Let’s see, more musings, a lot of things to discuss.  During the first of the two home Penguin playoff games, during the singing of "Oh Canada" one of the cameras had a shot of a sign with an ‘X’ through a maple leaf.  A little funny due to the irony of the timing, but disrespectful nonetheless.  And then we lost the game, and the one after.  Although yesterday’s game was a good one to watch, highly entertaining, aside from the questionable officiating during the first period.

Also seen during the Pens game is a great commercial for the DVE morning show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j48bryuXAc

Cat, Brad and I headed out to Phantom of the Attic after heading to mall to look around.  I haven’t been there in a very long time, so it was interesting to go back.  We almost missed the entire back room with all the comics, having been engrossed in the graphic novel section.  We then headed to a little hobby shop that Cat happened to spot on Old 22, next to the nursery near the Water Authority.  They were mostly stocked with RC vehicles and models, so we looked around a bit, they said they’ll be putting in an RC race track, which sounds cool, I’d like to check that out when it’s ready.

The new project from NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy’s page is now open: check it out here.

I’ve noticed that local eye doctors have very unfortunate names.  I keep hearing radio commercials for Dr. Di (die) and Dr. Missery (misery).  I think it would be a little strange going to them, especially since I get freaked out by eyeballs anyway.

I think that’s actually it for now, I know I have more things around here somewhere that interested me, I just can’t find the list.  Have a great one!
 

Let’s see, some more fun links to pass on to everyone.  The first being Lifehacker.  I just read their book, and the site is really good too.  Constantly updated throughout the day (although if I remember they may be offline for upgrades this weekend), it had tips and downloads to make common tasks easier.

Also, check out one of the latest "We are St. Vincent" videos.  This one features Fr. Wulfstan.  He is the adviser of the APO chapter and my professor for Literature and the Bible and Tolkien.  The video is here.  His "pet" he shows at the end of the video was given to him by my class!  And even though he doesn’t teach the Klingon version of Hamlet, he does speak Klingon, Elvish (both dialects), dwarfish and the black tongue of Mordor.  I tried for a while to download this and embed it here, but to no avail, sorry!

I was flipping through TV stations and noticed that MTV is playing shows from VH1’s production studio…odd, maybe a merger, or some sort of greater cooperation in their future?

Since the Pens are in the playoffs (and they won game 2, game 3 tomorrow at 6!), 100.7 has been playing spots wishing them luck (and a lot of Penguins songs, which have been great).  However, at the end of the spot, they call themselves the Penguins’ ‘black and gold athletic supporter.’  They may want to consider a change of wording…

Bill Engvall has a show this summer coming to TBS.  I’m really excited, he was my favorite of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, hopefully the show does well (although it looks a bit campy from the promos).

I don’t talk about it much, but I have a few comments on the latest Survivor show.  It was interesting in a few ways, first the fact that directly after the merge, everyone wanted to vote the same person off.  I don’t think that’s ever happened, it was so weird to see.  Granted, because of the team challenge, they didn’t get to vote Boo off, but it was still amazing.  I also do think Stacy should have been voted off, I may not like Dreamz’ personality that much, but that’s no reason to treat him like she did, and it sucks that she got to stay around.

As of this last show and the merger, it’s probably the most complicated season in terms of who is playing who and who has alliances with who, it’s turning into a real mind-buster, which is awesome to see.

I headed out geocaching today, went to Boyce Park to ‘Carpenters Loot’ and ‘Carpenters House.’  I’d found House before, but it was getting dark so I didn’t get a chance to read all the logs, so I wanted to go again.  I took my camera, and took some (what I thought were) interesting shots, I’ll add them as soon as I can to my galleries.  I also did the first stage of Loot.  From there it’s a puzzle, so once I get the puzzle figured out (and it’s a toughie) I’ll head back to find the final stage.

Happy Black and Gold Day!  Today was declared Black and Gold day in honor of the Penguins appearance in the Playoffs.

A really cool link that I came across:
Donkey Kong created with 14,000 post it notes

I am not Anna Nicole Smith’s baby’s father – Larry Birkhead is.  Well, at least I threw my hat in the ring just in case.

I went to Elmer’s last week and bought fish with my brother, which was really fun.  I haven’t been in Elmer’s for a long time, so I forgot just how much stuff was in there.  The staff didn’t seem very helpful (except for the one guy, but he was on his way home so he couldn’t do much more than answer a few questions), most of them seemed to just stand around behind the counter.  But looking around was a lot of fun.  He ended up getting an albino scum sucker and (I think) a few red tetras.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but the website, iserenity.com is wonderful.  It has a variety of sound environments that you can open up in your browser window and keep in the background.  When I worked at Westinghouse, I usually would open up wind chimes, and I’ve been using rain to help me fall asleep lately.  There are all kinds of sounds, including white noise, if you need it.

Speaking of browser windows, I tried out a new browser by the name of Flock.  It’s centered on community building, particularly blogs and pictures.  You can connect it to your flckr or photobucket account, as well as a blog community (I believe the choices were Xanga, LJ and Blogger, but I could be wrong).  It wasn’t bad, I really liked the default skin it came with, but it wasn’t for me.  The main emphasis was on photo sharing, which isn’t something I’m really involved with, I have enough trouble managing my own.  Most extensions from Firefox work with Flock, as it’s based on Mozilla’s code, but not all of them, which to me, was discouraging to me switching.

I headed to Pat Catan’s with Cat yesterday.  I’ve never been there before, and I was really surprised with how big it was.  She got some good ideas for what she needs for the Bridal Shower she’s throwing and I had a good time just wandering around, seeing what they have that Michael’s doesn’t (which we went to first).

Each year, when my uncle has steers at his farm, the ones he has for meat get a creative name, such as T-Bone, rump roast, tenderloin, etc.  This year’s names: Sloppy Joe and Meatball.  Which is twice as funny since Cat’s nickname for Moose (her kitten) is meatball and Brad is always joking about making him into Chinese food.

That’s it for now, I’ll be posting (hopefully) again later today, there is a new "We are Saint Vincent" video and I want to embed it here to point out some really cool stuff, so I’m trying to upload it to youtube so everyone can watch it (without having to worry about Quicktime extensions and plug-ins and whatnot).

Happy Jesus Zombie Day!
And by that, I mean happy celebration of the day when Jesus rose from the dead to return to earth as a rabbit that hides colored eggs (today’s title comes from The Colbert Report):

But seriously, happy Easter. Good sermon at church this morning, although there was a very strange lump in the cushion I was sitting on. No biggie, I just moved down a bit, but still weird. Best quote from the sermon: "You have braved the cold to come to church on this Easter morning, a first in itself."

Last week, when it was warm (before the cold weather canceled my car washing and geocaching plans), Brad, Cat and I went to Evergreen park to toss a frisbee around, and we saw a hawk fly around for a while. Eventually we flew off, but it was fun to watch it while we could. We also found a bike jump at the top of a hill going over a nasty looking hole, looked dangerous to us, hopefully people don’t get too hurt on it.

So I found this great picture, that while is funny, also speaks to the culture we live in today (and as always, if you can’t laugh at and with your own religion, you need to take a step back I think). In the nearer-than-we-would-like-future, it may actually serve as a way to convey the Gospel stories:

lol. brb.

Today was Oyster Day in the Kingdom of Loathing, and I spent a bunch of time collecting eggs, which I think I’m going to put into a display case, although I haven’t decided yet.

Work should begin this week on the marketing campaign for summer camp ’08 & ’09, which I’m very excited for, if not a bit apprehensive, since it is such a huge project (magazine, DVD, web, print and tons of direct mail in addition to whatever else I can wrap my mind around).

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the picture for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. I really like the style, especially since the movie and show are nothing like it:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

Other than that, I’m reading a bunch of good books, so look for new book reviews soon!

Here’s one last picture (as if there weren’t enough in this post), enjoy:

Happy Easter!

I forgot to mention it on Tuesday, but happy Passover! And of course, happy Maundy Thursday.

I went to Pack 139’s Blue and Gold banquet last night and had a really good time. I met some of the scouts and leaders from Troop 139 as well, and even got a window cling sticker for my Aztek! I helped out with their crossover and generally just had a good time.

I really don’t know if these will both work, but I wanted to give it a shot. They are videos from myspace, one is a parody of Heroes (that ran as a commercial I believe) and the other is exclusive shots from the upcoming return at the end of the month:

Edit: Ok, neither worked. I figured the exclusive clip wouldn’t work because it didn’t really have the option to be embedded, I was just trying to MacGuiver it onto the page, but the Zeroes clip didn’t work either, so here it is, courtesy of youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWJJBwKhvp4

About two weeks ago, a campaign was launched called Bum Rush the Charts, it was an effort to organize podcast listeners and blog readers to buy one specific song on one day to prove to the recording industry the power of the indy bands and new interactive medias. The day was a success, and the song that was selected is awesome: "Mine Again" by Black Lab (previously signed, but dropped by two major record labels). You can check out the song at their myspace page here.
 

Lots of things to write about, the first of which will be April Fool’s. Every year for April Fools, the staff at UO does something crazy (it also helps that it’s Dan’ni’s birthday). This year, Dan put together a great skin for the forum (honestly, it was great, I want to use it as my permanent skin) that looks like it came out of the sixties and seventies and recorded the beginnings of a song for our upcoming CD. The in-game staff then reported on the situation outside of the Library…Guildmaster Kadish holding the cavern hostage with a bomb Relto page (hence the title above). Quite a good time if I do say so myself.

Facebook also got into the action, leaving me messages on my feed such as "Harry and Voldemort have set their relationship status to ‘mortal enemies’ ," "Two oxen died when you tried to ford the river," and "you are reading your feed." I liked the last one a lot, especially since they were poking fun at their own stalker tool.

I saw it a while ago, but was recently reminded of it: AARP is offering a new cell phone service to its members, but in the commercial, they use one of the original cell phones that probably weighs close to twenty pounds. And they don’t use it as a comedy gag, they actually think people still use them…scary.

I’ve had a spambot trying to post things at my website. I’m not entirely sure how it’s doing it, although nothing is actually being published, just written and waiting for my approval. I quickly delete them, and it seems to have died down, just a bit strange. I’m going to be looking into it, just to make sure everything is ok.

Rusty (our neighbor) got new stones for the driveway, and he increased parts of his. When I left to go to SVC on Saturday he was getting the first loads in and by the time I got back, we had two very nice new layers of rocks.

I did get to meet his dog, as well as his girlfriend’s. Both are very nice and lots of fun, her dog tried to follow me inside once, which was funny, but as soon as I put my packages down, I could pet her and rub behind her ears and she was happy!

Speaking of, when I went up to SVC on Saturday I had a good time. I made sushi for people (we did run out of sushi rice, so we tried brown minute rice, and although it didn’t stick together well, it worked for the cone-shaped hand rolls) and I made definite improvements to the sweet California roll recipe I’ve been toying with. I got a "bulk carrot" for 16 cents (and felt like I was robbing a farmer) and a huge cucumber for 99 cents, it was amazing! I tried a few sips of sake and found out that I don’t like it, but overall, everyone loved the sushi and we had a great time.

As I was cooking in the room, we played some Wii games, including Cooking Mama. The game was interesting, although sometimes we didn’t understand the directions and Mama would become angry (literally with fire coming out of her eyes). But we had a good time making fun of her heavy accent and the weird catch phrases she would yell at us, our favorite being "You not trying!"

While I was on campus I got to see Godspell, which was good, I really enjoyed it. I saw the show with Mess and Alandra and saw others there as well, so all was well. There were a few things which seemed a bit odd, most of which were in the program, but no biggie.

So I did the summer session brochure for SVC, and it was awesome. I see the finished pamphlet, only to find that what I gave them wasn’t what they had printed! The back cover is now just white, without anything that I had on it, and the front cover image was changed. I can understand changing the logos to what they wanted, although really, they should have asked me, I would have been happy to do it. But the changes that were made, without consulting me (the artist) is really aggravating. Yes, it is their money, but still, I should have been the one to make the changes, or at least, be told what was going to be changed.

Speaking of SVC, an editorial cartoon from yesterday’s PG:

Volvo’s The Hunt is returning. A lot of it was "click around until you find the random pixel you’re supposed to" but I liked it, so I’ll probably try again. More updates as it happens.

The palm I got at church on Sunday was particularly stringy this year, kind of odd.

San Fransisco is reported to be putting a plastic bag ban into affect. They want everyone to carry their own canvas bags or plastic totes when they go shopping. Seems weird to me, but then again, we use plastic bags as trash bags, so we’re doing our part for the environment, just a different way.

Wow, long entry! That’s it for now, catch everyone later!
 

Quick update with a few things. Gearlive.com has reported on a couple new inventions that seem noteworthy: Mr. Roger’s in your Pocket, a solar-powered air conditioner, a program that takes your handwriting and creates a font for you and the fact that the French government has released all their UFO records on a public website (I can’t read French, but I think it’s pretty cool, and besides, maybe Julie or Liz, or anyone who does read French could look through).

Has anyone seen the Burger King commercial with the ballet dancers in the convenience store? Ever notice that the guy is getting a "breakfast hotdog" (as it is labeled on the machine). First off, what is a breakfast hotdog, and has anyone ever really eaten one? Makes my stomach gurgle (in a bad way) just thinking about it.

The cover art for the last Harry Potter (Deathly Hallows) book has been released, so I figured I’d post it here for people to see:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows cover

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows full jacket

Commissioner’s College was awesome, although it left me exhausted.  Tecumsa shared a house with Mon Valley and so it was decorated for Halloween (I wonder how we’ll decorate next year?).  We had tombstones, all kinds of lights, pumpkins, witches, people in costumes, it was a good time.  My first two classes were absolutely horrible but the other four were really good, so all in all, not too bad.  I saw all three rangers and a few people from camp (Chris and Al), so it was nice to catch up with all of them.

Friday night, one of the two Tom’s fell out of bed while shifting in his sleep.  His entire matress flipped off his bed and he almost landed in mine.  Mark and I bolt up from our beds to see if he was ok.  He was, just a bit disoriented, and we all went back to sleep.  Granted, I had a really hard time sleeping, as my bed was between the two loudest snorers.  The second night I ended up dragging my mattress to the classroom across the hall and slept on the floor there.

Saturday night, the cracker barrel was in the houses and everyone went house hopping.  Except at the beginning our house hosted the entire conference in a discussion of the new Centennial Quality Unit Awards.  So everyone crowded into our house while we played host, but thankfully, we had a lot of food: sloppy joes, pulled pork sandwiches, cookies, chips, nut rolls, apricot rolls, two veggie trays, a fruit tray, an entire pineapple, two trays of cheese and crackers, three loaves of banana-nut bread (one with chocolate chips) and 12 loaves of pizza bread.

The one thing that did suprise me though was how rude a few of the participants were (and of course, I kept having sessions with those same people).  Oh well, at least they aren’t in my district.

President Bush official accepted the invitation and will the SVC’s commencement speaker.  If you’re interested, you can see the announcement video at SVC’s webpage, notice how Mr. Donohue, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, let me remind you…the Chairman of the Board of Directors, does not know the name of the school.  He always says "Saint Vincent’s" instead of "Saint Vincent."  A small, but important distinction, especially when dealing with branding issues.

One very disconcerting rumor floating around is that next year, all the Prefects at SVC (R. A.’s to the rest of the world) will be required to go to Mass every week.  It’s becoming very scary some of the changes happening and little personal freedoms keep disappearing….and what I would like to know is, does that mean all the prefects have to be Catholic, what if they are Jewish, Muslim, or, heaven-forbid, Protestant?  And of course, the logistics of the whole situation, will there be cards to fill out like Grove City College?  What if they go to Mass at home?  Does it have to be Sunday/Saturday evening Mass?  What if they are on a retreat?  So many questions, and so many bad implications.

On a better note, rumor has it that Coke will be brining back Vanilla Coke and taking away Black Cherry Vanilla Coke.  There wasn’t a huge difference, but I like the plain Vanilla Coke a bit better. Some improvements around the site, working with the calendar and a few other things, still fighting with a lot of stuff behind the scenes, but things are getting done (even if they look messy for a bit).

One last thing, if you haven’t already, take a few minutes to vote for the New 7 Wonders of the World, so far there have been over 32 million votes worldwide and the announcement day (7/7/7) is quickly approaching!

 

Quick update before I head out to the College of Commissioner’s Science this weekend:

I came back from the mall a few days ago and as I was pulling down the driveway I see the slobbering, quizzical look of a Saint Bernard peering out from behind my garage. I get out and he comes over (slobbers on me a bit) and takes the affection that I give him (I really do think that most dogs are emotionally codependent). He stuck around for a little bit, mostly sniffing around the grill on the porch and then he began to wander into adjacent yards. I go two doors down to let them know their dog is loose (and out of his invisible fence collar). He gets a leash a dog treat and gets her back. All in all, a fun little adventure.

I’ve been watching "The Riches," a new show on FX, and it’s pretty good. Definitely worth watching.

I went and saw "300" last night at the Waterfront (or as the sign said, the Wat ront) and it was really good. Very artistic (with some fantasy elements added to the historical parts). I was a bit unhappy with the ending, how they went out, it seemed a bit out of character and a bit too fast, but still a wonderful movie. The friar from "Van Helsing" was one of the main characters, although it took me a while to place his voice.  I read an article in Newsweek saying that the whole film was shot entirely in a warehouse in Canada, it shocked me a bit.  I was also a bit shocked by the small child (maybe 4 or 5) that a couple brought with them to the movie, it was way too bloody, and in some parts, disturbing,  I think to bring a child to.

I also learned a new to get to the Waterfront from Monroeville/Pitcairn/Turtle Creek: take 130 past East Pittsburgh and through Braddock and at a red light there are two ramps to the right, take the second one (the signs are extremely small, but they are posted) and that will put you on the Rankin Bridge.

And just to supply some more entertainment, here is the new Fall Out Boy video "This Ain’t a Scene it’s an Arms Race." In the first scene where he is singing, I think the lead (I don’t know his name) looks like Lewis Black a little bit: