Critter’s Krib

Click to view some pictures taken during the filming of Transformers II

This morning as I was reading tweets that came in overnight on my phone, I came across this one from @abbyladybug.

When I first opened up the article, I have to tell you, my heart skipped a little beat! The image that popped up was awesome, and I thought there was a new product available.

I thought Vibram had come out with a dress shoe for the Five Fingers line. I was wrong, but it’s still a good article. Vibram does, however, have a new version out. They are geared toward keeping your five toes a tad warmer. I might have to pick these up for next winter.

In case you didn’t know, I have a pair of the ‘Sprints’ and I absolutely love them. They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. I don’t think I can go anywhere without somebody stopping me and asking me about them.

I think the most asked question is “Isn’t it uncomfortable to have something between your toes?” You would think it is, but it’s really not. They are the next best thing to being barefoot.

Link (via @abbyladybug via BoingBoing)

Do you remember it? I do. It was an cluster. Talon was at my mother’s, a trip that normally takes me (at that time) 30-40 minutes. It took me around 6 hours to get to him.

The ground has pretty much been frozen for several days, so as soon as the snow fell it turned to ice. The schools dismissed early, flooding the roads with buses, and parents running to and from to get their kids.

My truck has 4-wheel drive, so I just threw it in 4-Lo and trucked on down the road. Four wheel drive vehicles rule!

It was sad, though, I would see these little cars attempt to go up a hill. They would slide back down then go off another way. But right behind little car ‘A’ was little car ‘B’, who had seen little car ‘A’ slide down the hill, but little car ‘B’ apparently thought he was much craftier than little car ‘A’, at least until he slid down the hill… It was a very repetitive scene.

We are supposed to get doused tomorrow. No, seriously… according to them, it’s for real this time!! I guess we’ll see.

/me crosses fingers. (winter wouldn’t be complete without at least one snowfall, yeah?)

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.

1. Right before you crash, down a cup of java. The caffeine has to travel through your gastro-intestinal tract, giving you time to nap before it kicks in.
2. Close your eyes and relax. Even if you only doze, you’ll get what’s known as effective microsleep, or momentary lapses of wakefulness.
3. Limit your nap to 15 minutes. A half hour can lead to sleep inertia, or the spinning down of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which handles functions like judgment. This gray matter can take 30 minutes to reboot

( via Wired )

Troopers issued 51,198 charges during what they called Operation Slow Down. Of those citations, 24,274 were for speeding and 954 were for driving while impaired, or DWI.

That’s a lot of friggin tickets!

( via )

This should only be offensive if Imus was dressed as santa.

Santas in Australia’s largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas’s traditional “ho ho ho” greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Yahoo News Article

You really can’t say what you want. Take, for instance, what has happened recently to Duane Chapman, aka Dog, The Bounty Hunter.

Duane was recently tape in a private conversation with his son using racial slurs, mainly the word nigger. As a result of this being made public (by his son, for a lot of money– that’s a whole different issue), A&E has pulled his show from their network.

While I don’t advocate calling someone a nigger, it’s just that, it’s a word, not an action. People say things out of anger all the time, and I am sure I have said worse.

“I hate you, I wish you would fucking die.” If I said that, does that automatically mean I am planning a murder? Should I be brought up on charges?

It is a shame that we give so much power to simple words. What ever happened to “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me“?

I understand people get offended by the word, but it’s just a word, and I don’t believe that the use of a word makes a person a racist.

By freaking out and reacting to the word, it’s just been lifted higher on a pedestal. I can say, “you are a fucking asshole“, and mean it with just as much anger, but nobody gives a shit about that.

Should Duane apologize? Yes he should, but to his son, not to his fans or the world, and then he should beat his son’s ass for making a private conversation public. Referring to someone as a nigger is not against the law, but it is bad taste. Come on… it’s 2007, and the guy wears the king mullet, what were you expecting?

– I chose to write the word, because I give it no more meaning than any other word.

Cymothoa exigua was discovered inside the mouth of a red snapper bought from a London market. The louse had grabbed ahold of the tongue and slowly eaten it away until only a stub was left. It then latched onto the stub and became the fish’s tongue - getting a free meal after having fed on the tongue artery while it ate away.

Naturally, some crazy scientists are excited by the find, while the rest of the world remains disgusted. I’m intrigued: it’s certainly a novel idea, and quite frankly, I’m surprised something like this hasn’t been discovered before. The fish most likely came from California, but there is some confusion. Cymothoa was known to exist in the Gulf of California, but since it showed up in London, they’re not sure whether the fish was imported or the louse is simply expanding its territory. Cymothoa poses no danger to humans since it only attaches to fish tongues. Found attached to Lutjanus guttatus (a red or rose-spotted snapper, depending who you read), the parasite poses no danger to humans, but is pretty disgusting.

( via )

VANCOUVER, Wash. — An 8-year-old boy called 911 about his mother’s driving Saturday night, leading Clark County deputies to arrest her.

“I don’t know where we are and mom’s not acting normal,” the boy told a 911 dispatcher.

The mother, 33-year-old Paulette Lynn Spears, is accused of taking the phone away from the boy and telling the dispatcher not to worry. She hung up, but the boy called back.

“She’s been drinking at a restaurant … I don’t think she knows what’s going on,” the boy said in one of the calls.

A Clark County sheriff’s sergeant said Spears also bit the boy’s hand to get the phone away from him.

The dispatcher asked the boy to point out businesses or landmarks that he saw.

With information from the 8-year-old and call-tracking technology, deputies eventually found the car in the parking lot of a fire station and arrested Spears.

Deputies said several drivers called to report the car Saturday afternoon.

Spears, of Vancouver, faces charges of drunken driving, reckless endangerment and assault of a child.

She is being held on $10,000 bail.

The boy and his 5-year-old sister who was also in the car were placed with a family friend.

( via )

2nd-Grader Suspended for Drawing of Gun

DENNIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A second-grader’s drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun earned him a one-day school suspension.

Kyle Walker, 7, was suspended last week for violating Dennis Township Primary School’s zero-tolerance policy on guns, the boy’s mother, Shirley McDevitt, told The Press of Atlantic City.

Kyle gave the picture to another child on the school bus, and that child’s parents complained about it to school officials, McDevitt said. Her son told her the drawing was of a water gun, she said.

A photocopy of the picture provided by McDevitt showed two stick figures with one pointing a crude-looking gun at the other, the newspaper said. What appeared to be the word “me” was written above the shooter, with another name scribbled above the other figure.

School officials declined to comment Friday. A message left at the superintendent’s office Saturday was not returned.

Kyle drew other pictures, including a skateboarder, King Tut, a ghost, a tree and a Cyclops, the newspaper reported.

( via )

I guess I will have to monitor what Talon draws now. If he keeps drawing guns, I will have to smack his hand with a ruler, or perhaps hold food back from him for a couple of days. That will teach him to try and be creative. I should probably also punish him for shooting those little Nerf darts with that Nerf air gun I bought him for Christmas last year.  That said, I should probably go and turn myself into the police for buying him such a toy weapon that, according to ‘them’ will cause him to one day flip and go on a rampage.

Fucking idiots. People should be ashamed of themselves. Haven’t we robbed enough of our children’s youth? Kids probably rebel more because of what we limit them to do, then what we are (and I use this phrase loosely) ’saving them from’

Shame on you.