Wednesday, October 29, 2008

They're BACK!!!


Where do I even BEGIN to start with this one! WOW! WOW!!! And WOW!!! Metallica is BACK! In a huge way. There is no denying it. This LIVE performance definitely proves it. They have finally given in to, to pulling out old school NWOBHM Priest or Maiden moves, full on dualing lead guitars. AMAZING. Also triple leads with Bass. The new bassist is so great to, he's literally Nathan Explosion from Metalocalypse. SO DAMN GOOD. Support the Troops! Bring them home.

METALLICA: THE DAY THAT NEVER COMES


Video and Album of the Year. Possibly?

OLD GREG


INTERNET CLASSIC. So bizarre-O!!!!

MR T AD

Teaching!

Today was the most successful day of teaching I've ever had. The kids new more than I could have possibly imagined. Also, Dinosaurs went pretty flawless as well, especially since one of my "trouble" students was gone. We also had tons of great helpers, including Ben from my PCC class and Sam from Arthropods last Spring.
I could go on and on and on about how this is my true calling, and that I could not be happier about my life. But I will spare you all that. It is nice to see me actually writing for a change. There has been a lot of videos because I've been into videos lately. But rest assured, I am going to return to actually devoting some of this worthless blog to talking about my career. And no that doesn't mean my stupid ass day job at the Retarded Planet, putting Chili in buckets.

Monday, October 27, 2008

SWEET CAROLINE!

Elvis does Neil Diamond


MIND BLOWING! (for us fans)

ELVIS at the sad and bittersweet but tenderly beautiful end....

WOW! This is HARDCORE


EASTWOOD - UNFORGIVEN - APOCALYPTICA

More NEW Metallica: Unforgiven 3


This is a Mash-Up of 1 and 2, but that's all you get for now suckers!!!

MORE!


Portland Zombie Walk World Zombie Day 2008 - For more funny movies, click here

Portland Annual ZOMBI Walk


Zombie Walk 2008 - The funniest videos clips are here
Courtesy of Jaya from Ukiah. Featuring: Flash Deese (My Roomie)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

NUUUUTTTTTSSSSSS!!!!!!!

Rick West: the Tarantula GOD

Tarantulas are the largest and most revered of all spiders, comprising just over 900 species in the mygalomorph family Theraphosidae. The Venezuelan tarantula Theraphosa apophysis (Tinter 1991) attains a straightened diagonal leg span of just over 28 cm (11 inches), a little larger than a dinner plate. While not quite as long-legged, the female South American species Theraphosa blondi (Latreille 1804) has a heavier body with an abdomen that can equal the size of a tennis ball and have an impressive bodyweight of 125 grams (1/4 pound) with fangs that can be nearly 2 cm (3/4 inch) in length. One of the smallest known tarantulas, Aphonopelma paloma Prentice 1993, found in Arizona, has a total adult body length of 8 mm (1/3 inch).


Rick West eating tarantulas
Tarantulas have been the maligned victims of a great deal of popular lore that bely that they are generally mild mannered, handsomely colored and beneficial. Several cultures throughout the world catch, cook and eat the larger ground-dwelling tarantulas as a valuable nutritional supplement. I can tell you, from personal experience, that a cooked tarantula tastes similar to a prawn.

Sadly, most people still regard tarantulas as the things that nightmares and horror movies are made of. They have become synonymous with creepy crawly creatures of Halloween or have unjustly earned the reputation as being deadly poisonous. To date, there are no documented medical cases on file of a single human fatality resulting directly from the bite (envenomation) of any tarantula species. Tarantulas, like all spiders, are not aggressive; they are defensive and will either run away or stand and defend themselves if molested. A tarantula bite, through painful, can have a range of effects on a human from slight noticeable pain and edema to a comatose effect (extremely rare). Only a small number of tarantula species have had their venom studied and scientists still do not know if any species can be potentially lethal to humans. What researchers have, however, found is that some of the properties of tarantula venom may hold uses in treating such human medical conditions as heart arrhythmia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer disease as well as have agricultural uses in pesticide applications.


Some people have a genuine fear of spiders, including tarantulas, called arachnophobia. This phobia is an anxiety disorder which is curable. Patients have received treatment at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Washington, whereby, part of the therapy involves the eventual handling of a live ‘pet' tarantula.


Suffice it to say, tarantulas have been the subject of distain in human cultures throughout the world for hundreds of years. However, in the past several decades, tarantulas have become very popular and sought after as exotic pets.

‘Tarantula Societies’ have sprung up all over the world and the quest to bring new and colorful tarantulas to the pet trade is growing. To their credit, along with dispelling many of the age old misconceptions held with tarantulas, there have been many new species found, along with an increase in knowledge on improved care, keeping and breeding in captivity.

In myth, tarantula spiders have been affiliated with deities or themselves been considered to possess spiritual powers or meaning. While some indigenous cultures regard all spiders, including tarantulas, as very wise or cunning tricksters others specifically regard ground-dwelling tarantulas as guardians or messengers of the literal pathway between the spirit underworld and the natural world. It is amazing to find references of so many unrelated cultures throughout the world believing that ground-dwelling tarantulas are guardians of portals (their burrow) which link the seeker (shaman) with either their ancestral dead or an underworld deity.


Tarantulas guarding central portal to
underworld, Embera mola art
The name tarantula originated around the 14th century from two genera of poisonous spiders, Lycosa (Wolf spiders) and Latrodectus (Widow spiders), found on the outskirts of the Italian city of Taranto in the State of Apulia. People believed anyone bitten by such a spider would die unless that person went into a hysterical, self-hypnotic state known as tarantism. Tarantism was supposed to give the bitten victim the inordinate desire to dance erotically. Not surprisingly, old records revealed most tarantati victims were usually late adolescent women claiming to be bitten in immodest body regions during the summer harvest months. Early investigators found that some women had recurring attacks of tarantism on the anniversary of their first bite which sometimes went on for years. The people of the time thought the disease was contagious and that the only cure was music of a specific kind which would incite the victim to dance provocatively to wear off the effects of the poison and the more people that could join in this dance, the faster the victim would be ‘cured’. Often the tarantists sang sexually explicit themes while they danced, sometimes lasting anywhere from several days to two weeks. It is now believed these ritual dances were a convenient excuse to carry on lewd rites, banned by the Christians, for the release of suppressed erotic energy in a time of poverty, boredom and a sexually repressive rural life. Variations of tarantism and the tarantella could be found throughout the Mediterranean region between the 14th and 17th century.


Wolf spider
During the late 1950's, an Italian ethnosociologist still found tarantati victims who went every year on June 28 & 29th to the chapel and holy well of St. Paul in Galatina, Italy, to seek a cure from the tarantism. In earlier times, St. Paul had become the patron saint for tarantula bite victims. Paradoxically, St. Paul was reported not only to be able to cure bite victims but sent tarantulas to bite sinners! With the replacement of televisions and other cultural changes the only evidence tarantism existed can be found as a tuneful dance at an occasional rural social function or in one of several classical music themes like ‘La Tarantella - Antidotum Tarantulae’.

Early Europeans who immigrated to America and pioneered their way to the south-west United States often saw and referred to the large hairy mygalomorph spider as a `tarantula' and the term has been used ever since. Today, the name tarantula is used primarily in all English-speaking parts of the world and includes all those mygalomorph spiders in the family theraphosidae.


Tarantella music sheet
Another commonly used name for a tarantula spider arose from explorers returning to Europe from the Far East and Latin America in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Some of the explorers were naturalists who not only exaggerated the size of these spiders by stating they'd seen native children walking tarantulas tied on a piece of vine like a `small Pekinese dog on a leash’ but also stated they'd seen tarantulas sucking the blood of birds in trees. The arboreal tarantula was referred to as `bird-eating spider' or `bird-spider'.

In 1705, a German naturalist named Maria Sybilla Merian presented a folio in Amsterdam on the insects of Surinam entitled Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. In this work, Madam Merian published and illustrated her eyewitness account of a South American tree-dwelling tarantula, presumably an Avicularia, eating birds! At that time it was unimaginable for people to believe that not only could a spider catch and eat a bird but that a tarantula could live in a tree, especially from a woman in a time when the scientific community was dominated by men.


Larger bird-eating tarantula eating
bird on ground
It was over a hundred years after Madam Merian's published account that these bird-eating spiders became more believable. In 1817, while travelling on the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Monne de Jonnes stated in Bulletin de la Societe Philomathique he saw arboreal Avicularia tarantulas preying on lizards (Anolis sp.), hummingbirds (Colibri sp.) and a relative of the tree-creeper bird. These stories were often portrayed by artist's conceptions of what had been reportedly seen. In 1834, W.S. MacLeay tried to discredit Madam Merian's earlier account by placing a live hummingbird and an Anolis lizard in the burrow of a ground-dwelling tarantula. MacLeay found not only did the tarantula ignore the prey but fled the burrow, thus, drew the conclusion these earlier reports of bird-eating spiders were false and stated tarantulas were only capable of eating insects. In 1863, naturalist Henry Walter Bates published in The Naturalist on the River Amazons that he had witnessed the same predation on small birds by Avicularia tarantulas in the Brazilian jungles. In 1899, Reginald Pocock wrote in Annals and Magazine of Natural History that a naturalist in Borneo had collected an arboreal bird-spider, Phormingochilus tigrinus Pocock 1895 in a bird's nest after having killed the hatchlings.


