Mars One is taking applications....

Before we get to Mars One, I'd like to point out that I am the worst blogger ever.  I haven't posted since February...  but I only have 10 followers so who cares, right?  :-)  

Ok.  Mars One.  Is an insane program.  I first heard about it in January and of course had to talk about it... go read my post from January to get just how insane it is.  It is so insane that I believe it will never happen so I signed up for the email updates to see how this was going to go.  Apparently they are now taking applications for the astronaut selection. 

The best part?  As an applicant, you can make your application public and attach a video.  If you go to the website - http://applicants.mars-one.com/ - you can view/read all the public applications.  Very entertaining.   

So you apply, you get accepted, you go through a few years of training, then leave planet earth basically forever.  It takes 7 months to get to Mars... not 7 hours, 7 MONTHS.  All the sanity and self-control that Mars One is looking for in an applicant will be lost when they send you off in a small spaceship for 7 months only to arrive on Mars where you live in space pods with those same people... Does this not seem crazy to anyone else? 

No, I am not applying....

Tobacco Storage Warehouses....

So I had to move a bunch of work stuff to an off-site location that we have... turns out the off-site location is at the old tobacco storage warehouses in Durham.  Old buildings amaze me.  There are 40 of these huge warehouse buildings - All 2 floors.  The amount of steel and wood that is in these buildings is incredible.  And to think they all used to be filled with tobacco!  They are all huge storage units now for various business that rent open bay areas within each building.  Anyways, pretty cool overall.  :-)  Heres some more info and pictures if you are interested....

http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/ellis-road-american-tobacco-warehouses

Above & Beyond

This is awesome... if I ever go to Chicago, this is on my list.  Its a 10 x 40 foot sculpture entitled Above and Beyond, is comprised of imprinted dog tags, one for each of the more than 58,000 service men and women who died in the Vietnam War. Above & Beyond is the first new permanent Vietnam War memorial, other than The Wall in Washington, D.C., to list all those killed in action.


http://www.nvam.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218&Itemid=54

Coffee Joulies.... I need these...

Yep ... definitely need these.  :-)

http://www.joulies.com/#

Want to be a Mars Colony Pioneer?

Want to be a Mars colony pioneer?  You apparently can in 2023…. After 8 years of training… did I mention this will be a reality TV event?   This is craziness.  Basically Mars One will have a selection process in 2013.  You will go through 8 YEARS of training then go live on Mars.  Only FOUR people will go to Mars for the 1^st 2 years beginning in 2023… then every 2 years, 2 more people will join.  So for 2 years its only 4 of you?  That’s a long time with only 4 people. 

 AND there’s no coming back!  Total emigration to Mars.  This raises a lot of issues with me… what if you get sick, have a heart attack, get stabbed, cut off your hand, aliens attack, etc?  You are at least 8 months away from anyone that could help you?  This doesn’t sound like a good plan at all. 

Who is really going to do this?  If you have a family, do you really want to desert them to go live on Mars?  Do you really want to leave earth forever to live on an unknown planet with only 3 people?  I see this becoming a reality disaster…

If you hate it, oh well. You are stuck on Mars.  You have to really hate your life on earth to go live on another planet…  True dedication to go live on another planet you know nothing about… forget about the unknown aliens you are going to try to become neighbors with….

I really see this never happening but what do you think?  Read more about it at the following links….  Enjoy J

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/08/16418875-wanted-mars-colonists-for-reality-tv?lite

 

http://mars-one.com/en/faq-en/21-faq-selection/183-which-group-gets-to-go-first

Good things in a jar...

August really?  I’m such a slacker on blogging.  I always find things I want to blog about then never do it.  I only have 10 followers anyways.  J  So wow 2013.  I had no problem moving into 2013.  You know how most people will write/type 2012 continuously for the 1^st 6 months of 2013?  Not me.  I was ready for 2013…. I was writing 2013 before the end of December!  

I’m not writing any new years resolutions for 2013.  I have done them in the past years only to have them broken and/or forgot about by February.  Instead I am going to write down all the good things that happen this year, no matter how big or small, and put them in a jar.  At the end of 2013, I’m going to read everything in the jar.  I may even incorporate it into my Christmas letter. J  I think this will be much more rewarding at the end of the year than broken and failed resolutions.  I also did not come up with this idea…. I stole it.  I don’t remember where I saw it but it’s a great idea.  J   

Rented 4 movies from my favorite video store.....

Three of them I have already seen, the 4th is available on Netflix Streaming.... Great.  Waste of money and time apparently.  Adds to the greatness my week has been.

I had fleas this week... well my house did.  Actually my cat did first, she scattered them all over my house.  I sprinkled flea killer in my carpet which in turn made me and my cat sick....but hopefully killed all the $%#$% nasty parasites in my house.

I did go to Cirque Du Soleil Dralion last night.  Great show!  They never fail to be amazing.  On a mission to see all of their shows, 3 down, lots more to go.  :-)

  

Tapes, Tapes, & More Tapes....

My best friend got married so my project of making all the paper products(invites, programs, thank you cards, etc) is complete!  Now I have a new project.... hopefully will be done in time for Christmas....

My parents had all these home video tapes from when we were growing up.... I have taken them and am in the process of organizing by date.  Some of them are not labeled so I have to view all of them.... which is quite entertaining at times.  Alex - may have to make you a special DVD.  ;-)

 Tapes, tapes, tapes.....

Unlabeled tapes

LABELED TAPES :-) 

 

The idea is to EDIT the boring stuff out and put the good stuff on DVDs.... hopefully I'll be done in time for Christmas.  We'll see.  :-)

Drank a fruit fly this morning.....

Got your attention, right?  I really did drink a fruit fly this morning.  Not on purpose.  The damn thing flew in my coffee and I didn't see it... felt it though.  GROSS!  Now I inspect my coffee before every drink.... paranoid. 

Anyways, its Friday again and I didn't even tell you what I did last weekend yet... so here's what happened....

TOUR DE FAT!

New Belgium Brewery out of Ft. Collins, CO and creator of my favorite beer had a festival in Durham, NC on Saturday.  It was pretty entertaining and there were  great bands...even though I can't remember the names of them.  Heres some photos.... 

People do read my blog.... :-)

My life is fairly boring.... I've not been up to much of anything since I got back from Colorado.  Work has kept me busy since we are trying to move our office (again) to merge with the Durham RTP office.  There seem to be a lot of winers in my company now.... Anyways enough about work (for now).

So I hardly ever watch the news.  That may keep me out of the loop of whats going on in the world but I'd rather not know all the bad shit going on around my city and all the people they are looking for so I don't watch it.  I do learn a lot of unnecessary news from yahoo though.  :-)   This morning I watched an interview with a lady that wrote a book "Why you're not married yet."  I thought she may have some insight as to why I'm not married yet... since she did write the book.  Here's the top 4 reasons she started off the interview with:  (BAD WORDS ALERT)

1. You’re a bitch. 
2. You’re a liar.
3. You’re shallow.
4. You’re selfish. 

Really???  You wrote a book about this?  Those all sound like my exs…. Reasons why I didn’t marry them!  I’m not sure what age group she talked with to gather her data, but none of these describe me.  I can be a bitch sometimes but there’s probably a reason for it.  Most of the time I’m pretty nice ;-)   Definitely not a liar… in fact, I probably say the truth too much and too soon.  Telling someone I just met that I want to get married and have kids is probably going to scare the guy away.  Shallow?  I wouldn’t say I’m shallow… choosy maybe.  A girl has to have some standards...   Definitely not selfish.  I moved to NC for a guy... that doesn’t seem too selfish to me.  Anyways, I shut the interview off after that.  I hope no one wastes their money on buying her book…. 

After that news, I didn’t read anything else.  That was enough nonsense for one day.  Maybe I’ll learn something tomorrow.  :-)