Phillies/Yankees World Series Graphic

Lost and Found

In possibly the weirdest and creepiest story in recent memory, a woman who disappeared 18 years ago was found the other day. Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped at at 11, was rescued at the age of 29 after being shut off from the world. The article is worth a read, as I can't even begin to think of what to say about this. How this sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife got away with this for so long is beyond me. Cops routinely checked in on him as part of his parole, and he was even reported to the police for strange behavior. He had Jaycee and her two daughters, Starlite and Angel, ages 15 and 11, whom he fathered, living in a tent complex on the other side of his fence. His neighbors didn't say anything, even though they knew he was a sex offender and heard kids and showers in the backyard. Possibly the weirdest aspect is how Jaycee never tried to leave after being abducted. According to the article, Garrido even spent time in jail while she was living back there and she just stuck around. She had access to the internet and even went out in public as Allissa. She didn't even tell her children that she had been kidnapped. The more I read about it, the more incredible it gets. HOW DID THE POLICE NOT CATCH ON!

Photos from the shanty Jaycee and her kids lived in.

A senile old woman from Fulton, Missouri decided to take matters into her own hands when she got fed up with planes flying around a municipal airport near her home. Judy Davis decided that the best way to take care of the annoying planes would be to shoot them down with a hand gun. If you ask me, bringing a hand gun onto a runway and shooting at a plane is definitely a reasonable way to go about expressing your anger.

The new Mac OS, Snow Leopard, launched this week and is selling for just $29 as an upgrade compared to $99 to go from XP to Vista. It takes up less than half the space the old OS did, wakes up and shuts down twice as fast and even has the touch pad enabled for entering Chinese characters (pretty cool if that's of any use to you, which for 100% of the people reading this I would imagine it isn't. Still pretty sweet though.)

According to the Gallup Organization, America's love affair with Obama is coming to an end. In the latest poll Obama's approval rating is nearing the 50% mark. If he were to fall below 50%, Gallup says it would be the third fastest drop to below majority approval since World War II. The two presidents that dropped below majority approval faster? Gerald Ford, and the previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

One reason for the disapproval is his increasingly liberal policies, the latest of which could give the president emergency control of the internet with the ability to shut down private networks. This is coming from Fox News, so take it as you will, but still a bill that could potentially give the government power to take over computers in the event of a cyber emergency is a bit scary. The way the actual bill is worded makes it seem like they may only be able to control computers used in coordination with a federal contract, but it is still vague enough that the possibility for government computer control is still there. Live Free or Die Hard must have really scared the Senate if they feel this is necessary.

And, lastly, in the sports world, some negativity is headed Brett Favre's way. I really can't stand how he keeps coming back, stealing headlines and whatnot, and have also refused to read any articles about him. That is, until the headline "Brett Favre's Awful Play" was too good to pass up. It lead to an article about Favre's illegal crackback block on Eugene Wilson of the Texans. He was lined up at receiver in the Wildcat with Tavaris Jackson in the gun, and just dove at his knees to attempt to make a block, injuring Wilson on the play. It was a filthy block, and I'm glad the announcers said didn't hold back and give Favre any special.



Fin.

Don't Tase Me Bro!

In case you've been living under a rock, the Eagles have signed Michael Vick. According to the article, the Bengals had offered a deal to him first (fitting for the Bengals). He turned down their $2.3 million/2 year offer for the Eagles $1.6 million/1 year with an option for a second year deal. It seems like a good situation for him as far as staying out of trouble is concerned. He said all the right things at the press conference, saying he realizes he only has one chance and has to get it right. Tony Dungy has always been a role model throughout his time associated with the NFL, and him having Vick's back says a lot. As far as where he fits in with the team, obviously McNabb is entrenched as the starting quarterback. I see Vick coming in as a running back type, with the Eagles running some direct snap plays for him, as well as lining him up in the slot. With Vick and Westbrook in the same backfield, and DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin at wideout, they could also run a pretty formidable Wildcat if they chose to. All in all, if Vick cleans up his act, I think this can be a good thing for the Eagles. Adding a player with a skill set like Vicks can only help a team. With that said, the Patriots still won, with Tom Brady coming back to go 10-15 with 100 yards, 2 touchdowns and a pick. Brady's backkkkk!!!! There's also audio of him talking about cuddling up with the ball, and wishing for someone to come and blast him. Here's the audio, the fun begins about 30 seconds in. I gotta figure out how to isolate that, it's hilarious.

