Grrrrrrr!

No My Name is Earl and no Office last night! They had to have their two-hour finale of The Biggest Loser instead! Who wants to see a show about other people losing weight? Not me.

What's next? We watch chain smokers try to kick the habit? Compulsive gamblers stop going to the track? Online gamers get away from the keyboard more? Hey wait that's me!

Weeping Mary

(Sacramento, CA) - A Sacramento-area church is drawing the faithful and the curious for an unusual sight that some are calling a miracle.

In front of the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church stands a statute of the Virgin Mary. The figure appears to be crying tears of blood. The tears streak down the left side of her face and onto the bodice of her garment.

Church parishioners first reported seeing the red teardrops last Wednesday.

Observers are interpreting the phenomenon in various ways. Some say Mary is crying for all of the tragic events in the world. Others see it as a premonition of what the future holds.

Super Cool

I love movies and I love super heroes. So put the two together and you have two great tastes in one, just like a Reese's Cup. Although if you are allergic to peanuts, I can't recommend eating one.

Superman Returns is months away from release but everyone's talking about it. There's a great Macromedia Flash preview now circulating around the internet and if you have a few minutes and want to watch something really good, click right here. The movie even has a bonus superhero, Batman. I am surprised they would write the dark knight into the script with Batman Begins still fresh in our minds, but the caped D.C. Comics heroes have crossed paths several times in their series, so it is fitting the Batman makes an appearance. It has my blessing.

Kiss of Death

SAGUENAY, Quebec (AP) -- A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday.

Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.

About 1.5 million Americans are severely allergic to even the smallest trace of peanuts and peanut allergies account for 50 to 100 deaths in the United States each year.

The Washington Monument

I was born in Washinton D.C. in September of 1965. It was a dark stormy night. Sounds like the start of a mystery novel does it not? My father, like most fathers during that period was in the waiting room. He was watching a movie called....It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Fitting I think.

Learn more than you care to know about the Washington Monument here.

Five Things I'm Thankful For [Day 5]

1. Christmas
2. Wind
3. Water (swimming, lakes, ocean, etc.)
4. Laughter
5. Love

Five Things I'm Thankful For [Day 4]

1. Movies
2. Our home
3. Good Neighbors
4. Sunshine
5. Home Videos
   

Food and Football

A big thank you to my sister who saved Thanksgiving. Otherwise we might have ended up at Denny's. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Five Things I'm Thankful For [Day 3]

1. Doctors
2. Football
3. 24 hour Walgreens
4. Pictures
5. Thanksgiving
   

Perfect Dark Zero

Well I said the heck with trying to score a Premium XBOX 360 bundle and I went out and bought all the gizmos I need to bring mine up to par. So look out, I am online and slaying the world.

For my first 360 game I chose Perfect Dark Zero because of its rave reviews. I really like the game so far. It's like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, but easier and more fun. You play female secret agent named Joanna Dark. She has a variety of weapons and gadgets to help her infiltrate enemy bases and complete missions. There is a co-op mode and of course mulit-player.

The multi-player rocks. It's called Combat Arena. All the weapons, cool moves, and tons of ememies to frag. I highly recommend this title as a must have!

Game on dood

"Are you insane?"

That's what my wife asked when I told her I stood outside Target this morning for two hours to buy an XBOX 360 game system I did not want. Well I wanted the PREMIUM system, but all I could get was the CORE system, which has less essential accessories. I am going to hold it for a few days while I try and find a premium system. I hate Microsoft. They should have just made ONE system. Everyone wants the premium, but this Target store had 4 premiums and 12 core systems. It should have been the other way around! Did I mention I hate Microsoft!

Happy Holidaze!

Five Things I'm Thankful for [Day 2]

1. Music
2. Rain
3. My Job (no really I am!)
4. Computers
5. Blogs

Radio Peeps

I was listening to the Marc and Kim radio show here in K-Town on 102.1 fm and apparently Marc Anthony claimed he would strip naked and stand outside the studio naked and sing if gas prices ever fell below 2 bucks.

Well it is 1.99 all over town. So as a man of his word he went out side in 39 degree temps and rain and exposed his grapes. What will he do if prices drop to 1.09?

Five Things I'm Thankful For [Day 1]

1. Family
2. Church
3. Christmas Lights (duh)
4. Turkey
5. Cold Weather
   

I Love Christmas Lights

Their soft quite glow in the dark of the night is somehow comforting. Sometimes I stand on the porch alone in the cold and stare up at the twinkling motes. No screaming kids, no blaring TV, no keyboard demanding attention, no bills to pay, just me and the winking little balls of light. It can be peaceful for just a moment to collect my thoughts and take a deep breath.

The weather was not too cold this afternoon, so Lyn suggested I drag the lights out and put some up before it gets frigid for the rest of the year. Tangled icicle lights, twisted lighted garland, the blinking star, spiral trees, and coiled rope lights. Ladders, extension cords, plugs, and burned out bulbs.

Ahhh peace on earth. OK maybe not, but peace on my porch at least.

UT Football Update

They Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!

Four Cheers for Harry!

The lovable and often timid wizard, Harry Potter is at it again. I have not read the books and I lament not making to time for such an endeavor. I hear they are rather good. The movies aren't bad either. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opened everywhere today.

This one got right down to business, with a scary introduction scene and then Harry was with his friends. I was a bit disappointed that there was no comedy scene with Harry's adoptive family this time as has been the case in the previous films. This film seemed a bit longer than the others, I guess something had to be cut out.

If you like any of the other movies, then you'll love this one as well. Mostly the same formula as the others, magic, special effects, mystery, and a Scooby Doo unveiling of the bad guy. The only thing that does change is the age of the three main characters. They are looking older with each film. Which is not a bad thing as the characters are supposed to develop as they pass each successive year at Hogwart's School of Magic.

They better hurry for the next film though, pretty soon Harry will be Hairy and need a shave!

Send yourself an email...in 20 years!

If you could talk to yourself in the future what would you say? Forbes.com is allowing us to create an email that you can send to yourself and then select when you would like to recieve it in the future. In one year? Five years? Ten or twenty years?

Its sort of like a digital time capsule. Perhaps you could describe to yourself what events are taking place in your life or in the world at this time. Or perhaps describe what you think or hope your life will be like in ten or twenty years and see how close you come.

I'll most likely pick a ten year "time capsule" a decade should be about right for touching base with my future self. I suggest using an email hosted by hotmail or gmail. Since these emails are more likely to be around in 10 or 20 years than say your current ISP account.

Click here to go to the Forbes Time Capsule Email.

See ya in ten years!

New Hobby?

I have always wanted a GPS (global positioning system). Why? Because they are cool. Because they are a gadget and I am a gadget guy. But I have never bought one. They are expensive and I really didn't have a use for one except for when I went hiking in the mountains. And I haven't done that in a while.

I was listening to TWiT today and they interviewed the creator of podcacher.com He explained an emerging new hobby where people are burying little caches of interesting trinkets all over the country and marking their location with a GPS unit. Then they post either clues to the coordinates or the coordinates themselves on the internet. So other people in the area can take their GPS unit and hunt for the hidden cache. The cache usually has a log book you can sign and if you want you can take the trinket (A knife, a coin, a whistle, etc.) and replace it with something you brought. What a neat idea.

You can learn more about this new "sport" at www.geocaching.com.

Now I have an excuse to buy one!

Toyota Certified Used Cars

Maybe I just do not understand the message here. I have bought Toyota used cars in the past, and I have bought Mazda, Chevy, Dodge, Ford, and Toyota again. I currently own a Toyota Camery and my most recent purchase, a Toyota Sienna Mini-van. When I bought the van, I was trying to decide between the Dodge Caravan and the Sienna. And I of course mentioned this to the Toyota salesman. He turns to me and says “But our used cars are certified.” I look back at him like “So?”

He says that means the car had a 160 point inspection! I said that means nothing to me. It may mean something to you but it has no sway with me. To me all “certified” means is that Toyota checked out the car to make sure they are not selling me a lemon. It GOES WITHOUT SAYING that they should check out their used cars before putting them on the lot for me to buy. WITHOUT SAYING. Yet this salesman is in my face going, “It’s certified! It’s certified.” Well duh! It better be certified. Every major car dealer in America better “certify” their used cars unless they want a reputation for selling junk to people. I am willing to bet Toyota has been “certifying” their used cars for years in some form or fashion. It’s just that some slick marketing person said “Hey lets make that a BIG selling point for our used cars.” Now, all their sales force and their ad campaigns and their signs shout “Our used cars are certified!” Big fat hairy deal! I just don’t get it.

It’s like they are saying that before certification existed, they just took their used cars in and washed them off and set them on the lot without ever opening the hood. They are implying that all the other car dealers do just that cause they don’t say the word “Certified.” What a crock. If anything this sheer marketing ploy turns me off and makes me want to look elsewhere.

Maybe certified means more than just making sure the car runs good. I went to the certified warranty page where they list benefits of the warranty. Mazda has just as good a warranty as they do if not better. Toyota compares it against buying from a private seller. This means that when you buy a used car from your neighbor, Joe Blow, you are not going to get a warranty. Well no kidding Toyota.

Come on Toyota come up with a better strategy than that. How about “Our used cars smell nice!”

Milestone

Well I have now had over 200 unique visitors to my blog. Double that number and you'll be close to the number of times I have seen Ice Age in my family room. (I can't wait for Ice Age II)

Anyways, thanks for stopping by! I know I know, most bloggers have had over 2000 or more, but hey I am still impressed a few wanderers have taken a gander at my inane drivel. And I am impressed I have continued to blog this long. Its fun!

KOSOVO

Here's a picture of my uncle Wayne serving in Kosovo. How do you like his Humvee?

Ryan's First UT Game

I took Ryan to see the VOLS today. They played terrible as usual, but we had a good time anyways. "Put in Rick Clausen!" Ryan shouted. Coach Fulmer must have heard him, cause he benched Eric Ainge after he threw two interceptions and Clausen led the VOLS to a 20 to 16 victory over Memphis.

I'm glad Ryan got to see them win one!

Shot Through the Heart

It's an old formula. Tell someone you love them (on TV) and they are sure to die. On LOST last night, Sayid told Shannon he loved her and not a minute later...BLAM! She's dead. Shannon is the second "major" character to die on LOST, following her brother Boone who died last season. She turned out to not be the spolied rich brat we all were led to believe she was in the first season.

On a side note. Two other potential lovers, Jack and Kate were not shown on last nights episode. I was trying to remember if they have never been shown on an episode before. (Help me out here LOST fans). Don't tell Kate you love her Jack!

Next week looks awesome! We get to see what happened to the tail section of flight 815 and the people that survived. Plus it is an extened episode. (So fix those VCRs!)

Shhhhhh! I hear whispers....

Computers are EVIL

Computers, and more specifically computer games are massively addictive. I am a huge HALO junkie. Before that it was Mechwarrior.

I spend countless hours pounding the keyboard over and over as I frag and get fragged by faceless enemies. I scream at the screen crying out in anger as my opponents run off with the flag and my lame teammates do nothing to stop them. Why do I keep playing this stupid game all hours of the night? I am addicted. Somebody help me.

A man dropped dead from exhaustion after
playing computer games for more than two days. The 28-year-old South Korean man known as Lee began his online session on August 3 at a cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, reports Reuters. He only budged from playing the "battle simulation games" to go to the toilet and to catch a few z's. After spending around 50 hours online Lee collapsed and died.

So far I have not jumped on the pay-to-play bandwagon with games like World of Warcraft and Everquest, (affectionately know as Evercrack). But this may change next year with the release of Dungeons and Dragons Online. I like the fantasy games like Dungeon Siege, Diablo, and the excellent Neverwinter Nights. Speaking of which, Neverwinter Nights 2 comes out second quarter of 2006. Check out some screen shots here. I'm Doomed.

In the News

Holeee Crap! My Name is Earl was so funny last night. I haven't liked a sit com this much since Boston Common, starring Anthony Clark. LOST is on tonight, oh yeah!

After watching Earl and The Office I was quickly returned to reality when I switched over to the news and saw the sad story of yet another school shooting.
A 15 year old Campbell County student brought a gun to school. When confronted by school officials, he shot them. Killing an assistant principal and wounding the principal and another teacher. Why? Why after all the recent school shootings are kids still taking guns to school? I don't get it. I guess it will be endlessly debated, that its the parents fault, its the video games fault, its prayer being taken out of school's fault. But the bottom line is, I doubt this will ever be resolved.

I can only pray that my boys will never be involved in such an incident. On either side, giving or receiving.

Fire in the Sky

The boys and I were playing ball out in the yard last night as the sun was setting.

I looked up and was amazed to see the autumn
rays ignite the clouds with glowing fire.
I had to run in and grab the camera.

Diggnation

Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories. Every week Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht talk about the top digg stories. Their podcast is recorded in California. They are very funny and I crack up listening to them.

They plan to record their podcast live in Chattanooga TN, next week (11/18) at the cre824 webdesign festival. It's only an hour and a half from Knoxville. I should really hop in a car and be a fan boy! My friends say I would be crazy, but I say it would be F U N!

PIRATE YODA

"To me your booty belongs!"

Holland Farm Fest

We had our annual farm fest at Dr. Mark and Karen Holland's farm. There was chili (I ate too much), Dessert (I ate too much again!), hay rides, horse and buggy rides, a crisp November sky sporting a quarter moon and Venus twinkling through the dark tree branches over head.

There were horses, big dogs, babies, and 2 year olds running amok through the leaves to the play ground. We had wagon rides, another stellar performance by the UT vols on the big screen, brownies, cookies, pies (oh my), cake, and 22 bottles of soda. It was a good night!

TECH NEWS

Want a good incremental backup system? Want a FREE incremental backup system? I recommend Cobian Backup 7. If you have precious digital photos, tons of mp3s or important files you should back these up to cd or dvd and take them "offsite." Cobian is a great program for that. I suggest doing a full back up four times a year and incrementals every time something new is added. There is an online tutorial to help you. Check it out!

Want a better alternative to the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer? I recommend irfanview. This freeware program has many more options than the windows app, including things like Lossless JPG rotation, email option, and cut/crop features.

Finally, would you like to learn a foreign language? For free? How about French? (PUKE!) Well this is for Jetting Through Life's little girl who likes Spanish. Check out www.word2word.com, this is a portal site that will guide you to many free online language courses. ¡adiós!

JARHEAD

If you are looking for a war movie with a lot of action, don't go see Jarhead. The most war action in the film comes from a scene where the soldiers are watching Apocalypse Now. The movie follows the tour of duty of Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) during the Gulf War. It shows the everyday life of a marine, the fun times, the pressures, the stresses, basically as Swofford's comrade puts it, "The Suck".

I thought the film covered everything well, but it failed to really draw me in and give me a sense of bonding with the characters or even the main character. I was just along for the ride. Jamie Foxx does another superb acting job playing the role of their staff sgt. He continues to demonstrate his versatility in a number of different characters.

Swofford is teamed with another grunt, Troy (Peter Sarsgaard). Peter looks a great deal like Ewan McGregor and also had an excellent supporting role. Overall I give it a thumbs up, but don't see me adding it to my DVD collection alongside We Were Soldiers, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, or even Three Kings.

Hurah!

Top Ten Places I Hate

1. Funeral Homes
2. Prison*
3. Dentist Office
4. Hospital
5. Work
6. Chernobyl
7. Walmart
8. Cemetery
9. Any place with a crowd
10. France

*I've never been to prison, but I KNOW I would hate it.

TGIT

Huzzah! It's Thursday. My favorite day of the week. Oh wait. Back the bus up. FRIDAY is my favorite day of the week. Thursday is my favorite WORK day of the week.

Since I work ten hour shifts, Thursday is my last work day of the week. It is the antithesis of Monday. I have never really worked on Friday...ever. I mean I had a partime job delivering car bumpers when I was in highschool and college but Friday's were usually light deliveries, I got paid and ate non-fast food that day, and left early. And the 16 years here at TVA I have never worked on Friday.

Revenge of the Sith

Kyle was a bit under the weather today, so I stayed home from work (yea!), and we went shopping. He was pumped full of drugs so its otay. First we went to Walgreens to drop off some of my old Hi8 mm video tapes I'm having transfered to DVD.

Its expensive, (25 bucks a dvd), I should probably try and transfer them myself. I do my mini DV tapes, cause I can just plug it into my laptop. But its easier to just drop off the Hi8 stuff.

Then it was on to Target where my Widescreen Episode III - Revenge of the Sith DVD was awaiting my hardearned dollars (ok ok I didn't work so hard for the money). I was surprised to see it came with an exclusive retailer's collector's coin. That will go to Ryan, as I am all grown up and don't get cool stuff like that anymore. Yeah right!









You can pick one up on EBAY if your DVD didn't come with one. May the force be with you!