Breathe Easy® :: Traditional Medicinals :: Seasonal Products

Breathe Easy® :: Traditional Medicinals :: Seasonal Products

A wonderful aroma, a great taste, and maybe some nice health benefits, too.

Tremors Web Game / Tetris Hell

http://giantmonstersattack.blogspot.com/2010/04/tremors-web-game.html
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/531965

This is almost as funny as Tetris Hell
http://www.swfme.com/view/1046212
http://xkcd.com/724/

have you read The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin?

The second part of his autobiography is written in 1784.

I hadn't realize how thoroughly some of his ideas have permeated American culture. In many cases, his ideal really is the American ideal. Weird. Sure, I knew Franklin was a patriarch of American culture, but I didn't realize the extent to people who have never thought about him, except for 50 bills.

For instance, Franklin by his old age seemed quite set in his ways and quite dismissive of beliefs that incorporated "dogma" and doctrine.
He seemed to be only interested in religious thought that focused on practical civilized good-behavior.
He didn't much care why someone did something, just how they did it. Their habit. That's quite like American churches today, but also Japanese Shinto and many other world religions.
He had no use apparently for spirituality, or for what was in a person's heart unless it affected their habit.
So as to not slur Franklin, please let me quote his Autobiography:

"Tho' I seldom attended any Public Worship, I had still an opinion of its Propriety, and of its Utility when rightly conducted... [the] Discourses were chiefly either polemic Arguments, or Explications of peculiar Doctrines of our Sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting and unedifying, since not a single moral Principle was inculcated or enforce'd, their Aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good Citizens."
and again
"...these I esteem'd the Essentials of every Religion, and being to be found in all the Religions we had in our Country I respected them all, tho' with different degrees of Respect as I found them more or less mixed with other Articles which without any Tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm Morality, serv'd principally to divide us & make us unfriendly to one another."

He didn't get everything he wanted though. He was very much a humbug, and there would be nightlife in no city in America if he had his way. Alcohol would be much harder to obtain. Live music and theatre wouldn't be so important.
I wonder, though, did he partially succeed? I have heard that America seems very dull compared to many places in Europe. How does it compare with other parts of the world?

I want to say though that I continue to have a deep respect for the man. Much of his philosophy is brilliant. It is so very true that It is hard for an empty Sack to stand upright in reference to morality. Also, when Franklin observes that wise men are usually quiet and don't enter into arguments. And then when he teaches about making it a habit to say things in a less provocative way, to ease communication ("I apprehend this..." or "It seems to me that..."). It's just his ideas feel pretty empty on occasion.

An aside here: I don't know if you've heard of him, but Cotton Mather was just before Franklin's time and wrote a well-known book or two, one titled "Essays to Do Good" which Franklin read as a kid. Sounded worth trying to find online or elsewhere.

Have you read the Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

http://michaelmay.us/10blog/05/0525-dawntreaderposter.jpg
Michael May's Adventureblog: Master of the Seven Seas

I agree entirely with the observation "So [I say to Disney], part two, Prince Caspian, didn't make a gazillion dollars. What a surprise. Prince Caspian was always the dud, relatively speaking, of the series. For fans who read and reread The Chronicles of Narnia, it was the one you could skip."

Oh, and it's frustrating I can't figure out how to italicize headers. Anyway...

The above link of MM also has the basis for his undersea colony.
Also see: http://michaelmay.us/09blog/06/0609_seahelmet.jpg

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus is a great name.
Cyrus the Great was a amazing ancient ruler. And he was the first known to have established human rights. As I recall.
Behold, the Cyrus Cylinder! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_cylinder

So is Noah, and Melchizedek. And Caiaphus. And Thor is a great first name.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1802807/posts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl
Happy Thor's Day everybody!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchisédech_Thévenot

Kaijuology: The Zillo Beast Strikes Back

I'm not any special fan of the Star Wars franchise, and even moreover the modern preview trilogy I think was a significant reduction is the appeal the universe has. However, I am a very rabid kaiju fan, albeit one who has only a fragmentary familiarity. FYI, kaiju is a Japanese word for "monster" as I understand it, and is a convenient term for the Godzilla-style of monster movies which often feature actors in rubber suits known as "suitimation". Additionally, daikaiju means "giant monster" but I perfer the shorter term, since either is non-specific for Americans, while the term "xenomorph" has been used in some of the movies themselves, such as Tokyo S.O.S.

Well, I found a very cool blog today, and I watched the link it gave me, and it was worth it for me. If I flatter myself with the title kaijuologist, I at least should keep an eye on things.

http://giantmonstersattack.blogspot.com/2010/04/jedi-vs-zillo-beast.html

Well, apparently a kid-oriented animation short is shown on Cartoon Network these days, titled Clone Wars. and filling in some gaps between Episode III and the original Star Wars movie, formally Episode 4.

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000996.html

BTW, the second commentary, for Z Strikes Back, wasn't of any interest in terms of kaijuological interest, although I enjoyed the preview for Strikes. I was only so far able to find and watch 2.18, the original of the two episodes.

Oh no! We're entrusting Legendary Pictures to bring Godzilla a good name again?
http://movies.about.com/b/2010/03/30/godzilla-movie.htm
These are the guys who made the Persians so historically accurate. And aren't these the guys who did 10,000 BC? Well, I guess 300 was a Hollywood success after all, but I think was with the moviegoers who didn't already have an idea about Spartans and Persians.
http://themovieblog.com/2006/10/300-make-up-effects-video

Strangest Klingon

Micheal May's blogspot refers to it as the "Goofiest Klingon"
http://michaelmay.blogspot.com/2010/05/awesome-list-you-one-who-is-moving-now.html#more


I'm not sure I'd use the term Goofiest, myself. That's why I adopted Strangest. Perhaps, making the least sense.
Many things that seem very goofy or insane or strange are merely without the context for understanding them.
That's my little self-righteous preaching for the day ;-) Oh, who am I kidding, for the moment. ;-)

MM suggests I look at this link for context. Okay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQGR5QmKly8

Oh! It's the Klingon from Decipher's A Klingon Challenge! Now it actually makes a little sense, but not quite sense.
Captain Kavok!
Commandeer Ship!
Fractal Encryption Code!
Amanda Rogers!
Mirror Image x10!
Q the Referee > Intermix Ratio!