(These are a few of) MY FAVORITE THINGS

"FlyingSpider"

(that's me) and his Favorite Random Stuff

Click Here for "My" Favorite YouTube Videos

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The Bugatti Veyron: O....M.....G!!!! This car does so many things previously thought impossible. Among them is that it almost makes Lamborghinis and Ferraris look like old news. Highlights: 253 mph top speed! W-16 engine (two V-8s bolted together); two transmissions (one for even gears and one for odd) that eliminate the lag between gears when accelerating...it just KEEPS accelerating and does...not...stop for shifting because the next gear is already engaged by the other transmission and ready to go. It does 0-62 and back to 0 in less than five seconds; 0-62mph in 2.3 seconds (jet fighter catapults on aircraft carries do 0-60 in 3); 1,001 horse power; 12 radiators, many aircraft, titanium parts and components; and a 1.7 MILLION dollar BASE price (withOUT options). You could buy SIX Lamborghini Murcielagos for that amount. I still love Ferraris and Lambos.....but this Veryon is truly in a class that it invented for itself. Only 300 will ever be made....and there is a Special Edition ... of which only four will ever be made. For more photos of it, and more info, click here.

The Biggest Loser: I cannot think of anything except Church that has done more good for people. As a career fitness professional I have never seen anything that is more effective and more ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ON!! than this show. More so than the "elite" sites, even, The Biggest Loser show has shown people that you don't have to be Lance Armstrong to become LIKE Lance Armstrong in terms of your inner drive and work ethic. It has shown people what it looks like to be fat but doing athletic things anyway....and that it's not just okay but it's cool! That helps get people off the couch no matter what they look like. More importantly, though, it is a show based on good old fashioned hard work without shortcuts, gimmicks and all that other b.s. that modern society tries to tell us about achievement and about weight loss / fitness. The contestants on the show transform into elite athletes before your eyes, and the Biggest Loser website (click here or on the image above) tells you HOW. So JUST DO IT! Thanks Jillian and Bob.

Casca the Eternal Mercenary' Book Series

(original book cover shown left)

In the Casca book series, Casca is the original immortal fighting man, created by Barry Sadler seven years before Highlander was written. You may recognize Sadler’s name because he was also the singer /song writer of the number one hit song - and anthem of the U.S. Army Special Forces - “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”

These books have been out of print since 1989, and are rare these days. I am probably one of the very few people in the world to have the entire set, and it has taken me 21 years to do so. It's been a fun Easter Egg hunt. I have read all but a few, and they are highly accurate historical fiction works - which is my favorite genre. The author died in the early 90s and the series has been taken up again by a set of very sub-standard writers. Someday I hope to see the series brought back to the proper community and restored by good writing to its former glory.

Don't Miss This, and PLEEZE share it:http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/

(left) The VERY Coolest Thing Ever to hit my favorite planet - No kidding. This'll be my next thing.

Wooden Super car!! Yes, you read that right. Made of wood....en bois. Vraiment. Projected top speed could be up to 240mph when it's finished later this year. VERY slick website. Click the image for that.

Travel

(above right) Click her "right on the Lips!"

The Kemah Texas Waterfront: next to Clear Lake Texas (NASA Mission Control Town / Home of the Johnson Space Center) where I grew up. They have really given this area a huge face lift since I lived there.

Stop Worrying About Money! Having it is no accident of luck...it's the result of wise - but fairly simple - habits. Especially if you are under the age of 25, please do not read anything else here until you click this link. Haven't you ever wondered why some people who make a lot of money have nothing to show for it; but others who have small incomes live and retire VERY comfortably? It's because wealth is about good financial habits and an understanding how money works - it's not about income.

The same compound interest that makes credit card debt multiply is what makes your investments grow. Learn to make it work for you instead of against you by clicking on Ben. No, I am not selling anything there!

I have been looking for this for over 20 years. It's the article that came out in Motor Trend Magazine about the Lamborghini Countach S 5000. this was the first time that the Countach hit main stream culture. It was a radical departure in terms of styling and performance, and gave rise to the modern "wedgy" idea of the Supercar. When it came out, I was 11 years old and I used to go to the public library and reread the article dozens of times. I knew the publication issue and after Google came around I tried for years - hours at a time -  to find this as a back issue. No luck UNTIL TONIGHT! I ordered it from usedmagazine.com (which I found on Bing) and it will be here in 2-3 working days. I can't wait! Merry Christmas to me.

Star Trekking Across the Universe!

I am a NASA kid! I grew up in Mission Control Town and my Mom worked for NASA writing computer manuals for the first generation of Shuttlecraft. Friends of hers in building 5 let me fly (and crash!) the simulators when I was a boy. I still get to "fly" there as my cousin Amy is a NASA engineer who runs the astronauts through the mission profiles before every mission in her full mock up simulator. Click here for pix of me and Gaylene flying the shuttle.

The official NASA web pages (click the NASA logo above left for the main "launch" site) have gotten a lot sexier over the years. The Cape Canaveral one is my favorite. You can even get complete schematics of the Shuttle and Space Station there.

(left) How to Navigate the Stars. You can move at night without a compass if you know how

My New "Space" Pages I am adding lots of new links right now, so check back often! Cool stuff!

Left. their main page. And, go to National Geo "Maps" to increase your geographical knowledge

 Google's Ms. Pac Man Game. Coolest little HTML nugget on the web, perhaps

Criss Angel and his "MindFreak:" You have to watch this guy live or on video to believe it - and then you REALLY won't be able to. I don't even know what to say about him. This is WAAAY beyond our David Copperfield concept of magic or "illusion"... into the real life supernatural?

(left): Submarines are the second coolest invention of all time. I love - and read a lot about - them.

(Right): I just like that image a lot, though there's no real relevance to it. I have no link from it. I'd LOVE to have another superbike but as much fun as they are, there's just too many other things I wana do with my body to risk breaking it. I do borrow my buddy's 1000cc rocket from time to time....exchanging that for time in airplanes (not the airplane shown, unfortunately ;-)

BE A SATELLITE WATCHER. You Can See Satellites and the Space Station (big time) with the naked eye if you know where and when to look. Don't miss the NASA Satellite Java link here. Plus, don't miss  Google's Real Time Satellite Tracker (Very Interesting). See also Space Station Watcher to find out when to see it passing your house

Visit Joe's Website for

his new DC watchdog group

I have only worked with Gymnastix a little (I can do just enough to be a decent poser :-), but I still wana get more into it. I wana learn the rings; do a back handspring, and be able to run up a wall and back flip. I think it's a great compliment to climbing, and I still am on the lookout for a gymnastix center to build a climbing wall and program in.

Lord of the Rings (LOTR)

No, I don't ever go to nerd conventions or dress up as an elf or anything - in fact I am not normally a fantasy genre reader at all. But the book is among my favorites and Peter Jackson did the readers a GREAT service with the movies. The "Christ figure" is a common literary device, and Aragorn is a great example of the kind of Hope that that figure embodies. I chose the image left because it shows that a Christ figure knows when to fight evil (thus the sword). In the Bible, there are many warriors (like David) who all make it clear that Faith does not at all preclude fighting when it is necessary, and when it is done to defeat evil.

In real life, Christ came first as an Agent of Peace who "turns the other cheek," but Revelations says that when He returns (a la Return of the King) that He will do so with Power in the final showdown with evil. Thus, it's a mistake to see Jesus as a pacifist. God simply has a strong sense of timing. Like Christ, Aragorn  had people who believed in him before he returned, who were sophisticated enough not to have the need to see him as an obvious, cloud-parting, version of what he is in order to believe in him. Jesus said to Thomas that: "(the most) blessed are those who have not seen (as you have), and yet believe." There are many intentionally Christian parallels in LOTR, all of which help to make Tolkien the greatest novelist of (at least) the 20th century.

See also, C.S. Lewis and Narnia - where Aslan is another Christ figure, about Whom one of the characters says in response to a child's question, "no, He is not a tame Lion." Also a reference to Christ's (fighting) power against evil. Click the image right for info on the Original Christ Figure, shown returning from death on the third day.

