Blantant Is Better

Predator (the original) was on the television last night. In the movie, there is a scene at the beginning where Dutch (A. Swarzenegger) meets up with Dillon (C. Weathers)--they are long time friends and fellow commandos. Instead of hugging, as I would have done, they saunter towards each other and right at that moment of hug or cheek kiss, they, instead, instantly transition into a standing arm wrestle.

What I love about this movie is the camera work. As this scene begins the two walk towards one another, then the film instantly cuts to the arm clasp, as seen above. There is about ten seconds until the next scene. The beauty of this camera work and film direction is that there is no room for interpretation. The audience instantly knows they are both very, very tough men, and that there is no mistaking it. I truly recommend watching this movie one more time.

If you don't want to watch the entire movie just to see that scene, that is ok, just stare at the above picture for ten seconds straight. And here is the true test to see if John McTiernan truly was an Oscar worthy director: focus on those arms and see if anything at all can enter your mind other than the impossible strength of Arnold Swarzenegger.


Also, little known fact, Puerto Vallarta houses a restaurant built onto/around the helicopter used in Predator. Come this October 11-18 I will be dining there with my sweetheart.

POTATOE

A rotten potato hidden in a bag, and left in my room, made for the nastiest smell on earth, well, maybe just my quadrant.

Background: Mike and I taught an english class which ended about three weeks ago, and about five weeks ago we played a very exciting game of "hot potato". In this game each player had to say a color in english and toss the potato to another player. For example, the colors were: silver, purple, teak, indian red, maroon, gold, etc. I would say "california violet" and toss it to Lupe who would say "soldier blue" who would toss it to Mike . . . we could play that game for hours.

Science: When we smell, air currents infused with chemicals, in this case it was moldy starch, swirl up the nose, passing over the moist olfactory epithelium on the roof of the nasal cavity and its 12 million odor-detecting cells. The olfactory receptor proteins detect scents and via sensory nerves, the signals are sent to the Olfactory bulb (scientific american, 12).

Result: Two days ago I got back from a trip to LA, upon arrival I went into my room and there was a thick, almost foglike smell; it wreaked. The odor was not something I was used to--in other words, it was completely new to my olfactory bulb.

It was a strange smell, almost like old soggy dog food, but I searched my room and could not find anything at all. I then thought one of my animals urinated, I couldn't find that either. So I opened up a window and gave up the search. That was until my mom came in (she came over to visit) and insisted on cleaning the entire room until we found the source of the smell. I thought of that two days ago, I just didn't want to do it. It is a good thing we did though because it was at that point that I found my teacher-bag with my supplies. Inside of the bag was the potato (please see the above picture).

I now know why all the irish came to America.

Grande Mof Tarkin

For those that don't want to read about fingernails, you may be interested to know that I am currently reading the biography of Peter Cushing.

Peter Cushing is/was best friends with Christopher Lee (Saruman, Count Duku, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes etc.)

They have both been in countless classic horror movies and have both played Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.

Peter Cushing won me over when I saw him in the Sherlock Holmes movie, the Hound of Baskerville.

Here is a fun fact about Grand Mof Tarkin. The boots originally made for his character were too tight on his feet, so Peter asked George Lucas if he could just wear slippers. The next time you watch Star Wars try to find his feet.

Here are some pictures of him:

Scratchable

I own nail clippers but you know what, I have not used them in at least 6 months.

So what does this tell me? Either my nails never grow and have remained perfectly trimmed. Or, perhaps, I am so good at biting them that I do not even know it is happening.

Here's the other item of question: Since I bite my nails, what happens to the part I bite off? Is it randomly spit, chewed, swallowed? Who knows. . .

Assuming the long nail is nibbed to proper size and then spit away, how long is it in the carpet until it decomposes? I would think that it would be kinda off-setting to know there are tons of little pieces of finger or toe nails just hanging around.

According to a .edu science page, it takes a toenail 12-18 months to fully decompose. Though only a few seconds if you use arsenic.

So get this, fingernails can be an indicator and gateway to knowing your health status.

If you have:
Yellow Nails
Opaque Nails with a Dark Band
Spoon Nails
Nail Separation
Nail Pitting
Nail Clubbing
Beau's Lines

Then you need to see a doctor as these are nutrition and disease oriented conditions.
The Spoon Nails are my favorite and would make the best conversation piece.

As Seen On TV

I've most likely come to a parade near you.

As a two year veteran of float driving I found it time to appease my readers with some pictures from the usual Saturday morning side-gig. For those first time readers, you should know that I moonlight as a float driver for Provo City. My numerous parades include, but are not limited to:

Orchard Days

Freedom Festival

Summerfest

Steel Days

Days of 47

This post is a special one. As per our six month tradition here at http://www.therumbler.blogspot.com/, its time for the reader-response email blog!! (yay)

(side note: Readers, remember that you have half a year to submit your comments, questions and requests.)

Due to the overwhelming number of questions and emails regarding my float driving, I've decided to bridge reader-response with summer float driving.

Anonymous Reader 1: When will you post about your float driving?

Mr. Rumble: Right now.

AR88: Love the blog, favorite post so far is about the deodorant, umm, how did you become a float driver?

Mr. Rumble: I was going to say that it was easy, but it wasn't. Though I don't think float driving really solves the crises of our age, it has taught me that parades can be full of dangerous propaganda. Now that I think of it, you should skip the parades.

AR 218/219: My wife and I have been talking about how much we'd love to see some pictures of you in action, we saw you on TV over the 24th of July, but our HDTV wasn't working so we weren't sure that it was you. Could you post some pics.

Mr. Rumble: Yes. Thanks for watching the televised parade. Here you go:

AR7: I saw you on TV, do they really make you wear a tuxedo?

AR19: Saw you on TV, were you dying in that black tux?

AR11:Nice driving, we got you recorded on the DVR, camera loved you man.

AR3: Was that you on float number 97? Well done.

Mr. Rumble: You are all great reader-responders, yes they do make me dress-up, it was hot and I am very happy that your DVR worked. AR3, your math is way off, please refer to picture number 3 (above bottom) then you will see the correct float number; you should take a course in geometry.

On a health note: in the words of Boethius "not only have they no cures for his pain, but with their sweet poison they make it worse"

Breaking Dawn, JK Rowling did it again!

JK Rowling is the best author, and I totally think these vampire books were the best way to go after writing all the Harry Potter Wizard stuff. I stayed up all night to finish the LAST BOOK! It was soo good.

Here's the thing -- I found myself caught in the dilemma of choosing the best mate for sweet Bella: should she choose The Vampire or The WereWolf?

Could any of you make your decision beforehand? I couldn't. Its like Harry/Harmione/Ron all over again.





Really, this felt more real than the Harry Potter series and I think it has been half a decade since I have forced myself to make a decision between two guys. The last time being Dawson or Pacey for Josephine Potter (Mrs. Tom Cruise)

I decided I would go into the last book without having made up my mind. Maybe I secretly wanted the author to shape my opinion. Here's another amateur insight, do you all remember Lupin the WereWolf? He died, but before doing so he had a baby. I personally hypothesize that Jakob, the Werewolf, is the son of Lupin. And, even though that is pretty good insight, I think that's how J.K. is going to bridge the two series.

Anyways, the ending was the best part of the whole book. Its crazy how the worst thing happening can be the most rivetting. I never thought Edward would have died, probably cause he was supposed to be immortal, but in the end it was the only way that she could have been happy with Jakob.