Feel Better About Your Own Looks

You are looking at "Elwood" from New Jersey, the winner of the 2007 "World's Ugliest Dog" contest.

And yes, he is ugly. Quite.

I just can't believe that there's a contest for this kind of thing! And looking through the photo galleries, every entry listed was a "Chinese Crested Dog", a breed which appears to have been created specifically to win Ugly Dog contests.

So look at Elwood.... And feel better about yourself! It's been my pleasure to provide this public service.

Summer Fun in Slow Motion!

Last summer the Mentos & Diet Coke Geyser was a staple of back yard fun... We even did it at the ol' Puddle Jumpers Day Care... Well, for all the people with eyes that are just too slow to see what's really going on, here's a super-slow motion video of the whole process! Enjoy, and happy Summer!!


Slow Motion Mentos Geyser - More amazing video clips are a click away

Amazing Coincidences

We've all had amazing coincidences happen in life... It's one of the things that really makes you stop and look at how the world looks, and how intricate the weaving of God's creation is. Well, I had one the other day that blew my mind so bad that I'm still trying to grasp it all. Here is my mind-blower, in timeline fashion:

Sunday, June 10
At church, Pastor Kevin gives a brilliant message called "God Said, Gone Wrong" about how people do all manner of craziness under the blanket of "but God told me to!" One of the points he brought up is that God nearly always talks to us in very subtle ways. An example he used is that if you find yourself thinking about a friend or relative you haven't seen or even thought about in a long time, you should pray for that person. Made sense. I locked it away under "Useful things I learned in church and will hopefully have a chance to use before I forget." (one of my favorite mind-folders)

Monday or Tuesday, June 11 or 12
As I'm diligently working away, keeping all the servers serving and networks networking, my best friend from high school, Scott Brown popped into my mind. Now this was a particularly odd person to pop into my head, because as strange as it sounds, I had actually forgotten about him the last time I tried to remember highlights of high school. (this was as I was justifying skipping out on my 20 year reunion) I remembered lots of other people and events, but forgot Scott, who was nearly always with me as I celebrated getting my license by driving every waking minute of the day, running the old diesel Chevette out of fuel and learning how hard it is to start a diesel after it had run dry, and so, so many other life-shaping events. The really scary thing is that I'd forgotten about the events as well as the person!

Anyway, it was shocking and appalling to me that I'd ever forget the only person who ever had to get stitches because of riding with me, and in light of what I'd just heard in church, thought I should try to look him up. (and of course, pray general blessings in his direction!) So I went to classmates and created an account, and looked for him. Now, I've got quite a few gripes against classmates. They're rather un-ethical in their "auto-renewal without asking if you want to auto-renew" methods, and even when you pay for their "Gold" membership, you still get at least three lines of spam mixed in with each screen of names when you're going through your class lists. As I browsed through, I didn't see his name, so I quit looking and figured that maybe someday he'd sign up and we'd reconnect. *sigh*

Saturday, June 16
I'm playing bass at church tonight, and am about to leave, when I hear my blackberry do its "Hey! I just received an email for you!" chirp. Instinctively, I grab it and look at my messages. I then proceed to almost drop it, as I see a message from classmates saying "Scott B Has Sent You A Message!" Now, knowing that I need to leave the house within a few minutes to get to sound check in time, I still ran to the laptop and pulled up the email. I clicked on the link. I logged in. I clicked on the message from Scott.

ENTER MY SECOND GRIPE ABOUT CLASSMATES

And I'm greeted by the annoying "Pay now to read this message!" screen. You're kidding me. I'm not trying to be cheap, but really?? I can post my profile for free, but to get any benefit at all out of it, I gotta pay?? AND THERE ARE ALL THOSE @#$%& ADS??? Wow. You guys suck. I'm going to church.

So I go, and I gotta say, we rocked the house. Then I got home, and told Cindy about my amazing coincidence. And that I was going to be paying for a short-term classmates membership so I could get my message. And I did! And then I discovered that Scott had been at classmates all along, (apparrantly hidden amid the ads to find love online) so it wasn't QUITE as amazing as I'd originally thought, but still... the timing of it all was pretty amazing.

