It was 40 years ago today that four young people stumbled upon the legendary Mothman on a crisp, clear West Virginia night. Even though it's well past Halloween, give this article a quick read and ask yourself what's more dangerous; a possible humanoid trans-dimensional monster with delusions of world domination, or Richard Gere's acting abilities.

And as if this landmark day wasn't enough, The New 7 Wonders of the World panel of experts is giving us, the world at large, the opportunity to vote on the new 7 Wonders of the World. The initial voting nominations are complete (although my choice of Qualcomm Stadium (go Chargers!) was not selected), and now the whittling down of the shortlist of 21 sites is up to us. Take a few seconds out of your busy schedules and pick your 7 sites.

If you're wondering how I voted, it breaks down like this: Acropolis, Colosseum, Machu Picchu, Great Wall of China, Petra, Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge. For the life of me I don't see how modern sites such as the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, or the Statue of Liberty could even be considered wonders of the world.

While you're busy doing that, I'll be picking up tickets to this year's How The Grinch Stole Christmas at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park. Quite a few dates have already sold out, but I firmly believe my credit card and I will be triumphant in securing a couple seats... 

Sometimes I feel exactly like this... 

CNN.COM is reporting that Fraggle Rock might be coming back in the form of a movie.

Ahmet Zappa, son of Frank Zappa, will be developing this project in which the Fraggles will finally venture out from the cave and into Outer Space (the world of human beings). No mention of whether or not The Trash Heap will play a major role, but being a child of the 80's I'll take what I can get.

Upon reading this bit of good news, I began to wonder what other classic 80's television shows could do with a movie revival:

- Knight Rider: K.I.T.T.'s personality matrix has been uploaded into a Dodge Viper, and together with Michael Knight's son are our last, best hope to protect the eastern seaboard against international terrorism.

- ALF: In and out of rehab and facing termination by a shadow government hellbent on possessing alien technology Alf must go into hiding, relying on the kindness of a rag-tag group of vagabond street children for survival.

-Punky Brewster: Punky, now a well-respected forensics expert, teams up with a reckless cop and together they discover the true meaning of friendship.

-The Love Boat: The year is 2299, and Captain Stubing, Doc, Gopher, and Isaac the bartender android must do all they can to wrest back control of the intergalactic space ship Love Boat 5000 from Cruise Director Julie, who has gone mad from an acute case of space sickness

-Three's Company: All was well with Jack, Janet & Chrissy until one dark fateful night when a dangerous stranger came calling and changed their lives...forever.

This is gold people. Gold! If any producers want to run with these ideas, they're all yours... 

Due to my long work hours and long drive home every night, I simply haven't had time to update my blog recently, but I received a strange comment that spurred me to make a quick post prior to starting my work day. This post can be found here, but for convenience sake here's what an anonymous contributor left me:

"Good luck with working with all those lazy bastards. Do you really think 9 - 6 will be your hours? Think again!. Try 5AM - 4:59AM the next morning. Good luck with change controls. Good luck working with Chad too. You will be the only NT admin working and everyone else will be checking up on the lates news or playing games on-line. Beleive me, it will never change. My advice, do your time, get certified or a bachelors or masters degree and get the heck outa there. There is a bright future outside of [work name removed]. If your hours will be 9 - 6, make sure it is in writting and leave at 6pm. Never Again Volunteer Yourself."

"How odd," I thought as I read through this comment. It seems as if a disgruntled ex-employee was concerned enough about me to want to share his not-so private opinion of my current place of employment.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you thought highly enough of me to want to share your deep-set frustrations, but I'm quite happy at the moment where I am. I consider myself lucky to have landed an NT Admin position working with a bunch of guys who are taking the time to teach me the ropes and work as much "green" off of me as possible. Having never been an Admin before I can assure you it's a world of knowledge that my hard working co-workers are pounding into me. Maybe someday I'll move on, but for now the hours aren't too bad, the pay is good, and the overtime money is incredible. The only hurdle I have is the long drive home, but my house is currently on the market and as soon as it sells I'll be buying a place in San Diego, thus negating my long daily drive.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your thoughts with me. Please don't take this post the wrong way. I simply have to humbly disagree with your statement.

UPDATE: Being the kind of guy that simply can't let things go, I thought I'd do a bit more research into this comment. Taking a look at my stats on sitemeter.com, I found the following info on the source of this post:

UPDATE 10.11.06: Turns out that the source of this comment wasn't who we thought it was. In the spirit of fair play I've removed the remainder of this post.  

On my way into work this morning I was lucky enough to hit two SigAlerts on the 15 south. As I sat idly on the freeway I ejected Death Cab For Cutie’s CD “Plans” and tuned in to a few talk radio shows. Inching my way down the road I listened to each talk show host in turn describe the details behind 9/11. The more I listened the more I couldn’t help but be moved at how much this country has suffered and how weak some people can be in their want to kowtow to the very same people who attacked us in 2001.
 

What’s more, there are people out there who think that there was some vast conspiracy concocted by a rouge faction of the US government to help bring about this attack and the ensuing war. They believe that the hijacks were planned, that the World Trade Centers were wired to explode, and that a missile was fired at the Pentagon. Nothing of this sort happened. What did happen can easily be explained: 

 

The impact of the plane crashes destroyed a significant number of perimeter columns on several floors of the buildings, severely weakening the entire system. 

 

As fire raged in the upper floors, the heat gradually affected the remaining structure. 

 

The prolonged high temperatures, fuelled by the large volumes of aviation gas, destroyed the fire-protection on the steel beams and weakened the steel core struts. 

When the fire reached 1,500 degrees, the weakened struts collapsed and the truss system collapsed vertically.
 

As we mourn the losses we experienced in September 11, 2001, let’s not forget what transpired in the past to bring us to this point in time. Stop with the political bully-treatment of the current administration and steel ourselves for the continued fight against an evil that wants each and every American dead. This is our fight. Our future depends on us.