Ross Cooper's blog

The non-adventures of Ross, Sally & Boo

ShatnerQuake (an action novel)

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Yes you read that title correct. There is a book out there called SHATNERQUAKE. The title is all caps on the cover, I am not yelling at you. It is written by a guy named Jeff Burke, and he's from Portland. I didn't know that when I bought the book. (Yes I know you can see all that on the picture but not everyone pays close attention to the picture)

It is a short novel, a novella really, it is only 83 pages long. Perfect for a read by the pool, and that is exactly what I did. The premise is "ShatnerCon" where everything Shatner is happening. Stuff happens (don't want to give too much away) and there end up being all the Shatner's from every show he has every done, even the Priceline commercials and something he did in Esperanto (that is a language by the way).

So, the real Shatner has to battle the other ones for survival. Other crazy things happen along the way but again I don't want to give too much away. I was a little bummed with the ending. It was not as thought out as the rest of the book in my opinion. Do not let that stop you from reading this. If you ever watched Star Trek, TJ Hooker, Rescue 911 or Boston Legal, and you know you watched at least one of those shows, you will enjoy so many little things in this book. The book is plain fun for Shatner fans and Campbell fans. You have to read it if you want to know what I mean by that.

To get the book order it from www.bizarrocentral.com or amazon, it's worth the wait. Enjoy, and let me know what you thought.

My first scuba dive

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Remember my last work fun-day when I was riding around the desert in Humvee? Well this one was even better. That's me in the picture playing frisbee underwater, while learning to scuba dive. It's not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. We learnt a few basic tricks like how to avoid getting our ears burst by the water pressure and how to empty water out of our masks & respirators while under water. All without killing ourselves! Yes I could actually easily get hooked on this... like I need another expensive hobby. Now if I can just get Sally into it too, all our future vacations will have to be somewhere hot & sunny....

And the T.Rex is related to...

Fantastic story from Wired. 68 million years ago a T.Rex died. In 2000 a paleontologist dug up its femur. In 2003 scientists started analyzing it, and by 2007 we had machines powerful enough to track 7 samples of protein in the ancient fossilized femur. 5 of those samples closely matched bone collagen of an animal alive today. And what is the T.Rex's most likely descendent???

The humble chicken :-D

San Diego

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We just spent a great weekend in San Diego, CA. Checking out OldTown, Gaslamp, Coronado, The Embarcadero, Balboa Park, Mission Beach & La Jolla was all tons of fun. We can't wait to go back again... or get rich enough to move there!

The weather was great, in the mid 70's although with the humidity it felt like the 90's. The mexican food was incredible, as were the drinks. We almost tried absinthe for the first time but the restaurant had run out the night we were there.

Photos are here.

Obscene Drug Profits: Where They Go

from NaturalNews.com...

"They found a 100 tablets of 20 mg Prozac runs the consumer about $247.47, while the active ingredients only cost $0.11. Yes, that's right. Eleven cents for all one hundred tablets. It's a 224,973 percent mark-up, a profit margin most business owners dream of - but could never get away with.
Even more profitable, Xanax customers regularly pay $136.79 for a hundred 1 mg tablets, while the active ingredients cost just under three cents. The mark-up is an unbelievable 569,958 percent."