Smaller bird-eating tarantula eating bird on branch
Since these early reports, a wide variety of tarantulas have been observed catching and eating other small vertebrate creatures such as frogs, snakes, small rodents and bats. French-speaking explorers called tarantulas `mygales' and German-speaking people referred to them as `vogelspinnen' (bird-spider). Today, the name `bird-spider' primarily refers to those tarantulas found in the Australasian region and parts of Latin America.

With the exception of extremely dry habitats that cannot support insect life as an important food source, tarantulas can generally be found between the 45th latitudes around the world with the exceptions of Tasmania, New Zealand, Hawaiian and most of the South Pacific Islands. In the United States, it is believed that tarantulas do not occur north of the Red River or east of the Mississippi River – with the exception of the introduced and established Mexican species Brachypelma vagans Ausserer 1875 in Florida State.


Cave tarantula
Some varieties of tarantula live entirely in trees (arboreal), some live in self-constructed ground burrows (fossorial), others are wandering opportunistic burrowers that will utilize any crevice, fallen debris or abandoned burrow. Tarantulas, such as Hapalotremus, can live as high as 15,000 feet while others, such as Aphonopelma, are found below sea level in the Mojave Desert, California. A few tarantulas, such as the Mexican genus Hemirrhagus (formerly, in part, Spelopelma), live over one mile deep in underground limestone caverns and have evolved without eyes in a world of total darkness (troglobites).


Fossil tarantula
The oldest known tarantula ancestor is Rosamygale grauvogeli Selden & Gall 1992 found in a fossil in France from the Lower Triassic period of 235-240 million years ago. The earliest known tarantula spider is Ischnocolinopsis acutus Wunderlich 1988 found in Dominican amber from the Miocene era of about 20-23 million years ago. Tarantula fossils are scarce and so far there is no evidence to support that tarantulas existed during the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago. It is, however, probable that tarantulas did exist before the dinosaurs. Like other flightless animals dependent on continuity of the land surface for migration, it may be that the aforementioned land areas broke away from the super continent of Gondwanaland before tarantulas reached them. Some land areas, such as the Hawaiian and many of the South Pacific islands were formed by volcanoes or coral buildup and were not part of the separating land masses.

Since that period, tarantulas have remained virtually unchanged. They have survived scores of natural enemies and global changes. Now, with the heavy use of pesticides and agricultural, industrial and urban development that transforms the tarantula’s natural habitat, tarantulas face their biggest threat - man.

MEGA MAN 9


LOOKS SO GOOD!

Best of UNFORGIVABLE

Political Thoughts

2006

Colin Video

The summer I went back to Yosemite. And left Portland. And almost lost my best friend to a coma. As well as my sanity. And my soul, spirit and heart to a girl I met. Ended up scarred and suicidal for at least a year. Tattooed Yosemite in Chinese kanji on my right arm. Fell into a very very very dark place...
I've been dealing with it every since. But things have been much better for about a year. Still alone. Its all I can deal with.

My Band: Hideous Kids

The Hideous Kids Story

This is a clip from my first band, HIDEOUS KIDS that I started when I was 14 years old with two really great guys. Sam and Mike. We were named Hideous Kids in 1994 because we all liked Green Day's "Dookie" album and we'd heard they used to be called Sweet Children. So it was a parody name. And our first four song EP was called, "Kids Will Eat Themselves," which was a parody take on the German band "Pop Will Eat Itself." And all this means nothing to you..... the reader. We were making music as kind of a joke due to our somewhat limited technical skill. It was a strange era in music, the post Grunge, but pre-mid 90's Pre-"Alternative" era. Some of you probably remember what I'm talking about? Punk hadn't been re-circulated just yet? But it would help us to really change how we viewed our limited talents as artists and song writers. Anyone could get up on stage and be in a band in true punk rock ethos. We would go on to write over one hundred and fifty songs over the course of five years. AMAZING! I'm proud.

My old roomate's AWESOME ANIMATION

Coffee Critics

This is an animation my old roomate did, of some people we know and Ukiah's infamous Coffee Critic.