My Gun Pages: Victim or Gun Owner: Pick One. Columbine happened despite (at least) 22 broken gun laws, so we do not need more laws against them. Criminals - OBVIOUSLY - care nothing for laws. That's why people say that "if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have them." Too simple - even for Rosie O'Donnell, you would think. My family is too valuable to just "hope" nobody tries to do anything bad to them. I don't leave that to chance.

And what about accidents, you say? Again, the actual statistics are better than the hyped perception. According to research by the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, you are 9,000 times more likely to die from a mistake made by a medical doctor than by a firearms accident.

My first - okay, my only, hot car (c. 1989)

My 31 foot land yacht!

White n' Nerdy

Learn any language with Rosetta Stone

Below: My alma mater

Bruce Lee Pages Check out what Bruce Lee's wife had to say to me

Mike Tyson - The Dumbest Person Alive? (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Chuck Norris Facts or... His Column on World Net Daily

More Cowbell VH1's count down rated this the #1 of the top 100 funniest moments in Saturday Night Live history. I agree. And I have never heard "Don't Fear the Reaper" the same again!

I can't say that I'm any expert, but I love sea kayaking. I've done it in several places in rentals and would love to get more into this someday. In Belize, Gaylene and I went out twice to a huge uninhabited island 3 miles offshore from our cabana. On the far side, there was a lagoon facing the Atlantic Ocean that had a kayak-sized, mangrove-overarched tunnel at the apex that snaked a quarter mile into the interior of the island, where it then opened up into an interior lake. All uninhabited. It was a great adventure.

FaithandScience Below. Not "Faith VS. Science"

(Right): The Creation Museum: For those of us who are too scientific to believe that you could get a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary with all the spellings, definitions, and alphabetizing perfectly ordered...simply by throwing paper, ink, and glue into the air ... even for millions of years. And yea, those are dinosaurs in the logo, of course. If you thought creationists didn't believe in them, then you have bought the pop culture caricature. Go deeper by clicking the logo

(Book links left) Scientific approaches to Creation

(Right): "Expelled" is the number one documentary of 2008. It gives voice to the common sense questions about the holes in evolutionary faith. Ben Stein goes all over the world to get input from evolution's zealous and repressive supporters in academia, then gives rare voice to the critics. You don't have to believe in a Sunday School Adam and Eve to see an Engineer behind the intelligent design of the universe. You already know you couldn't openly discuss this topic in a classroom, so the movie's premise is unassailable; and all sides are presented on video in their own words. Click the logo for the website...and be sure to watch the movie (if you're not "too open-minded" to do so :-)

Lamborghini Murcielago and some other sexy, fast cars

Well, why not? I was a boy once, after all! Liked The New Movie! too

My Brother-in Law's Mustang Drag Racer

Ya betta Belize It!!

Red River Gorge Online Guidebook

Google Sketch Up: (left) 3D computer modeling for people who don't want to learn CAD or SuperGeekPro 6.0. You can download it here FOR FREE and learn it in 30 minutes. Build a deck on your house...or build your house...then walk through it. Become a member of the world wide computer modeling community at their site. Anyone can draw anything with this program. I mean, if even I can draw that model to the left...'nuff said. This is what I use to design my own climbing wall renderings. Also interfaces with AutoCAD for my designer to blueprint off of, and with Google Earth too. Tres cool! More Design Samples Here.

"Reveille" Short Movie (Kinda Long but moving. Click here for my Veterans pages)

The Office

Napoleon's (Duckwon's) Dance Moves 

The P3 Carbon

(Right) Ask any climber who is their favorite superhero, and they will just about always say Spiderman. I'm no exception

SCUBA: I don't dive often, but I've been doing it since 1991, at some of the world's greatest spots

My favorite show and one of my favorite books. Seen the play in London and in Atlanta. Have the CD set. There was a time when I knew every word of all three hours of it (don't make too much fun of me :-). Powerful Christian theme. . 

(left) Just a cool coupla' pix

(Right). Me and Inner Circle friend "Lieutenant Jeff" washing his plane. I flew it to Ft. Bragg and kept it "for him" when he was in OCS.