The Key - The Movie Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | | |

The Key

Caitlin - a friend of ours who has been going to Whittier College out in California - had been working with Todd Kaufman on a movie called "The Key" and informed us that they were trying to raise money to finish production. Seeing as how we couldn't say no to our friend, we sent a small donation and as a result, we'll be listed in the credits when it is complete.

Well, we got an email from Todd Kaufman (Director/Producer) today thanking us for our donation and letting us know that they are about to finish the principal photography and move in to post production. So look for this movie at a film festival near you and look for our names in the credits!

Movies

New Work Bench Monday, May 30, 2005 | | |

Thanks to Michael Holigan's show, I built my first work bench last night! His website has the transcript from his show where they built a similar bench, complete with instructions and a video.

For me, it took me just under four hours to complete the project... not bad considering the only electric tool I have is my drill. All my supplies cost just under $60 and the one big saver for me is that Lowe's made the cuts of the plywood for me. That really helps. I used my mitre saw for cutting all of my 2 x 4's, which was a pain! My next power tool purchase has to be a saw!

Anyway, I think it came out great. The wood was a little warped, but as it was assembled, I was able to get everything level and plumb! Thanks for your plans Mr. Holigan!

Carpentry

Decorations From Trips Saturday, May 28, 2005 | |

My wife watches The Oprah Winfrey Show on a daily basis and is always telling me about the cool things/ideas she gets from the shows. The other day was no exception as Nate Berkus was handing out some decoration tips on Wednesday. One such tip that my wife has already employed is to frame something meaningful from a trip.

We have a wall full of pictures from our trips in our bedroom, and to add some color, my wife added a framed ticket from the Elton John concert that we went to in Hyde Park in London. That ticket will always serve as an excellent reminder of how much fun our trip was, and how awesome that night under the stars in the middle of Hyde Park (a short walk from our hotel) was for the two of us.

Design

Astros Revival Friday, May 27, 2005 | | |

Oh, what has happened to the Astros this year? Where have their bats gone? With a .245 average through May 26, they are pulling down the rear in the National League. What's worse is that they are the worst in producing runs (167 through 5/26) in all of Major League Baseball. Needless to say, they need some devine intervention, and Jeremy Foster from Sports Radio 610 in Houston is hoping to provide just that...

After a remarkably futile 7 game skid The Houston Astros shocked earth with a stunning 5-1 shelacking of Chicago's National League Team. However in this miraculous game some of the 'Stros bats remained frigid. The Holy Spirit spoke through SportsRadio 610's resident Reverend Jeremy Foster and this is what was said: Astros Revival

Baseball

Bedtime Toy Monday, May 23, 2005 | | |

Our friends, Marty & Debbie, and also our son's God parents always seem to get our son the best gift's. For his first birthday, they got him a stuffed bear named Ollie that would say the standard Child's Bedtime Prayer. Well, he loved Ollie, and it became our concern that if his battery ever died, we would be DOOMED!

Well, it will never have to come to that thanks to Marty & Debbie. For his most recent birthday, they got him another stuffed toy for bedtime. This toy is a bug (perhaps a firefly?) who's belly lights up when it is squeezed. It also sings a song, which Luke listens to two or three times before giving it up...

Let's tuck you in turn off the lights, now it's time to say goodnight. Jesus watches over you, he keeps you safe the whole night through. Night night, sleep tight.

This has become Luke's favorite bedtime toy and is a great compliment to Ollie.

The best thing about the Night Night Bug - easy to replace batteries.

Parenting

Online Ad Response Scam Monday, May 23, 2005 | |

Late last week, my wife posted a classified ad online for some of our furniture we want to unload. A couple of days later, we got a an inquiry about the item and an offer to buy them.

The people who wanted to buy our furniture typed their eMail as though they weren't very fluent in the English language, and led us to believe they were not near us as they said they were arranging for shipment of the item. That's all believable, but this is where the story gets strange.

You see, they were wanting to send us a cashiers check for $4,000 over the listed price of the item and wanted us to send them the difference once we had cashed/deposited their cashiers check.