In other football news, the Washington Redskins got running back Ladell Betts' name wrong on his jersey. Sad, considering he's spent his entire career with the 'Skins, even rushing for 1,000 yards one year.

Michael Phelps was involved in a car crash Thursday night. Police have said alcohol was not a factor, and no citations were issued. Interesting life this guy lives. With all that money, why does he not have a personal chauffeur? You would think that people in his position wouldn't risk even suspicion of drunk driving. He already has a driving while impaired on his record, too. I feel bad that all his normal growing up mistakes get so much coverage, but still, he has the means to be driven around, so why not do it?

A mom was tasered in front of her kids and is now suing the Onondaga Sheriffs Department. She was pulled over for talking on her cell when an officer saw her driving with her head resting on her cheek. He also claimed he paced her car at 50 in a 45, and was pulling her over for that. She got out of her car to check the tape (bad idea), and he told her to get back in the car. She hesitated and didn't get back in her car, so he tasered her. She should have never gotten out of the car, but really, a taser wasn't necessary. It is a great reason to show this video though, and who doesn't love that? Don't tase me bro!



A new study shows some people are genetically able to function with less sleep. I wish I were one of those people.

Peace peace.

Wasting Time

So apparently today is left handers day, and there is even a site dedicated to this fact. Do we really need a day to celebrate everything in today's society? At a time when everyone wants to be treated the same, do we really need a day to celebrate every little trait? I can't tell if the people running the site are serious or not with the way they talk about the day. According to them, this day has been going on for 18 years now. It is meant to break free from the right handers world (which, admittedly, it is.) A quote, if you may, from the site:

All year round, we fit in with home and office layouts designed for right-handers’ comfort – put up with doors, cookers, sinks, computer mice, keyboards and desks that are efficient for right-handers to work at, and hundreds of times every day we contort ourselves using back-to-front tools and gadgets that make us look clumsy and awkward in our efforts to make them to work…But NOT TODAY!

They go on to encourage lefties to make their work space a "Lefty Zone" where everything must be done left handed. They also have posters designating spaces as a "Lefty Zone." Good for them, fighting the right handed maaaahhhhn, but I sincerely hope that this whole day and their complaints are a joke.

Lefty Fun(?) Facts:
4 of the past 5 presidents, have been left handed (G.W. was the only righty)
Half of the Beatles were left handed (Ringo and Paul McCartney)
I'm boring myself, here are more famous lefties

A Cubs fan threw beer on Victorino as he made a catch by the wall. It took forever to find a video that hadn't been taken down. MLB really needs to change their policy on fans posting video to YouTube. It's getting ridiculous. I would understand their frustration if people were posting whole games to the internet, but that's not the case. Let people put up minutes long video to promote your league. It's free and you're getting the MLB brand out there, showing you connect to fans. By taking down videos, you disconnect yourself. No wonder the league struggles with image issues.

A mermaid has been spotted in Kiryat Yam, Israel, and officials are offering up a $1 million prize to the first person to produce a picture. They're hoping it draws tourists to the town, pulling in more than the million needed to give the prize away. That's exactly what I'd want to do. Travel to a war torn area because a non-existing creature could be there.

The PGA Championship opens up today, and the big story is Tiger still looking for his first major. He's won 5 times this year and the experts are calling it a down year. Rough. Speaking of lefies, everyone's favorite lefty golfer is in the field. Good luck, Phil.

Extremely fun graph here about how American's spend their day Sadly, reading this didn't make the cut.

I need an I'm finished phrase.

Koalas, Chlamydia and Health Care

Okay, it's been awhile, not that anyone reads this anyway. I'm going to try to promote this more and post a little more regularly. Anyways, here are some thoughts.

