Utterly Useless Knowledge

The hours spent playing this at Tiny's house, using Christian Okoye like a battering ram. Best Sega Genesis game ever. Dear Santa......

Watch and learn, kids.

While my love of music now spans many different genres (many more than when I was growing up), I've come to realize that my traditional musical tastes do fall into a predictible pattern: Hard rock/metal, with a nod towards razor-sharp instrumentalism, and a tight forceful rythum & bass line. It's predictible because its fandom is made up overwhelmingly of geeky white guys. Not a lot of females (with any self-respect or dignity, for the most part) have their iPods loaded up with the likes of Megadeth, Anthrax, Rush, DLR-Era Van Halen, or Dream Theater (Anyone? Anyone???? Yeah.....didn't think so). Go ahead and put Iron Maiden in that category, as well. Blame it all on my older brother, but my disdain for terrible, cliched, bubble gum pop, glam rock, and anything written by Def Leppard was formed early on with my access to his 80's rock album collection. Still one of my all-time favorites was the 1985 Maiden classic Live After Death, a compilation of the best recordin...

Courtesy of chaser/photographer extraordin aire Ryan McGinnis , from the entertaining/flaming Vortex2 thread on the Stormtrack Message Board. You can click on a link below to really learn about the project, but the issue at hand is the massive fleet of vehicles (over 40 total) that will be out on the Plains collecting research data with the goal of increasing warning times, and ultimately saving lives. In the process, they may be taking up a LOT roadside real estate over the next month or so that would normally be taken by enthusiast storm chasers. Selfishness and entitlement abounds. Ryan has a way of effectively getting his sarcastic point across. Well done, Sir. And ditto. Frequently Asked Questions For sci.geo.stormtrack.vortex2-thread Q1: What is Vortex 2? Vortex 2 is a two year science mission to study various supercellular parameters and how they relate to tornado genesis. You can find out more here . Q2: Well I think it's useless. It's not useless -- just do a bit of...

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

I read a ton of stuff online to serve two needs that I have. One, the need for focus and motivation in the form of inspiration, innovation, creativity, and overall general interest. And two, the need for filling the void left by me not actually taking said advice to heart, but simply reading about it in hopes that some sort of Benny Hinn-type of pseudo-healing takes place, and I'm instantly the focused, productivity/work-life, legendary husband, scratch golf-playing, shredding rock drum God, all-around Damn Good Guy I long to be. I get a few things done, yes. I could be better. What also needs to be considered is the fact that it's not enough that you simply get things done. Efficient widget-cranking can be done by anyone, and it feels good for a time. But there has to be more substance to it. To all of it. That's why this essay by online blog legend Merlin Mann is resonating so strongly after reading it for the first time over 3 weeks ago. It's probably a good reason ...

Right off the top: I'm setting the Over/Under on national media outlets using the phrase "Houston, we have a problem." for their Hurricane Ike coverage at 73. Anyone want that action? There's a bunch of chasers who are readying themselves today for landfall just south of the Galveston area. While it doesn't look like this one will be a huge wind maker (oh, it will be windy, I'm sure), the bigger concern is the storm surge that will be pushing right into the bay at Galveston. It's going to be a wet one down there. I'd go ahead and fill up that tank of gas today before the price jumps $.50 overnight. Latest satellite image is showing that it's picking up some steam, trying to form a real eyewall. THe core of it has been floundering in its trek across the Gulf of Mexico, but the overal size of the storm is freakishly large. I'll get some cool GRLevel3 Radar images up when it gets in closer. I'll make weather geeks out of you knobs yet! Here...

It happens to us all at some point. Somewhere along the line, one little meaningless task got put off. And then another. And another. Pretty soon your mind is begging you to stop whatever you're doing (or not doing), because it's too busy trying to figure out all of the things that you're not doing, unable to settle on just one little task. So we freeze up, forced to do the hard mental reboot, which could come in many forms, like for instance a trip to the gym to blow off steam, some time with the kids in the backyeard to decompress, or a fistful of Advil, ideally washed down with a pint of Early Times. That moment no doubt has happened in our work or home lives hundreds of times, I'm sure. If it hasn't, then you're either one of the most successful people in the world, or you really have nothing to do. We all handle work overload in different ways. Some good, others not so good. I can tell you from personal experience that a chronic procrastinator tends to fall...

Okay, after this post, I swear I'll try harder. Posting random YouTube clips is lazy, I know. I just haven't run across a genre of funny metal music spoofs like this before, and it's quite amusing to me. I've grown up as a fan of metal, but at some point it just becomes ridiculous. Probably why I find this so funny (as does this guy , obviously). My kind of humor. For you Malvern/Emmetsburg folks, tell me who this guy looks like. I don't want to be the one to name him by name (HINT: His name starts with a Mike). Am I wrong?? A couple more to tide you over through the weekend, then I promise some substance. Who knew Bert & Ernie were into Grindcore? I'll never look at kids television again. And I'm okay with that. This is so stupid. lol Okay, I'm done with this. I promise.

I really couldn't wait any longer to post this. I was inspired after watching the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey this past weekend, so I decided to go YouTubing for a while afterwards to see if I could find any hidden gems. Then I stumbled on this, and I simply was not prepared for what I saw & heard. I'm sure a couple of you will appreciate. WARNING: This. Is. Awesome.

I thought I'd try my hand at creating a slideshow of some of my favorite pictures that I've shot in recent years. ((Photo Geeks: the majority of these were taken with a Canon Powershot G6. That's the best I can do until Santa brings me something better, but I'm not worried about it)) While I've got a LOT of work to do to get better at all of the steps, in getting a good shot, there's been some hidden gems that at least I like to think are "okay" shots. It's a bunch of different stuff, with some random pictures of things & friends thrown in. UPDATE: I think this slideshow will have to do in this location for now. Blogger is being difficult with putting it over on the right side, and I'm not a programmer. I've updated the slideshow with the pictures I think I wanted in it for a first time out. I'll update the show from time to time, and maybe move it up to the front page when it slips. I'm sure I should've watermarked these, ...