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More Macro Fun

Macro Fun...

Only had 5 min to take some pictures.... More to come...

A Good Article...

A Great Article about abortion and some of the laws that surround it...

An excerpt of a pretty good point...

This state of affairs is not surprising, considering both cases were based on lies. Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, lied to her lawyers about being raped. But she at least was pregnant and seeking an abortion. Sandra Cano, the “Mary Doe” of Doe v. Bolton, wasn’t even pregnant. She was a homeless mother seeking a divorce and custody of her children. Her legal-aid attorney, recognizing a poorly educated sucker when she saw one, filed the case under false pretenses.

Those weren’t the only lies. One of the rationales cited in Roe was the supposed number of women dying from illegal abortions—allegedly in the tens of thousands. But Bernard Nathanson, founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, later said the numbers were simply made up. During the debate over partial-birth abortion a few years ago, the pro-abortion side claimed the procedure was rare—as if even one case of puncturing the skull of an infant and sucking out its brains would be acceptable. (Imagine the outcry from the folks at PETA if someone were to do that to, say, a rat.) But Ron Fitzsimmons of the National Association of Abortion Providers later admitted, “We lied through our teeth.” The gruesome procedure was performed more than a thousand times a year, sometimes for a “birth defect” as minor as a cleft palate

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Gift Bags - way easier

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Real - but the wife won't let me.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Thanksgiving Weekend - well the wife puts it up I just help with the heavy stuff

4. When do you take the tree down?
New Years

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
20 Ga Shotgun

7. Hardest people to buy for?
The In-laws

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Pook - cars, trucks or tractors! How much easier does it get?

9. Do you have a Nativity scene?
Yes - built it with my Grandpa and my Mom gave us the figures that we used when I was growing up.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Anything from Stevie circa early to mid 90's

12. Favorite Christmas Movie.
Elf, Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life

13. When do you start Christmas shopping?
Christmas Eve - If I even shop

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Don't Remember

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Breakfast Casserole Christmas Morning...

16. Lights on the tree?
Yes

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Anything by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Both

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Yes - "On, Donner! On, Blitzen! On, Chewy! On, Tavo!
C'mon, Becto!"

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
1 gift Christmas eve all the rest Christmas Morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Traffic

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Homemade ones

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
HAM

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Snow

Over 30 things you didn't know about the holiday movie 'A Christmas Story'

By Tim Briscoe

The holidays are upon us and what better way to celebrate them than with the classic movie A Christmas Story. Humor and trivia magazine Mental Floss recently published 12 tidbits about the film you probably didn't know.

Not to be outdone, we've added 20 more. Both lists should give you enough ammunition to amaze your friends and family during repeated viewings.

First, here are the dozen facts presented by Mental Floss. You can read full details on each at their web site.

1. Jack Nicholson was very interested in playing Ralphie’s dad.
2. Bob Clark directed sex comedy Porky's in 1982, a year A Christmas Story.
3. Ralphie says he wants a Red Ryder BB Gun 28 times throughout the movie.
4. Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) was an executive producer on Iron Man.
5. Mythbusters tested the tongue-sticking-to-metal pole phenomenon.
6. Scott Schwartz (Flick) worked as an adult film actor for a time.
7. You can tour the house used for filming in Cleveland.
8. Bob Clark has inspired to make the movie after hearing author (and movie narrator) Jean Shepherd read from his short story collection on the radio.
9. TV's The Wonder Years was inspired by the movie.
10. Real Red Ryder BB Guns were first made in 1938.
11. In addition to the gun, you can buy replicas of the leg lamp, Lifebuoy soap, and decoder pin used in the movie.
12. A sequel, My Summer Story a.k.a. It Runs in the Family, featuring a totally different cast was released in 1994.

Always the ones to go above and beyond, we now present 20 more trivia bits about the beloved movie.

1. Director Bob Clark and his adult son were both killed in an L.A. car accident in 2007. A drunk driver crossed the median and struck Clark's Infinit Q-30 head-on. The man received six years prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter.
2. The last movie directed by Bob Clark in 2004, SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2 remains one of the worst reviewed movies on IMDb with a 1.7 rating on a 10 point scale.
3. Bob Clark plays the Parker family neighbor who ogles the leg lamp from outside.
4. Peter Billingsley was notable prior to the movie for his numerous TV commercial appearances. He starred as "Messy Mervin" in a series of ads for Hershey's chocolate syrup. He was also a regular on the NBC TV series "Real People" with Sarah Purcell and Byron Allen.
5. Billingsley makes a brief appearance in another Christmas favorite, 2003's Elf. He plays a spectacled worker in Santa's workshop.
6. Along with his friend Brian Evans, Peter released the holiday CD "Christmas Stories... Christmas Songs" in 1999.
7. During his work on Iron Man, Billingsley posed with friend and director Jon Favreau for a photo featuring guns used during production. Rather than grasping the modern weaponry, Peter is shown holding the beloved Red Ryder gun.

   

8. Zack Ward, who played yellow-eyed bully Scut Farkus, continues to have a successful acting career. He appeared in the movies Transformers, Postal, and BloodRayne II. He was also a regular on the TV sitcom Titus.
9. Yano Anaya, the kid who played Scut Farkus' toadie Grover Dill, also played the paperboy in Better Off Dead who repeatedly demands "I Want My Two Dollars!" Thanks to reader Wayne for this correction. Yano played another paperboy in the movie. It was Demian Slade who played Johnny, the "two dollars" paperboy. Since this fact has been nullified, in its place we present The Christmas Story Drinking Game.
10. There is a scene deleted from the movie where Ralphie has a Flash Gordon fantasy.
11. A Christmas Story grossed around $19 million during its run theaters, a respectable amount for the time.
12. According to IMDb, the Ralphie Parker, Randy Parker, Flick, Schwartz, et al, characters created by Jean Shepherd first appeared in the 1976 made-for-TV movie "The Phantom of the Open Hearth." Ralphie Parker was also played by Matt Dillon and Jerry O'Connell in the TV movies "The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters" (1982) and Ollie Hopnoddle's Haven of Bliss (1988).
13. Many people have attempted to establish the year in which the movie takes place. The Parkers' 1937 Oldsmobile, the 1940 "speedomatic" Little Orphan Annie decoder badge, and the 1936 (or '46) trade of White Sox pitcher Bullfrog Bill Dietrich are cited but none resolve to a specific year.
14. The film is set in a fictional Indiana town named Hulman. It's based on Shepherd's hometown of Hammond, a city southeast of Chicago. The movie was filmed in Cleveland with other parts shot in Toronto.
15. The last name of actress Melinda Dillon (Ralphie's mom) is misspelled as "Dillion" during the end credits.
16. If you look closely, you can see 1980s model cars driving by the school during the flagpole scene.
17. A three-day convention was held in Cleveland in November to honor the 25th anniversary of the movie. Eight original cast members were on hand for autographs.
18. Two fans of the movie produced the Road Trip for Ralphie documentary which visits more than 15 locations used in the movie.
19. There is also a 75-minute documentary titled Shooting Your Eye Out: The Untold 'Christmas Story' with never-before-seen on-set photos and interviews.
20. Cable TV network TNT first ran its 24-hour marathon showing of the movie in 1988. The repeating airing of the movie 12 times in a row (now on sister station TBS) has become a Christmas Eve tradition.

My Desktop Interface....

I just wanted to share my Desktop Interface that I just finished modifing, I tried to show the wife but she was not too impressed, so I thought I would post here.

Desktop Items:
Rainlendar - For Calendar and to-do list
Rainmeter - Running the Moxa-Weather Config for Current and 3 day weather forecast.
Samurize - Running a modifies Conky Config for system Monitoring and Time/Date
RocketDock - Launch Bar on the bottom for Program Launch
Snackr - News Feed at the top - pulling RSS feeds from CNN and FoxNews for real time news.
Backgound from the Transformers Movie slightly edited.