I just had a little stare-down with the Reaper...

Hello, everyone. I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I haven't told anybody about the experience I just had, and I don't want to tell my parents or friends about it just yet, not wanting to alarm them, so I'm telling you guys.

Last night, around 3:30 AM, I was taking a little walk around the block (I enjoy a late night walk once in a while to clear my head) when all of a sudden this red Ford Expedition pulls up next to me near the intersection at Treadwell and Lamar-the light on Treadwell is red. This guy with a bandana around his face up to the eyes gets out of the back seat, points a gun at me, I think it was a .45, cocks the hammer and calmly tells me in a low voice to get on the ground. I didn't even have any money on me, which I keep telling him repeatedly as I proceeded to lay face down on the ground. These other two guys get out of the SUV, also with bandanas covering their faces, and the three talk to each other in low voices-couldn't make out what they were saying. There might have been a fourth guy, driving the car or something, can't quite remember. I kept wondering if this was some kind of sick practical joke. I keep telling them in a panic-stricken voice that I honestly don't have any money. I told them I had some cigarettes in my pocket, and they could have those, just don't shoot me. "Shut the fuck up", the guy with the gun says in a low voice.

Suddenly, the light on Treadwell changes back to green, and two cars going southbound on Lamar approach the light (red for them) at the intersection. The guy with the gun says "walk over there", pointing away from the intersection. So I get up, back away with my hands in the air, saying "please don't shoot" or something like that. I think I might have even cried out "HELP!" at some point during this encounter. In my intense state of panic, I was pleading for my life in a pretty loud voice, so they must have figured I wasn't worth the effort, plus there were now witnesses sitting at the intersection. The three (or perhaps four) masked robbers get back in the car and take off.

I never ran so fast in my life.

I finally make it back to the house, still in shock from what just happened. I run to the back yard and hide in my Dad's tool shed, trying to collect my wits. I'd never had a gun pointed at me before, and this was right down the street from my house! I'd always thought this was a relatively safe neighborhood. I keep thinking I should call the cops, but I didn't get the car's license number, so there seemed to be little point in doing so. Then I think to myself, "Fuck this, I shouldn't be afraid in my own neighborhood!" I go back around the house, sit on the front porch and light a cigarette, on the lookout for that SUV, still trying to collect my wits. (the robbers must have been non-smokers, since my cigs were all I had to give them and they didn't take them)

About halfway through the cigarette, two cop cars race by in the direction where I had the encounter with the masked men in the SUV. These cops were driving awful fast-this couldn't have been a mere coincidence. Then I remember that shortly before this encounter, I noticed three people standing around talking in the parking lot of the Alamo Drafthouse not 100 yards away from where all this happened. After I ran off they must have tried to mug these people and one of them had a cellphone with which to call the cops. Or perhaps one (or both) of the two cars at the light might have seen some of this encounter and called the cops on their cellphone. Either way, I'm about 90% sure it was these guys the two cop cars were after.

For someone who enjoys smoking a little reefer once in awhile and usually has a healthy fear of cops for that very reason, I never thought I'd be so glad to see cops driving by my house! I've grown quite a bit more faith in Austin Police Dept, that's for goddamn sure!

Figuring that since these guys I was on the lookout for were probably about to be stewing in a jail cell, I go back inside, smoke about six more cigarettes to calm myself down *my heart is still going a mile a minute*, and for the first time in a long time thank God, whoever he/she/it may be, for being alive. In all likelihood I should have been shot, but I got away without having a hair on my head harmed. I guess there's a purpose for me on this planet after all!

Having a loaded gun pointed at you is not a pleasant experience-I had that figured out before but now I know it firsthand! I should still be trembling in fear, but I'm not. Today I've been living it up, happy to be alive. I made myself a HUGE meal, drank a six pack of my favorite beer, and I've been listening to all my favorite music-all things I might not have ever been able to do again. I learned a valuable lesson from this whole experience-never take life for granted again! (I ain't taking any more late night walks for awhile either) You gotta live it up like it's your last day on this stinking rock.

Extrasolar planets

http://www.extrasolar.net/

This website is awesome. It lists all the stars known to have planets orbiting around them. Until a couple of years ago, we didn't know of any!

Sure, with our technology we can only spot gas giants the size of Jupiter, but if there are other systems with gas giants like ours, surely there have to be small rocky planets as well. Or at least moons around the gas giants!

Groundbreaking stuff. And the artists' renditions make for great wallpaper. :smokin:

I just have to see a bigfoot for myself

Hey what's up everybody. I've been out and about for some time, but now I'm back to rant about bigfoot.

With the thousands of sightings and the difference in limb proportions in the Patterson footage and other remotely reliable videos, I'm about 99% convinced that these things exist.

Just as we humans evolved to be good at making tools, manipulating our en, and... such, bigfoots/sasquatch/gigantopithecines/etc evolved to be good at avoiding humans. Damn good at avoiding humans. Given the further expansion of humans into areas previously uninhabited by them, however, it's been getting harder and harder for these creatures to avoid us! Particularly in North America, where the majority of these sightings are taking place. Quite a few of the reports on bfro.com involve the witness nearly running one over! Soon enough this will probably be what confirms their existance. Either that or we'll wipe out what's left of their habitat altogether and they'll go extinct.

A sad case.

Anyhoo, where was I going with this... Oh yeah, I've been reading a lot of the reports from east Texas, where there's a lot of forested wilderness, and there's like 10 at least semi-credible reports from Liberty county, mostly around this highway that crosses the Trinity River-I forget which highway at the moment.

I just happen to have cousins in Liberty county. For quite some time I've thought about saving up a bit of cash, buy a good camera, and going to that particular river crossing and camping out there for a couple days, just to see if I hear or see anything resembling a giant bipedal, manlike primate. Whadda ya'll think? Crazy idea in a good or bad way?

Seriously, I'm less skeptical about bigfoot than I am about aliens visiting us!

Maybe it's just me...

...but every time I see something about the space shuttle and it's missing piece of foam I think "C'MON, ALIENS!!!"

If they really were compassionate beings they'd help the astronauts fix their ship. Like helping someone fix a flat on the side of the interstate. If we were to finally make public contact, now would be a good time.

*then again the gov't would probly cover it up the minute it happened*

While we're on the subject of guitars...

Post your rig here!

I play a Gibson SG Standard (black) through a Marshall halfstack *Valvestate head with a JCM 800 cab to be exact*

God I love my rig.

Also, I may be purchasing something with P-90 pickups in the near future.