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mmiksc00
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Name: Mike
Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 1/13/1980
Gender: Male
Interests: Toy collecting, writing, watching movies, various other kid stuff. I never grew up.
Expertise: Toys, mostly. Also big on animated TV shows.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/10/2001
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So Where Have I Been?
I'm afraid the time has come for me to shut down Rampaging Robots. My life has just been WAY to busy lately (To say nothing of uninteresting) to maintain this the way I really wish I could have.
But fret not, I've got a new endeavor in the works.... | | |
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Been a While Since I Did This...
LEAD STORIES
More Extremist Muslims: In October, a judge in Sokoto, Nigeria, ordered Ms. Safiya Hassaini, 35, stoned to death for adultery while her probable partner (her cousin, Yahaya Abubakar, 60) had the same charge against him dropped for insufficient evidence. (The evidence against Hassaini was that she is not currently married but had just given birth.) Sokoto is one of the northern Nigerian states that practice Muslim Sharia law, and as with the Afghanistan Taliban, posses of men with clubs roam the country looking for lawbreakers. Another quirk in the law: Though Hassaini is on death row, she was released on bail to care for the kid briefly, after which time she is supposed to report back to court so she can be killed. [London Daily Telegraph, 10-28-01]
In September, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiled desolate Echols County, Georgia (between Valdosta and the Okeefenokee Swamp), well-known to the state's judges because that is where they encourage lawbreakers to go when they really want them to leave the state altogether. The Georgia constitution prohibits banishing people from the state as punishment for crimes, so judges merely banish them from 158 of the state's 159 counties, trusting that they would never voluntarily settle in Echols, anyway, and such strategy seems always to work. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9-30-01]
While most of North America endures a fear-of-anthrax frenzy, the Ontario Health Ministry in October fired its only five biohazard scientists for budgetary reasons, replacing them with three lab technicians with community-college degrees. Liberal Party spokespeople blamed the decision on the health minister's long-standing philosophy of smaller government, irrespective of consequences. [National Post-CP, 10-18-01]
Urban Legends Come to Life
An April story from the official newspaper of the People's Republic of China reported that convicted killer Fu Xinrong had indeed had his kidneys illegally harvested after execution, by a company in Nanchang. And in October, a man walked into a Porsche dealership in Palo Alto, Calif., and through smooth-talking and luck, convinced an employee that he was the owner of the $125,000 Turbo 996 that the real owner was scheduled to pick up 20 minutes later. And in an incident reminiscent of a partially made-up June Slate magazine story, two men pleaded guilty in Corpus Christi, Texas, in July to having illegally "fished" for coyotes on federal land by reeling them in with fishing poles baited with deer meat. [Tampa Tribune-AP, 8-2-01] [San Jose Mercury News, 10-31-01] [National Park Service Morning Ranger Report, 8-5-01]
Rights and Privileges
Britain's Legal Services Commission granted imprisoned murderer Shaun Armstrong, 39 (whose victim was 3 years old), legal aid for his privacy-rights lawsuit for about $25,000 against the friend to whom he confessed in writing and who turned him in. Armstrong wants back the letters he sent the friend, claiming ownership of his confession (which reads, "Yes, I'm responsible for the crime, but please don't tell anybody."). [The Independent (London), 9-6-01]
An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled in May that spouses have no legal duty to inform each other of their adulterous affairs. A 52-year-old man had sued his estranged wife for about $210,000 (U.S.) for breaching her duty of "good faith" and "honesty" by hiding her affairs from him for 21 years, but the best the judge would do is agree only in cases where "hazardous" sexual activity outside the marriage would subject the spouse to health risks. [Edmonton Journal, 5-19-01]
Trouble in the Workplace
London's Daily Telegraph reported in July about a recent job opening in Exeter, England: The Austern Electric Circus' knife-thrower Jayde Hanson's assistant had just walked off the job after being nearly hit in the foot, which would have been her third serious wound this season, which is also the number of wounds Hanson's former girlfriend took before she walked off the job last year. [Daily Telegraph, 7-23-01]
Nolan Lett was awarded $17,000 from his former employer, Aramark Corp. (Oak Brook, Ill.), in October. He had fallen and broken his wrist after being chased by a goose as he arrived for work one day at Aramark's building, which he proved in court was a "high-goose" area, encouraged by the company's elaborate pond and garden. "It was very ferocious," Lett said. "It started acting crazy." [Chicago Sun-Times, 10-3-01]
Municipal clerk Anne Frank filed a lawsuit against Greenwich, Conn., in August for back pay owing to her boss's having had an 11-year affair with his secretary. According to the lawsuit, the trysting couple were so often going at it that much of the secretary's work was passed down to Frank, and it was work that she was expected to complete in uncompensated overtime. [Providence Journal-AP, 9-1-01]
People Different From Us
From the police column of the weekly Leonard Graphic (Leonard, Texas, 35 miles north of Dallas), May 3, 2001: "A man claiming to be a medical student was charged with theft of service and given a trespass warning after it was discovered he lied about his reasons for being in the local nursing home two months ago. He told aides there he had permission from the home to 'live the life of the patient' and be bathed and diapered as part of a learning experience. However, when he returned to try the scam again on April 17, police were waiting for him. He was found to be a registered sex offender living in Melissa (Texas)." [Leonard Graphic, 5-3-01]
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Six men were indicted in New York City in October for operating a drug ring, which came to the attention of firefighters, and then police, when one of the men curiously refused to evacuate his apartment across the street from the World Trade Center in the late morning of Sept. 11, despite the area's fires, falling debris and widespread panic. The reason: Inside, police found large supplies of drugs and paraphernalia. [Reuters, 10-25-01]
Undignified Deaths
An elderly man was accidentally struck and killed by a fire truck that had been dispatched to take him to a hospital (Jacksonville, Fla., July). And a 41-year-old man ejected in a bar fight was accidentally struck and killed by a sheriff's patrol car responding to the bar's call for help (Fort Worth, Texas, August). And a 52-year-old woman was accidentally struck and killed by a friend driving to help her after she fell from her horse due to a bee sting (Middleburg, Va., September). [Detroit News, 7-22-01] [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8-8-01] [Washington Post, 9-8-01]
Also, in the Last Month ...
A mother, frustrated that a Sallie Mae loan office would not believe that her debtor-son was deceased, mailed them the cremation certificate and two teaspoons of his ashes, which not only was inadequate proof but caused a full anthrax panic (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.). Descendants of the 19th-century feuding Hatfields and McCoys resumed battling, in court, over whether McCoys are being blocked from a cemetery whose main access is controlled by the Hatfields (Pikeville, Ky.). Model (Ms.) Julian Fallon was awarded about $8,500 for career-stifling injuries from the collapse of a second-floor rehearsal studio, which left her straddling a beam and with disfiguring nail holes in her derriere (Dublin, Ireland). Deputies subdued a man after a 10-minute shootout, which he provoked, he said, because he was irritable after a long bout of constipation (Bloomington, Ind.) [Los Angeles Times-AP, 10-24- 01] [Associated Press, 10-17-01] [Irish Independent, 10-17-01] [Bloomington Herald-Times, 10-26-01]
Thanks this week to Steve Miller, John Cieciel, Bill Holman, Leslie Goodman-Malamuth, Jeff Rose-Martland, Roger Gulbransen, David de la Cruz, David Schaefer, Phil Parker, Colleen Klosterman, Andre May, Lang Thompson, Paul Music and Louis Daugherty and the News of the Weird Senior Advisors and Chief Correspondents.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or Newsweird@aol.com, or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com/.)
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| Weird God Damned Dreams...
I took the opportunity last night to catch up on some badly needed sleep... all in all, I clocked in about 11 hours worth, and believe me I needed every second of it. Friday night is when my lack of sleep during the week catches up to me, so I zonked out the moment I got home from work, and slept until 10 this morning. Frankly, I could actually probably afford a little more sleep, but as it is I'm feeling much more charged up and ready to go than I have been in a VERY long while.
But I did have some odd dreams last night... Actually they were less "odd" and more along the lines of "friggin' weird." First and foremost (and perhaps the most weird) was a dream I had about Renee deciding that she wanted to have a baby, and selecting Lance of all people to be the father. Turned out there was no sex involved between them for this, but still I was downright livid. I know I don't lay any claim on Renee, plus I'm involved with Crystal at the moment, but this still got to me quite deeply.... Really odd dream though, seemingly a fusion of everything I was thinking last night... Erin had a whole theory about how teenage girls want to have a baby so they will have something that will love them unconditionally, Renee dropped by work to borrow some of my movies and I was thinking about how I wished things had worked out between us, plus Lance is hanging onto this his job by a thread, so that's often in mind too. So all this got jumbled together into Lance fathering Renee's baby while I'm rushing off to stop it or something... At least I think I was going to stop it... I don't know what I was planning on doing once I got there, honestly.
Then I had another dream where I ended up getting all cozy with Elke (Don't know if I've ever mentioned her before, but she used to work for the store, then left, and now she's back again). Thought that was really weird, as she's not really my type. Yeah, she's nice and she's cute, but overall she's not really my type. I don't know where the hell that one came from either... If anything, you'd think I'd be having dreams about Erin, we're both the same personality type, plus she's probably the most attractive girl I work with...
And in my defense, let me say that I would never think of cheating on Crystal. On any given day I'm fine with Renee and I being friends, and I don't even look twice at Elke and Erin, but last night has just caused me some emotional unrest is all.... | | |
| To Funny For Words Arkansas Woman Killed in
Mistaken Rapture
by Elroy Willis
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ARKANSAS CITY (EAP) -- A Little Rock woman was killed yesterday after leaping through her moving car's sun roof during an incident best described as a "mistaken rapture" by dozens of eye-witnesses.
