« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
The Bringer of Death
July 31, 2006I have won.
I have defeated the bees.
There may be a few stragglers to come out of the air conditioning vents in the coming days...but nothing like it was a week ago.
The bee death total stands at 275
I even went so far as to abandon my usual method of death in favor of something that took a little longer today.
Drowning. There was a bee in my bathroom sink. I pinned him with the drain plug and filled it with water. I know, that's horrible...blah blah blah.
You have no idea what it's been like the last 2 weeks. Afraid of walking around in the dark for fear of stepping on a bee.
That would hurt a lot, a bee sting on the bottom of my foot. I'm pretty sure that would ruin my day. Even my girlfriend steps around gingerly, even in her own house...worried that there's a bee underfoot.
There won't be the daily onslaught of 25-40 bees inside my apartment any more. They know what awaits them. If they're smart, they'll buzz around and tell all their friends:
"There he is...the bringer of death. Bee-ware....BEE-WARE!!!!!!"
Posted by Jason Palmer at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Rusty Yates needs to be jailed
July 27, 2006Negligent homicide:
A charge brought against persons, who by inaction allow others under their care to die.
He knew something wasn't right. He was warned by doctors about Andrea's psychotic state and how it would get worse if they had another child.
He is responsible for allowing those children to be left alone with a woman who had ALREADY filled their bathtub once for no apparent reason.
He needs to be in court.
Andrea is another story, and while I hate that she was found not guilty by reason of insanity, it doesn't excuse the fact that there were mitigating factors that led to this that could have and should have been prevented.
Okay, I'm done....here's a story for you to read
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Is cold watermelon bad for you?
July 26, 2006Not exactly...but a new study shows that ice-cold watermelon delivers less nutrients than room-temp. watermelon.
Our hard-earned tax dollars at work.
But this isn't some crackpot survey or science...it's from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- That ice-cold watermelon may be refreshing, but it can be less nutritious than watermelon served at room temperature, U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists reported on Wednesday.Watermelons stored at room temperature deliver more nutrients than refrigerated or freshly picked melons, they reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Penelope Perkins-Veazie and Julie Collins of the USDA's South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, Oklahoma, looked specifically at carotenoids -- antioxidants that can counter the damage caused by sun, chemicals and day-to-day living.
Watermelon is rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that makes watermelons and tomatoes red and may help prevent heart disease and some cancers.
Perkins-Veazie and Collins tested several popular varieties of watermelon stored for 14 days at 70 F, 55 F and 41 F.
Whole watermelons stored at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about room temperature in air-conditioned buildings, had substantially more nutrients, they reported.
Compared with freshly picked fruit, watermelon stored at 70 F gained up to 40 percent more lycopene and 50 percent to 139 percent extra beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A.
"All watermelons used in our study had been selected by commercial growers as fully ripe when harvested," the researchers wrote.
They said their findings showed that watermelons continue to produce these nutrients after they are picked and that chilling slows this process.
"The usual shelf life for watermelons is 14 to 21 days at 13 degrees Celsius (55 F) after harvest," the researchers wrote.
At refrigerated temperatures, such as 41 F, watermelon starts to decay and develop lesions after a week, they noted.
Who eats watermelon for the nutrients? And who in their right mind would want room-temp watermelon when it's 110 outside.
Scientists...obviously not from Texas.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Buzzkill
oh yeah...I almost forgot
Bee deaths: 247
Bee stings: 1
Fly-swatter misses: 17
Grill torches: 2
HEPA filters for vaccum: 2
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Are Texas cows tougher?
This story caught my eye on the wire.
California, in the midst of a major heat wave (like the rest of the country isn't) is having huge problems with cattle dying in the heat.
I guess those dairy cows aren't so happy after all....
Here's part of the story:
By OLIVIA MUNOZ Associated Press WriterFRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- The state's record-setting heat wave has killed thousands of dairy cows and other livestock, leaving farmers with piles of carcasses and creating a backup at factories that turn the dead animals into pet food.
A combination of sweltering temperatures, growth in the state's dominant $5 billion dairy industry and fewer plants to properly dispose of the animals have forced several counties to declare a state of emergency.
The declarations allow dead livestock to be dumped in landfills - something usually outlawed because of health risks.
"But what can we do? We have to weigh the possible contamination to ground water versus piles of dead cows stinking and attracting flies," said Phil Larson, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
The heat wave, with 10 straight days of 100-degree temperatures, brought the threat of more rolling blackouts and raised the number of suspected heat-related deaths to at least 56. Cooler weather was not expected until Wednesday.
Fresno County, which reached 113 degrees in recent days, was one of the first to declare an emergency when a plant that handles the bulk of the region's dead animals broke down earlier this month.