Fortunately for me, I had read an article a couple of weeks ago about a scam involving counterfeit cashier's checks and online classifieds. In the story, the person offering the goods received a cashiers check for an amount significantly over the amount of the item. When the seller brought this to the buyer's attention, the buyer asked the seller to send them back the difference. The seller thought everything was strange and contacted the local law enforcement. Come to find out, the cashiers check was a counterfeit and the buyers were using the latest scam technique.

While technology is bringing us better things, it also has it's downside. In this case, scanning, photo editing and printing is so good, people are able to make brilliant cashier's checks and commit a crime.

We responded to the "buyer" and told them that we were not comfortable with their payment method and asked them to consider an alternative form of payment, such as PayPal and get back to us if this was okay with them. We knew that if they were legitimate, they would respond and work with our arrangements. It's been two days now, and not one response has been made. Proof enough for me!

If you ever come across a scam like this, notify the U.S. Secret Service

Scams

Photo Friday: Green Saturday, May 21, 2005 | |

I was taking a walk in our subdivisions nature park and came across this anole sitting on a holly leaf. He was kind enough to give me a smile while I took his picture.

Click the image for a bigger picture

Photography

Happy Anniversary Friday, May 20, 2005 | |

Happy anniversary to my parents! 44 years of bliss - may your journey in to your 45th be the best yet.

Family

Texans Should Always Wear Battle Red Thursday, May 19, 2005 | | |

Red Outfits Give Athletes Advantage

There was always a belief among the fans that call in to Sports Radio 610 - The station I listen to for all my sports info - who believe that the Texans just played better on Battle Red day. I think the stats also supported this, and if I'm not mistaken, they are undefeated on Battle Red day. The on-air personalities would take the middle ground and point out that the Texans were'nt playing superior talent on those days either, so it may have just been a coincidence.

Well, maybe those fans were right after all:

"We find that wearing red is consistently associated with higher probability of winning," University of Durham researchers Russell Hill and Robert Barton write in the May 19 issue of the journal Nature...

(I)n humans, they note, "anger is associated with reddening of the skin due to increased blood flow, whereas fear is associated with increased pallor in similarly threatening situations."

So there you have it... The Texans need to make their Battle Red jerseys their official home jerseys. And when they have alternate jersey day, they need to wear a different shade of red.

On a side note, this probably explains why the Sooners are always so good!

Sports

Why Teens are Lousy at Chores Tuesday, May 17, 2005 | |

Why Teens are Lousy at Chores

Finally, something tangible I can go back to my mother with! Although it's a bit too late to do me any good.

The part of the brain responsible for multitasking continues to develop until late adolescence, with cells making connections even after some children are old enough to drive, according to a new study in the May/June issue of the journal Child Development.

So, take that mom! I wasn't just being lazy... I was unable to process all of your many orders! All in good fun of course.

Parenting

Raise A Glass Monday, May 16, 2005 | |

Free the Grapes: To Ensure Consumer Choice in Fine Wine

“Raise a glass at dinner tonight and toast the wisdom of the Supreme Court’s ruling,” asked Jeremy Benson, executive director of Free the Grapes! “We’re asking everyone who loves wine to participate—consumers, winemakers, retailers, restaurateurs, brokers and even wholesalers. There are no losers today. Today’s historic ruling will benefit each tier of the wine industry,” he added.

Wine

Amazon.com: Free Music Downloads Friday, May 13, 2005 | |

Amazon.com: Free Music Downloads

Did you know you can download free MP3's at Amazon.com? I didn't either until a couple of weeks ago. Now, don't think that means you can download anything you want, they have a list of available songs. Some are good, some are not. But they're free - so if you download it and don't like it, the only thing you've wasted is your time, which you're doing if you're reading this anyways, so what's the difference?

Music

Japanese = Recycling Gurus Thursday, May 12, 2005 | |

NY Times.com: How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways

From now on, when I hear people complain about being "forced" to recycle certain goods (i.e. aluminum, paper and plastic), I'm going to give them a copy of this article and explain to them how much worse their burdens could be. Wow! A 27 page manual on how to dispose of goods?

Indeed, Yokohama, with 3.5 million people, appears slack compared with Kamikatsu, a town of 2,200 in the mountains of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. Not content with the 34 trash categories it defined four years ago as part of a major push to reduce waste, Kamikatsu has gradually raised the number to 44.

