The Remnant...

2012 Personal Goals - Month 1 Update

2012-02-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

1st Month is done and off to a decent start.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 3rd year on the list. Lets see if I can do it this year. Starting point - 1st section first draft is done.
Month 1 Update - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - Again 3rd year on the list. I think I will have a little more time this year to get it done. Starting point - 182.1.
Month 1 Update - 181.7

3 Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - 3 books are left on the list. I am currently in the middle of War and Peace and hope to finish it by March.
Month 1 Update - Finished Book 3 of 4 in War and Peace.

4. Read 7 books on the Sybervision Book List for a total of 75
January 1st - To get to a nice round number of 75 I want to finish 7 more books.
Month 1 Update - Reading War and Peace

5. Read 7 books on the BBC Book List for a total of 45
January 1st - These are generally easier books to read, especially with Annabelle.
Month 1 Update - Reading Anne of Green Gables and War and Peace

6. Update 2 Geologic Movie Reviews
January 1st - I have 1 update I need to do one one movie and a complete overhaul of the other.
Month 1 Update - Nothing new

7. Finish 1 more movie on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to do 1 more movie, most likely Earthquake!.
Month 1 Update - Nothing new

8. Watch 15 of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 70 so 15 more will get me 1/2 way to the goal.
Month 1 Update - Watched High Noon. 14 more to go.

9. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - This went over well last year so let's do it again.
Month 1 Update - I wanted to finish these early and release them as the months went by. I have 9 done so far. 3 left to go.

10. Skin the top of the Hovercraft
January 1st - I finished working on the bottom last year so lets see if I can get the top done this year. And with my new garage heater I will be able to work during the colder months.
Month 1 Update - Nothing new

11. Catalogue, photograph, and organize Star Wars collection by CVI
January 1st - With Star Wars Celebration VI coming up in August I want to catalogue and photograph my collection to get ready to know anything I need to buy when I go.
Month 1 Update - Caught up on the pile of recent stuff but nothing else.

12. Do 1 major job each month on the "Things to Do for the House" list
January 1st - With an updated list we have 20 things that we want to do to get the house in tip-top shape.
Month 1 Update - Started working on some things but nothing finished

Other items of note:
Pretty good month other than stuff on the list. I presented a poster to ExxonMobil. I finished 2 grant proposals and I went home for a week with Annabelle. Other than that I have been playing catch-up with my piles of things that got left out while I was working on the poster and the proposals.

100 Greatest Movies - High Noon

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

This time we are looking at High Noon which is #33 on the 100 Greatest Movies List, it is also #27 on the 10th Anniversary List, #20 on the 100 Greatest Thrillers, and #27 on the 100 Most Inspirational movies list.

High Noon is the type of movie that builds suspense over the entire length of the movie. The premise of the movie is that the marshal (Gary Cooper) of this western town is expecting a killer that he put away several years ago to come in on the noon train, which is roughly 1.5 hours away. He spends the majority of the movie trying to find recruits to fight against him with the climax of the movie being the expected battle. Overall, I felt the movie dragged on a bit but it was interesting watching him go through the town and dealing with the townspeople. Most of those he asks directly refuse to fight but all of those who insist on joining are all turned away. The one surprising aspect of the movie was the role of the marshal's wife (Grace Kelly). The ending of the story turned around for her and I wasn't expecting her to act the way she did. Overall I thought it was a good movie but I would not say great movie. I felt the frustration from the marshal and I believe that was what was driving the movie but overall I thought that the story was rather thin and probably could have been condensed down.

2012 Personal Goals - Initial Post

2012-01-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

In 2010 I completed 14% of what I set out to do (1 out of 7). In 2011 I completed 30% (3 out of 10). The goal this year is to beat a 30% completion rate. Hopefully it will be possible even with my school work. Also I am redoing the format of the Personal Goal updates so that there is less "Nothing New" written and it's more compact.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 3rd year on the list. Lets see if I can do it this year. Starting point - 1st section first draft is done.

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - Again 3rd year on the list. I think I will have a little more time this year to get it done. Starting point - 182.1.

3 Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - 3 books are left on the list. I am currently in the middle of War and Peace and hope to finish it by March.

4. Read 7 books on the Sybervision Book List for a total of 75
January 1st - To get to a nice round number of 75 I want to finish 7 more books.

5. Read 7 books on the BBC Book List for a total of 45
January 1st - These are generally easier books to read, especially with Annabelle.

6. Update 2 Geologic Movie Reviews
January 1st - I have 1 update I need to do one one movie and a complete overhaul of the other.

7. Finish 1 more movie on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to do 1 more movie, most likely Earthquake!.

8. Watch 15 of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 70 so 15 more will get me 1/2 way to the goal.

9. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - This went over well last year so let's do it again.

10. Skin the top of the Hovercraft
January 1st - I finished working on the bottom last year so lets see if I can get the top done this year. And with my new garage heater I will be able to work during the colder months.

11. Catalogue, photograph, and organize Star Wars collection by CVI
January 1st - With Star Wars Celebration VI coming up in August I want to catalogue and photograph my collection to get ready to know anything I need to buy when I go.

12. Do 1 major job each month on the "Things to Do for the House" list
January 1st - With an updated list we have 17 things that we want to do to get the house in tip-top shape.

Other items of note:
Like last year I hope to get some of these done early so that I'm not rushing to finish them by the end of the year.

2011 Personal Goals - December and Year End Update

2012-01-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

All done, 12 months done.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing
September 1st - Nothing
October 1st - Nothing
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing
January 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6
September 1st - 180.0
October 1st - 181.9 - New scale weighs about 2 lbs heavier
November 1st - 179.2
December 1st - 179.2
January 1st - 182.1

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse
September 1st - No paychecks for 2 months but we should finally be getting back on track this month.
October 1st - New jobs finally paying, not sure if we are going to hit this goal though
November 1st - Damn cars
December 1st - Not looking good
January 1st - Not even close

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st
September 1st - Finished Book 1 of 4 of War and Peace
October 1st - In the middle of Book 2 of War and Peace
November 1st - Finished book 2 of 4
December 1st - In the middle of book 3 but not going to finish in time.
Janausry 1st - Still in middle of book 3.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new
January 1st - Nothing

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Started working on The Day After Tomorrow
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new
January 1st - Nothing

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new
January 1st - Nothing

8. (DONE!) Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go
September 1st - 1 done for August, 4 to go
October 1st - 1 done for September, 3 to go
November 1st - 2 done, 1 for October and 1 for November, 1 to go.
December 1st - 1 more still to go
January 1st - Finished last one. Task complete.

Other items of interest:
This month I had to finish a poster as well and mostly complete two separate grant proposals. Well I finished the poster with plenty of time left over and the two proposals are well on their way and are currently out of my hands. So the end of the year finishes up my current push to get work done. Christmas was also fantastic. Annabelle really got into it and was wripping presents open all over the place and she got a ton of presents. More evidence that she has a family all over the country that love her soo much. Overall a good year.

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4a. (DONE!) Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists by my 30th birthday
January 1st - Current count 97. Only 3 to read by March 19th. This was the initial goal last year but I hoped to have them done earlier.

February 1st - Currently reading Lolita.
March 1st - Finished Lolita and The Colour of Magic. Only 1 to go before March 19th
April 1st - Finished The Colour of Magic. This task is completed!!!

7. (DONE!) Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on
July 1st - Finished putting the 3 coats of sealant on. Now to paint it.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Finished painting the botoom and flipped it over. This job is DONE. Pictures to follow shortly hopefully.

2011 Personal Goals - November Update

2011-12-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

11 months in, 1 to go.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing
September 1st - Nothing
October 1st - Nothing
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6
September 1st - 180.0
October 1st - 181.9 - New scale weighs about 2 lbs heavier
November 1st - 179.2
December 1st - 179.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse
September 1st - No paychecks for 2 months but we should finally be getting back on track this month.
October 1st - New jobs finally paying, not sure if we are going to hit this goal though
November 1st - Damn cars
December 1st - Not looking good.

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st
September 1st - Finished Book 1 of 4 of War and Peace
October 1st - In the middle of Book 2 of War and Peace
November 1st - Finished book 2 of 4
December 1st - In the middle of book 3 but not going to finish in time.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Started working on The Day After Tomorrow
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go
September 1st - 1 done for August, 4 to go
October 1st - 1 done for September, 3 to go
November 1st - 2 done, 1 for October and 1 for November, 1 to go.
December 1st - 1 more still to go

Other items of interest:
I went to the annual SVP meeting in Las Vegas for the beginning part of the month and had a lot of fun but then I was sick off and on for the rest of November. Not very nice. But Thanksgiving went over well and I had a good time spending it with my family. Now off to finish 2 grant proposals and a poster before January.

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100 Greatest Books #101 - Little Women

2011-12-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

The next book on my reading list is Little Women by Loisa May Alcott. You can find this book on the Sybervision, Observer, and BBC Book Lists. As I have mentioned before, since I am reading from four 100 Greatest Books Lists and one Top 10 Book List, there is a total of 306 books to read. So this segment will continue for a while.

Typically when Little Women is mentioned, it is often regarded (at least in my mind) as a little girls-chick lit. I had tended to stay away from this book for that very reason and it might have worked out for the better. The way I read it was very slowly, about 10 pages or so a night, to my daughter, over most of the year. In this way I had a chance to grow with the characters as they were growing and watch my daughter grow as well. I become connected to them in a way that doesn't usually happen to me and when one of them died, I really felt the loss. This book was one of the better books I have read in a while and although it would probably still be considered a chick-lit book, I found the characters very engaging and the writing to be far superior to many books written for the same level. As the characters got older, the language in the book also seemed to be getting older, to the point that at the end I didn't know what several of the words even meant, or how to pronounce them. In the end, I would recommend this book, especially as a family read-time book. I had a great time reading it to my daughter and I could feel many families would enjoy a similar experience.

2011 Personal Goals - October Update

2011-11-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

10 months in, 2 to go.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing
September 1st - Nothing
October 1st - Nothing
November 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6
September 1st - 180.0
October 1st - 181.9 - New scale weighs about 2 lbs heavier
November 1st - 179.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse
September 1st - No paychecks for 2 months but we should finally be getting back on track this month.
October 1st - New jobs finally paying, not sure if we are going to hit this goal though
November 1st - Damn cars

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st
September 1st - Finished Book 1 of 4 of War and Peace
October 1st - In the middle of Book 2 of War and Peace
November 1st - Finished book 2 of 4

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Started working on The Day After Tomorrow
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go
September 1st - 1 done for August, 4 to go
October 1st - 1 done for September, 3 to go
November 1st - 2 done, 1 for October and 1 for November, 1 to go.

Other items of interest:
October I continued working on my research. Nothing much of interest happening besides that.

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Hovercraft Update

2011-10-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, my goal this summer was to finish the bottom of the hovercraft. Well it is done for now. It still needs the skirt strips and the actual skirt but for now it has been flipped over after this final paint job with bottom paint.

You can check out the process from start to finish over at my website.

2011 Personal Goals - September Update

2011-10-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Nine months in, down to the final 1/4.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing
September 1st - Nothing
October 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6
September 1st - 180.0
October 1st - 181.9 - New scale weighs about 2 lbs heavier

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse
September 1st - No paychecks for 2 months but we should finally be getting back on track this month.
October 1st - New jobs finally paying, not sure if we are going to hit this goal though

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st
September 1st - Finished Book 1 of 4 of War and Peace
October 1st - In the middle of Book 2 of War and Peace

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Started working on The Day After Tomorrow
October 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new

7. (DONE!) Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on
July 1st - Finished putting the 3 coats of sealant on. Now to paint it.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Finished painting the botoom and flipped it over. This job is DONE. Pictures to follow shortly hopefully.

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go
September 1st - 1 done for August, 4 to go
October 1st - 1 done for September, 3 to go

Other items of interest:
September I basically spent working on my research. Finished the bottom of the hovercraft which was pretty monumental but other than that, not much done.

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2011 Personal Goals - August Update

2011-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Eight months in and back to school full time.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing
September 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6
September 1st - 180.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse
September 1st - No paychecks for 2 months but we should finally be getting back on track this month.

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st
September 1st - Finished Book 1 of 4 of War and Peace

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Started working on The Day After Tomorrow

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on
July 1st - Finished putting the 3 coats of sealant on. Now to paint it.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go
September 1st - 1 done for August, 4 to go

Other items of interest:
August was spent partially with my family and then back to school full time. Hopefully since I am not TAing this year I will be able to get a significant amount of research done as well as working on some other projects. I have gotten a bunch of little projects around the house done like upgrading the yard lighting (almost done) and fixing the sprinkler system.

----------------------------------Finished Items---------------------------------------

2011 Personal Goals - July Update

2011-08-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Seven months in and getting lazy.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on
July 1st - Finished putting the 3 coats of sealant on. Now to paint it.
August 1st - Nothing new

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go

Other items of interest:
July was spent on two fronts, Europe and home. My European trip was pretty productive I feel, now I just need to spend the time to get everything organized. While at home I just spent time with my family since my wife was off of work for all of the month. It was nice to be home and not have anything urgent to do. I just worked on some projects around the house when I was able to.

----------------------------------Finished Items---------------------------------------

100 Greatest Movies - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

2011-08-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

This time we are looking at The Treasure of the Sierra Madre which is #30 on the 100 Greatest Movies List, it is also #38 on the 10th Anniversary List, and #67 on the 100 Greatest Thrillers.

On the whole, this seemed like a loose string of adventures. Sure, some of them were fun to watch and others were pretty interesting but basically it felt very disjointed. I'm not entirely sure why this made the list. The acting was pretty good but I felt the story could have used a little improvement. Overall, I enjoyed it but didn't love it.

Star Wars Timeline Updates

2011-08-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have released the first update of the year for my Star Wars Timeline. This also includes updates for all the checklists available on the site. You can check out a comprehensive list of the updates on the SW Updates page. I have also put up a bunch of new pictures of my collection of comics. Hopefully I will get all the pictures of my collection done at some point but at least we are a little further along now.

2011 Personal Goals - June Update

2011-07-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Six months in (1/2 way) and quite a bit late for an update but whatever:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on
July 1st - Finished putting the 3 coats of sealant on. Now to paint it.

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go

Other items of interest:
I spent most of the month reading articles, taking care of Annabelle and getting my stuff in order for my European trip. I left for Europe on June 29th, hence the reason for the late update since I just got back last week. But all in all a productive trip that should really help advance my research for the coming year.

----------------------------------Finished Items---------------------------------------

Sith Lords Update

2011-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to make a quick note that I finally updated my Chronology of the Sith Lords page with several of the more prominent Sith in the current EU now. You can see a list of all the updates on the SW Updates Page.

Hovercraft Update

2011-06-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

Back to business. My goal this summer (2011) is to finish the bottom so I can flip it back over and work on the inside. Well to do that I had to finish fixing the holes that kept occurring every time I sanded down the edges of the lift duct and to smooth out the remaining edges. I also fixed the two holes I had to cut out for the wheel wells from the trailer. I finished all that, got it all smooth, and filled in all the holes. Then I purchased some sealant for the bottom. Since it is all plywood, I figured it probably needs some. That is why it looks much more glossy now than it did before. I also painted the sealant over the paint job that I did before (the red) on the sides since they most likely needed it as well. The next step is to put some bottom guard boat paint to help seal against mold and rot.

You can check out the process from start to finish over at my website.

Love Your Job - Humor

2011-06-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is even funnier when you realize it's real! The next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an e-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to a radio station 103.2 on the FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Sue:

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit and this time of year the water is quite cool! So to keep warm we have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea and heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do when I get the bottom and start working is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of the sudden, my butt started to itch.

Of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit.

Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate.

When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say, I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression tops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry. When I arrived at the surface I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.

2011 Personal Goals - May Update

2011-06-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Five months in and into the summer time:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Stille 1 to go

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go

Other items of interest:
May was pretty uneventful other than a few visits by family and I was able to catch up on a large catelogue of things I had to do left over from the semester. This month will be mostly spent getting ready for my trip to Spain.

----------------------------------Finished Items---------------------------------------

La Caille Restaurant

2011-05-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures on my wife's and I anniversary dinner back in February when we went to La Caille restaurant, which is often regarded as the most expensive restaurant in Salt Lake City. And going there again for a Mother's Day Sunday Brunch reminded me that I had them so I figured I would post them.

Sorry for the blurriness, I took them with my phone. But I think that it is great that they played off of their expensiveness with the first one. It may be difficult to read but all the menu items had a price spelled out (i.e. Fifty-Two Dollars instead of $52). So when we came across this one we weren't sure if they were serious or not (it states Financing Available). They were rather humorous about it though and the waitress confirmed that it was indeed a joke. Plus for our anniversary they gave us this firecracker candle with our desert, which really made it special.

So, all in all, I think the food was really good and the ambiance was fantastic but the price a little high for dinner (it was roughly $200 before tip). But Sunday brunch was less than half the cost of dinner, I think tasted even better, and you had the same ambiance. So I say if you going to check it out, go during Sunday brunch. You definitely won't regret it.

2011 Personal Goals - April Update

2011-05-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Four months in (a little late):

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go

Other items of interest:
Finished up the semester. Nothing else really big happening. Just trying to tie some ends up from the semester before I can move on.

----------------------------------Finished Items---------------------------------------

Annabelle Le(hane)

2011-04-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

In honor of my babies first birthday I present here the poem in which she was partially named after.

Annabelle Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabelle Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabelle Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabelle Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabelle Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabelle Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabelle Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Bits of Wisdom - Humor

2011-04-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Love is grand;
divorce is a hundred grand.

***************************

I am in shape.
Round is a shape.

***************************

Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.

***************************

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.

***************************

Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.

***************************

Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.

***************************

Even if you are on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just sit there.

***************************

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason.

***************************

An optimist thinks that this is the best possible world.
A pessimist fears that this is true.

**************************

There will always be death and taxes; however, death doesn't get worse every year.

***************************

In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.

***************************

Dijon vu --
the same mustard as before.

***************************

I am a nutritional overachiever.

***************************

I am having an out of money experience.

***************************

I plan on living forever. So far, so good.

***************************

Practice safe eating --
always use condiments.

***************************

A day without sunshine is like night.

***************************

If marriage were outlawed, only outlaws would have in-laws.

***************************

It's frustrating when you know all the answers,
but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

***************************

The real art of conversation is not only to
say the right thing at the right time,
but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

***************************

Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

***************************

Age doesn't always bring wisdom.
Sometimes age comes alone.

***************************

Life not only begins at forty,
it also begins to show.

**************************

You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stopped laughing.

Happy Dyngus Day!!

2011-04-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

All of this info and more can be found at http://www.dyngusdaybuffalo.com/

WHAT IS DYNGUS DAY?
Historically a Polish-American tradition, Dyngus Day celebrates the end of the often restrictive observance of lent and the joy of Easter. Over the decades, Dyngus Day has become a wonderful holiday to celebrate Polish-American culture, heritage and traditions.

HOW DID IT START?
There are many stories that attempt to explain the origins of the day. Many Polish customs date back to pre-Christian practices of our Slavic ancestors. The custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification, and fertility. The same is true of the complimentary practice of switching with pussy willow branches. Since 966 A.D., Dyngus Day has been associated with the baptism of Prince Mieszko I. Tradition states that Prince Mieszko I along with his court were baptized on Easter Monday. Thus, Dyngus Day and its rites of sprinkling with water have become a folk celebration in thanksgiving for the fact that the first king of Poland was baptized into Christianity, bringing Catholicism to Poland. In more modern times, the tradition continued when farm boys in Poland wanted to attract notice from the girls of their choice. It was custom to throw water and hit the girls on their legs with twigs or pussywillows. Cologne was used instead of water by the more gallant lads. The ladies would reciprocate by throwing dishes & crockery and Tuesday was their day of revenge, imitating the same tactics.

WHAT DOES THE WORD DYNGUS MEAN?
According to the Encyclopedia Staropolska written in the 19th century by A. Gloger, the word can be traced back to a medieval form of the word “Dingnus,” which means “worthy, proper, or suitable.” Gloger cites a used of the word, namely “ranson during a war to protect against pillage,” as well as a German usage of “Dingen,” which means “to come to an agreement, evaluate or buy back.”

MODERN DYNGUS DAY IN BUFFALO
Although Dyngus Day was always celebrated in traditional Polish neighborhoods dated back to the 1870s, modern Dyngus Day in Buffalo had its start with the Chopin Singing Society in 1961. Judge Ann T. Mikoll and her late husband Theodore V. Mikoll held the first party at the Society's clubrooms on Kosciuszko Street on Buffalo's Eastside. The success of the Chopins' Dyngus Parties during the 1960s led to other Dyngus dances on the Eastside including those at the Broadway Grill, the Warsaw Inn, the Polish Singing Circle and at the New York Central Terminal. Chopins left the Eastside in the 1980s and moved out to new clubrooms in Cheektowaga where the festival attracted a new generation. The Chopins tradition continues with party's taking place at the Heathstone Mannor in Depew.

