Thursday, May 31, 2007

Monster Pig

This 11 year old kid tracked and killed a 1,060 lb pig in Alabama. He killed the pig with a Smith & Wesson customized .50 caliber revolver shooting 350 grain bullets. He shot the pig 8 times before it died. The last shot was point blank. He was accompanied by his dad and some other hunters who had large riffles standing by just in case something would go wrong. He basically chased it around shooting it until it died. He would shoot, run after it, shoot again. Worst part is, they say that they are going to make sausage out of the meat. BAD MISTAKE! I would not eat that thing to save my life.
Many people are questioning the actual size of the pig. Some say the pictures are computer enhanced.
I do not know what to think. It looks very large to me! If it is real I can honestly say I would not be chasing it with a pistol.

You can look up more information at http://www.monsterpig.com/. (If you could not see that from the stamp across the picture)

Interesting Facts

Sometimes while people are at work they might be looking for something to read. This was something that I came up with (while at the house) for you (my blog readers) to read while at work, or at home.

I am about to go to Mexico so I will have more interesting things about me to post later on.



The Most Life-Threatening Jobs According to BLS data, the following jobs had some of the highest fatality rates for 2005:

Fishers and related fishing workersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 118.4 Average salary: $29,000 per year
Logging workersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 92.9Average salary: $31,290 per year
Aircraft pilots and flight engineersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 66.9Average salary: $135,040
Structural iron and steel workersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 55.6Average salary: $43,540
Refuse and recyclable material collectorsFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 43.8Average salary: $30,160
Farmers and ranchersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 41.1Average salary: $39,720
Electrical power-line installers and repairersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 32.7Average salary: $49,200
Truck driversFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 29.1Average salary: $35,460 (for heavy or tractor-trailer drivers)
Miscellaneous agricultural workersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 23.2Average salary: $24,140
Construction laborersFatality rate (per 100,000 workers): 22.7Average salary: $29,050

The Most Injury-Prone Jobs Although employees are statistically unlikely to die on the job, illnesses and injuries are a far greater threat. In 2005, the rate of nonfatal injuries and illnesses was 4.6 per 100 workers. The manufacturing industry accounted for more than 20 percent of the nation's reported nonfatal occupational injuries last year, with complaints ranging from sprains to gashes. Sixteen percent of workplace injuries were reported by workers in the health care sector.The following industries saw the highest workplace injury rates for 2005:

* Beet sugar manufacturing: 16.6 injuries per 100 workers
* Truck trailer manufacturing: 15.7 injuries per 100 workers
* Iron foundries: 15.2 injuries per 100 workers
* Prefabricated wood building manufacturing: 13.9 injuries per 100 workers
* Framing contractors: 13.3 injuries per 100 workers

Jobs That Could Make You Sick

Considering the nature of their work, it's not surprising that health care workers reported 19 percent of the 242,500 new occupational illnesses in the private sector for 2005. But manufacturing workers actually get sick from work most often, accounting for 39 percent of reported injuries.The following industries had the highest reported illness rates:

* Light truck and utility vehicle manufacturing: 701.5 illnesses per 10,000 workers
* Animal slaughtering, except poultry: 478.8 illnesses per 10,000 workers
* Automobile manufacturing: 320.6 illnesses per 10,000 workers
* Cut stock, resawing lumber and planning: 276.4 illnesses per 10,000 workers
* Motor vehicle air-conditioning manufacturing: 235 illnesses per 10,000 workers

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Holding my breath

This past weekend I found out something very important. I found out that I am able to hold my breath for 2 minutes and 25 seconds. That is right, I should be a navy seal or something. I know one thing, that is about 2 minutes and 21 seconds longer than Kristen can hold her breath under water! Am I right?

