I guess the new Transformers movie is so terrible a Transformer decided to commit suicide.

Having lived in a pretty hippy, earthy community in Nor Cal I remember hearing about protests against Genetically Modified Foods but I’ve never known what the big deal is until Jess and I watched a freaky (and poorly narrated) documentary. If you eat food, I highly recommend that you watch it…

Some highlights:
Big evil companies now have the ability to patent genes. Once patented, farmers have to actually pay to grow food. Other genes like the one for breast cancer have been patented which have created barriers for researching cures and treatments.

Part of the genetic modifications include inserting things like ecoli bacteria and antibiotics into your food. Yummy. Now I can enjoy my cereal and be cured of hepatitis.

Another modification is a patented gene called the suicide gene which causes crops to die after producing, forcing farmers to buy new seeds for the next year. Our government is a co-owner of this patent.

There is no regulation, no testing, and no labeling of GMO foods in the USA. Congratulations! You and I are the test. I can’t wait to see what happens.

P.S. Dozens of countries (like all of Europe) at the very least, label genetically modified food, if not ban it altogether. But we’re smarter than them.

So the first ‘probable’ case of Swine Flu has hit Spokane. Probable, because they won’t know for a few days if the dude just has a normal flu or ’swine flu’. I thought swine flu makes your skin bubble and melt but maybe he hasn’t got to that stage yet.

In other news I got an email from youtube letting me know that a video I put up 2 1/2 years ago of Jude smiling may be guilty of copyright infringement because I used 62 seconds of a Police song. 2 1/2 years ago?! Apparently this gives Youtube permission to add advertisements and blocks it from being viewed everywhere except the following locations:
American Samoa, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Fiji, France, Germany, Guam, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kiribati, Mexico, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Spain, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Vanuatu

Mostly a bunch of islands who probably don’t have the internets anyways and thankfully our embargoes against Cuba don’t cover Copyright Infringement.

Besides mints, clothing, and a medical acronym I’ve now found a movie prop bearing my nickname.

I give you the Foosh gun!

This was used in the very forgettable movie the 6th Day with Arnold the Governator. If someone would like to purchase it for me I would be grateful.

Apparently the economy isn’t so bad that restaurants can’t give away free food.

Tomorrow from 6 AM - 2 PM Denny’s is giving free Grand Slam’s (2 eggs, 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 cakes) to the Nation. Yes, the Nation! What’s lesser known is that you can also say, “Slam It Up” and add up to two additional menu items for .99.

Oh, you know I’m going to ‘Slam It Up’ tomorrow.

Also, on February 24th IHOP is giving out free ‘Short Stacks’ to their customers.

Regardless of the dumb groundhog February is going to be an awesome month!

Shortly after Christmas I hit up the sweet sales at Old Navy and got myself some $12 jeans. When I got home I put them on and lo and behold found some sort of weird rock in my pocket. I wondered the pants were made that a rock would end up in the pocket. Then I thought, “Maybe this is one of those million dollar giveaways where whoever buys pants with a rock in the pocket wins?!” After checking the O.N. site I found out that there was no such giveaway.

A few days later I was in Barnes and Noble with the family and every detector I walked through beeped as if I were loaded down with stolen self-help books. Which I wasn’t. Barnes and Noble has detectors all over the place; in the children’s section, music section, and of course by the doors. At each section I had to walk over to the counter and make a bad joke about the weight loss book I was trying to steal. Leaving the family at Barnes and Noble I sauntered across the parking lot to see if there were any sweet sales at Circuit City (which I just found out yesterday is going out of business, nationwide). Upon entering the store I heard the ear piercing theft detector go off and drew the stares of everyone at the store. I again walked over to the counter and cracked a bad joke about trying to return something I’d stolen earlier. On my way out, it beeped again and I just started running. At both stores the clerks said it was probably my cell phone. This was news to me because I’ve had it over a year and never had this problem.

Yesterday morning after taking a shower and putting my $12 Old Navy pants on, I noticed a weird tag on the inside of my pants I’d never seen before. The tag simply said, “Remove this tag before washing or wearing.” The tag was placed in a pretty inconspicuous spot below the pocket, about mid thigh, inside the pants, which is why I’d never noticed it. I cut the tag off, wondering if wearing the pants for the last month with the tag on had caused permanent damage to my leg. It looked like an ordinary tag to me, no chemical pouch or anything. Than I noticed it - a micro chip looking thingy embedded in the fabric of the tag and most likely the reason of my theft detection embarrassment.

As I pondered the marvel of technology I couldn’t help but go back to the rock and wonder what purpose it had. I may never know, but I will definitely check my pants from now on.

Record snows are melting and as a result I-5 is closed due to flooding and the main West-East mountain passes are also closed. Cra-zay!

Thanks to the BBC I am now freaked out of animals. All of them.

I know a lot of people have seen this already but I had to post it anyhow. This is definitely a tribute to weird early Christian music.