phillbecker

The Assassin bug, or wheel bug, is a not-uncommon visitor around woody areas.

Last fall I found one laying a cluster of eggs on a branch in the front yard.

But today, I was out and just happened to check the eggs …

BABIES!!!

I work part-time as a late night delivery driver for a local pizza shop, and have tried all kinds of things to stay alert and productive until 3 or 4 a.m. Usually I drink lots of Mountain Dew (free and full of calories) or an energy drink. I like the serious ones with about 200 mg of caffeine + the herbs etc.

But, all that caffeine meant that I was up and wired when I got home and couldn’t sleep well, even though I had to be up in 2-3 hours with the kids. Skipping a night’s sleep is o.k. now and then, but I sure get grumpy and short-fused.

Last night I decided to try one of those 5-Hour Energyfor the first time. I’m not real sure how much I paid for it, I was reeling from filling the gas tank and didn’t pay close attention.

When describing the 5-Hour Energy feeling, some people say it’s “like the sun coming up in my head.” That’s because when you’re feeling groggy and lethargic, 5-Hour Energy wakes up your brain and gets you back to feeling the way you want to feel bright, alert, focused and energetic. What you won’t feel is jittery, or crash. That’s because, unlike other energy drinks, 5-Hour Energy doesn’t jack you up with sugar, caffeine and herbal stimulants. Instead, it’s packed with stuff that’s good for you B-vitamins, amino acids and enzymes. To get anything out of those canned energy drinks you have to force down a lot of liquid up to 24 ounces for some of them. It takes just seconds to slam down a 2-ounce 5-Hour Energy shot. That means its energizing ingredients get into your system faster. In a few minutes you can feel 5-Hour Energy brushing away the cobwebs and helping you regain the alert, focused feeling you need to get through your day. Canned energy drinks give you a lot of sugar, caffeine and herbal stimulants which can make you feel jittery, shaky or tense. But 5-Hour Energy’s blend of vitamins, amino acids and enzymes gives you hours of “smooth energy.” We named it 5-Hour Energy for a reason. People typically feel an elevated sense of energy, focus and alertness for about five hours. Individual results will vary, of course. And when that feeling wears off, it does so gently.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the results. I wasn’t bounding off the walls or jittery, but I never got drowsy (even though it was a very slow night. The cook, by the way, was downing redbulls and coffee and fell asleep twice during the shift. I said slow, right?

Lo and behold, right about 2:30 I felt a lagging and slowing that I recognized from … 5 hours ago. And the night before for that matter. We closed up and I decided to get this review out. Actually, I decided I wanted a big bowl of ice cream and didn’t really want to turn the TV on so I did this instead.

The reason I resisted trying them earlier was mostly marketing. I have a tendency to disbelieve all marketing, especially slick ads with beautiful women in short skirts; or with the perceived benefits blasted all over the place instead of any real information. But I read the label and saw it was just like a liquid nutritional supplement and not really all that scary. I’ll be putting these in regular rotation, along with my green supplements and the occasional cup of coffee.

Anyhow, Amazon.com has them for $1.67 each and I see them on shelves all over town. I’m going to start adding them to my orange juice

The directions for Amazon.com widget said just do this.
doesn’t look right to me

try this
seventh generation products

better
for my own use now
a type=”amzn” search=”search contents” category=”something” text link
see also the category page

I get on theme kicks with Netflix. Recently I’ve added all the “Hellraiser” series to watch after the family goes to bed. The first one is a classic horror movie. Clive Barker created characters and monsters and a story that just stay with you.

Spoiler Warning…..

If you’ve never seen it, Hellraiser is based around a little puzzle box that opens the gates of hell to the person who solves the puzzle. Demons - disfigured and tortured humans, come for you and “tear your soul apart!!” Usually with sharp hooks on the end of chains that sprout from the darkness beyond.

In the first movie. a few drops of blood on the floor re-animate a body devoured by these demons. His lover lures men and bashes their brains in so the zombie thing can eat them to regain his flesh … supposedly to finish escaping hell once and for all. Lots of gore, good creature effects and, of course, the “Pinhead” demon who becomes iconic of the series.

The second and third pretty closely follow the first, but suck. #4 took the story line into the future and past at the same time, trying to explain and end the story and failing in both tasks.

Episode 5 gets interesting again. It follows a bad cop’s nightmare life, which turns out to be his own personal hell because he opened the box and is now totally screwed. This one is much more of a character film than just gore and screwed-up sidekick monsters. Actual actors and a story made for an enjoyable night of psychological horror, rather than gore and screaming.

Episode 6 was even better. Good actors again, a story that twist and turns, jumps and screams and reveals the ending (which we kinda figured knowing the history of these films). Here’s a hint… the hero isn’t really good and gets what he asked for.

VII kicked much ass. More gore (and a little old-school nudity) and still phsyco-thriller. We get glimpses into the heroine’s dark past, and she manages to foil the plot of two different bad guys. But it still sucks to be her.

There’s still one more episode to go, but I thought I’d kick this review out while I was thinking about it. One of the features showed an interview with Doug Bradley (The guy under the pins) and he said something like “you find a formula for movies like this that work. Then you repeat it again and again and again and again.” Then he says that they managed not to do that. if you subtract episodes 2 and 3, He’s right. The “pinhead” character plays a minor role in each of the films. Much less than your “typical” horror-movie-monster. Pretty much pinhead comes in flashes to spook you, then shows up at the end to let someone know the show’s over. Your in hell now. The story’s have been pretty varied and kept me interested. Although saying “I was watching Hellraiser 7 before coming in to work” does raise eyebrows, I’m enjoying the trip through the box and looking forward to the next one.

I picked up a new mp3 player the other day. It had good reviews at newegg, 2gig flash memory and a 1 gig microSD all for under $30.

To sum up the review so you can get on with life … it’s a piece of crap. Don’t get it.

First of all, it seems to be of a new generation of media device that is recognized as a media device and only lets you transfer music through Napster or the Microsoft player .. whatever it’s called. I don’t use either and could not figure how to just drag music over on the the player, unplug and play.

Ubuntu recognized the device and let me move files over. Then when I unplugged it would get stuck (as it is now) on a screen that says “Refresh Database” and stay there. Tech support had me connect the device by

1. Power down device
2. Slide “hold” button to right (on)
3. Hold left search key (previous)
4. Connect to USB

Now windows recognizes it as a USB device. Then he tells me to reformat the drive in FAT32 (it was FAT16). Now it works. great. I’m happy.

So I load up almost 3gigs worth of songs and take it to work for an 8 hour shift driving around. And hear “Crisis” and “Corruption Inc.” over and over and over again. It looks like the device only recognized 86 songs to play. (they both have myspace pages I refuse to link to)

Feck.

So I take it home, reformat the device and the microSD. Great it boots again. Load music. great it’s happy still. Load up the device, disconnect … “Refresh Database.”

DAMMIT

I’m just going to call Sansa and tell them to send me something better, or the version 1 of the device so at least I can load Rockbox on it (oh yeah. I tried that too. turns out V2 is incompatible at the moment.)

At least my ipod is handy as a paperweight. This one is complete crap. OH! and the screen got scratched before I even took it out of the house to listen to it. Just sitting around on my desk it got scratched!

Like I said at the beginning. Don’t get it, it’s a waste of time.