Lead Poker Chip Warning

Hello there, all you poker players out there.

In case you haven't heard, there is a warning out about high levels of lead in poker chips. Check out the article for more info.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/ap/health/main3476077.shtml

In some places of the world, mud and clay can have naturally high levels of lead. Well, at least, from what I've heard about the clay in China that is the case.

Can't believe I was never concerned with this before... well, I haven't handled too many clay poker chips.

Stay safe and happy gaming.

I love Olives

To those who have known me for a long time you will certainly be surprised.

For years and years and years I have resisting eating olives. Didn't like them. Didn't like them at all.

A while back... I dunno maybe a year or two I tried some Kalamata's and I kinda liked them. Haven't had them since but I did recently have some olives in a salad... lo and behold. I now freakin' love Olives.

Now I am not sure if I love all olives or just olives that are really good. hehe

Hello...

Just wanted say that onionsamoungus has posted over at onionsamoungus - Finance.

Nothing much really.

Just an updated portfolio and a heads up to those of you having some questions about the Sub-prime mess that have had the markets in a twist lately.

http://onionsamoungus-finance.blogspot.com/

The Traditional Game of Faro

Howdy Cowboys & or Cowgirls,

Wanna get a taste of the American Old West and the old game they used to play? A game called Faro or sometimes spelled Pharo. It's an interesting game which I can say that I had fun with.

You do? Well, alrighty then...

Hold your bets for the new dealer... and deal that soda card.

Wichita Faro: free Flash card game!

Enjoy your game. :0)

Wicked Fast!

F-18 Fly By During Swim Call
"We had a swim call in the Gulf of Thailand on deployment and an F-18 from the Abe Lincoln flew right over us."

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a04_1188112290

Idiot Test

Hey, I just took the Idiot Test on iGoogle.

It said I was "Brilliant".

Woohoo!

Idiot Test

Guaranteed amusement for at least 2 minutes.

hehe

:0)

Catch A Rising Star

Hey there,

A little while back when I was on a YouTube kick I found some video's of a kid who I just think has so much talent.

So please, let me direct your attention to the following:

Catch A Rising Star

His latest video, "Empty Tables" is sooo good. Catch a rising star, if you please.

Enjoy.

3 Days Already?

Has it really been 3 days since my last post here?

Hmmm... I'm not really sure if I have anything to write about at the present time but I thought I should at least send out something.

I can say that I has a really sore throat this morning.

Hopefully, I won't get too sick... but I think that I might. *sigh*

Sorry folks, I'm a little foggy this morning.

Maybe, I'll try to post something later on today.

For now, All the best...

Glenn Beck's Interview of Billy Ray Cyrus

Just finished watching Glenn Beck interview Billy Ray Cyrus.

Ya know, I really didn't know too much about Billy Ray. I knew he was from Kentucky and that his father was a legislator here in the Commonwealth. And of course, I knew about his Achy Breaky Heart.

But, I really had no idea what he was like. The interview, I found to be quite entertaining and I have a new found respect for Billy Ray.

I didn't know what all he had to go through to make his way in the music business. His story, is probably a lot like many others who had gone before him to sing on a stage or pick a guitar. That was interesting to hear about.

What I liked about him is his positive attitude. He spoke of or about some powerfully motivating sayings and I'll try to quote him as best I can, well, let's just say I'll paraphrase and hopefully I won't lose any meaning:

"Can't ain't never done nothing."

And a reference to the scriptures. "In every adversity there is a seed to something better."

I may use them for one of my header sayings some day.

*smile*

The Moon: Eclipsed

8-28-2007

.

Last week, I stayed up for the Lunar Eclipse. Almost ended up forgetting about it as I was busy blogging and we all know how one can get absorbed in their blogging.

All the sudden, it struck me, Yikes! The Moon!! So I tossed my laptop aside (well, I didn't really toss it) jumped up and ran to get my camera... but I had forgotten something else. Went to turn the camera on... Shoot... the battery was completely drained. So I gave it a quick charge.

Grabbed the tripod while the battery was plugged into the wall and attached my battery-less Panasonic FZ-50. Looked at the moon and thought oh darn I think missed it... but nope, as it was partially transcended, I was still in time to capture the celestial event.

Back into the house I went... snatched the battery off the wall and popped it into camera. Turned it on... not much of a charge, but it would have to do. Ran outside... In my camera lens, I lined up the lunar event and managed to capture a few shots.

I wish I had been more prepared. They aren't as good as I hoped but I got some I liked. But, I guess, it's the best I coulda hoped for, everything considered.

The pics are untouched. I plan on working on a couple of them a little. I might replace or add them later.

Hope you like them as is for now.

RUSH

Me and my friend R, just got back from the RUSH concert at the Riverbend Pavillion.

Awesome show!!

They rocked the Ohio River bank from about 8pm to 9pm, took about a 25 minute break and then returned to the stage and played all the way up to 10:56pm. Two and half hours of masterful musicianship... Wow!

They were pretty tight and sounded so good. Amazingly professional performers, they played lots of their old hits along with some stuff off their newest musical effort, Snakes and Arrows.

Now, I gotta admit, I was not at all familiar with their new CD but from what I heard at the show, it sounds like it's a pretty good CD.

It was a very nice night with comfortable temperatures and a beautiful sky. And the music played as the sunset over the hills of Kentucky just across the river. When Venus appeared in the sky and the stars came out; there were then stars all around, both on stage and skyward as well.

A nice night indeed.

Oh... and P.S. We went to O'Charleys before the show. My first time to go there... It was good... and I had the best Onion Rings I've ever had in my life! hehe

The Five Factor Personality Test

...Seems fairly accurate...

The Five Factor Personality Test

Extroversion:
You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people.

Conscientiousness:
You have medium conscientiousness. You're generally good at balancing work and play. When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done. But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it. *uh huh*

*although, I rate my conscientiousness a bit higher*

Agreeableness:
You have high agreeableness. You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly. Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone. You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. *Absolutely*

Neuroticism:
You have high neuroticism. It's easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed. You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully. You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. You are either flying very high or feeling very low.

*Google's phone number of nearest Pyschologist*

Openness to experience:
Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

*a little wackiness is always welcome*

The Five Factor Personality Test

Zecco

Featured Post from CCCXXII - Finance

Have you ever heard of Zecco Trading?

They are a newer stock broker... not much over a year old or so.

I have an IRA account with them.

To be honest, since they are so new, they have had some technical issues but nothing that has been so bad that it has bothered me.

What's to get bothered about? They offer free stock trades. And a pleasant surprise was the price improvement in their order execution system. While ya can't get price improvements all the time there are times (especially during market volatility) when your order gets executed at a better price than what you specified... i.e. you receive bigger proceeds from a sale or have to invest less on a buy.

So, overall, I've been pretty happy with them.

They do have fees for certain things like most brokers do. IRA fee $30.

Here is the commission schedule:

Minimum Balance	Equity Trades	Options Trades
$2,500 or above	10 free trades/month, $4.50 thereafter	$4.50 per trade + 50 cents per contract
Below $2,500	$4.50 per trade

That's a pretty low cost for trading or investing and with pricing like that you can easily build a diversified, liquid portfolio.

As of today, I've made 146 stock trades without a commission since May 2007. With my other broker that would have costed $2,182.70. But with Zecco my trading costs were Zero.*

Over the long term, just imagine how saving on trading costs will benefit you in retirement by compounding your savings at just a modest interest rate over 20 years... Let's see, $2k saved per year compounded for 20 years at say 4% = $130,015... that'll stuff your piggy bank. :0)

Zecco Trading... free stock trades

Update: 10-1-2007

*146 trades were made before changes in the commission schedule while the broker offered up to 40 free trades per month.

Smart Google!

Watching the Google Ad's adjust to my blog posts is both amazing and amusing.

Google Bot... you're awesome!

*smile*

IRL cars: Going Green... or Lavender

The Beginning

..

Untitled Inversion

Untitled Inversion II

Got this email 3 times today... perhaps, that is a sign to share it.

A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible Study. The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice. The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"

After the service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie, and they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways.

It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God ... If you will speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out loud, "God is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk.

The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli.

"Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk." It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.

As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, " Turn down that street." This is crazy he thought and drove on past the inter-section. Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street. At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh. Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God, I will."

He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in a semi commercial area of town. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed, and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.

Again, he sensed something, "Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street." The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.

He started to open the car door and then sat back in the car seat. "Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad, and I will look stupid." Again, he felt like he should go and give them the milk.

Finally, he opened the car door. "Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door, and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something, but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."

He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?" Then the door opened before the young man could get away.

The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face, and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. "What is it?"

The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, "Here, I brought this to you."

The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face.

The man began speaking and half crying, "We were just praying. We had some big bills this month, and we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."

His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I asked him to send an Angel with some. Are you an Angel?"

The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put it in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face. He knew that God still answers prayers.


Unsigned - Anonymous


awww...*teary*

First Correct Comment Contest #1

First person to correctly answer gets $5.00

What movie is the following quote from?

"Girls don't pay - guys pay!"

Rainbow

Just got back from eating out at Hoggy's where I dined on a Pull Pork Dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, fancy green beans and corn bread! Yum!! Oh and sweet tea. :0)

On the way out there were the biggest fluffiest clouds in the sky that I can recall in quite some time.

There was blue sky and big fluffy white clouds. One cloud in particular was sooo big and soooo fluffy that it filled the sky from the ground to way up high. So much so, and in such a shape that it almost looked like a mountain.

There were also some darker clouds... but nothing too ominous.

BTW, It's been pretty hot here lately with the temp hanging around 100 degrees F.

When we came out from enjoying our meals we found that it was just barely sprinkling. Not much precipitation at all really.

Approaching home, there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. How pretty.

It hadn't really rained much. The streets were kinda wet, but the clouds hadn't really given too much of a soak, at least, not yet. However, it was surely a lot cooler... surprisingly so. So, we have some relief from the heat and the promise of a rainbow.

:0)

IRL

ZOOOOOOOOOM!











On August 11, 2007 the Indy Racing League came to Sparta, KY to go fast and turn left. My nephew is on a mailing list linked to Penske Racing and they send him passes every year. And so, for the past 3 years he has invited me to go.















This was my 4th Indy race. It was a pretty good race. I took my digital camera for the first time to this event. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to capture these amazingly fast cars all the while missing a fair part of the race.


These cars are soooo fast... I can't tell you how many pictures had empty frames from where the cars just passed by too fast and were gone before the lag time of my camera had passed. But I got some shots that I like and we saw some good racing.

Actually, there were two races that night the Indy Pro Series ran a 67 lap race after the IRL cars were done. I've seen Busch Series racing and Indy racing at the Speedway. It's a pretty place to race nestled in the rolling hills of Kentucky.

Cars entering pit row.

Cars racing off pit row.

The conclusion of Dario's wheels up in the air crash.

I was able to get a pic of the cars crashing into the wall, with sparks and pieces flying. Just a second before that Dario was flying past me at the level of the top of the catch fence... right before my eyes. Stuff happens sooooo fast at 200 mph. I said "holy freakin' cow" and barely had time to utter that before I placed my shutter down the track where they were already into the wall with a flash and a crash.

Later, I watched the sports news and Dario said he didn't know the race was over. Yikes... so he didn't lift when everyone else did and he raced right over the car in front him which launched him up in the air, the second time in 2 weekends of racing in which he took to flight. A wicked wreck it was... Everyone was OK though.

Earlier, in the race, Danika spun in Turn 2 after a tire blew out. A spin that really had me worried as she was spinning and heading towards a safety vehicle that was rolling down the back stretch.

To see video of Danika's spin and Dario's Flight I've found a link to ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=1&id=2970488

Sorry folks, the story is still there but the video stream from the Disney server no longer streams.

Kicks

Recently, I've been on a YouTube Kick. hehe

Kicks... I go on kicks on a fairly regularly basis.

For a while now it has been Starbucks CoFfEe... *jitters* This kick has lasted for some time now... hmmm... Perhaps, I'm hooked. hehe

And as of late, I've also been on a dessert kick and going to the bake shop with great frequency... Pies and cakes... cakes and pies. *smile*

Red Velvet cake, Lemon Meringue and Coconut Meringue pies have been my kicks craving.

Yum!

P.S. Never had Double Cherry Pie... sounds like it could be good though.

Like Double Cherry Pie?

Recently, I was listening to a local station on the FM dial. Man, they played a song I hadn't heard in forever. I'd even forgotten who the artist was and about their musical contribution and cover tune "Comin' Up From Behind" to the movie Cruel Intentions... Sorry guys. You freakin' rock!

"Yeah Momma this must be my dream."

Check it out, Marcy Playground, if you please...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDAXltfj8-Y

"Sex and Candy" * **

"Comin' Up From Behind" **

"Sherry Fraser" **

*Slightly risque lyrics.

**onionsamoungus, me, we... whatever you want to call us is not responsible for content on linked to sites.