Oh my today has been very busy, I basically spent the first half of the day preparing for my class that I teach, and after class I had to do everything else that I would normally do. Then when I came home I just fell asleep on the futon. It is a bit delayed but here are the results of round four for the upper bracket.
41. Scrivenings vs. Dust-Slaying: Redux
Scrivenings threw a birthday party for two of his children that had a Tea Party with the Mad Hatter theme, the pictures were awesome and the idea is very cool. Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) decided to take the shotgun approach and had a post called 'Random Monday Wacky'. There were a couple of entertaining things in the post, such as problems that were had making a snowman in Texas during his childhood.
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux
42. Just Thoughts vs. Adventures in Kicking People
Janelle (Just Thoughts) had a post about her adventures in San Fransisco, including finding a Bacon wrapped sausage sandwich vendor. However while Janelle was on vacation Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) was hard at work recreating some of the snowmen from the Calvin & Hobbies comic, and they turned out very good. There is just no way I could pass them up (and Janelle had a terrible pun about peeps too, that may have cost it for her. Just kidding, I thought the pun was funny)
Winner:Adventures in Kicking People
43. Jiggscasey.com vs. Writing as jo(e)
Jiggscasey had funny going on, on his side of blogsphere, most notably the comments left on YouTube and the top five spam headlines. But for some reason the couple of posts that jo(e) had stuck a cord with me and I just really liked them, there wasn't even anything really special... a trip down to Atlanta, ritualistic dancing around a fire... OK maybe there was something about the post topics too. But in any case, in what I think as an upset:
Winner:Writing as jo(e)
44. What the Duck? vs. Just Keep Swimming
Madge (What the Duck) has a problem with either an OK brown snake or a very poisonous cottonmouth that keeps on climbing into a nearby tree. I don't know where you are from, but snakes really should not be in trees, even if they aren't poisonous. Heather (Keep Swimming) posted another butt-ugly pic, I won't describe it this time, but it is good for a laugh so go check it out. And also notes that she likes the term 'cat's pajamas', I can't argue with that. But in the end;
Winner:What the Duck?
For some reason Blogger is not giving me the word verification image no matter how many times I reload the comments page, so about half way through I couldn't post comments on blogs that had word verification, which is sad... but made getting through the blogs quicker. Hopefully the problem will be fixed quickly by Blogger.
Alright, the round 4 second chance brackets to come in a day or so.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
My New Favorite Blog, Round 4 Pairings
Here are the brackets after three rounds (only 16 blogs left). First the upper bracket:
And the second chance bracket:
And the whole shebang:
The upper bracket parings are (Which I will do tomorrow):
41. Scrivenings vs. Dust-Slaying: Redux
42. Just Thoughts vs. Adventures in Kicking People
43. Jiggscasey.com vs. Writing as jo(e)
44. What the Duck? vs. Just Keep Swimming
The second chance pairings are (Which I will get to in a couple of days):
45. Sara With No H vs. "Brevity is... wit."
46. Leisure Pursuit vs. Legally Blonde
47. Sniper Kitty vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
48. Phantom Scribbler vs. Everybody Knows
And the second chance bracket:
And the whole shebang:
The upper bracket parings are (Which I will do tomorrow):
41. Scrivenings vs. Dust-Slaying: Redux
42. Just Thoughts vs. Adventures in Kicking People
43. Jiggscasey.com vs. Writing as jo(e)
44. What the Duck? vs. Just Keep Swimming
The second chance pairings are (Which I will get to in a couple of days):
45. Sara With No H vs. "Brevity is... wit."
46. Leisure Pursuit vs. Legally Blonde
47. Sniper Kitty vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
48. Phantom Scribbler vs. Everybody Knows
My New Favorite Blog, Round 3 Results.
For Round 3 only the lower blogs had to duke it out. I can tell we are getting somewhere because I am having to pick between two blogs that I like and I want both to move on -but alas I must choose only one. After this round only half of the starting blogs remain. So here is how they shake out:
33. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Sara With No H
Psyc Girl had a discussion with "Parent" and now is excited about graduate school, which is a good thing. Sara has to contend with "Lake Ziermendorf" which usually is contained within her garage, but sometimes it spills it's banks and floods the house. The solution is to get a tarp with some hoses and do something (besides get frustrated, i think).
Winner: Sara With No H
34. "Brevity is... wit." vs. A Gentleman's C
Neel (Brevity) mentions the Academy Awards (which is a theme for this round), but more importantly decides to call the movie "Black Snake Moan" "the Sexrocist", which is very funny. Angry Prof. (A Gentleman's C) got an email that started with the salutation of "Lotus flowers," and the email didn't get any better from there...
Winner: "Brevity is... wit."
35. Leisure Pursuit vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
Valerie (Leisure Pursuit) mentions the Academy Awards and also talks about a thing she saw on Oprah were a boy who left his country because of war finds a girl he likes at a camp, who he takes a picture with, then has to leave. Years later he finds her again in Canada, and then Oprah has them meet on the show, and it is a whole ball of happiness. Callie (Whole Lotta Trouble) talks about the Academy Awards, specifically how the people dressed. Let me tell you some of the lady-folk wore some impressively ugly stuff.
Winner: Leisure Pursuit
36. Jeremy Freese's Weblog vs. Legally Blonde
Jeremy thinks of a way to improve student relations at the graduate level, that being to make a survey and post the result on the internet so that people shopping for a school can see the results. Also he talks about the evils of girl scout cookies and also if the owner of a pit bull named Fatal was really surprised that it attacked a kid. Meanwhile, Elle mentions the Academy Awards, and then lays down the law that people should not yell across Blockbusters at each other. Then goes on the describe the fun times with her crackhead (her words, not mine) uncle, and they do sure sound like fun times... actually they are pretty funny, if it isn't happening to you.
Winner: Legally Blonde
37. Sniper Kitty vs. Gimchi
Kat renamed (?) her blog Spit it Out and has a recipe posted about fruit on top of fish. Which is good enough to beat Kimberlina who did not have an update.
Winner: Sniper Kitty
38. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated. vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
I Think had no update, so Nina (Other Side) was free to talk about anything that she wanted. She chose to discuss the recent snow storm and buying a house or a condo. At last check she is trying to get people to talk her in to buying a condo.
Winner: The Other Side of the Ocean
39. Shrinkykitten vs. Phantom Scribbler
Shrinkykitten muses that the Republicans are short on God fearing Presidential candidates. She is also taking bets on how long a glass of water will stay out before it gets cleaned up, I've got the high guess right now at 4 months. Mama (Phantom Scribbler) has taken a leap of faith and bought a Mac laptop to replace her rapidly deteriorating Windows lappy. Only time will tell if she can save all of her files off of the old computer before it dies.
Winner: Phantom Scribbler
40. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Everybody Knows
Anamika bought a $120 Indian movie. And is happy about it. I think there might be something wrong with her, maybe a checkup at the doctors office might be in order. But then again Everybody Knows discusses how relatives used to eat squirrels and that Red Hot is a good cleaner of grout on the floor. In the paring of strangeness I think Everybody Knows just eeks it out to be a bit more strange.
Winner: Everybody Knows
I will have the parings for round 4 posted soon.
33. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Sara With No H
Psyc Girl had a discussion with "Parent" and now is excited about graduate school, which is a good thing. Sara has to contend with "Lake Ziermendorf" which usually is contained within her garage, but sometimes it spills it's banks and floods the house. The solution is to get a tarp with some hoses and do something (besides get frustrated, i think).
Winner: Sara With No H
34. "Brevity is... wit." vs. A Gentleman's C
Neel (Brevity) mentions the Academy Awards (which is a theme for this round), but more importantly decides to call the movie "Black Snake Moan" "the Sexrocist", which is very funny. Angry Prof. (A Gentleman's C) got an email that started with the salutation of "Lotus flowers," and the email didn't get any better from there...
Winner: "Brevity is... wit."
35. Leisure Pursuit vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
Valerie (Leisure Pursuit) mentions the Academy Awards and also talks about a thing she saw on Oprah were a boy who left his country because of war finds a girl he likes at a camp, who he takes a picture with, then has to leave. Years later he finds her again in Canada, and then Oprah has them meet on the show, and it is a whole ball of happiness. Callie (Whole Lotta Trouble) talks about the Academy Awards, specifically how the people dressed. Let me tell you some of the lady-folk wore some impressively ugly stuff.
Winner: Leisure Pursuit
36. Jeremy Freese's Weblog vs. Legally Blonde
Jeremy thinks of a way to improve student relations at the graduate level, that being to make a survey and post the result on the internet so that people shopping for a school can see the results. Also he talks about the evils of girl scout cookies and also if the owner of a pit bull named Fatal was really surprised that it attacked a kid. Meanwhile, Elle mentions the Academy Awards, and then lays down the law that people should not yell across Blockbusters at each other. Then goes on the describe the fun times with her crackhead (her words, not mine) uncle, and they do sure sound like fun times... actually they are pretty funny, if it isn't happening to you.
Winner: Legally Blonde
37. Sniper Kitty vs. Gimchi
Kat renamed (?) her blog Spit it Out and has a recipe posted about fruit on top of fish. Which is good enough to beat Kimberlina who did not have an update.
Winner: Sniper Kitty
38. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated. vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
I Think had no update, so Nina (Other Side) was free to talk about anything that she wanted. She chose to discuss the recent snow storm and buying a house or a condo. At last check she is trying to get people to talk her in to buying a condo.
Winner: The Other Side of the Ocean
39. Shrinkykitten vs. Phantom Scribbler
Shrinkykitten muses that the Republicans are short on God fearing Presidential candidates. She is also taking bets on how long a glass of water will stay out before it gets cleaned up, I've got the high guess right now at 4 months. Mama (Phantom Scribbler) has taken a leap of faith and bought a Mac laptop to replace her rapidly deteriorating Windows lappy. Only time will tell if she can save all of her files off of the old computer before it dies.
Winner: Phantom Scribbler
40. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Everybody Knows
Anamika bought a $120 Indian movie. And is happy about it. I think there might be something wrong with her, maybe a checkup at the doctors office might be in order. But then again Everybody Knows discusses how relatives used to eat squirrels and that Red Hot is a good cleaner of grout on the floor. In the paring of strangeness I think Everybody Knows just eeks it out to be a bit more strange.
Winner: Everybody Knows
I will have the parings for round 4 posted soon.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Boxhead
You know what your day needs more of? Killing zombies.That is why I suggest you stop doing whatever you are doing right now... well besides reading my blog, keep doing that, but stop doing whatever else, and check out the game called Boxhead.
Basically you are trying to kill a bunch of zombies with various weapons. You move around with the arrow keys and you shoot with the space bar. Throughout the game you get better weapons and equipment, which you can select with the number keys. It has all the makings of an awesome game. (i.e. zombies + guns)
Hurry though, zombies are attacking and it is up to you to kill them all. Don't let us all down by doing other less important things like "work" or "studying", they are zombies and if you don't kill them who will? Save us!
Taylor Mali - What Teachers Make
K-Staters have been getting some good face time on YouTube and Digg lately. Last time it was The Machine is Us/ing Us, this time the internets are abuzz with world famous (actually world famous, not the lame "World Famous" that restaurants put on their most overpriced meal) slam poet Taylor Mali.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Coke Caramel Corn
This morning when I was mostly asleep I had an idea. I was asleep so it kind of was a weird idea, but I was still awake enough to keep focused on the idea and work it out. My idea was to boil Coke down and then use the syrup to make caramel corn. I dreamed/pondered it for a while and then when I woke I dismissed it as just crazy talk.
Unfortunately my brain wouldn't stop thinking about it, so after being up for an hour or so I gave in and gave it a whirl. This is what I did:
I took 2 cups of Coke and dissolved 1/4 of brown sugar in it (I didn't know if the corn syrup in the Coke would allow for the boiled down liquid to get hard when it cooled, so I needed to add crystal sugar to be sure, and yes, I thought of adding this while still sleeping). I boiled this mixture down for a good long while, probably twenty minutes in total.
During this time I microwaved some "home style" popcorn. Home style popcorn has salt on butter on it, I wasn't thrilled about the butter part, but that is all i had, so that is what I used. After the Coke mixture got foamy for a minute or so I took it off the heat and added the popcorn (actually I had to do this in two batches because the skillet was to small.) I dished out the coated popcorn into bowls, and viola! Caramel Coke Popcorn.
I think the biggest surprise is that the popcorn actually tasted good. It was alot like normal caramel corn after it cooled, but it was still a bit sticky. There was much more flavor in the caramel, but I don't really think it tasted like Coke. I guess I would call this a successfully dreamt recipe, but then again probably any recipe that doesn't kill you that was invented while sleeping is a win overall.
Unfortunately my brain wouldn't stop thinking about it, so after being up for an hour or so I gave in and gave it a whirl. This is what I did:
I took 2 cups of Coke and dissolved 1/4 of brown sugar in it (I didn't know if the corn syrup in the Coke would allow for the boiled down liquid to get hard when it cooled, so I needed to add crystal sugar to be sure, and yes, I thought of adding this while still sleeping). I boiled this mixture down for a good long while, probably twenty minutes in total.
During this time I microwaved some "home style" popcorn. Home style popcorn has salt on butter on it, I wasn't thrilled about the butter part, but that is all i had, so that is what I used. After the Coke mixture got foamy for a minute or so I took it off the heat and added the popcorn (actually I had to do this in two batches because the skillet was to small.) I dished out the coated popcorn into bowls, and viola! Caramel Coke Popcorn.
I think the biggest surprise is that the popcorn actually tasted good. It was alot like normal caramel corn after it cooled, but it was still a bit sticky. There was much more flavor in the caramel, but I don't really think it tasted like Coke. I guess I would call this a successfully dreamt recipe, but then again probably any recipe that doesn't kill you that was invented while sleeping is a win overall.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
My New Favorite Blog Round Three Pairings
Here are the brackets after two rounds:
The upper bracket:
The second chance bracket:
The brackets overall:
The parings for the thrid round are only for the second chance bracket (the upper bracket gets a round off):
33. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Sara With No H
34. "Brevity is... wit." vs. A Gentleman's C
35. Leisure Pursuit vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
36. Jeremy Freese's Weblog vs. Legally Blonde
37. Sniper Kitty vs. Gimchi
38. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated. vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
39. Shrinkykitten vs. Phantom Scribbler
40. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Everybody Knows
The upper bracket:
The second chance bracket:
The brackets overall:
The parings for the thrid round are only for the second chance bracket (the upper bracket gets a round off):
33. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Sara With No H
34. "Brevity is... wit." vs. A Gentleman's C
35. Leisure Pursuit vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
36. Jeremy Freese's Weblog vs. Legally Blonde
37. Sniper Kitty vs. Gimchi
38. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated. vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
39. Shrinkykitten vs. Phantom Scribbler
40. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Everybody Knows
My New Favorite Blog, Round 2 - Upper Bracket.
Here are the results from the upper bracket. Again the decisions were hard to make at times.
17. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Scrivenings
Ananika (Virtual Gypsy) Had a couple of online test results up, showering her to be a good friend. But Scrivenings had a very good post about the philosophy of quitting his dissertation, and in the end he decided that he doesn't really need the dissertation unless it is to fulfill something personally. So he quits, and it seems like he might have lead others to quit the "cult of masters school" too.
Winner: Scrivenings
18. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Shrinkykitten
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) discusses the absurdity of some laws being passed, or i guess more specifically the absurdity of how some laws are translated to convict seemingly innocent (or even helpful) people. Shrinkykitten talks about her job hunt and how to approach an interview as a white person when she will be the superior over non-whites. It is an interesting angle on trying to get hired.
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux
19. Just Thoughts vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Just Thoughts puts her efforts into rubber ducky navigation systems and being called burping at a baby shower. It is a brilliant tactic as it prevents I Think from posting at all.
Winner: Just Thoughts
20. Sniper Kitty vs. Adventures in Kicking People
Kat (Sniper Kitty) has decided that he just needs to learn to be loved and observes that cats are freaks. Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) painted a fairly good picture and participates in the old ritual of TVNIGHT, which must be spelt (<--- is that a word?) in all uppercase letters.
Winner: Adventures in Kicking People
21. Jiggscasey.com vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
Jiggscasey brings up a question from CNN asking if "hip hop has gone too far in degrading women." He thinks that in the past the amount of woman degradation in hip hop was at the correct level. Jeremy however is relying the support for his quest to lose 15 pounds, however I decided to root for the underdog in this battle, Twix bar, which I am sure is not a well liked stance in some parts of the world. But somebody has to do it.
Winner: Jiggscasey.com
22. Leisure Pursuit vs. Writing as jo(e)
Valerie (Leisure Pursuit) posted about American Idol, Grey's Anatomy and the after life. All of which I have little knowledge of. Jo(e) posted about how she actually likes to clean up messy rooms and how more snow does not necessarily mean that global warming is a myth.
Winner: Writing as jo(e)
23. What the Duck? vs. "Brevity is... wit."
Madge (What the Duck?) has discovered that her Master's degree was sent to the wrong address and now she will not get it for three more months. Neel (Brevity) discusses a movie that I have not heard of before about abolishing slave trade in England back in the day, and also has a long post about the state of the college basketball tournament that is getting set to go here pretty soon.
Winner: What the Duck?
24. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Just Keep Swimming
Psyc Girl doesn't know why but she is sad. Heather (Keep Swimming) also talks about Grey's Anatomy, but steals the show with a picture of some lady that has been tanning way way way to long. It is gross.
Winner: Just Keep Swimming
17. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Scrivenings
Ananika (Virtual Gypsy) Had a couple of online test results up, showering her to be a good friend. But Scrivenings had a very good post about the philosophy of quitting his dissertation, and in the end he decided that he doesn't really need the dissertation unless it is to fulfill something personally. So he quits, and it seems like he might have lead others to quit the "cult of masters school" too.
Winner: Scrivenings
18. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Shrinkykitten
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) discusses the absurdity of some laws being passed, or i guess more specifically the absurdity of how some laws are translated to convict seemingly innocent (or even helpful) people. Shrinkykitten talks about her job hunt and how to approach an interview as a white person when she will be the superior over non-whites. It is an interesting angle on trying to get hired.
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux
19. Just Thoughts vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Just Thoughts puts her efforts into rubber ducky navigation systems and being called burping at a baby shower. It is a brilliant tactic as it prevents I Think from posting at all.
Winner: Just Thoughts
20. Sniper Kitty vs. Adventures in Kicking People
Kat (Sniper Kitty) has decided that he just needs to learn to be loved and observes that cats are freaks. Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) painted a fairly good picture and participates in the old ritual of TVNIGHT, which must be spelt (<--- is that a word?) in all uppercase letters.
Winner: Adventures in Kicking People
21. Jiggscasey.com vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
Jiggscasey brings up a question from CNN asking if "hip hop has gone too far in degrading women." He thinks that in the past the amount of woman degradation in hip hop was at the correct level. Jeremy however is relying the support for his quest to lose 15 pounds, however I decided to root for the underdog in this battle, Twix bar, which I am sure is not a well liked stance in some parts of the world. But somebody has to do it.
Winner: Jiggscasey.com
22. Leisure Pursuit vs. Writing as jo(e)
Valerie (Leisure Pursuit) posted about American Idol, Grey's Anatomy and the after life. All of which I have little knowledge of. Jo(e) posted about how she actually likes to clean up messy rooms and how more snow does not necessarily mean that global warming is a myth.
Winner: Writing as jo(e)
23. What the Duck? vs. "Brevity is... wit."
Madge (What the Duck?) has discovered that her Master's degree was sent to the wrong address and now she will not get it for three more months. Neel (Brevity) discusses a movie that I have not heard of before about abolishing slave trade in England back in the day, and also has a long post about the state of the college basketball tournament that is getting set to go here pretty soon.
Winner: What the Duck?
24. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Just Keep Swimming
Psyc Girl doesn't know why but she is sad. Heather (Keep Swimming) also talks about Grey's Anatomy, but steals the show with a picture of some lady that has been tanning way way way to long. It is gross.
Winner: Just Keep Swimming
Friday, February 23, 2007
My New Favorite Blog, Round 2, Second Chance Bracket
I will go with the second chance bracket first. And this just gets tougher and tougher, the hard part this time is having to kick some blogs all the way out of the competition... Hard decisions.
25. Sara With No H vs. Crabcake's Cowpie Field
Sara explained how she got special permission to photograph some art as long as she didn't use a flash, and then proceeded to not turn off the flash when taking the picture. Crabby (Crabcake's Cowpie) put together a very nice post about some of the people that she has met on the internet and what they mean to her. Unfortunately, breaking agreements right after making them is too funny to pass up.
Winner:Sara With No H
26. A Gentleman's C vs. O.Kay.
Angry Professor (A Gentleman's C) posed a note from a student where the student was mad that the class taught by Angry Professor is about boring things instead of interesting things. The Angry Prof. replies back that it is just the way the class is. Meanwhile Kay is having trouble with her knees, I have narrowed the problem down to the part where she can push her kneecaps around to any position that she wants. Yeah that is weird.
Winner: A Gentleman's C
27. Whole Lotta Trouble vs. As told to (your name here)
Callie (Whole Lotta Trouble) describes her awesome morning where she watches the Buffy Musical, and then sings all the songs on her way to work. She then proceeds to crush Tinyhands (As told to) because that blog had no new posts.
Winner: Whole Lotta Trouble
28. Legally Blonde vs. Scared Bunny
Elle (Legally Blonde) had two good posts the first is the eight commandments of dating her, which listed nine rules. Geez, girls -you give them 8 rules and they make nine ^_^. The other good post was that she got a note that seems to indicate that a room in the library had been turned into a sex room for anyone who wants to check out the key. No, it really does sound like that, go check her blog out. Scared Bunny fires back that he has been able to keep neutral in the "great coffee war" that is going on over at his office. But, seriously a sex room?
Winner: Legally Blonde
29. Accident Prone vs. Gimchi
Mariam (Accident Prone) is ecstatic that the temperatures have broken the 40 degree mark, up from below zero. (As am I) However Kimberlina (Gimchi) makes a good point with her video of a person solving a Rubric's cube with his nose. (You have to just go and check it out.) Her point being that... well there wasn't a point, but it was strange.
Winner: Gimchi
30. Conglomerate vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
Obviously I have not had the schooling that Conglomerate has had. Because I could not even understand the stock options trade talk enough to even leave a comment. Nina (The Other Side) on the other hand has a topic that I am all to familiar with: wanting to move, but not really wanting to move.
Winner: The Other Side of the Ocean
31. Phantom Scribbler vs. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead
Mama (Phantom Scribbler) posted a very impressive list of everything that her kids will eat, which leads me to believe that she eats almost the same thing every day. In other news Redhead turned 25 and could eat mashed potatoes for the rest of her life if she had to. (I couldn't)
Winner: Phantom Scribbler
32. Everybody Knows vs. Ph.d. Ladybug
Everybody Knows continues on the theme of only being able to eat a few things and lists out everything that has had a food recall lately. She decides that only bread and filtered water are safe anymore. I argue that slushies still haven't killed me, yet. And while I am waisting my time finding my new favorite blog Ph.d. Ladybug goes out and gets published. Sheesh, I could get published too if tired. (Not really. That is a really big accomplishment.) Ph.d. Ladybug doesn't need me anymore.
Winner: Everybody Knows
Stay tuned for the upper bracket.
25. Sara With No H vs. Crabcake's Cowpie Field
Sara explained how she got special permission to photograph some art as long as she didn't use a flash, and then proceeded to not turn off the flash when taking the picture. Crabby (Crabcake's Cowpie) put together a very nice post about some of the people that she has met on the internet and what they mean to her. Unfortunately, breaking agreements right after making them is too funny to pass up.
Winner:Sara With No H
26. A Gentleman's C vs. O.Kay.
Angry Professor (A Gentleman's C) posed a note from a student where the student was mad that the class taught by Angry Professor is about boring things instead of interesting things. The Angry Prof. replies back that it is just the way the class is. Meanwhile Kay is having trouble with her knees, I have narrowed the problem down to the part where she can push her kneecaps around to any position that she wants. Yeah that is weird.
Winner: A Gentleman's C
27. Whole Lotta Trouble vs. As told to (your name here)
Callie (Whole Lotta Trouble) describes her awesome morning where she watches the Buffy Musical, and then sings all the songs on her way to work. She then proceeds to crush Tinyhands (As told to) because that blog had no new posts.
Winner: Whole Lotta Trouble
28. Legally Blonde vs. Scared Bunny
Elle (Legally Blonde) had two good posts the first is the eight commandments of dating her, which listed nine rules. Geez, girls -you give them 8 rules and they make nine ^_^. The other good post was that she got a note that seems to indicate that a room in the library had been turned into a sex room for anyone who wants to check out the key. No, it really does sound like that, go check her blog out. Scared Bunny fires back that he has been able to keep neutral in the "great coffee war" that is going on over at his office. But, seriously a sex room?
Winner: Legally Blonde
29. Accident Prone vs. Gimchi
Mariam (Accident Prone) is ecstatic that the temperatures have broken the 40 degree mark, up from below zero. (As am I) However Kimberlina (Gimchi) makes a good point with her video of a person solving a Rubric's cube with his nose. (You have to just go and check it out.) Her point being that... well there wasn't a point, but it was strange.
Winner: Gimchi
30. Conglomerate vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
Obviously I have not had the schooling that Conglomerate has had. Because I could not even understand the stock options trade talk enough to even leave a comment. Nina (The Other Side) on the other hand has a topic that I am all to familiar with: wanting to move, but not really wanting to move.
Winner: The Other Side of the Ocean
31. Phantom Scribbler vs. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead
Mama (Phantom Scribbler) posted a very impressive list of everything that her kids will eat, which leads me to believe that she eats almost the same thing every day. In other news Redhead turned 25 and could eat mashed potatoes for the rest of her life if she had to. (I couldn't)
Winner: Phantom Scribbler
32. Everybody Knows vs. Ph.d. Ladybug
Everybody Knows continues on the theme of only being able to eat a few things and lists out everything that has had a food recall lately. She decides that only bread and filtered water are safe anymore. I argue that slushies still haven't killed me, yet. And while I am waisting my time finding my new favorite blog Ph.d. Ladybug goes out and gets published. Sheesh, I could get published too if tired. (Not really. That is a really big accomplishment.) Ph.d. Ladybug doesn't need me anymore.
Winner: Everybody Knows
Stay tuned for the upper bracket.
My New Favorite Blog Round 2
Here are the pairings for the second round of My New Favorite Blog:
Upper Bracket:
17. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Scrivenings
18. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Shrinkykitten
19. Just Thoughts vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
20. Sniper Kitty vs. Adventures in Kicking People
21. Jiggscasey.com vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
22. Leisure Pursuit vs. Writing as jo(e)
23. What the Duck? vs. "Brevity is... wit."
24. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Just Keep Swimming
Second Chance Bracket:
25. Sara With No H vs. Crabcake's Cowpie Field
26. A Gentleman's C vs. O.Kay.
27. Whole Lotta Trouble vs. As told to (your name here)
28. Legally Blonde vs. Scared Bunny
29. Accident Prone vs. Gimchi
30. Conglomerate vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
31. Phantom Scribbler vs. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead
32. Everybody Knows vs. Ph.d. Ladybug
Look for reviews soon (I think I'll start with the lower bracket first, and then do the upper bracket.)
Upper Bracket:
17. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Scrivenings
18. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. Shrinkykitten
19. Just Thoughts vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
20. Sniper Kitty vs. Adventures in Kicking People
21. Jiggscasey.com vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
22. Leisure Pursuit vs. Writing as jo(e)
23. What the Duck? vs. "Brevity is... wit."
24. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Just Keep Swimming
Second Chance Bracket:
25. Sara With No H vs. Crabcake's Cowpie Field
26. A Gentleman's C vs. O.Kay.
27. Whole Lotta Trouble vs. As told to (your name here)
28. Legally Blonde vs. Scared Bunny
29. Accident Prone vs. Gimchi
30. Conglomerate vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
31. Phantom Scribbler vs. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead
32. Everybody Knows vs. Ph.d. Ladybug
Look for reviews soon (I think I'll start with the lower bracket first, and then do the upper bracket.)
Third Times a Charm?
Well Topkea is at it again, Landon arena has landed itself a new hockey team to start play in the 2007-08 season. The team is the Santa Fe RoadRunners from the NAHL who will be called the Topeka RoadRunners when they make the move at the end of this season. But will hockey work this time in T-town? Is the third time a charm?
Call me an optimist, but I think this team will fair much better than the two previous teams. The main reason is the owner's (Mary Lorang) expectations. Currently the Santa Fe Roadrunners are drawing around 400 people per game, most of which are there on free tickets. She says that if Topeka can double those numbers she will be happy. Historically Topeka drew around 1,000 with the USHL ScareCrows (more when they were in the CHL) and the Tarantulas brought in about 1,500 a game, so asking for 800 a game should be a reasonable request. Another plus for the team is that the owner is going to move to Topeka instead of ruling from afar like the last two team owners, hopefully the move will allow the locals to fell it is more of a permanent team. The last big difference this time around is that it is much cheaper to run a NAHL team than a CHL team. This means that an attendance of 800 per game will just about keep the team from losing money, where the CHL teams needed more than 2000 to break even. That is a big change that just may give Topeka a better shot at hockey this time around. It looks like the NAHL season starts in September, soon there will be hockey and post game "celebrations" (the Tarantulas didn't really win games) at Steak and Shake again in the land. A-boo-yeah.
Thanks Amber for the news!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Where are my retro movies?
Retro currently is the cat's meow for video game companies (you just don't appreciate how awesomely lame the phrase 'the cat's meow' is until it is in writing). Any company that had produced a video game in the 70's 80's or 90's is living it up right now because they are raking in the money from the hard work from the days of olde. Their are retro games in compilations for the major gaming systems, there are retro games inside plug-and-play controllers at Walmart, there are retro games to download on the Wii and XBox 360. Retro games are everywhere, and we are buying them. Is this a bad thing? Heck no! I want to buy Sim City for my Wii so that I can relive my days of the past. I look forward to being able to play all the games that I own and are in a box somewhere. It is fun for me and it is making Nintendo (et al.) lots of money. But that is not the point of this post. What I want to know is; where are the retro movies?This really all started when I watched Back to the Future III on TV. I forgot how much fun that movie was. It got me thinking that I wish I could go and see all three movies again in the movie theater. But why stop there, why not release the original Star Wars to the theater -I would pay full ticket price to watch them again on the big screen. And Ghostbusters too. Actually, there is a whole slew of old movies that I would pay current ticket prices to go watch again. So why is it that the movie theaters aren't capitalizing on the retro craze? Is it that there is just too many good new movies being made currently? Ummm... no... Is it that they can't physically play the movies in the theater due to technology? This might have been a reason in the past, but now that more and more theaters are moving to digital projectors I would figure an HD-DVD of the movie is all you would need to run the film in the room.
So what's up? Why no Marty McFly, Luke Skywalker, or Ecto-1 racing off to a haunting call? I will pay full price to see them, and that is something that I am not doing with the current films that are at the theater. It really is a win-win; so Carmike Cinemas give me a call, we'll do lunch.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Laser Graffiti
I am not a fan of graffiti, I'm sure most of us aren't. But laser graffiti is another matter. What they do is set up a high power projector near a building, hook it up to a computer, get a laser detector and then write whatever they want on the building with a laser. Then the projector displays what is being written. It doesn't sound all that cool, but check it out:
Dang sweet.
Learn how to to it here.
Dang sweet.
Learn how to to it here.
My New Favorite Blog Set for the second Round
This is just the upper bracket after the first round:
Here is the second chance bracket:
Here is the over all bracket so far:
I will start checking on blogs for the second round in a couple of days.
Here is the second chance bracket:
Here is the over all bracket so far:
I will start checking on blogs for the second round in a couple of days.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
My New Favorite Blog Rest of the first round.
After the first round the upper bracket looks like this.
The second chance bracket looks like this.
And over all the competion looks like this. (To be posted soon)
11. Conglomerate vs. Leisure Pursuit
Conglomerate talks of the position of Ford back in the 1919's versus the position it is in now. He refers to things in term of how the company relates to the stalk holders. I just find it interesting how similar the position Ford was in back then is where Google is now. On Valerie's blog (Leisure Pursuit) she is pleased to find that kids actually want to go into Barnes and Noble and are throwing tantrums when they can't go. In the end I found Valerie's blog to be more to my liking.
Winner: Leisure Pursuit
12. Writing as jo(e) vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
Jo(e) has a couple of nice pics up of a snow pile and huge icesicles. She also talks about how a company hires poor college students to remove snow of a dome building with a fire hose in the middle of the night with gale force winds -with no harnesses. Eeep! Nina (The Other Side) notes that she is happy that things are taking a turn for the warmer. Which thankfully it has been lately. But fire hose snow removal story wins.
Winner: Writing as jo(e)
13. Phantom Scribbler vs. What the Duck?
This one was a toughie. Mama (Phantom Scribbler) has many funny stories about her toddler, such as how she likes bananas and how she likes bread, but will not touch banana bread. My favorite quote from the blog "Dis is my friend, Belly Button." Madge (What the Duck?) posted a nice series of photos from a canoe trip, and I learned something, there are speed limit signs posts on some rivers. She also talks about how she made pizza and tried to punch the dough but misses and hurt her hand badly. Geez, this is a hard decision, but the canoe pictures turned out really good, so I'll go with Madge.
Winner: What the Duck?
14. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead vs. "Brevity is... wit."
Red talks about how she is stuck between (romantically, and completely figuratively) a current love and a past one. It is a hard decision to make, although she might have a huge problem if she was litterally caught in the middle of the two. Neel (Brevity) took the other road with his post and made up the Presidential All-Star basketball game line up in honor of President's Day. I am not a fan of basketball, but that is some funny stuff.
Winner: "Brevity is... wit."
15. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Everybody Knows
Psyc Girl had many many musings on her blog. One of which was why are so many people from Kansas visiting her blog all of a sudden. This made me smile. Kathy (Everybody Knows) told the story about a call center in India and a 'Ring of Death' in an XBOX 360. Ha ha (<--joke, check her blog.) I am going to have to go with the random thoughts of Psyc Girl though in this one.
16. Ph.d. Ladybug vs. Just Keep Swimming
Ladybug tries to throw out a show stopper with pictures of cancerous moles. Then follows it up with questions about keeping her job. It does not fool me, I can see her spots for the ladybug she truly is. Heather (Keep Swimming) though tries to bribe me (not personally) with an invite down to Long Beach, California. I have to turn it down though on an account of the state just is too pink for my tastes in the pic that she posted.
Winner: Just Keep Swimming
The second chance bracket looks like this.
And over all the competion looks like this. (To be posted soon)
11. Conglomerate vs. Leisure Pursuit
Conglomerate talks of the position of Ford back in the 1919's versus the position it is in now. He refers to things in term of how the company relates to the stalk holders. I just find it interesting how similar the position Ford was in back then is where Google is now. On Valerie's blog (Leisure Pursuit) she is pleased to find that kids actually want to go into Barnes and Noble and are throwing tantrums when they can't go. In the end I found Valerie's blog to be more to my liking.
Winner: Leisure Pursuit
12. Writing as jo(e) vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
Jo(e) has a couple of nice pics up of a snow pile and huge icesicles. She also talks about how a company hires poor college students to remove snow of a dome building with a fire hose in the middle of the night with gale force winds -with no harnesses. Eeep! Nina (The Other Side) notes that she is happy that things are taking a turn for the warmer. Which thankfully it has been lately. But fire hose snow removal story wins.
Winner: Writing as jo(e)
13. Phantom Scribbler vs. What the Duck?
This one was a toughie. Mama (Phantom Scribbler) has many funny stories about her toddler, such as how she likes bananas and how she likes bread, but will not touch banana bread. My favorite quote from the blog "Dis is my friend, Belly Button." Madge (What the Duck?) posted a nice series of photos from a canoe trip, and I learned something, there are speed limit signs posts on some rivers. She also talks about how she made pizza and tried to punch the dough but misses and hurt her hand badly. Geez, this is a hard decision, but the canoe pictures turned out really good, so I'll go with Madge.
Winner: What the Duck?
14. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead vs. "Brevity is... wit."
Red talks about how she is stuck between (romantically, and completely figuratively) a current love and a past one. It is a hard decision to make, although she might have a huge problem if she was litterally caught in the middle of the two. Neel (Brevity) took the other road with his post and made up the Presidential All-Star basketball game line up in honor of President's Day. I am not a fan of basketball, but that is some funny stuff.
Winner: "Brevity is... wit."
15. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Everybody Knows
Psyc Girl had many many musings on her blog. One of which was why are so many people from Kansas visiting her blog all of a sudden. This made me smile. Kathy (Everybody Knows) told the story about a call center in India and a 'Ring of Death' in an XBOX 360. Ha ha (<--joke, check her blog.) I am going to have to go with the random thoughts of Psyc Girl though in this one.
16. Ph.d. Ladybug vs. Just Keep Swimming
Ladybug tries to throw out a show stopper with pictures of cancerous moles. Then follows it up with questions about keeping her job. It does not fool me, I can see her spots for the ladybug she truly is. Heather (Keep Swimming) though tries to bribe me (not personally) with an invite down to Long Beach, California. I have to turn it down though on an account of the state just is too pink for my tastes in the pic that she posted.
Winner: Just Keep Swimming
My New Favorite Blog Pairings 7-10
Here are four more pairings from the first round. (The last for today)
7. Legally Blonde vs. Sniper Kitty
In a very very close fight Elle (Legally Blonde) brings up a good point about 9 minute snooze buttons on her blog. But Kat (Sniper Kitty) has a wonderful post about different kinds of Barbies that need to be made, it is very funny. This is the closest battle of the day, and I'm going to have to give it to Kat for the shear effort that went into the post. But watch for Elle to battle her way through the second chance brackets and get a shot at being My New Favorite Blog.
Winner:Sniper Kitty
8. Adventures in Kicking People vs. Scared Bunny
In a sleeper pairing Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) posts that the internet is out. while Scared Bunny has no update. Sleep Goblin wins for saying whats up.
Winner:Adventures in Kicking People
9. Jiggscasey.com vs. Accident Prone
Here is a problem. On one hand we have fun on the other we have serious talk, how do I choose which one is better? Let's see what the topics are: Jiggcasey posted a video where he and a couple of people smash pennies, limes and marshmallows. It is, as he puts it, an explosion of fun. Meanwhile Mariam (Accident Prone) has a thought provoking post about the necessity of Jessica's Law in all states (check her blog our for more details). It is a tough choice but I have to go with smashy.
Winner:Jiggscasey.com
10. Gimchi vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
The last pairing for the day is easy, Kimberlina (Gimchi) did not update, while Jeremy introduced me to the word Googlestalking.
Winner: Jeremy Freese's Weblog
7. Legally Blonde vs. Sniper Kitty
In a very very close fight Elle (Legally Blonde) brings up a good point about 9 minute snooze buttons on her blog. But Kat (Sniper Kitty) has a wonderful post about different kinds of Barbies that need to be made, it is very funny. This is the closest battle of the day, and I'm going to have to give it to Kat for the shear effort that went into the post. But watch for Elle to battle her way through the second chance brackets and get a shot at being My New Favorite Blog.
Winner:Sniper Kitty
8. Adventures in Kicking People vs. Scared Bunny
In a sleeper pairing Sleep Goblin (Kicking People) posts that the internet is out. while Scared Bunny has no update. Sleep Goblin wins for saying whats up.
Winner:Adventures in Kicking People
9. Jiggscasey.com vs. Accident Prone
Here is a problem. On one hand we have fun on the other we have serious talk, how do I choose which one is better? Let's see what the topics are: Jiggcasey posted a video where he and a couple of people smash pennies, limes and marshmallows. It is, as he puts it, an explosion of fun. Meanwhile Mariam (Accident Prone) has a thought provoking post about the necessity of Jessica's Law in all states (check her blog our for more details). It is a tough choice but I have to go with smashy.
Winner:Jiggscasey.com
10. Gimchi vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
The last pairing for the day is easy, Kimberlina (Gimchi) did not update, while Jeremy introduced me to the word Googlestalking.
Winner: Jeremy Freese's Weblog
My New Favorite Blog pairings 4-6.
This set was a bit easier than the last since there was one blog that didn't get updated in each paring.
4. O.Kay. vs. Shrinkykitten
Kay didn't update her blog. While Shrinkykitten has to deal with jobs, money, and a really really big doll house from the past.
Winner: Shrinkykitten
5. Just Thoughts vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
Janelle (Just Thoughts) ponders why she didn't trade her sister for a video game, why she isn't searching for a trophy husband, and where you can find t-shirts about such matters. Callie (Whole Lotta Trouble) did not update.
Winner: Just Thoughts
6. As told to (your name here) vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Tinyhands (As told to) hand no new news. While on the I Think blog a good point is raised (ahem) about the ironic side effects of anti-balding medicine. For him it is not a tough choice, as he chooses to lose his hair and keep other things working properly.
Winner:I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Look for 3 more parings later today.
4. O.Kay. vs. Shrinkykitten
Kay didn't update her blog. While Shrinkykitten has to deal with jobs, money, and a really really big doll house from the past.
Winner: Shrinkykitten
5. Just Thoughts vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
Janelle (Just Thoughts) ponders why she didn't trade her sister for a video game, why she isn't searching for a trophy husband, and where you can find t-shirts about such matters. Callie (Whole Lotta Trouble) did not update.
Winner: Just Thoughts
6. As told to (your name here) vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Tinyhands (As told to) hand no new news. While on the I Think blog a good point is raised (ahem) about the ironic side effects of anti-balding medicine. For him it is not a tough choice, as he chooses to lose his hair and keep other things working properly.
Winner:I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
Look for 3 more parings later today.
My New Favorite Blog Pairings 1-3.
I didn't know that finding my new favorite blog would be so hard. It is hard to decide between two great blogs as to one that I like better, and it is even harder because many of the blogs that I look at are way better than mine. So it makes my choice even harder because I would probably lose right away in my own competition. But alas the games must go on, so go on I must.
I have decided to do the blog reviews in sizable chunks of a couple of parings at a time. So here are the first three parings in the first ever My New Favorite Blog contest:
1. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Sara With No H
Both of these blogs had some very good posts. Anamika (Virtual Gypsy) talked about Billy Joel and her(?) crazy family, but to get the music clips to work I had to open up the blog in IE instead of using my normal Firefox. This my just be my computer, but the Plugins wouldn't download. Sara's blog reminded me of my fear of falling into a frozen lake. For me walking on a frozen lake just isn't a good idea since it doesn't always get cold enough to freeze up a lake properly here, so I just try to avoid walking on things that I can't in the summer all together. The decision between the two blogs is a tough one, but having my officemate come into the office this morning while I had "We Didn't Start the Fire" blaring on my laptop, was awesome.
Winner: The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy
2.Crabcake's Cowpie Field vs. Scrivenings
Haint (Crabcake's) blogged about how she has had panic attacks and that she has a fear of dieing in some embarrassing place. And then people comment about her attire while she lay there. Things were going good in the blog post until she said that she is going to stop blogging so that she can focus on other things. So that's that. Scrivenings comes out with a offering of pictures, they are of his daughter(?), and they are cute. The more I look at this picture the more I smile (the chewed carrots always get me.)
Winner: Scrivenings
3. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. A Gentleman's C
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) has a problem with Amazon delivering a Far Side Calender. The problem -it will take two months to deliver it. Not only that he lives in the same state as the distribution center. Apparently Far Side Calenders can only be delivered by hand, by a monk, that walks very very slowly. Angry Professor (A Gentleman's C) unfortunately didn't update his blog recently, which is too bad because his last post was enjoyable.
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux (Sorry for the wrong link Shanshu)
So there you have it, I will get on another batch shortly. It takes about 15 minutes to do each pairing, so it looks like I will get to spend some quality time on the computer over the next couple of days (weeks, months...).
I have decided to do the blog reviews in sizable chunks of a couple of parings at a time. So here are the first three parings in the first ever My New Favorite Blog contest:
1. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Sara With No H
Both of these blogs had some very good posts. Anamika (Virtual Gypsy) talked about Billy Joel and her(?) crazy family, but to get the music clips to work I had to open up the blog in IE instead of using my normal Firefox. This my just be my computer, but the Plugins wouldn't download. Sara's blog reminded me of my fear of falling into a frozen lake. For me walking on a frozen lake just isn't a good idea since it doesn't always get cold enough to freeze up a lake properly here, so I just try to avoid walking on things that I can't in the summer all together. The decision between the two blogs is a tough one, but having my officemate come into the office this morning while I had "We Didn't Start the Fire" blaring on my laptop, was awesome.
Winner: The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy
2.Crabcake's Cowpie Field vs. Scrivenings
Haint (Crabcake's) blogged about how she has had panic attacks and that she has a fear of dieing in some embarrassing place. And then people comment about her attire while she lay there. Things were going good in the blog post until she said that she is going to stop blogging so that she can focus on other things. So that's that. Scrivenings comes out with a offering of pictures, they are of his daughter(?), and they are cute. The more I look at this picture the more I smile (the chewed carrots always get me.)
Winner: Scrivenings
3. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. A Gentleman's C
Shanshu (Dust-Slaying) has a problem with Amazon delivering a Far Side Calender. The problem -it will take two months to deliver it. Not only that he lives in the same state as the distribution center. Apparently Far Side Calenders can only be delivered by hand, by a monk, that walks very very slowly. Angry Professor (A Gentleman's C) unfortunately didn't update his blog recently, which is too bad because his last post was enjoyable.
Winner: Dust-Slaying: Redux (Sorry for the wrong link Shanshu)
So there you have it, I will get on another batch shortly. It takes about 15 minutes to do each pairing, so it looks like I will get to spend some quality time on the computer over the next couple of days (weeks, months...).
Monday, February 19, 2007
Bee Dodger
The bee has a very hard life. There are bee stingers to avoid, normal bees all over the place, and jumbo blimp bees that get in the way, all the while you have to collect coins and medic symbols. All for what? Not much, you just see how long you can live for.Now luckily for us, we aren't bees, and a simulation game about being a bee is actually a fun thing to play. I don't think you could find a more realistic simulation of a bee's life than this one so check it out.
How far can you buzz along before you are food for ants? I've got a high score of 13208.
p.s. the music in the game rocks.
I dream of Blogger
I set the alarm purposely 30 minutes before I want to get up so that I can hit the snooze button a couple of times. For me hitting snooze and then going back to sleep a few times is a really good way of getting up in the morning because I know that I will have to get up soon, but I still get to sleep some more. By the time it is actually time for me to get up I have prepared myself sufficiently for the dread that it will bring.Anyways, this series of snoozes in the morning always seem to give me weird dreams. This morning I had a dream that the Blogger announced that they were closing down. I took it to mean that they weren't allowing anyone to make new Blogger blogs, so I was disappointed by ok with the announcement. Then I heard the announcement again and realized that it meant that I wouldn't be able to post on my blog anymore, I was quite annoyed with this, but I remembered that I could learn how to use WordPress, and that would do fine. Then I realized that if Blogger closed I would lose all of my past posts. So I frantically tried to think of ways to transfer all my posts over to WordPress from Blogger. I have no idea of how to do this in real life, so in the muttle of the dream I was just completely lost and fairly mad. Then the alarm went off.
Maybe I should just get up the first time the alarm goes off.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
My New Favorite Blog
Ever since Moral Turpitude left the blogging world (well at least I lost track of her) I have been lacking on the blogs that I read. Not counting my real life friends I only check up on four other blogs. I feel that it is time to reach out and find some new blogs. Therefore I present the new competition "My New Favorite Blog". Yesterday I went around the internet and found 32 recently updated blogs. (The way I found them was by following links from the blogs that I already read.) These 32 blogs will face off in a double elimination bracket: (click on the pic to see the brackets full size)
Here are the rules: Every couple of days I will check up on the blogs and decide which of the two that are paired up that I like better. This will be a completely subjective judgment on my part. If a blog doesn't update between the last time I checked it, it will automatically lose the round. I will not check on the blogs unless I am judging them.
The best way to do this would not be to announce it to the blogging world, but what fun is that? This way you can follow along and choose your own favorites.
Here are the first round parings:
1. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Sara With No H
2. Crabcake's Cowpie Field vs. Scrivenings
3. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. A Gentleman's C
4. O.Kay. vs. Shrinkykitten
5. Just Thoughts vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
6. As told to (your name here) vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
7. Legally Blonde vs. Sniper Kitty
8. Adventures in Kicking People vs. Scared Bunny
9. Jiggscasey.com vs. Accident Prone
10. Gimchi vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
11. Conglomerate vs. Leisure Pursuit
12. Writing as jo(e) vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
13. Phantom Scribbler vs. What the Duck?
14. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead vs. "Brevity is... wit."
15. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Everybody Knows
16. Ph.d. Ladybug vs. Just Keep Swimming
Let the games begin (in a couple of days...)
Here are the rules: Every couple of days I will check up on the blogs and decide which of the two that are paired up that I like better. This will be a completely subjective judgment on my part. If a blog doesn't update between the last time I checked it, it will automatically lose the round. I will not check on the blogs unless I am judging them.
The best way to do this would not be to announce it to the blogging world, but what fun is that? This way you can follow along and choose your own favorites.
Here are the first round parings:
1. The Lost Scribblings Of A Virtual Gypsy vs. Sara With No H
2. Crabcake's Cowpie Field vs. Scrivenings
3. Dust-Slaying: Redux vs. A Gentleman's C
4. O.Kay. vs. Shrinkykitten
5. Just Thoughts vs. Whole Lotta Trouble
6. As told to (your name here) vs. I Think, Therefore I am Frustrated.
7. Legally Blonde vs. Sniper Kitty
8. Adventures in Kicking People vs. Scared Bunny
9. Jiggscasey.com vs. Accident Prone
10. Gimchi vs. Jeremy Freese's Weblog
11. Conglomerate vs. Leisure Pursuit
12. Writing as jo(e) vs. The Other Side of the Ocean
13. Phantom Scribbler vs. What the Duck?
14. Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead vs. "Brevity is... wit."
15. Stressful Times for Psyc Girl vs. Everybody Knows
16. Ph.d. Ladybug vs. Just Keep Swimming
Let the games begin (in a couple of days...)
Friday, February 16, 2007
Tower of Moai
This game takes a minute to load, so you best get on that now. Tower of Moai is a sequel of sorts to the fun game Nest of Moai. This time around you are trying to get the faces off the top of a tower via a randomly moving ladder. Where ever you point with the mouse the heard of Moais go, but be careful, if you get too many on one edge of the tower the tower will tip and the Moai will fall off. The game is broken into three rounds, the first two rounds seem to be the same, while the third round has a special magic dust thing that makes the heads grow.My high score for the day is 1562, which by the way, is calculated from the heads that you rescue and is not the actual number that I saved.
Neon
The second game in my Friday game trifecta is Neon. This is a shooting type game that almost reminds me of asteroids. I usually don't like this kind of game but i think the combinations of power-ups and the right level of craziness makes this one a keeper. Just a note though; kill the blue plus things as fast a possible, they are evil.When I found this game a couple of days ago I rocked it hard, but I didn't write down my high score, the best I can do right now is 27,140. I think if you put some good effort into your time wasting you could easily beat that score. Be on the look out for the last game in my game trifecta later on today. Rock, rock on.
SpeedCluster
For all of your time wasting needs I present to you SpeedCluster. In Speed Cluster you have a hand that you play on falling cards, you may build the stack up and down using numbers and face cards, like in a standard deck of playing cards. The larger the stack gets by the time it leaves the screen the more points you get. The game starts out slow but before you know it you will be trying to just get some stacks made. This game is quite fun and very addictive. Give it a shot.I plan to post two more games today, so be sure to come back, but if you can't wait to play more games I have added a link to all of the games that I have posted about, just click the first link in the right sidebar. Enjoy.
p.s. My high score (i.e. Get C.P. at the end of the game) is 1934, and that was on my first try. I have only got close to that once since then. What scores are you getting?
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Hereford House - Independence, MO
I have been putting off this post for awhile now, but I really need to do it so that I can get on to better things (such as three new games -exciting I know). But I have never felt this way about a restaurant before.
I hate the Hereford House.
Sure there are restaurants that I don't like, but in general I will give them a pass as long as they try. But the Hereford House is different, the dining experience was just plain terrible, and they flaunted it.
We went there on the way back from hockey in St. Louis. I had seen the buildings many-a-times before, and I had wanted to eat there, but it just never worked out. Well this time a remembered before we left St. Louis that it was there, so we made arrangements to eat there on the way through.
At first it seemed like a nice place to eat, it was cowboy-y and had a large fire place, it was nice but nothing spectacular (It was in partial disrepair, there was a horn missing from a piece of art, and a bench on the way in had a thick coating of drywall dust and nails on it, but nothing too bad). Then came the menu. We got there around 3pm so it was too late for lunch, but they did have a small early dinner menu. I looked through everything and, holy crap, nothing was cheaper than $20! Ok, ok there were a few things, but really nothing much.
After a minute the server came to take our drinks. After seeing the prices on the menu and noting that they had Pepsi I ordered a water to drink. And she almost sneered at me for getting a water, as if to say "How dare you just get water?". I have never seen anything like that.
We got calamari for an appetiser, it was fine, not too bad, and was a reasonable $8. For dinner I got a burger (for $9.50 it was one the three items for the early dinner menu) I could choose three toppings for my burger, and after the server listed the options off I got bacon, blue cheese, and mushrooms. Ok. No wait, not ok, I couldn't get both bacon and mushrooms, apparently if you charge $35 for a steak, you can't have too fancy of a burger for $9.50. I told her just mushrooms then. When I got my burger it had both bacon and mushrooms on it, so maybe they had a change of heart. I ate it and it was ok, I've had alot better before, it was as good as any $9 burger. Also Nicole got a quesadilla that was decent for $9. The real problem comes in with the rest of the food.
Jenette got a $12(?) salad, it was a turkey BLT salad or something like that. Anyways it sounded good, but when she got it we were very disappointed. It was just a cobb salad with turkey lunch meat on top. The lettuce was yellow iceberg and the other veggies were ok quality at best. The salad should have cost $6 at most, Chili's makes a better salad, and i don't like Chili's salads.
Nicole's sister Jayme got grilled chicken for around $16. The dinner composed of two breasts of grilled chicken and a side (and a marginal dinner salad before hand.) The chicken was not flavored, and there was nothing to warrant a $16 price tag. Jayme ate about half of the chicken.
Finally Nicole's mom was the only one brave enough to try the $20+ steak. I believe that she got a Flat Iron steak with au gratin potatoes on the side (around $22). Her bold choice landed her right on the bottom of the pile in terms of taste. The potatoes were over flavored and the steak (which had a rosemary rub and a butter garlic cause) flat out tasted bad. She did not even finish her steak which would not had been a hard feat to accomplish considering that it was 8oz.
In short: The Hereford House is one of the worst places that I have eaten at. They do not have good food and the prices are outrageous. Expect to pay $50-60 for two people and even then you will wish that you went next door to On the Border. I can not recommend anyone going to this restaurant.
(I know from my description above it just doesn't seem that bad, but there were just so many little things that I didn't list here. You have to trust me on this one; skip the Hereford House.)
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Ray's Apple Market
We stopped on by the newly remodeled Ray's Apple Market this afternoon to pick up some groceries. Unfortunately the free milk this was the high point of the shopping trip. Even though the store is not Food 4 Less anymore and it looks many times better than it used to, it still feels the same. Which is too bad, I was hoping that it could at least one-up Dillions and Walmart, it wouldn't be that hard...
Star Wars Trilogy in 15 Seconds
Do you feel left out of conversations because you have never watched the original Star Wars Trilogy? Well you can now be part of the conversation after watching each movie in an easy five second summarization.
Star Wars: A New Hope (in 5 seconds)
The Empire Strikes Back (in 5 seconds)
Return of the Jedi (in 5 seconds)
And now you know.
Star Wars: A New Hope (in 5 seconds)
The Empire Strikes Back (in 5 seconds)
Return of the Jedi (in 5 seconds)
And now you know.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Woot!
Yesterday I received a package, it was from Woot! My bag of crap had arrived. Now let me tell you a story for those of you that are uninformed on the ways of woot, and why a bag of crap is something to be excited about. Woot.com is a website that sells one product a day, the quantities are limited so they go fast if the deal is good. On certain days Woot has a wootoff where they place another item for sale after the previous one is sold out. This goes on for a day or two. During this time there are many people hitting F5 on their keys boards hoping to get lucky. Lucky for what? Well, sometimes Woot places a bag of crap up to sell, they cost $1 and the supplies are very limited. In this bag of crap you get a random assortment of thing that were lying around the Woot warehouses, but in a few special bags they place very valuable items, sometime even HDTVs.Well a couple days ago I noticed that Woot was having a wootoff. So I kept taps on it throughout the day. When I was in Help Lab I hit refresh and lo-and-behold a Random bag of Crap appeared for sale, I had even forgot that woot did that, and I delayed for a second, but then I remembered how rare they were and quickly bought 3 (the max a person can buy). So including $5 shipping I had my $8 Bags of Craps shipped out.
Yesterday the UPS man delivered my 'bags' of crap, but it is more like a box of crap.
The first thing I pulled out was a gel pen, it looked like it had been in somebody's desk, but it worked fine, so that is one useful thing.
The next thing we got was the obligatory camera bag (woot almost always includes a camera bag in their bags of crap.) It is a good bag, but I don't really know what I am going to do with it, I don't really have a need for a camera bag.
After the camera bag I pulled out a "priority puck" which is just a small paper organizer. From what I can tell it was new, and Nicole has placed some recipes and bills it in, so I guess that makes another useful item.
Our big item turned out to be a Virgin portable CD player. The first thing to notice is the wonderful packaging job that they did with this thing. It was wrapped many times in clear tape. This gave me reason to doubt the working order of the CD player. After doing minor surgery I was able to free the player of it's sticky prison and also drag out it's headphones. When we put batteries into the player I was pleased to find that it worked, and the headphones worked too, although they probably will not get much use since I don't like the idea of sticking something in my ear that might have been in someone else's. (Examining the bottom of the CD box I found that this item had been returned to Target at some point, so the chances that someone else's ear goo is on the headphones is fairly high). So is the CD player useful? Yes it is. Recently I had gone to Walmart to buy one for the car but they were all to expensive, so this $1 CD player will fit just nicely into my acceptable price range. A-boo-yeah!
Finally as a was picking up the many sheets of bubble wrap that they placed in the box another gel pen fell out.
Tghe gel pen worked so I got yet another useful item. In total for $8 I got two gel pens, a camera bag, a paper holder, and a portable CD Player. I would call that a very good bag of crap.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Obama Is Not Black?
See for yourself:
A person on Digg brought up a good point; If Obama isn't black, then if Colbert isn't a descendent of slave owners, would that mean that he's not white?
A person on Digg brought up a good point; If Obama isn't black, then if Colbert isn't a descendent of slave owners, would that mean that he's not white?
Friday, February 09, 2007
Friday Survival Guide
You can see the light at the end of the tunnel, that's right, it's Friday. Now you just have to make it through the day so that you can get home an live it up. I am here to help you through your day. The three pillars of Friday are; Live Through Friday, Enjoy Friday, and Waste Time Like it is Saturday.
First you just need to live through Friday. Be it a wild animal on the loose, of a pesky boss who wants you to come in on Saturday, you need to learn how to protect yourself if you want to live through Friday. A weapon that any Friday Survivor needs to learn to make is a Chap Stick rocket:
Lip Balm Secret Missile!! - video powered by Metacafe
Ok now that you can protect yourself against packs of roving "ne'er do gooders" we can move on to Enjoying Friday. I know the bast way to enjoy Friday. It involves bad drivers and videos:
Ok now that you are enjoying Friday let's move on. The last step to surviving Friday is to waste time like it is Saturday. What is the best way to waste time? Why by playing Bubble Island of course. All you do in try to make stacks of four bubbles, pressing the space bar drops the bubbles, and pressing space bar again while in the air flips the bubbles.
Congratulations! You are well on your way to Surviving Friday. Keep the three rules in mind and live by them, it will save your life someday... maybe.
First you just need to live through Friday. Be it a wild animal on the loose, of a pesky boss who wants you to come in on Saturday, you need to learn how to protect yourself if you want to live through Friday. A weapon that any Friday Survivor needs to learn to make is a Chap Stick rocket:
Lip Balm Secret Missile!! - video powered by Metacafe
Ok now that you can protect yourself against packs of roving "ne'er do gooders" we can move on to Enjoying Friday. I know the bast way to enjoy Friday. It involves bad drivers and videos:
Ok now that you are enjoying Friday let's move on. The last step to surviving Friday is to waste time like it is Saturday. What is the best way to waste time? Why by playing Bubble Island of course. All you do in try to make stacks of four bubbles, pressing the space bar drops the bubbles, and pressing space bar again while in the air flips the bubbles.
Congratulations! You are well on your way to Surviving Friday. Keep the three rules in mind and live by them, it will save your life someday... maybe.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
It is a good video, but the bonus is that it is done by a professor at K-State. And I found it on Digg.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Houlihan's in Manhattan
Our third new restaurant to open recently in Manhattan, Kansas (66502) is Houlihan's. The old Ramada motel that is across from campus was renovated and changed to a Holiday Inn. The Gold Fork restaurant that was attached to the Ramada was remodeled and re-opened as a Houlihan's. You may ask if this a good move. Well I respond; Does baby Jesus have rays of Glory?When they remodeled the Gold Fork building they did a great job. Unlike Lemmy's Pizzaria (as they like to spell it) Houlihan's does not look anything like it's previous tenant. It is actually really hard to imagine the Gold Fork interior while inside. The decor is modern and red, with plenty of spot lighting to go around. It almost feels too classy for t-shirts when you go, but that doesn't stop me.
First off we need to discuss the drinks. Houlihan's has Coke, which as you know is a big plus. But I will give you some advice, don't waste your drink selection on just getting Coke. The Han's has a wide selection of flavored iced teas that are very tasty and very good quality. For 25 cents more than a soda (Around $2.50 for a soda) they are worth it. For 10 cents more than the teas you can get a flavored lemonade. I actually did not like the strawberry lemonade as much as I do Applebee's so I would suggest the teas as the drink of choice. (If you drink alcohol it is useful to know that Houlihan's offers a "flight" of drinks where you get three small drinks for about $6 I believe. It would be good for sampling while still getting something that you know you would like. I don't drink but I commend them on a very good idea.)
We ordered the lettuce wraps for an appetizer. for $7.50 you get four lettuce shells, some crispy things, a chicken like gooey filling and a sauce. They were good, and free of bugs, something that Chili's has a hard time with in their lettuce for the wraps. But I think I actually like the wraps at Chili's better. I would have to select something different next time I go.What to get for dinner was a hard choice; on one hand everybody recommended the chicken or the pot roast, on the other hand to get that stuff it would cost around $15 or so. And since we already got an appetizer I wasn't keen on spending that much on dinner. So in the end I got the fish tacos, and Nicole got the calamari salad. (Jenette got fish tacos too, and Chris got a prosciutto pizza, which I did not try.)
I should warn you, one of may favorite foods is fish tacos from Wahoo's Fish Tacos. And apparently Wahoo's makes they tacos differently than everybody else in the world. The main difference is that Wahoo's grills their fish while everyone else batters and fries theirs. Houlihan's is no exception. Fortunately somebody in the kitchen knows how to make things taste good though because the fish tacos were very good, not as good as Wahoo's, but by far the best battered fish tacos I have ever had. The rest of the taco fillings were lettuce, pico de gilo, cabbage, a tangy sauce, and a lime wedge on the side. Did I say that it was tasty? For a side I had a choice of chips and salsa, fries, or coleslaw. And naturally since I don't really like coleslaw that is what I chose. (I really like everything that goes into coleslaw, but it never tastes good to me. I have been trying it lately just to be sure that I don't like it. And yup, it is something that I just don't like.) Jenette got chips and salsa, which consisted of a fair amount of chip on the plate and an above average salsa. But I think next time I will go with the fries. The tacos cost around $9
Nicole's calamari salad was chosen because of it's use of a very unique salad ingredient; bananas. The salad consisted of a bed of cabbage and carrots with peanuts, dried bananas, fresh bananas, and a very tasty dressing, topped with alot of calamari. There was wasabi dressing on the side as well as a cup of strangely good, but hot, red dipping sauce. I am not really a fan of bananas but this salad was very good. there was just the right amount of bananas that you would get one every other bite, which meant that you were reminded of the flavor with out it being overpowering. If you like to try new things this salad is for you. I believe the salad cost around $9.Something that we always talk about when we go out to eat is whether to get a dessert, but it never happens. Well Houlihan's has found a way to make it happen -they have 6 desserts priced at $2. It is very tricky because at that price you almost fell like you are wasting money to not take up the offer. And we really don't like wasting money so we decided to try the smores envelope. This desert is severed in two parts, one is an envelope of sorts that has melted chocolate and marshmallows in it, the other is a cup of strawberries and sugar coated graham crackers (sugar overkill). It is a fun idea and the graham crackers dipped in the chocolate tastes just like smores, but it was just way too much sugar for me. On the other hand the strawberries with the melted chocolate and marshmallow goo was very awesome, and alone worth the $2. Next time I might just ask for extra strawberries and forgo the graham crackers. The one desert was actually more than enough for all four of us, by then we were very stuffed.
In short: Houlihan's is a keeper. It may cost $5 more bucks for two people to eat at than Chili's or Applebee's but it is worth it. They care about the food and it shows. The service was great, the restaurant looked good, and the food is a step above what everyone else is doing in Manhattan. You really need to check this place out.
My reviews about the other two new places in Manhattan are here: Lemmy's and La Fiesta. And please leave me a comment about what you think about Houlihan's.
Monday, February 05, 2007
This Just In!
I have just noticed that my nose was not applied to my face properly, it is actually on a bit crooked. The top is closer to my right eye and to slants to the left. I don't know why I noticed it today, but I am sure this revelation will shake all my previously held beliefs in the world.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Hillary Clinton on Profits
Just in case you run a business and you want Hillary Clinton to be elected as President:
That's right, if you make too much money she wants to take your profits and make a fund to destroy your company.
Yay! A giant step towards communism!
That's right, if you make too much money she wants to take your profits and make a fund to destroy your company.
Yay! A giant step towards communism!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Meet my homie
We share a bond, a bond that only people that were a Sears POW (Prisoner of What-the- heck-is- taking-so- long) share. We talked about things, important things, like K-State basketball, and Village Inn (yeah he had a knack for choosing topics that I wouldn't talk about.) He also mentioned tests that were ran on him earlier in the day, but I felt that I did not need to ask for details. But I do not complain about his companionship. No, for he was my brother in the prison of the Sears Tire center waiting area. At first my sentence was to be 45 minutes, but they kept extending my sentence for no reason. And when I was finally free after three hours he wished me well. I hope that he was able to escape the prison at some time, but he had a much harsher sentence, he had new tires AND an alignment. I knew of many people that died in Sears prison when they are sentenced to a tire alignment. I would really appreciate it if you would have a personal five minutes of silence for his brave soul. He is more of a man than I.Godspeed Village Inn and Basketball guy, I hope you found your way home.
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