Yes, death is an interest of mine. Years ago, when I got married, there were many deaths among family and friends. There were so many deaths, my wife and I joked about our marriage ending the same way. Unfortunately, we were correct. Many deaths in a few short years, with hers as the final death in the line. So yes, I have a morbid interest in death.

My interest this evening is Cryonics or the freezing of human or animal bodies with the “possibility” of bringing them back to life.

Why? Currently there is no known reversal method, so why do it now. It costs a lot of money to keep a body/head in a ‘suspended’ state, and there is no and may never be a reversal method. Sound like someone is playing with the emotions of people near death, or their families.

Even if there ever is a reversal process in the next 50 to 100 years, why would anyone want to revive the “dead” people? There are complaints of over population now, do we really want to have an alternative way to put more bodies on the planet. We do well enough now with the usual approach (having babies — explanation for those who weren’t sure what method is used). I can’t see that happening, unless they want something.

How will you fit in? The future will be different than life now, how will you cope? 25 years ago, personal computers were in their infancy. Now just about everyone has one. What changes will occur in the next 25 years? Next 50? Next 100? 200? If you are having trouble with text messaging on a cell phone, or wonder about all these people with things hanging out of their ears, will you be able to cope with things going on around you in the future?

And the real thing I wonder about is what is the ego of a person who wants to be frozen and thawed later. I’m not saying anything about family decisions (later…), but about a persons desire to put off death to be cured at a later date. Is anyone really that important?

And about a family that decides to keep one of their relatives, do they love/need the person so much to try to keep them around, or is it a comfort that just maybe? I could never see doing this for myself or for someone I care about. I think there would be too much anguish on both sides if and/or when the body can be thawed.

And I haven’t even touched on any religious aspects of this. I think that may be the start of a different post. Many things I would have to wrap my mind around for that…

I really thought I’ve seen a lot on the web, but I never thought I would see this.

Just for your information, I was looking up which albums Longer by Dan Fogelberg” was included in. I really didn’t expect to see a video of an old LP playing. I have a number of Fogelberg’s CD, and a few old LPs. It is just that now I don’t have anyway to play the LPs… I haven’t watched one on a turntable for years…

I need to find the tape of my wedding, my ‘little’ sister sang Longer for us.

Ok, I like playing the part of the villain. I like talking about murder and mayhem. I’m not really like that at all. Really!!

But I just read a news article where apparently someone was just like that. I guess that if I ever really committed a crime, the last part I would want on stage is a character who commits the same crime.

I think I may follow this story, if I can. I can see bits of it a the basis for a play.. Sick sense of humor, true…

Laughter is a connection between all humans. We all laugh. And it appears that we have been laughing at the same types of things for years and years.. I found this list of the ten oldest jokes. Some were funny, some not so funny. I haven’t toured the whole site so I don’t know how kid friendly it is, but that page was OK.

It does remind me of a story I read years ago. A scientist was studying humor and came to the conclusion that it was part of an extra-terrestrial project. I just can’t remember who wrote the story or where/when I found it. The conclusions in that story were a bit different than the oldest jokes though… I’ll have to find it know and share the author/story title.

… and other food stuffs. I mentioned IHOP in the previous post. It was always a favorite place to stop when the girls were much younger. Especially on Sundays. Sundays used to be “Kids eat free” day. Now, you had to buy 1 adult meal for each free child’s meal, but any amount we could save would be a good thing. Things like this made going to IHOP the same cost as going to a fast food place. We were waited on too. Many other restaurants also offered the same type of deal. It was a great way to be able to have a good meal for a very reasonable cost.

Anyway, my lovely wife really liked IHOP . A favorite of hers were the blueberry waffles or pancakes. Topped with more blueberry syrup. I preferred the boysenberry. What got me was the last time I was in a IHOP, they didn’t have the boysenberry syrup. They also didn’t bring the Hot maple flavored syrup to the table. The four flavors of syrup at the table were Maple, Walnut, Strawberry and Blueberry. I missed the boysenberry and the hot syrup. I’m not sure if this was a local restaurant thing, it now covers all IHOPs

And that brings me to another pancake house, Perkins. In my younger days, my friends and I would spend many hours in that establishment. As long as we kept the blueberry pancakes away from Bill, everything was fine. Bill hated anything to do with blueberries.. And we loved teasing him about it too. That Perkins Restaurant is closed now, and it looks as though I would have to travel many a mile out of my usual range to get to one. Maybe on some cross country trip, I’ll have to find one on the way, just to relive old memories.

You’d think that these three foods would be easy to serve for a meal. Not so fast in these times. You can get all three in the frozen food section, but outside of toaster waffles, I don’t care for any of them. Pancakes should be easy, but there are different recipes for these and some the girls like, and others they don’t. You have your Bisquick pancakes, blueberry pancakes, Buckwheat pancakes, corn fritters, apple fritters, and so on. We generally stick to our tried and true recipe. I guess I should copy that out of the cookbook before in falls completely apart.

