It was another great season for the Iowa State football team. I did not take very many photos this year, but here are a few of the few that I took. Without commentary.

I am already excited for next season!

A few weeks back I went to watch Jen and her crew dominate the Des Moines Regatta. I used to have a bunch of statistics to back up this assertion, but they have since fleed from this old man’s brain.

I do know that Jen’s crew got the gold medal in their division and their time was good enough to beat at least one of the colleges competing.

I’m going to split these pictures into 2 categories. The first category is Evie doing cute Evie things:

Monkeys are Evie’s favorite although I think monkeys should be spelled monkies. Not sure why I feel that way.






This awesome baby backpack enabled Derrick and I to do some serious “extreme” hiking.


Too extreme for tuckered out Evie.

Most people wouldn’t advertise this fact, but unpictured was Evie’s first trip through a homeless camp. I’m pretty proud of having played a role in this “Evie’s First”.

Here are a collection of Jen’s crew in full domination mode:

There are many other high quality regatta pictures in this album:

I might have said this last week and it was a lie, but next week’s random collection will definitely involve Senior Pictures.

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

Back in the middle of June I made a trip to Minnesota with Jim. There were several great moments on the trip, but I will just cover two of the events in this entry.

The first is a tale of when I went to see Super 8 with Jill. Since I’m slightly too lazy to re-write this small adventure, I’m just going to copy and paste from an email I sent Jen.

On Saturday, Jill and I went to see Super 8 at the Mall of America Theater. Why the Mall of America Theater? Because it was the closest theater to Eagan that Jill knew about.

As I was buying the tickets for the show, the woman at the box office asked me if I wanted the “Dbox seats”. I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but there was a sign on the box office that said something about VIP seats and that got you access to beer and wine. I assumed that is what “Dbox seats” were and we didn’t need access to beer and wine. So I told her that regular seats were fine.

The tickets were 6 bucks a piece, which I though was cheap considering that the last time we went to a movie, it was $10 a piece. But, I figured that maybe we got matinee prices since it was a Saturday and it was somewhat in the afternoon.

We were nearly late to the theater as the line for the concession stand was slow moving and going to the movie was kind of a late decision based on the fact that it was raining. So when we got to the theater most of the good seats were already taken. However, there were a couple of seats available in the back row. So we sat in the back row.

We hadn’t been situated for more than a few seconds when an usher approached us and asked to see our tickets. I handed them over and she said, “It would cost you an extra 8 bucks to sit there. You can sit in the blue seats.”

It was then that I noticed that we were sitting in a red seat. The last 8 rows of the theater were all red seats.

Most of the blue seats that were in the middle of the theater that weren’t smashed up against the screen were taken, so we took some side seat and watched the movie from a weird angle.

So here is the object lesson from this story. I will not be going to a movie at the Mall of America Theater again. A theater that has 1st and 2nd class seats.

The second event was going to Target Field to watch the Padres play. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the Padres play, so that was exciting. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Target Field


Bethany & Becca negotiating for a beer. Bethany was turned down because one of Minnesota’s Mickey Mouse Laws.


The coolest thing in Target Field


Target Field


More Target Field


Nate and Jim


If you look closely, you can see Nate, Becca, and Bethany in this picture. They are in the 2nd row from the top.


Another view of Target Field


If you look closely… Clue: Nate is wearing a yellow hat.


Venable


Maybin


Denorfia


Maybin Again


Meeting on the Mound


End of the Day for Moseley


Outfield Meeting


Adams


Some Twin

Next Wednesday’s random photo collection will be from my fence building project.

I’m sure many people have already seen these images, but for those who haven’t, I took pictures for the Boone Challenger Program a few weeks back.

Jesse and Lowell run the Challenger program and contacted me about doing their photography. Here are some of the images:

There are many, many, many more images in the album in the store:

Included in that collection of photos is what was nearly the last picture I ever took.

Next week’s random Wednesday collection will be a collection of my cousin Sarah’s pictures from my trip to New York that I received in the mail recently. Along with a few NYC “souvenirs”.

A couple weeks back I went to watch Logan run track. Here are some pictures of that:

Next week’s random pictures will be of Elainie’s graduation.

It is time once again for me to to do a random look at some of the statistics on the website.

First up is what are the 10 Most Popular Images in the Artistic Gallery.

This one is actually somewhat of a shocker. A picture of Brandon has went from nowhere to be the most popular picture and the long time reigning champ Outburst of the Soul has fallen all the way to a tie for 6th Place. Although admittedly, I think spammers might have something to do with the rather large shakeup in the standings.

1. Brandon Senior Picture


2. Johnathan Senior Picture


3. Battered School Bus – Hamlin, Iowa


4. Self-Portrait


5. Jen Between Sets of an UnHingd Show


6. UnHingd Publicity Still


6. Outburst of the Soul


8. 1900


8. Becca – Senior Picture


10. Abandoned Piano – McCallsburg, Iowa

There has also been quite a shakeup in the Snapshots Gallery Top Ten.

Here are the 10 Most Popular Pictures in the Snapshots Gallery:

1. Me White Trashing It


2. ISUCFVMB


3. Alexis Cheerleading


4. Shannon and I at an Inebriated Saints Show


5. Jesse and I with the World’s Largest Cheeto


6. Logan’s Tree-man


7. Jesse and I at the Surf Ball Room


8. Jesse Endorsing the Bob’s Dog


8. 2010 ISU Spring Game


10. Shannon Reading Map at Backbone


10. Jesse and I in Clinton

Finally, a look at the Top Ten People to either contribute or be written about in An Artist’s Notebook.

1. Jesse – 163 – (+20)
2. Jay – 151 – (+7)
3. Shannon – 146 – (+6)
4. Derrick – 123 – (+6)
5. Teresa – 109 – (+13)
6. Jen – 107 – (+6)
7. Willy – 101 – (+8)
8. Sara – 96 – (+8)
9. Vest – 80 – (+19)
10. Dawn – 73 – (+9)

Wondering who the biggest movers were outside of the Top Ten?

1. Dad (+19)
2. Carla (+14)
3. Jill (+10)

In case you were interested in what the standings looked like 100 posts ago:

People have asked me for analysis from the Spring Game and I don’t really have much to give. I don’t really put much stock in the Spring Game for predicting anything for the coming season.

Here are my few observations. Take them for what they are worth:

• Jerome Tiller looked the best of the quarterbacks by far. But none of them look like world beaters.
• It looks like we have depth at all positions for the first time in a really long time.
• Both the offensive and defensive lines look improved.
• It was nice to see some receivers making plays. Some of the receivers we’ve had in the last couple years (Hamilton, Williams) are some of my all-time favorite Cyclones, but we have lacked a playmaker at that position since. . . . .  I don’t know. . . . Ed Williams?
• Steele Jantz isn’t the second coming of Seneca Wallace, but there is hope that he isn’t the second coming of Lucca Staiger either.
• The fan turn out was disappointing.  Yes it was cold. Yes you are soft if you didn’t show up.

Here are some pictures from the game:

I am ready for September 3rd when we demolish UNI to get the season started.

These pictures come from: backup/Old My Pictures/Egg Toss

These pictures were taken in Dustin’s dad’s basement with a webcam. They were used to promote a crew picnic that I was running for the Boone Outpost of the Evil Clown Empire.

Perhaps the marquee attraction at this crew picnic was going to be the egg toss competition. A sport that Dustin and I so thoroughly dominated that eventually the sport lost its national appeal. America eventually gets sick of the same two guys holding up the trophy at the end of every single competition.

The event itself ended up being kind of a downer as it was leaked at this event that I was transferring to the Campus Outpost of the Evil Clown Empire and some people left in a strange combination of sadness and anger. The reason for this movement on my part involved a woman named Heather that I absolutely could not stand. As you may or may not know, I am pretty easygoing and can work with just about anybody. So you can only manage how irritating this person must have been.

The short version of the story is that she was a combination of two things I can’t stand: laziness and lying.

For the long version of the story… well maybe I will write about it someday on the Robot Monster Bros. website.

However, perhaps the real hiccup of the event was the actual Egg Toss. In a match that was poorly refereed, a Chris Kramer and a Nathan Mallas were crowned Egg Toss champs in what can’t even be described as an upset of epic proportions.

It would be a great story, but they very clearly cheated. They had an extra egg that they hid and used when their first egg broke. I wish I was making that up, but I’m not.

To this day, this is the only blemish on Dustin and I’s perfect egg toss record. A blemish that comes with an asterisk.

Next week’s folder will be: backup/Old My Pictures/Family

“In the end, everything is a gag.”

- Charlie Chaplin

When it comes to college basketball prognostication, 2011 will be remembered as the Year of the Woman.

Not only did the Roundball Oracles crown our first ever champion from the fairer of the two sexes, three out of the top four finishers were also members of the female persuasion.

It was certainly a chaotic NCAA Tournament this year.  Consider these facts:

• Before the Final Four was even played, our championship was already secured.
• Only two people (Jesse and I) even got a single Final Four team right. We both got Connecticut right.
• Our eventual champion’s national champion lost in the 1st Round.
• 6 people picked Kansas as their champ, 4 picked Duke, 2 people picked Ohio State, 1 person picked Syracuse, 1 person picked UCLA, 1 person picked Michigan State, and 1 person picked BYU. None of those teams even made it to the Final Four.
• Our eventual champion finished in last place last year.
• Our 3 time defending champ finished in 2nd to last place this year.
• Only Jesse got 1 of the teams in the championship game (Connecticut) right.

So who is the new Queen of College Basketball Divination?

The Final Standings

Name – Bracket Name – Points – Correct Games – Last Year

1. Carrie Baier – Izzo – 100 points -41/63 – 21st
2. Jesse Howard – MeatThermometer – 94 points  – 39/63 – 13th
3. Linda Toot – LittleSister – 74 points – 38/63 – 9th
4. Dawn Krause – Duh Winning – 73 points – 34/63 – 3rd
5. Jason Baier – Duke the Fifth – 72 points – 35/63 – 7th
6. Corey Faust – Always Go Top Shelf – 69 points – 34/63 – 4th
7. Christopher D. Bennett – They Call Me Mr. Bennett – 63 points – 31/63 – 18th
8. Robert Henning – Losing Bracket – 59 points – 32/63 – 8th
9. Russell Kennerly – StackinWinsLikeJustinBeiber – 59 points – 31/63 – 17th
10. Andree Jauhari – Floccinaucinihilipilification- 58 points – 31/63 – DNP
11. Nate Buckingham – White Magic – 57 points – 33/63 – 9th
12. Tim Peterson – Dominate Monkey – 57 points – 32/63 – 9th
13. Lowell Davis – Golden voiced hobo lover – 53 points – 34/63 – DNP
14. Nader Parsaei – Oscar – 51 points – 29/63 – 2nd
15. Mark Wolfram – Taiwan Hawkeye – 26/63 – 1st
16. Shaun Kirsch – Lil_Dog – 45 points – 29/63 – DNP
17. Frank Meiners – Master Picks – 0 points – 0/63 -4th

If I were giving an award for the best bracket name, it would clearly go to Andree, but I am not. Perhaps next year.

Carrie’s name now sits in the Hall of Champions with the past greats:

Past Champions

2011 – Carrie Baier

2010 – Mark Wolfram

2009 – Mark Wolfram

2008 – Mark Wolfram

2007 – Tim Peterson

2006 – William McAlpine

2005 – William McAlpine

I already can’t wait for the next college basketball season to start and not only because I expect the Cyclones to return to greatness next year. At least I have the Spring Game to look forward to in a couple of weeks. It is football, but it is something.