Kifed!

I am currently at the Denver Public Library on Welton Street. I would be waiting some Jupiter Sunrise but they do not go on until 9 or so, and it is 6 right now, so we decided to take a stroll around the area, it turns out that there is not much here, but we did find a public library that is open until 8, so that will have to do.
I got excited when I saw the computers here but it turns out that you need a library card to login. But that did not stop me, I scavenged around until I found a piece of paper with someone elses library card number on it and used it to login. Bam! (As they say around these parts.)
Alright I am off to go read some books, or something of that nature... maybe there are some TVs around or something.
Rock rock on.

The Afternoon Tea

Yesterday I officially kicked off my Colorado Trip by going to my Grandparents 55th wedding anniversary party (sans Nicole who is down in Wichita because her sister is due on Tuesday). Now this wasn't your ordinary 55th party, although I really do not know what the ordinary party includes, but this party was a afternoon tea. I would imagine that the average folk would not be that excited about a tea party, but I do like me some tea.

The teaing (which apparently already is a word) consisted of tea of my choice (I got house blend, which was quite good), lemon and apricot scones with the accompaniments of coddled cream, lemon curd, and blueberry jam. That was the first round. Next was a cool cantaloupe yogurt soup, which surprisingly tasted like cantaloupe and yogurt mixed together. After this they brought out a three tiered tray of snacks that ranged from a caramelized onion and pea souffle thingy, to cucumber sandwiches, to chocolate truffles to lemon meringue pie tars and baklava. Clearly a challenge was set before me. I tried everything and liked about two thirds of it, the high being a raspberry tart thing, the low being a chocolate truffle or "pure bitter cocoa in ball form". Lastly we had "dessert" which consisted of raspberry butter cake and strawberry sorbet. After filling up with more sweets than I eat in an entire year we talked for a bit and then headed out for the traditional post-55th tea party event, racing at Colorado National.

Since the car I was in was the first to leave, well the first to leave in a straight line to the races, we had ample opportunity to stop at the shops along the way to the races, which just ended up being a furniture store, because by the time we realized that we were ahead of everybody else by 45mins we were almost already at the races. Now a furniture store is not really my idea of entertainment. But luckily this furniture store (Furniture Row) is working on combating this idea. They had robots. They were just sculptures, but that didn't matter, they were still very cool. For the next 30 or so minutes Chris, Michelle and I went from robot sculpture to robots sculpture taking pictures and ignoring the population of workers asking if we were finding everything ok. It really is a good idea to have cool art in boring stores, because at the very least there is something to do in them. Although, I guess the average person doesn't go to a furniture store to blow time, but maybe they would if they all had robots in them.



After everyone else caught up to us we went to the races. The highlight of the night was a 100 lap main event for one of the classes of cars. But there were figure eights, stock car, modifies, late models and buses that raced. Yeah, like school buses. They only had five buses in the race and it was only for eight laps, but I discovered something very important: school buses can tip on two of three wheels for a long time before they actually fall over. I will spare you the details of the races last night but I can summarize: left turns, times a lot. Really the races were fun as always and I can not imagine a better way to end a 55th wedding anniversary but by going to the races. It was also a good way to end my first full day in Colorado.

Perkins?

If you would have bet me $500 this morning that I would eat dinner tonight at Perkins (one of my least favorite restaurants), you would be $500 richer right now, because I would have said that there is not way that I would eat there. Guess where I ate dinner at. Let me explain:
Today we went to Lawrence to go see Jupiter Sunrise ( music sample), a down right cool band. We were rocking out pretty good to the first band (The Finals) when about three songs into their set most of the lights in the place went out. Also there was a heavy smell of burnt plastic in the air. Since The Finals was all electric they stopped their set.
Jupiter Sunrise decided to play an acoustic set so they invited everyone (there were about 30 people at the show) onto the stage. They rocked out pretty good for three songs when the manager of the place came in and said that the show was over because they didn't know what was wrong. It turns out that they blew a transformer, which meant that the electric company had to come out and do some work.
We all milled around for a bit and then the electric company guy says that they are killing all the power to the building in fifteen minutes. So we all helped get the bands stuff packed up and back into their vans as quickly as possible. We finished up by cell phone light because we didn't get everything moved out before the power went off.
After everything got packed we all went out to Perkins to eat dinner with both of the bands. Newgen and Andrea met us there and we ended up sitting with Chris the drummer for Jupiter Sunrise and we all talked for an hour or two. It was a pretty good time. And something that I would not have predicted happening at the beginning of the day. But really isn't that the way that most really good days go?

Arrow Tag

In Arrow Tag you try to pop all the good bubbles while avoiding the bad ones all while having a time limit. Yes it is a very simple game, but it is a satisfying play. I would post my high score here, but I can not do too good right now since I am using a track pad (Level 2 is the highest I can get to now, before with a mouse I was doing much better.) This just in: I just received a call from the Commander of the First National Army of Fun, he says to check it out.

Gizoogle!

I was looking over some blogs and Spinning Girl mentioned Gizoogle. What this awesome web service does is to translate the internet to gangsta. Check out this excerpt from my last post:

It was alot of work ta write tha script n ta edit tha videos, but it wasn't nearly as M-to-tha-izzuch work as Michelle did dippin' n steppin' as tha lead in tha pizzle. I kizzy that she is sick of it nizzow, but she did a really good job wit it thats off tha hook yo.

Oh that is some good stuff. Check out my gangsta blog here.
And then go check out your blog on Gizoogle and post your favorite parts here.

Mad

Thanks everyone for watching Mad as I posted it, it looked like I had a good number of people watch it from this blog and there were even a couple people from YouTube that started to watch as I posted more parts.

It was alot of work to write the script and to edit the videos, but it wasn't nearly as much work as Michelle did producing and acting as the lead in the play. I know that she is sick of it now, but she did a really good job with it.

Here are the links to all the parts of Mad and who was in the part besides Alice. If you missed any parts of the play you can catch up, or if you missed it all the first time you can see them now.

Mad Part 1: (Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins) White Rabbit
Mad Part 2: Mom, Dad
Mad Part 3: (Absolutely - Nine Days) School
Mad Part 4: Mom
Mad Part 5: White Rabbit
Mad Part 6: Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Mad Part 7: (Sight Reading - Anything But Joey) Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Mad Part 8: Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Mad Part 9: White Rabbit
Mad Part 10: Flowers
Mad Part 11: (Change Your Mind - Sister Hazel) Flowers
Mad Part 12: Flowers
Mad Part 13: March Hare, Mad Hatter, Dormouse
Mad Part 14: (One - Anything But Joey) March Hare, Mad Hatter, Dormouse
Mad Part 15: Cheshire Cat
Mad Part 16: (Ride a White Swan - T-Rex) Cheshire cat
Mad Part 17: Caterpillar
Mad Part 18: (Kaye - Jupiter Sunrise) Caterpillar
Mad Part 19: (Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand) King
Mad Part 20: Queen
Mad Part 21: (Sixteen - No Doubt) Queen
Mad Part 22: Queen
Mad Part 23: (Without Love - Donna Lewis)
Mad Part 24: (Your Song - Ewan McGregor) Dad
Mad Part 25: (In the Middle - Jimmy Eat World) School

I would like to hear any questions or comments that you have about Mad, or anything else.

Rock, rock on.

Office Space Quiz

Do you know your Office Space, I mean really know it? It is one of the best movies ever made, and I have watched it many times but I only scored a 57 out of 100 on this quiz.
They ask all sorts of questions, from very easy to insanely hard. If you think you know everything about Office Space check it out and post your results here.
(And no cheating!)

Mad Part 25 (The Middle - Jimmy Eat World)

Alice goes back to school, some things have changed, others haven't. (Also curtain call)



The song is The Middle by Jimmy Eat World.

Mad Part 1
Mad Part 24

Newgen + Pirates + Football = Weekend

Hey hey, just got back from a fun filled weekend of Newgen-ing, playing Pirates the constructible card game and watching the Koyotes pull out a playoff win against the Iowa Blackhawks.

Tune in later today for the epic conclusion to Mad.

Hakuna Matata

The Lion King was the last good animated movie from Disney. And it is still one of my favorite movies.



I should watch the Lion King more.

...I'm not so sure about the Loin King...

Mad Part 24 (Your Song - Ewan McGregor)

Alice's dad comes home with her present.



The song is Your Song by Ewan McGregor.

Mad Part 1
Part Part 23

The United States of Arab

Call me narrow minded but I recently have had a revelation, or something like that.

Every American should want the whole world to become America.

What!?! Blasphemy! [Insert some liberal curse here... I can't think of one right now.]

Hold on let me explain. First, I doubt anyone in America would disagree that we have the best country in the world. We do have the most freedoms of any people in the world (both personally and economically overall). That being said (or assumed for the sake of my argument) why would we not want everyone in the world to have our freedoms?

Why don't we want this? Because other countries are scared, and they try to influence what we think. You think not? If you are not on board with the United States of the World, why is that? Is it because you think that other countries are better? Doubtful.

Why is it?

I am not calling for all countries to become America, I am calling for all countries to give their people the freedoms of America. I do not want Iraq to become Texas, I want them to stay Iraq, but I want their people to be free to worship the way they want to, their women are given the same rights as the men, the masses have an opportunity to be educated.

I am also not advocating the spread of America through force. We can not free people through force, they must choose it themselves But we also can not stand by and let leaders that kill their own people rule. (How can we do that as humans?) This is a tricky situation, but in the end I am confident that people would choose to be free rather than be ruled by an iron fist.

So we Americans should not be ashamed of the idea the Iraq or the Arab world will become "The United States of Arab". This is the best outcome possible. The freedoms of America in the Arab world? That is a world to strive for, and to fight for.

Comments?

Mad Part 23

Alice turns off the Queen and thinks about her situation, and how she misses her dad.



The song is Without Love by Donna Lewis.

Mad Part 1
Mad Part 22

Bug!

Today we went to BW3s to play some trivia and eat food. I didn't win trivia, but Stef (ph?) came along and brought her kid, Bug. Bug isn't his real name, but everyone calls him that. Actually he is a very nice, cute kid, somewhat the opposite of a bug. Anyways, he enjoyed getting his picture taken, and he smiled/squinted once he saw the orange focusing light that was followed by the very bright white flash. Here's a good one of him:

Is that not ^_^?

I My Me Mine

You may be able to dance the Robot, but can you do the Japanese Robot?



Dancing like this looks like it would be really hard.

GreenGrass

To pass time on the way to Wichita I decided to make a Processing program since it has been a while since I have made one. Looking outside the car window I was inspired to make a program that would draw a field of grass. So I got to work on a program that ended up being called GreenGrass. This program simply draws random blades of grass. If you click on the program the grass will be cut at that height. Not much more to it. Enjoy your summer and check out the program here.

You can see more stuff like this here.

IGN: A Scanner Darkly

IGN has posted the first 24 minutes of A Scanner Darkly to watch. I do have to say that it looks like a really good movie. Note: There is some cussing and stuff so be forewarned.
IGN: A Scanner Darkly Video

Mad Part 22

It turns out that the Queen's song for Alice isn't really for Alice.



Mad Part 1
Mad Part 21

Zeus' playthings

We are having a pretty big thunderstorm go over right now. While it was rolling in I went outside and took a couple pictures. They are, by far, the best pictures of lightning that I have ever taken.

Mad Part 21 (Sixteen - No Doubt)

The Queen sings a song for Alice. And the Pr0n King stops by for a second.



(Sorry the audio is bad in this one, it isn't dubbed... but at least the audio matches the video.)

The song is Sixteen by No Doubt.

Mad Part 1
Mad Part 20

Pictures, with bonus extra dimension!

If you act now you too can make pictures like this:


Just click on over to the 3D Stereogram maker and draw up any picture you like, you even get to control how far out the lines in the drawing appear. Amaze your friends, confuse your coworkers, surprise your boss by putting in your two weeks notice in style, and in three dimensions.

Mad Part 20

Alice turns to the Queen for help, after she had her run-in with the King.



Mad Part 1
Mad Part 19

Mad Part 19 (Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand)

Alice meets the (Pr0n) King, and he proposes to her that she should "put herself out there".

This video turned out pretty good, the hardest thing about putting it together is that one on the nights there was only two girls dancing, but I was able to use close up shots so that you can't really tell. Again YouTube got the video off from the sound, but luckily it is off on beat so that the dancing doesn't look too bad.

The song is Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand.

Mad Part 1
Mad Part 18

Here be pictures

I owe you some pirate pictures, so here are my 10 favorite from this weekend.

Nicole tires to tame the Purple Sea Hippo, a tough opponent.



I think that my costume turned out real well, thanks to Nicole's awesome sewing skills.



Chris may have had too much grog before this picture.



Arrrg! The Dr. Pepper shall not best us this time!



Michelle is on her way to plunder, and watch a movie, but mostly plunder.



Aaron shows off his rocking tatts, and newly shaved head.



How can you argue that ninjas are better?



Pirates plunder... each other.



And plunder Long John Silvers...



It's a real life anime pose for a picture.


As for the movie (Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest) it was pretty good. Think of it as the "Empire Strikes Back" from Star Wars for the Pirates series and you get a good idea about the movie. It was enjoyable and the new characters are very fun. Everyone should go and see it. Twice.

Just look at that horse!

It may be that it is almost 7am and I'm not asleep yet, but this is very very funny:

A pirates life for me!

more to come tomorrow

July: 5 down 26 to go

Contrary to what my blog has been saying, I have been doing things over the past week. The highlights have been:
My mom and sister (Michelle) can up to visit, Michelle is still up here. Here is a pic of my mom rocking out to Guitar Hero.

While my mom was still up we all played a rousing game of Super Tennis, it was the first time we played it this year. In this pic we are intimidating the opposing team with our threatening stance.

Yesterday we rocked it out Independence style with a good city fireworks show and then an uber home made fireworks show. The police only stopped by twice and no one got arrested, so we will call it a win.
Currently I am gathering my pirate effects for the midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean tomorrow. Our group is going to Eat an Long John Silver's then watch the first movie and then go to the new movie tomorrow night, all dressed liked pirates (With most of the costumes made by Nicole or Jenette). I'll have some pics up late late tomorrow night.

p.s. Go to Pirates tomorrow night.
p.p.s. When you go dress like a pirate.
p.p.p.s. Arrrg!