Apparently koalas need a sex education class. According to a passing statement in this article, 50% of the koala population is effected by chlamydia. Sam, apparently an internet sensation for living through the Australian brush fire, died of the disease. The headline of the article really overshadows the experience of this koala, but thats the sensationalist media for ya.

Yayyyy Obama!

Okay that was a little sarcastic. However, the White House is encouraging people to rat out others for stating thier opinion on whats going on, mainly with health care. In the original official White House blog post , people are encouraged to send an email to a certain address "if you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy." The reason given on the blog (not made up by me) is that the White House can't keep track of all the "disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care."

To me, this is a clear a violation of freedom of speech. Look, the bill is over 1,000 pages and is worded in a language not used by the common man. People are going to get what it says wrong, and, after looking at the actual bill, you really can't blame the every day person for distorting what it says. But to actually come out and essentially say, "Hey, could you let us know if anyone is badmouthing the health care bill? We appreciate it and we'll handle it from there, thanks" just seems against what this country supposedly stands for. I realize its now a felony to shed a negative light on our savior president, but to want people to rat out their fellow citizen to the White House is in no way acceptable.

Let's take a look at the main issue that seems to be causing a hang up, page 58. Here it is, copied from the bill link I just posted:

‘‘The goals for standards under paragraph (1) are that such standards shall—...enable the real-time (or near real time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card..."

and on the following page:

"The standards under this section shall be developed, adopted and enforced so as to—...enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice"

Well, then. I don't know about you, but this is a bit confusing. It took me a couple reads to understand it in bill format just so I could whittle it down into paragraph form. To me, it would sound as though this bill, if enacted, would give every citizen utilizing national health care a card. On that card would be information saying whether or not that person was eligible to receive a specific treatment from a specific doctor at a specific place. Now, this isn't really revolutionary. Having your medical records on a chip is something that has been discussed (possibly tried, I've done enough research though) in the past. To me, it makes sense to have all your information with you in case of emergency. If you're travelling in a different city and something happens, it would seem to me that it would be a hassle to contact your doctor at home to make sure you can have certain medications or what not. By this time, if something serious happened, you could be dead. Having all of your medical info on you is logical. Opponents of the bill are just sensationalizing it by taking that one sentence of a 33 line section of the bill, and circulating that.

Now, the part that does worry me is the second quote I posted. This would appear that in some way, the government would have access to a designated bank account of yours, as to ensure you had the funds to pay for your procedure. I know the government can pretty much get access to your account anyway, but that's only if you give them a reason to get a warrant to go into your account. This would seem give the government the ability to freely access your account. I realize the government has little, if any, interest in randomly going through ordinary people's personal bank accounts, but the possibility is a bit frightening.

A logo has also been developed, and the design incorporates the Obama logo. Is this about him or attempting to improve health care? We get it, Obama, you won. Now drop the branding and focus on the country, not yourself. Of course, as I say this, I'm including the logo. I hate myself sometimes.

Overall, I don't think the bill will get passed, since to implement and follow every part of a 1,000+ page bill would be near impossible. However, the discussion it generates is definately an interesting one.

Also, if either of my readers hasn't seen the Obama joker poster that plastered LA, here it is.

On a non-Obama, slightly biased note, earlier today Bing, Microsofts answer to Google, was called out on a little game their engine was playing. If you go to their site and enter "Why is Windows so expensive?" into the search bar, one would assume that something would come up about Windows' OS. Instead, here is what was at one point the first result. As of 4:30 pm, that link has dropped to the seventh result. Still, even if this is the equivalent of a GoogleBomb, it doesn't look good on Microsoft's part to have an Mac result come up as the first hit under the news for that particular question.

George Sodini is a real creep. He really hated women due to his own inability to hang on to one, and decided the best way to go about handling this would be to go to his gym, turn the lights off and fire bullets into the darkness before finally killing himself. I read the online diary he posted before it was taken down, and apparently this guy had less hits to his blog than even I do. He has been planning this attack since last year, but I guess no one read what he wrote because he was able to finally carry out his plan. At one point in January I believe it was, he said that he was going to do it, even giving a time, but then chickened out. Just a weird, weird story.

Today was the day of the social media fail, as Twitter was the target of a Denial of Service attack, Facebook encountered regular errors, and something happened to LiveJournal (I just didn't read about it because I dont care.) Here's the info.

One last thing, there's a pretty cool article about whats living in the depths of the ocean. It's a lot of words to skim, but the pictures of "Earth's Own Aliens" are pretty sweet.

T-Shirt Designs

Hope the new layout is a bit easier on the eyes, I'm sure ill be tweaking it more as time goes on and I'm continually bored.

Anyway, I've decided to foray into the t-shirt design world, at lease conceptually. I don't know if these shirts will ever get made or what, but I'm having a pretty good time laying them out. Here are the first two:

Born - With Spoilers So You Don't Have to Watch!

Yesterday, I unfortunately watched the movie Born. This movie was completely awesome in how awful it was. The premise itself wasn't bad, which is the reason we picked it up. A bizzaro Immaculate Conception (by a fly) leaves a virgin (Mary Elizabeth) holding a demon fetus that grows incredibly fast and takes over her body. Through the movie we learn that her brother is Asmodeus, the ruler of the 13th level of Hell or some shit and that the child is his. He wants to be human again, and in order to do that the demon fetus must feast on humans (or crow blood at one point) six times before it is born - a lover, a friend, a sister, a father and a murderer must be included - in order for everything to go according to plan. We meet him in a therapists office in the first scene, telling the therapist that he is a demon and I guess he feels bad for the murders. I don't know, I wasn't too sure on that part. The family is devoutly catholic, so of course the church must be duped into believing that for the demon to be taken care of, it must be born. To accomplish this, Asmodeus/brother poses as a cardinal and enlists a former military special ops guy but current priest to watch over her and make sure nothing happens to Mary Elizabeth.

So as the movie goes on, M.E. eventually realizes that, holy shit, this is a demon child, and tries to fight back. Her big hero moment comes when the demon is making her kill her father but she fights back and tells her father to kill the demon child. The old man is holding his oxygen tank above his head (which, btw, he brings with him to smoke which just seems like bad news waiting to happen), but can't bring himself to drop the tank on the pregger stomach. Lucky for them, the demon regains control of M.E.'s body and is able to slice the fathers ankle, forcing him to drop the tank on the bulging midsection, effectively knocking out the demon. They try to perform surgery to abort the demon, but are stopped by the house help Ivan and the sister (who apparently is on the devil's side now?). The demon then closes the opening in the stomach like a trap door (by far the funniest part of the movie) and now things really start to twist.

The devoutly catholic sister we now learn has stayed a virgin hoping that she would be the host for a demon child rebirth thing. Ivan is also part of Asmodeus' team. The priest is captured during the abortion mishap and put in a medieval spike cage thing so he can't escape. He will be the last kill, since he is a murderer from his ex-Army days. Also, he was conveniently involved since he thought he was helping a cardinal and was therefore easy to capture. However, being the smart man that he is, he starts calling the short-fused Ivan a fag, and Ivan murders him, taking out their last kill. Asmodeus, however, is no fool. The priest thinks he has outsmarted him, but Asmodeus has the last laugh, realizing (long after anyone watching) that Ivan is now a killer too since he killed the priest! So Ivan is murdered for the last kill, and all 6 heads of the murdered are placed at different points of a pentagram drawn on the floor so the birth can take place. The birth happens and a normal baby (not the awful thing that was in the trap door stomach scene) is born. But, who is that coming up the stairs? The therapist! Turns out, she was the devil, not just a ruler of a level like Asmodeus. She's none to happy he went to a shrink for his murder guilt complex, so instead of following through on the deal, she sends him back to hell. She then takes the baby and that's all we hear of it. The movie ends with Mary Elizabeth in a church vowing to find the child and raise it in God's name and to fight the demon, and the priest says he will help. After this takes place, what would you know, but a fly lands on Mary Elizabeth's face and the movie ends, leaving us to think "My what a lucky girl to get to carry a second demon spawn!"