So I wrote back, giving a brief update of who and where I am in life.

Sunday, June 17
Playing bass at the Sunday services too, so I'm up early, but check my mail, and Scott had replied. Cool. He jogged more long forgotten memories, and I'm really enjoying getting re-acquainted! My great dislike for classmates isn't fading, but it's really great to reconnect with someone I spent so much time with 20+ years ago!

P.S. To Classmates: (since I'm sure you read my blog regularly) When somebody pays to be a full-fledged "Gold" member, DROP SOME OF THE ADS!! MAN!!! I mean, if you don't make enough off membership fees, here's a suggestion: RAISE YOUR RATES! Or - and I know this is earth-shaking - maybe have "Gold" actually MEAN SOMETHING! You could have a "Bronze" or "Silver" level that lets you access messages and such, but still has the ads. The word "Gold" connotates that you're at the top! And at the top, I'm quite certain there aren't a constant barrage of garbage from True and Match.com. I expect that crap when I'm on cheesy low-end sites, but you guys have been around long enough to have worked out your own existence. I'd consider renewing my membership if it didn't mean I was still subjected to all that crap. Fo'real.

Better Than Their Parents...

Our kids continually amaze us. Both Cindy and I were very shy as kids, avoided giving speeches, acting in plays, playing team sports - nothing of the sort! But in the past week, we've seen evidence that our kids are already greatly surpassing us on all fronts!

Ellysa tried out for Softball and made the team - and even though she was new to the school, and many of the (evil) girls excluded her as an outsider, she stuck with it, and her last game is today!

Andy gave a speech a few days ago at Bellarmine, thanking them for a grant to Hunt Middle School that helped beautify the campus... He was nervous heading in to it, but did great!

And then there's Kaylee. She's the classic "nothin' I can't do" kid. Last night was the annual Whittier Elementary spring music program, and Kaylee had a solo... And I use NO exaggeration when I say that she OWNED the entire program. Just watch!

Nobody's gonna dump on that ump!! And then this coming Saturday and Sunday, she's taking her first crack at LEADING the worship song at church... Singing a solo, leading the kids, everything. Watch for details here!

New Feature: Kidz Art!

I've been wanting to do this for quite a while, and since I finally got my act together and scanned something in, here's the first installment of Kidz Art! All four of the kids do really great art - creative, funny, maybe a little disturbing... all the things that parents always say about their kids' artwork. The only difference is that ours actually live up to the hype! =)

So to kick off the series, here is one that Kaylee did a few weeks ago. She didn't name it, and I like to call it "The Little Dead Girl". See? just a *little* disturbing... at least she's a cute little dead girl, and she's smiling.. and it's raining bones... ummm.... okay, maybe a little bit more disturbing... but still a very good picture!

Casual Retail

There's really nothing else I can say that would enhance this...

What Xylophones Were Meant To Do

There's been a trend over the past year or two, of video game music being recognized and performed as the well written and insanely catchy compositions that they truly are. There was a tour last year where a full symphony orchestra performed a full length concert of video game themes through the ages, accompanied by a large screen showing the games the tunes came from. I'm telling you, something like that would get me excited to go to the symphony!

Then there was a clip a few months ago with a teen violin virtuoso performing the theme from "Halo", which looked cool, but since I'm not a hardcore first-person-shooter video game player, it didn't really mean much to me. Instead, I've spent my video game time playing the games which emphasize FUN over violence. Who's the hero of that genre? Mario, of course!

And his games always seem to have great musical backdrops... Including "Super Mario Bros. 2", which had a particularly bouncy and hummable soundtrack. So now we have Christine, who is quite handy with her Xylo-Mallets, giving Mario's vintage digital tunes a fresh new sound - but despite being fresh and new, it's every bit as toe-tappingly addictive as it is in its classic 8-bit glory. Hit play above, and enjoy. Happy Friday!

Naughty, Naughty Chickens!!

First off, a confession. When it comes to documenting life's adventures through photography, I completely suck. We've got a good enough digital camera, and it's perfectly easy to get the pics off the camera and into the computer... And yet, I *NEVER* seem to remember to grab the camera and take a picture when things happen that would be so much easier to relate with actual photographic proof that they occurred!! Now, when I had a camera phone, I did quite a bit better, with the exception that the pictures I did manage to take were of hideously low quality. But now that I'm on a crackberry that has no camera, I find myself, once again, after something happens, saying "D'oh! Why didn't I get a picture of that??"

Okay, now that my shortcomings have been aired, here's what happened this weekend.

When we bought our house, the previous owners had done a full remodel on it, and left evidence scattered around the property. One such piece of evidence is the old (and I do mean old!) kitchen sink, which had been propped up against the side of the garage ever since we moved in. Sure, we've said many times that we need to just go get rid of it, but it just hadn't happened yet... Until Saturday, when we finally said "enough's enough, and it's gotta go!" So we went over to that area next to the garage, where the kids park their bikes and discovered that there was more than just the sink - there was lots of remodel related junk there. So we got all the little pieces tossed into the back of the truck, and then went to move the monster iron sink.

(Time out for another quick update: Cindy's dad moved up here on Friday, and is staying primarily with us until we find him an apartment in Fircrest. I'll get another post up telling about that... maybe even with a picture... So he was outside with us when this story all took place. Thank you, we now resume the story of the naughty, naughty chickens.)

We went and got gloves on because the sink was big, heavy and filthy, and Cindy was quick to point out that it probably had spiders in it. Then we grabbed on and pulled it away from the house to start its journey to the dump. And we saw something that shocked us much more than spiders would have... We both utterred some sort of shocked exclamation, and called Dad over to see what we had discovered. As he made his way over to where we were, he said, "What is it? A Snake?? A Rat?? A Lizard??"

No.

Our naughty, naughty chickens had discovered that tucked underneath the sink was a great place to make their own nest to lay their eggs. There were FOURTEEN EGGS in the nest!! All three colours were there, meaning that all three of the hens had been using it... It was impossible to determine how long they'd been using that nest, but for the last several months, the egg production in the APPROVED nest has been very low. And I have caught the girls over in that section of the yard before, and shoo'd them back into the APPROVED poultry habitat. Now I know what they were doing back there.

We finished moving the extremely heavy sink into the truck, and buried the potentially rotten eggs deep in the ground I was digging up to become our vegetable garden. Then it hit me - WHY didn't we take a picture of the nest!!?? It was startlingly perfect, nice and round, old leaves shaped into a bowl, with more than a dozen brown, green and blue-green eggs laying in it. The eggs were even segregated by colour - brown down the middle, with the two shades of green on alternating ends. It looked like an Easter Basket! But since I didn't take a picture, I found a pic of a basket of eggs that at least match the colours of our surprise egg hunt.

So I put up a fence to block that part of the yard off, and though they COULD fly over it, I'm hoping it'll stop them. But I will be checking there for eggs the next time there aren't any in the approved egg location.

And I'll be sure to get pictures the next time something newsworthy takes place...

Back to Broadcasting!

As most of you (hopefully) know, I've had music in my veins my entire life. This culminated during the '90s, when I worked by day, programming music for businesses (Steak & Ale, Bennigan's, Rave, Williams-Sonoma and NikeTown were a few of my accounts) and then on Friday nights, I hit the airwaves of KNHC 89.5 FM in Seattle as DJ Mike Brady, producing the Friday Night PartyZone. As the century turned over, things began to wind down on the music-as-a-profession front. AEI Music (day job) merged (got bought) with (by) DMX Music (yeah, the one that does music for cable-tv systems), and my job was eliminated. In the meantime, the drive up to north Seattle for the radio station was getting longer and longer as I moved further and further south, and the station politics were getting more and more aggravating. So in late-2000, I retired from the station too. Ever since then, other than an occasional wedding reception or company party, my musical ambitions have been fulfilled by singing or playing in the music team at Church - which is great, I totally love it!! However, as someone who pretended to be on the radio from the time I was 4 or 5, and then getting there later, and then not being there, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it. A lot.