Let's face it though, we (and yes, I include myself in this) have taken for granted our environment for far too long. Our landfills are growing and the struggle continues on where we will put all our trash in the years to come. Recycling is a must and for most of us, it remains an after thought.

We should be appalled at what we so easily throw away... old batteries, computer monitors, electronics, soda cans, styrofoam, milk jugs, etc. I'm not up to date on all the crap that these things can pour in to the ground and eventually the water, but I know they're not good things. We have facilities that can handle most of these items, but a small percentage of us use them.

So, for all of us, let this article serve as a warning:

To Americans struggling with sorting trash into a few categories, Japan may provide a foretaste of daily life to come. In a national drive to reduce waste and increase recycling, neighborhoods, office buildings, towns and megalopolises are raising the number of trash categories - sometimes to dizzying heights.

Good Finds Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | |

Every now and then, I get lucky and make some good finds on the internet... today is one of those times!

The first is BillyHarvey.com. Those who know me know that the first thing I noticed when I got to this site was his fabulous Oklahoma t-shirt. Once I got past that, I continued to listen to his "introduction", which was quite entertaining... err... hilarious! While you're there, listen to the full introduction and tour his videos. Also, click on the screen and take a journey through the cool macromedia experience. Quite the good visual work as well.

The second is BobSchneiderMusic.com. Bob Schneider is a cohort of Billy Harvey and has some good music samples on his site. He'll be in Houston this June... will have to check him out!

Music

BugMeNot.com Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | |

And now a word for our sponsors... okay, okay... so I don't have any sponsors other than myself, but I do want to give a plug for a useful internet tool.

Tired of going to random sites to read a news story only to find out you need to register with them before they'll let you read their story? Yeah, me too. Well, fortunately for you and me, there's BugMeNot.com. When you come across a page asking for your registration information, simply open up another browser window, go to BugMeNot.com, enter the site asking for your stuff and they'll spit out a working user id and logon.

And just like that, you're reading the news article.

Deanimator Thursday, May 05, 2005 | |

Cool game -> Deanimator

Deanimator

Street Performer Thursday, May 05, 2005 | |

Photography

Favorite Animated GIF Wednesday, May 04, 2005 | |

This has got to be my favorite animated gif of all time!

Star Wars: Episode III Tuesday, May 03, 2005 | |

Revenge of the Sith Nerds

My wife constantly calls me a geek, and I've come to terms with that. Fortunately for me, a geek and a nerd are two distinctly different creatures. While some geeks may be nerds and some nerds may be geeks, there are many nerds who lack the intellect of a geek and many geeks who are very adept socially.

On to the nerds--

The release of the final Star Wars is slated for May 19th. I understand that this is the much hyped ending of the series, and I expect people to line up the night before the showing so they can see it first. What I didn't expect was what started on April 4th, 2005 - the lineup at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in LA. Even more surprising is that the movie isn't playing at Grauman's, but at a nearby theatre - Arclight. Apparently they feel that since the original Star Wars opened at Grauman's, then the final should as well. Well, I'm glad they feel strongly about their convictions, but I don't think their convictions will make Lucas change his mind (or the people at Grauman's). From Abby's blog, we get this gem:

… so I called the number! I spoke to a nice guy named Elliot. He’s 21 and got laid off from his job in January, and he’s a huge Star Wars fan. He said there were about 9 people there when I called, and it was “46 days and counting” until the movie opens. People don’t have specific places in line. Instead, they just spend lots and lots of time there. They sign in and out like a job. When the movie opens, they will decide the order of the line by whoever has spent the most time waiting. There is a site going online today called Lining Up about the scene outside the theatre. When I said goodbye, Elliot said, “Bye, and may the force be with you!”

Okay, if you got laid off, shouldn't you be looking for a new job instead of squating in line?

On that note, I'll wrap up with a link to an oldie, but still a goodie - The Star Wars Kid

Carolina Blue Monday, May 02, 2005 | |

In my mind I’m goin’ to Carolina
Can’t you see the sunshine
Can’t you just feel the (milk)shine
Maybe just like a friend of mine
It hit me from behind
Yes I’m goin’ to Carolina in my mind

Thanks to Uncle E and my brand new T, I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind!