What's down?

Three Things:

1. After about two weeks of trying to reassert itself, winter was soundly beaten by spring today. It was awesome out. Wiffleball, baseball, and soccer ensued. Winter may come back for a bit, but very shortly the sports in the park will abound. You're on notice, winter.

2. I've been listening to a fair bit of Johnny Cash lately, as www.johnnycash.com has streaming audio of 20 of his hits. Top picks include Rusty Cage, Man in Black, Hurt, and I Hung My Head. I never really appreciated him until I saw Walk the Line. He was pretty darn good.

3. Here are two of my favorite pictures that I've taken. They are from the same weekend, when I went camping/hiking with Jim and David and Tara back in the day. Good times. I came across the pics when I was going through some of my pictures for a friend. Enjoy!

The lake a bit or bit and a half from our campsite

View from the campsite. The heads are David and Tara

Ranks 100 on the loser scale

So you know what I did today? I actually knocked the wind out of myself. It was really amazing. I was trying to yank duct tape off a former tornado apparatus, and as it ripped off, my pulling hand hit me hard, square under the sternum. "Oooooph" I said, and then I could say very little. I staggered around the apartment a little, but to no avail. My wind was gone. It was made worse by the fact that I was attempting to laugh at my ridiculousness, but there was no air remaining to laugh, and then I tried to laugh at that fact, but again same problem. I forgot what having the wind knocked out of you (knocking the wind out of you?) feels like. Not all that fun, except the hilarity of it all. I guess I just don't know my own strength... Or something.

I guess I won't be needing Flex Wheeler workout videos anytime soon.
Also, Flex Wheeler is a kidney transplant survivor.

5th grade science and the Code of the Maktar

So I've had a ridiculously cool weekend with my former housemates Josh and En-Tseh. We have had some sweet worship and prayer time, and loads of fun hanging out. Here is a pictorial tour of the weekend. Hilarity ensued.

They quickly made themselves at home in our apartment. Apparently their version of home involves bombs exploding...

On Sunday, after channeling our inner 5th grader (not very hard for any of us), the guys and Brad decided to try a little science fair project: making a tornado with water in two bottles of soda. I seem to remember a successful version that involved a potato with a hole in it between the bottles to make a tighter cyclone.

After about 10 minutes of potato operations, duct taping, and grape juice spills (and the requisite dissing of the simplicity of 5th graders' science), we were ready to give our contraption a spin. Unfortunately, it was an astounding failure. Rather than a vicious and powerful tornado, our apparatus resembled a leaky faucet. Even after some precision surgery, the cyclone would not form...

Tragedy. And boy were we embarrassed about making fun of 5th graders. But we would not be deterred. Surely Google would have a solution. And it did. By using duct tape rather than potato to create the hole, we were able to make a killer cyclone that would have won 2nd or 3rd place at a science fair. Using the collective brain power of our 5 bachelors and 3 masters degrees (in engineering and math, no less), we were able to match the accomplishments of 5th graders. A proud day indeed.


Once our experimenting was done, we were still in a 5th grade state of mind, so we blackened the windows and covered every source of light in the apartment (except those pesky smoke detector lights) to play hide-and-seek in the dark. Some of the players were a little shaky, and kept revealing themselves in a flatulent manner, or laughing hysterically whenever someone walked in the room or turned the shower on on them. I, however, was able to evade capture using my Maktar Stealth Haze.

By Grabthar's Hammer, no one could find me. My Maktar skills were off the hook. I'd like to see you try to find me in this picture:
That shadow in the corner, that's actually me. Here, this is a closer look, in case you still can't see it.

What a sweet weekend. Thanks to the former Lifehouse Crew: Josh, En-Tseh, and Chris. Good times indeed.

The Stoke

My movie recommendation for the day: Step Into Liquid (2003, Color, Approx 87 minutes). In theory, this is a documentary about surfing, but it's a lot more than that. I know very little about surfing, but the movie does an awesome job of showing a broad range of the sport, from the best pros in the world attacking 60 ft* curls to a bunch of hobbyists from Texas riding waves coming off oil tankers to kids in Ireland surfing for the first time. The visuals are absolutely amazing, the music usually fits the mood well, and the interviews/stories are insightful and interesting. This is one movie that gives me a huge pick-me-up any time I watch it, and it inspires me to get excited about life in general as well as my own passions and dreams (which are not surfing). Very cool.

This is me, snarling a phat digger with some mondo junipers. Um, yeah

Not me, but I bet she wishes she could snarl diggers like me.

*60 ft = 9.1 Brads
**Also, none of the pictures are me, and though I can snarl pretty well, it certainly does not involve surfing.

Most pizza should be cat-shaped

The rest should be squirrel shaped. Chris and I are master Pizza Shapers. We deserve a trophy.