After the old carcasses began decomposing in the searing summer heat, county officials were forced to make the declaration - the first in the county's history, Larson said.
"It wasn't any easy solution," he said. "It's not something we want to continue but we can't have piles of dead animals laying around."
Gross.
Now, you'll have to forgive this big-city kid...but is this a problem around here?
Our the cows in Texas just tougher than those pampered bovines on the Left Coast? It's been hot here too. Really hot...just as hot as sunny California.
Are there "rendering" plants around here, grinding up dead cows and whatnot for dog food?
Is that why steak is so much better in Texas...it doesn't melt on the grill like a stick of butter.
Somebody, please, help me understand this a bit more.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Lance Bass....Gay.
I gotta tell you....this doesn't suprise me in the least.
I always figured that at least one of the nsync boys played for the wrong team.
Here's the story if you're intrested
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bee death toll
July 22, 2006Official Total: 150
They just don't get it.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Cold Front my @&$
July 21, 2006"A cold front is sweeping across Texoma" rants the local weatherman.
Another goofy weather term that doesn't fit somehow.
Temperatures don't "dip" into the mid-90s.
This is just one of those things that drives me crazy...along with the media having to remind people by talking about the heat.
You don't have "cold" fronts when it's 106...and it drops to the mid 90s. That's not cold. That's not cold air. That's just less hot air.
It's still hot. It's just not "easy-bake oven" hot. Dropping fifteen degrees isn't really much of anything until you go from 45 to 30. That's a cold front.
The weather guys should use better terminology like...."A less hot front"...or, "A front that won't burn the hair off your body"
Even just saying something general like "A front that will knock the temps below 100 for the first time in two weeks." But don't call it a "cold" front.
Something else this week made me mad every time I heard it. What the heck is an "excessive heat warning?" I know what it's supposed to mean, but has anybody ever heard of that before.
I don't recall any excessive heat warnings last year, or any year before honestly. I mean, when it's 110 outside, do we really need to be told that it is excessively hot.
Warning...in case you didn't notice all the glass melting at your house, it's ^@$*(^@% hot out there. Stay inside your deep freeze unit with your deer meat.
For the record...I didn't complain when it was freezing outside.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Clearing the dead
July 19, 2006I just vacuumed 100 bee bodies.
100.
One Hundred.
One hundred bees...from the inside of my apartment.
Not a conservative guess...I counted them all. 100. One HUNDRED.
Now...some of them were previously killed bees against the doorsill on my patio. But most of them weren't.
So even if I conservatively guess that I hadn't cleaned up any of the previously killed 36 bees...there were 64 new bees in my apartment today. And I know that I cleaned up at least two-dozen of the bee corpses.
64 new bees TODAY!!!!!!
I ought to pull them all out of the vacuum and put them in a jar to show the apt. manager. This is insane. Ridiculous. Unreal.
Now, oddly enough, the majority of these bees had already died or was dying on the carpet. Strange, maybe the commercial grade bee killer is actually working. Nonetheless, I torched a few just for good measure.
100 bees. Sweet fancy Moses, what's going on around here?
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Homicidal Rage
I think it's official....I'm a bee serial killer.
Running bee death total: 36
This is getting rediculous.
The maintenance guy over here said there's not much they can do about the bees that are coming into my apt.
That's BullS@%!
There are a lot of things the apt. complex can do for me....like not require next month's rent. That'd be helpful.
In the meantime, there are still bees literally flying out of the air conditioner vents at random times, most of them around sunset when the busy little bees are returning home to whatever is in the vents.
It's when they encroach on my habitat...they incur death. By fire. Yes, I'm still using the grill torch to burninate the bees to their death.
That may be inhumane, PETA may protest me...or the people who love pit bulls, I don't care I don't care.
The apts. are damn lucky that I"m not deathly allergic to bee stings. They just piss me off.
If anybody has some sort of solution to this problem, PLEASE let me know. And I don't mean how to kill the bees once they're inside...I've got that covered.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Running Death Total
July 18, 2006Number of bee deaths at the hands of Jason....
35
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Attack of the Bees
July 17, 2006Okay...so the first thing that I notice when I moved in was a small group of bees buzzing around.
If you'll remember...one of those bastards stung me on the move in day.
Well...they've made a comeback.
Not.........................Good.
I had noticed once or twice this week that a random bee had somehow made it into my apt. I figured that I let it in somehow through the door and my own stupidity.
That was not the case.
I'm eating dinner with my girlfriend Courtney, and all of a sudden, there's one hovering around the light fixture like a moth. Jason is not a happy camper.
I kill it. Not but a few minutes later...another one appears. Holy moly, where are they coming from I ask.
That question gets answered rather quickly and disturbingly....Courtney sees on crawl out of the air return vent. They're in the ducts. Next thing I know, I track down and kill 6 more of the buggers.
This isn't happening. Now, I'm not allergic of bee stings that I'm aware of. But I still don't like the idea of them crawling all over the place. Quickly I devise a plan using a grill lighter to burn them to death. Sure, that may be cruel, but I don't care.
So, I think we get them all (bug sprayed all the areas outside where they were buzzing around) and we start a movie. Post-movie, the lights come on, and it looks like some kind of post-apacolyptic bee death scene.
No joke...there are at least a dozen bees in the midst of a chemically induced death.
I had to speed up the process. With burning death.
___________________________________________
No joke, as I was writing this (it's 11:10) I just killed 2 more bees crawling around the kitchen. The death total is up to 20 bees in the last 5 hours.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Flip Flop Found!
July 14, 2006Despite all odds....my friend Zach came through in the clutch and FOUND my leather sandal at the golf course (see previous entry).
I'm lucky he returned it....after all, he found the flip-flop long before he found his car keys. He said he gave brief thought to chunking the sandal into the lake.
That's right....a set of keys and brown leather sandal, found among the trees and lost golf balls on a 6,500 yard stretch of grass and dirt.
This day's been getting better ever since.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
One flip-flop and a 95
That's what I came away from the Hawk Ridge Golf Course with this morning after playing a friendly round of golf with one of my best friends, sports guy Zach Duncan.
I shot a 95...he beat me by 2 strokes.
He par-ed all the par 3 holes (4 of them) and I was 6-over on the same four holes. Not Good.
Not that the rest of my round was that great either...but in the end, I'll submit that we both lost.
Here's why.....
I took my brown leather flipflops off and put them in my bag before we started the round. Took my golf shoes out and put them on my feet.
Also, I put 2 bottles of water in the bag, same pocket as my flip flops. Well, the best I can guess....at some point the bag decided that pocket was too full and threw one of my sandals out onto the course.
Of course, I didn't notice until the end of the round. That makes me mad too, those were great sandals.
It's not like I could be that upset though. I had a relatively frustrating round of golf, scattering shots and loosing balls all over that short golf course.
But I'll give Zach credit...he did beat me. He had some good shots in the clutch that I couldn't recover from. He put a chip within 1 foot on one of the par 3s and sunk a 12-foot putt from off the green to save par on another.
He was pretty pleased.....until the end of the round when he noticed that he couldn't find his car keys.
Kinda made my sandal mishap not feel so bad.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I vote for Winter
July 13, 2006Holy boiling water.....you might have noticed that it's a bit warm out.
And by a bit warm...I mean, even my bbq grill is complaining.
I blame KAUZ meteorologist Mathew Krueger for this. Or at least for pointing it out to me today at noon.
I mean seriously...should we have to have the knowledge that last night we set a record....
For WARMEST low at 81. It got DOWN TO 81 degrees last night.
There are places in the country where it didn't get UP TO 81 yesterday. Don't give us this information. Just stop it.
I didn't keep count, but I think Mathew said "It's Hot" about 230 times in the 30-minute broadcast. Thank you captain obvious.
Television folks do this thing called "cross talk" when the anchor and weather guy or sports guy pretend to make casual conversation on the air. Don't talk about the heat. Trust us, we know. I'd rather hear about what you had for breakfast.
"Well Matt...it sure is hot out there this afternoon." That's about the time I just want to put my head in the oven to cool off.
And tomarrows expected high?...........175 by noon.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
More bad moving day signs
July 12, 2006Okay...after loading up all the stuff on the "repaired" U-Haul (see previous entry)....it was about noon. Freaking hot.
I looked to the west and to what did my wondering eyes appear....
A thunderstorm. With the way my Monday was going, there was no question when it would strike.
Yup...you guessed it. Right in the middle of unloading the heavy stuff, the rains came.
Now...if you're saying "Wait, it didn't rain at my house on Monday afternoon....that's because the storm was probably confined to just over my head.
It wasn't wet near McNeil. But trust me, it rained.
SO we finally get all that taken care of. In the rain. And I realize that I can't use my grill where I want, on the patio.
Some idiot put plastic siding on the UNDERSIDE of the balcony above me. So any rising grill heat would melt the plastic, I'm gonna have to grill in the parking lot I guess.
Grrr....there'll be more stories to come for sure out of this.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bad sign on moving day
July 10, 2006Yeah...this day has already started on a bad foot.....
So I literally roll up to my apt. that I'm moving out of in the big U-Haul and see my friend Zach Duncan waiting for me to help move.
