BABE OF THE YEAR... As stated in this entry, all the random babe blogs that I posted over the past month-and-a-half would lead to a nonrandom babe blog before 2008. And here it is. If you constantly visited this page, you wouldn't really be surprised, haha. Though some people would pick Megan Fox's older, United Nations-serving lookalike, Angelina Jolie, as this year's notable hottie. I'll just stick with "The Foxy One", thank you.




If you’re a regular reader on this page, you’d know that I posted tons of entries on Transformers. So you should also not be surprised that I’d post this pic of her and exonerated Walgreens trespasser, Shia LaBeouf, pretending to smooch at an awards ceremony earlier this year. It’s kinda, um, girlie to post this kinda pic...but whatever. You’d be please to know that this particular photo had the most hits of all the images on the Megan Fox fansite I found it on. So who said there was no chemistry between Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes? Of course, here’s hoping Michael Bay and the screenwriters for Transformers 2 don’t screw up the romance between Sam and Mikaela like the Wachowski brothers did for Neo and Trinity in The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. That’s assuming, of course, that Megan Fox will return for the sequel. *Prays.*

JUST THOUGHT I’d share these cool images of the next generation fighter jet, the F-35 Lightning II...formerly known as the Joint Strike Fighter. The F-35, which is being built by Lockheed Martin, is similar to the F-22 Raptor (also built by Lockheed) in terms of design and technology. Both aircraft have stealth capability and state-of-the-art engines. The F-35, which will also be used by other nations such as the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia, will come in different configurations for three of the major branches of the U.S. military (the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps).

- The F-35A, which will be used by the USAF, will replace the F-16 Fighting Falcon and A-10 Warthog starting in 2011.

- The F-35B (shown in two of the images below), will have the ability to conduct short takeoffs and vertical landings—or STOVL—much like the aircraft it will start to replace in 2012: The AV-8B Harrier II. In case you still don’t know what STOVL means, the F-35 will be able to hover off the surface like a helicopter during takeoffs and landings, as opposed to using a runway to get off the ground. The F-35B will be used by the U.S. Marine Corps and will also replace the F/A-18 Hornet.

- The F-35C, which will have larger, foldable wings and stronger landing gear to cope with the stresses of carrier landings, will be used by the U.S. Navy and pretty much replace all variants of the F/A-18 except the Super Hornet. Like the F-35B, the F-35C will also become operational by 2012.

The images above are of the flight helmet that F-35 pilots will wear once the jet becomes operational. Despite its size, the helmet only weighs 4 pounds. Totally awesome. Kinda like something you would see in Japanese anime like Macross Plus.

PATRIOTS: 38, GIANTS: 35... Good job, New England! I was rooting for them to win against New York tonight and go 16-0 this regular season. The last undefeated team, for those of you who don't know (or care, haha), were the 1972 Miami Dolphins...who went 17-0 that season and beat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII. Of course, I'm still rooting for the Indianapolis Colts (or maybe the Green Bay Packers) to win in February. If, however, Tom Brady and Co. are able to run the table, well, more power to them. At least I just watched history in the making.


AP / Julie Jacobson

RANDOM BABE BLOG #7... Today’s entry goes to Lacey Chabert, best known for her role as Claudia Salinger on the former FOX TV show Party of Five and Gretchen Wieners in the film Mean Girls. She also briefly voiced the role of Meg Griffin on FOX’s Family Guy (That 70’s Show Mila Kunis now does the voice for Peter’s oft-ridiculed daughter), and will do the voice for Gwen Stacy in next year’s The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. Oh, and she’s also doing the voice for Jeanna in 2009’s Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (don’t ask), and show’s up in next year’s Sherman’s Way. Um, don’t ask again. But she’s best known for looking extremely hot in the January 2007 issue of Maxim magazine. The photo of her in white (bottom-right pic) is from the Maxim spread. Nice.



In case you’re wondering, all these random babe blogs (which weren’t really random to begin with) will lead to an Official Babe Blog sometime before New Year’s Day. Wouldn’t you like to know who I’m gonna type about next?




How Lacey first caught my attention:

SOUNDWAVE REDUX... After posting this entry about him (and his tape cassettes) being out of place in the 21st Century, I thought I’d share these cool images I found online of Soundwave and Megatron’s other right-hand man, err, Decepticon; Shockwave. A fan updated the design of the two Waves and gave them the look of the robots you see in the live-action Transformers film. These are NOT actual movie concepts. Soundwave was suppose to have been in Michael Bay’s blockbuster, but fans were unsatisfied with his initial design (Soundwave was suppose to have transformed into a helicopter...but the role of evil chopper was given to Blackout instead), and Frenzy ended up becoming the Decepticon tape player in this year’s film. Soundwave is currently the top fan favorite to show up in the sequel...whenever that gets made. Damn WGA strike.


Courtesy of Transformers Live Action Movie Blog


Courtesy of timshinn73

Soundwave in his original design (from the 1980's cartoon)...

ABOVE: This image marks the path traveled by the Dawn spacecraft as of 11:00 AM, Pacific Standard Time, on December 26, 2007. Click here to view the official webpage showing where Dawn is in space.

DAWN: Last Update for 2007... On December 18, after a 3-month checkout period following launch, the Dawn spacecraft begun its interplanetary cruise phase. What that means is that from now on, any of the three thrusters of its ion propulsion system will be firing continuously for weeks...not as a test but to finally propel the probe towards the first of its two destinations: the asteroid Vesta. Dawn will reach Vesta in 2011, and then use its ion engines to push the spacecraft to its second target: the dwarf planet Ceres—which it will reach in 2015. Above is an image that shows Dawn’s position in space as of 11:00 AM today, while all the pics below were calibration shots taken with the probe’s two onboard Framing Cameras.


NASA JPL

What makes these shots so significant—to me, at least—is that they are, in a way, tangible proof that Dawn is indeed in space. A microchip bearing my name, as well as 360,000 others, is onboard the probe and sailing amongst the stars. So to speak. I could, um, sound more ‘dramatic’ than this, but I’ll spare you additional sappy sentences. According to this Planetary Society blog, Dawn was 17 million miles from Earth as of December 18. Radio signals, traveling at the speed of light, took 3 minutes to make the round trip between the spacecraft and Earth. There are no significant events for Dawn in 2008...but it will fly past Mars for a gravitational assist to Vesta in 2009. Here’s hoping things go smooth for the mission till then. And 2011. And 2015. That is all.


NASA JPL / The Planetary Society

RANDOM BABE BLOG #6... Today’s banter is about the gorgeous High School Musical starlet, Vanessa Hudgens. I’ve never watched High School Musical, and in terms of her infamous nude photos, Ms. Hudgens could've like, done a little mowing of the lawn below her equator...if she hasn't done so already. Of course, this is assuming she does more ‘nudesy’ (to quote McBain from The Simpsons) in the future. Well hell, she’s legal now. Though I might want to stop talking like this, haha. That is all.



By the way, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Didn't think I would post this kind of entry on this special day, eh?

"Houston, the Altair has landed." Not as catchy as Neil Armstrong’s "Houston, the Eagle has landed" quote back in 1969, but oh well. I think any space aficionado will be grateful if U.S. astronauts are even in the position in 2020 (when Americans are suppose to return to the Moon via the Orion spacecraft) to do a newer take on Armstrong’s memorable line. Almost two weeks ago, NASA announced the new name for its next generation lunar lander: the Altair. Altair is the brightest star in Aquila, the constellation, and is the twelfth brightest celestial object in the night sky...according to NASA folks who work on the Altair project. The logo for Altair was also unveiled (shown above), and pays homage to the patch for the Apollo 11 mission (click here for more info on that). Below is an art concept for the lunar lander itself. The original title for Altair was the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM), but here’s hoping Altair becomes a household name faster than LSAM does. That is all.



Images courtesy of NASA

ABOUT AN HOUR AGO, I was just browsing through my MySpace buddy list, and discovered some big news. And I mean really big news. For me, that is... Unless she was just posing with someone else’s baby in the photo she uploaded to her page, Denise has a kid. That’s right. I don’t know what to feel right now. If I saw this photo 6 or 7 years ago, I’d most likely be pretty stunned ("Devastated" is a more accurate term...but I don’t want to sound all melodramatic right now. Though this situation definitely warrants it). Don’t know when it will hit me like a locomotive that I might want to spend less time posting up all these awesome journal entries that y’all just enjoy reading, and to really start being serious in getting a better job, finding a girlfriend and eventually start a family of my own (My God, I can’t believe I actually typed that). As it stands, the only legacy I’m currently leaving behind is my name onboard space probes that are orbiting the Moon, or heading for Mars and the Asteroid Belt. Oh, and photos of me skydiving. Wow.



Yup— Wow. I definitely need to make some drastic changes in my life. But for right now, I'm gonna watch Spider-Man 2 on TV (it's airing on FOX). The Patriots won again today. They're now 15-0 in the NFL. If they beat the New York Giants next week, they will have complete a perfect season this year. Damn you, Dolphins. They're 1-14 in the league.

On the PLUS SIDE, it’s not a rotator cuff tear... This morning, I went to see my doctor to go over the results of the MRI exam I took of my right shoulder on December 7. Here’s what the report said:

"1. Mild shoulder impingement, secondary to lateral downsloping of the acromion, abutting on the superior aspect of the supraspinatus tendon. Small amount of fluid is noted at the subacromial-subdeltoid bursa.

2. Slight increase signal of the distal supraspinatus tendon, representing tendinosis. No evidence of rotator cuff tear.

3. The biceps tendons subscapularis tendon and the infraspinatus tendon is unremarkable. No evidence of labral tear."

To put it in layman’s terms, the edge of my right shoulder blade bone is pinching the tendon between it and the top of my humerus (the upper arm bone, if you haven’t taken a Human Anatomy or Biology class yet). Which is what I expected to hear after doing lots of research about shoulder injuries on the Internet. What I DIDN’T expect to hear was that this was something I was born with. Apparently, my acromion is shaped differently from other people. Acromions should have somewhat of a round form, but mine is shaped in a way where it naturally comes in contact with the top of my upper arm bone. Sorry, I just repeated myself, haha.

I originally injured my left shoulder 7 months ago, but chances are if I take an MRI for this side (Why didn’t I get an MRI for this side sooner? NO health insurance. Yep), the results will obviously be the same as the one for my right shoulder. And now my doctor is recommending me to go see an orthopedist for additional examination. BEST-CASE SCENARIO: The orthopedist will just recommend physical therapy that will allow me to work out despite the impingement. WORST-CASE SCENARIO: The orthopedist will recommend arthroscopy (a type of incision...not really surgery) on my shoulders. Knowing my luck, guess which scenario will probably happen? I’ve been dealing with not being able to work out heavily because of shoulder issues since May, what’s another 6 months as I recover from arthroscopy?

Thank you God, for the genetics.