Jack Trice Wallpaper

My friend Shawn is a badass graphic designer. He recently made a new wallpaper featuring Jack Trice. You should know who Jack Trice is and if you don't, then I have failed you as my friend.



He is the man in this statue.


Jack Trice was the first African American to play sports for Iowa State. During the first half of his first game, Trice suffered a broken collarbone. He continued to play during the third quarter, until he was thrown on his back and trampled by three Minnesota players. He died three days later. Four thousand students and faculty members attended his funeral service on central campus.

Before the night of the game he wrote this letter to himself on some hotel stationary:

My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life: The honor of my race, family & self is at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will. My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part. On all defensive plays I must break thru the opponents' line and stop the play in their territory. Beware of mass interference. Fight low, with your eyes open and toward the play. Watch out for crossbucks and reverse end runs. Be on your toes every minute if you expect to make good.

Below is a smaller version of Shawn's Jack Trice Wallpaper. If you love it half as much as I do I have placed a link that you can follow to download the full 1280x1024 file.



Jack Trice 1280x1024


Some other exciting news about Shawn (the former drummer of UnHingd) is that he has a new band up and going. They have yet to pick a name, but they are planning to be playing a show near you by April.

The Lost Quarter

Yesterday while I was slaving away in the Computer Mine, I came across something curious. While it is true that I frequently come across something curious in the Mine, this seemed to be a different kind of strange.

When I get to come out of the darkness of the mine and out into the light at work, it is frequently related to shipping. The 2 company vending machines are located next to the shipping area. As I was getting ready to ship out a freshly mined credit card reader I noticed a note taped to one of the vending machines:



What?


I concede that very few people at the Computer Mine are getting filthy rich, but I doubt that anybody that works here is in such dire financial straits that they desperately need that one quarter.

It turns out though that my initial inclinations about this note were wrong. I thought Judy had found an extra quarter in the change slot of the vending machine and taped it up, in case somebody came back looking for their quarter.

In fact, Judy just posted the note because the vending machine had stolen her quarter. Jesse saw this note, went back to his office, grabbed a quarter, went back to the vending machine and taped a quarter to the note.

I guess in the future, any time that gas prices are making me feel pain in my wallet, I'll just post a note on the vending machine asking for like 50 bucks. Maybe somebody will tape up some cash for me.

Although there has to be an easier way to financial security. If only there was some church out there that would send me a prayer rug that I could use and then fill out exactly how much money I want God to give me and then send them 50 bucks and then God would just give me that money. If only there was something like that out there.

Journal Entry No. 200

This is the 200th post on this online journal. I'm kind of surprised it took me this long to get to 200. It has been well over a year since I started this online journal. I'm finally starting to get into a groove with entering things daily and keeping things nice and short.

Tonight I went to Willy's home bar, Club Element. I didn't go their with Willy because he would never lower himself to go with one of his friends. I've heard the legend of how Club Element is a little kids' bar, but I didn't see any evidence. There was no ball pit or water slide. My main impressions of Club Element were that it was ridiculously small and surprisingly well lit. It also had one of the ugliest interior designs of a bar I've ever seen. The pool table looked to be in pretty sad shape as well.

On the other hand, the seats were comfortable and the company was great. I went with Derrick and Jen to see a band called Inebriated Saints. The Inebriated Saints is fronted by the old lead singer of UnHingd Mike DiMarco. When we got to Club Element we met up with Shannon and Becky.

It was interesting hearing Mike's latest incarnation. They played many of the old songs from UnHingd, but the sound was definitely louder and more distorted. It wasn't as distorted as Against the Grain, but much more distorted than the dulcet guitar tone that Derrick Gorshe laid down when he was in UnHingd.

This marked my 2nd trip to a bar this year. There is a chance that I might make a third trip this Saturday to see 35 South. That is Dennis' band. They are a southern rock cover band. Derrick is their official sound guy. I only went to a bar 3 or 4 times all of last year. I think I will have to take a few months off if I go on Saturday.

I'm not a fan of bar photography, but I have been considering purchasing a small camera that would be easier to take into places where I can't lug in my big expensive cameras. Last night would have been a good night to have such a camera. I would have enjoyed documenting the Club Element experience. I could have proven to Willy that I was there.

BHS Alumni

Dear Kelly J. Hardy:

I thank you in advance for making this my "Final Notice". I look forward to a future where these stupid postcards are no longer filling my mailbox and I can go to the mailbox and see fun things there like bills, credit card offers and scams from quasi-religious organizations. I take no pride in graduating from BHS and have no desire to be included in any such directory. Please leave me alone and do not contact me about any future editions of your directory, leather bound or otherwise.

Your Humble Servant,

Christopher D. Bennett
BHS Class of 1993

My Saturday

Most of my Saturday was devoted to Jaycee activities. It started out with the Super Shooters competition. This is only the second Jaycees activity that I have had a chance to work. I was planning on taking a few pictures there, but as it turns out, I left my memory card sitting at home in my memory card reader. I did have my film camera, so I took a few B&W photos. This wasn't the ideal situation, but I made do.

It had been awhile since I have had REAL B&W film developed. I went to a local camera shop that I haven't visited in some time to get prints made. I would like to say that I was impressed by their work, but the prints that came out are filled with a myriad of scratches and dust spots. I don't know what to make of that, I surely don't.

Here are some of the images from Super Shooters:



Ames has their own electric car?



I dig this dragon sculpture.



The Ames City Hall Gym.



Same Gym, Different Angle



Keeping Score



More Keeping Score



Gym Window



Super Shooters



More Super Shooters



More Super Shooters



More Windows



The Youngest Super Shooter



Center Court



Ribbons



Year End Banquet

Before I discuss the Year End Banquet, I should point out that I have excellent news for Cyclone fans. I can pretty much guarantee a Cyclone victory over the UNI Panthers next basketball season. You will understand in a moment, but it is important for you to understand my reasoning for making this claim. You see lately I have been hotter than a firecracker when it comes to wagering. I have been so unstoppable that I have had to turn down my friends' offers of wagers because I fear them going so deeply into debt with me at which time I will have to swear out a warrant for their arrest and they will rot away in debtors prison.

For example, just this Saturday I have won yet another wager with Russell. It was so obvious I was going to win this wager that I almost turned down his wager. He bet me that Hillary Clinton would defeat Barack Obama in the South Carolina Primary. Not only did he defeat her, it was something of a woodshed beating. His vote total more than doubled her vote total.

I could have won a second wager this weekend with Jason Baier. He wanted to bet me that Rambo would make more than 40 million at the box office this weekend. Even though he pursued this wager aggressively, I had to turn him down. I don't like to make wagers with people when they can't win. Even if they don't know they can't win. Well almost never as it turns out.

For the record, Rambo grossed 18.1 million at the box office this weekend.

I don't really need to go into much detail about the banquet. I think that I can break the event down to the two core events that left the deepest impression on me. I can say that before I went to the banquet, I could place a name and a face together for about 6 or 7 Jaycees. After the banquet I think I can up that number to about 12 or 14, but sadly for me, that number should be much higher, but I think I'm starting to suffer from Jay Janson's Disease. (The inability to put names with faces)

The first event occurred while I was talking to Shannon. Somebody came back from the bar side of the American Legion to announce that my beloved Cyclones were losing by 25 to Kansas State. Although it was sad news, it was to be expected. The simple fact of the matter is that they have Beasley and we do not. That fact alone will decide quite a number of games in Kansas State's favor this season.

At this point Peggy (the 2008 Jaycees President with questionable taste in college sports teams) came over to point out that her Kansas Jayhawks also thumped Iowa State earlier in the week.

I responded that I wasn't so sure that wasn't to be expected. Right now Iowa State is held together by spit, baling wire and a walk-on point guard.

Shannon added that "He will defend Iowa State under any circumstances."

What she said is undeniably true, but the way she said it indicated that she thinks that there was another way that it is acceptable to be.

Then she took it too far. She wandered down a road that is going to end poorly for her. Even though that road won't officially end for several months.

She brought up that UNI had beaten ISU this season.

It is a fact. I can't deny it, but I can make bold proclamations.

I made this bold proclamation:

"I guarantee that we beat UNI next year."

There I said it. I got it out there. I might have went into some details about how next year's Cyclone team would be essentially the first team in 3 years that wasn't going to be built from scratch that offseason.

Then she made the mistake.

"That sounds like a wager." Those words escaped her lips. I think she knew that she had a mistake as soon as the words had finished reverberating around the American Legion. Yet she gamely continued on and did not back down.

The terms of the wager have not been set, but I can hint at what I'm leaning towards. Let me just say that I think Shannon is going to look good in Cardinal and Gold.

The other event that left an impression on me at the banquet also involved Shannon. I think it was the previous weekend that Shannon won an award at a Jaycees convention known as All-State. She won a pretty major award. She was declared to be the Secretary of the Year in the entire state of Iowa.

Part of the banquet was devoted to handing out awards and re-presenting the awards that various chapter members had won the previous weekend.

Something interesting happened when Shannon got her award. Everybody else got a "clap". Just one clap. It was confusing to me, but I learned this morning that "the clap" is known as "Rally Applause" or something like that. Everybody got that. However, when Shannon got her award, the room spontaneously broke out in the wave.

I'm not making that up. I've been in several crowds where the wave has broken out. Almost all of them have been at sporting events. A couple times it has been at political rally. Sometimes I've seen it forced upon a crowd at a corporate brainwashing seminar. I've never seen this happen at a formal banquet before. I can only say that this turn of events was very impressive to me. I still can't quite get my head around it.

This isn't to say that she doesn't deserve it. From what I know, she is hyper-organized and put in tons of hard work at that position. The wave was an interesting way of showing admiration for her hard work and skills.

After the banquet, several Jaycees retired to a bar down the street. The name currently escapes me, but my best stab at it is DG's Tap House. It is in a commercial space that was formally known as The Zone. This makes me wonder where all the women that have graduated from Club Element go now.

This was my first appearance at a bar in 2008. I made 3 bar appearances all of 2007. Cory, a co-worker from the Computer Mine, has made it one of his goals this year to get me to the bar 4 times this year. We'll see how that turns out.

The most interesting thing to transpire at the bar was running into Julie. I haven't seen or talked to Julie in several months and it was awesome getting a chance to talk to her and catch up with her. Although I think she was quite shocked to actually see me at a bar. In fact, I know that she was surprised. It took her a little while to actually convince herself that she was seeing me. Of course Julie also thinks that her house is haunted, so I'm not sure why seeing me at a bar would be so hard for her to believe.

I think I was at the bar listening to some band until about midnight. Then I took off to get some sleep. I had a big day ahead of me on Monday. Rambo and There Will Be Blood weren't going to see themselves.

God Wants to Use Us!

Perhaps I shouldn't judge or rate the sermon's given in my church, but there are definitely some that speak to me a quite a bit more than others. During Phil's sermon on Sunday he gave a sermon that spoke to me. During the sermon he gave a list of people from The Bible that God used to make a powerful impact in the world. The list consisted of the person's name and their shortcoming. Perhaps not even shortcomings, but in the ways that some people in the world might have seen them as broken. Some might have seen these as weaknesses or faults.

After the service I asked Phil for the list. He told me that it was in his folder and to go grab the list and we would make copies. I got to his pulpit and opened his folder, but I didn't see the list, so I grabbed his folder and brought it to him.

I handed it over to him and told him that I didn't want to go rifling through his stuff.

He said, "You don't have to worry about that. When I let my hair down it doesn't go that far down."

So we went into the church office and he made me a copy of the list. The list was from an article by Dr. Robert A. Schuller. Below is the paragraph from that article with that list:

The Bible is filled with people God used who, by today's standards of ability and nobility wouldn't have qualified for much at all.

Noah was a drunk,
Abraham was too old,
Isaac was a daydreamer,
Jacob was a liar,
Joseph was abused,
Moses stuttered,
Gideon was afraid,
Samson was a womanizer,
Rahab was a prostitute,
Jeremiah was too young,
David was an adulterer,
Elisha was suicidal,
Isaiah preached naked,
Jonah ran from God,
Naomi was a widow,
John the Baptist ate bugs,
Peter denied Christ,
all of the disciples fell asleep while praying,
Martha worried about everything,
the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages,
Zacchaeus was too small,
Paul was too religious,
Timothy was too young and had ulcers,
and Lazarus was dead.

I think that it is a powerful list to meditate upon when we want to sit in judgment upon other people. It is a powerful list to meditate upon when we want to sit in judgment on ourselves. Who are we to do God's work? We are who God made us to be, even with all of our faults, shortcomings and mistakes.

Rambo Platoon

Tonight was the big Rambo night. Below is a picture of the gentlemen that made their way to our local multiplex to view Rambo with me.




Pictured left to right: Jeff, Yours Truly, Scottie D., Jesse, Derrick, Jason Baier, Jay, Andree and Greg.

Not pictured is Russell. He finally relented to viewing Rambo despite contending that his "self respect was not expendable". However, Russell took off immediately after the film and is not in the photo.

Preceding the movie was a dinner and Rambo discussion. Almost everybody shared a favorite Rambo moment from the past. I will publish those in due course, after I compile my own personal list of my ten favorite Rambo moments.

More for the Clinton Apologist

These videos crack me up. I dedicate them to my friend Russell, the Great Clinton Apologist.

Angry Brad's Designs

Sara sent me an e-mail announcing the formation of a new business venture she is entering into with a couple of her friends. Sara is a craft fiend. She is now making some of her creations available for purchase via a new online store on Etsy.

Below is an example of one of her tins.





The name of the new online store is Angry Brad's Designs. If you find this tin to be intriguing, you should go check out the store. Check it out today and often. There will be new things going up all the time. Perhaps even including some t-shirts of my own design in the future. You can follow the link that I have so ultra conveniently located below to get there.


Angry Brad's Designs

Prettiest Present

I wrote about the ugliest Christmas present I received this year, the prettiest present I got was from Rebecca.

Rebecca's Hand Painted Bowl

She even matched her painting to my 4 Flowers picture.

4 Flowers

Clinton Apologist

These videos are dedicated to Russell.

Best Picture Nominations

They announced the Academy Award Nominations this morning. These are the 5 Best Picture Nominees. I still need to see There Will Be Blood, but at that point I will have seen all the nominees.

Michael Clayton

There Will Be Blood

Juno

No Country for Old Men

Atonement

At this point in the game, I think my favorite would be Juno. My least favorite would definitely be Michael Clayton. Atonement has a great beginning, but I have no love for the way this movie ends. I would consider No Country for Old Men to be almost a perfect movie up until the last 15 minutes. Most people I know hate the ending. I didn't love the ending, but I do love the movie.

New Top Ten of 2007

I saw two new movies this weekend. These movies do make it necessary for me to reorder my Top Ten of 2007.

1. Once
2. Juno
3. Into the Wild
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Ratatouille
6. Hairspray
7. The Kite Runner
8. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
9. You Kill Me
10. The Bucket List

There are still a couple of decent movies from 2007 that I need to witness. I am planning on seeing There Will Be Blood on Sunday. I would like to go see Enchanted if I get a chance. The Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow. I am excited to see what makes the cut.

Even When You Win

Saturday night was the Computer Mine Holiday Party. The Computer Mine is overly generous with the prizes that they give away at this party. I'm not sure there really is a need for these prizes after all they already give us quite a healthy Christmas present. This year I got 100 dollars in cash, 100 dollars on a Best Buy gift certificate and a digital picture frame. I attend the Computer Mine party for the camaraderie of hanging out with my fellow pick swingers. Not because I desire a prize.

Last year I noted a number of people complaining about the prizes they had won. I remember thinking that these people were dreadfully spoiled. When they walked into the party they had nothing. When they left the party they had a prize. Why should they complain about the prize. How ungrateful can a person be?

This year I found out that there are times that even when you win, you really lost. I don't have a strong affection for video games. I think they are a nice diversion for small children and teenagers, but after the time when a person gets a driver's license it is time for them to stop simulating life and go out and live life.

As an example of my loathing of adults playing video games, I will now publish part of a lost blog that I never published. The blog was supposed to be a parody of an exhibit Becca, Jay and I witnessed at the Des Moines Arts Festival. The blog was supposed to be capped off by a collection of pictures, but in the end I might have lost some nerve and I was never entirely satisfied with my parody pictures. Here is part of the introduction of that "lost blog" Dirty Donuts:

The thing about euphemisms is that they are symbolic. The words themselves are completely innocuous, but what they represent can often disgust and/or make people giggle.

I bring this up because it wasn’t until recently that I discovered that adults play video games. I always thought when I heard my contemporaries talking about video games they were talking about sex or sexual allusions or the cousins of sex.

“What were you doing last night?”

“You know I was up late last night playing the Xbox.”

OR

“Any plans tonight?”

“The way my social life is going, I’ll probably sit at home tonight playing Nintendo Wii.”

OR

“What are you giving your wife for her birthday?”

“If things break just right, I’m going to be giving her the PS3.”

Now none of these phrases by themselves sound sexual. In fact, whether or not “playing the Xbox” was a reference to sex or actually playing a video game would be distinguished by the tone of the person saying the phrase.

In art, tone isn’t so easy to distinguish. You have to really look at it to see if this is just a plate of donuts or is it meant to suggest something else.

I have a long standing history of not understanding people who have the means to do something with their time, literally wasting it playing video games.

I won a prize on Saturday night. I didn't walk into the room with anything. I walked out with a prize. However, I don't think you could have designed a worse prize for me. Take a look:





You see, even when you win, sometimes you really lose. The good news is that I think I'm going to be able to unload this monstrosity on a co-worker for like 20 bucks. I can use that to buy something like a haircut.

Young at Heart

I went to see The Kite Runner on Saturday night. It was an excellent movie, but what I'm posting here is a preview for a movie I saw before The Kite Runner. It is a documentary called Young at Heart and it is certainly on my list of must see movies now.





This is an awesome clip of the Coldplay song Fix You performed by Young at Heart. This is already a hauntingly beautiful song, but this performance really takes the song up a notch for me. Similar to the way Johnny Cash changed the NIN song Hurt for me forever.

Jaycees Run

I am a big fan of the 1976 science fiction classic Logan's Run. So much so that I used the movie as the basis for the invitations to a birthday party a few years back.

Jesse and Andy as Sandmen. Me as a runner. Notice the greenish hue of the picture caused by the fluorescent lighting of the bathroom.

I went to an Ames Jaycees meeting on Thursday night. I don't care to report much of the meeting, except that there was one point during the meeting when it came time to discuss members renewing their membership for 2008. For some reason this lead to a brief period of time when some people chanted: "Renew! Renew! Renew!"

The Jaycees already remind me of Logan's Run because in Logan's Run when you turn 30 you are required to go to Carousel and renew. If you choose not to go to Carousel, Sandmen hunt you down and terminate you.

When you reach the age of 40, you also get the boot from the Jaycees.

The resemblance got taken up a notch by the "Renew!" chant. When you go to Carousel in Logan's Run, the crowd chants "Renew!" as well.

RENEW! RENEW!

One other thing that came out of the meeting is that I found a new home for the KU basketball calendar. It hung on my wall at work a full week. Then I decided that it might need a new home, so I deposited it where I think all KU things belong.

It turns out that the President of the Ames Jaycees has questionable taste in sporting teams and roots for Kansas. Eventually that calendar will be heading in her direction. She can enjoy the 3 pictures of Drew Gooden and the picture of the KU mascot that is clearly taken at a football game. In the week that the calendar hung on my wall, the corners were already starting to bend. They didn't try to hard when they made this calendar. Maybe KU fans don't demand or expect excellence like Iowa State fans.

Feline Porcine

It seems to me that everybody I know that chooses to house two cats always seem to have the same two types of cats. One cat is amiable. The other cat is the spawn of Satan.

My friend Willy (see image below) is an excellent example of a person in just such a situation.

Willy

What makes Willy's situation more interesting is that his nice cat is obscenely obese. Below are some pictures of Jake, one fat cat.




















I also photographed the less interesting demon cat Toby, just in case you were interested in looking upon the face of evil.

Commuter Art

I'm sure that at least one person is going to look at this and begin to think: "Is he ever going to just take a picture of something and then that picture will look like that thing again?"

All I can say to that person is this: "I'm being influenced by a mix of modern art and impressionism currently. I like recording trails of light and finding out what the picture will look like afterwards. I do have an idea of what I'm going to get, but I never really know. That is exciting to me. It is currently dark by the time I get off of work and this is a type of photography I can do very easily at this time."

They then might reply: "If I took a picture like that, I'd throw it away."

I can only reply: "Look closer."

This person would then reply: "Look closer at what? Your pictures? The ones that I'm throwing away?"

I would only reply: "Look closer."

I took these pictures that record more of an impression of the subject rather than the actual form of the subject while I was driving home from work yesterday. I was torn on explaining the subject of these pictures or leaving it entirely to your imagination. I'll leave it to your imagination.

Broken

I got one of the ugliest Christmas presents from Mary Beth this Christmas. I wasn't really sure what to do with it, but in the end I decided to hang it up at work. Take a look:







Yesterday I picked up another cheap mirror. I sat it outside for the night. After sitting in the extreme cold for about 24 hours it broke just like I was hoping when I brought the thunder.





I hope to start on my mirror photo project in the near future.

Top Ten Movies of 2007

Now seems like a good time to release a preliminary list of what I consider to be the ten best movies I saw from 2007. This is a preliminary list because I hope to see a few other movies in the next couple of weeks that might make a change in the list. I still need to see Bucket List, There Will Be Blood and The Kite Runner.

Top 10 Movies of 2007

10. Atonement
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
8. You Kill Me
7. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
6. Hairspray
5. Ratatouille
4. No Country for Old Men
3. Into the Wild
2. Juno
1. Once

I would consider making a list of the 10 worst movies of 2007, but I think that list would hardly be comprehensive. You see I don't rent or go to the theater to see things that are obviously garbage. I'm certain that Bratz, I Know Who Killed Me, Hostel Part 2, Norbit, Good Luck Chuck or the Halloween remake are some of the worst movies ever made. I don't know for sure because I haven't seen them. The worst movies from last year I've seen are Transformers and Beowulf. I highly doubt they are worse than anything starring Dane Cook or was directed by Uwe Boll.

I'll change the list if any of the movies I still need to see warrant a changing of the list.

Atonement & Persuasion

Masterpiece Theater is running a series of movies based on Jane Austen novels. In fact they are doing all 6 Jane Austen novels and a dramatization of her life. I'm kind of excited about this and it started tonight. The first movie they showed was Persuasion. This movie is about a 27 year old spinster who had to turn down her one chance at marriage when she was 19. By a strange twist of fate, the man that she had to turn down and the man she still loves comes back into her life. I found it interesting that 27 was considered too old for marriage and the large amount of cousins marrying each other. One suave guy asked the main character (and his cousin) to marry her by saying: "Anne Elliot. I think you should keep that name." You see because they were cousins and they shared last names, so hers wouldn't change. Yeah, gross. She didn't end up with her cousin.

It was pretty good, but the highlight for the movie was the best description of being in love I have ever heard. "I am half agony and half hope."

Today I also went to see Atonement. I have little doubt that Atonement will be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, but the movie didn't do that much for me. It did for awhile. The beginning was great and then it slowed down and got less interesting. However, it was the surprise ending that completely ruined it for me. I can't give away the ending because I don't want to ruin the ending for anybody out there, but I take great umbrage with the belief that sacrificing truth was the proper way to end this story. I am a great believer in truth and believe that it is the most important thing in the world, so I don't believe in the good intentioned lie that this movie endorses. That is also why I hate the movie Amelie and believe that the main problem with it is that the main character is evil and never gets a just punishment for the lies and deceit she spreads.

It is my belief that Film School has more or less been canceled. Jay has yet to confirm this fact, but I think it is safe to presume that it is so. So I'll go back to writing brief movie reviews this way. However, they will be very brief. Thursday I'm going to see The Kite Runner with Teresa. 14 days from today it will be time for Rambo. I believe that already 6 people have signed up for this viewing. That number just might grow.

Prince?

This is mostly for Jay, but if you like Prince half as much as my sister Teresa's friend Louie, you might enjoy this as well. I do have just one question for you though: "Have you purified yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?"






I'm not what you would call a "fan" of profanity. Not for any moral reasons, I just think swearing shows a lack of intelligence, creativity and worst of all: cognitive laziness. Excessive and unnecessary swearing is one of the truest indicators for White Trash. However, there are times when swearing is necessary and after watching the Prince movie Purple Rain recently, I now feel that it is necessary to flourish every time I swear. Watch for it next time I am in your company.

Notes from Yesterday

I got another mysterious fortune yesterday. I lunched at The Mandarin with Frank and Jesse. We had a lengthy conversation about bathroom etiquette at the Computer Mine. Then I got this fortune:







I have yet to get that offer. I'm standing by and I'll let you know when I get it.

Jesse came in and gave me the thing in the picture below:







I think this proves that Mentos has realized that as a candy or mint their product is lacking. However, as something to be dropped into a two liter bottle of Diet Dr. Thunder, they are it. I think you know what kind of pictures are going to get posted here in the near future.

A few days back I purchased a small mirror from Wal-Mart. It was designed to hold a candle. I was looking to put a couple cracks in the mirror and use it for a photography project. I got out my trusty hammer and whacked it. Softly. Then a little harder. Then a little harder. All that whacking produced not a crack. I decided I was going to have to get a bit tougher. I cover the mirror with a towel and gave it a harder hit. Then a harder hit. Then I brought the thunder:







The mirror didn't crack a little bit. It shattered into about a thousand pieces. I'll probably be going to the Goodwill store to find another mirror to take out this weekend.

Not a Huckawas

I'm posting this for good friend Jason Baier. An excellent interview with Mike Huckabee on the Colbert Report. I can't put into words how great it is to have Colbert back!

Edwards on New Year's Day

I'm very excited to announce that I got FTP capabilities back on my website. I'm hoping to get into a pattern of throwing up at least a brief blog every day. We'll see how that goes. This is perhaps the end of the long blog era, but more pictorial blogs are the hope.

Below are some pictures that aren't very timely. They are pictures that I took at an Edwards rally on New Year's Day. He has since went on to finish 2nd at the Iowa Caucuses and 3rd in the New Hampshire Primary. I didn't caucus for Edwards. I caucused for Obama, but I have a Political Science Degree from America's premiere land grant university collected dust in a box somewhere, so I like this kind of stuff. I went to see a few other people, but I didn't take any pictures or the pictures turned out to be unacceptable. You might have noticed a picture of Giuliani a few blogs back that I transformed into something more acceptable.

Incidentally, that degree that is collecting dust in a box somewhere. I only owe about 1800 smackers on it now. I've almost paid off my brain. In fact, if everything breaks just right, my brain will be mine in February. The US Department of Education will own me no longer.

I will finally be able to appreciate the lyrics from that old Pearl Jam song:

The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Here are some pictures from the Edwards speech: