1/6/09  -  posted by Hogers at 1:47 PM  -  0 Comments

How did I spend my two weeks of holidays at home? By building my side porch and trellis in the lukewarm SoCal sun. This was a big project in the making that took almost 1.5 years to complete. Before I begin, let me give a big thank you to Goo (Sam) for helping out.

Sept 2007 - Demolition of Side Porch
Here is a picture of the old porch when we first moved into the house. The railing and overhead trellis were badly dry rotted (termites). Demolition consisted of lightly kicking at the railing and having it fall over into the yard.



Oct 2007 to Oct 2008 - Procrastination
Threw up some pieces of plywood to block the entrance to the side porch after a crazy lady wandered up onto the porch and started looking inside.



Nov 2008 - Design and Prep
With the holidays approaching, a new fire burns inside to get this puppy built. Go to Home Depot, buy some wood, screws, brackets and stain.


I start enlisting the support of anybody that stops by the house. The other (Juanne's) Eugene gets busy sanding down the boards. He wasn't too happy that I found the power sander an hour after he had already sanded by hand with sand paper.



Dec 2008 - Arrival of the Home Improvement Master
Just like Santa Claus traveling the world to distribute gifts, Goo arrives in town to apply his free home improvement skills to our house.


After the "ladder incident" over the summer, I eagerly allow Goo to get up on the ladder to do all of the work.




Jan 2009 - The Finished Product
BEFORE:


AFTER:

 -  posted by Hogers at 10:02 AM  -  0 Comments

With the current news of the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas, I couldn't help but to think how Israel is basically involved in a campaign to wipe out the Palestinians.


The latest atrocities from today's news involves Israeli forces purposely firing at a U.N. school in Gaza, killing at least 30. CNN and other news wires are reporting that "Hamas militants fired from the school first"...therefore, the Israelis returned fire. But that's bullshit. I hate the fact that US news publications are skewed by the Jews here in the states.

I've never had much of an opinion about Israeli/Arab tensions...but recent events are really helping me to sympathize for the Palestinians in Gaza.

12/17/08  -  posted by Hogers at 8:41 PM  -  1 Comments

From today's Wall Street Journal:

By ANDREW HIGGINS

COPENHAGEN -- At a banquet here late last month, accounting firm Ernst & Young feted a Danish software company for runaway growth under Stein Bagger, its dynamic chief executive. About a thousand guests, including Denmark's tax minister and leading business people, were there to applaud.

Stein Bagger

But Mr. Bagger, the night's big winner, wasn't there to pick up the accolade of "Entrepreneur of the Year" and two other awards. He was busy fleeing from what investigators now describe as Denmark's biggest business scam in decades. Shortly before the banquet began, Mr. Bagger, 41 years old, vanished from a hotel in Dubai. He flew to New York, drove across America and then surrendered to police in Los Angeles. In the meantime, his award-winning company, IT Factory, declared bankruptcy. A liquidator has taken over IT Factory and is sifting through its affairs. Sent back to Denmark Tuesday, Mr. Bagger cried and pleaded guilty before a Danish court to charges of aggravated fraud and forgery, crimes that could land him in jail for eight years, according to his court-appointed lawyer, Jesper Madsen.

"Most of his business was fake," says Jens Madsen, head of an economic-crimes unit now investigating the spectacular rise and fall of Mr. Bagger. The entrepreneur also happens to be a former bodybuilder who, before becoming a Danish tech superstar, posed for a Swedish muscle magazine dressed as Superman. He's now suspected of pumping up IT Factory's profits -- which nearly tripled last year -- through phony deals.

More...

12/16/08  -  posted by Hogers at 4:08 PM  -  0 Comments

Okay, this isn't Judy, but I guess this type of movement can occur towards the end of pregnancy.

12/4/08  -  posted by Hogers at 2:14 PM  -  0 Comments

I have to admit that as an engineer at heart, I have several nerd-like interests. These include fantasy games (Dungeons & Dragons as a kid, Warcraft as an adult today), numbers (I pore over sports stats) and Anime. I don't watch too much Anime these days and the last good Anime I've watched was the Appleseed movie released back in 2004.


I recently found out that a sequel had been released for Appleseed...Appleseed Ex Machina. I didn't realize that some of these Anime movies are pretty big productions.

• Hong Kong action film director/producer John Woo was fully involved in production of both Appleseed movies


• Soundtrack includes top techno artists including Paul Oakenfold


• Miuccia Prada personally designed two costumes for Appleseed Ex Machina and was previously a fan of the first movie before being asked to work on the sequel

I may have to get a BlueRay DVD player before renting this movie. I don't think watching this over YouTube will do it justice.

12/3/08  -  posted by Hogers at 2:39 PM  -  0 Comments

Visible the world over was an unusual superposition of our Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter. Pictures taken at the right time show a crescent Moon that appears to be a smile when paired with the planetary conjunction of seemingly nearby Jupiter and Venus. Pictured above is the scene as it appeared from Mt. Wilson Observatory overlooking Los Angeles after sunset on 2008 November 30.

Highest in the sky and farthest in the distance is the planet Jupiter. Significantly closer and visible to Jupiter's lower left is Venus, appearing through Earth's atmospheric clouds as unusually blue. On the far right, above the horizon, is our Moon, in a waxing crescent phase. Thin clouds illuminated by the Moon appear unusually orange. Sprawling across the bottom of the image are the hills of Los Angeles, many covered by a thin haze, while LA skyscrapers are visible on the far left.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

12/2/08  -  posted by Hogers at 4:47 PM  -  0 Comments

I came across the University of Illinois Men's Soccer Club website today. Brought back memories considering that it's been 13 years since I played at Illinois...hahaha.

It's sad to see that the University of Illinois still has not sponsored a men's NCAA sanctioned program after all these years. You can blame the stupid Title IX which mandates that all colleges must have an equal number of women's and men's varsity sports programs.

I also have a hard time understanding why the school will sponsor men's cross country, gymnastics and cheerleading...but not soccer. Cheerleading?!? WTF?!?!


In the Big 10 conference, only seven of the eleven schools have NCAA sanctioned programs...which is amazing considering that the conference is traditionally one of the strongest in the country for soccer.

Behind the big four professional sports (basketball, baseball, football, hockey), my guess is that soccer is the next largest professional team sport in the US. And I won't even start on the popularity of soccer on the international level...

11/26/08  -  posted by Hogers at 8:54 AM  -  2 Comments

Below are two signs posted on a pole on Melrose.

Courtesy of la.metblogs.com.