And it’s not even a Slinky.
The garage door works. Woo.

The first one is about marriage and it is a great eye-opener that reminds me of some conversations that I had with Grandpa Bob. Tim Keller references an article called Picky,Picky, which is located here.

The other is a video about college students freeing people from human trafficking. Definitely worth the watch.

It’s the last day of break, which is the perfect time to use the gift card from last spring. This is the new faucet. The old one looked like a shipwreck, which was to be expected.

I found this video while yelling at my XBOX. It responds to voice commands, even when given in a Kermit the Frog voice. Don’t think I didn’t check.

In the year 1985:

1. Reagan will be president.
2. The Titanic will be found.
3. Coke will release New Coke.
4. A kid from Hill Valley will fight Libyan terrorists with a DeLorean.

Yes. Pretty risky predictions, but I feel confident that that’s what 1985 will hold.

What? You want predictions for 2012? But how could I ever top the ones I made for 2010?

Great Scott! It’s the new Internet. I’m going to crowd-source prognostications.

It’s been way too long since we’ve done a Pop Quiz. IT’S FINE TIME FOR POP QUIZ 18!! I can’t believe the last time we did this was for Kirk vs. Solo vs. Mal.

If you have any other predictions, leave them in the comments.

5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;

“For” is an important transition word, right?

May today and tomorrow be restful for you in light of a hard-fought peace that you did not earn.

I did get a haircut, which normally shouldn’t be too much news, but when it only happens, like, five times a year (I never did the math until now), inquiring minds want to know. I have lost my Alan Moore disguise. Mike, I’m excited to see Colorado’s Baron Davis Effect.

Nice.

I guess my version of Santa does look like Donkey Kong chucking down barrel-y goodness. It would make sense considering Yuffie the Snowman is trying to catch a ninjabread man scaling the roof of the A-frame.

I thought, “Wow. That was rather contrarian of him.” Then I realized that I had said:

Tell me he’s not straight out of Final Fantasy

and you did. That’s funny.

How out of it am I? Well, I keep checking this site to see which day it is.

The spec fic sports magazine asked me to write an article about the writing process. I wrote it and I’ll give you more details when I can.

I have a very cool opportunity to use some of my creativity to bring the Bible to those who have none. More to come about that.

My fantasy football team lost in a semi-glorious meltdown. You know it’s bad when you log in and see your quarterback with negative points. Was the guy throwing in the wrong direction in a non-funny version of Wrongway Jones? (Is there a Wrongway Jones? It sounds like there should be.)

Yes, Mike, thank you for the trade and yes, I agree that you would have done better with my schedule. I predict that you would have gone 50,000 and 1 (I include the 1 just to make it realistic).

Give me a call or message me if you want to hear more about this past weekend.

Also of note: I have a magazine that signed on one of my short stories (a spec fic version of my nephew’s flag football game). The crazy thing is that the magazine is paying to publish the story. I think I’m entering new territory.

Haikus for a year
Make me want to play guitar
Just like Biff Tannen

Tom Wilson is also on Netflix. I will definitely have to check it out.

I hope you all are having a happy Veteran’s Day.

On Sunday, this is what I’ll be wearing:

No, Mike, I haven’t converted to something, although you gotta admit that my wife’s texts were a lot funnier than my own. (I said I had converted to Awesomeness. She beat that.)

I’m wearing it in solidarity with believers, specifically with Juma Nuradin Kamil’s family, around the world on a Sunday when we remember and pray for followers of Jesus who have been/are being persecuted. (Really, we should remember and pray all year long, which this app (for iPhone and Android) can help you with, but it’s also good to have a set day on the calendar.)

Thanks, Jeremy, for showing us this video that lines up with one of the songs we play. We won’t be showing it on Sunday, but it’s definitely worth a watch.

Art that expresses my heart? Sign me up.

Travis Prinzi of the Rabbit Room has a great article about telling a meaningful story, quoting from Walk the Line:

I mean, you can’t help nobody if you can’t tell them the right story.

I started a new story as part of NaNoWriMo, yes, but also because it’s straight from my heart. Each book I’ve written, I’ve rejected people-pleasing more and more and now write what I believe to be a good story and not what I think will sell (if you’ve watched the majority of what’s on TV, you’ll notice that it’s not always the best story that sells).

Thanks, Futile Ohm, for the link to the NaNoWriMo version of Scrivener. This project has so many character details that it definitely helps me keep all my notes organized. Anyone that has seen me in the midst of writing a novel knows that they should have bought stock in legal pads and tiny memo notebooks.

And for those praying about agents looking at my manuscripts and all that, James 4:2-3 had some insight for me this morning.

As the wise Danny Glover once said, “I’m getting too old for this…”

Here’s how we do it in our neighborhood. Years ago, we had a neighbor who, legend has it, allowed Halloween to throw up in her yard – inflatable pumpkins reaching towards the heavens. She would always sit out in her driveway and hang out with friends. We joined her in this tradition and continue it, even though she has since moved. (She did come back and visit tonight, which was really cool.)

Some strange guests did appear, like a Plant who looked more “in love with” a Zombie and not so much the “versus” aspect.

Yes, they have a pet cow. Because, frankly, why not?

Also filed under Why Not: a ghost on stilts.


Naturally, a sword fight ensued (not the first time at my house, by any stretch of the imagination) and we lost track of who was the ghost.


He’s actually a lot more dexterous than the photo gives him credit for, but it still makes me laugh.

We also maintained the tradition of having teens sing. One group said that they didn’t speak English, so naturally my wife called ‘em out in Spanish. How did it end? With them singing in Spanish, of course.

Side note: we have a garage mariachi band that practices each night in our neighborhood. You know how grunge bands whine and shred incomprehensibly when they first start out? Now picture that with a sad trumpet and an oom-pah tuba.

In yesterday’s post, I showed off our Phineas and Ferb pumpkin. What you didn’t see is the Extreme Effort (I took a Feat in it the last time I leveled up) it took to carve it since I hate getting my hands dirty:

Thanks to all who showed up and shared pizza with us. We should do it again.

You’re officially invited to hang out with us in our front yard starting at 5:30pm tomorrow night.

What’s on the agenda? Making teenagers sing just to get bite-sized candy bars.

It feels good to be in Flag. And what do you do when you go to Flag? Make a Target run. This is the same place where my parents bought me my first tool set when I assembled the entertainment center for Tom’s and my room. This is where I bought the first Metal Gear Solid for Mike’s Playstation. I still remember Devin and I marvelling at the intro cinematic and how realistic the wavy water looked. That cut scene was a whole two minutes – now picture how many hours of Metal Gear footage there are.

Tonight’s run was for Alleve and pull-ups. The homecoming king and queen now have kids.

