Jets Over Redondo

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Armed Forces Day

Hello Jim & Kim fanatics...and welcome to JimmyPowell.com!
A fun & entertaining site where you can get a glimpse into our little world!

I think I've posted this before but it's worth repeating;

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The Pentagon announced today the formation of a new 500-man elite fighting unit called the U.S. REDNECK SPECIAL FORCES (USRSF).

These brave North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee boys will be dropped into Iraq and have been given only the following facts about Islamic terrorists:

• The season opened today.

• There is no limit.

• They taste just like chicken.

• They don't like beer, pickups, naked chicks, country music or Jesus.

• They were DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the death of Dale Earnhardt.

This mess in Iraq should be over IN A WEEK.

There's a bunch of these Star Wars personality tests on the internet these days but this one is one of the better ones I've seen and naturally, I turned out to be Darth Vader...dark lord of the Sith! Don't make me destroy you! \m/

http://www.liquidgeneration.com/quiz/starwars_quiz.asp

Wow! We really couldn't believe Carrie won! I thought for sure Bo had it in the bag and I was already feeling kinda sad for Carrie, but then she won. Kim was peeved cause she's was rooting for Bo. She was actually pouting afterwards. LOL. I honestly didn't care who won cause they'll both get record deals out of this I'm sure, but I think a small part of me was rooting for Carrie all along. I'm glad she won, but Bo still rocks! Already looking forward to next season and the new dance competition coming up in July!

Several people sent this story into me earlier today and I literally laughed out loud when I read it. Apparently, this girl (Shadoyia Jones) is the only black girl in the honor society at Waxahachie High School in Texas. When the year book staff put in a photo of the honor society no one knew here name so they temporarily labeled her "Black Girl" until someone could find out her name...but then they forgot all about it.

The yearbook came out and all the white kids had their names listed, but Shadoyia was simply listed as "Black Girl." The high school has already issued an apology, but this story is already blowing up on the net and every news feed is picking it up. I can imagine it will only be a few days before Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson get involved and make this out to be some racially motivated event when it seems to have just been an honest mistake. A really, really, really bad honest mistake, but a mistake none-the-less.

I actually feel bad for this girl cause she's breaking the stereotype of most young, black kids in America by excelling in the academics. It's sad that this happened to her, but she's smart...she'll get over it. Believe me, I know. I was immortalized in one my yearbooks too. I had a car wreck the weekend before yearbook photos were taken my sophomore year. My face slammed the steering wheel and left me with a nice black eye. For all eternity anyone who sees my sophomore yearbook photo will wonder who gave me a big, fat black-eye; it was an 83 Monte Carlo.

• http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/bizarre/3193088

• http://www.nbcsandiego.com/education/4520186/detail.html

This was sent in to me today and it's no doubt one of those "urban legends" of the internet that never really took place...but the message is still totally awesome and it it inspires patriotism...more power to it!

Again, this event is probably just a myth but I certainly wish I could hear someone in a burka saying something like that in my presence! I hate even seeing women wearing burkas in my country. I want to run up to them and say "Hey, you're in American now...you don't have to wear that crap!"

I mean really...why leave an oppressive country and come to the freest place on the planet if you're only gonna bring the oppressive customs with you? Every woman in the U.S. who's still wearing a burka needs to ditch that crap and run down to mall and get a thong, a pair of short-shorts and a skimpy cami-top and get with the program. This is America baby!

Knowing how much of a Star Wars freak I am, Jayson sent me these awesome Star Wars links earlier today.

• The Sith Sense - Let Darth Vader read your mind...very cool even if it is sponsored by Burger King.
• Jedi Vs Jedi - Wicked cool light saber game (Anakin Vs. Obi Wan)

Thanks Jayson!

Twas the night before Tuesday and all thru the house, not a creature was stirring, not even my mouse. Kim with her pseudo and me half asleep, only one day into a long work week. When out by the pool there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. To the back of the house I ran with great speed, for something was out there, something indeed. Blood curdling screams rang out in the night, as two huge raccoons engaged in a fight. Screaming and hissing with all of their breathe, this fight it seemed, was a fight to the death.

Yadda, yadda, yadda...

So me and Kim were in bed Monday night....Kim was sound asleep and I was almost asleep when I heard something...something that sounded like demons screaming in agony. I sat up in the bed at which point Kim woke up and cut off our sound machine. The noise was much louder then so I went to the bedroom window and listened and could tell it was coming from right behind the house...seemingly from our pool area.

It sounded like a pack of wild monkeys screaming bloody murder and I think I literally said "holy crap" as I started racing to our office which overlooks the pool. I opened the window and I have never heard such demonic sounds before. Out on top of the parking garage, two raccoons were going at it and one of them was getting his/her ass whipped...and they were both screaming, growling, hissing, moaning, and waling the whole time.

Funny thing was all around the neighborhood you could everyone opening their windows to see what was going on. Even though raccoons look cute and cuddly, I've always heard they can be vicious but I had no idea how evil they could sound. Did I mention they were screaming?

I pick 'em, you click 'em!

• De-Animation - Zombie killing game...real time waster!

• Dukes of Hazard - Trailer for the movie coming in August I think

• Personal Google - If you use Google for your homepage, you can now customize it with local weather, news, movies, etc.

• Military Music Video - British troops shoot their own music videos to the song Amarillo.

