Civil Servitude Weblog

April 23, 2008

Gold-Plated Toilets

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“Ghost Hunters” is back on the air! Yay!

Just when you thought television was dead (with the exception of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Friday Night Lights”), back comes “Ghost Hunters”, further reinforcing our belief in ghosts here at Jackson Acre.

n fact, the wife and I think we had our own personal encounter with a ghost here at Jackson Acre the other night. The kids were in bed and we were in the family room watching “American Idol” when we both heard what sounded like a kitchen chair scraping across the floor, as if someone – or something – had bumped into it and moved it out of their way.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, what was it? Is one of the kids up?”

I looked into the kitchen, waiting for one of my children to come into view, probably wanting a drink of juice or a cookie or something. You know, something sugary right after brushing one’s teeth right before bed.

No children stepped into view.

I got up and walked into the kitchen, checking to see if a child was hiding next to the fridge, screwing with their parents. Nothing. So then I tried to figure out which chair I thought I heard move. We have six chairs and all of them made the same chair-leg-on-floor scraping noise. So much for that theory.

“You heard a chair move, right?”

“Yeah, is one of the kids up?”

“No.”

“Hmmm, must be Ace.”

And with that, my wife pins our entire supernatural personal experience on the ghost of our sixteen-year-old border collie mix, Ace, who died two years ago. And as he got older and feebler, Ace occasionally bumped into furniture, like kitchen chairs. And being a border collie, which is a herding breed used to herd sheep, cattle, children (you know, anything that herds), Ace always had this intense need to keep track of everyone in the house. So he’d cruise from room to room, making sure he knew where everyone was at, keeping track of his herd.

I guess Ace’s still here, keeping an eye on us.

At least that’s what we told the kids. The ghost of old Ace isn’t quite as scary as the ghost of some stranger who died in your home at some point in the past.

Yeah, that’s a pretty freaky thought!

Wondering if ghosts count as dependants on my taxes …

April 16, 2008

Counter’s Closed

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No grand essay on deep thoughts or asinine human activities in this dispatch. I’d like to just get me duties done and sip a glass of scotch before going to bed.

I’m watching something on Sumo wrestlers on the National Geographic channel as I wait for Ghost Hunters to come on. At the time of this show’s taping (it’s funny that I use the word “taping” even though I’m quite sure that most television is shot on digital video) there were an unprecedented two yokozunas, or sumo grand champions, in Japan.

The rank of yokozuna is determined by the total number of tournament wins and rarely has there ever been two yokozuna at the same time. Click here for everything you never wanted to know about sumo wrestling, which is actually a rather fascinating sport when you really sit down and study it. Rest assured, sumo wrestlers are athletes and the yokozuna are the cream of the crop, quick powerhouses who possess amazing strength and surprising quickness, important factors in a sport whose matches usually last less than twenty seconds.

The two yokozuna weigh around 325 pounds each. To achieve and maintain that mass, the average sumo consumes 10,000 calories a day! Yes, you read that right – 10,000 (10K) calories PER DAY!!!!

And the best part?? After ingesting each huge meal, they immediately take a nap to insure none of the calories is burned off! Every meal is just like Thanksgiving Dinner, over and over – eat a tremendously huge meal packed with tons of calories, then curl up on the couch for a nice nap. Maybe watch a little football as you wait for the tryptophan to kick in so you can doze off.

To put the 10,000 calories into perspective, the average American consumes between 2,500 and 3,800 calories per day. And, trust me on this, we Americans eat well, so you can be sure that a healthy number of calories for the average American is going to be under 2,500.

Another interesting show making its rounds on National Geographic channel? Check out “The Human Footprint“, which gives you a very visible and understandable accounting of the average natural resources that an average American consumes in his or her lifetime. Americans are natural resource hogs and there is no physical way the Earth can provide enough natural resources to sustain this lifestyle.

So, suffice it to say, I’m worried that my kids adult lives won’t be as comfortable as their parents. And don’t even get me started on our slavish dependence on foreign oil!!!

Waiting For Hydrogen-Powered Flying Cars and Algae Farming To Cure All Our Problems!!!

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