I got carded yet again.  I think it was because I had just showered and shaved before I went to the grocery store so I had a definite baby face (Yes, even more than normal).

By Gil Le Bell (6/30/2003)

Since humans have inhabited the Earth, the question has been asked - “Why are we here? What is our purpose?” Beat Reporter Gil Le Bell has talked to government sources and scientist around the world. All agree that the meaning of life has been discovered. Most find the answer astonishing.

Since the Earth was first created, it has been on a quest to create styrofoam and plastics. At first the earth tried to create plastic and styrofoam on its own, but without success. Eventually the Earth began to create life forms in the hope that they would be able to create what it could not. All early species failed to achieve the goal, and the earth gave up on them. Humans however have finally given the Earth the one thing that it has always desired.

Why the Earth wants or needs these has yet to be determined, but without a doubt, plastics are its primary goal. Some speculate that the permanence of plastics make it appealing to the Earth. Now that the Earth has plastic in reasonable quantities, scientists believe that the Earth will slowly kill of the human race.

Evidence of this can be found through the number and types of deadly new diseases that are being discovered. Fear of AIDS will eventually prevent humans from procreating and diseases like SARS will kill of the remaining humans. In the mean time, if you wish to have meaning in your life, remember to consume products that come in plastic.

1. 99 Red Balloons (Nena)
2. Strangelove (Depeche Mode)
3. Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman (The Tubes)
4. Dean’s Dream (The Dead Milkmen)
5. Shiver and Shake (The Cure)
6. Take Me To The River (Talking Heads)
7. 99% (Soul Asylum)
8. Kick (INXS)
9. Regret (New Order)
10. The Sun Maid (Soul Asylum)
11. Not Too Soon (Throwing Muses)

Blog shorts:

• As we were walking from the train to the bus in Chicago, we passed a person with a card board sign - “Homeless, please help.” As soon as we passed them, Allison said, “He wasn’t homeless; did you see how nice his clothes were?”
• Justin and I leave for scout camp on Sunday — a week of camping, swimming, etc.
• Firefox has a plug-in called Stumble Upon — You tell it the types of things you are interested in, and whenever you click the button it takes you to a site that other people with the same interest thought was cool.
• Phil at work just sent an email that said - At 4am a rabbit tried to go under our fence and made us get up :(. It was a Volkswagen Rabbit. And the fence is (was) on a rock wall.
  

FYI - my website may not be suitable for children

Mingle² - Online Dating

Apparently the words Hell and Gay make it PG. I knew parts of the site might get me a higher or low rating, so, if I categorize something as Family, its rating is

Mingle² - Online Dating

but when I write about politics, well…

Mingle² - Online Dating

• Sunday (day) - We started off by going to Shedd Aquarium. It only took us one train and one bus to get there. The line to get in was a bit long, but once again, the kids thought it was worth it. We saw lots of strange/interesting/unique fish and turtles, but one of the highlight for me was that the octopus was very active. We had lunch at a sit down restaurant in the aquarium, with a great view of Lake Michigan. It was a little pricey, but well worth it when you consider the other option was a crowded food court. Plus they gave the father’s a free beer for Father’s Day. After the Aquarium, we took a bus (and a short walk) to Millennium Park where the kids played in the water along with hundreds of Chicagoans. We also sat on the grass and listened to a children’s choir and saw The Bean (a.k.a. Cloud Gate).
• Sunday (evening) - We got a little late of a start looking for dinner (we were all beat after the Aquarium/ Millennium Park). The Mexican fish place we had planned to eat at had a line out the door, so Lucy recommended a Mexican restaurant on Chicago. Lucy went 2 for 2 on her restaurant choices (not bad for a 7 year old). It was my favorite kind of restaurant — a hole in the wall with authentic food and reasonable prices. There was virtually no wait, and the food was great (and plentiful — none of the adults finished their meals).
• Monday - Justin and I went to the Field Museum while the girls went to the American Girl store for shopping and lunch. I can’t speak for the girls’ day (although they said it was great) , but we could have easily spent hours more at the Field Museum. As a bonus, since we are members of the St. Louis Science Center, our admission was free (except for the extra things we added on). We had a scary moment at the beginning when my phone rang –”Jim, where are the keys to the van …in my pocket (oh ^*^$&$% the girls dolls are in the van and the lunch was the whole purpose of the trip)… [luckily I had left the van unlocked]. We spent a full hour in a special exhibit on new dinosaur discoveries, and more than an hour in the Darwin exhibit (Justin would have spent even longer, but I warned him that we were going to run out of time). We spent an hour or more in the Egypt exhibit, and the rest of our time looking at various other exhibits (Sue, the gem room, rocks and minerals, …).

• Friday - I got up extra early so that I could leave work around 2:00 or 2:30 to beat rush hour out of St. Louis. At 2:00 pm, I got the dreaded email, “Can you jump on a call real quick…” An hour later I finally got off the call. Brenda had everything loaded up, so we were on our way to Chicago well before 4:00, but… not early enough to avoid traffic. It took close to an hour to get from O’fallon to North County. The kids were feeling car sick and wondering how long it was going to take. Once we finally got across the river though, the trip went fine. On the way, whenever one of the kids asked how much longer, I would give them a math problem — take the remaining distance to Chicago, divide by 70 to get the number of hours remaining, then take the remainder, multiply it by 60 and then divide that by 70 to get the number of minutes. Amazingly, each kid only asked one time :). The only Chicago activity the first night was having a few drinks on the rooftop and staring out at the city.
• Saturday (day) - We decided to do the beach. It seemed like some of the buses weren’t running (probably because of a parade, we learned later), so it took an hour and a few bus transfers and quite a bit of walking to get to the lake. The kids went with the flow and decided it was all worth it once we got there and started building sand castles, digging holes, and playing in the water. On the way, Danielle saw a homeless guy sleeping in a park, so that lead to some interesting conversations. We found a good open spot, but as the day wore on, the beach transformed into a solid mass of people. The sun kept playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds, making for perfect beach weather. About the time we decided to leave, the clouds decided to cool everyone off with a nice shower.
• Saturday (night) - Lucy picked out the restaurant, Portillo’s. At first I was a little concerned, because it said Portillo’s Hot Dogs, but there menu was pretty complete. I got the Ribs (which the sign says they are famous for), Brenda got a spicy pasta dish with sliced Italian sausage, and Marilyn got a sandwich that consisted of an Italian sausage with roast beef piled on (quite tasty). Allison and Lucy had hot dogs (they claim they were the best hot dogs, but I’ll just have to take their word on that), Danielle had Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Justin had a cheese pizza (although strangely it wasn’t Chicago style pizza). After dinner we strolled around down town, checking out a McDonalds museum (across the street from Portillo’s), and a Sport Authority, with concrete hand-prints of local sport stars.

By Arnie Geddon (5/27/2003)

The planet Earth has been quarantined by the MHO (Milkyway Health Organization) due to the outbreak of SARS on certain parts of the planet. The disease SARS (Sudden Onset Accute Resperatory Syndrome) spreads more quickly and is more severe in extraterrestrials than in humans. Ironically CNN is reporting that the SARS Virus came from outerspace.

As reported here, SARS is being used by invading aliens as a form of biological weapon, but the aliens obviously did not comprehend the danger of the disease to themselves. For more information on the disease and its affects on aliens, EGI contacted Dr. William Smitzell. Doctor Smitzell offered this explanation.

“As you may know, alien lungs are not as well developed as human lungs and spending all that time in space ships has an adverse affect on ones immune system. Since the disease has been introduced on the planet, it has mutated to a point where it is extremely deadly to extraterrestrials. If this disease were to be transported off the planet Earth, humans might soon be the only intelligent life in the galaxy.”

EGI has learned that fear of SARS has virtually eliminated all alien contact with our planet. In fact since the discovery of the disease, there have been no confirmed alien abductions or UFO sitings. Even last weeks planned invasion of the planet has been post-poned until the disease can be brought under control, or at the very least an alien vaccine is available.

Doctor Smitzell did offer some comforting words. “Be assured that all available efforts are being made to create a vaccine that is suitable for use by aliens. With any luck, normal interplanetary relations should resume within a couple of weeks.”