• 10 - 12' Luxury Tax $300.00
• 8 - 10' Pole Tax $250.00
• 5 - 8' Privilege Tax $150.00
• 3 - 5' Nuisance Tax $30.00

*Males exceeding 12' must file capital gains.
*Anyone under 4' is eligible for a tax refund.

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This afternoon AceJacks and I went and seen the movie 300 and it was the best movie I have seen in a very long time. 300 is based in the Greek time of the Spartans when the Persian where marching through the old world conquering civilizations on their quest to rule the know world.
 
At the beginning of the movie a Persian messenger rides into Sparta to tell them to surrender and kneel to the Persian leader, who thinks he is a god (nothing has changed for them has it), in order to preserve their way of life. Spartans where bread and trained as warriors from birth, no one like that kneels to anyone else, so surrendering was not in the thought process. After a brief discussion the Spartan King front kicked the messenger, the action sequences where slowed down similar to the Matrix, so hard and launched him into a pit in the courtyard. It was awesome and at that point I knew the movie was going to be as bad ass as the trailers portrayed it as.
 
The movie continues and they gather 300 Spartan warriors to face the millions of the Persian army, they didn't unleash their might force of 10,000, to do an epic battle where few stand up for what they believe in, freedom, against all odds. The battles where out right bloody, violent and skillfully done where it held every piece of attention I could muster.
 
Even though there was tons of action in 300 there was also a great plot line with the Spartan King and Queen. Their devotion was more silent and conveyed through visual love that in timeless. Along with there undying love, the Queen had to hold down the fort while the King was off in battle. She had to convince the elders that more men were needed for this war, that was brought upon Sparta, and the city had to make the decision to send more troops. The Queen made a solid case and ended up killing this puke that was in the pockets of the Persians, everyone in the audience cheered.
 
Back to the battle. 300 portrayed the true account, from my history research (yes, I am history buff), of what it meant to be a Son of Sparta and what Sparta stood for. The Spartan warriors were all stacked in the movie, how true that was I don't know, and had warrior skills that were unrivaled by their opponents. The cinematography slowed down then speeded up the action sequences to show the moves, skills and talent of the warriors to where as viewer it felt like you were in the battles.
 
300 also had a lot of humor in it to my surprise. It was so good that the audience all laughed and in my opinion further enriched the movie experience. In one scene the Spartan King was walking over the dead, the first round of battle, when a party started to ride up, to small to be an attack the King decided to go out. The King started to go out and greet them by himself and when others objected he responded there is no reason why we can't be civil. The crowd roared with laughed because of the irony of comedic interjection in the face of ultimate carnage.
 
The battles continued with the Persians throwing everything they could muster at 300 Spartan Warriors, rhinos, elephants and even the Immortals, which the Spartans challenged their names and put it to the test. The Immortals died, like everyone else, and the battles continued in epic proportions with action upon more action.
 
The last stand had the Spartans holding their heads high and fighting to the bitter end against all odds. As the history books tell the 300 Spartans perished doing what they valued, honor and freedom.
 
It was the greatest movie I have seen in years and a must seen in my book. I will preorder the DVD to watch over and over. After writing this I want to go see it again and probably again.
 
300 Kicks ASS

Bodies...The Exhibition is a one of a kind exhibit showcasing the human body in a light that has never been done before. Bodies was shocking, impressive and definitely a learning experience. On our way to the exhibit Jyll and I discussed our expectation and how comfortable we were with seeing bodies that used to be alive. The anticipation was full of mixed feelings and humor as we examined the crowd and see who would make great specimens.

The exhibit was laid out really well starting with the basics in the first room. It discussed bone structure and showed the main bones in the body, femur, shoulder, knee, spine and the skull. I got to see what I have torn up in my knees from the skiing and jumping :) 

That was all cool but where was all the good stuff? So we hit the next room to see what we could find.

Entering the second room there was a host of bodies and this portion of the exhibit showed the main muscle structure of the body and the layering of the tissues. It was cool to see the inner workings of the muscles since I enjoy working out myself and how the muscle structure connects to tendons. One body was holding a rugby ball, another one holding hands with a skeleton and another was shooting a basketball. 

These poses gave some life to the bodies which was kind of creepy.

The following displays outlined the nervous system (the coolest part of the exhibit), the brain and spinal cord (the grossest part of the exhibit). Here we found out how the eye balls where connected to the brain and the extensive of the nervous system. A brain had some eye balls attached to it as well as the entire nervous system. It was laid completely out and looked like a bunch of strings that would run through out the body.

Next was the blood vessels, arteries and heart. The blood vessels were all filled with a polymer silicone and the flesh was melted away leaving a perfect face, arm, leg and heart that only contained the blood vessels. It was weird to see a face and body completely out of blood vessels. The display room was very dim and the specimens were lit up brightly so they really stood out.

Then came the fat portion of the body. Here a women was used (don't ask me why) and where the boobs and other business were totally visible. The body fat is layer completely over the muscle and it has a very noticeable texture that is far different from the rest of the human tissue. The reproductive organs were also included here. Didn't care at all for this portion.

Since we went through reproductive organs the exhibit continued with a warning sign. Not being people that don't take a good warning we ventured in. Here was the complete baby cycle along with some birth defects. It was kind of creepy to say the least because the thought of where the specimens came from gave you a sort of sick feeling in the stomach, literally.

After the baby section there was just one more left that had a body that sliced up as if it went through a meat slicer in the butcher section of the grocery store. By that time we both had enough of the Bodies and decided to head back home.

During our drive back home we continued to talk about what we seen, how it made us feel (both enlighten and creeped out) and level of detail that went into every display. It must have taken years to put it all together and I couldn't even imagine to think of home many hours were put into it. After getting back home the exhibit kept coming in and out of our conversations so I guess it really made an impression.

All in all I am glad we went and got to see a once in a lifetime exhibit.

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