Don't be alarmed: my cat has sauce all over it. Not blood.

A sphincter says what?

What?

I don't see how it can talk. It doesn't even have a mouth! W ait, it is a mouth, kind of.

Change Up

Life is like a wiffleball. Sometimes it looks like it's flying right at your head, and you think it's gonna hit you between the eyes, so you duck, but then it curves like 5 feet the other way and you just look silly. And you're like, "Why did I worry about it in the first place? It's only a wiffleball." You have no idea where it's going, but you have to make a decision to swing or not anyway. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so I'll just stop here. Ironic I guess :-)

Expect the Unexpected

Soup Orb 'Ole

I hear there's some sort of big football game. In celebration of the Big Game (which we are not allowed to name unless we pay a fat sponsorship fee), I'm gonna have a soup or bowl of chili. If I'm feeling litigious, I might decide to sue per bowl because each throw of that huge ball hurt my arm. While I'm there, I might watch my Native American friend Sioux Poor bowl a few rounds.

My prediction? The Red Sox are definitely gonna win. They're gonna shoot at least 5 goals, and be 10 under par before the other team can even skate for 5 wickets. Plus the judges will give them a 6.0 for style for the double back ollie juniper into triple axle. Game Set Match!

I see beef stew in his eyes... He's a Soup Orb Owl

Supp

I've had some good days recently... Cool times in prayer and in the Bible, cool times with friends hanging out and doing more serious stuff, cool times at church, cool happenings at work, catching up with some people. I'm a fan. Here's hoping for more...

No, really, I'm a fan. This is me.

Groundhog Day Redux

He saw his Shadow!! That marks the 7th straight year of 6 more weeks of winter. What a cynic! Here are some more random facts you don't need to know.

Punxsutawney Phil is correct 100% of the time, of course!

Punxsutawney Phil's forecasts are not made in advance by the Inner Circle. After Phil emerges from his burrow on February 2, he speaks to the Groundhog Club president in "Groundhogese"(a language only understood by the current president of the Inner Circle). His proclamation is then translated for the world.

Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking "groundhog punch," a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.

Punxsutawney Phil was once on Oprah.

Punxsutawney Phil is about 7' 8" tall, 530 lbs and eats redwood trees for breakfast. And usually two whales for lunch. And that's a light lunch.

It's Groundhog Day!

Hey everyone! Guess what? Today is Groundhog Day! Given my distaste for holidays in general and pointless holidays in particular, one might think that I'd be a denouncer of all things February 2nd, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Groundhog Day is so pointless it has gained significant meaning. If that doesn't make sense to you, then your mind is too simple to grasp the bigger truths. Seriously though, this holiday centers around a rodent (named Phil) being carried around by a bunch of pretentious do-gooders with funny titles (e.g. Burrow Master, Fog Spinner) weazring stylish top hats and capes. It's so ridiculous, there's no way they take themselves seriously. Right? RIGHT? And if they do, all the better! Plus, how else would anyone have any idea how to spell Punxsutawney? It's too cool a name to ignore.


"Don't I look like I can predict the weather?

Here are some groundhog day references for your surfing enjoyment.

http://www.groundhog.org/ This is the official Groundhog Day website, fresh from PunxsutawneyPA. It's chock full o' information, including the history of Groundhog day, some fun facts about groundhogs, a description of the Inner Circle (those my heroes with the top hats), and the answer to the age-old question, "What do Groundhogs have to do with moisture?" (hint: it does not involve a humidity increase from groundhog innards, as I assumed).

The Supreme Holder of All Things Philish and GroundHoggy shows the specimen to the Grand Inspector of Shadows and Shadow-like Phenomena. Nice hats!

Did you know that the National Guard is called in to protect Phil the night before the event?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/ Groundhog Day, the Movie, staring Bill Murray as a weather reporter trapped in Punxsutawney repeating the same Groundhog Day over and over until he makes things right with his boss/love interest and learns to play the piano. A heart-warming tale about second, and third, and ten thousandth chances, and about how we should live every day to the fullest even if we are trapped reliving the same darn day over and over and have to do news reports on an oversized rat and the people who love him.

http://www.hoghaven.com/ A website dedicated to groundhogs AKA woodchucks AKA whistlepigs AKA marmots. Includes sounds, photos, and amazing video footage of the notably corpulent beasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog Wikipedia article featuring genus information, mating habits, and the photo documentation of a battle of wits between a groundhog and a golden retriever.

"Never go against a Marmot when death is on the line! Haahaahaah Haahaahahaaa!" ::pause:: ::plop::

That's all I got. Enjoy the day everybody!

This is what one word might look like if most "i"s in the English language were replaced with lowercase "l"s

llllcit