Thirteen other people were injured after a twenty-car pile-up resulted from people trying to avoid hitting the woman, who was apparently convinced that the rapture was occurring when she saw twelve people floating up into the air, and then passed a man on the side of the road who she claimed was Jesus.
"She started screaming 'He's back!, He's back!' and climbed right out of the sunroof and jumped off the roof of the car," said Everet Williams, husband of 28-year-old Georgann Williams who was pronounced dead at the scene.
"I was slowing down but she wouldn't wait till I stopped," Willams said. She thought the rapture was happening and was convinced that Jesus was gonna lift her up into the sky," he went on to say.
"This is the strangest thing I've seen since I've been on the force," said Paul Madison, first officer on the scene.
Madison questioned the man who looked like Jesus and discovered that he was on his way to a toga costume party, when the tarp covering the bed of his pickup truck came loose and released twelve blow-up sex dolls filled with helium, which then floated up into the sky.
Ernie Jenkins, 32, of Fort Smith, who's been told by several of his friends that he looks like Jesus, pulled over and lifted his arms into the air in frustration, and said "Come back," just as the Williams' car passed him, and Mrs. Williams was sure that it was Jesus lifting people up into the sky as they passed by him, according to her husband, who says his wife loved Jesus more than anything else.
When asked for comments about the twelve sex dolls, Jenkins replied "This is all just too weird for me. I never expected anything like this to happen." | | |
| Apologies for the lack of entries lately...
...But school and work have been keeping me busy. I just got back from a lab practical (I've made invertebrate zoology my bitch) that I blazed through in record time, so I've got the spare moments needed to get around to writing an entry. Here's everything you could possibly want to know about what's been going on in my life and then some:
School: I think I've got this quarter pretty much locked up. Ecology is easy. Ecological Physiology is deceptively simple. Invertebrate Zoology, as stated earlier, is my bitch (I mean seriously, I knew that test inside out. It was kind of sad to see so many other people who weren't done in 20 minutes like I was, and I only took that long because people were in my way at the different stations where the question were). Intro to Zen is way over my head, but I've since changed my grade to pass/not pass, so that's a sure thing. I'm not going to go so far as to say it's all a walk in the park (I do actually have to work to make things easy for me, you realize), but I've deffinately got things very well in hand indeed, which I think is impressive since I'm taking slightly more units than most people, plus working 35 hours a week. Speaking of which...
Work: I really like the new owner, especially since he's conferred upon me the power to fire employees. Ooooooh, if I had known that a few days ago, Rome wouldn't be even making it to the store meeting tonight to find out that he's history, he would have been already. Before I got to work on Saturday, Josh had gone to Quizno's Subs to get some sandwiches for some of hte other employees. Rome borrowed a customer's bike to supposedly go watch Josh's bike. That just totally blew my mind, even moreso when it turned out that he saw nothing wrong with what he'd done. So since we were overstaffed to begin with, Lauren and I concocted a plan to be nice about sending him home early. That didn't work, so I had to be a hardass about it and tell him to get out of there. I was power tripping for a few hours after that, it was quite the rush : )
The musical chairs continues at work as far as the staff is concerned. David is quitting (I'm sorry to see him go, honestly), Cory and Rome are getting fired next week, 4 new people, 1 of which is an old employee come back, 3 of which are new hires, 2 of which I have not worked with. Then Mo came back wanting her old job back. I advised against it, as did Mike. Lauren and Katie weren't around when Mo was here, so they didn't have much say in the matter.
We had a meeting for leads on Tuesday night that covered a whole lot of topics. I was very satisfied that we got together like that, as it got us all on the same page which is very useful. That was kind of a prelude for the store meeting tonight, which will basically be the end of the honeymoon of the new management taking control, and will usher in the new era of how they want things done. Most of it is old news to me at least, but it serves more as a refresher course on just how it's supposed to go. Personally I'm estatic that they're going to go over how to do stuff correctly on the cash register, it's been driving me nuts doing close outs on the drawers when people have been ringing up coupons and punch cards and comps and employee meals all wrong all day long. Soon I shall know peace of mind.
Ooooh, this hot redhead just sat down at the computer across from me... To bad I'm not available anymore, which brings us to:
Relationships: A few months ago I answered a personal ad from Yahoo on a lark and started chatting and e-mailing with some girl from back home in the Central Valley (Well actually she lives a couple hours from "back home" but the Central Valley of California is all one giant homogenous sink hole of shit). She moved out here a few weeks ago, we hung out together for a little while, and now we're officially a couple. She's a fun girl to hang out with, although she tends to be really chatty and I have a hard time getting a word in edgewise sometimes. Ironically when Renee found out about this, she must have realized that I'd given up persuing her (About a month late there... Heh heh), so now we're back to being buds.
Aaaand that about brings us all up to speed. | | |
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