I think just about everyone knows how important beer is. From beer goggles to the proverbial six-beer-queer (it's been scientifically proven!), beer has helped make this a better world for quite a long time. To think, some people might never have sex if it weren't for beer. I have to admit, though, I hadn't really understood just how important beer really can be. In fact, as a recent story out of Slovakia just goes to show that beer could just save your life...
Apparently, some parts of Europe have been hit with the heaviest snowfall since 1941. Richard Kral was driving through the Slovak Tatra mountains when his car was buried in an avalanche.
At first he tried to dig his way out, but he realized that the snow would fill his car he managed to make his way out. Fortunately, Kral had a stroke of luck - he had brought 60 bottles of beer with him for his holiday trip. He realized he could urinate on the snow to melt it.
"I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there," Kral explained.
Rescue teams found Kral, drunk and wandering down a mountain pass, four days after his car had been caught in the avalance.
Thanks to Ananova for the story.
posted by Marc at
4:36 PM -
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This was a really strange weekend weather-wise here in Phoenix. Friday night was a little chilly, but nice - I ended up going to dinner at Z-Tejas with someone I've kinda been going out with the past couple of weeks (!). Anyway, Saturday was downright cold and grey... I went out to grab some lunch and when I finished it started raining really hard, which is not all THAT unusual, I suppose. As I drove home, it seemed like the rain started coming down even harder... that is, until I realized my car was actually being pelted with hail. Fortunately, it wasn't golf ball-sized or anything -- more like pea-sized. Still, I rushed home to make sure that Stinky was ok. Of course, he was just fine - he's smarter than a lot of people I know. Once I got home, the storm seemed to get worse -- the hail came down harder and there were several loud thunderclaps, which isn't unusual for August, but is unheard of in January. I was ready for the tornado to swoop down, pick up my house and take me and Stinky to Oz. All in all, I felt more like Lt. Uhura from Star Trek... "Captain! The Klingons are hailing us!"
Three words for you:
I know some people have a uniform fetish. I can't say I blame them. The sight of a hot cop, marine, fireman, etc. will get me going in no time. Even a hot UPS guy will get my blood flowing (though, I don' t run into many, I confess).
Of course, every rule has an exception and he happens do deliver mail to my house. He's about 6', in his early to mid 30s, short brown hair, soul patch, very attractive and he shows off his very nice physique with his rolled up sleeves and shorts that show off his legs and rippling calves. Of course, it raises the question - how many straight men go around like that? He's gotta be gay, right? Well, I've said hello to him a few times, but I've always gotten a breeder vibe from him. That hasn't stopped me from hoping that one of these days he's gonna deliver his package to me personally. I'll make sure that I handle it with care.
My friend Sean asked me why I hadn't posted anything new yet. I had to answer that I haven't really had anything new to talk about. After a year of things feeling stagnant and not really making much visible progress in several areas in my life - career, relationship/love, social, etc. (though I feel like I made progress in less tangible ways in certain areas) - things are finally starting to move... though I haven't really heard anything more jobwise since I heard from that LA recruiter. I'm also still waiting to hear on that job in town. My first tendency is that I should be doing something - should be trying to follow up, etc. And at first blush, that seems like a wise thing to do. But I learned this past year that once I've played my part, things are really out of my control. I feel like that's where I am right now - I've done my part and I don't really like the feeling that I don't have any control over things, so I want to try to do something to regain some semblance of control. Of course, every time I try to do that, it seems like it just ends up driving me crazy and even slowing things down further. That's why I've been trying to focus on other things, staying in the flow, and just letting things happen. Not easy. But fortunately I can try to focus on hot guys in the gym instead. YAY!
A friend asked me to go see House of Flying Daggers with him last night. I hadn't heard anything about it, so I didn't really have any expectations. Flying Daggers stars Ziyi Zhang, who was also in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which I really loved.
The dancer, Mei, is arrested and questions but refuses to divulge anything about the identity or whereabouts of the rebel leader. When the questioning fails, Leo and Jin agree to have Jin pose as a rogue warrior, break Mei out of jail, seduce her, and escort her to the headquarters of the Flying Daggers.
What a difference a couple of days and half an hour makes. The vast majority of my body is no longer sore, with the exception of my calves, so I went back to the gym today for an upper body workout. I went roughly half an hour later than I had the past couple of times and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of hot guys that had been conspicuously absent on Wednesday. While the one really big guy I had seen on Monday wasn't there, he was replaced by a few guys that were very well built but otherwise normal looking. It was a very nice change and put it together with finally finding my MP3 player and bringing it with me made my workout fly by. There were also a couple of hot staff people there that I hadn't seen before, in addition to the trainer that I hoping to give a tongue bath at some point. All in all, it was quite a productive session.