I get out of the truck to greet him, and close the door behind me.
Well, tried to close the door.............
*Metal Crunch Sound*......the door won't shut.
And by won't shut, I don't mean like you didn't close it all the way. It won't shut. It's not alligned properly to shut.
By five inches.
Apparently, one of the two 9-inch bolts holding the drivers door onto the freaking truck has fallen out, and the door is hanging crooked on the truck.
Zach duely notes..."Well, that doesn't look good." Captain Obvious strikes again.
So I call the rental place...and get transfered to a help line....then get transfered to a waiting line....finally transferred to Call Center Mohammad. And that may sound insensitive, but every possible stereotype played itself out.
Now, I'm waiting on some local mechanic to call ME back within the next 30 minutes (it's 10 a.m. now). He's going to call me and tell me how long it's going to take for him to come out there and tell me if he can even fix it.
He may have to take it to the U-Haul repair center...which means, I can't even begin to load all my stuff in it because they may just replace it altogether.
I am so upset right now I think I'm going to just go throw up.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Summertime Santa
July 8, 2006Santa Claus is on vacation....in Branson, Missouri.
Actually...a bunch of Santas.
More than 280 Jolly St. Nicks belonging to the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas are attending a summer seminar to learn how to be good Santas.
I don't think I'd ever stop smiling if i were there taking photos there.....
(AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Chris Oberholtz)
I stopped believing in "the real" Santa when I was 8 or 9 years old. I remember it clearly...we were at my Granny's house in Arkansas. My cousins and I were asleep on the living room floor.
Well, I wasn't asleep, I was pretending.
I listened closely as Mom and Dad openly talked about mine and my sisters main presents. I wasn't too upset.
Ever since then though...I've believed in the spirit of Santa. And people who fulfill that role for 1000s of kids around the world every year. Especially if they have an authentic white beard. Those men are so full of love not only during Christmas time, but year round when they'll be spotted in a white tank-top and khaki shorts.
Still, the kids will yell...."Mommy, look!!!!"
There is no feeling in this world like witnessing the pure joy of a child. That is one of the things I love about my job, I get to see that occasionally when photographing children.
This is a good story that will make you smile. Even if it's 100-degrees outside, it'll make you think of Christmas-time.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Like Mike
Okay...now THIS is a funny lawsuit story.
A Portland man who bears a striking resemblance to His Airness Michael Jordan.....has filed a lawsuit against Jordan and Nike founder Phil Knight for.....
$832 MILLION DOLLARS.
That absolutely made me laugh outloud.
This poor guy has a shaved head (Like Mike)....left ear-ring (Like Mike)....plays basketball (Like Mike)....wears Air Jordan shoes (Like Mike)....and is fairly tall (Like Mike).
Like Mike.....sounds like he's trying to be like Mike.
This is easily the funniest/stupidest thing I've heard this month already, and I doubt it'll be beaten.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Former Mavs Ball Boy a registered sex offender
July 6, 2006Huh....well, I guess the headline kinda says it all doesn't it.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Using my Dad's Grill
July 5, 2006My youngest sister and I were left home alone for the 4th of July while my other sister went with her boyfriend to Waco, and my parents were in Arkansas on a family funeral.
That left to fend for ourselves for dinner......not to worry I told her, I can grill some steaks.
Only difference...I was using the Holy Grail Grill that belonged to my dad.
Up until about 2 years ago....I wasn't even welcome to be OUTSIDE with Dad while he grilled. It was just an unspoken law. I hadn't crossed into that rite of passage yet.
That apparently changed when I purchased a medium sized propane grill up here for my apt. The very next time I went home...dad said "hey, go fire up the grill for these burgers".
I was stunned....a tear nearly came to my eye.
Then I realized, I had no idea how to turn on his grill. Here I am....25 years old, and I couldn't turn on my dad's grill. It's one of those monstrous 3-burner shiny steel things with cabinet space and all the goodies.
"Dad...how DO you turn on the grill?" He looked at me with the same look that you'd expect if he told you to turn the channel with the remote, and you didn't know how.
"Dad, I've never even used your grill before, this is huge." So there we were...grilling together for the first time.
I even showed him a trick or two....now he uses a spice rub blend on his steaks.
Back to the 4th....so my sister and I picked up some t-bones and bratwursts....and I told her I'd show her how steaks are supposed to be done.
Dad prefers his still mooing. "Saw his horns off, wipe his butt and bring him to the table" I believe is the proper terms.
He also burns the brats. A cardnial grilling sin in my book.
Needless to say, several hours of marinating and grilled perfection later, my sister was very impressed.
Dad definetely passed on the grill flame to his son.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
