That's a bunch of hot air.

I think this is a great video of the Reno Balloon Race from 2006:



"Fling may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."
- Amelia Earhart

My bologna has a first name.

I've seen a lot of these. I guess I should try to see them all. Many of these are truely great movies.

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 2000 - The Present
80th Annual Academy Awards - No Country for Old Men
79th Annual Academy Awards - The Departed
78th Annual Academy Awards - Crash
77th Annual Academy Awards - Million Dollar Baby
76th Annual Academy Awards - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
75th Annual Academy Awards - Chicago
74th Annual Academy Awards - A Beautiful Mind
73rd Annual Academy Awards – Gladiator
72nd Annual Academy Awards - American Beauty

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1990 – 1999
71st Annual Academy Awards - Shakespeare in Love
70th Annual Academy Awards – Titanic
69th Annual Academy Awards - The English Patient
68th Annual Academy Awards – Braveheart
67th Annual Academy Awards - Forrest Gump
66th Annual Academy Awards - Schindler's List
65th Annual Academy Awards – Unforgiven
64th Annual Academy Awards - The Silence of the Lambs
63rd Annual Academy Awards - Dances With Wolves
62nd Annual Academy Awards - Driving Miss Daisy

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1980 – 1989
61st Annual Academy Awards - Rain Man
60th Annual Academy Awards - The Last Emperor
59th Annual Academy Awards - Platoon
58th Annual Academy Awards - Out of Africa
57th Annual Academy Awards – Amadeus
56th Annual Academy Awards - Terms of Endearment
55th Annual Academy Awards - Gandhi
54th Annual Academy Awards - Chariots of Fire
53rd Annual Academy Awards - Ordinary People
52nd Annual Academy Awards - Kramer vs. Kramer

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1970 – 1979
51st Annual Academy Awards - The Deer Hunter
50th Annual Academy Awards - Annie Hall
49th Annual Academy Awards – Rocky
48th Annual Academy Awards - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
47th Annual Academy Awards - The Godfather, Part II
46th Annual Academy Awards - The Sting
45th Annual Academy Awards - The Godfather
44th Annual Academy Awards - The French Connection
43rd Annual Academy Awards – Patton
42nd Annual Academy Awards - Midnight Cowboy

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1960 – 1969
41st Annual Academy Awards - Oliver!
40th Annual Academy Awards - In the Heat of the Night
39th Annual Academy Awards - A Man for All Seasons
38th Annual Academy Awards - The Sound of Music
37th Annual Academy Awards - My Fair Lady
36th Annual Academy Awards - Tom Jones
35th Annual Academy Awards - Lawrence of Arabia
34th Annual Academy Awards - West Side Story
33rd Annual Academy Awards - The Apartment
32nd Annual Academy Awards - Ben-Hur

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1950 – 1959
31st Annual Academy Awards – Gigi
30th Annual Academy Awards - The Bridge on the River Kwai
29th Annual Academy Awards - Around the World in 80 Days
28th Annual Academy Awards – Marty
27th Annual Academy Awards - On the Waterfront
26th Annual Academy Awards - From Here to Eternity
25th Annual Academy Awards - The Greatest Show on Earth
24th Annual Academy Awards - An American in Paris
23rd Annual Academy Awards - All About Eve
22nd Annual Academy Awards - All the King's Men

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1940 - 1949
21st Annual Academy Awards - Hamlet
20th Annual Academy Awards - Gentleman's Agreement
19th Annual Academy Awards - The Best Years of Our Lives
18th Annual Academy Awards - The Lost Weekend
17th Annual Academy Awards - Going My Way
16th Annual Academy Awards - Casablanca
15th Annual Academy Awards - Mrs. Miniver
14th Annual Academy Awards - How Green Was My Valley
13th Annual Academy Awards - Rebecca
12th Annual Academy Awards - Gone with the Wind

Oscar Winners for Best Picture: 1929 - 1939
11th Annual Academy Awards - You Can't Take It With You
10th Annual Academy Awards - The Life of Emile Zola
9th Annual Academy Awards - The Great Ziegfeld
8th Annual Academy Awards - Mutiny on the Bounty
7th Annual Academy Awards - It Happened One Night
6th Annual Academy Awards - Cavalcade
5th Annual Academy Awards - Grand Hotel
4th Annual Academy Awards - Cimarron
3rd Annual Academy Awards - All Quiet on the Western Front
2nd Annual Academy Awards - The Broadway Melody
1st Annual Academy Awards - Wings

"There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education."
- Will Rogers

Enrichment Through Exclusivity

There is a little museum called Museo Civico located in a small town called Fano on the East coast of Italy. In that museum you will find a painting by Guercino called “The Guardian Angel”.

Robert Browning wrote a poem about the angel in the painting called “The Guardian Angel, A Picture at Fano”. If you go see this painting and send a postcard to the Armstrong Browning Library in Waco, Tx, you will become a member of the Fano Club.

"O world, as God has made it! All is beauty:And knowing this, is love, and love is duty."
- Robert Browning

It's tax day. No joke.

A taxpayer received a strongly worded "second notice" that his taxes were overdue. Hastening to the collector's office, he paid his bill, saying apologetically that he had overlooked the first notice.
"Oh," confided the collector with a smile, "we don't send out first notices. We have found that the second notices are more effective."

*****

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity.
To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300° C.
The Russians use a pencil.

"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward."
- John Maynard Keynes

Insanity, with extra butter please.

You know that song that you just can’t get out of your head? Well this is the Granddaddy of them all. You’ve surely heard it but maybe never knew it had a name, or was a “real song” for that matter. I’m talking about the “Popcorn Song.” This is one of the original and most well known versions:

This web site has more than you want to know about the "Popcorn Song", including this list of all the different versions. But be warned! If you’re like me, you’ll get sucked in listening to the different versions until you go partially insane and wake up in the neighbor's back yard clucking this song.

"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
- Robin Williams

Top Ten: Testament to the Gullibility of Man.

After all the knowledge that man has gained over our relatively short history, it is staggering to observe how easily deceived we still are. This is a list of the top ten things that show just how gullible man is. What you won’t see on the list are Ghosts and UFOs. Why? Because while I don’t buy into 99.9% of the reported sightings, pictures and videos; I still believe in the possibility of the existence of ghosts and UFOs. We’ll just call that the “Top Two: Testament to the Gullibility of Jack.”

There are many things that at one point would have topped this list but the volume of evidence disputing their existence and mere common sense have over come. Some of these by-gone gullibility myths include: Witches, Dragons, Leprechauns, Unicorns, Mermaids, and Vampires. There are other similar myths that have actually been confirmed as facts. One that comes to mind is the giant squid. This list however is of things that no logical person should give a second thought to, yet many still believe.

10. Elvis Lives
This phenomenon has almost died out but there are some that still believe that Elvis lives on. I guess some people just can’t accept that one of their idols has died. And Elvis is not the only one. Some people wouldn’t accept that Marilyn Monroe or Amelia Earhart had died. There’s even a book claiming that Davy Crockett survived the Alamo, and people buy this stuff.

9. The Bermuda Triangle
Planes crash and ships sink all over the world. There is not a “worm hole” or mysterious magnetic force that is sucking ships and planes into the sea.

8. Crop Circles
This is another one that even the most gullible people are starting to realize that they are hoaxes, but there are still some that fall for it. I remember the “scientific experts” saying that, “It is impossible for the crops to bend and interlace that way they did. Only a supernatural power could have created such an event.” Well, turns out the supernatural power was a guy with a stick.

7. Chupacabra
This creature supposedly drinks the blood of goats and other livestock down in South America. There are dozens of pictures or renditions on the internet and they all look different. Here’s one of my favorites:

Jim Henson would be proud.

6. Flying Rods (Sky Fish)
Have you heard of these? As we all know, when you take a still frame from a video of a moving object, the object appears blurred. When that object happens to be a flying bug, the blur has a unique pattern because of the flapping wings of the bug. Here’s an example (flying rod in front of the tree):
Well, there is a group of people that have decided that these blurred images caught on film are not bugs but are “flying rods”. Among other things, these “flying rods” are believed to be:
- Tiny alien ships.
- Flying scrolls from the Bible.
- Fairy’s of legend and myth
or
- Creatures that can pass between dimensions.

Hmm? It’s ridiculous and crazy to think that is a blurred image of a moth; therefore it must be a tiny alien ship. Yes, that’s much more logical.

5. Loch Ness Monster
This loch is surrounded by tourists, sight-seers, and locals; yet this “monster” manages only to reveal himself to people with a shaky hand and a camera made in the twenties.

4. Big Foot
So some goof balls in a monkey suit made video as a prank back in 1967 and people are still freaking out about it. The amazing thing about Big Foot is that this gigantic creature supposedly lives in the northeast United States. It’s not like that in the middle of know where. There are people there. People with cameras and video cameras. Hikers and campers are through these areas all the time. They all managed to capture images of small birds, bugs, leaves and flowers but can't seem to snap a good image of this eight foot tall Sasquatch.

3. Chain Emails
I guess this is still a somewhat new hoax for a lot of people but it's time for people to catch on. Has there ever really been a computer virus that would “destroy your entire hard drive!!!!”. If the first three paragraphs of the email are spent trying to convince you that it’s not a hoax . . . it’s a hoax! At least the “Microsoft will pay you a dollar if you forward this…” emails have died out. The number of legitimate virus warnings that are sent via email is quickly approaching 0.0%.

2. JFK Conspiracy
Every claim of the JFK conspiracy theorists have been debunked yet this myth is still going strong. “Oswald could not get three shots off that fast.” – debunked. “No one could have hit a moving target from that far with that accuracy.” – debunked. “Magic bullet” – debunked. This case is as cut and dry as the O. J. Simpson case.

1. Faith Healers
These are the greatest con artists of all times. Not only are they bilking gullible people of their money, but getting away with in on national and international television. The number of people that fall for this scam should make you weep for our planet. I don’t doubt these poor people their need for spiritual enrichment or their faith. But watching videos like this make me laugh, then cry.





"You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it."
- G. K. Chesterton

The Last Lecture.

“We can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
- Randy Pausch

Hi Ho Hi Ho.

Phone rang at 3:36 pm. I am once again gainfully employed!

“All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.”
- Aristotle

Banking on an offer.

After a virtual avalanche of rejection lasting for well over six months, I believe that I will finally receive a job offer tomorrow. It has been a very frustrating and eye-opening experience. Somewhere around 250 resumes submitted resulting in around 20 interviews and now, hopefully, an offer. I wish I could say that I didn’t give up, but I can’t. I was always able to get re-motivated though.

I never really saw myself working for a bank, but I’m excited about the opportunity. I think I will enjoy it and I think that I can be successful. It will take a few years to get back to where I was before I decided to go back to school, but I don’t regret the decision.

I’ll be waiting by the phone…

“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”
- Robert Frost

In the beginning.

Texas Goulash - born 4/3/08, Horsemen Day Eve. Doctors are not optimistic...