Ron Paul 2008

There has been a good amount of noise being made for the Libertarian in disguise (as a Republican) Ron Paul. He has been a spokesperson for freedom and the internet community has been listening. I really hope that his ideas are strong enough that he can win the nod from the Republicans to run for President. And if he doesn't get endorsed by the Republican Party I hope that he will run as a Libertarian. I believe that he could be the first big step towards opening up our closed party electoral system. (Ross Perot almost did it, but the party imploded too soon.)

I believe most of what the Libertarians stand for (i.e. the smaller the government the better) but I do think that there are some things that the government needs to still be around for, mainly to protect its citizens. I think that there still needs to be regulations on businesses -just not as many as we see today. And the FDA is a must. We don't need to fall back into the dark ages of medicine in the name of freedom.

I hope that Ron Paul will makes waves in the political arena and make both the Republican and the Democrats realize that first and foremost Americans want their freedoms.

Breaking News from the Waterfront

This is the funniest "not that funny" thing I have seen.

3 times a charm

I originally was going to post about a pet peeve that I have, that is on a subconscious level. But when I got to thinking about it it is actually three separate pet peeves about one subject -dice manufacturing. I don't know what it is but I am a purist when it come to how my dice look, I won't let my correctly made dice mix with the "defective." (Really, I don't keep those stupid dice with all the others, and I think I might try to subconsciously lose them too.) Anyways here are the three ways that I see dice being made that get my goat to no end:

The first 'defective' design of a die is to have a big red dot instead of a normal sized black pip. I am sure that the origins of this die comes from some game, because it seems like it is fairly common and it is done intentionally and consistently... it is not like they don't know what they are doing when they made the die. I find this type of die only mildly annoying, say a 6 out of 10, where 10 is very very annoying, on the annoying scale. I probably would still play a game with this die if it came with it, and there was no normal dice in range to grab instead.

The next annoying dice design is a little bit more subtle than the big freakin red dot, but more detrimental, all the opposite sides don't add up to seven. There is a standard convention that some inexperienced dice manufactures in China might not be aware of; if you roll two dice the number that comes up the most often will also be the total of the opposite faces on the die. For example in our friendly six sided die, when two of them are rolled 7 is the most common sum. So the opposite faces of the die should all total 7. This means that, for example, the two side and the five side can not share an edge. Once I notice that a die that I am using is made incorrectly in this fashion it is quickly banished from play and excluded from all other dice so as to not infect them. But I will still keep them around "just for emergencies." This kind of die fetches an 8 out of 10 on the annoying scale.

The dice design flaw that annoys me to no end is when the pips in the dice are not laid out correctly. There is a universal standard for the way the dots on a die should look. Do not stray from this standard! I absolutely can not play a game with a die that had it's pips laid out by some whippersnapper that thinks the dots can just be placed all willy nealy. Gah! It pisses me off. On the annoying scale this rings in at a 10. I will actively lose dice with improper pip placement, or if the die is lucky I will just throw it away to put it out of it's misery. I avoid these dice like the plague.

So why do I even bring this up? Because when Wizkids released the new "Star Wars PocketModel Trading Card Game" the box that it comes in has a picture of the contents. Notice anything about the dice?
That's right, the pips on the two side of the dice are placed incorrectly. When I noticed this I almost decided to not buy the game due to the dice that they included in the game. But luckily I still decided to buy the game (I was just going to throw the dice away), and luckily the contents shown varied from those in the box... I got two normal big red dice.

Whew, that was close.

Anti-Tags

I think it might be useful for online advertisers to develop anti-tags for all of their ads. These anti-tags would tell a certain ad not to play if it relates to a story in a certain untasteful manner.

For example: I wouldn't advertise the speed of my internet service as being so fast that it burns everything -in a story about a fire that is spreading so fast it is burning everything. I know of about 220 people that wouldn't appreciate the analogy.

Just throwing that out there.

Up up and away!

Is it a good thing when this is the pose of everybody after a disc is thrown during a game of disc golf?

A Hot Topic

Can you guess who is getting old enough to start having kids now? I'll give you some hints:

1.They wake up on the emo side of the bed every morning.

2.They like to "stand out from the crowd" by shopping at a certain store that every other kid in America shops at to "stand out from the crowd."

3.They would dress their babies in skulls and such.

A stroll(er) in the park.

Live it up now kid, pretty soon you will have to do all your own walking.

Quality Time With My Summer

Sure I should be sleeping at 3am, but I think that I should spend some good quality time with my summer. And the best way to do that is to play Super Nintendo. I beat this game in about 2 hours. Do you know what game it is?

I urge you to also spend some quality time with your summer, because before you know it Summer will be all grown up and turned into fall.

Enjoy it while you can.

Daft Punk Hands

For your daily awesome: (At least watch it past the dancing hands, to when the words in the music starts.)

Construction Winding Down

Our new disc golf obstacle, the Beach Art Museum addition, is almost complete. I bet the addition of a building makes the hole harder.

Tacos y Salsas

Before I headed back to Manhattan I ate at the newest mexican place in Garden City, Tacos y Salsas.

The place is actually a different kind of mexican restaurant, which is good because Garden, and well, most of Western Kansas, is saturated with mexican restaurants.

So here is the low down. You get free chips (home made) when you get seated, and then you get what ever salsa or other dip that you want from the salsa bar (pictured in the crooked picture.) There was a wide variety of salsas, but all of them ranged in spice from hot to even hotter. They all tasted good, but I wish there was something that wasn't so hot. I settled on guacamole which was only hot.

The name of the place doesn't lie. With your chips and salsa you get to order tacos. You have many choices, and essentially you are ordering different meat, because everyone gets a communal toppings plate and corn shells. Also you get enough meat to feed two people, so be warned if you don't like leftovers. The tacos are good and remind me of the bbqs that we had when I was in Costa Rica.

Overall this place does well to distinguish itself in a town that has more than it's fair share of mexican places. You can get a meal for two for $13-16, including drinks (the water comes in bottles, fyi) If you are in Garden give it a try.

Hoedown

After grandma's big birthday party we had an impromptu hoe down bbq. We all went to Goodwill and picked up some appropriate attire. I know, you wish you were there.

Garden Valley

...so we must smoke?

New Lake

I knew that we have been getting record rain fall in Kansas, but I didn't really know that we were getting this much rain. The Picture is from outside of Great Bend and normally there is a small river and farm land.

Now it is a three foot deep lake that stretches off as far as you can see. The only reason that you can see the edge of the water here is because I specifically took the pic at the one place where you can see a shore to give a perspective of the size of the new lake.

I wonder how long it will take for all the water to drain?

Throw down!

Get this. There was this funny looking guy that was standing next to nicole, talking all smooth, and being all swave (pictured left).
I couldn't stand for that, so I asked him nicely to move along, but he didn't get the hint. It was getting very tense and suddenly he lunged for my head. Well as you know I am a prized eater so I dodged his first punch and eat him all the way back to my apartment.

He was yummy.

Shuffle

Since I have been doing most of my posts from cellphone lately I have been skimping on the internet games part of this blog. And it seems that someone in Japan likes the games that I post. So this one is for you.

Shuffle is a very simple game where you try to knock your opponents balls (the yellow ones) out of the ring (well it is a square... but anyways ) The only way you can knock the yellow balls out is by shooting your red balls at them. You get to pick which ball, how much power and at what angle, and then you let it fly. It is surprisingly addictive. Ch-ch-check it out.

My high score so far is 39,260.

MSGed!

The variety of products that you can find at Walmart amaze me. Huge bottles of MSG, frozen Cajun pizza, Magic milk mix (cotton candy flavor, no less), just to name a few things. It is like traveling to a new country with every visit.

It is sad but I think I am starting to like Walsmart food section better than shopping at Dillon's... but that is because the Dillon's here in Manhattan suck -produce is almost always bad, and anymore half of the shelves are filled with Kroger's crappy knock-off products.

What does it take for a palya to get a Super Target or a Whole Foods around here?

McAlister's Deli

We ate at the new McAlister's Deli last night (here in Manhattan, Kansas). The best way to describe this place is Quizno's crossed with Denny's. You get sandwiches and stuff, but it is decorated country style.

Now the sandwiches are not as good as Quizno's and they aren't open all the time like Denny's, but McAllister's actually is a place I can see eating at once a month or so. They have large potatoes with a good variety or fairly good quality toppings, and they have salads (which I have not tried yet.) The prices are reasonable -it was about $16 for two people, including getting drinks. The only real complaint with the place is that it isn't open late at night (they close at 10 or so.) If they stayed open until 2 or 3 I would be a frequent customer.

So I guess in summary, I will say that McAlister's is a good place to grab a bite with prices that beat a sit down restaurant. But the food is not spectacular. It is worth checking out.

Sushi Bar: Camera on Conveyor Belt

On the internets a couple of days ago I saw a video where somebody put a camera on a sushi conveyor belt in Japan and filmed all the people as the camera passed on by. It is quite a fun video.
After watching it I thought that it would be fun to put some music to it. After messing around with Adobe Premier for a whole night (I hate that program) I got it done in Windows Movie Maker in about 15 minutes. Here it is:

Update: Charity posted this video and talks about sushi conveyor belts over on her blog (she is in Japan right now with JET.) Check it out.

Honk for Donuts!

Our Daylight Donuts is a bit ghetto.

London's 2012 Olympic Logo

If you haven't seen the logo for the 2012 Olympics you are missing out. It is quite a bold move. First I will show you some logos that aren't used, then I will show you the real one.

Ok, this one is good, but not used:
Not this one:
Here is my favorite:


Not used:

Nope:

Not this one either:

Here is the real one:

Yeah.

Squid and Bananas

Calamari atop a salad that has banana dressing. I believe that this is the best dish from Houlihan's.

It is really good.

Civ yo

Civ LAN party at Aaron's new house.

Yeah, thats right.

Clash of the Philosophies

Jenette is not pleased with Chris' form. He uses the North New England style of throw; which favors power over accuracy. Jenette, since she has had formal training, prefers the Over Lock Orleans Throw, which is considered to be a "safer" way to approach the hole.

I can not count how many times they have argued with each other about the best disc golf throw.

And frankly I am sick of it.

Glow Rope

Newgen's wedding party had a pretty good DJ and glow rope to make necklaces and bracelets out of... we made a hula hoop.

You can't use glow rope to hula hoop, it just doesn't work. (Despite what the picture says.)

Egg Rolls!

We had alot of good food at Newgen's wedding, but the best was Newgen's mom's egg rolls. You just can't beat them. Even if you have a foam bat.

Rocking Wedding

You know its a rocking wedding reception when one of the official activities is Guitar Hero. Chris has a good picture here too.

Panera fit for a groom

As per American tradition Newgen eats a pre-wedding meal at Panera and ponders life.

Settlers

After the rehearsal dinner some of us came back to the motel room to play Settlers of Catan. I just bought the game earlier today. It is a pretty fun game, but since Pickle won I doubt it takes much skill to win. :)

Fire Mountain

We had the rehearsal reception at a restaurant called Fire Mountain. Julia is really really scared/amazed by the place... something.

Given Away

Newgen gets a comforting hug during the wedding rehearsal from Andrea's mom. Sometimes Newgen's just need a big hug. You should give him one next time you see him.

He also likes it if you pat him on his head, I think.

New suit.

Well, not new, but new to me. And I don't get to keep it.

But I got to wait a long time to get the opportunity to try it on. And I do look sharp in a suit. (You'll just have to trust me on that one.)