The Guy's Rules - Humor

2011-04-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

The Guys' Rules

Finally, the guys' side of the story.
(I must admit, it's pretty good.)
We always hear "the rules" from the female side.
Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are our rules!
Please note... these are all numbered "1" ON PURPOSE!

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine..Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

1. You have enough clothes.
1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round is a shape.
1. Thank you for reading this.

Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; but did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down

2011 Personal Goals - March Update

2011-04-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Three months in and starting to regain control:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track

4a. (DONE!) Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists by my 30th birthday
January 1st - Current count 97. Only 3 to read by March 19th. This was the initial goal last year but I hoped to have them done earlier.
February 1st - Currently reading Lolita.
March 1st - Finished Lolita and The Colour of Magic. Only 1 to go before March 19th
April 1st - Finished The Colour of Magic. This task is completed!!!

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.

Other items of interest:
Busy busy. I finished up my PhD exam and I passed (ish) after a grueling ~18 hour exam. I still have a couple of thigs to write up but overall I am finished. We also took a trip down to Arizona and visited the Grand Canyon as well as some other National Parks in the area for Spring Break. School is slowly coming to a conclusion for the semester and I am slowly gaining control over all the things that seemed to have gone out of whack. April should be good.

100 Greatest Books #100 - Black Beauty

2011-03-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

The next book on my reading list is Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. You can find this book on the BBC Book List. This is the 100th overall book that I have read, but as I have mentioned before, since I am reading from four 100 Greatest Books Lists and one Top 10 Book List, there is a total of 306 books to read. So this segment will continue for a while. Also, I did want to finish 100 total books before I turned 30, and I did. I finished the book yesterday, while today is my 30th birthday :-).

I rather enjoyed this book. I thought it had an interesting perspective, which was looking at a horse's life through the eyes of the horse. It didn't have the ridiculous "animals talking" thing that a lot of books have, but I felt it was rather natural. The way a horse would act if you could get inside it's head. You saw his (Black Beauty's) life from the time of being a young colt through to his "retirement home" and all the things that went right and went wrong along the way. The author also showed other horses and people and how their lives changed and how that impacted Black Beauty's life. I also really liked how information was only gained by the reader through the horse, so the only way you knew how a conversation or event went was when they were in proximity of the horse so he could relay it to the reader. Very well done, but I feel it is a bit simplistic and better off as a children's book. Not really belonging on the 100 Greatest Books list, so I will leave it off of my Must Read List.

Happy Saint Patricks Day - Humor

2011-03-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

McQuillan walked into a bar and ordered martini after martini, each time removing the olives and placing them in a jar.

When the jar was filled with olives and all the drinks consumed, the Irishman started to leave.

"S'cuse me", said a customer, who was puzzled over what McQuillan had done, "what was that all about?"

"Nothin', said the Irishman, "my wife just sent me out for a jar of olives!"

*******************************************************

I've Lost Me Luggage

An Irishman arrived at J.F.K. Airport and wandered around the terminal with tears streaming down his cheeks. An airline employee asked him if he was already homesick.

"No," replied the Irishman "I've lost all me luggage!"

"How'd that happen?"

"The cork fell out!" said the Irishman.

*****************************************************

Water to Wine

An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut.

The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?"

"Just water," says the priest.

The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?"

The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"

***********************************************

The Brothel

Two Irishmen were sitting at a pub having beer and watching the brothel across the street.

They saw a Baptist minister walk into the brothel, and one of them said, "Aye, 'tis a shame to see a man of the cloth goin' bad."

Then they saw a rabbi enter the brothel, and the other Irishman said, "Aye, 'tis a shame to see that the Jews are fallin' victim to temptation as well."

Then they see a catholic priest enter the brothel, and one of the Irishmen said, "What a terrible pity...one of the girls must be dying.

*************************************

Irish Cemetery

Three Irishmen, Paddy, Sean and Seamus, were stumbling home from the pub late one night and found themselves on the road which led past the old graveyard..

"Come have a look over here," says Paddy, "It's Michael O'Grady's grave, God bless his soul. He lived to the ripe old age of 87."

"That's nothing," says Sean, "here's one named Patrick O'Toole, it says here that he was 95 when he died."!

Just then, Seamus yells out, "Good God, here's a fella that got to be 145!"

"What was his name?" asks Paddy.

Seamus stumbles around a bit, awkwardly lights a match to see what else is written on the stone marker, and exclaims,

"Miles, from Dublin."

***************************************************

Irish Predicament

Drunk Ole Mulvihill (From the Northern Irish Clan) staggers into a Catholic Church, enters a confessional box, sits down, but says nothing.

The Priest coughs a few times to get his attention but Ole Mulvihill just sits there.

Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall.

The drunk mumbles, "ain't no use knockin, there's no paper on this side either."

***************************************************

Irish Last Request

Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady's after his Sunday morning service, and she's in tears.

He says, "So what's bothering you, Mary my dear?"

She says, "Oh, Father, I've got terrible news. My husband passed away last night."

The priest says, "Oh, Mary, that's terrible. Tell me, did he have any last requests?"

She says, "That he did, Father..."

The priest says, "What did he ask, Mary?"

She says, "He said, 'Please Mary, put down that damn gun!'

I AM A COLLEGE STUDENT... Humor

2011-03-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Ah college, some of these are still apt for me but some remind me of the good ole days. And yea for 100 posts on The Remnant...
--------------------------------------------------------
I am a college student. I have a specific shower stall which I refer to as "mine" and my feet will never touch the floor of it.

I am a college student. I try to rotate stalls in the bathroom so I can read all the material taped to the walls.

I am a MALE college student. I always have more than one condom on hand. Two in one night? Morning after? You never know.

I am a college student. I now fail to distinguish the difference in taste between water and beer.

I am a FEMALE college student. I own a bathrobe.

I am a college student. I didn't get my homework done because the kid I share a book with wasn't home last night to get it to me.

I am a college student. Drunken scrawlings on my message board or late night drunken IM's from friends across campus no longer perplex me.

I am a college student. Somebody keeps stealing my damn message board marker.

I am a college student. I pre-party in my room just so I will be drunk enough not to notice the sub-zero weather when I walk to the bar without a coat.

I am a college student. I pray for hotties in my classes so that I will have a reason to go to that class. However, I will never talk to any of these hotties.

I am a college student. I can no longer remember what was cooked in those dirty dishes.

I am a college student. I have seen more than one party turn into a strip show.

I am a college student. My telephone number only has 4 digits.

I am a college student. I have spent nights on the floor because I couldn't get up the ladder to my bed.

I am a college student. I see no problem fitting 2 people in one twin size bed.

I am a MALE college student. I know that a gentleman would let her have the side by the wall (it's a long way to the floor).

I am a college student. I will cross busy streets just to pick up what might be a quarter.

I am a college student. I want a girl/boyfriend who disappears from 9pm - 2am every Friday and Saturday night, reappearing undressed in bed with me when I get home.

I am a college student. Answering machine messages are a thing to be celebrated.

I am a college student. When I see movie trailers on TV, I say "I can't wait to RENT that."

I am a college student. Going "out to eat" no longer involves getting in a vehicle.

I am a college student. I don't know half of my professors' names.

I am a FEMALE college student. I use empty beer bottles for vases.

I am a college student. Christmas lights are a year-round decoration.

I am a college student. Laundry bags double as suitcases.

I am a FEMALE college student. I have worn my huge fuzzy slippers to the cafeteria at dinnertime.

I am a college student. Going to bed before 2:00 is almost unheard of.

I am a college student. If it doesn't look or smell dirty, even if it has been on the floor for 3 days, it can be worn again.

I am a college student. Nat Lite is a high class beer.

I am a college student. I am accustomed to asking "do you have a student discount?" wherever I go.

I am a college student. Going to early classes in my pajamas is fine.

I am a college student. Parties Wednesday through Saturday night are never hard to find.

I am a college student. To get extra money I sell my plasma, or my roommate's cd's.

I am a college student. I am a free loader.

I am a college student. 3am trips to Wal-Mart are normal, and I am used to being tossed out of Wal-Mart drunk in the wee hours of the morning.

I am a college student. The only times that I eat breakfast are when I am still up from partying the night before.

I am a college student. I am an easy target for cops.

I am a college student. I have cussed out the people on the floor above me for being too loud at 3am.

I am a college student. I seldom make my bed.

I am a college student. I use milk crates for furniture and blankets to cover my window.

I am a college student. I enjoy seeing mail in my mailbox.

I am a college student. I have been to a toga party.

I am a college student. I have fallen down on campus before.

I am a college student. I plead to not drive whenever a group of us go out just so I don't lose my parking spot.

I am a college student. I hate bike cops.

I am a college student. I am not afraid to pop-a-squat behind bushes/trees on campus while walking between parties.

I am a college student. My suitemates and roommate are my family.

I am a college student. I have discovered that there is no juice in jungle juice.

I am a college student. I have yet to find the nearest church.

I am a college student. I often walk in on my roommate masturbating.

I am a college student... and I love every bit of it!

I am a college student. Republicans strike fear into the very core of my heart.

2011 Personal Goals - February Update

2011-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Two months in and all hell has broken loose:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.

4a. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists by my 30th birthday
January 1st - Current count 97. Only 3 to read by March 19th. This was the initial goal last year but I hoped to have them done earlier.
February 1st - Currently reading Lolita.
March 1st - Finished Lolita and The Colour of Magic. Only 1 to go before March 19th

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.

Other items of interest:
Busy month so far. Annabelle had eye surgery at the beginning of the month and she is doing great. And also she doesn't need a shunt (at least yet) so that is good news all around. I have also started taking my PhD Qualifying exams. So far I have 2 done, with 3 written and 1 oral to go.

100 Greatest Books #99 - The Colour of Magic

2011-02-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

The next book on my reading lists of the 100 Greatest Books is The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. You can find this book on the BBC and My Book lists.

I started reading this book because I was looking for something easy to read and I noticed that all of the Terry Pratchett books were pretty cheap for the paperbacks so I picked up all 4 on the list. I was going to start with Mort until I realized that these were books all within a series of books called the Discworld series, and The Colour of Magic was book 1. It turns out that this is a fanstasy series that takes place in a realm where the planet is a flat disk on the back of four elephants whom stand on a turtle. Other than that, something you may need to know is that magic is a major component of the story. But all in all, I really really enjoyed it. His humor is a bit off and not always what you would expect, which is what makes it enjoyable. The type of humor reminds me of Futurama in which at one point the main character asks if anyone else tastes purple. That is the sort of thing you could expect from this book. It basically follows the exploits of a failed wizard and a tourist from a distant continent. I would actually really recommend this book and likely this series, which contains about 40 books (but I haven't read any further into the series as of yet). Although now I will have to read them in order, even though the books on this list jump around a little bit. But for those who don't want to read all the books the author has stated that that is not always necessary since the individual stories should stand on their own. But I would probably recommend this book as the first one you read since it gives a pretty good introduction to the realm in which it takes place.

100 Greatest Books #98 - Lolita

2011-02-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

The next book on my travels through the 100 Greatest Books lists is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. You can find this on the Norwegian, Observer, and Zane's lists.

This was a rather odd book for me. At first I thought the book would never, ever, make it on to my Must Read List because of the semi-pornographic nature of the book. But it was worse than that, it made me feel awkward because it is all about a man who has sexual interest in pre-pubescent girls (around the age of 12-14). So all the while I am reading this I feel like I am going to get in trouble for child pornography. By once you get past the initial portion of the book things got really interesting. The second half of the book I found to be far the better half. It focused more on the mental anguish of the main character as he pursues his Lolita, both knowing that he has and will destroy her life, but also not being able to control himself. It is a perfect view into self-destructive behavior. The main plot point of the story is similar to another book I had read, An American Tragedy, which focused on a person in jail and you basically found out how he ended up there. But there is a difference in Lolita, where the story is a first person narrative of basically how he ended up in jail. And throughout the story you assume how he ended there but as you progress you realize you were wrong and it really is for something different. The story was actually rather riveting in this aspect and I did enjoy the second half of the story immensely. So, all in all, I can't recommend this story due to the awkward feeling first half (which is almost impossible to get through for several people) but I did enjoy it and would recommend it for those who could get past that point.

2011 Personal Goals - January Update

2011-02-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

One month in and starting slow:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.

4a. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists by my 30th birthday
January 1st - Current count 97. Only 3 to read by March 19th. This was the initial goal last year but I hoped to have them done earlier.
February 1st - Currently reading Lolita.

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.

Other items of interest:
I spent most of the winter break between semesters getting my piles of stuff organized that built up over the semester and I seem to have accomplished the majority of my goal. Currently I am getting set to take my PhD Qualifying exams at the beginning of March and working on an abstract for a conference in Spain over the summer. Busy busy.

A Thinking Problem - humor

2011-01-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

Thinking

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then...just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Great Thinkers in History - Humor

2011-01-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

1. Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?

Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."

---Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest

2. "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff.

---Mariah Carey

3. "Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but I can't remember what they are."

---Matt Lauer on NBC's Today Show, August 22

4. "I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."

---David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.

5. "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."

---Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign.

6. "I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."

---Winston Bennett, Univ. of KY basketball forward

7. "Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."

---Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC

8. "We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees."

---Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks.

9. "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."

---Hillary Clinton, commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents.

10. "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."

---Former French President Charlie De Gaulle

11. "That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it."

---A Congressional Candidate in Texas

12. "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

---Former U S. Vice-President Dan Quayle

13. "Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind."

---General William Westmoreland

And last but not least - a parting word from Dan Quayle:

14. "I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."

Makes you feel pretty smart doesn't it?

Getting Old Humor

2011-01-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

19 THINGS THAT IT TOOK ME 50 YEARS TO LEARN
by Dave Barry

1. Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.

6. You should not confuse your career with your life.

7. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command.Very often, that individual is crazy.

9. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

10. Never lick a steak knife.

11. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.

12. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

13. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

15. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

16. "The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

17. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.

18. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

19. Your friends love you anyway.

Thought for the day:
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

Doctor humor

2011-01-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

Sent to me by my wife (who else).

A cardiac specialist died, and at his funeral, the coffin was placed in front of a huge mock-up of a heart made up of flowers. When the pastor finished with the sermon and eulogy, and after everyone said their
goodbyes, the heart opened, the coffin rolled inside, and the heart closed.

Just then, one of the mourners burst into laughter.

The guy next to him asked, "Why are you laughing?"

"I was thinking about my own funeral," the man replied.

"What's so funny about that?"

"I'm a gynecologist."

Courtroom Humor

2011-01-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

This is from old email sent to me by my aunt about 5 years ago.

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of biting their lip to stay calm while these exchanges were taking place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Are you sexually active?
A: No, I just lie there.
_____________________________________________________________

Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July 15.
Q: What year?
A: Every year.
______________________________________________________________

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
______________________________________________________________

Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?
______________________________________________________________

Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years.
_______________________________________________________

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.
______________________________________________________________

Q: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo or the occult?
A: We both do.
Q: Voodoo?
A: We do.
Q: You do?
A: Yes, voodoo.
_____________________________________________________________

Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?

A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
______________________________________________________________
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
_________________________________________________________

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
______________________________________________________________

Q: So the date of conception of the baby was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
_____________________________________________________________
Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
______________________________________________________________
Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
______________________________________________________________
Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?
______________________________________________________________
Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________________________________
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
_____________________________________________________________
Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK?
A: Yes.
Q: What school did you go to?
A: Oral.
______________________________________________________________
Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
______________________________________________________________
Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
______________________________________________________________
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A. No
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive, practicing law somewhere.

The Thermodynaics of Hell - Humor

2011-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

I know this email has been around but I figured I would psot it for any who have not seen it or it has been a while.

THERMODYNAMICS OF HELL

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, lets look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year, "...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you." , and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze.

The student received the only "A" given.

2011 Personal Goals - First Post

2011-01-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

Here is our starting point for the year. Lets see if we can accomplish at least half of these. The list was also updated on the sidebar.
1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.

4a. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists by my 30th birthday
January 1st - Current count 97. Only 3 to read by March 19th. This was the initial goal last year but I hoped to have them done earlier.

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.

7. Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.

8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.

Other items of interest:
I think a good chunk of these items are doable by the end of the year. Hopefully I can get a lot of them done early that way I won't be rushing to try and finish them later.

2010 Personal Goals - December Update

2011-01-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

12 months in, Final recap.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - I actually did start working on this. Reread over part of section 1
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing New
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing
January 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0
August 1st - 170.2
September 1st - 172.2
October 1st - 173.4
November 1st - 174.2
December 1st - 175.8
January 1st - 176.4

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah
August 1st - Still bah
September 1st - Still bah
October 1st - Since the desktop went on the fritz I have been keeping a close eye on this
November 1st - Yea, prolly not going to happen this year :-(
December 1st - Well, not getting worse
January 1st - About the same

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month
August 1st - One
September 1st - One
October 1st - One
November 1st - One
December 1st - PAID OFF!!!!

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.
August 1st - Finished Matilda. 8 left to go.
September 1st - Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlotte's Web. 6 left to go.
October 1st - Finished The Secret Garden. 5 left to go.
November 1st - No time to finish a book, still 5 to go.
December 1st - Finished The Wind in the Willows. 4 to go.
January 1st - Finished Holes. 3 to go

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!
August 1st - In the middle of one
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing
January 1st - Nothing

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Got the first 2 parts of Armageddon out
September 1st - Finished Armageddon. 1 left to do.
October 1st - Nothing New
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing
January 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
Well all in all the year wasn't too bad. I partially worked on/finished a good chunk of my goals. December wasn't all that exciting. Finished up the semester in school and Santa got Annabelle lots of toys for Christmas (she must have been good this year). The only goal I did finish was to pay off the one credit card, which was a hold over from 2009. So that at least is done. On to 2011.

Parking Humor

2010-12-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

This one sent to me by my sister a while ago:

PARKING TICKET

I went to the store the other day, and I was in there for only about 5 minutes. When I came out there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket. So I went up to him and said, "Come on, buddy, how about giving a guy a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So I called him a pencil-necked Nazi. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for worn tires! So I called him a piece of horse s**t. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes... the more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote. I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner. I try to have a little fun each day. It's important.

Skiing Humor

2010-12-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

Well, cleaning out my emails has found some old jokes. So I figured I would go ahead and publish them as I see fit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ski season is almost here! Hence, the following list of
exercises to get you prepared:

16. Visit your local butcher and pay $30 to sit in the walk-
in freezer for a half an hour. Afterwards, burn two $50
dollar bills to warm up.

15. Soak your gloves and store them in the freezer after
every use.

14. Fasten a small, wide rubber band around the top half of
your head before you go to bed each night.

13. If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared
on the lenses.

12. Throw away a hundred dollar bill-now.

11. Find the nearest ice rink and walk across the ice 20
times in your ski boots carrying two pairs of skis, accessory
bag and poles. Pretend you are looking for your car.
Sporadically drop things.

10. Place a small but angular pebble in your shoes, line them
with crushed ice, and then tighten a C-clamp around your
toes.

9. Buy a new pair of gloves and immediately throw one away.

8. Secure one of your ankles to a bedpost and ask a friend to
run into you at high speed.

7. Go to McDonald's and insist on paying $8.50 for a
hamburger. Be sure you are in the longest line.

6. Clip a lift ticket to the zipper of your jacket and ride a
motorcycle fast enough to make the ticket lacerate your face.

5. Drive slowly for five hours - anywhere - as long as it's
in a snowstorm and you're following an 18-wheeler.

4. Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the
spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it
melts. Let it drip into your clothes.

3. Dress up in as many clothes as you can and then proceed to
take them off because you have to go to the bathroom.

2. Slam your thumb in a car door. Don't go see a doctor.

1. Repeat all of the above every Saturday and Sunday until
it's time for the real thing!

100 Greatest Books #97 - Holes

2010-12-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books List is Holes by Louis Sachar. You can find this book on the BBC and My Book Lists.

I had a preconceived notion about this book because I saw the movie a few years ago and rather enjoyed it. This made me feel like the book was likely to be rather enjoyable as well, and I was right. The movie followed the book rather closely, but it still had been long enough since I saw it that not everything was as obvious to me while I was reading through it. The story is well paced, often bouncing back and forth between the history of the book to the current time, always making it clear what time you were in. My favorite thing about the book is there wasn't one wasted part of the story. Anything mentioned in the historical context actually came back up in the present context, even when you wouldn't have thought of it. So, I would list this as one of my must reads because not only is it a fun story, I feel it was very well written and actually displays a very good moral lesson.

Graco = Freaking Awesome

2010-12-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well everyone has done it. Tried to deal with one of these freaking companies who doesn't give a crap but likes to pretend that they do. Well I was all started for another fight when I sent an email to Graco about a baby swing we bought/received as a baby shower gift for Annabelle because it stopped working right. Well I looked up all the specks and made sure the batteries were charged because you know that is the first question then went to the website and sent them an email.

My swing started recently to not swing when my baby is in it. It makes the noise like it is swinging and then swings when I take her out of it. I replaced the batteries to no avail. She is less than 19 lbs, so she is easily in the weight limit. I was wondering what the warranty on this item is.

Well then they sent me a message the next day, and to my surprise it was this:

Jim,

We are sorry to hear of the problem with the product. We will be happy to assist you with this. The motor unit is replaceable and we have ordered it for you. Please, allow 10 business days for delivery.

Wait, what? Nothing extra, no charge, no hastle. Just that? Not even a second email (they took my address on the initial order form). This is too good to be true.

So I waited and a week later and they sent the motor. Veronica and I worried that it would take quite a bit of work to take the motor housing apart and input a new motor, but whatever it was easy so far, so this isn't that big a deal. But what do they send but the whole freaking motor housing. It took me about 4 minutes to pop the old one off and put the new one on. I mean really, this company is awesome and I actually did have an A+ customer service. Way to go.

2010 Personal Goals - December Update

2010-12-11T11:35:00.000-08:00

11 months in, almost over.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - I actually did start working on this. Reread over part of section 1
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing New
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0
August 1st - 170.2
September 1st - 172.2
October 1st - 173.4
November 1st - 174.2
December 1st - 175.8

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah
August 1st - Still bah
September 1st - Still bah
October 1st - Since the desktop went on the fritz I have been keeping a close eye on this
November 1st - Yea, prolly not going to happen this year :-(
December 1st - Well, not getting worse

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month
August 1st - One
September 1st - One
October 1st - One
November 1st - One
December 1st - PAID OFF!!!!

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.
August 1st - Finished Matilda. 8 left to go.
September 1st - Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlotte's Web. 6 left to go.
October 1st - Finished The Secret Garden. 5 left to go.
November 1st - No time to finish a book, still 5 to go.
December 1st - Finished The Wind in the Willows. 4 to go.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!
August 1st - In the middle of one
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Got the first 2 parts of Armageddon out
September 1st - Finished Armageddon. 1 left to do.
October 1st - Nothing New
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
School is taking up the majority of my free time, and I am currently just trying to finish up the semester. On a lighter note Annabelle's first Thanksgiving was great.

100 Greatest Books #96 - The Wind in the Willows

2010-11-30T19:44:00.000-08:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books list is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. You can find this book on the BBC and Observer Book lists.

This is not what I was expecting when I started it. At first I was expecting a kiddy story about a bunch of animals. Well, there was a bunch of animals but it definitely was not kiddy. The story was very well written, not shying away from the larger, more adult, words when appropriate. The storyline at times seemed to be about random misadventures of a group of animals but through the story you can grasp a common thread going through four of them. My main problem with the story is that I felt unfulfilled afterwards. A character like Mole I felt really grew in character from the beginning where he was a naive "person" to the end where he was able to stand up for himself and help lead a revolt. Although a counterpoint to that is the character of Toad, who did not grow at all and actually seemed to devolve through the progress of the story. All through the story I was waiting for him to get his just desserts in the end but it never came. Even his supposed humbling at the end seemed fake, like he didn't actually feel any remorse over what he had done. So in regards to the Toad story arc I can't really recommend this book because it was a real disappointment when I got to the end.

Posting for my friend

2010-11-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

My friend asked me to pass this along from her blog:

Here's the Deal:

I need your help!

Okay all 4 people who read this, I need help! I submitted an entry to a contest through The Canyons. Have you heard of it? It's good, look it up.

I submitted quite late so I have little time to get votes. That's where you come in. Please go to the link and find my video titled "Adventure Everyday"--you'll see my face too, and vote and view! (It's important to do both.)

http://howdoyoumountain.com/your-mountain/6

You might have to navigate a bit if the order changes...

Share on Facebook, email, whatever! I need votes quick. Send to your contact list, ask your students to vote, beg strangers.

If I win, you can come stay in my suite at the Waldorf Astoria...

Kimberlee

Look for this picture:

100 Greatest Romance Movies - #50: Shakespeare in Love

2010-11-24T19:52:00.000-08:00

This is my entry for the 50th Greatest Romance Movie - Shakespeare in Love. You can check this movie out along with all the other 100 Greatest Romances over at my website.

This is actually a very sweet movie that follows the (fictional?) writing of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. I think the plot line was very well done, interspersing lines from Romeo and Juliet into the the actual movie as inspiration for the play itself. You would think that something like that would feel forced but I think they pulled it off rather well. The movie also has humor interspersed throughout the movie but not too much that it would be considered a comedy. All in all I think a must watch if you are in the mood for a nice romantic movie.

2010 Personal Updates - November Edition

2010-11-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

10 months in, quite a bit late this time.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - I actually did start working on this. Reread over part of section 1
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing New
November 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0
August 1st - 170.2
September 1st - 172.2
October 1st - 173.4
November 1st - 174.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah
August 1st - Still bah
September 1st - Still bah
October 1st - Since the desktop went on the fritz I have been keeping a close eye on this
November 1st - Yea, prolly not going to happen this year :-(

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month
August 1st - One
September 1st - One
October 1st - One
November 1st - One

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.
August 1st - Finished Matilda. 8 left to go.
September 1st - Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlotte's Web. 6 left to go.
October 1st - Finished The Secret Garden. 5 left to go.
November 1st - No time to finish a book, still 5 to go.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!
August 1st - In the middle of one
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Got the first 2 parts of Armageddon out
September 1st - Finished Armadeddon. 1 left to do.
October 1st - Nothing New
November 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
Other than school and Halloween there has nothing of interest to report. Hopefully once this semester is over I will have more time for my research as well as other things.

100 Greatest Comedies #24 - Fast Times at Ridgemont High

2010-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Something that I have been also working on and will soon pick back up starting next year is watching the 100 Greatest Movies as well as some of the lesser categories like the 100 Greatest Romances, Comedies, and Thrillers. Well this entry is for my 24th movie on the 100 Greatest Comedies list - Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

This is similar in vein to American Pie for my generation. Basically it is a comedy about the sexual tensions of people in high school. I felt before I watched the movie that it would be very dated but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it still holds up very well in the modern day. I had hoped that I would be laughing out loud for the majority of the movie and even though I did have a couple of good laughs, for the most part is was a consistently amusing movie but not really a gut bursting movie. Still, it is a good movie.

2010 Personal Updates - October Update

2010-10-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

9 months in, 3/4 of the way done.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - I actually did start working on this. Reread over part of section 1
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing New

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0
August 1st - 170.2
September 1st - 172.2
October 1st - 173.4

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah
August 1st - Still bah
September 1st - Still bah
October 1st - Since the desktop went on the fritz I have been keeping a close eye on this

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month
August 1st - One
September 1st - One
October 1st - One

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.
August 1st - Finished Matilda. 8 left to go.
September 1st - Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlotte's Web. 6 left to go.
October 1st - Finished The Secret Garden. 5 left to go.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!
August 1st - In the middle of one
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Got the first 2 parts of Armageddon out
September 1st - Finished Armadeddon. 1 left to do.
October 1st - Nothing New

Other items of interest:
Things are still very hectic around here with school starting up and having to take care of a 4-5 month old. So things on my personal list have taken a sort of back seat except for the readings which anthing on this list are books I have read to Annabelle.

100 Greatest Books #95 - The Secret Garden

2010-10-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnet. You can find this book on the BBC and My Book lists.

For a children's book this was not what I was expecting. I was expecting more of the same from what I have read in my daughter's other books including some of the ones on this list but this book was actually very good. The lessons that the story espouses we remarkably poignant. Demonstrating that children are not a product of their birth but more a product of their upbringing. And that children who seem completely lost to the point that nobody could care for them, somebody still might and bring that child back from the brink to live a normal, happy, and fulfilling childhood. I would have to recommend this to any parent and child as a lesson in how to view life. Although the parts about the "Magic" did seem a bit too preachy for my taste, it did not get that bad and/or cheesy.

The Star Wars Timeline Network

2010-10-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

I have started up a joint venture with the other major Star Wars Timelines on the net to create a Star Wars Timeline Network on Facebook to provide Fans a stream of updates to the various timelines as well as information on the newest Star Wars EU Releases. So come on and join if you want the latest updates on the webs largest Star Wars Timelines.

Current Member Timelines are:

Nathan P Butler's The Star Wars Timeline Gold

Eddie van der Heijden's Once Upon a Galaxy

Joe Bongiorno's The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline

Rob Mullin's Star Wars Expanded Universe Chronology

and last but not least

Mine, which is the Star Wars Expanded Universe Chronology Checklist Database

Star Wars Updates

2010-10-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Third update for 2010 to the Star Wars portion of my website. See the entire Star Wars Timeline and the collection of checklists HERE, or search the updates HERE. The date is a week off since the updates were ready to go last week but my website was down. But now we are back and better than ever.

2010 Personal Goals - September Update

2010-09-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

8 months in

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - I actually did start working on this. Reread over part of section 1
September 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0
August 1st - 170.2
September 1st - 172.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah
August 1st - Still bah
September 1st - Still bah

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month
August 1st - One
September 1st - One

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.
August 1st - Finished Matilda. 8 left to go.
September 1st - Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlotte's Web. 6 left to go.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!
August 1st - In the middle of one
September 1st - Nothing new

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Got the first 2 parts of Armageddon out
September 1st - Finished Armadeddon. 1 left to do.

Other items of interest:
August was spent spending time with my daughter for 2 weeks then starting my second year of my PhD. So far things are a bit hectic with Annabelle starting day care but they are starting to settle down.

A Star Wars Poll

2010-08-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

So I have been wondering lately if people would be interested if I created a mailing list to notify people of updates to the timeline and various lists in the Star Wars EU Chronology Checklist Database. I have noticed that some people come by the website frequently or on a daily basis, so this will notify those people when there are updates. Please head on over to my site and log your response.

100 Greatest Books #94 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

2010-08-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is Alice's Adventures in Wonderlandby Lewis Carroll. You can find this book on the BBC, the Observer, and My Book lists.

In one word, bizarre. This is the first time I have read the book, but I have seen both the Disney version and the Tim Burton version and both of them made more sense than this book. As my friend put it, that must have been some good opium he was on when he wrote this. The story jumps around randomly and it goes from one situation seemingly into an entirely different situation with no rhyme or reason to why. But when you think about it, it makes sense. This is a story about a dream. But it is also a story as described by a child. So you have a dream where things have a habit of just happening in the words of a child who often will jump around and make up things that don't really make any sense, all woven into this magical land where nothing makes sense and things just happen. Although I was greatly dumbstruck at first, the story began to grow on me. Nothing really happened in the story by the end but aren't most dreams are like that. At one point, you just wake up. The book is very well written. It just flowed as I read it, with each sentence and each section flowing into the next. Although you knew the situations didn't fit together the narrative was never jarring between different point. The sentences weren't choppy and it made for a rather enjoyable read to see what would happen next. So I will place this on my to read list, mostly due to the fun that reading the book could instill on a child or an adult who wonders what it is like to think like a child.

My Conversation with a Jackass

2010-08-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday my mother's email and Facebook account were hacked. Luckily, before I even knew about it, my father-in-law noticed and sent us a text message, which I immediately relayed to my mother and since then the situation has been resolved. But in the meantime it seems her email account not only was hacked but appeared to be hijacked. I emailed the guy back and forth a couple of times just to see where this would go, but it was a rather interesting conversation to say the least. Here is the first message that everyone got from her:

Sorry I didn't inform you about my trip. I came down here to England for a short fun vacation. unfortunately,i was mugged at a gun point on my way to the hotel where i stayed,all cash and credit card were stolen off me but luckily i still have my passports with me. I've been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all they told me to wait for 2weeks before anything can be done to help and my return flight leaves in few hour time from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle my bills. Well I really need your financially assistance..Let me know if you can help me out? Am freakin' out at the moment!!

Awaiting your reply.

This email included her name and normal email signature that all her emails go out with, including all of her business information, making the email sound somewhat legit. Knowing very well my mother was not in England and would never send out a message of this sorts (unless there were a few martinis beforehand) I sent this as a reply.

What do you need me to do?

Simple and straightforward. I just wanted to see what their reply would be. It came about an hour later.

All i need is just $2,000 USD. I promise i'll pay you back immediately i get back home please let me know if you can help me out. Am freakin' out at the moment!!

Awaiting your reply.

Again, complete with her email signature. At this point I just felt like messing with them to see how far I could take this.

Why is your grammar so bad? I would expect better from you.

I stripped all of my information that is in my normal emails, like my web address, because I didn't know how much information these people already knew. I doubt very much that they even knew my relation to the person whose email they hacked. The next email was sent again about an hour later.

Jim are you kidding me ? if this not me i wont ask you to help just let me know if you can help .

Awaiting your reply.

Your joking, right? Morons. I sent one final email message still testing them.

You are acting highly irregular. Your grammar is still atrocious and you never call me Jim. What is going on with you?

But I never heard back from them. From what I found out, my mother contacted Microsoft and reclaimed possession of her account so it was likely that they lost the account before they could send a response. This was also useful because they kept reactivating my mothers Facebook page when they would email me back so I could let her know what was going on. All in all, a stressful day for her, but I kept myself moderately amused by the situation.

2010 Personal Goals - August Update

2010-08-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

7 months in

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - I actually did start working on this. Reread over part of section 1.

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0
August 1st - 170.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah
August 1st - Still bah

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month
August 1st - One

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.
August 1st - Finished Matilda. 8 left to go.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!
August 1st - In the middle of one

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Got the first 2 parts of Armageddon out

Other items of interest:
I finished the first class I ever taught and I think things went over pretty well. Other than not not much. Spent most of my free time at home with Annabelle. So for the next couple of weeks I will be a stay at home dad until school starts up again at the end of August.

100 Greatest Books #93 - Charlotte's Web

2010-08-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. You can find this on the Observer Book List.

This story goes way back for me. I remember growing up and watching the cartoon but I don't believe I ever read the book outright. So, I read it this time with my daughter and I realized that I would prefer to stick with the cartoon. The sentence structure is often very difficult to read and, I don't know about other books but reading this outloud I noticed a ton of "said so and so" after someone said something. Which, can get rather tiring after a while and really destroys the flow of a good book. Also, this book reminded me of why I like the Dahl books, it was because of the language. Dahl has a habit of using large words in context, words that you wouldn't usually find in a children's book. In Charlotte's Web, White also uses some large words but it is immediately followed by "I don't know what that means, what does that mean?". That is great for teaching children new words, but I prefer the other method, if you use the word in context well enough, you don't have to explain the meaning. So all in all, it is a touching story, and I did tear up a little at the end, but I wouldn't really recommend this to other people to read.

Updates and Changes to My Star Wars Page

2010-08-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

So there have been some updates to my Star Wars site. The first most noticeable one is that I have rebranded the web page. It is no longer shown as a subset of my Dinojim.com website. Now it is The Star Wars Expanded Universe Chronology Checklist Database powered by Dinojim.com. Hopefully I will have a new web address to go along with this sometime in the future.

I hope to create a complete database here for all things EU (Expanded Universe). But for right now we have a pretty good start. Any future input would be greatly appreciated.

Also I have added a new checklist. This time for Comic Packs since they are a type of EU collectible.

And I have expanded the My Star Wars collection area in anticipation of cataloguing my entire collection which will be a major undertaking in itself and will hopefully allow me to progress past the point at which I am stuck on in my new checklist that is currently under construction.

My tattoo is...Star Wars?

2010-07-23T18:02:00.001-07:00

So, ever since I got my first tattoo in 2003, there were three main tattoo's I wanted to get. The first was the one I got then, which is a Gaelic knot for completeness. The second one I got today. It is a Star Wars tattoo but little known one that most "non-nerds" wouldn't get. Which is the way I wanted it. The original image is termed a Mandalorian Death Head, coined by Jeremy Bullock who is the person who played Boba Fett in the Original Trilogy. On the picture below you can it on Boba Fett's sleeve (from the trailer for The Force Unleashed 2).

I then took a copy of that image from StarWars.com and traced it so it was a pure image.

After that I wanted it to be unique so I thought flames coming out of the eyes would be cool.

I then took this to the tattoo place (Doc Holliday's in SLC). When I gave it to him I told him that I wanted this but with cool looking flames and he said "Oh, I can play around with this?." "Um, sure" I responded. I figured he knows best. So I get there on tattoo day and he has a few skulls drawn up and I decided on the one that looks mostly like the originally just more skull like and larger flames. We just weren't sure of the colors and he asked if he could play a little. So I let him do his thing and I think it turned out awesome. He actually also gave me a discount because I got interrupted a few times as well. I recommend anyone to go here if the are in the SLC area.

100 Greatest Books #92 - Matilda

2010-07-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is Matilda by Roald Dahl. You can find this on the BBC book list and My Book List.

I rather enjoyed this book a lot (Annabelle and I did). I found this to the best of the Dahl books that were on my list. The story was nice and linear as opposed to several of his other books which seemed to be more disjointed jumping around. The characters were also some of his best and actually made you care about what happened to some of them. A sign of a good book (where you actually care about the people). I loved how, at the end, the story line tied up very neatly and how aspects of people's personalities came back in a rather surprising (at least to me) way. The story is about an extremely intelligent 4-5 year old girl named Matilda. Although she happens to live in a house where her parents don't think anything is possible out of a girl and her school's headmistress hates children. So life kind of sucks. But she has a teacher who goes to bat for her and in return Matilda not only helps the teacher out of a bad situation but helps herself as well. The morals of the story are great and at many points in the book I actually got rather upset at several of the characters. Another great thing about this book and most of Dahl's works are the use of larger words. Words you wouldn't typically find in children's books. He uses them in such a way that they fit into the context of the story and the person is able to understand the meaning of the words, just by the context. No additional sentence explaining the definition of the word. Another Dahl book on my list, and actually I think it should be ranked higher than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Does this mean I'm a real dad now?

2010-07-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

So my wife told me my adventures yesterday constituted a real dad story so I figured I would convey them here.

Well Annabelle had gotten her two month shots and was a bit cranky and she wasn't sleeping all that well. But Veronica was at work and we needed to hit the store. So I fed her, waited for her to fall asleep, then off we went. Well if you remember a previous post my AC was not working. I had since gotten it to work on the 1 or 2 fan speed. So we headed out and had the AC on fan speed 2 as we were driving into the city. Well about half way (15 minutes in) the AC died again. Also the sun was in her face no matter what direction the road turned, which caused me to roll down the windows to get a breeze. But it was 98 degrees out so not much good that did. And I was afraid of her over heating so I would constantly look and feel back at her but since the sun was in her face I had to put up the sun shade which meant I couldn't see her either when I turned around or when I looked in her mirror. This meant I was driving down the highway constantly moving her sunshade to look and make sure she was alright and not overheating. I would occasionally move her hand to make sure I got a reaction out of her as well.

We finally arrived at Target, our destination. Which I didn't want to leave. And being so frazzled when we entered, I packed her into her stroller instead of a shopping car. So I'm the only one pushing a stroller around the store, piling things up on the front of the stroller. I also didn't want to get back in the car and drive back since it was so hot. But I figured the best way to help her. I would buy a container of Ben and Jerry's, wrap it in a blanket, and rest it on her. Well, after we left the store, this is what I did. Luckily it had cooled down to a chilly 96 degrees and the sun was no longer in her face at every turn.

She slept all through this, even me constantly checking to make sure she was still ok and not having heat stroke. Until just when we get home she wakes up and starts crying for some food, either that or pissed because her leg was cold due to the ice cream.

2010 Personal Goals - July Update

2010-07-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

6 months in, 1/2 way done with the year.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.
July 1st - 170.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer
July 1st - Bah

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One
July 1st - One to go but I made a large payment on it last month

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Canterbury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Canterbury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Canterbury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now
July 1st - Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 9 left to go. Not sure what to read next, I have a couple of choices lined up.

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing
July 1st - Started working on Earthquake!

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
Made our first family trip up to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons last month. That was rather stressfull but also a lot of fun. Don't recommend making long car rides with an 8 week old though. Working 2 jobs is rather stressfull as well but I am getting it done. Haven't been working at URS as much as I, or I bet they, like but hopefully I can get more done this month from home. And still chugging away at Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Down to the second half now. With Veronica back at work and me home more, maybe I will have more time to get my little projects done.

Chrysler's Car Repair Sucks

2010-06-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I hate Chrysler officially. I have had so many problems with them that it is not even worth the effort to mention all of them but basically it comes down to this:

I had to have my car towed in to the dealership because I had something faulty in the engine. They "repaired" it. They didn't. Had to have it towed in again. Actually repaired it this time. Had to have it towed in one more time because some jackass forgot to tighten the damn part he put in so it kept short circuiting the engine. That was about 4 years ago.

Kept having problems with the alignment so brought it in to a dealership near us in Tooele. Well when I got the car back it was worse than it was when I brought it in the first time and the people there made it seem like my fault. I eventually got it fixed at a Les Schwab tire place (awesome by the way). Have since refused to bring it back to the Tooele dealership because they suck.

Well my car was leaking something nasty so I brought it into the dealership in Salt Lake City. They "fixed" it for $1700. Never stopped leaking. Brought it in again. They said it was residue built up that was leaking down so they cleaned it up and said it was good to go. Never stopped leaking. Brought it back they said this time it was something NEW. So payed $300 more. And it STILL HAVE NEVER STOPPED LEAKING. So I gave up with them, went with store bought leak stuff. Might have worked, not sure.

But then my Speedometer stops working, right when I am about to go out of town. So I find a mechanic in Tooele since Chrysler only hires incompetent mechanics. They take 3 days to realize they can't fix it because only a dealer can reprogram the computer or something like that. Crap, have to bring it back there.

Well I bring it back in telling them I need it by Friday morning because I have to go out of town. I also mentioned the leak, not to mention the AC failed and the gas gage was acting wonky. Well, after I called they aren't even going to look at it until Friday. Son of a BITCH. If I didn't have to bring it to them they would be lucky if they ever get my service again.

100 Greatest Books #91 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2010-06-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

The next book on my 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. You can find this on the BBC book list and My Book List.

So far my favorite of Dahl's works. Unlike his other works which seemed rather jumpy and more like many mini stories with a common theme, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a cohesive story with great characterization and a fun read. It was also interesting to compare the two movie versions on the book with the book since both of them had their parts where they followed the story very closely then they both diverged from the story rather a lot, but usually in different places. A definite must read on my list.

Star Wars Updates

2010-06-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

Second update for 2010 to the Star Wars portion of my website. See the entire Star Wars Timeline and the collection of checklists HERE, or search the updates HERE.

Mahna Mahna

2010-06-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Another great muppet song.

You and I and George

2010-06-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Muppet moments.

2010 Personal Goals Update - June

2010-06-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

5 months in, and on time.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6
June 1st - 169.2 - Apparently walking around with Gummy Bear non-stop is a good weight loss plan.

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out
June 1st - Getting closer

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One
June 1st - One

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Cantebury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Cantebury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now
June 1st - Finished The Maltese Falcon and The Twits. 10 left to go. Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st -Nothing

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
Nothing much going on now. Mostly taking care of Gummy Bear and teaching my class. Figuring out 90 minute lectures is more than I am used to so it takes a little bit of work. And I start back at URS part time for the summer. Hopefully I can get some research done too.

And the winner is????

2010-05-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

So recently we (my wife and I) had an online contest where you could vote for when our child will be born, the sex (since we didn't know), the length, and the weight. Well since Gummy Bear is here we have proclaimed a winner, our friend Jen. And in honor or her winning the contest, she gets one of the coolest things I found on the web, a GIANT GUMMY BEAR. The picture above is real. The 5 pound gummy bear is about half the size of our child. I love it. I wanted so bad to keep a portion of it for myself (it smelled soooo good) but I refrained and it has been sent along to the winner. Enjoy :-)

100 Greatest Books #90 - The Twits

2010-05-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Next book on the 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is The Twits by Roald Dahl. You can check this book out on the BBC book list.

This was a rather interesting book, as I've come expect from Dahl. The story follows a married couple who are the most despicable, ugly people you could ever imagine. The things that they do eventually get them into trouble and they get their just deserts in the end from the trouble they cause. Although Dahl can be a bit gruesome at times he does go out of his way to never fully describe the gruesome act, just imply it. So, I think this could be a nice book for children to read since it starts off with a very good lesson, that if you continually have ugly thoughts you turn into an ugly person but if you continually have good thoughts you turn into a good looking person, no matter what your outward appearance may be. Overall, not a fantastic book, but it is fun and short, and it is the first book on the list that I read to my daughter.

100 Greatest Books #89 - The Maltese Falcon

2010-05-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Next book on the 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. You can check this out on the Sybervision and My Book lists.

I know that the movie was based off of the book but it had been so long ago since I saw it that I don't remember any of the plot points so it didn't end up ruining any of the book for me. The movie and a lot of similar rip-off movies have the same motif. They contain this old detective feel; a black and white movie with the main detective doing a voice-over for much of the movie. Well, that was how this book read. It was exactly like Humphrey Bogart was reading the book aloud to me in my head. I actually enjoyed it though. It was different from most of the other books I have read and it was a consistent page turner, you must know what was going to happen next. The story was not too complicated, your basic murder mystery. A who done it and why sort of ordeal. Overall, it was a quick and easy read and I feel that everyone should read this if they are in the mood for an good old time detective story.

Personal Goals Update - May

2010-05-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

4 months in, really late. But I have good reason this time :-).

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing
May 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6
May 1st - 176.6

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time
May 1st - Still working it out

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one
May 1st - One

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Cantebury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Cantebury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now
May 1st - Finished Madame Bovary. 12 left to go. Reading The Maltese Falcon now

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done
May 1st - Nothing

Other items of interest:
School is done for the semester. Got a 4.0 :-). Also had myself a kid and she is precious. A pain in the butt and a diva but still precious. I am also teaching my first real class this summer semester. Not a TA but an actual instructor this time. All in all, things are busy but mostly good.

Introducing the newest Geologist on the Block

2010-05-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Introducing......Annabelle Rose Lehane!!!

Born April 30th, 2010

Weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 6oz and 21.25 inches in length

She is definitely the pride and joy of her parents. The last few weeks have been rather stressful for us since there are some health issues (and will be in the future) but as of today she is doing wonderfully. And now some pictures.

Daddy is exhausted shortly after Gummy Bear comes into the world.

Just after her first bath, she loves a good head rub, just like her mommy.

Daddy holding his little Gummy Bear.

And this awesome picture was taken by her grandfather. Just perfect :-).

Dresses up in her going home DINO outfit :-D. Veronica insisted so I just couldn't say no. I mean we searched everywhere for a hat for her as well (even though it turns out she's got a big head and most hats don't fit her very well).

And Finally a copy of the birth announcement that was sent out.

100 Greatest Books #88 - Madame Bovary

2010-04-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

Next book on the 100 Greatest Books of All Time list is Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. You can check this out on the Sybervision, Norwegian, Observer, My Book List, and Zane's Top 10 book lists.

The first thing I noticed while reading this book was how well is flowed. One idea flowed into another, most of it without a break or pause. Seemingly unconnected thoughts were put together seamlessly in a string of narrative that I could only hope to replicate. I loved reading this book, especially after Canterbury Tales, since the language was so much easier to follow and I'm not trying to decipher what the author is saying, I'm just enjoying the words. I did have some problems with the book though. The first being the very weak female characters, especially the main character. She seemed mostly to be reacting to events in her life and not being proactive in any of her choices. Nothing she did was really in response to what she wanted and more in response to what someone else wanted. And her child was the most useless of characters, almost inconsequential for 99% of the story. So, even though it did have some weak points, it was a marvelously written story and I would definitely recommend this as a must read.

Personal Goals Update - April

2010-04-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

3 months in, a little delayed in posting this, but here it is

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing
April 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0
April 1st - 176.6

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.
April 1st - Working out those extra expenses a little bit at a time

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go
April 1st - Still working on the one

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Cantebury Tales, time to get back
April 1st - Finished Cantebury Tales. 13 left to go. Reading Madame Bovary now

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done
April 1st - Nothing done

Other items of interest:
School has been ramping up. But good notes of interest are that I finished the Gummy Bear's room and we are all set for he/she to show up. The patio is almost done, only a little bit more to work on the landscaping around it.

Gummy Bear's Room

2010-04-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

So the Gummy Bear's Room is done for the most part. Thanks to spring break for giving me the time to finish it. Next up on the to do list is finish the patio. Almost done with that as well. So things that were done on the room:

1. History - Well when we moved in there was paneling on the wall so Veronica ripped it out right away. I then had to re-plaster the walls since there were large tears through the dry wall. We then painted it (twice) and made it into the guest bedroom. We never put in any baseboards because we were gonna change the carpet. So when we painted we never laid anything down and the carpet ended up being really gross.

2. Next step: we moved all the furniture out of the guest room. Side table is in the hall, guest bed got moved to my office, and the dresser still needs to be redone for the Gummy Bear's room but it will probably be placed in the closet to be out of the way.

3. We then painted the Gummy Bear's room. We picked a Classic Winnie the Pooh theme and since we don't know the sex of the baby went with yellow and green paint. Veronica wanted to do a horizontal divide between the colors so we ended up deciding a chair rail will go through the middle of the room. Initially the room had 3 walls the same color then the window wall was a darker color.

4. We then ripped up the old carpet in the Gummy Bear's room, the hallway, and the master bedroom. We also took out the baseboards since they were rather ugly to begin with. We also removed the mirrored closet in the master bedroom in the process.

5. Afterwards a new carpet got placed. you can kind of see it in the picture below.

6. The next step was to place in the baseboards. We chose an oak stain for the furniture, the baseboards, and the chair rail. You can see both in the picture above. After that I had to touch up the pain around the chair rail since I had to sand the wall smooth to put it in. Also the ceiling had some of the old paint on it (good taping job this time, not so much the last time). And the wood filler needed to be stained that was put in to fill the gaps in the corners of the room.

7. After that all that needed to be done was hang some stuff on the wall, get curtains, and put together the furniture. My mother bought us most of the furniture and it looks great (Thanks mom :-)) except for the rocking chair which a gift from Veronica's mother and grandmother (Thanks In-Laws :-))

8. We also decided to do something different with the closet door. It basically was a piece of crap so we wanted to paint it but we weren't sure what. Veronica then came up with the idea to paint it with chalk-board paint, which apparently can be tinted to different colors. So that is what we did, got a purplish paint that matches pretty well. We also replaced the closet doors in our room in the process, changing the mirror doors to a nice white panel doors.

9. One of the last things to arrived was the light switch cover on Tuesday, this then let me put up the rest of the chair rail and the room was basically done after that.

10. Some things left to do: Strip and stain the book shelf and the dresser for the room, and that's about it. This will help to organize the closet a little more than we have it right now.

100 Greatest Books #87 - Canterbury Tales

2010-03-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

Finally after an 8 month hiatus, here is the next book on my 100 Greatest Books reading lists, Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. You can this book on the Sybervison and Norwegian book lists.

I started off this book with reading the introduction, which in my version states that "Anyone who is too lazy to master the comparatively small glossary necessary to understand Chaucer deserves to be shut out from reading good books for ever," by Ezra Pound. Awesome. I had high hopes for this book in the beginning. My wife said it was great, she really enjoyed what she read so I'm all looking forward to it. Then I start to read it, and I don't understand it, at all. And this had nothing to do with the "small glossary" it was written with but with the fact that all of the words are misspellings of modern words, and not even consistently misspelled the same way. When you sound the words you can make sense of what is going on but my mind doesn't work that way. It turns out my wife read a more friendly translation than my original script of the book. Mine looks more like this: "And daunced wel, he wolde nat come ayeyn..." (and danced well, he would not come again). So it makes sense, but it took me about 400 pages to understand it on my first reading (about 1/2 the book). Anyway I got to reading a summary of what was happening on Gradesaver.com then reading the tales in the book, which was a lifesaver, because even if I missed a line or two I would still know what was happening. Anyway, on to the review of the book. It had it's high points and low points. A lot of the stories were actually rather fun and interesting, but a lot of them were a drudge to get through (i.e. The Tale of Melibee). Then the final story (The Parson's Tale) seems completely out of place and contradictory to everything he has stated before. After several tales of husbands and wives who sleep around he comes in with this sermon about the seven deadly sins, stating things like masturbation is basically homicide and if a woman were to indulge in sexual activity she should be stoned to death. It seemed so out of place, at times I felt like that it was on purpose, to kind of throw off the reader. So overall, Canterbury Tales is really a story that does not need to be read straight through. I recommend if you do want to read it to pick out the best sections and read them alone, because I feel Chaucer added some tales in more for context around that particular tale than actual enjoyment of reading.

Star Wars Updates

2010-03-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

A bunch of new updates to the Star Wars portion of my website including a new Trade Paperback checklist. See the entire collection of checklists HERE, or search the updates HERE.

The Olympics - Passes and Fails

2010-03-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

So the Olympics have come and gone and a majority of my free time has been returned to me (although I do have a significant number of hours still on dvr that need to be watched). Afterwards I have come to a number of conclusions.

1. I really want to be in the Olympics. Having a skeleton track within an hour of my house is awesome but it costs money that I don't have (as does everything) and I have a wife hesitant to let me try it.

2. NBC really dropped the ball on this on. I mean they put the suck in sucked. Their coverage of the 2008 games was awesome, they had a number of fails but overall I thought their passes outweighed their fails in Beijing, not so much this time.

(A) Pass 1 - they fixed that stupid "LIVE" stamp that was on all broadcasts in 2008 to only be actual live broadcasts this time. And since I am in mountain time I should never have seen this, which I didn't.
(B) Fail 1 - What is the purpose of online coverage if they only show one or two different events. The only thing live online was either curling or hockey and on top of that you had to have an outside cable company account to be able to log into the video feeds.
(C) Fail 2 - Their coverage overall sucked majorly. They only followed the headliners or Americans and even then not all the time. I saw one event where they only showed the gold medal race and nothing else. Thanks NBC because I didn't care about anything else but the final race.
(D) Fail 3 - Too much figure skating. What demographics are watching this that they needed to show 10 days of figure skating almost uncut as opposed to almost anything else. Because I care about ice dancing all that much.
(E) Fail 4 - The closing ceremonies - Oh this has a host of it's own problems. So once the actual coverage started they would continually cut away to commercial in the middle of something happening then at the end they just cut away to their new show while events were still ongoing. They disclaimered it with "come back in an hour to see what we felt you didn't want to see". This was all a ploy to watch their new show "The Marriage Ref" which turned out to be rather slow and not even that good to begin with.

3. I got to play Fantasy Olympics :-D. Although I was more of a fan the way they had it run in 2008, it still was a bunch of fun. Things I would have preferred would to be able to see everyone's team, even after trades like in 08. I ended winning my league and tying for second overall (out of 141 teams). Although after the tiebreaker I came in fourth which is the same score from 08.

4. Even ESPN got into it where you vote for or against an event and they ranked the people based on the results.

So all in all I enjoyed watching the fantastic Olympians but got frustrated by NBC more often then not.

Personal Goals 2010 - March Update

2010-03-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

2 months in, Nothing really done in February:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0
March 1st - 176.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not
March 1st - Going the wrong way, another car bill as well as a new carpet and apparently I owe on my taxes, great.

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left
March 1st - Still on to go

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales
March 1st - Took a break from Cantebury Tales, time to get back

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this
March 1st - Nothing done

Other items of interest:
Nothing much done really in February. Olympics were on and I got 4th overall out of 141 teams in the Fantasy Olympics. Been super busy at school as well. Hopefully March will be better.

Personal Goals 2010 - February

2010-02-03T07:55:00.000-08:00

1 month in, lets see where we stand:

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third done
February 1st - Nothing new

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 175.0
February 1st - 176.0

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year
February 1st - Working over the winter break helped, a $1700 car repair bill did not

a. Pay credit card
January 1st - Only one card left
February 1st - Still one card left

4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists
January 1st - Current count 86
February 1st - In the middle of Cantebury Tales

5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies
February 1st - Nothing done on this

a. Also update the last two I did
January 1st - One out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing done on this

Other items of interest:
Some work done around the house but not much. Most of the time was spent on school work or regular work and trying to get my research started. Although I did apply for my first grant ever so we will see how that turns out.

My Triathlon At Last

2010-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Well my long in coming post about my triathlon has finally arrived. Basically my wife (Veronica) and I trained for this for several months and then she became pregnant so I was forced to do this on my own. Some people. Anyway, I trained as much as I could biking around the neighborhood, swimming in the gym pool and at our neighborhood lake, and running wherever. The triathlon was at Bear Lake which straddles the border between Utah and Idaho and is really nice up there. We went up there the previous year with Aikman and Twix and had a blast so we wanted to go again with Jackson and Twix this year.

So the big day comes, September 12th, 2009. The triathlon is called the Bear Lake Brawl and I was signed up for the Sprint. Which is a 750 meter swim, 20 km bike (~12 mile), and a 5K run. This is me all set wearing my speedo swim trunks and a t-shirt before getting ready.

My numbers on the back of my legs (Age and race "S" for sprint)

Veronica was not able to come down to the starting line because she had to watch over the dogs so she took this from a far.

I am still technically swimming now. This is me running up the beach to the transition zone. The water was a lot rougher than I had anticipated it to be. I was literally swallowing water with every stroke and at times I had to "doggy paddle" just to keep going. It doesn't help that the water was cold enough to actually take my breath away. Since it was so cold you have to wear a wetsuit so that is what I wore, but running up they get partially stripped down.
Being as I almost drowned swimming the run up the beach was exhausting as you can tell. Veronica made it away from the dogs to take this wonderful shot dying. I thought she was still over by them as you can tell in the last picture. This is also her favorite picture.
And off on the bike. The biking was the next thing that killed me. My rear wheel was a little bent so it rubbed against the brake a little which didn't help the fact I was riding a little uphill and into the wind. Not to mention I was not very good at biking to begin with so this went downhill real fast. I did not pass 1 person swimming and everyone that didn't pass me then passed me on the bike.

Finishing up biking at last with my worst time ever.

Veronica missed my take off for the run but once I started running I actually felt pretty good since that was the focus of most of my training. By the end I actually passed a whole lot of people and was feeling pretty good.

Until I stopped and then I just died for most of the rest of the day.

All in all, not horrible but I definitely could have been better prepared. But you live and learn. I need to practice swimming more in colder water with larger waves. That is my biggest problem.

My results are as follows:

I finished 21st in my age group out of 25.

Overall Time - 1:59:31 (under 2 hours)

Swimming - 27:01.4

Transition - 2:14.0 (the third fastest)

Biking - 58:33.0 (the slowest)

Transition - 0:36.3 (the second fastest)

Running - 31:07.0

So here's looking to next year. You can check out the results Here

Healthy = (not) Salt Lake City (in January)

2010-01-12T14:31:00.001-08:00

And that's not fog folks, that's pollution, or "inversion" as they like to call it. Yesterday we had the worst air in the nation. Today?

That's right worst again, by far. It's ungodly unhealthy out there. --> http://www.airnow.gov/
I am sooo happy I had to run to the bus stop this morning. Probably took 20 years off of my life.

Personal Goals 2010 - First Post

2010-01-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

So over the last few weeks I have been thinking about some goals that I wanted to do for 2010. The first few are going to be to finish off the goals from last year since they did not get finished, but I also have some more in mind. So here they are along with my current status:

1. Finish first draft of my novel - First 1/3rd first draft done
2. Drop weight to 167 - Current at 175
3. Balance our budget
a. Pay credit card - Only one card left
4. Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists - Current count 86
5. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
a. Also update the last two I did - One done to the level I want

So all in all, not too hard I think. Problems might come up when Gummy Bear comes in April though.

Some more Sith Updates

2010-01-01T13:59:00.001-08:00

Finally caught up on what I wanted to do with the Sith Lords page on my website. You can check out the list of all the updates on the Star Wars update page.

Personal Updates 2009 - Final Post

2010-01-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

1 year past - Overall results

1. Finish the first draft of my fiction novel.
Start of 2009 - I have the first 1/3rd of the book written
February 1st - Nothing more written
March 1st - Nothing more written
April 1st - Nothing more written
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Still Nothing
August 1st - Notta
September 1st - Still nothing, I hope to start once my new laptop arrives and I am a little more organized with school.
October 1st - Still nothing. Have laptop, just need time now.
November 1st - Notta
December 1st - Nothing
January 1st - Nothing

2. Drop my weight to 167lbs.
Start of 2009 - I started the year at ~185
February 1st - ~180
March 1st - 175.2
April 1st - 172.2
May 1st - 172.2 (somehow again)
June 1st - 171.0 (Finally something)
July 1st - 172.2 (I bet the scale likes me at this)
August 1st - 171.2 (Yea, back down a little)
September 1st - 172.8 (and back up, apparently doing only aerobics does not help you lose weight. Unfortunately I am doing a triathlon in 2 weeks so that is the main focus of my training.
October 1st - 172.2
November 1st - 171.8
December 1st - 173.6
January 1st - 175.00 (gaining the baby weight but apparently not enough of my share)

3. Pay off all my credit cards.
Start of 2009 - I started the year with 5 credit cards with balances and one relative we owed money to.
February 1st - Payed back the relative. Still 5 cards with balances.
March 1st - Payed off 1 card. 4 cards with balances.
April 1st - Payed off another card. Currently 3 cards with balances.
May 1st - Payed off one more. Down to 2 cards with balances. 1 with 0% APR until 2011 though so that one may be waiting a while.
June 1st - Still 2 cards to pay off
July 1st - Still 2 cards to pay off
August 1st - Still 2 cards to pay off
September 1st - Still 2
October 1st - Actually down to 1 now. Payed off the one card, and now the last card has a 0% APR until 2011, so this will probably not be payed off this year. But otherwise I mostly achieved this goal.
November 1st - Still the 1
December 1st - Still 1
January 1st - 1 left still

Other achievements of note.
School is over for the semester with an overall GPA of 3.975. Not bad. Back to work at URS for a few weeks of winter break so it's nice to not have to do school work non-stop. We finally own a washer and dryer now so I don't have to go back to that laundromat ever again :-D. The gummy bear's room is starting to be decorator and I finally got the guest bed integrated into my office. Christmas was good to me as well with a whole heaping of books, DVDs, and Star Wars stuff. Overall, a good year I think. Now on to 2010.