Category Archives: Faust

Andree, Angie, Baier, Basketball, Becky, Bill, Brandon, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Jason, Jesse, Logan, Lowell, Mark, Micky, Robert, Russell, Shawn Lockner, Willy

Sadness Ensues…

April 8, 2013 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

“When I was a child,
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye,
I turned to look but it was gone,
I cannot put my finger on it now,
The child is grown,
The dream is gone,
I… have become comfortably numb”
-Pink Floyd

It is true, one of the saddest days of the year is upon us. The end of the college basketball season. While it is sad that the college version of the greatest game has ended, there are only 12 long days until Iowa State’s Spring Game. That gives me something to look forward to.

The end of college basketball also means that somebody will be crowned the newest King of the Roudnball Oracles. A person that will reign over the prognostication universe for 1 year. Their opinions held in admiration and their words written down and studied for meaning. Then 1 year from now they will be thrown out in the streets to fend for themselves in what is usually a vain attempt to defend their title. Sometimes, the thought of defending their title is too much and defending champions don’t show back up to try and repeat their glory and double their immortality.

That was the case this year. Lowell Davis didn’t return to defend his kingdom, laid down his scepter, and abdicated his thrown. Don’t think for a second that this was because of some type of cowardice on Lowell’s part. The truth is that he was in Tennessee when the brackets were filled out and he was unable to participate since electricity hasn’t been invented in the Volunteer State yet.

The man that stepped up to accept the responsibility of ruling this kingdom for a year:

William McAlpine

Mr. McAlpine joined Mark Wolfram as the only other man, woman, or child to hoist the Roundball Oracles Championship Trophy a third time. Which can mean only one thing: the rest of you need to pick up your game next year. We can’t have two people dominating this pool! Their reign of terror must be ended. Hopefully without a dull thud and a head falling into a basket.

Without further adieu, I present the final standings for the 2013 Roundball Oracles NCAA Tournament Pool:

Place	Competitor	Score	Correct	Champion	Last Year
1.	William McAlpine	266	39	Louisville	6th
2.	Jason Stensland	253	39	Louisville	8th
3.	Jesse Howard	251	40	Louisville	10th
4.	Shawn Lockner	247	39	Michigan	21st
5.	Jon DeWaard	242	38	Louisville	11th
6.	Angie DeWaard	236	36	Louisville	4th
7.	Corey Faust	234	38	Indiana	2nd
8.	Mark Wolfram	231	36	Indiana	7th
9.	Jordan Toot	218	36	Louisville	28th
10.	Robert Henning	208	36	Indiana	5th
11.	Frank Meiners	206	37	Gonzaga	DNP
11.	Logan Kahler	206	38	Kansas	DNP
13.	Sean Clubine	201	37	Miami	DNP
14.	Derrick Gorshe	200	32	Louisville	12th
15.	William Wentworth	199	36	Kansas	15th
16.	Jackson Faust	197	35	Gonzaga	14th
17.	Toby Sebring	193	34	Kansas	26th
18.	Brandon Kahler	189	34	Syracuse	27th
19.	Carrie Baier	188	34	Michigan State	20th
20.	Jen Ensley-Gorshe	178	34	Indiana	18th
21.	Elizabeth Nordeen	176	32	Iowa State	DNP
22.	Tim Peterson	174	33	Miami	16th
23.	Dawn Krause	173	33	Duke	9th
24.	Jason Baier	171	33	Miami	3rd
24.	Russell Kennerly	171	33	Indiana	22nd
26.	Michelle Haupt	170	32	Ohio State	DNP
27.	Becky Perkovich	166	32	Ohio State	29th
28.	Andree Jauhari	165	32	Kansas	DNP
29.	JJ Baier	163	30	Ohio State	DNP
29.	Nader Parsaei	163	32	UCLA	13th
31.	Michael Augustin	157	32	Indiana	19th
32.	Ben Baier	156	26	Butler	DNP
33.	Your Humble Narrator	139	28	Miami	25th
34.	Will Baier	121	14	La Salle	DNP

Willy (re)-joins the list of immortals:

Roundball Oracles Champions

2013 – William McAlpine
2012 – Lowell Davis
2011 – Carrie Baier
2010 – Mark Wolfram
2009 – Mark Wolfram
2008 – Mark Wolfram
2007 – Tim Peterson
2006 – William McAlpine
2005 – William McAlpine

I’m already excited for next years tournament. It is no secret that Iowa State is the rooting team of the grand majority of Oracles, with a few Hawkeye and Kansas fans sprinkled in to mix things up. Plus a few statistical anomalies, (like a UCLA fan) on top for garnish. I anticipate Iowa will actually join the tourney field again next year. Iowa State should have at least a fighting chance to get back to the dance as well. We lose a bunch, but some of the recruits coming in are heralded and I wouldn’t bet against Hoiberg going up against a Big 12 that I expect to be down next year. Plus don’t forget that Michigan will be getting a taste of Hilton Magic next year. 2013-14 should be another great season! Remember the name Monte Morris. I’m guessing you will know it very well next year.

Plus, Steve Alford will be choking at an entirely new school next year! What was UCLA thinking?

I guess some of you are expecting me to defend my dreadful performance in this year’s pool. I won’t. The slogan for this year’s pool was: Prophecy, Revelation, Augury, Luck? Quite frankly 32 people got lucky. I know that my silky smooth jumpshot and my vast array of dribble penetration moves don’t translate into prognostication, but next year, I guarantee you I will finish higher than 33rd. Even if that means I have to limit the pool to 32 combatants.

Angie, Baier, Basketball, Becky, Bill, Brandon, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Jason, Jen, Jesse, Lowell, Mark, Micky, Nader, Robert, Russell, Shawn Lockner, Teresa, Tim, Toby, Willy

Roundball Oracles – Year 9

March 18, 2013 Christopher D. Bennett

March Madness is upon us once again. Which means it is that time of year when I call upon all would-be-basketball-prognosticators to compete in an NCAA tourney bracket pool for the chance at everlasting glory, immortality, and a trophy.

As always, the Roundball Oracles is open to all interested parties, and yes to even uninterested parties as well. Regardless of basketball knowledge or basketball ignorance. Heck, I might even let my dog enter this year. After all, there is a tremendous amount of luck involved in this competition, so there is no reason for you to be intimidated by how well versed I am in the motion offense. You should only be intimidated by me on an actual basketball court. Even though I’ve admittedly lost a step, but I’m spending the offseason getting that step back, but that is an entirely different story…

As always, there is no entrance fee, but pride and my research indicates that pride is a low calorie snack, so swallow it and get in the game.

The champion will be given a trophy. I would normally at this time insert a picture of last year’s champion hoisting last year’s trophy, but I admittedly, still owe him a trophy.

Last year we had a record 29 prognosticators (as of this writing, 9 people have already signed up). I don’t think it would be too crazy to hope to break that record this year.

2012 Final Standings

1. Lowell Davis
2. Corey Faust
3. Jason Baier
4. Angie DeWaard
5. Robert Henning
6. William McAlpine
7. Mark Wolfram
8. Jason Stensland
9. Dawn Krause
10. Jesse Howard
11. Jon DeWaard
12. Derrick Gorshe
13. Nader Parsaei
14. Jackson Faust
15. Bill Wentworth
16. Tim Peterson
17. Mike Donner
18. Jen Ensley-Gorshe
19. Michael Augustin
20. Carrie Baier
21. Shawn Lockner
22. Russell Kennerly
23. Shaun Kirsch
24. Teresa Kahler
25. Your Humble Narrator
26. Toby Sebring
27. Brandon Kahler
28. Jordan Toot
29. Becky Perkovich

Lowell was able to chisel his place amongst the other basketball immortals that have managed to hoist the Roundball Oracles Trophy.*

Past Roundball Oracles Champions

2012 – Lowell Davis
2011 – Carrie Baier
2010 – Mark Wolfram
2009 – Mark Wolfram
2008 – Mark Wolfram
2007 – Tim Peterson
2006 – William McAlpine
2005 – William McAlpine

So the metaphorical ball is now in your court. There are no guidelines for participation. This contest is open to all competitors: men, women, small children and the elderly.

If you are interested and I need the information, you know how to contact me!

Oh… the deadline for filling out your bracket is tip-off of the first game on Thursday morning.

*Technically he has yet to hoist the trophy.

Bill, Brandon, Brog Frog, Derrick, Elainie, Faust, House, Jay, Jen, Jesse, Logan, Monica, Personal Photo Project, Willy

Personal Photo Project of the Week #148

December 14, 2012 Christopher D. Bennett

Decoupage Experiment

This fits into a crafty version of the Personal Photo Project.

Even though almost everybody thinks it is a bad idea, except Michelle and Jesse, I’m really considering decoupaging a photo montage onto a wall or two or three in my house. I’m really considering doing the basement stairwell. I’m considering doing this even though I know it will make it more difficult to sell my house some day, but on the other hand, there is a chance I could live in that house the rest of my life. When I retire I could decoupage the entire house. Then when I die it would be one of those tourism oddities. I can almost see the entry in the tourism book now:

No visit to central Iowa would be complete without a stop at True Lone Wolf Manor. Thousandaire recluse, madman, artist, genius (by 2 standard deviations), and undisputed True Lone Wolf Christopher D. Bennett spent his retirement years decoupaging the heck out of his house. It is a must see for lovers of art, crafts, photography, and crazy old people. Head east on Union Street from Story Street…

I still have a little ways to go to master the craft, but my 2nd attempt worked, while my 1st attempt was an unmitigated disaster:

When you examine this work, you shouldn’t look at the design or the pictures so much. I basically stuck my hand into an old box of pictures and selected some that I could live without, but didn’t make me sick to look at and started gluing away. There really isn’t a design. This represents a mixture of glue, old photos, and chaos. When I take to my wall, there will be the outlines of an outline of a plan.

Andree, Becky, Calendar, Dad, Dawn, Derrick, Evie, Faust, Jeff Kewer, Jen, Linda, Monica, Personal Photo Project, Postcard, Robert, Russell, Sara, Shawn Lockner, Slice of Life

Personal Photo Project of the Week #144

November 16, 2012 Christopher D. Bennett

This week’s Personal Photo Project is a blatant attempt at commerce. Good old fashioned in-your-face-capitalism.

I’ve been talking to Barb Henning of Everlastings about selling high quality Photography 139 products in her store for several years now, but I have always been unable to pull the trigger. However, I’ve turned over a new leaf and have decided to invest some money in “product” and we’ll see where that gets me.

Starting tomorrow (at least I’m 98% sure) a person can go to Everlastings Flowers & Gifts in beautiful downtown Ogden, Iowa and purchase a couple different products from Photography 139.

The first line of products:

Postcards!

This is not a completely original idea. This idea is both stolen from and an homage to my Dad’s line of Slice of Life postcards. Which incidentally will be incorporated into this line of postcards as well. The picture of the #1385 is my Dad’s picture.

The current pricing structure is thus:

1 Postcard = $.75
3 Postcards = $2.00
5 Postcards = $3.00

Series #1 of the Photography 139 line of postcards consists of 5 different images. My hope is that every 3-4 months, I will release a new series and 5 different postcards. The subject matter will mostly consist of flowers or local interest. Look for Series #2 to be released around February or March.

Thanks to all my Postcard Beta Testers:

Jen, Derrick, and Evie Gorshe
Sara and Shawn
Russell Kennerly
Andree Jauhari
Aunt Linda
Becky Perkovich
Dawn Krause
The Fausts
The Kewers
Robert Henning

The second line of products:

Calendars!

The second product line is a calendar consisting of high quality Photography 139 flower images. The first run of these is extremely limited, so the price structure is a little higher than I would like, but there is a chance that a second run of calendars will be printed and the price might go down slightly. No promises though.

Calendar Price Structure:

1 Calendar = $15.00

But what about the future? I’m also looking into releasing a line of holiday cards. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day. It is somewhat dependent on how the first two lines of high quality products fare in the marketplace. I would consider it highly doubtful that there will be Christmas cards available for this Christmas, but stranger things have happened.

To repeat, these high quality products will be available at Everlasting Flowers & Gifts starting tomorrow.

Everlastings Info:

223 W. Walnut St.
Ogden, IA 50212
Store Hours: M-F 9:30 am to 5 pm; Sat. 9:30 am to noon
Website: http://www.everlastingsbybarb.com/
All major credit cards accepted

These products may come to other venues in the future, but Barb definitely gets to be the launching point for this commercial endeavor.

Yes, you can buy products straight from me, but I don’t accept credit cards at this time. If you need something shipped to you, there would be a shipping and handling fee.

You can find out that info by writing me directly at: bennett@photography139.com

Next week’s Personal Photo Project will either involve trains or mums. We’ll see.

Angie, Baier, Basketball, Becky, Bill, Brandon, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Jason, Jen, Jesse, Lowell, Mark, Micky, Nader, Robert, Russell, Shawn Lockner, Teresa, Tim, Toby, Willy

Sadness Ensues

April 3, 2012 Christopher D. Bennett

It is the time of year that is filled with sadness. Another college basketball season has come to an end. But despite the gloom that will set upon the land for many more months, it is a time of joy as well. We get to crown a new King of the Roundball Oracles. A new name goes on the plaque of immortals with these past champions:

Roundball Oracles Past Champions.

2011 – Carrie Baier
2010 – Mark Wolfram
2009 – Mark Wolfram
2008 – Mark Wolfram
2007 – Tim Peterson
2006 – William McAlpine
2005 – William McAlpine

The latest immortal is…

Lowell Davis

In the closes Roundball Oracle competition ever, Lowell beat Corey Faust on the tiebreaker.

I will be ordering Lowell’s trophy soon and will be presenting it to him in the very near future. I’m sure there will be photographic evidence to back this up presented in this forum in due time.

Another reason why it was a good year for the Roundball Oracles is that we set a new record with 29 combatants. Shattering the previous participation mark by several people.

Without further adieu, here are the final standings of the 8th Roundball Oracles Challenge:

Rank/Name/Points/National Title Choice/Last Year’s Finish

1. Lowell Davis – 275 – Kentucky – 13th
2. Corey Faust – 275 – Kentucky – 6th
3. Jason Baier – 265 – Kentucky – 5th
4. Angie DeWaard – 255 – Kentucky – DNP
5. Robert Henning – 245 – Kentucky – 8th
6. William McAlpine – 236 – Kentucky – DNP
7. Mark Wolfram – 235 – Ohio State – 15th
8. Jason Stensland – 229 – Ohio State – DNP
9. Dawn Krause – 228 – Kentucky – 4th
10. Jesse Howard – 225 – Kentucky – 2nd
11. Jon DeWaard – 222 – Kentucky – DNP
12. Derrick Gorshe – 220 – Kentucky – DNP
13. Nader Parsaei – 216 – Connecticut – 14th
14. Jackson Faust – 214 – Michigan State – DNP
15. Bill Wentworth – 211 – North Carolina – DNP
16. Tim Peterson – 209 – Kansas – 11th
17. Mike Donner – 206 – Michigan State – DNP
18. Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 199 – North Carolina – DNP
19. Michael Augustin – 196 – North Carolina – DNP
20. Carrie Baier – 194 – Michigan State – 1st
21. Shawn Lockner – 189 – Baylor – DNP
22. Russell Kennerly – 176 – North Carolina – 9th
23. Shaun Kirsch – 175 – Iowa State – 16th
24. Teresa Kahler – 173 – Iowa State – DNP
25. Yours Truly – 164 – North Carolina – 7th
26. Toby Sebring – 157 – North Carolina – DNP
27. Brandon Kahler – 142 – Kansas State – DNP
28. Jordan Toot – 119 – North Carolina – DNP
29. Becky Perkovich – 0 – Undecided – DNP

Some people might think that I need to explain why somebody with my nearly infinite basketball knowledge could have fared so poorly, but I will not defend my lowly ranking. Truth is that my goal is just to beat Russell and the fact that I didn’t this year means that I will have to try harder next year. I cannot let RMK get the best of me two years in a row!

Even though the dust has barely settled on this year’s NCAA tournament, I am already very excited for next year’s season. I think that the Cyclones will be even better next season and I can’t wait to see them prove me right. I guess until the season begins anew, I will look forward to the Spring Football Game that is only days away!

Alexis, Animals, Carla, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Jason, Jen, Jill, Naima, Sara, Willy

Giant Steps

October 12, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I hate the phrase “things happen for a reason” more than I hate any other phrase in the world. That doesn’t mean that I don’t necessarily believe in fate, but for the most part I don’t like fate. Its plans run contrary to my plans, no matter how hard I work on my plans. So fate can go suck an egg.

However, sometimes fate works out in my favor, even though I don’t know it.

One of those fate just screwed me over, but it ended up working out pretty well for me moments was when my wheel flew off my car on my way to Minnesota a few weeks back. I had a pretty sweet vacation planned, but it all went into the ditch with my wheel and more money than I care to think about.

I rescheduled my vacation for the last week in August. That movement of my vacation just a few days allowed me to complete Operation Puppy sooner than I anticipated.

I knew when I finally got a puppy, it would be while I was on vacation and I didn’t think that I would be taking a vacation for several more months, but I still checked several websites and newspaper (okay newspaper websites) for the puppy that I wanted. A female golden retriever.

A simple enough request, but there weren’t many in the area. Then an ad for a bunch of puppies showed up in the Des Moines Register.

I wrote them and they gave me the sad news, all of their female puppies were probably claimed. 2 were for sure. The other two were most likely claimed.

I wrote them back and let them know that if one of the females became available, I wanted to be at the front of the list. That was on a Wednesday. I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be getting a puppy for several more weeks or months.

Then on Friday they wrote me to tell me that they thought that one of the females might be coming available, but could not make any promises.

I made plans to drive up near Hubbard on Saturday to see the puppies. I figured that it would be a fruitless trip, but it wouldn’t hurt to see some puppies. The cutest most adorable kind of puppy: golden retrievers!

Then on Saturday morning I got an email saying that they had a female for me.

That afternoon Jason, Alexis, and I drove up to see the puppies. I put down a deposit and set up a day and time to come pick up my puppy. I worked it out so that I could pick her up on the Wednesday of my vacation as I came back down from Minnesota.

The next step was coming up with a name. I struggled with a name, but eventually with the help of friends a name was found. Here are some of the suggestions I received:

Willy: Cuddles or Miss Wiggles
Faust: Steele & Melanie
Jen: Mila
Jill: Daisy
Sara: Astrid, Mahtob and then she sent me a list of about 200 other suggestions.
Carla: Chloe, then she went out and bought a puppy and named it Chloe.

But it was actually a suggestion by Derrick that put me on the road to the name. While we were sitting on a bench at the State Fair resting, he asked if there was a female character from a Kubrick movie that I liked. I have to confess that Kubrick movies aren’t filled with extremely strong female characters. If you take out the prostitute from Eyes Wide Shut or the sniper from Full Metal Jacket, that really leaves you with Lolita and I’m not naming a dog after Lolita.

I toyed with the idea of Kubrick and then Coltrane as a name, but those were just too male sounding names. I was stalled.

Then fate took a hand again. Every morning I run shuffle on Media Player and then post whatever the first song that comes up to Twitter. Now, I know that nobody in the world cares at all what song I am listening to during that exact moment of the day. I do it as a reminder to the world that I have better taste in music than they do.

On August 24th a Miles Davis song was the song that shuffle landed on and I posted the following to Twitter:

“In a Silent Way/It’s About That Time…”-Miles Davis-In A Silent Way-If I were getting a male (puppy), I would name it Miles, Coltrane or Kubrick.”

Dawn replied to my tweet with this tweet:

“How about Naima? Unusual & fits the jazz theme…”

It was a great idea and while I marinated on the idea for a couple of days, in the end, I decided it was too great of an idea to pass up. So I named my puppy after one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite musicians.

I had a name and a week later I had a puppy. Here are a few of the pictures from my first few days with Naima:

Next week’s Wednesday randomness will feature pictures from the mini family reunion I hosted Labor Day weekend.

Bill, Elainie, Faust, Football, Jay, Jesse

The Archives: Edition Thirty-Six

September 27, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

The following pictures come from:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Sports

Jesse and Jay playing horseshoes at 1 of my birthday parties.

Elainie Playing Third

Lane catching the winning TD versus the Hawks!

I’m not really sure what we thought we were doing here.

Bill took this picture for photography class at Iowa State. You probably think I’m going to point out how common it was for me to dominate Jesse in basketball back before he got old, but I’m not. I’m going to point out that by taking that 1 class, Bill has more formal photography education than I do.

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/UnHingd

Anders, Faust, Jay, Movies

The Archives: Edition Twenty-Nine

August 9, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

These images come from the following folder:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Project Universe

Me and my chums have attempted to make many a film over the years:

Stayin’ Alive: The Spurting
Robots: Our Friends
Sworn to Vengeance
Games
Quietus
Gratuitous Violence
Stayin’ Alive: The Spurting: The Remake
Games 2
Corey Faust’s In Your Face
The Wager
Project Universe
Film School with Chris Bennett

But the only one that I am even remotely proud of is Project Universe. That might be because it was one of the few films we ever finished. It might also be because it is the film that I had hardly nothing to do with making. My title was “Director of Photography” and I appeared in only one scene in the movie. But it remains the best film I ever participated in making. There isn’t a close second.

Project Universe is Andy’s dream. It stars Jay and a couple of stuffed animals. Project Universe is a still picture movie. It was shot digitally on a a digital camera that took floppy disks. Only 3 pictures could be stored on each floppy disk. It was shot in downtown Ames, on the beautiful Iowa State campus, and mostly in Carrie’s parents’ garage.

Some of these pictures are behind the scene shots. The rest are taken directly from the movie.