Game day – Judgement day – Holiday

We’ve made it. The day 9 full months in the making is finally here.

Boise State vs Oregon.  On the Blue. Kickoff in exactly 10 hours.

I have broken out my good luck gear.  See, this is the gear that won the Fiesta Bowl in 2007.  It is the good luck orange coaches polo and orange Bronco hat.  It worked at the Fiesta Bowl.  It worked at Oregon last year.  2 years ago, I forgot the hat when we went to Washington.  So that loss is on me.

More than just Boise State v Oregon (if it is possible to be bigger than that) it is the official kickoff of the football season.  I cannot describe how happy that makes me.  I get to wak e up on Saturday to the dulcet tones of Corso and Herbstreit on College Gameday.  I get to park my ass on the couch and watch 4 games at once for about 16 hours.  That may well be my definition of heaven.

I’m bringing my camera tonight so watch this space for any good pics I may capture.  However, if Boise State loses, you may not hear from me for a while.

C’mon Broncos.  Let’s do this.

Have I mentioned lately that the Statesman sucks?

Well, they still do.

The latest abomination was foisted upon the unsuspecting public this previous weekend.  They shipped out with Sunday’s paper an insert… Their college football preview piece.  Needless to say, this city is pretty jacked up about the rapidly approaching Boise State game vs the vaunted Ducks of Oregon down on the Blue.  Obviously, there has been a lot of hype for this game during this past 8 months.  Appropriately, they titled their guide “Hype”.

Now, I’m not critiqueing their content.  It was good enough apart from some exceptionally lame “overrated” pieces on each page, (really?  Bashing Twitter is not fresh) but I digress.  No, I have a problem… wait, check that… I have NUMEROUS problems with the image they created for their cover.

For the record, I am NOT a designer.  I think I have a marginal eye for design, but the designers I work with make me realize I have exactly ZERO skill compared to them.  Wirestone has some of the best designers I have ever seen in their employ.  Obviously, the Statesman does not.

Warning, the following image is so horrible, it could scar you for life.

Continue reading “Have I mentioned lately that the Statesman sucks?”

Tech Support Secret – Revealed

This comic has been floating around the net lately. It is totally funny and remarkably accurate.

I really love this.

XKCD.com bills itself as “A webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language.” I’d add a healthy dose of technology, web, pop culture, and about a dozen other things. A total geek favorite. If you click on the above comic, you can visit the site.

So, there you go. If you can follow a flow chart, you to can be a computer expert. And if you need help following a flow chart, here is a guide to understanding flow charts, in flow chart form…

Enjoy!

Views of the Twilight Criterium 2009

So, it’s taken me a little while to finally get the images posted that I took while enjoying the Twilight Criterium on July 18th. I didn’t bring the “big” camera with me, so I only had the point & shoot. That being said, I think I got a few really good shots.

We had dinner prior at Bar Gernika, which remarkably was my first time eating there.  Good stuff.  We then wandered over to the course and promptly found the beer garden.  It was hotter than hell that night and we needed liquid refreshment.  All in all, we had a really fun evening.

You long time readers may remember the last time I took a camera to the Criterium.   This time was much the same.

To view all of my images, go to this Flickr page.  Other wise, you can click on each image to go to flickr as well.

My favorite shot:
Twilight Criterium 09 - Downtown Boise

See… “twilight”
Twilight Criterium 09 - Downtown Boise

Twilight Criterium 09 - Downtown Boise

Really like this one too.
Twilight Criterium 09 - Downtown Boise

“Negative GhostRider… the pattern is full…”
Twilight Criterium 09 - Downtown Boise

Neighborhood Hawk

Living out where we do, we see a lot of hawks flying around, hunting varmints, doing their thing.

However, not usually this close.

I walked outside to put the dog out (luckily, Murphy isn’t really ‘snack size’ anymore) yesterday evening only to have this coopers hawk fly not 10 feet over my head.  He circled around and perched himself on the neighbor’s house.  He stayed there long enough for me to grab the camera and snag a few pics.  It was tough lighting conditions, but I was able to manage a couple shots. These photos don’t do justice to just how large this bird was. Incredible.

Enjoy!

Coopers Hawk

Coopers Hawk

Coopers Hawk

Views of Downtown Boise

A few weeks ago, Jess and I went down to the Saturday farmer’s market downtown.  I brought my camera along just for giggles.  I did a little shooting.  Here is what I got.  As always, the images link to the Flickr page where you can view the images larger.  View all the images here.

US Bank Building – Idaho’s tallest.

US Bank Building - Downtown Boise

The Aspen Building – The new “skinny” building in BoDo.

The Aspen Building - Downtown Boise

Wells Fargo Building – or geometric minimalism.

Wells Fargo Building - Downtown Boise

Main Street

Downtown Boise - Main Street

Idanha on Main Street – I like how the One Capital Center seems to loom on this one.

Downtown Boise

And my favorite shot, Leku Ona on the Basque Block.  Just love the contrast and colors of this one.

Leku Ona - Downtown Boise

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Arizona MemorialIn honor of the holiday, I spent a few minutes on song.ly, which is a service to tweet muisc.  Don’t ask.

Anyway, I scored my own fireworks show, you know, were I to have one.  This is what my fireworks show would sound like.  I’m sure you can picture the brightly colored explosions perfectly timed to the following tunes.

http://song.ly/g4s7 U.S. Merchant Marine Band – Semper Fidelis

http://song.ly/g4sl John Philip Sousa – Stars and Stripes Forever

http://song.ly/g4t9 Williams, John – Theme From Superman

http://song.ly/g4tp Boston Pops – Indiana Jones Theme

http://song.ly/g4uf John Philip Sousa – Battle Hymn of the Republic

http://song.ly/g4vk Aaron Copeland – Hoe Down

http://song.ly/g4v0 George C. Scott as Patton – Patton Speech (I would play this as voice over a few of the songs)

http://song.ly/g4wq Aaron Copeland – Fanfare for the Common Man

http://song.ly/g4xl Back To The Future theme

http://song.ly/g506 Top Gun – Theme

http://song.ly/g50z Band of the Fighting Irish – Notre Dame Victory March

http://song.ly/g51z Chet Atkins, Roy Clark – Dueling Banjos

http://song.ly/g52s James Brown – Living in America

Grand Finale: http://song.ly/g53f Neil Diamond – Coming To America

Yes, the requisite fireworks show would have cost millions of dollars (at least the one I had in my head would) so, the best I can do is the music.

Happy Independence Day folks.  I love this country.

What’s the grossest thing you’ve done today?

I guarantee I can beat it.  Here’s the story.

So, I’m working from home today.  I spent the last night coughing and nearly choking to death on phlegm to the point that I “slept” in the other bedroom so that I wouldn’t keep Jess up all night.  Upon arising  and hacking up a loogie the size of New Jersey, I decided that instead of subject my fellow coworkers to my respiratory issues, I would just log in and work from home.

Anyway, lunch time rolled around.  Jess reminded me that if I’m sick, I really should eat something.  I headed to the kitchen to see what I could find.  Ahh-ha… I know, I’ll have a nice big peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Haven’t had one of those in a while, that should hit the spot.  What else can I have?  Yes… good… we have a box of individual size bags of Sunchips that we got from Costco specifically for lunches.  Perfect.  Throw in a Pepsi and you have a pretty solid lunch.

I set about chowing down my sandwich (on 8 grain bread, I might add).  Trustworthy PB&J will never let you down. If it wasn’t for those things I probably would have starved to death in childhood.  Also, I’m a bit of a strange eater when it comes to lunch.  More often than not, I don’t mix foods together.  I eat one thing, finish it, move onto the next.  Don’t ask me why, I just do.  If it’s a burger and fries, the fries go first, then the burger.  But, if its a sandwich and chips, the sandwich goes first.  I know, I’m weird.

Sandwich done, I open the bag of Sunchips to finish off my lunch.  I’m happily munching away while I work, as I’ve done hundreds of times before.

Let me preface this next part for those that might be squeemish… proceed with caution.

As setting, let me state that my office is fairly dim.  I don’t have the overhead lights on, and the shaded window has drapes on it. Really, the only light is from my monitor and a bit from the hallway, which is plenty.

As I was about 3/4 of my way through the bag of Harvest Cheddar chips, I began to ponder what those dark spots were on the chips.  I had noticed them upon starting, but in the dim light they appeared to just be another “grain” in the chips or perhaps larger clumps of seasoning.  Ummm… no… I’m not that lucky.

After piecing together my more recent history with Sunchips, I was fairly certain that Harvest Cheddar chips really didn’t look like that normally. Something was amiss.   That is when I looked a little closer, and came to a horrible HORRIBLE realization.

That’s not seasoning.

Again, squeemish people move on now.

They were ants.  Dead ants, specifically.  All curled up on themselves like dead ants do.  The bottom of the bag was FULL of them.

For the record, I chugged the rest of my Pepsi in about 2.4 seconds.  I can’t say I totally felt the urge to puke, but it did cross my mind.

Now I specifically remember eating one chip that had 20 or so specks on it.  Thinking nothing of it, I popped in and chewed away happily.  Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I think it did taste a bit… off…

I think the worst part now is that I still have bits of the chips stuck in my teeth. Which, of course, means I’ve got bits of masticated dead ant in my teeth as well.

Ok… that thought is making me want to puke.  I’m off to brush and rinse with Listerine about 24 times.

Of course, I couldn’t NOT post a picture…

All told, I think I’m off Sunchips for awhile.  Oh, and Frito Lay?  Prepare to get a piece of my mind.

What’s been goin down

Mom, this post is for you.

See, I’ve been… slightly lax… in updating my blog here lately.  Blame it on our crazy schedules, blame it on Facebook and Twitter, blame it on my sheer laziness.  I saw my mom this past weekend, and she said that since I haven’t been updating my blog, she’s got no idea what has been going on with us.

So, without further ado, here is what has been happening recently.

We are presently in the middle of “wedding season”.  This past weekend was cram packed with the wedding festivites of Jess’ sister.  With family in from out of town and all the requisite wedding activities, we were pretty busy.  The service was nice, weather turned out perfectly.  Unfortunately, this is not the end of our wedding escapades.  Next weekend is another wedding for some friends.  Fortunately, neither of us are in this wedding, but Jess is on board to bake cupcakes for it.  I guess the bride asked a bunch of friends to do this… don’t ask me why.  Then the following weekend, Jess is heading up to Lewiston for the wedding of a sorority sister of hers.  The weekend after that, is a getaway reception/party in McCall for the friends who were married (with the cupcakes).  Whew.  I think that’s it.

Continue reading “What’s been goin down”