This July 4th, I remember all the normal things you are supposed to remember. Like the fact that New York held out for 5 days before signing the Declaration of Independence, that South Carolina refused to provide soldiers to General Lincoln to defend their very own Charleston from the British, that it took those geniuses in Congress 165 years to finally make the nation’s birthday a legal holiday (guess they just wanted another paid day off), that it took nearly 90 years to open freedom to every American… uh, oh yeah, and the sacrifices of our forefathers that make it possible for me to pursue happiness.
To show my gratitude, I’m going to repost my response to my friend’s 4th of July special Four for Friday meme here on my own blog. Please enjoy!
Q1 - Holiday Travel: Retail gas prices rose overnight to a record high for the fourth day in a row, ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend — one of the nation’s busiest weekends for travel. Have you changed your July Fourth plans because of rising gas prices?
My plans were to drive to the local Burger King and get me a Whopper combo. But now, I’m not so sure I can afford the gas to do so
Q2 - Neighbors: On the afternoon of November 14, 2007, 61-year-old Joe Horn shot and killed two men burglarizing his Vietnamese-American neighbor’s home in Pasadena, Texas. Despite how you feel about Horn’s actions, would you choose to defend your neighbor’s home in the same way?
Well, if I were in Texas (where it’s legal to lethally defend property) and assuming I didn’t hate my neighbor (in which case I’d probably join in on the burglarizing), yes I would. In Utah, the laws make it much more difficult to defend yourself (much less your property or your neighbor’s property), so there’s no way I would. Hey, Texas being Texas, I figure if you try to rob a man’s house you better be expecting to get shot.
Q3 - Gobble Up: Now that the European Large Hadron Collider is completed and ready to fire up in August, a slew of articles have popped up on the Internet and in newspapers around the world quoting doomsayers. An AP article from last weekend was the most recent example of critics warning that the 17-mile, $5.8 billion supercollider–which will slam protons together in an attempt to learn more about the building blocks of the universe–will inadvertently create a black hole that will gobble up planet Earth. Are you worried?
A black hole? I’ve always wanted to see one of those things close up! Actually, I’m more distressed over Schrodinger’s cat. Where’s the Humane Society when you need them?! I’m pretty sure it’ll take more than a couple of protons colliding to create a black hole. And if it does… man, what a way to go!!!
Q4 - You Choose: We all know that there only 12 months in a year. But what if I gave you the ability to add a 13th month to the calendar! What would you call this 13th month and where in the calendar would you place it?
I would call the month “Stusmember” and make it the first month of the year. It would be the AWESOMEST month EVER… every year!
So there you have it folks! I edited the questions for space. To see the full, unedited version, visit Mikal’s BeliBlog and answer the Four for Friday yourself.

Remember the Family Guy episode where
See, with her battery dead, she couldn’t roll down the windows and crawl out, and the electric door lock switch didn’t work either. So when she finally got the cops on the phone, they were able to give her instructions on how to use the manual door lock override. Yeah, they told her to use her finger to slide the door lock to the unlocked position.

8. Even though I’m half Filipino, I used to want to join the KKK – which I’m pretty sure I could accomplish being that I look totally white (unlike the KKK member in the photo… what the–?!) – because I think those big dunce cap lookin’ things they wear are totally stylish and awesome looking!





To that, I respond with this recent photo taken by the U.S. Military when I accidentally wandered into the air space over Area 51. My helmet was in the shop for repairs that day, so I just flew without it. And to answer your question before you ask it, yes I got a lot of bugs in my teeth that day.