other. Think simply of the opportunities we have in the times now and to come. Be it to teach, lead, or give our support.

Think about it.

R.I.P. FuzzMuffin

We just buried the poor thing only 2 minutes ago. I went upstairs today to check on the hammys only to find Fuzzmuffin dead. It was rather gruesome, Cotonelle killed her. It's hard to understand why such small sweet creatures do these things, but having done my research I know that it isn't 'norm' exactly.

They only do it if:

(A) They really dislike each other, and never get along. Not the case here, those two got along swell and never ever fought.

(B) lots of inbreeding accures causing temperment problems. Again not a factor.

(C) Space is an issue. Again they had plenty of room for the two.

(D) Lack of food or water. nope, both are well fed.

(E) If cages are cleaned incorrectly sometimes they'll thin kthe other invaded their space leadign to death/fighting. Again not the case.

(F) If one if sick/not seen as able to survive, the others will kill it.

I think Fuzzmuffin was sick some how, she never exercised, and seemed to sleep 90% of the time. Me and mom had also recently noticed a loss of hair on both her cheeks and when we checked for signs of fighting there were none. The hamsters more or less will kill each other if it means ending anothers sickenss, or if they believe the other will not survive.

Also for most options leading to such a tragic end the hamsters will have been fighting for days/weeks before it leads to a death.

We'll all miss FuzzMuffin, it was a short while but we love her all the same :)

FuzzMuffin & Cottonelle & Bella

Well it's been several days (a week?) since we got the new hammys, and they've adjusted realyl well to their new home :)

Fuzzmuffin is now one of our sweetest hamsters, no more biting!

Cotonelle is still adjusting a bit. She still runs away when you try to hold her and will even squeak sometimes.

Contonelle seems to enjoy the wheel somewhat, but not nearly as much as our other breed of hammys seem to. Her and Fuzzmuffin both prefer burrowing and just being lazy it seems. I've also noticed that the Russian breed of hammy isn't quite as good at climbing due to their foot struture and general nature.

Bella is STILL piling up high mountains of shavings around the water bottle, even after it's all been cleaned out! I'm wondering if she's getting cold or something, she didn't used to do that.

First Offical Kill!

Calpurnia got her very first official kill on Friday. She caught this HUGE fly that was in our living room and was playing with it for like 3 minutes before actually eating it!

I was going to take pictures but i couldn't find my camera :'(