So, this movie had more twists than a bag of Twizzlers, but unfortunately not one of them made any sense, nor did they add to the movie in the least. The effects were laughable, all of them from the trap door stomach to the lactation of ooze straight from Ninja Turtles to the water breaking looking like a dumping of Nick Slime. The plot was awful. They tried to make you think, but it just wasn't happening. The acting was just horrific. When the demon spoke through Mary Elizabeth, it made me want to laugh and punch her in the face at the same time. The unintentional comedy is through the roof. I don't think it was meant as a mock horror movie, but it did a great job of impersonating one. I don't know which is more sad, the fact that someone thought this was a legitimate movie, or the fact that I've spent near 1,000 words talking about it. If this movie cost more than the $1.07 I'd be angry that I wasted time, but it provided a few good laughs along with killing time at work to write this review, so I can't say that it was a total waste of my buck. Still, don't get it. Ever.

Quick Links

Sadly, the Taco Bell chihuahua Gidget has died. Apparently, she had a stroke at the age of 15:

http://celebritydeathbeeper.com/8299221.html

Two time Super Bowl champ Ben Roethlisberger has been accused of a sexual assault that occured A YEAR AGO. No criminal charges have been filed by the alleged victim, just this civil suit one year after the fact, demanding $440,000 from Big Ben and another $50,000 from the casino she was working at, claiming they covered up the incident:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4349253

Erin Andrews continues to dominate on Google Trends:

http://www.google.com/trends

Awesome, more corruption in Jersey involving money laundering:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124835404608875685.html

Some pretty sweet new glove shoes:

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

Saw a pretty terrible movie last night, Born. Here's the IMDB for it, if I get around to it I'll write my thoughts on it. The description on RedBox seemed promising enough, but it did not come through. Not even close:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0852940/

Well, thats depressing

Apparently, we haven't had enough rain here, because we're due for another 8 straight days of thunderstorms after today, according to the fine folks at weather.com.

On a completely unrelated note, Erin Andrews continued her two day run at number 1 on Google Trends for her peephole video. That is, until the Senate decided to vote to shut down production of any new F-22 fighter jets. It's always fun to go through the trends and see where the searching public's priorities lie. It's also fun to see how dumb the public is, considering Aaron Andrews was one of the top trends yesterday. On another Google note, if you Google Andrew Ensminger, my site is now the number one hit. I consider this an accomplishment, since prior to that, the first thing to come up was another Andrew Ensminger who sullied the name by admittadly shooting and killing one Mr. Devon Laughman. This story still appears before my Twitter account, but at least the site bearing my name beats out that story.

Vick free to go, but where to?

Today, Michael Vick completed the home confinement portion of his dogfighting sentence. Now, having spent 18 months in prison and finishing two more at home, federal agents came and picked up his electronic monitor today, allowing him to resume life as normal (within the guidelines of his probation). Where does this really leave him though? He is reportedly 20 million dollars in debt, there is very little interest from NFL teams in him and, as of now, he's still banned by the NFL. The UFL, which is an interesting development in and of itself, has a team in Orlando who has claimed his rights, but apparently Vick has no interest in playing anywhere other than the NFL.


Where will Vick end up? There is no real answer for that question, as teams shy away from showing interest for what seem to me to be publicity purposes. Who would want to associate themselves with Vick at this point when he's still indefinitely suspended from the league? Of the teams that were said to have interest in Vick on ESPN.com (Redskins, Seahawks, 49ers, Raiders, Dolphins and Jaguars) none of them make sense to me. Let's break it down:

Redskins: Invested in Jason Campbell, and I'm not sure Snyder would want to be responsible for cleaning up Vick's image.


Seahawks: Still have Hasselbeck, along with four other quarterbacks on the payroll, including a scrambler (Seneca Wallace) and a 2009 draft pick (Mike Teel).


49ers: This move, out of all of them, seems to be the most logical to me. They still have Alex Smith, who is supposedly revitalized after this off-season, but he's going to have to prove that before anyone believes it. They did just draft Nate Davis who had a stellar career at Ball State, but mid-major school success doesn't always translate to the NFL. Singletary is one tough mofo and commands respect, so may be the one who can turn Vick around.


Raiders: With JaMarcus Russell and Jeff Garcia already on the roster, this move doesn't make sense at all, but then again, Al Davis runs this team. They did draft Darrius Heyward-Bey over Michael Crabtree, so I guess anything is possible here.

Dolphins: The Wildcat offense worked well for them last year, but they seem to have a good unit to run the offense without Vick. They also picked up Pat White this off season, and he seems to bring the same thing to the table Vick would, without the dog killing baggage.

Jaguars: Garrard had a down year last year, but the team just spent 60 million over six years on him. I don't think that after one o

ff year they'd be willing to give up on him with that kind of money at stake. They brought in Torry Holt, and I think Garrard will turn it around and bring the Jags back to the playoffs this year. No need for Vick here.

So there you have it. Six teams listed by ESPN, and none really make sense. Now, where does that leave Vick? Well, Orlando in the aforementioned UFL has his rights, should he decide to play there. However, the UFL isn't exactly an ideal destination for him. The quarterback max salary is around $100,000 and the teams in the league don't have names, logos or definite rosters a month and a half away from the start of camps. On the plus side, the season is six games long, which would be good for him since he probably isn't in the same shape as he was, nor does he have the time to get in shape. It would give him a chance to show that he can still play, and seeing as how Goodell is in no rush to meet with Vick and talk about reinstating him, this fledgling United Football League may be his only shot.

Japanese Bug Fights

Recently, it has come to my attention that there is a website out there entitled http://www.japanesebugfights.com/. This site is exactly as it sounds. In each video posted, two bugs are put in a plastic cube and fight until one of them kills the other. There are only three rules in Japanese Bug Fighting, according to the site:

RULES OF JAPANESE BUG FIGHTS
1. Two Bugs to a fight
2. Bug fights go
on as long as they have to
3. No outside weapons in Bug Fights

Different kinds of bugs are involved, ranging from a crazy strong beetle (upon further research, I think it's an Atlas beetle) to Praying Mantiseseses (Mantisii?). Scorpions seem to be a popular contestant, although not a very successful one.

This site is one of the most awful, creepy, amazing things I have ever seen. I want to learn Japanese just to hear what they're saying during the fights. It's also a great site to learn from. I had no idea centipedes were poisonous, but there was one, surviving a scorpion sting to bite its opponent and kill it. This kind of thing absolutely needs betting involved. The odds on a centipede winning would have been at least 25-1. Vegas would have made a killing on the upset. As for that crazy strong beetle? In the one match I watched involving a beetle, it too was fighting a scorpion, picked the scorpion up in it's pinchers and just held the scorpion above it's head, rendering the stinger useless. Every now and then it would slam the scorpion to the ground until finally the scorpion died. I don't know how or why it died, maybe those pinchers squeezed it until it was no more, but the fact is, who's betting against a scorpion? All I know is this: more people need to be aware of the phenomenon that is Japanese Bug Fighting.

Who knew the scorpion was not to fear?

Why, hello there!

So. My name is Andrew Ensminger, and I figured it was about time I got involved in the blogging world, otherwise known as the vomit-inducing word "blogosphere." I really have no idea what I'll be writing about, or how often, but hopefully when I do write it can contribute a little bit to what must be a very dull life for you, seeing as how you're reading what I'm writing.

Now, a little bit about me, so if you don't care, you can just stop here and check back later. I am a recent graduate of Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. I graduated Cum Laude from the School of Communication with a BA in Advertising. I am a frater of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Omicron Iota chapter. I thoroughly enjoy snowboarding, so as winter comes, if I'm still doing this I'm sure I'll be writing about that. As of now, I have a 2009 Burton Bullet, Moto boots and Custom bindings. I need to get the bottom refinished since a rouge rock took a chunk out of it but other than that everything is in pretty good condition. Currently, I intern at Harmelin Media three days a week, do security at Tweeter (I'm not calling it the way too long name it is now) and am also looking for another part time job in the South Jersey area. Since it's about 5 o'clock and I'm at my internship now, I think this would be a good time to end this post. I want to go home.