Waffles, well you have to have a special device (the waffle iron) to make them, or just buy the frozen toaster waffles. I said I like the toaster waffles, but I do like the home made better. Then you could always get a Belgian waffle iron if you want waffles with deeper pockets/holes. Do you want round or square waffles? Hmmm, seems like you can have as many choices as the pancakes.

But french toast, I grew up with one and only one type of French toast. Mom would either cook it on the griddle or she could bake it in the oven. Both ways, the french toast tasted exactly the same. Then I got married, my lovely wife’s family had a different version of french toast. It was a heavy batter dip, compared to the Egg and milk dip used by my family. It was tasty, but very, very filling. I found it was cheap to make too. So my little family grew up with my wife’s family recipe for french toast. Now they don’t care for the kind I grew up with (tastes too much like egg!!). Oh well, they are getting older now, and soon I’ll be able to make it the way I want. Or better yet, go to IHOP and order the stuffed french toast. Good eating, and now I’m hungry.

No toaster waffles, so I guess I can wait till morning…

Ok, all you Dark Knight fans, I want to know who would dress up as one of the Batman bad guys and then try to rob a movie theater of its Batman posters? Maybe he thought there would be many other dressed the same way, but this wasn’t the first weekend of the show. Most of the movie goers that dress in costume will go on the first day, or at the very latest the first weekend. Well, it happened in Detroit. What was he thinking?

Now most who know me, know that I love to talk about ways to commit crimes. Someday, when I grow up, I would like to write a decent mystery/murder story. I just have some problems with developing characters, that is a story for another day. I can come up with good plots, and even a way to write about the crime and throw out a few false clues. But never in my wildest dreams would I come up with this sort of crime. I mean at the very least this guy should have been robbing a bank, but no, he wants Batman stuff. And how does he try to get it? Dress up as the Joker, and steal it during the Sunday Morning show…. Hmm…. There are a lot less people at the movie theaters for those early Sunday shows, but guess what guy, you’re going to stand out like a sore thumb in that Joker getup. He would have had a much better chance putting on a pair of Dockers and a dark shirt. That would have given him a chance of looking like one of the theater workers.

Oh well, it takes all kinds. I think he could make it in a Dumb crooks list somewhere.

The other day, I ate something that disagreed with me just a little bit. Sparing you any of the details, let’s just say I was awake most of the night. I tried going to work the next day, but between stomach problems and the lack of sleep, I just couldn’t finish the day. This morning I thought I should stay home for a bit just to make sure I was in better health. So what did I do? Well, I slept… I guess I needed a bit of sleep because I did go to bed early last night and then slept a good portion of this morning away. I normally don’t do that unless I’ve been out with friend ’till the wee hours of the morning.

Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t have done that this morning. Now I’m wide awake and ready to go. No late night ballgames to listen to, I really not into watching movies late at night, so what do I do, I check my blog. Not really a lot going on here either. Web surfing, not much going on at the places I frequent, but I haven’t checked them all. I just put down a book at a convenient stopping place, I don’t want to keep reading only to leave something hanging when the urge to sleep does hit me.

I did see a news report earlier that I thought would make an interesting blog… If I could only find it before I get tired…. Until I find it, I will subject my readers to mindless rambling. I don’t call this blog “Random Thoughts” for no reason. Every once in a while I need to clear my head of all the things in it. This bit a trivia, or that bit, or even things I’m just thinking about. Tonight it is sleep and/or the lack of it.

I’m off to search for the news story I sort of remember, I just wish I could remember where I saw it….

Ran across a news story about children jailed for an armed holdup.  At the time of the robbery, they were all 14 years old!!  My first question was, “where are the parents?”.   The article mentions that the three children were cousins, but makes no mention of parents or guardians.  Could it have happened in my family, sure.  My girls had plenty of time to plan this sort of thing.  I had hoped, and still hope that the lessons they were taught earlier in life were and still are with them when they aren’t in my sight.

So, I guess I do have another question.  Should the parents/guardians be held responsible for this?  My thoughts on this are mixed and still in the formative stages.  Many things point to, yes hold the parents responsible.  But another part of me wonders, when are the children old enough to take responsibility for there own actions.  Parents can be completely in the dark about some of the things their children do.  This does not have to be an indication that they don’t pay attention.  Some children are just really good at hiding things from Mom and Dad.   So, I guess I still don’t know…

Ok, I’m all for feeling good about myself, and getting the occasional pampering, but now we can have fish keep our feet clean. Yes, you read that correctly. There is a spa in Virginia that has little fish to nibble off the dead and rough skin from your feet.

At $35 dollars for 15 minutes and $50 for 30 minutes, I think that this will be one spa treatment I can forgo. I never liked it at the lake, when the fish would come up and do the toe nibble.

Now I’ll have to find other weird spa treatments that people use. Can you say mud baths anyone?