Yes, I have now seen it.

Hulk? Wow, that’s actually pretty cool. I hadn’t been following the movie. I had totally spaced that Lou Ferrigno is going to voice the green monster and that the boyfriend from 13 Going on 30 is Bruce Banner.

Loki as the first villain, though? I trust Joss Whedon. Here’s hoping for some Skrull. I also can already tell Whedon’s positive influence on the dialogue. I also know that he will make sure that Black Widow is a strong enough character to compete with the other heroes.

Also, a correction from an earlier comment. My wife never watched Jem, even though the intro is awesome:

(Well, Jem will never forget her name, that’s for darn sure.)

I had spaced that her absolute favorite show was Square One, which also ranks high on my list.

I never noticed the similarity to the Saturday Night Live opening.

But, faithful readers, the big question is WHY DID MATHMAN ALWAYS LOSE?

Mike, even though this is non-Robotech, you can still weigh in.

I have a faint memory of Mathman not dying and Mathman being very confused.

My laughing place is wherever Uncle [Slade] is soaked and yelling at animals.

She also just asked me if sasquatches (or “sadisquats”) are real and was very relieved that they aren’t.

OR ARE THEY?!?

My wife lined us up with a hotel right across the street from Disneyland, which was awesome. All we had to do each night was escape Main Street and the bleeping turnstiles (not an expletive – the turnstiles do bleep) and totally skip the Happiest Traffic Jam on Earth. I also know that I have what it takes to make the trek into Mordor. I was able to carry 30 pounds worth of lembas in my backpack while hefting an exhausted hobbit over my shoulder (substitute the One Ring for pink princess Minnie ears).

So, the moment Mike has been waiting for: the new Star Tours.

It was awesome.

Okay, moving on.

Just kidding. The ride was great, although not as random as I thought. The beginning and end set up a storyline that a Rebel spy has stowed away on the Starspeeder 1000. The middle is random. Driving to California, I told my wife that the one storyline that I didn’t want to see was our ship being involved in a podrace in the Boonta Eve Classic.

You guessed it. My first time riding Star Tours, our 40-passenger ship traded paint with Sebulba and his podracing rivals, throwing all sense of scale out the window. But our last night in Disneyland we rode it again and made our way to Kashyyyk where stormtroopers spiraled into trees and a Wookiee faceplanted onto our windshield in a vaguely Garfield-esque manner.

The way that the ride incorporates members of the audience into the story is great and I don’t want to ruin the surprise. The storyline is protecting a spy. It’s not blowing up the Death Star. Fans of the Rogue Squadron novels will like the “not everyone in the galaxy is a Jedi, folks” aspect. Waiting in line has been updated, too. The repair bay droids now scan luggage instead and have a cool thermal effect on a big screen TV that uses current video from the line. I also found out that the REX droid from the original ride must have had a jacked vocabulator, because the REX in the pre-boarding video sounds like a leading man from a 1930s space serial. Ralraa, you’re not alone in your Star Wars speech impediments. Most of the line was indoors and, at the very least, involved listening to Star Wars music while chatting with friends. Not a bad way to spend my time.

My oldest got to be a part of the Jedi Academy (thanks, in part, to Auntie Tina jumping up and down yelling, “Pick her! Pick her!”) and my wife was savvy enough to stick around after the Princess Faire to give my youngest a chance to hang out with Cinderella and Snow White.


It’s a weird thing to pray for as a dad, that your oldest would get chosen to go on stage and swing a flashlight around, but if you know my daughter’s heart, you’d understand. And check out my youngest’s face in the Cinderella photo. Yep, she’s excited.

Another really cool ride is the Toy Story Mania ride. Now, this may not be new to you, but it’s been almost a decade since my wife and I had been to Disneyland/California Adventure. I thought I got a pretty good score. My wife beat it by 30,000 points.

131,200 was the high score for everyone on the ride to see (my youngest got 18,700). I shall now sulk with Hamm the sarcastic bank.

My oldest and I do look pretty cool in 3D glasses, though.

World of Color
When I heard this “attraction” advertised to me, I pictured the old Sparklett’s water display that was a bunch of high-powered drinking fountains and some gel lights. World of Color sounded like something my grandma would enjoy, like how she always stopped for an hour to take pictures of the flowers at the Disneyland entrance.
I was pleasantly surprised with World of Color. It’s definitely something that you have to see at least once in your lifetime. Colors of the Wind was not predictably included in the soundtrack medley, which was pleasantly surprising.

We did get to meet a lot of characters. Any other place on Earth and they would just be twenty-somethings trying to pay off their student loans, but in Disneyland we ask for their autographs.

Sea World and the San Diego Zoo were perfectly timed in that the weather started getting warmer, so we were able to choose more of where to go without standing in line too much. Sea World and the San Diego Zoo also have different approaches to conservation. At Sea World, we were told multiple times that we (an inclusive “we” that clumps in whales, otters, sea gulls) are all part of the same family. The zoo told us that humans are the only species with the ability to enjoy and protect every other species on the planet. The zoo is definitely more my approach and didn’t leave me wondering why dolphins never attend our family reunions. [insert your own "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" joke here]

Sea World and the San Diego Zoo are best recalled in photos, so here comes the blast (from Sea World, since the only picture from the zoo that you can’t see in Phoenix is yesterday’s panda):

I swear that beluga was smiling at me. I put my hand up to the glass and knew that he would swim to it. It was a weird connection.

I’m a storyline person, especially when it comes to rides. I tried really, really hard to follow the story on Sea World’s Atlantis ride. From what I can tell, Neptune is peeved that humans are polluting and he throws us around a lot. As we’re put in an aquarium and shot into the air, a humpback whale, an orca, and a blue whale realize that we have kindness in our hearts and break the glass in the aquarium in the sky and send us splashing to the ground.

That’s my best guess. I’m now going to Google it.

The ride cobbles together a disjointed “story” through several ride element “scenes.” Ride narrative played on speakers mounted throughout the ride provides prelude to the next ride element. While the audio was clear, the distraction of the ride and the music made it hard to understand everything that was said; nor could this reviewer find any cohesive story arc after several rides.

Yep. That about sums it up. At least with Splash Mountain I could figure out that Brer Fox was trying to catch Brer Rabbit – and that there’s bees!!! Tons of fun, though. If the desired outcome was wetness, that was accomplished. It made for a great night of showering up and having dinner in the hotel lobby, which is next to a beach and we didn’t have to drive anywhere.

We had a great time as a family, both immediate and extended. The Netflix Project helped. It also has me eyeing Disney Universe…

Tomorrow will definitely have updates that won’t leave Mike feeling cheated.

