Saturday morning I took Brandon’s Senior pictures. I’d like to share some of my favorite pictures from that photo shoot.
It is good to take pictures of somebody that doesn’t mind when you need to stop to take some quality frog pictures.
Friday night was the big Jay home cooked meal extravaganza. Willy choose not to join his brothers for this meal. Even though a week earlier he begged me not to go to the Ames on the Half Shell Appreciation Party because he needed a home cooked meal.
Although I was moved by his pleas, I had already made a commitment to attend the party and I was looking forward to getting the sweet AOTHS calendar that Shannon had designed.
Because I could only make an appearance at FNSC on that Friday Jay and Willy held a weenie roast in Willy’s garage. I stayed at the weenie roast log enough to eat a couple dogs and clean the gutters of Willy’s garage because… well if you know Willy, you know why.
Let us just say that because the gutters were clogged, rainwater was pouring out of the gutter and nearly falling onto the grill.
“What are we going to do about this?” was the question of the night. So I grabbed Willy’s ladder and unclogged his gutter and the weenie roast was saved.
I don’t like to brag, but the word hero was mentioned a couple times.
Jay rescheduled his home cooked meal for the next Friday. Willy decided he “needed” something else more than he needed the home cooked meal. He needed to race.
Well below is a very poor camera phone picture of what Wily missed.
You will have to trust me that it tasted much better than this picture makes it look.
Another highlight of the night was Auxiliary Member Jesse Howard’s presence. Plus Kelly, Kalista, Saydie and Taylan all became full Auxiliary Members. So despite the fact that Willy shafted his brethren, it was a successful evening.
The American Film Institute recently released their yearly list. They released the Top Ten movies in ten different genres.
Animation
My observation: Beauty and the Beast needs to be higher. After how dreadful Shrek 2 and Shrek 3 were, it is hard for me to remember how brilliant the original Shrek was.
Romantic Comedy
My Observations: The Philadelphia Story should be number one. Annie Hall and Moonstruck do not belong on the list.
Western
My Observations: The Searchers (despite having Natalie Wood) and The Wild Bunch are quite overrated. Where is The Ox-Bow Incident and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? I would also had Once Upon a Time in the West, but it is not an American Movie.
Sports
My Observations: The Hustler should be higher. Bull Durham is too high. I don’t see how Jerry Maguire qualifies as a sports movie.
Mystery
My Observations: The best list. The Usual Suspects could stand to be higher.
Sci-Fi
My Observations: A Clockwork Orange needs to be number 1. Star Wars doesn’t need to be on this list. Either does Terminator 2. Where is Forbidden Planet? Where is The Planet of the Apes?
Gangster
My Observations: This seems like an unnecessary genre. What about musicals? Of course Scarface is horribly overrated. They could have made room for Reservoir Dogs or Angels with Dirty Faces.
Courtroom Drama
My Observations: No real complaint. 12 Angry Men should be number 1 and To Kill A Mockingbird should be number 2. I’d like to see Inherit the Wind on the list.
Epic
My Observations: Schindler’s List should be number 1. Gone with the Wind number 2. But no other real complaints.
I had a free night foisted upon me. So now I can get caught up with entries. So some of this might seem dated.
On Tuesday, September 16, the movie Young @ Heart came out on DVD. This would easily be my favorite move I’ve seen this year. The only movies that come close are WALL-E and Son of Rambow.
Back in 1993 Jim Valvano gave a moving speech while he was dying from cancer. He said something that I’ve always found profound:
To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.
I also consider these to be pretty good criteria for evaluating movies. Young @ Heart certainly does all three. Next time you are in your video store pick it up and give it a spin. You will not regret it.
Even if you hate old people (like Jay) you will love this movie.
I recently became the Webmaster for the Ames Jaycee websites. Perhaps it is because at times of have been correctly labeled a history nerd (although if you are over the age of 16 and you still feel comfortable using the nerd concept, I feel really bad for you) and improperly labeled a computer guy, but before I could redesign the Ames Jaycees website I did some research on what is used to look like.
I found 3 old-timey header images, that I thought I would like to share.
Even though not a single one of those headers is over 10 years old, they all seem to scream 1987!
It kind of reminds me of the old animated gif days.
The new Jaycee website is fully functional, but there is a tremendous amount of content that still needs to be added. However, I invite you to click on the link below and give it a perusal. You can even fill out a form to get more information about how you to could be a member of the Ames Jaycees (although you do have to be is between the ages of 21-40 and not be incredibly lame):
Truth be known, you can be incredibly lame and still join. I mean the Jaycees are about improvement and who needs improvement more than the incredibly lame?
My website has moved servers yet again. I know anything related to PHP doesn’t work at all and I’m not really sure when it will work again, but I’m told FTP works again, so I’m testing that theory with this entry.
Jay is rather uneducated in the nuances of the Cy-Hawk rivalry. Last week he did some research and he sent me a blog that an Iowa fan wrote about doing things to a Cyclone fan’s mother. It was the type of unintelligent drivel you would expect to come from an Iowa fan, but I don’t wish to dwell on it. I just want to show a screen capture of part of the blog.
I take umbrage with one part of this blog. At least I was going to take umbrage with one part of this blog. I was going to say that Whiskey River is not the worst bar in Ames. I was going to argue in favor of Deano’s or The Fox.
Then last night I found out that Whiskey River has been condemned. I guess it is the worst bar in Ames, until the end of the month.
I don’t know why, but while I was thinking about writing this entry I couldn’t stop thinking about the movie Taxi Driver.
Taxi Driver is undeniably one of the greatest movies ever made. I was thinking about that movie because there is a scene it that movie where the main character, Travis Bickle, is hitting on this woman named Betsy. Betsy is a woman that he has fallen for as he drives by the political campaign headquarters where she works. He is trying to be funny and impress her and he makes this joke:
“I should get one of those signs that says “One of these days I’m gonna get organezized”.
It is admittedly a terrible joke and just one of the indication of the social maladies that Travis suffers from. It is doubly awkward when he has to try to explain the joke to Betsy.
I’m trying to get more organized myself. I seem to be piling social engagement on top of one another lately. I can’t bring myself to write things down, but I sit near computers for 9 hours a day, so I’ve decided to put together an online calendar.
I’ve finally decided on the Google calendar, I think after having a conversation with Jesse where he told me that he thinks that I don’t have enough “me time”. An absolutely ridiculous supposition.
Even if it was true, Travis Bickle would tell him the following:
“I don’t believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people.”
When I say that I have decided, that isn’t exactly accurate either. You can take a look at my online calendar by clicking on the link below:
I think you will figure out immediately what I don’t like about the Google Calendar.
I just want to close with a bit more wisdom from Travis Bickle:
“Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.”
For the record, I am not God’s lonely man.
In honor of the big game that kicks off in about an hour, I am going o post a few of the logos I kind of like from Cyclone history.
Here is hoping for another Cyclone victory. A victory to match the one that the volleyball team earned last night by humiliating the Hawks 3-0.
Go State!
Yesterday Shannon was interviewed on the Preston Daniels Show about Little White Lye Soap on 99.1.
In case you missed this show, you can download the interview and listen to it by clicking on the link below:
Don’t forget to visit littlewhitelyesoap.com and order yourself up a few bars of soap.
A few more pictures from the Kent State game.
So now the Cyclones are 2-0. It might be about time to start planning that Independence Bowl road trip.