DAN "real spider man" OSMAN


Dan Osman, the craziest rock climbing indian of all time, who died in Yosemite National Park, doing what he does best. And some Metallica. INTENSE stuff. I remember watching this with my friend Colin who almost died in Yosemite, it was unreal. This video is too! Gives me shivers. Youtube his name...you get plenty of fun stuff. This is the famous Lost Arrow Jump and lots of other fun clips! I don't believe this is the jump that killed him, but it might be. I have a lot of respect for someone who throws themselves off cliffs for a living. Talk about a death wish。

The Day That Never Comes


I'm not going to go down on record as saying "I love" the new Metallica, but most fans will agree it is the best since the Black Album. Easily. With that being said, I was pumped to find out today that my favorite track is the track for the video. It's a pretty cool video too, a little convoluted in the message. But hey, Kirk H. has a sleeveless jean jacket on, makes me feel nostalgic. Also, I will say this about Death Magnetic, James can actually finally sing sing, quite good. A far cry from there performance on the MTV Music Awards in the early 90's. Whatever you have to say about Metallica, it ultimately doesn't matter. This is their fifth Number 1 Debut album, which is a record. Also, they are apparently like the 8th BIGGEST band of all time. Which is impressive. Especially because they are definitely Metal, which is a somewhat unpopular genre. By that I mean, people love to hate on it, kinda like rap or country. So, yeah enjoy. This song starts off kinda weak, but I love the lead riff anyways, and also it ends with some real deal THRASH and also POWER METAL! Boo-YAH!

Monday, October 20, 2008

This one is really too much


Whatta guy! (Love him or loathe him, I guess)

Shane!!!!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Noise Noodle Gem

My co worker Geoffrey told me about this little gem of a noise noodle fest here.

Pogues AMAZING


I love youtube.com. It has single handedly put me back in my love with my all time faves: The Pogues.

Monday, October 13, 2008

I HATE the stock market.

www.thinkorswim.com

If yer gonna try. Maybe you can get a stuffed 2000 dollar monkey too!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Man E. Faces

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

MTH 213 Paper #1

Geometry Standards (3rd - 5th)
Since I now have my own Elementary Mathematics Class through the Portland Impact after school Sun Program, I am very interested in the standards for Geometry. One of the main reasons is because I like to use material that I am currently studying for building my curriculum for the class. Last week for example I brought in the three dimensional polyhedra that we made for this class, and let each student pick one shape out randomly from the bag. Then, I had the kids try to pair up with the other children that had the most similar polyhedral to them. One girl had the perfect pyramid and I had the regular octahedron, which lead the class to the realization that an octahedron is made up of two perfect pyramids. From this point we branched off into a discussion about the “nets” or two dimensional shapes for the polyhedron. I did not hesitate to let the children take apart what Trip and I had spent so much time taping together, for the sake of Geometrical “hands on” learning experience. I think a lot of the children really enjoyed seeing the two dimensional shapes for the polyhedron, which led me to believe that deep down they had a better understanding or at least familiarity with shapes, over polygons. One girl in the class went so far as to create and construct a net and from that her own three dimensional polyhedron, in this case a cube or hexahedron. I was impressed by her appreciation and thirst for Geometrical knowledge. I later talked about my class with the Portland Impact coordinator and the Buckman Sun Program coordinator, only to find out that they were less than impressed that these kids were learning actual Geometry. Apparently they aren’t aware of these standards that are part of the NCTM. I am glad that I will have them on me for next week.
I am not sure if I will cover any Geometry dealing with area, but if I do, I would like to discuss the relationship between a nonrectangular parallelogram and rectangle both with equal bases and heights. It likes a fun exercise in showing kids how very different two areas can look and still be congruent. It would be a really great learning exercise to open up the discussion from there as well as take graph paper to really expand and manipulate the area. For example, by using graph paper, children really gain an understanding for the unit and the value of the quantity of the area, as opposed to just getting an answer. In graph paper one can actually see the area very clearly. This also allows the manipulation of the area to be very easily managed by the student in his own fashion. Therefore are can be broken down into many smaller areas of squares, rectangles and triangles. I would think this would be a great activity and I will consider it for my class. I have no shortage of curriculum ideas already, and I don’t even have a Teacher’s credential for this state. It’s too bad I will need to get one, if I want to teach in Oregon. I feel that I am already ahead of a lot of the current teachers where I work.

Friday, October 3, 2008

I miss Potter Valley sometimes.....

Buckman

Things are going really great in my Visual Math class. They even added a 2nd grader to my class. The children are having so much fun with numbers. One boy talked about his favorite number 111,717. I really love my dinosaur class too, we did Dino trading cards and playdough models. There was a few mysterious things last week though. There was an observer at the school, who I introduced myself to. He observed a little bit on my math class. Also, two students in my math class were removed from my class to talk to Diane. I feel kinda weird about teaching there now. I haven't even been paid yet, and already they are treating kinda poorly. I do not get it. I am working really hard on creating curriculum.