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Showing posts from April, 2009

Truckin'

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Did cool toys like this exist when we were kids? Bodie's (nephew) Birthday, 10.18.08

What is that Funk!?

Man, this is like greasy fish sammich in a brown paper bag Funk. 5 day old pot of collard greens in the back of the fridge Funk. Did I say this was Funk? My favorite comment, from lildawwg . That's a compliment, by the way. I challenge you to NOT bob your head to this. Funk it up. Good Gawd.

The Annual Most Worthless News Item Day

If there's a handful of days you can count on local television newscasts to milk for a pointless, lame story every year, you'd have: Groundhog Day, the day the polar bear at the zoo gets a new ball to play with, and April 15th. If there's anything more worthless to cover for news, and lots of times the ever-coveted live shot, it's a TV news reporter interviewing late tax filers at the post office. Douchy Reporter: "Hi, Sir, what's your name?" Citizen: "Uh, I'm Mike." Douchy Reporter: "And Mike, why are you filing your taxes so late?" Citizen: "Uh, because I can." Douchy Reporter: "Oookay, thank you. Well, John and Sue, as you can see, it's a hostile, stand-offish crowd here, very tense as last-minute tax filers manually place their envelopes, one by one....Bob, can you get a shot of that......right....yeah, right there......as they place their envelopes in this blue rectangular steel container right over there. Wh

Tales of Douchebaggery

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Perpetuating the stereotype of bloggers in a coffeehouse. I've temporarily become what I hate. Help me, Tom Cruise.

First Chase of the Year: SC Nebraska 4.4.09

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Photo Courtesy Dick McGowan Since I didn't come to the Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium on April 4th armed with anything but a notebook and a pen, I really wasn't thinking about doing any storm chasing that particular Saturday afternoon. I was just wanting to see a presentation I had heard before from Mike Umscheid about weather photography, and then pick up a copy of the Storms of 2008 DVD , and be on my way. So it was good to run into Darin Brunin , who I hadn't seen in a few years. He and Dick McGowan were selling the charity DVD, and had their eye on the afternoon for a potential chase set-up for low-topped supercells in south central Nebraska. What the hell..... I couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn a few things about cold-core setups from a couple of chasers whom I have a lot of respect for. Here's a direct link to Dick's summary of the day , with pictures (including the one above!), since I was completely flying blind, and they were nice eno

Two Tickets to the Gun Show

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Having grown up in small town Iowa, I should know more about guns than I do. Maybe that's just a stereotypical assumption about growing up in the country. I probably have more friends that hunt than those that don't. My dad wasn't much of a hunter, and I know my grandfater wasn't, either. Dad took my brother out a couple times to hunt pheasants, but with little to show for it. I think my brother learned more about firepower (real and homemade) from his Grandpa Bartu, a gruff, loud scrap iron peddaler/farmer of Czech heritage, on his acreage just outside of Crete, NE. This was where my brother's prized "Goose Gun" was fabricated out of Falstaff, Hamms, and Schaffer steel beer cans, duct tape, and some lighter fluid. So it went that while we did have a couple of shotguns in the house, I never really did much more than shoot the occasional squirrel around the farm with an old, refurbished .22 rifle. One particular two-day killing spree netted 4 squirrels. I

"You know he's gonna do that f*%&in' drum solo...."

Bubbles likes Rush.

Hot Tubbin': Southwest Iowa Style

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Where to take her for a nightcap after a night at the Inda-Clar. Clarinda, IA 3.14.09