• Americans Vs Canadians - Long video showing some Canadians harassing some Americans in a hotel eventually escalating to a fight at which point the Americans do what they do best...lay the smack down!

• Hungry? - Funny commercial involving grandma and a dildo. (SAFE)

• Ride 'em Cowgirl - There's something sexy about watching a chick ride a mechanical bull. (SAFE)

• Einstein & J-Lo - Funny picture of a guy that looks like Albert Einstein check out J-Lo's enormous butt. (SAFE) [Slow Download...be patient!]

Sunday was Armed Forces Day in Torrance (hence the "Don't Tread On Me" reference above) so we headed over to see all the tanks, hummers, artillery launchers, and everything else they had on display. It also gave me a chance to wear my new camouflage shorts which I was really to stoked about. Don't I just look like I belong in the military? Ha-ha. And check out Kim next to the really big tire. It was obviously attached to some HUGE vehicle whose purpose we couldn't really figure out, but as long as it's helping to wage war against all those Islamic terrorists in the Middle East...I'm cool with it!

(Again...You know I just had to throw that in there don't you!?!?)

Run In With A Crazy Person

After our Armed Forces tour was over we headed across the street to the mall to grab a quick bite to eat and just look around a bit. While we were waiting in line to get some drinks, Kim saw a real crazy person swinging and kicking at imaginary people and then made the mistake of looking her in the eye. The crazy woman immediately came over to us and started telling us, and I quote, "You need to be careful how you swing your arms cause I saw you raise your arms up like you were going to hit a black person..." end quote. This was after we observed her fighting with some imaginary people that weren't there.

I immediately pulled Kim behind me and told the crazy woman we were ok and gave her "the look" that says go away and she did. We watched her out of the corner of our eyes and apparently she was doing it to everyone who made the mistake of looking at her. Kim went off and alerted mall security and it turned out she was homeless and obviously mentally disturbed which isn't something you see very often in Redondo/Torrance.

I actually felt bad for her and having just come from the Armed Forces tour, I thought about how sad it is that we're spending so much money on the war in Iraq to help people who don't seem to want our help while we neglect people like her living here that would really benefit from any effort by our government.

I don't even know if I ever mentioned this on my site before but I've been photographing for Homes & Land Magazine since January of this year. I typically shoot all their high end properties and most wind up on the cover or as big spreads on the inside, but even I forget and get surprised sometimes. Case in point...I was in Blockbuster Saturday night and saw a woman holding this month's issue with one of my shots on the cover which I'd totally forgotten all about. It was a million dollar, ultra-contemporary home in Manhattan Beach in which I'd shot a few weeks ago. It's kind of a nice surprise when your photos are on the covers of magazines and you don't even know. I grabbed a few copies on the way home to add to my growing photo portfolio.

It was super warm day outside today and apparently they were having a military parade in Torrance cause as we were laying out by the pool, every couple of minutes, jets would go screaming overhead which was totally cool. I love seeing our military might in the skies and how cool it would be to fly one of these jets. I'm a sucker for speed and don't envy the Muslim terrorists running for cover when these bad boys are flying overhead.

(You know I just had to throw that in there don't you!?!?)

Abbey came by the house Friday night and hung out with us for a while which was really cool. We sat around and chatted and had a few cold ones and generally just had a good time having some company on a Friday night. We're normally such nerds that we spend most of our Friday nights on the pc. Great to have you back in the South Bay, Abbey!

Star Wars: The JP Review
Posted by Jimmy: Thursday, May 19th, 2005 :: 3:46 AM PST :: Comment On This Post

Being the die hard Star Wars fan that I am I just had to go see Episode III last nite...or this morning, however you wanna look at it. The midnight shows were all booked by the real nuts who camped out the day before so I settled for the 1am show. Luckily they let us wait in the theatre so I got to sit in my cushy site until the movie finally started. Ok...enough of the formalities, here's my review...

NO SPOILERS (i.e., it's safe to read)

There were many words I thought I'd be using to describe this movie after it was over...awesome...spectacular...amazing...and while it was all of those, the word I would honestly choose is SAD. Watching Anakin being turned to the dark side while he breaks the heart of all those around him was just plain sad. Everyone tried to save him but it was too late. The Emperor really got to him...like we didn't know that.

There were so many moments in the movie that just made you feel so bad for Anakin and particularly Padme & Obi Wan. It's a really dark film but I guess it has to be in order to segway into Episode IV: A New Hope.

Without a doubt it is the best of all the Star Wars movie in spite of how dark and sad it was. The special effects are amazing and there's some good humor in the movie as well.  Without giving anything away, here's some of the things I found especially entertaining;

• You find out how the emperor got so wrinkly...it's not from old age.

• You find out how/why Anakin becomes so disfigured that he has to be in his suit and even how he gets his name.

• You find out who trained the emperor to be the Sith Lord.

• Jar Jar Binks does not speak in this one! (Woo-Hoo)

• You see the beginning of the Death Star.

• A young General Tarkin shows up at the end.

Darth Vader does emerge at the end of the film but not as much as I would have liked. I was hoping he'd have a few more lines of dialogue but he only says a few words which was kinda disappointing.

Still a great movie and I think I'll be seeing it again in the next week or so and then dying for it to come out on DVD. Now it's off to bed!

Oh yeah...Barry Powell...

♪     I saw Star Wars before you did!     ♫
(Na-na-na-na-naaaaa-nah, Na-na-na-na-naaaaa-nah!)