Sooooooooo, long intro aside, a year ago, a good friend in Melbourne, Australia, brought the PartyZone label back to life as the Saturday Night PartyZone on his local station. A few months later he asked me if I'd like to guest on the show, which I jumped at! Now, he's gotten his SNPZ syndicated on several continents of the world, and in the process, encountered an Internet-Only station in the U.K. that was looking for an '80s show. While I love pretty much all (good) music, the '80s stand out to me as the pinnacle, the best that Pop Music has ever acheived. And I'm continually backed up on this, by people who were far too young to have lived through it like I did, but still say (unprovoked!) that they think the '80s had the best music.

Now, I'm about to start producing a show for GenerationMix! It'll be a one-hour weekly '80s show, and I am totally excited!! I don't know what my time slot will be yet, and I'm still trying to get the perfect name for the show... So if anyone has any great ideas, I'd love to hear them!! Watch this space for updates as we get closer to the first show going out... And of course, if you have any '80s requests, I'd love to indulge you... =)

We're Finally Losing, and it Feels GREAT!

Way back, last Fall, I posted here that I was going to get serious about dropping my extra weight. I got serious, but still didn't get the results I was hoping for... The reality is, that kind of thing is much more successful when you've got a partner to do it with you. And even MORE successful when that partner is your spouse. Not only is there an extra level of accountability, but the partnership really makes it easier to stay on the plan.

Two weeks ago, Cindy decided that she was going to start working out with me every day, and watching what she eats. That has made a huge difference to both of us! Getting up for a 5am workout is SO much easier when you're not leaving someone behind in a nice, warm bed... And having someone to check in with throughout the day and just touch base with on things like what you ate for breakfast, keeps it in the front of your mind. And when it's in the front of your mind, it's a lot easier to skip right past the candy jar on the counter at work... or the fast food joint you drive past in the morning...

And after 2 weeks, we've each lost weight! Enough that we're inspired and energized to keep going, knowing our goals are attainable. Life is Good!!

Return of the Removed Adenoids

So it's been about 5 months since Tyler (not pictured at left) was in the hospital for a week with a swollen eye infection.

Periodically since then, he's complained that his eyes were still hurting. I tended to blow it off, thinking he was just paranoid after his ordeal, and associating any discomfort with that same problem. Well, he kept saying he was hurting, and finally he went in to see an ENT doctor, who took an MRI.

Four years ago, Tyler's tonsils and adenoids were removed, due to being oversized and prone to infection. Apparantly the adenoids didn't like being told to move out, and grew back.

I know, the whole notion of them growing back makes me wonder if Tyler's turning into a zombie or something, but I'm told that it happens in about 1% of the removal cases.

So, he's going in for surgery again, on March 13, and hopefully the little troublemakers will stay gone this time. We would certainly appreciate your thoughts and prayers for a quick recovery!

And The Youngest Turns Nine

Last week, Tyler (not pictured at left) had his 9th birthday. It's hard to believe, like it always is, but as I think about it, the bigger milestone is that in one more year, all four of our kids will be in double-digits. Each year brings more independence, more things they (and we) can do...

It just kinda makes me look back and take stock of where things are in my life - and I love where things are in my life!! Cindy and I have been together since Tyler was only 2, and Kaylee was 3. To look back over our pictures, it's amazing to see the growth as they've grown up over the years.

Between my family, my job and my church, I can't believe how incredibly blessed I am! So I'd like to publicly thank all of them right now for a life I didn't believe existed 10 years ago. THANK YOU!!

A Test For Smart People!

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a professional. Scroll down for each answer. The questions are NOT that difficult. But don't scroll down UNTIL you have answered the question!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?




















The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.


2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?





















Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.


3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend... except one. Which animal does not attend?





















Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.


4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?





















Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers. Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.

It's Electric!

Pictured to the left, is an artist's rendition of an Electric Slide. You may have heard of "The Electric Slide", a group dance often done at wedding receptions, and quite often, done very badly. In fact, in my side-job as a DJ for such functions, "Slide Time" has become a fun diversion from the normal blathering of requests that nobody other than the requester would ever care to hear.. It's a time when young and old join together to collide in a giggling trainwreck of semi-synchronized stepping, lunging, and yes - smashing into each other. Honestly, someone usually ends up on their back before the song's over. It's a tradition!!

BUT - did you know that the steps that make up this treasured dance didn't just come together over the dancefloors of the ages, but instead were choreographed by a man named Richard Silver? I didn't either! It turns out he created the steps in 1976 (probably to put a smack-down on all those punks doing The Hustle for free) but didn't get around to copyrighting them until 2004. What?? You can copyright dance steps?? Apparently so. And since you can copyright them, you can go completely Rufus and sue people and organizations that you believe are abusing your rights.

In 2007, what's the biggest source of entertaining videos of people dancing badly? Did you say YouTube? CORRECT! So YouTube is suddenly being swamped with demands from lil' Richie Silver demanding that they remove any videos of his masterpiece being desecrated. I actually find that I'm at a loss for words to describe just how insane this whole situation is. So I'll just point you to the original article here.

And the next time you're at a wedding, watch out! If somebody has a camcorder present, you could find yourself in violation of international copyright law! Forget downloading movies, the REAL crime is screwing up The Electric Slide.

Friday Funny!

It's a great idea - you gotta love that redneck creativity!

Wii Tennis Better Than Real Tennis!

The Wii is apparantly one of the great equalizers in life... The clip below shows Conan O'Brien putting the smackdown on real-life tennis star Serena Williams. The best part? After watching it, I'm pretty sure I could take her too! Viva la Wii!

Picture of the Week

All I can say is that I hope they offer refunds.

Come Be A Champion For A Night!

Two years ago at the end of January, our church recorded their first CD & DVD. (pictured at left) It was an amazing experience, really on par with many concerts I've paid to attend. All the music was written by people in the music department at the church, the house was packed, they cranked the volume up to 11, and the electricity in the air was incredible!

Well, we're doing it again - Saturday, January 27 is the date for the second CD & DVD recording! We're absolutely going to be there, and would love for some of our friends from Discovery and elsewhere to join us! Afterward we can grab dinner and/or Ice Cream (Mad Jack's is so good, you capitalize it!) and maybe toss in a little Wii Sports action...

On a serious, church related note: It's been quite a year, with a temporary switch in where we go to church... But God is always there with us, and true to form, He's made everything beautiful. We now have many great friends we would never have met otherwise, and we also gained a much deeper understanding of His plan for our lives. There's something about knowing beyond a doubt where you belong... And no matter how great a place may be, until you've left and come back, you don't really get it. Well we get it now, and it feels so good!

Thank you to all at both churches - without you, we would be quite a bit weaker in our faith.

I'm Gonna Need A Shotgun...

I've been hearing on the news that 9 is the new 13, and 14 is the new 17 or some such nonsense... I just want to say that THAT IS NO EXCUSE!!

There's just no way that it can be OK that our Ellysa is growing up so fast. A few weeks ago, she had her first semi-formal dance at school.... They have those in 8th grade now??!! YIKES!! As you can see from the picture, she was clearly the belle of the ball, and Cindy and I just thank God that she's focusing on the important things (school, church, etc) and NOT entertaining the attention of the pimply-faced teenage boys who need to keep their distance if they don't want to find themselves on the receiving end of a laser guided anti-testosterone attack!!

Picture of the Week - Snow Art Edition!

So the weatherman is saying that we're gonna have snow tomorrow... I hope we get enough to make some Raving Rabbid SnowBunnies!!

This was created as part of a contest at video gaming blog Kotaku... Lots of other fun entries, but none that I loved as much as the psycho snowbunnies!

You can check 'em out here.