Yesterday I took Stinky to the vet. He had a big, nasty sore on his hind paw and on his tail that I just noticed a couple of days ago and he needed to get checked out. Stinky never likes riding in the car, but he was a very good lil trooper -- and we were lucky that the vet is only a mile away. In any event, once we got to the vet, he was very well behaved and the staff there loved him.
Today was a very interesting day on the job front. I got a call from someone I worked with at my old law firm who had been in the legal recruiting field, left it, and just came back to it recently. I had worked with her in getting some contract work here in town and she tracked me down today looking to see if I was still interested. Great timing, as my funds are running quite low. That would have been quite a positive turn for most days.
So, it was back to the gym again today. And as R.J. had predicted, I am hella sore from Monday, but that's hardly a surprise. (Just for the record, I worked on the non-sore body parts today...) One of the drawbacks to starting at a new gym is that you don't know the flow of people yet. For example, I went roughly the same time I went on Monday and yet there were only a couple of guys that gave me the overwhelming urge to fellate them in front of the whole gym, as opposed to several on Monday. I suppose there were enough passable guys that I could have filled a reasonable quota, but there was definitely a lack of the same numbers and quality earlier in the week. The other thing is that I haven't really tried the evening yet. But the thing that really bothers me is this: Of the trainers that were there, there was only one that I really would have wanted to sleep with. Granted, he was tall, attractive and built, so that was a big plus. But out of the entire training staff I have seen so far, he is the only one that got my juices flowing. To make matters worse, I only saw him as I was walking out the door -- no chance to eye him as I worked out or anything. Let me tell you, that hurt, even more than the soreness from Monday's workout.
Well, it came out of the (Carolina) blue and left just as quickly. I just got an e-mail from the ACLU of North Carolina. They did not bring me back for a live interview. I guess I should be disappointed, but to be honest, I'm really relieved that it's over. I really wasn't expecting to get the interview with th ACLU of North Carolina and in the interview I really felt overmatched by the position -- being the only attorney in the office, not knowing anyone in the area... I like the idea of doing some civil rights work, but the reality of that particular job is doing a lot of paperwork telling people we can't help them, finding attorneys I know nothing about to do the work we actually do accept and top it off, living in North freakin' Carolina, all while being extraordinarily underpaid. I really went into things trying to keep an open mind and with a willingness to take the job, but thankfully that was resolved for me. I wish those people out there the best of luck, though, because it is not an easy job, doing that kind of work in the South. Hopefully I will find a job that's a little more my speed... maybe the job with GoDaddy? Maybe the ACLU of Southern California will finally call. Who knows? In any event, it's time for me to get this tar off my heel.
I had my phone interview with the ACLU of North Carolina yesterday. I felt like the interview went pretty well, though having the interview on the phone was difficult - I am usually pretty relaxed and deliberate in interviews and having the interview over the phone ended up with me being a little rushed and not as thought out as I normally like. That being said, I felt like the interview went reasonably well. The position was for a Staff Attorney, which from looking at the job description, I felt like I could handle. After talking with the director, I learned that the Staff Attorney is the ONLY attorney in the office -- it's a small office with only 4 employees total. Essentially, that means there is a LOT more responsibility than I was counting on. I had very mixed feelings when I found that out. In any event, I gave it my best shot and I think it was a good experience regardless of whether I get the job or not. We'll see how things go.
Yesterday I found out that I got a phone interview with the ACLU of North Carolina. Last week I had an interview in town with GoDaddy.com... I was glad that I had gotten an interview finally, but was a little disappointed that it was looking like things were going to keep me in town. I've spent the past several days trying to warm up to the idea of staying in Phoenix. Now I've finally gotten a nibble at a job out of town that I think I would enjoy more but would pay less and is on the wrong coast. My first instinct is to say, I'll go through the interview just for the experience, but I wouldn't take the job if I had another choice. Instead, I think I'm going to imagine the possibilities if I went out there and be willing to accept that...
Today has been a wet, rainy day here in Phoenix. We're in a desert and in the middle of a drought, to boot, so you don't really think of Phoenix as a rainy place... usually the rain comes during the monsoon season in late August-through September and you get these very loud, impressive thunderstorms that pound on you for a while and then peter out and move on. Well, it's been dark, cloudy and wet all day today. I'm not used to that. It was like that a couple of days last week. It kind of makes me wonder what life in Seattle is like. Sitting around, drinking Starbucks and watching episodes of Frasier... Heh! The rain inspired me to snuggle under the covers, pet my cat, Stinky, and have a nice cup of tea.
I ended up going to a house party last night. I was able to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while. Unfortunately, the party was kind of a last minute thing and it never really achieved critical mass -- I actually headed over to Amsterdam (a bar, FYI) before midnight as most of the guys at the party I knew were doing. Midnight itself was pretty anticlimactic. I headed back to the party where I was confronted with a dance floor full of lesbians. Boy, this really was not the way I wanted to ring in 2005. I left shortly thereafter, trying to regain some semblance of whatever perspective I had gained earlier in the evening.