How Do You Do?

Words and Music by Dan Robert Allshouse
©1984 Walt Disney Music Company

How do you do?
Mighty pleasant greetin’
How do you do?
Say it when you’re meetin’
How do you do?
With every one repeatin’
Pretty good sure as you’re born.

What goes up is sure to come down.
A penny lost is a penny found.
How do you do?
And here’s a hearty back
A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

How do you do?
Fine. How are you?
How you come on?
Pretty good sure as you’re born.

Stop jumpin’ around,
You’ll run out of breath!
Why don’t you sit back
And calm yourself?

You can hurry on now if you must.
We’ll do what we like, ’cause…
That suits us.

SOLO (by Thurl Ravenscroft):
How do you do?
Mighty pleasant greetin’.
Pretty good sure as you’re born.
Pretty good sure as you’re born.
How do you do?
Mighty pleasant greetin’
How do you do?
Say it when you’re meetin’
How do you do?
With every one repeatin’
Pretty good sure as you’re born.
Pretty good sure as you’re born.

The weather is good,
The fishin’ is fine.
What do we do
With all of our time?

Well we sit and we think
and we wiggle our toes.
That’s what you ask us.
That’s what we know!

Pretty good sure as you’re born.
Pretty good sure as you’re born.

How do you do?
Fine. How are you?
How you come on?
Pretty good sure as you’re born.
Pretty good sure as you’re born.
Pretty good sure as you’re born.

Time to be turning around.
Time to be turning around.
Here’s lookin’ for
A little more adventure.
But he’s headed for
A little bit of trouble.
He’s headed for
A little bit of danger.

Time to be turning around.
Time to be turning around.
Time to be turning around.

Laughin’ Place

hee hee ha ha hee hee hoo hoo
Boy are we in luck!
We’re visiting a laughing place
Hee hee hoo ha hoo hoo
Everybody’s got a laughing place
A laughing place to go
Take a frown, turn it upside down
And you’ll find yours we know
Honey and rainbows on our way
Where everyone is worth his weight
Boy are we in luck
We’re visiting a laughing place
Everybody’s got a laughing place
A laughing place to go
Take a smile and for a while
You’ll find yours we know
Honey and rainbows on our way
Take that frown, turn it upside down
And soon you’ll find you’re here to stay
Everybody’s got a laughing place to go
Come on in, give us all a grin
And you’ll find yours I know
Laughing has always been our game
Honey fun is what we bring
Boy are we in luck
We’re visiting a laughing place
Everybody’s got a laughing place
A laughing place to go
We’ve found one thats filled with fun
And you’ll find yours we know
Everybody’s got a laughing place
A laughing place to go
Take a frown, turn it upside down
And you’ll find yours we say we think

It was tough to focus, though, when all I wanted from today was to memorize the words to this song so I can torment Slade on Splash Mountain.

The Dread Pirate Roberts knows what’s up.

Men’s retreat was great. You’ll see more updates about it later, but tonight I’ll give you a picture of myself wielding basketball shorts, a beard, and an over-under shotgun. Forget the zombie apocalypse. If clay pigeons ever fly up from the grave, I’ve got your back. And, for the record, I want Deadeye Girard on my team.

1. How would the mer-people feel about the king’s rebellious daughter selling out and the king being the one to give her legs?
2. If “every last inch” of Gaston is covered in hair, isn’t Belle just going from one degree of hairy to another?
3. The author James Joyce looks like Nick Fury or, more accurately, the guy from Airwolf:
   
   James Joyce
   
   
   Michael Coldsmith Briggs III
4. Facebook is pointless.
5. I was tempted to write a short story about Esau the were-goat on a mission of vengeance to regain his double birthright. Having given away my previous copy of The Story to a friend, last Saturday I picked up the new edition. I love that book.
6. I did write two songs. I’ll share them later.
7. The Star Wars Blu-Ray edition still looks like the Krytos virus to me.

Feel free to post, to comment, all that. I’ll still see it when I come back.

If you just can’t live without your daily booyoring, check out this Mario crossover. It will definitely eat up a week of your time.

Hopefully when I come back the Star Wars Blu-Ray DVD will be fixed and George Lucas will take out all the junk he’s added in the past 20 years.

I helped a teacher archive her email and she broke down into tears of joy.

I explained to a teacher that, just because you put pictures and music onto a CD, it doesn’t automatically turn into a slideshow.

And then I get to come home to a wonderful family full of artists:

This is my youngest’s depiction of a flower. So cool.

I’m also drinking last year’s lockdown water. Don’t tell anyone.

I know we have a creative bunch reading the bloggh, so here’s the deal: friends of ours got a dog and they’re changing the name (the previous name translated to “little flatulence” or something like that). They’d like your help in choosing a name. Yes, Ewok names will be considered. I already submitted Logray to the mix. I personally think he looks like a mogwai, though.

Post your ideas in the comments.

But even today I remembered how I’ve used this site as a repository of my Cliff Claven-esque web trivia.

So – to the Utah friends who needed writing links:
Duotrope.com – Use this site to search for places to publish your short stories and poems.

Querytracker.net – Use this site to find agents that match your style of book. When a publisher needs a certain book to fit in their line-up, they’ll go to specific agents to see what they have. Danielle Steele’s agent is not the same as Scott Westerfeld’s.

I was going to draw a completely different picture to test out Adobe Illustrator’s Live Trace on my scan of a hand drawn sketch, but then I found a note in my sketchbook from years ago. Here’s today’s take at it, complete with jagged lines that show I’m still getting the hang of Illustrator. Wabi sabi, right?

“Today’s contestant is an R4 unit tired of dating guys with bad motivators.”

I guess 3PO as a droid dating game host was funnier last decade.
And an official blech to the Neimoidian that’s behind all of the reality programming on television today:

“Unscripted television? Excellent.”

Like, robot unicorn excited:

This site has gone through a lot of changes. Do y’all remember when I had four columns? Such a disturbing layout.

Correct, but at least it wasn’t MySpace. Wink wink nudge nudge say no more.

The site was indeed down for a day, a plot so fitting for such an epic (in all connotations of the word)(and even some denotations) realm.

It has returned stronger than ever, my friends. The first thank you goes to Jason for re-establishing domain connections at four in the morning (his time). I warned him that once he returns to United States soil, all of his electronic devices are going to explode from Obsessive Bloggher messages.

Side note: I am in Google+ now, so I’m officially cool, I guess. One of my frustrations, though, is that there’s not an intuitive way to send an individual a message. At 11:48 I heard back from Jason but wasn’t able to explain what was going on with the down domain. At 11:50 I was able to boot my MacBook and start a Hangout but it looked like Jason had signed off.

This is what it looks like when a good friend logs in and helps even though the whole thing is a tad insane:

Another big thank you goes out to all of my friends who texted/messaged me asking if I was okay and what happened to the bloggh.

I had honestly thought about retiring Booyor today. No, really. I considered “growing up” and focusing on just my professional site, with reviews of books and lessons for junior high students being my only online presence.

Your checking in today encouraged me so much. It was awesome knowing that there are quite a bit of people who tune in each day to watch me break the Interwebs.

One day I hope to hand off the professional site hosting to a book publisher.

But the bloggh…

You’ll find it’s still full of surprises.

Put that in your book, ultra-conservative school district.

Taciturna and I have a house to ourselves. No internet. No TV. But we do have an Odd Couple-endorsed Yahtzee.

We’re having fun. The high was 80 degrees today. Not that I noticed, though. I spent most of the day writing inside. I’m almost done with my short story about a librarian who fights off marauders using Henry V and the battle of Agincourt. This is what happens when you hang out with Mike for a whole weekend.

Now, I could re-tell things like a comparison to “extreme canoeing” and American beer or a very appropriate-yet-inappropriate nickname for my Sith on the initiative order butcher paper, but this bloggh is certified family-friendly:

See? It’s official. It’s not like I could just Google that image, right?

What I will recap is:

a very friendly roadside assistance officer. As Sean reminded us, “our taxpayer dollars at work.” It’s nice to not have a jaded application of that sentiment.

Yes, there was an LCD projector at the rugged locale. Yes, we were quizzed on how much we knew about Star Wars. Yes, Jesse and I should probably go outside and get more sunshine instead of memorizing Expanded Universe books, comics, video games, and Wookieepedia.

Of all the times I’ve visited the cabin, this was the first time I realized that Mike’s grandpa is a huge fan of steampunk. That’s the only way to explain this really cool airship.

Not only can Jesse and I tell you the difference between Kyle Katarn and Corran Horn’s facial hair, we also cook some killer (in a good way) meals:



Astute readers will notice the stats for my Y-Wing squadron on a clipboard. Thankfully, Scott took over leadership for a round (a round of space combat being an hour in real-time (no hyperbole)). Our space combat went from 10am to 3pm on Saturday. We then went straight into a ground war:

That’s a lot of Sentinels.

We all predicted Mike’s character to die from grenades. It’s a trend started by Slade. Instead, Mike’s character BECAME a grenade and hit every single villain on the map with pure light from the Force. When that happens, you usually die and that trend continued.

Mike, we’ll miss you now that you’re a seven-hour drive away, but that was a great way to end your Star Wars Night.

That is not a typo.

Now, before you turn off your mobile devices for fear of status update explosions, know that we will be descending upon an unmarked location in the middle of the woods where there is no cell coverage.

I know, what will a group of nerds do without Wi-Fi? Our usual circle of laptops, some being used to reach immortal status on Facebook Tetris *cough* Mike */cough*, shall be focused on the game.

Star Wars Night guys: If you need your quota of “Kid Freaks Out Over Losing World of Warcraft“, I point you towards Zamzar.

You’re welcome.

I was going to write up a Father’s Day post, but that would have cut into Sisko time. It was to be a grand celebration of fathers from entertainment, like Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, and That Guy Who Let His Kids Go Without Him to a Park Full of Cloned Dinosaurs.

Sisko is actually a cool dad, aside from the whole “raising a son in an intergalactic casino on the disputed borders of a provisional government”, but no one beats Atticus Finch.

My kids think I’m pretty cool, too, which is amazing. We do share some common fashion interests:

They also get me. Check out this awesome gift I got:

A full-on easel with six canvases. So cool.

I’m actually okay with my gray hair, but dang!

Other news: there will be a LEGO Star Wars TV special this fall. Whether Life Day will be celebrated is still to be determined. Also, Star Wars:Detours will be coming out soon. I’m predicting a cartoon spin-off from the Disneyland ride.

“Brakes! Brakes!”

Much like how we went on our honeymoon in the summer since we’re teachers, tonight we finally get to see Les Miserables.

In writing up the post, I found this cool Tron Mickey ears Easter egg. I had already seen that Pac-Man is in the old movie.

I did get to go see Third Star perform on Thursday night. While walking in a shadowy corridor, I found a USB drive. I could have checked it out, putting in my Inventory to Appraise later, but decided to give it to the box office. The two teens selling tickets will now have to contend with this:

I opted to go on a date with my wife instead. We sat on a bench and talked about life and not once had to roll for initiative.

Having played the role of Rick in my library, The Cafe Americain, from 9am to noon yesterday, I jetted home to watch The King’s Speech with my wife and then Megamind with my daughters. Neither one need my endorsement. The history buff/teacher part of me loved watching Lionel Logue use elocution for good and not evil. The worn out nerd in me loved watching Megamind use “presentation” for evil and not eviler.

This week I had a conversation with a teacher who has read my book. She asked where I got my ideas for the amped fight scenes. I explained that that’s how I survived all my English courses in school. I can distinctly remember reading Watership Down and picturing the rabbits smoking cigars and having eyepatches while solving their problems with rapiers and not whatever they did in the book. It always led to an interesting class discussion in Mrs. S’s freshmen English class.

On the topic of books, the first book that I’ve read in a long time that really grabbed my attention was Okay for Now. Any fan of YA novels needs to read this now. Okay?

Jeremy is off trying to punch Antoine Leroux in the face. You can track him here or on the map below:

He just can’t quite get up enough motorcross motivation now that he’s heard acid is eating the lining of his stomach.

Today I go to the doctor for the first time in at least three years, if not more. I was supposed to get blood work done a while back. I don’t think my youngest was born yet. I am bracing for The Lecture on How You Need to Go to the Doctor More.

A definite perk to being sick, though: on Friday a door-to-door saleswoman rang the doorbell. I thought it was my daughters coming home so I was very annoyed to be woken up to hear a spiel. I interrupted and said, “I’m sick.” The woman looked at my unwashed self, bed hair and all (despite it being late afternoon), and ran away quickly. No hyperbole.

The live recording went really well yesterday. I was blessed to be able to play through the pain. Only once did things get a little hazy. I’ll be interested to hear what my track really recorded.

Yesterday was also the first time I had picked up a razor in a long time. I didn’t trim my beard, just every other square inch of my face. I should be training, though, since the United States is quickly becoming “the world’s new facial hair super power”. (Thanks, sidewalkdriver, for the link.)

I shall play Rocky to Elmar Weisser, my Apollo Creed.

I think it’s to be assumed that his beard grows wildlife.

I finally got around to clearing off some 3.5″ disks at school (where better to find a floppy drive in 2011 than a school?) I really don’t know why I felt like I needed to keep around those disks. 1.44MB doesn’t buy you much these days.

I am really glad I did, though. Check out why I found:

But that file sat alongside this file:

Captionary and Ohm started their married lives on Saturday. What will they be like 50 years from now?

My wife and I saw a movie yesterday – in the theater. I can’t remember the last time she and I saw a movie alone. The last movie I saw in the theater (correct me if I’m wrong (like online commenters need to be told that twice)) was Inception, but my wife and I went with the church staff to see that. It’s been at least a few years since we’ve been alone in a theater. //checking bloggh archives…// Confessions of a Shop-Aholic.

The movie that we saw (don’t want to name it or else it would be Spoiler City (that’s not the name of the movie)) got me thinking about two birthday-appropriate things:

1) What would I do if I knew I only had a minute left to live?
2) Who would I want to spend my last moment with?

I can tell you that the answer to #2 is my wife and daughters, although you rarely get to choose when you die. It’s because of that uncertainty that I don’t have a definitive answer to #1. I’m sure if I thought about it, I would do something with donuts and sharks, but that sounds more like the cause of #1 and not the effect.

With those two questions in mind, I got to thinking about my grandparents and my wife’s and the positive examples they gave. I think people would be less tempted to be jerks to the people they love if they knew they only had a minute left.

Old people that have a sense of the immediacy, the fleetfulness, of life are cool.











I hope my kids see that in me.

Captionary and Fultile Ohm are getting married.

GJ, guys. GJ. IHYHMYOLAH.

(That’s how the kids say things these days, right?)

Tonight my wife asked my kids if they would go to my birthday party. My youngest quickly said no, while my oldest said it would probably have to be a Star Wars party.

In lieu of a party, I want you to enjoy the following clips:

But who shot first?

He’s just a librarian.

Hey! Has anyone seen the librarian?

Today is Superhero Day at school.

She was the one to remember that it was a holiday and made a dish from My People:

I enjoyed the corned-beef, potatoes, and cabbage, although My People, the Geeks, eat Hot Pockets and energy drinks when they want to celebrate – and by “celebrate”, I mean “roll dice and move little plastic dolls over an obsessive grid”.

Man, we need another Star Wars night soon.

Sometimes I wonder if working with junior highers for 8+ hours each day has stunted my aging process. My wife asked for help creating gift bags for my oldest’s birthday party tomorrow.

This is the result:

“Can you play this PowerPoint CD on your DVD system? I need it in five minutes.”

The cords! The cords!

It’s not even Slade obsessing over Shaq. We have another charity basketball game, this year in April.

Let’s just say it feels good to be back.

I do have some catching up to do, although there are still things like Tangled that we haven’t seen. Did you know that you can pre-order it for its March 29 release?

In video game nerdery, have you seen the UForce Master? Back in 1989, Broderbund (the people that brought you Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon, the Prince of Persia, Myst, Lode Runner, Karateka, Choplifter, the computer version of THE Star Wars game, AND Print Shop) created a controller for the original NES that was motion-based. Here’s a quote from an ad for the controller (note the similar wording to the Kinect ads):

Introducing U-Force, the revolutionary controller for your Nintendo Entertainment System. So hot, no one can touch it. Now you can feel the power without touching a thing. It’s U-FORCE from Broderbund – the first and only video game controller that, without touching anything, electronically senses your every move, and reacts. There’s nothing to hold, nothing to jump on, nothing to wear, U-Force creates a power field that responds to your every command–making you the controller. It’s the most amazing accessory in video game history – and it will change the way you play video games forever. It’s the challenge of the future. U-Force. Now nothing comes between you and the game.

Most people just flailed in front of it (Wii Boxing, anyone?) and didn’t know how to work it. YouTube user mcjoekenna dedicated his life to mastering it.

I chose to show his Ninja Gaiden prowess since I could barely play that game using the traditional controller. (Slade – you remember Ninja Gaiden II and being on the wrong side of a locked door?)

Also of note, a great shirt found by Devin.

Almost got it…no 3X. I guess no Wookiees shop at TeeFury.

That makes me…T-furious.

I also caught up on some Narnia reading with my girls. Here’s an amazing quote from Lion, Witch, considering C.S. Lewis’ loss when his wife, Joy Gresham, died (you can read about it in A Grief Observed):

I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been – if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you – you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness.

A different connotation of ‘sloshed’

I’ve been sick since Thursday night and have been in bed/on the couch in a stupor. Today my goal is to be ready for work tomorrow, since I only have 77 sick days remaining (I don’t call in much).

As promised, here is the Bloggh’s CoverIt Live of the Super Bowl. Feel free to request a name to add to the commentary:

I’m almost ashamed as to why I didn’t put up photos on Sunday night.

I had to watch the very last Hannah Montana episode as it aired on the Disney channel in the hotel. Miley had to choose whether to go to Stanford with Lily or go to Paris with Spielberg. I know, we all are faced with similar choices and, as such, the teen narrative was gripping and I fell asleep without posting photos.

[/end embarrassing apology]

This year’s build was one of our favorites, in part because of the kids we were building for.

My daughter is quite the ambassador. She gets along with every kid she meets.

This year was a year of learning new skills. My wife and her crew did the texturing for the concrete slab.

This year, Casas started bringing in cement from a local (Juarez) business owner instead of having the team mix it from scratch. Usually I wheelbarrow the entire foundation. I felt like a total slacker, like I had no identity, until it was time to drill holes. I even tried to pass off the job to a new person, but drilling is my destiny.

(You gotta admit – that’s a pretty epic photo.)

The house was finished the fastest I can remember

and the family was very thankful:

Again – I am very thankful.

(See, You-Know-Who, I told you I can be subtle.)

That made me feel pretty cool.

My wife later in the day had me pick the oranges off our tree (yes, it’s a tree and not a slightly zealous shrubbery).

My youngest and a Wookiee chieftain for size comparison.

My wife’s reaction?
“The fruits of Kashyyyk are like that of the Promised Land!”

Yeah. Just take a moment and bask in the many layers of why she’s perfect for me.

(Also of note: last year it was right around this time that we picked THE orange.)

As I got the kids ready for bed, I wore a pair of pants on my head (does it surprise you? No. I didn’t think so.) and tried to do my best Gungan impersonation.

Instead, my youngest said, “Hey! You’re Ahsoka.”

And that’s when I realized:

1. All three girls made a geek reference yesterday.
2. Ahsoka does wear pants on her head:
   

Today I woke up remembering a dream from last night where I had to organize 80 (why not 100, I don’t know) Kindergarten through 3rd graders and I only had three helpers. The helpers weren’t really help (they all taught at the high school I long-term subbed at)(oh, and they only would sing the Yale fight song at the top of their lungs) and when we got to our destination, the auditorium, the show had started, we couldn’t see the stage (it was literally blocked by a section of seats), and I hadn’t had a chance to go to the bathroom.

It was then that I realized that the field trip for the elementary kids was to go see The Crucible.

Yeah. 2010 was weird. I still stand by my predictions from last year.

Here’s what it looked like from a Most Frequently Used Words on the Bloggh perspective (the larger the font, the more frequently used):

It doesn’t do justice to some of the big events:

but it does challenge me to use more words than “Check this out” or “just” or “get/got”, although this is my relax bloggh so you won’t “see” me writing:

I have obtained the next DVD from Netflix.

Words that are pretty funny for the bloggh: If you think that I talk about “Wars” a lot, remember that it’s usually connected to “Star”. Also notice that “Sarlacc” is the same size as “Netflix”.

The visualization was made on Wordle. Go SEE it here.

This past week we escaped to a cabin at an undisclosed location (it’s somewhere between Williams and Flagstaff, but the only landmarks are pine trees, which are relatively common up north). Thanks again, Mike, for the help. (Again, that’s not sarcastic.)

You can tell that all four of the adults present make a living interacting with people. Any non-conversation time was spent engrossed in trying to crush green pigs with pieces of concrete.

It was very much like this:

Yes, Devin, I hope the Birds and the Pigs can call a Christmas truce like the British and Germans of World War I.

We did use our words (horrible segue) in a game of Scrabble. I started the game out with vim. Yeah, I led with a “v” and only had three letters that worked. Mike followed it up with “pie”, which is always good. That’s why we allowed for the use of fanbag:

It was a serene setting that in a few hours changed from a brisk wind to snow on the ground.

This picture is peaceful until you realize that my daughter clocked me with a snowball soon after:

Both enjoyed their first real experience in snow:

We went back to campus so that our kids could see where legend stemmed from reality and their parents were, in fact, real people.

A decade ago I didn’t think I’d be taking a picture of my daughter in front of the JFK-esque lumberjack:

They moved the statue, but they still didn’t give him proper attire. I can’t help but think the dude would be more comfortable if he just had a shirt on.

Many things on campus have changed. It was reminiscent of Frodo returning to the Shire to illustrate that you can never go home again. Home has changed, you have changed, and that’s the natural course of things. All of NAU’s renovations look great. The one that caught me most off-guard was this:

I used to be THE NAUCard guy. They even had my photo on the university’s website to advertise it. (I think they needed someone bearded to go with the lumberjack motif.)

When I worked the ID card office, it was a simple counter that I sat behind and people walked up, I made them laugh, and then snapped a photo. Now it’s a very professional office that looks more like a bank.

This is how I felt.

You could say this is a piece of our Shire:

Things have changed, but I retain my snow fashion sense:

What’s new is the addition of cleats. Someone gave them to me years back and I had no clue what to do with them. (You don’t wear them on a basketball court and the patrons have a tough time paying attention if you wear them in the library.) Now they’re my official snow shoes.

The last night/morning I awoke to a clacking sound outside our bedroom. I thought it was my youngest rummaging around when she should be in bed, so I started to get annoyed. When I inspected the noise, sans glasses, I saw this thing flailing around on the ground. With glasses, I saw a mouse with a leg caught in a mouse trap. The thing was running all over the kitchen and hallway, which is pretty impressive.

None of us really wanted to kill the thing, so one of us (we’ll leave you guessing) grabbed the fireplace tongs and flung the mouse outside. We gave it a chance to live, but the elements are extreme in the northern night and the mouse didn’t survive. Don’t tell Mrs. Frisby.

I will take this time to point out how many people live out in the cold and that sometimes your religion needs to reach beyond “God helping those who help themselves.”

Before I stay too serious, I want to show you the most dangerous cologne in the world:

And now to close with a photo blast:

This is the final week, no turning back now. Pictures will be taken tomorrow, so have your face in working order. Currently there is a “wall of men” poster in the Social Studies hallway displaying the triumph of nature over fashion.

I am putting together a panel of judges, which will determine the alpha male in each category on Friday. Alan has constructed a trophy out of bear meat, guitar solos, flannel, and back hair. Still working on the time and place for judging, so I’ll let you know.

We educate America’s future.

They had a big announcement planned, but then in a moment’s hesitation said that they found a creature that uses arsenic instead of potassium in its DNA structure. Keith Richards has been doing that for years, so I don’t see what the big deal is.

What did bloggh readers hope would be announced? Two-thirds of you predicted that NASA would say “it’s been secretly dating the NSA but can no longer hide its true love. It’s a grown agency and can make its own decisions.”

You guys are weird.

There’s a great article up from Donald Miller called The Great Stumbling Block of the Creative Mind. I can relate to self-editing based on what other people will think. I constantly have to fight against the “this won’t sell” voice and write the story that I would enjoy reading. When I booktalk, I recommend books that I enjoyed. Many times that lines up with what students like. The same should apply to my Gatling gun horse.

It’s like the difference between this bloggh and my professional one (the creativity block…not the Gatling gun). Here, I don’t care what you think (for the most part…sometimes it creeps in). I’ll put up a picture of a Japanese folk dancing robot:

label it sugoi, and smile. With my professional site and Twitter, I’m constantly evaluating what I post. Part of that is out of respect for where I work and that a big segment of readers are in junior high, but I am obsessive in checking author responses.

So, thanks for reading the bloggh and if you find it saikou or psycho, whatever. I’m havin’ fun.

I shaved off my beard. My first day back at work? I got my lanyard (and USB drive) stuck in the laminator while it was running and almost re-enacted a scene from Temple of Doom (not this one)(that would just be weird). I’m growing the beard back as fast as I can.

Celebrating Thanksgiving is not as big of an advertisement haul as Black Friday, so this year I’ve heard tons about Black Friday and not as much about the day before it. Maybe it’s been on TV, but I haven’t watched live TV since a football game a couple of Sundays ago. (I was entranced then by these things called “commercials”, like mini-shows with as much plot as primetime.)

Thanksgiving can sometimes be political, especially in the realm of alien immigration (I still say amnesty for Romulans only if they make their cloaking technology public domain (vote kishi)), so to play it safe, I give you a politician most people liked: Abraham Lincoln (okay, so there was that guy).

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy Lincoln’s proclamation of when Thanksgiving first became a national holiday (as you know, Lincoln was a HUGE fan of pro football and discounts on home appliances, so this was his next logical step).

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Weird thought (which isn’t rare for the bloggh): Do you ever stop and think that somewhere you are connected on a fridge to people you have never met before? That there’s someone out there cheering for you? That you’re not alone?

I wonder if we’re more connected than we realize, that if you were gone it would affect more than just you. As I look at these photos, I can’t help but think how young everyone looks. I know that so much life, both hardship and success, has affected us all. I’m glad I can have you hang out on my fridge.

(If you don’t see yourself on my fridge, send me a photo. Unless you’re that annoying SPAMmer who keeps promising great deals on ph4Rm0c3uticalz. You keep those photos to yourself.)

Grandma Audrey’s memorial/celebration was convicting. A life lived for Jesus is a beautiful thing and I hope that legacy will continue with our generation.

Once again we had the guys of the family grab a shovel and fill in the dirt. Death is so not-talked-about in our culture, sometimes to what I feel is an unhealthy distance, that there was something very real, very tangible, very transitional about leveling off the final shovelfuls. Thankfully I know that something similar to Luke 24:5 is being enacted, so the shoveling is more for us.

My wife did a great job of making sure that my youngest’s birthday was not forgotten this weekend. She and a friend unfolded an entire Dora story arc for the toddlers and their amigos.

Dora and Boots

Let’s give the toddlers blunt weapons and promise candy:

The setting was farm-ish (if The Map, The Map, I’m the Friggin’ Map is to be trusted), so bring on the cute photos of kids holding baby chicks:

And then the still cute, if yet frightening, re-enactment of Act V of MacBeth:

Some loving, if yet crazy, members of Christ’s Body decided to show us love in a very appreciated way by cleaning our house while we were at the memorial. I’m still overwhelmed and learning how to accept grace. My youngest, though, has learned how to accept a Memory game. She says thanks!

In the midst of a birthday and a memorial, we had cousins over.


The Polly Pocket/Beast wedding was going well until Vader showed up. Thankfully Beast has a wookiee for a best man.

Yep. It was a good weekend.

This is the camera plan for Friday. This is for my own records, but I’m sure some can appreciate the schematic.

Thanks, J, for making it comprehensible.

Beacon for lovers. Setting for weird Georges Melies films. Reminder of Chairface Chippendale’s far-reaching criminal influence.



In 1962, JFK said that we choose the moon (remember the cool site his library set up?):

George W. Bush had said that he wanted NASA to focus on getting us back to the moon. While a lunar base would be cool, especially as a construction yard (although would we want more space junk?), it’s a place we’ve already been.

Obama spent Columbus Day signing his space vision into law. We’re going to have a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in 2030. Those dates don’t feel like they have the same sense of urgency as the Space Race. We’re not afraid of a Sputnik fleet brainwashing our teenage girls, only to be saved by rock and roll, anytime soon.

What works is providing a challenge for NASA. Now they have to hit a moving target.

What? You say the moon orbits around the Earth, which in turn orbits around the sun? Don’t tell the Internet commenters that. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that trolls hate science.

“Don’t burden me with your Kepler ellipticals, boy!”

The real benefit of the program is that there are some vocal experts on landing on asteroids. Steve Buscemi is already putting together his Aerosmith mix tape in anticipation of being selected. The asteroid program is said to rely heavily on commercial help. Richard Branson is wringing his hands in Burnsian delight.

Which one’s the crazy one?

If you want to fund the program, sell advertising space on the module. Send the GEICO gecko up. Better yet, to gather the most news time, put Kim Kardashian up there with The Situation, Nancy Pelosi, and Glenn Beck.

The only danger would be if they could work out their differences, populating an asteroid with their own twisted culture. Then we would definitely need the nuclear option.

The big question is what will happen when the next administration takes over. Will the next president scrap Obama’s plan like he did to Bush’s Constellation project?

The funny thing is that I’m so immersed in my alternate history right now (27,000 words!), I keep thinking Woodrow Wilson wins the next election.

And now back to my alternate history.

I wanted my site to load faster, especially on my mobile, so hopefully it works for you. I’m trying to streamline the RSS feed, too.

We got to see lots of #75 playing today, which always makes for a good day. Every time the kicker comes in, he’s booting it from behind Man Mountain. When the career touchdown record was broken, #75 made sure the extra point went in.

I loved watching the game on the “screen”, if only because I could eat behind the screen and not miss the game.

Some links of note today:
If you want to hear about the artist behind the movie posters for pretty much every geek movie ever, (same guy that did Star Wars, Goonies, Indy, Blade Runner…you get the idea) click here.

If you want to play with online LEGOs for free, click here.

The real Captain Jack Sparrow surprises a kid here by going to her school.

Wookiees dance to Smooth Criminal here.

I’m posting from a smartphone right now. More info later. Let’s just say there’s a Google App for that.

In other fun news, our dishwasher is on its last legs. I am now filling in the role as dishwasher and hope that I can last longer than the previous employee.

Story news: I’m at 22,742 words and loving the book. It’s historical fiction for crazy people.

Word to the wise: don’t catch a roll of asphalt roofing with your thumb. It makes it tougher to type and/or play Halo: Reach.

I am very thankful for everyone’s help.

Usually this video would get me:

and I am digging the song. But what’s in my head?
This one:

and I think I like it.

I also interviewed Bob Kauflin today and pulled my entire porch ceiling down.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Now it’s time for dinner.

We got the printer. It came with ink. (The new printer uses $30 ink.)

I’m really happy since it’s a wireless printer. But what’s really cool is that it’s a 3-in-1, with the scanner and memory card reader and all that also being wireless. Those reception bars are like art to me. The inaugural prints were of my dad with my oldest and then a map of Middle-Earth.

Yep. Sounds about right.

The inaugural scan?

This, for my nephew:

Click on it to zoom in.

1. Write a steampunk Western.
2. Read Mockingjay.
3. Make sure old people don’t steal my stuff.

and that’s about it. Now, back to Panem.

Congrats to my brother on his second year progress, by the way.

Tomorrow I’m going to send off to Analog magazine.

Where people are more open to new authors is magazines. I have a few in mind and I have a story to send off. If you’d like to read it, leave a comment and I’ll e-mail it to you. I know that people who read check out this bloggh (it’s funny to think of non-readers checking a blog, but whatever) and might appreciate the weirdness that is Hiccup.

I tossed around a few ideas of how to celebrate. I could pass on a funny link from J about classic movies being remade by Zac Effron, show you fan films of Star Wars and Firefly (thanks, Devin), or give a pop quiz about which Harrison Ford character would win in a street fight (oh, don’t fret. We’ll see how Rick Deckard does soon enough).

I even tried recording a video blog (remember when people tried to call them vlogs? I’m so glad we put a stop to that. Now if we could just remove the word ‘tweet’ from the Internet, it would be so double rainbow.). The video web log started out okay until I realized I have a beard made for radio.

Then I tucked my oldest in and reflected about the past five years (cue ‘Sunrise, Sunset’). When I first started posting stuff online, it was to get extra practice for Masters degree homework. I still remember feeding her in her high chair while I coded HTML, wrote an essay, and had A New Hope playing in a window for her.

Tonight she told me that if she got scared, she would read a book on courage by Frank Peretti and that she would read a book on helping others in the morning so that she would start the day out right and build up the Body of Christ. She reads her sister’s Bible to her because “it’s the only important thing.”

So, with that, I say thank you for reading the bloggh for five years and one day I hope to be as cool as my daughters.

How do we know? The #votekishi site tells us, that’s how.

So, click on the link or the picture and find out what this candidate has to offer. These are campaign promises I can endorse. Also, make sure to use the hashtag #votekishi on Twitter. Doesn’t matter if it makes sense. Just do it – that’s how politics works.

If you haven’t caught any World Cup action yet, you might appreciate John Cleese’s help explaining the difference between football and soccer. Soccer doesn’t have as many commercials. I know that much.

I think if there was scoring for each player contact in the game, then it would catch on. We’re bummed when an NBA final score is in the 60′s. But football and baseball games score low…Maybe it’s because there are so many opportunities to score in those sports, even though the scores are generally lower. In soccer they miss once and a lot of times the ball is booted to the other end of the field.

Unrelated (as if things here have a set coherence):
If you run a WordPress site and have seen an increase in Spam comments the past two weeks (I have on both of mine), Akismet comes free with WordPress. It requires an API key, but the Aksimet site gives you a free API code if you’re just a hobbyist. Check out the plugins section of your settings panel.

These photos, though, should tell more of my experiences in the resort:

Towels in the shower

Phone where it shouldn’t be

Everybody Loves Raymond…even above the sink.

And it’s when I look at my Pictures folder and find this:

that I get homesick.

You may have noticed some changes to the site (unless you’re reading this three weeks later when Facebook imports it)(or you’re a Russian feed stealer. To you I say a hearty, “Nyet!”).

There are certain causalities (and sometimes casualties) to blogghing:

• I always upgrade to the newest WordPress.
• When I do, I want to try out new things and load a new theme.
• Upon loading a new theme, I browse through older stuff that wasn’t as prominent in the older theme.

So, to celebrate the new WordPress and the new theme (and an agent who liked my query letter and first five pages so wants to read the next 50), I present to you:

The Birthday Game

Plucked from the depths of The BLOGgh, help the Super Saiyan fight off hordes of nerdery’s deadliest monsters (or at least the Clip Art I could find online). Who cares about score – can you make it past Phil Collins to hear Sephiroth’s song? (Yet another phrase never typed in Internet history.)

Coverit Live was used very effectively by IGN during the E3 press conferences and by ESPN during game seven of the finals.

I may actually try this out at a conference I’m going to next week. Could prove interesting.

Today was Nintendo’s E3 press conference. I got to watch it live (via streaming) and go crazy right alongside the people in the audience. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword looks great, as anticipated. The controls were a little off and the demo guy told the audience to turn off all wireless devices, making fun of the trouble Steve Jobs had connecting to the Internet during the iPhone reveal.

Kirby: Epic Yarn has an amazing style. Every character is made from a piece of string.

EA Sports Active 2.0 looks cool. It’s completely wireless and one of the controllers is a heart-rate monitor, checking more accurately how efficient your workout is. It also has the ability to coordinate data online like the Nike+iPod system.

The big reveal for me, though, was GoldenEye. I remember my residents at NAU playing this for hours on end in the days of the Nintendo 64. It retained the split-screen multiplayer but now includes 16 online types of matches. I’ll be curious to see if FORZO (or whatever Slade calls himself now) and I can play online versus the world.

Oh. And the portable game system that can take 3D photos and play 3D movies and games.

Sunday we had our birthday celebration. Yeah, some things have happened in the past few months. During one of the conversations, J’s youngest brother agreed to a spontaneous haircut.

He went from Tired Aquatic Mad Scientist to In a Similar Manner to Lincoln Brewster. I think we should have gone more David Crowder.

But what do you do when you upgrade/renew a contract and you have an extra cell?

This is for Gary and Jason:

Sites that I would check out are CellForCash, FlipSwap (with free shipping), Gazelle, NextWorth, and YouRenew.

To see if you have the plan that best fits your use, check out BillShrink.

If you have an iPhone, you’re kinda stuck with Expensive or More Expensive.

Next: Star Wars voices. Tom Tom Devices.

The line that’s missing from this video? “I’ve altered the route. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

Many buttons died to bring us this GPS…

Finally: WordPress 3.0

Here’s the plan. I’ll post a copy of it and you vote for whether it’s SPAM or not by leaving a comment. (You know, if you’re already an approved commenter and all that. SPAMmers, you get no vote.)

The original comment is as follows:

I’m not SPAM, I’m Cholera. CHOLERA!

I came to the Valley Of the Surface Of The Sun 31 years ago waving the prog – rock flag.

Then I got tired of listening to commercials with music thrown in as filler.

Then the jazz station that hit he up for money sent me a revised schedule chock full of notjazz (KJZZ still has a great blues show at 6pm Sunday nights)

Then the computer came and assimilated me.

Then PANDORA.

end of line

Though I’m really curious how mt “Thievery Corporation Radio” , chosen for its preoccupation with trip – hop, morphed into DJ Tiesto on the jackhammer every sixth cut. -, that ‘s annoying. Get off my lawn!

SPAM or not? You make the call. It’s a game I like to call “Are You Smarter than a SPAMmer?”

1. If you are inventorying, do not Thumbs Up “Hotel California“. When the Eagles say, “You can check out, but you can never leave” – you’ll start to believe them and the voices will call from far away.
2. Billy Idol is best suited for affixing barcodes. His discography does not line up with book spine repair.
3. Create a Glee Cast station. Trust me.

Check out his album here. Here’s a preview:

If you’re going to be in the Valley, check out Freedom at FCOV at 7pm. (I’m playing bass.)

Either choice will garner my approval.

Well, the implied news. But it’s still exciting!
(It’s like a movie teaser site. “April 2011 – you know the rest”)

It’s been a while since I’ve been impatient about my beard regrowing. There were so many comments from teachers questioning who the new librarian was. The change in hair status was literally a classroom disruption…twice (three times if you count the class walking by that stopped to stare). I walked into a class to solve a projector problem (the Video source button is the one you want to hit when you want to show a video) and the class gasped.

To be honest, I did pretend to take on Slade’s “walking around the mall” persona for a bit today. Here’s a simulation: