So I have a lot to write about, maybe.

Thursday, I played basketball. Not just a pick up game, but this was the prestigious Alumni vs Varsity game. Well maybe not prestigious. I was on the alumni team and it was quite fun. I played with five other guys and four of them were on my team that made it to the state tournament in 2001. It was quite fun. It was a closer game than I thought it was going to be, but we ended up winning by about 15. It was tied and half, and then my team decided to stop being unselfish, but to do what we can. This led to us being up by 3 at the end of 3, and then going on to winning. The biggest difference between us and the varsity, is that they had practiced with each other, and we had not.

Friday night, I went swing dancing, and I really enjoyed it, although I am a horrible swing dancer. I should take a class on dancing some time, it would be more fun. Also I went with Katie, and she said she would make me a good dancer. Afterwards I ate pie, and it was good.

Saturday, I went to Multnomah Falls. I hiked to the top with Katie and her friends. It was fun, later we ate pizza.

Tomorrow is my grandpa's birthday, we celebrated today. I had a lot of cheesecake. Good food.

Now, about a person making a U turn. I was going to church and I was behind some SUV, the evil that now rules American roads. They decide to make a U turn, but no, not at a light, but just right where they are at. U turns are illegal in the state of Oregon unless marked. So I am behind them and they turn sideways, and they block half of my lane. I can't change lanes so I have to slam on my brakes really hard and skid to a halt. And I don't even think the jerks noticed. I mean they could have waited for a light, or went and turned around at the Target parking lot, but no, they didn't, they almost killed me. I should have hit them, then they would be buying me a new truck.

A bunch of people from my church just got back from Uganda. While they were there they set up a new water supply for an children's home, set up a medical clinic, and visited one of the refugee camps featured in Invisible Children. I know Dave and Gringo have written about Uganda and Invisible Children quite extensively, but after seeing the footage the team from our church filmed at the refugee camp of the children there, this finally sunk in as something that I need to be aware of and concerned about. I really want to see the movie now. Also, our church has started a campaign to raise funds to set up four children's homes in refugee camps for the children. I think it's a good start. I would really like to go with them the next time they go to Uganda. You can also donate and find other ways to help at the Invisible Children website.

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this morning and I started Watchmen over lunch. I liked the Harry Potter book and I'm looking forward to reading the newest one. I still think book three is my favorite so far. Watchmen will be the first graphic novel I've ever read. Some people say it's the best one ever written, so if I don't like it, then I'll know that I'm probably not going to like any comics. If I do like it, however, then chances are I may not ever find one I like better. So either way, it's downhil from here.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Mallrats (Collector's Edition)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling

Wow. So the first day I call in sick to work there is a huge accident at the park. I'm actually glad I wasn't there because I can't even imagine the ensuing chaos and guest questions. Dang. At least there were no major injuries. I hope they don't keep the coaster closed for long. It's definitely one of my favorite rides at the park.

While I was setting up the Brendoman.com Guestmap, I noticed that Google Maps now has Adrian, MO, in high-resolution. Check out the Brendoman.com Guestmap and leave a marker where you live, along with your name, a note and a link to your website if you have one. I think it would be fun to see all of our readers mapped out.

I know you are wanting to start doing this. Here is an article about how to go about doing it: Playlist: How to create a vodcast.

Via Digg.

The Brendoman.com guest map is now online. It's based on Google Maps and the MyGuestMap Service. Zoom to find your town (or your house) and double click a spot to add a marker. You can include your name, a link and a note. It would be fun to see a bunch of our readers and posters all mapped out. We're pretty well spread all over the country.

Have a fun weekend, kids, I'm driving to AZ right now and heading back in a day for David's birthday party. Crazy! At least we bought a portable dvd player for the car ride. :) Later!

So I just got done watching Kingdom of Heaven at the Dollar Theater with Phil V. I am convinced that I will never have a normal theater-going experience at that theater. This time around a group of women behind us were awwwing at weird moments and asking each other all sorts of stupid questions and eventually just started saying random crap like "it's an unholy alliance" and other weird sayings. In the middle of the film the dude sitting down the row from me leaned over and said "Please turn off your cell phone." I didn't understand this because it was silenced. So I didn't do anything. Then he got a little more pushy and finally said "I can see the lights on it. Turn them off." So that's when I got pissed. The phone is in my freaking pocket. You can BARELY see the lights turn on when I get a call. Jerk. Plus, what the heck is he doing looking at my pants like that? I didn't want to add this guy to this list of jerks I might have to deal with when the film is over so I just turned off the phone. Then at the end of the film it turned out the ladies behind us were actually really nice. They were just a little dumb and thought they needed to add their own commentary to the movie. Whatever. It was a dollar.

Anyway, the film itself was pretty blah. I mean, the actors were all really good and a lot of the scenes looked great, but I thought the whole story was a little too whitewashed and politically correct for a historical film, even if it is historical fiction. Also, Ridley Scott must have got so caught up in what he was doing that he forget to edit the film until the night before release because there are quite a few very akward jumps in the storyline and many of the cuts are very rushed and flat out odd. Especially the ending. I haven't seen something so tacked on since Jurassic Park 3. So I while I am glad I ended up seeing the movie, I probably would have been ticked if I saw it at the regular theater.

I'm going to bed now because I went to the beach today and ended up getting badly sunburned on my legs because the sunscreen I had sucked. But other than that it was a good day.

A Civil Solution to the Gay Marriage issue.

I think it could work. What do you think?

I’m re-reading Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I say re-reading, even though I didn’t properly read it the first time. I purchased the book for a graduate English class a couple of years ago. We spent less than a week reading and discussing it before moving on to our next work. This is a very dense book to cover in so brief a time, and I got less than halfway through, even with speed-reading. I obviously wasn’t reading it very closely, because I didn’t find out Dillard is a Christian until I read about her in Philip Yancey’s Soul Survivor.

So, I’m giving the book another chance. I’m taking my time with it now, and discovering lots of little nuggets of revelation and wisdom in it. Dillard draws upon the science books she’s read and her own observations of the creek where she lives to make profound discoveries about the natural world and the nature of God. Most of what she writes feels fresh, exciting, and new, but I’m actually surprised at how much of it is very similar to ideas I have thought about. One of the broader ideas Dillard explores is the wonder of nature as seen on the microscopic scale. It puts me in mind of one of the most moving spiritual experiences of my own life.

Read more »

Our nephew Harrison's first birthday is today! Time flies. He's a very inquisitive kid, and is already running around after the dog and learning words.

We are making the fastest trip ever to AZ and back to visit him, leaving tomorrow afternoon, spending Saturday there, and leaving first thing on Sunday morning. It'll be great to have a chance to hang out with him for a little bit, as well as see Jon and Angie. We've missed them since they moved in December.

I think I'm becoming far too attached to this series. I finished the book a few days after it was released and have since thought about it a lot. When we saw March of the Penguins, the trailer for the fourth movie played, and I felt extremely excited. I think I've reached the point where the characters have become real, and I feel a vested interest in their pursuits. In sum, I believe I'm hooked.

This book was darker than the previous 4.5 (end of book five get there), and because of that it was better in its sense of depth. Harry's emotions seem real this time, and the gravity of the battle against Voldemort really seems to hit. I think this started emerging toward the end of book five, but knowing that Harry isn't moving in the same cycle the first books followed, as well as the implications of a certain prophecy, make the story more involving and Harry's plight much more dangerous.

The Half-Blood Prince moves Harry into a new mode: focusing on the strenghts and weaknesses of his enemy. The large amount of time spent with Dumbledore leads Harry to mature quite a bit, and I really think that's what I enjoyed the most about the book.

I wish I were actually good at reviews because I have a great sense of how I felt about book six without being able to convey it properly in words. Rowling really has created a complete picture of the magical world and its characters that I enjoy because of its humor, creativity, and now, sense of depth. As I said as soon as I closed it after finishing, "I can't wait for the final book!"

Miss no more. Here is #14 (recorded about a month ago) and #15 (recorded a week ago). Better late than never!

Get ready for an overload of reviews... starting with the March of the Penguins.

Being the Discovery Channel-watching people we are, it was only natural to want to see a movie about the migration of penguins to and from their breeding grounds.

I think I was expecting more of a distant, documentary-esque narration style, but was happy to find that Morgan Freeman's narration was the telling of a story about love and survival. The survival part is obvious: these penguins travel long stretches of snowy and icy land to mate, conceive, and nurse their newborns; both mother and father survive for incredible amounts of time (several months) without food, and bear the dangers of extreme cold, starvation, and predators both in and out of the water. The love story was surprising: the penguins find a mate, learn their mate's call, and after long separations are able to find each other in a sea of penguins that all look identical. The sense of a family connection is amazing, both between the parents and their young.

In watching the story unfold, while Freeman often suggests that perhaps the penguins know where to go and what to do because of some sort of inset collective memory they share from their ancestors, it's quite obvious that the penguins have several special senses and gifts that were given to them by their Creator. Like Ric said in his review, God seemed to follow His habit of using the unlikely to bring him glory when the made these animals, who are able to survive some of the worst conditions in the world to raise a family.

And, of course, penguins are incredibly cute, especially the babies.

Depending on your taste, not every one needs to see it in the theater, but I recommend you see it eventually.

Nothing says, "Your home has become the ghetto" better than a 99-cent store shopping cart sitting out front on the sidewalk. We might need to start looking for a new place if this stuff keeps up.

Image uploading through b2evolution works now! We're still working on the FTP user account, but at least we have this now for smaller files like images.

Girls in Trouble : A Novel by Caroline Leavitt

This one is an adoption story about Sara, a 16 year old girl who gives her baby up in an open adoption. In the beginning the family and the birthmother are very tight and it starts out to be a wonderful thing - but then it turns tragic as things get too close and the adoptive family feels smothered by her. As they try to limit contact with Sara she begins to feel shut out and desparate. She finally makes a failed attempt to kidnap the baby. This is the final straw and of course the adoptive family severs all ties and moves without letting Sara know where they're going.

I'm still reading this one, but to this point it has been a great read. The characters are all trying to do what they think is right but they are also very flawed and making huge mistakes in the process. There's really no right or wrong side - the story just shows the relationships and situation as complex, which they most certainly are. Right now in the story, it's 16 years later so the daughter is 16 and Sara is 32. I won't give too much away, but there is a reunion between Sara and this family - 16 years later.

This book has been a hard one to put down. The writing is so dead-on. I'm anticipating the ending, but also dreading it. I can't imagine how the story will end and hope the author can pull it off.

As "Fatal Attraction" was to adultery, so this book could be to open adoption. It is shown as a nightmare for both the adoptive family and the birthmother. I could see a potential birthmother or adoptive family reading this book and deciding against it. It would, of course, be silly to base such a decision on a piece of fiction, but it would sure make you think about it twice. I doubt this was the author's intention. She's just telling the story of these people - not making a statement beyond that. And it's a fascinating story!

UPDATE: I've finished the book now and the book does have a happy ending - not as "Fatal Attraction"-ish in the end. No one had to be killed in the bathtub. The ending was actually quite satisfying. Happy, but not unbelievably and cheesy happy. Everyone came to grips with the situation and their role in it. I'll have to check out some of her other books

http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper/sets/598206/

Some graphic pictures, obviously.

Plain View #15 7/20/05

http://feeds.feedburner.com/searscast

Recorded almost a week ago after a couple weeks off for summer vacation. We're back, baby!

Dear Smiles,

Get in touch with your friends.

Sincerly,

Smiles

I still can't post pictures, so mere text will have to do.


The sequel to A Fistful of Dollars did not fail to entertain. I thought it was better than the first in execution and character development. While I did enjoy the first movie, I thought the music, direction, and action were all better this time around.


Quick plot: The man with no name who brought in the cash by playing both sides of a western gang war in the first movie has now moved on to bounty hunting. He is surprised to find himself teamed up with another hunter, and both men are tracking down a gang of bandits whose deaths are worth thousands of dollars.


I felt more of a presence of a director this time around, especially with the introduction of flashback scenes. It seemed like Leone showed a lot more style all around (especially scenes where I would find myself saying "whoah!" to a particularly cool shot). I felt more tense, more excited, and overall just more involved while watching this one.


The music was even better, leaving me whistling throughout the afternoon. None of that funky flute stuff from the first movie... although there's an interesting springy "boing" type sound that follows Captain Mortimer around in the movie. I especially liked the integration of the music coming from the locket. When the locket music blends with the western score during the final face off, it works incredibly well.


I really enjoyed it!

IGN: Doom Trailer, Videos and Movies

The trailer for Doom went up today and I have to say it doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would. I guess they're taking the demon part out of the storyline though and going for a 28 Days Later sort of thing, but that's cool. The Rock looks great in the movie and the special effects look good too. We'll see how this one goes.

I came across the wonderful Going Jesus site last week. Erika and I spent some very worthwhile time looking at all the pictures of bad Easter-related, um...artwork and bad Nativities.

Here is another way you can support the site! Our Ladies of Independent Rock, our female singer/songwriter compilation featuring Eisley, Jennifer Kendall, and more is now for sale on CD Baby. You can buy it here. A portion of the profit we make from this CD will go back into our hosting. I can honestly say that this is a great CD and features some great songs from artists you might not have heard before. Check it out.

You can watch the trailer for V for Vendetta now. I know that a while ago I made fun of a script excerpt that I read in another person's review. I actually read on a separate site sometime later that the script really isn't that bad--that the negative reviewer just picked the worst parts to criticize.

Either way, I'm kind of interested in seeing this film. I'm actually surprised that they still seem to be pushing a major release for it, considering recent events (the protagonist of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta is a terrorist who wages war against a 1984-style British government). With news stories about British police killing terror suspects, with at least one innocent casualty, the story takes on even more relevance. Will audiences connect V's struggle against an oppressive government with attacks by Muslim terrorists, or will they assume that this is somehow different? I'm not trying to suggest anything here--I'm just very curious how audiences will react.

From the trailer, it's still hard to judge how good the film itself will be. It at least appears to follow the story and characters of the comic book. The only major difference I can see is in the visual style. David Lloyd's artwork in the comic was gritty and realistic. The movie looks more cartoony than the original material (some directors seem to think that all comic book adaptations need to be bright and colorful, regardless of the book's visual style). It will be interesting to see how well the story holds up.

Grr.. I can't post images right now!

Well the weekend was very low key, but I suppose that turned out to be a good thing.

On my short Friday I headed out to Downtown Disney and braved the scorching sun in an effort to buy tickets for Cake at the HOB Anaheim without having to pay Ticketmaster charges. Who knew they'd be sold out 3 weeks before the show? I then headed to the mall, where every person in the OC had decided to go in order to avoid the heat.

That night we were supposed to go out with Gron and Brendoman, but Ric was so tired from the week we decided to do dinner and a movie. That was reduced to.. pretty much nothing, because Ric fell asleep as soon as he got home and didn't wake up again until after midnight.

I entertained myself by watching a couple of episodes of Morgan Spurlock's (creator of Super Size Me) show, 30 Days. The premise of the show is basically that a person can learn a lot by living 30 days in someone else's shoes. They may even prove a point. Spurlock himself started the series off by living on minimum wage with his fiance for 30 days, which definitely showed that, while we may not be able to handle a huge spike in minimum wage, it's near impossible to survive on such a low income. The other episode was a sad experiment in drinking: a mom who took up binge drinking for 30 days to show her college-age daughter the negative effects of habitual binge drinking. Unfortunately the selfish daughter seemed determined to end up with aids and/or pregnancy, since she didn't want to give up wild parties and a desire to drink to get wasted (often never remembering the previous night). Fortunately the mother's crusade wasn't in vain, because her younger son was deeply impacted by the experience and could see the negative effects of drinking on his mom's behavior. Interesting stuff.

Did I mention it was too hot this weekend? I either slept on the floor or the couch downstairs because our upstairs gets hot during the day and never cools down at night.

Saturday we slept in, I spent the afternoon at my parents' doing laundry and enjoying central AC and watching For a Few Dollars More. After a good dinner with Ric at Ruby's, we met up with Gron to see the March of the Penguins.

Sunday we skipped church because they were having the entire congregation meeting in a tent, outside, in the summer heat. I've been to Coachella. I wasn't going near that tent. The afternoon was basically catch-up sleep for all the sleep we couldn't get at night because of the heat. Then I spent practically the entire night in Ric's parents' pool. Sweet, sweet swimming! Saturday and Sunday were perfect summer days (except for the hot nights). All in all, a relaxing break.

Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment - I don't know what to say. Murder is not the solution to this problem, but who can honestly say that they haven't ever wanted to whack a spammer in the head with a blunt object?

(via Slashdot)

Promethea (Book 4) by Alan Moore

Thanks to some paranoid security settings at our new webhost, the script that gave us our Amazon media plugin for b2evolution isn't working. I moved it to personman.com and messed with it until it started kind of working. It still generates the code you need to display book titles, but now you have to actually copy it and paste it into your post. Sorry about that.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling

The Gallery is back online. Switching hosts is a pain in the butt and there are too many little things to adjust to get things working correctly. Luckily Dreamhost had a nice little guide for configuring Gallery to work on their servers. There are still some things that aren't working how we want yet, like clean permalinks for b2evolution (thanks to djamoer for giving me the solution to this) and ftp accounts for our podcasters.

Man, I must have been under a rock or something. Oh wait, I was in China. I'm glad I finally gave this a spin. I love the Beach Boys. I wasn't sure what to expect from this album but after hearing everyone and their mom (seriously, moms were telling me about this CD) rave about SMiLE, I had to try it. Amazing. From the first track on, this is a great listen. Check it out if you haven't.

"I'd like to contest the five dollar drop fee because I wasn't informed about it."

[the student signed a course request card, which notes the fee right above the signature line]

This student is actually filling out an appeals form over five bucks.

I could have sworn I posted this already. But maybe not...

Wow. I expected to hate this movie and ended up really liking it! I am a devout Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory fan--just ask Ric about how I make obscure references to it on practically a daily basis.

As it happened, without planning to, I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory twice this weekend and enjoyed it even more the second time around. Yes, Depp was creepy, but creepy in a Tim Burton sort of way, so it worked. The movie was a great blend of Burton-Elfman-Depp.

The cast alone was reason enough for me to see the movie. The Bucket family included Helena Bonham Carter and Noah Taylor as the cheerful Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, Freddy Highmore as a perfect Charlie. Grandpa Joe, as well, was perfect.

I like how Burton adapted the story to make a completely new feel for his movie, instead of following an identical plot to that of the first movie. The addition of Wonka's childhood past was a nice touch, conveniently managing to include a Halloween scene. I also enjoyed the way the kids and their personalities reflected problems with kids nowadays: Violet was an over-achieving athlete with a mom whose motto was "Eyes on the prize, Violet"; and Mike Teevee was a video game kid who loved to destroy things and treat his dad like an ignorant fool. The movie emphasized the importance of parents and family without beating the audience over the head with it. The one thing I would have done differently would be to make the oompa loompa's lyrics stand out a little bit more. Sometimes the music was so loud I couldn't hear what they were actually singing.

Speaking of the oompa loompas, nice backstory with them as well. I still don't know why they all seemed to be clones, but I kind of liked that they were identical. Eflman cleverly styled each child's oompa loompa song in a different musical style, which made for some great laughs.

To compare WWATCF with CATCF isn't really fair. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but they really do feel like completely different movies. I think both will fit nicely in my collection, although I'll probably always slightly prefer the first just because I grew up watching it. All in all though, I was pleasantly surprised.

I added the Paypal Link to the top of the page so if you want to help us out that way you can. I also changed our hosting link in the credits so that it goes to our referral URL for Dreamhost. If you use that link and purchase a hosting plan with Dreamhost we will get $97 for our hosting account. That's quite a bit of cash! Here's the link if you are too lazy to scroll down:

So go ahead and do either of those things if you can. We'd really appreciate it.

Breaking News - [TV Guide Online]

Wow. As if Smallville couldn't get any better. Now they've gone and cast James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) as Brainiac. Flippin' sweet. I think James is a great actor and he will finally be able to use his real accent in this role. I also am flattered that he has been chosen to play the role that I have played so well in the Legion of Doom for so many years. Heh.

Friday night we were talking with Kyle and Erika and he was telling me that he thinks Watchmen is the best super hero story story he's read. We were planning a trip to the comic shop on Saturday and I probably would have bought it. So Sara was forced to tell me that she had already ordered it for my birthday and it was due to arrive here any day now. When we got home from the city on Saturday, the package was waiting for us. So now I'm the proud owner of this graphic novel and I'm looking forward to reading it. But first I have to get through Harry Potter numbers five and six before someone gives away the ending. Some Howard Stern wannabe on a radio station that Sara listens to keeps blurting it out on the air. So far I've managed to cover my ears before hearing what he says, but I don't know how long I can last. I'm 150 pages into the Order of the Phoenix and enjoying it.

I've dreaded going to brendoman.com after all the trouble we've had in the last week and a half. I'm afraid I'll go to the site and we'll be having webhost problems again or something will be terribly broken. Things have been working somewhat better. We had houseguests this weekend. Kyle and Erika came to visit. We had a nice time going to the City Market in KC, visiting a comic shop and then having dinner with them and the Sears family.

This is pretty darn cool. It asks you a bunch of questions and based on your answers it suggests a Linux distro for you. I got Debian and Ubuntu. I'm thinking of running Linux on my laptop. We'll see if that actually happens.

Today I am going to the Gresham Town Fair. Should be tons of fun. Maybe I will buy a hot dog, and dance a jig. Perhaps I shall do both at the same time, or just maybe think about thinking about it.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

There are 25 K's because I am bored and doing Laundry at the moment.

Does anybody find more enjoyment than me in doing laundry and pulling out an orange with horizontal white stripes shirt than me? The answer may just be yes.

I wish I went to a LAN party last night. I miss playing source, forever. I put three spaces between the I and the period.

Just when you think that I can't get any more random, yard work is a curse on humanity. I hate it with the passion of 1 million burning suns, not just the customary 1000.

I have to do a devotion on a Veggie Tales movie tomorrow at church.

Sometimes I feel like I don't write anything pertinant. I feel proud though when I check what search engines are refering to my site, things like "trading a bump for a scar surgery shoulder dislocated" and "bad stuff that is happening to the earth live now". That aparantly is me. Maybe it is because I like Wal-Mart.

My little sister is a junior high cheerleader, and she likes Paris Hilton, it makes me want to vomit.

I need a job, and more of a social life.

Which Game Show Host Do You Wish You Were?

Just wondering.

Sorry it took so long, but the board is back up and running. Enjoy.

So I forgot to recap my day at work yesterday.

Positives:

• Working a full eight hour shift.
• Working at freaking Disneyland!

Negatives:

• It was 97 degrees outside. Before you Missourians or Zonies scoff, remember that I'm outside for my entire shift.
• Mad old lady throwing her bag at my crotch when I asked to check it at bag check.
• Another mad old lady ramming into me with her electric cart. Ask anyone that works and Disneyland and they will tell you that strollers and electric carts are the work of the devil. Seriously.
• After two recent bombings in London, people still have the gall to get pissed when we ask to check their bags. Idiots.

Anyway, it's nice to be working again. I love working outside and meeting tons of people every day and putting smiles on people's faces. It's a good way to live.

Reason #1: They answered our e-mails.

Reason #2: They answered our e-mail in less than a day.

Reason #3: They didn't sound like morons when they responded to it.

I was reading Giant the other day (a really great entertainment magazine that Matt got me hooked on)and I found this gem in the Katie Holmes interview:

Interviewer: What sort of TV do you own?

Katie: I just got an LSD. A flat-screen.

Interviewer: An LCD?

Aaaaaah. At least she's cute.

OH LAWD DAH OPERA FANBOY SEES DA LITE

Yeah, wonderful. Everyone is all about FF, so I guess I'll give it a real try this time. Though the slowness on some sites that Opera loaded quickly is killing me. Whatever. I need suggestions as to how cuztomize it properly, or ideally.

I have the current version of the following extensions: Forecastfox, CuteMenus, Image-Show-Hide, jsLib, LastTab, Open link in..., SessionSaver .2, Single Window, Tabbrowser Preferences, Copy Plain Text, CuztomizeGoogle, Disable Targets For Downloads, Linkification, NoScript, Play Launch, US Department of Homeland Insecurity Idiocy Level, TargetAlert, TinyURL Creator, SmoothWheel, Adblock, GMail Notifier, StumbleUpon, Card Games, Minsweeper, and Blockfall.

Anything I'm missing?

Well now that I can post again I have a lot of stuff to catch up with. I'll have to save most of it for next week.

Yesterday our office had a staff retreat and we went to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific for the day. We spent the morning:
- oohing and aahing at the cool jellies
- touching sting rays, sharks, starfish, and other little creatures
- admiring the bright colors and odd faces of several fish
- watching a show-off seal that liked to put its tale end in its mouth and swim in circles like a dog chasing its tail
- watching sea otters clean their fur
- laughing at the interesting swimming birds
- and enjoying all sorts of other little creatures

Then at lunch we went to Parker's Lighthouse on the pier. The food was fantastic and expensive. Wohoo! I think our boss underestimated the prices, and as a result we all had quite a tasty lunch. I intend to go back to that restaurant in the future. After lunch we got some tasty waffle cones that were pretty fresh. It was a battle of eating skills vs. the sun to finish them without making a mess, but I managed to only get one drop on my shirt. The weather there was much more pleasant than it has been back at home. Once we returned I couldn't cool down until about 12:30 in the morning. Boooooooo!

It's freakin' hot and I hate it. All of you people who whined about winter over-staying its welcome are lame. What's worse is I'm reading the Wheel of Time series, in which there's an abnormal heat wave going on because of evil powers, etc., etc., and it just makes me feel even worse. Meh!

Well, we are back in Omaha after our whirlwind traveling adventure. I downloaded our pictures from the trip (86 of them!!!) and have put them in an album. If you would like to see them, click here.~ Kelly

So I'm looking through all my China pictures just now and all I can think of is this: Did that actually happen? I know that is a strange thought to have, but dude, sometimes I still can't believe the last 10 months of my life. Actually, I can't believe the last five years of my life. Things just kind of went nutso the moment I got in my Honda and drove east towards Wisconsin. Away from Biola, away from my friends, and into a land of mystery. What in the world was all that for? I'm back, and all I have to show for it is some pictures, a piece of paper that supposedly tells me I'm smart but hasn't been able to land me a job, and a whole lot of crazy stories. Oh yeah, I also have a nice new bunch of buds and this site. So I guess it all makes sense. It's still weird though. Now that I'm back sometimes I wonder if it wasn't all just a dream.

I really wish that I could be Bob Barker. While watching The Price Is Right, I noticed it. Think about it, all he does is stand there and say, "You could win this!!!" And then all the girls fall in love with him. Could there be an easier job? Sure there are some crazy ladies that get on the show, but if you were 100 years old and still had 18 year olds come up and kiss you on national television, all the crazy ladies are worth it.

Plus you would get to beat up Adam Sandler, which I think would be fun.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/breaking/breaking-esrb-recalls-san-andreas-113506.php

The best part is how it was an M rated game, which means 17 and up. As opposed to an AO rating of 18 and up. Big difference. Also, serious business.

US GOVERNEMT 4 TEH WIN~

Link: http://radiobrendoman.com/podcasts/brendomandotcom072005.mp3

On today's podcast Gringo, Danny, and I talk about stuff we talked about on the podcast we recorded that was lost. We briefly mention Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Four, Judge Roberts, Karl Rove, Dropload, and how much Vizaweb sucks. At the end of the show we play a track from the Valets. You can buy their CD at PopVox Music.

Get the file here.

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So a long, long time ago I linked to a post I wrote on my old Typepad Blog about Harry Potter. Check it out now. As of right now there are 678 comments on the entry. Dang. Don't go there if you don't want some spoilers. I just finished Book 6. It was a short read and it was fan-freaking-tastic. I managed to stay away from the huge spoiler so I nearly dropped my book when it actually happened. But holy crap. Yeah, so if you want to talk HP spoilers, don't post them here, post them over there.

(I had originally intended to post this last Friday, but Brendoman.com was experiencing technical difficulties. I then published it earlier this week, but it became lost in the transfer of the site over to a new webhost. Anyway, sorry for the re-post, but I just want a complete record of my writing. Call me anal.)

I'm blogging again, which can only mean that I am finished with my MAE portfolio. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and relief. Here's a breakdown of the portfolio by numbers:

95: Pages in the portfolio
60: Pages of all-new material I wrote for it
28: Days I spent writing it (sporadically)
24: Sources cited throughout the portfolio
3: Revisions made to the research component
4: Conferences my advisor has already urged me to present at
0: Requirements left to fulfill before I receive my Master's degree.

In case you're curious, the research I did was on using blogs in the classroom. If you want to read it, I'd be happy to send the research portion to you. If, for some insane reason, you want to see the whole portfolio, I can send that to you as well. Be warned, though: It's 5 MB large.

And of course, I must mention that Danny deserves the credit for setting up my class blogs for me, and for getting me interested in blogging in the first place.

Thanks, too, to Erika for being so patient with me as I've spent countless hours in the study behind stacks of papers and books.

Starting on July 21 at about 10pm and running until about midnight on July 22 there will be a LAN party in Versailles, MO.

All are invited. If you want more info, please leave a comment or e-mail me at henry dot imler at gmail dot com, or Comment here.

Current Player list:

• Honzo
• The G-Man
• Q.
• Pete, one of Grant's Friends
• Casey

Some other people might come, such as a few of Grant's friends