I think that the world record for holding breath is somewhere around 7-8 minutes. I could not find exact facts about it.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

White Rock, British Columbia




Memories

Five years ago today I went on a double date (the first date) with my wife. I had only met her once before on the streets of the ULL campus. She had a gift for me on our first date. It was a cooler filled with all of my favorite candy. We went to an Italian restaurant on the corner of Johnston and Ambassador Caffrey called Baileys. We shared an appetiser for our entire meal. I did not know this till later but she was starving after the meal. She did not want to order anything of her own because she knew that I was cheap. Like I would not spend money on a first date, I might be cheap for the second but not the first. Oh well, here I am five years later married to her.

Wettest City

I saw that MSN had a new list for the rainiest cities in the contiguous 48 states. I was pretty shocked by the list. Of course everyone thinks that Seattle always gets rain, but they were not even on the list. #6 was my wonderful city of Baton Rouge with 62 inches of rains in a year. I saw a different list from another year (unknown) that had Hilo, Hawaii with 120 inches of rain. Being that we (Baton Rouge) has already gotten a lot of rain this year I am sure that we will make that list again next year. January alone we had 18 inches of rain.

On the opposite end, I looked up the driest city and that city got 2.67 inches of rain in one year. I think it was somewhere in Arizona.

See other cities rankings: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18827213?GT1=9951

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Day 8

It has been a long day of traveling. We left our hotel at six in the morning and we were steady traveling until we landed in Baton Rouge at four in the afternoon. Of course there is a two hour difference in time zones. We did not have any delays and we made it on time to everything. Now that I am home I can say that I did not get hurt on my vacation. It is a wonderful thing! I really cannot believe that this morning I was in a city with 40 degree temperatures and now I am in HOT temperatures. I got so spoiled over there.

If you call me now I will actually answer the phone, since I am not in another country.

Sorry Steph, no Wonderbars were found in Canada.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Day 7

White Rock, British Columbia




The Talon in Smallville. (I will confess, I took the picture and its not focused very good)



The picture says everything!



What a day! This was our last day in Canada. We spent most of the day driving around checking out different Smallville filming spots. The first one was the Smallville High. The outside of the school is supposed to be a technical secondary school in Vancouver. We went there and the entire school looked like it was under reconstruction. It was getting a face lift I guess. It does look like the school in the show. The next stop was the Talon. It is a small cinema in Cloverdale named Clova Cinema. The last stop was the best of them all, the KENT FARM. We really enjoyed seeing the farm. I am going to have to go home and watch a couple of episodes that show the three places we visited, just to have it fresh in my mind and place everything I saw. As I said before the Luthor mansion is on Vancouver Island but we were not able to get an affordable ride over there.

We also went to a place called White Rock. This is right on the border of the US and Canada. It was pretty cool to spend some time there. Good views and nice weather.



So now we are back in the United States. We fly out tomorrow morning bright and early.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Day 6

Rainy day out. It was the first rainy day that made us do nothing but inside stuff. We thought about going to Whistler mountain but it would have just been a really wet trip.

We managed to find a movie theater and we saw Shrek the Third. That's about all that we did for the day. It was nothing special, but it felt good to relax.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Day 5

Biking around Stanley Park.

The Lion's Gate Bridge.

We had a supper late night the night before so the morning was spent just being lazy and going to the market down stairs. When we finally felt like going somewhere we took the Seabus over to Vancouver and walked around downtown. We found a bike rental and started our trek around Stanely Park. We got to see great views of the city and English Bay. It was lots of fun. Amanda also got a little taste of what its like to go UP HILL. There were parts of the seawall that were closed so we had to go "off-road" and make it up to the road.
We ate at a place called Red Robin. It was pretty good. Its pretty much a Chili's, except Canadian. They had some special "seasoning," yeah that was like salt and garlic. They really do not have a clue when it comes to good spice.
On a not so good note. I found out today that there is a mountain not too far from here that still has some ski slopes open. I would have loved to ski up there. I have no ski clothes are anything. So I am very disappointed that I made the assumption that all mountains would be long done with snow skiing. Oh well, its not that fun skiing alone anyway. Who am I kidding?...skiing awesome no matter what!!!!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Day 4

Victoria Parliament Buildings.

I know you might think this was mean but her hair was awesome. She really was the nicest lady. I do not mean to make fun, I just wanted to share her hair style.

What is this a picture of? There are some breaks in the water behind that wall. Those are caused by a group of Killer Whales that were just swimming by the back of the boat. That was just before we were heading out to Vancouver Island.
We pretty much did everything correct this morning. We were on the boat on time, we were on the right bus, we saw most of the things that we wanted to see. We did not see Hatley's Castle (the Luthor Mansion). We did go to another castle built by the same person. We could not find a way to get over there. It was a lot further than walking distance. Overall it was a beautiful day in Victoria.



Thursday, May 17, 2007

Day 3

Not knowing what we were doing we got in the car today to go to Vancouver Island. First mistake...we took the car. To take the car across is not $30 like we thought. It would have been $120. So we had to go to a different ferry to go across and get to where we wanted to go. That took another hour. We got there about 5 minutes late and had to wait an hour to get on the next boat. So we get to Vancouver Island and find out we have no way of getting anywhere because we were suppose to setup a bus ride to Victoria (second mistake). We also noticed that pretty much everything that we wanted to see would be closing within 30 minutes of us getting there (third mistake). So, tomorrow we are getting up at 6 in the morning and we are going to take the early boat, setup a bus ride, and enjoy a wonderful day in Victoria.

The boat ride was very nice. I saw sea lions and 4-5 bald eagles.

Gasoline: You only think it is crazy in Louisiana. Over here we noticed the gas go from 1.229 to 1.302 per liter in one day. We then noticed there was a trend to it. It seems to be MUCH cheaper to get gas at night. For example: this evening I paid 1.229/liter (4.63/gal CAD or 4.31/gal US), tomorrow morning it will be at least 1.302/liter (4.59/gal US), that is a 28 cent difference in price. I get mad when it goes up 1 cent in a day! I do not know why they do it like that, but I am glad that we live in Louisiana.

Totally off the subject: (for anyone who cares): 3.0/2 B's.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Day 2

Grouse Mountain, elevation ~ 5,400 ft.

They have wood carvings all over the mountain top.


Capilano Lake, this supplies most of Vancouver's fresh water supply. It is also dammed up by the Cleveland Dam.

Salmon Hatchery.

Capilano Suspension bridge. 450 ft across, 230 ft above the river below.


Day 1: pics

There is a nice view of our rental car. I had someone in the car behind me take a picture of it. I thought that my boy Shawn would like to see it.


Can you guess where we were when Amanda took this picture?

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Day 1

We left Baton Rouge at around 10:55 a.m. At 12:20 p.m. I was eating Chick-Fil-A with my best bro Sean. (thanks for the grub) We left Dallas and arrived in Seattle at 5:00 p.m. We picked up my hot new rental! Its a Chevy Cobalt - SS!!!! And it is "prostitute" red, as Amanda would say. We immediately hit up the nearest McDonalds. This particular McDonalds was the best ever. Why, you ask... They had "Shrek" green straws, of course I took some extra with me. They also had a dip cone. That's right, an ice cream cone dipped in chocolate that hardens onto of the ice cream. It was delicious.

Now we are at the hotel and we are going to bed!

Stay tuned for pics and more through out the week.

Monday, May 14, 2007

No more delays!



Well finals are over. I know that most people finished over the weekend, but my final was a take-home final and it was not due until this morning. Did I wait till the last minute? NO, I sure didn't. I am telling you I was a good student this semester.

Amanda and I are leaving for Vancouver, BC, Canada tomorrow. We are bringing along the computer and the camera. Hopefully inbetween our fun I can keep you posted about what we are doing.

We are flying to Seallte, WA and then getting in a rental to drive into Vancouver. Pray for us to have a safe flight/drive up there.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Expect delays!


Due to the increased volume of school work expect delays for the next week to two weeks with this blog. I am trying to be a good student and stick to the books. Thank you for understanding.