Como Park for Easter

My brother with a log discovered in the basement

Ray Hudson Goes Crazy About Tom Cruise at a Soccer Match

I heard this clip on 93X this morning. It's a soccer announcer LOSING IT over Tom Cruise at a soccer match. His accent is hilarious and he is PASSIONATE about the game!

Just trying email posting from my iPhone!

Wednesday Photoblogging

Red Stag Review

Check out Maria's Red Stag Restaurant Review here - she'll also be writing up The Strip Club in St. Paul and Bank in Downtown Minneapolis shortly.

Snickers Feast Extra - Greensleeves

okay this is hilarious!

Dramatic Lemur

LOL.

Knights of Cydonia FC-(GH3 360)

this is impressive

Very Funny Animated Gifs Part 90

I love DaveMasteR999

Aliens vs Predator - This Looks Like Fun!

I love both franchises - and it looks like they're going to do a better job than the first movie.

http://www.avp-r.com/US/

Uncle vs. Bike

Check out my friend Josh's uncle on a much smaller bike.

New Cloverfield Trailer

Continues to look awesome.. Cloverfield... 1-18-08

Trailer

SNL Hosts Show for 200 Audience Members

Very cool - it would have been sweet to see an uncut show of SNL in this kind of setting.

NY Times on SNL show

Slideshow

RIP Dad.

I can't figure out what to say yet... but here's why I've been gone for a bit. I miss you Dad.

Rupert Manka, 58

Rupert Stanley Manka, a resident of North Prairie, died Oct. 31, 2007, at his home.

Visitation was held Sunday at the Emblom-Brenny Funeral Service East Chapel in Little Falls with a private memorial service at 5 p.m. Interment was Monday, at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery with military rites by the Little Falls V.F.W. Post #1112.

Rupert was born April 15, 1949, to Helen (Kurtz) and Rupert Manka and raised in Holdingford. He served in the Army during the Vietnam War and then worked in the electrical trade for 33 years as a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He worked on the Alaskan Pipeline, founded Lora B's with his wife Beatrice and owned the Blue Port on Lake Alexander. He was an avid hunter, fisherman and loved any project outdoors.

He is survived by his wife Beatrice; son Joram and wife Maria; son Louis; daughter Kayla; sisters Mary and Cathy; brother Frank and step-siblings Agnes, John, Anthony, Doris and William.

He was preceded in death by his parents Helen and Rupert and his stepsister, Eve.

Interactive LED Coffee Table

Check this out!



Check out their website at Evil Mad Scientists

Jumper The Movie - Looks Good!

Check out this movie's website for the trailer - looks awesome.

Plus it has Samuel L. Jackson.

http://www.jumperthemovie.com/

What I'm Watching Now - Attack of the Show

Probably the coolest geek show out there for me right now - G4's Attack of the Show:

Are you ready for your last taste of AOTS this week? Now, don’t garble it down like you did that cheeseburger at lunch yesterday, let it dance on your palette. That’s the only way to truly savor a new episode of Attack of the Show.

On today’s episode we’ll review hot comics in Fresh Ink, blog about celebs in BlogWatch and talk with 30 Days of Night creator, Steve Niles in The Loop. Oh yeah, we bet you're salivating already.

Attack of the Show blog

Attack of the Show hosts

Friday Night Flight of the Conchords

Life is good with FotC!

New Captain Kirk Casting News

I'm very intrigued by JJ Abram's new movie 1-18-08. The trailer for that flick is the best I've seen since the original teaser trailer for ID4 where all it shows is the alien mothership blowing up The White House.

AICN is reporting that the new Captain Kirk has been cast in JJ's restart of the Star Trek Universe.

StarTrek.com also posted news that Simon Pegg will be playing Scotty! I love Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz - should be very interesting to see Pegg play Scotty.

1880 Town in South Dakota

On our way to Deadwood last weekend we stopped at the 1880 Town to take a tour. Here I am in front of a marker pointing to how close Los Angeles is from S.D.

Seven Secrets of Inspiring Leaders

Saw this on BusinessWeekOnline - and I agree with many of the top points the author points out in inspiring leaders. Some of the best leaders I've seen have insane amounts of energy and are telling stories constantly to connect with their team members.

1. Demonstrate enthusiasm—constantly. Inspiring leaders have an abundance of passion for what they do. You cannot inspire unless you're inspired yourself. Period. Passion is something I can't teach. You either have passion for your message or you don't. Once you discover your passion, make sure it's apparent to everyone within your professional circle. Richard Tait sketched an idea on a napkin during a cross-country flight, an idea to bring joyful moments to families and friends. His enthusiasm was so infectious that he convinced partners, employees, and investors to join him. He created a toy and game company called Cranium. Walk into its Seattle headquarters and you are hit with a wave of fun, excitement, and engagement the likes of which is rarely seen in corporate life. It all started with one man's passion.

2. Articulate a compelling course of action. Inspiring leaders craft and deliver a specific, consistent, and memorable vision. A goal such as "we intend to double our sales by this time next year," is not inspiring. Neither is a long, convoluted mission statement destined to be tucked away and forgotten in a desk somewhere. A vision is a short (usually 10 words or less), vivid description of what the world will look like if your product or service succeeds. Microsoft's (MSFT) Steve Ballmer once said that shortly after he joined the company, he was having second thoughts. Bill Gates and Gates' father took Ballmer out to dinner and said he had it all wrong. They said Ballmer saw his role as that of a bean counter for a startup. They had a vision of putting a computer on every desk, in every home. That vision—a computer on every desk, in every home—remains consistent to this day. The power of a vision set everything in motion.

3. Sell the benefit. Always remember, it's not about you, it's about them. In my first class at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, I was taught to answer the question, "Why should my readers care?" That's the same thing you need to ask yourself constantly throughout a presentation, meeting, pitch, or any situation where persuasion takes place. Your listeners are asking themselves, what's in this for me? Answer it. Don't make them guess.

Learn about all seven of the rules here.

Amazon.com: Fire Them Up!: 7 Simple Secrets to: InspireColleagues, Customers, and Clients; Sell Yourself, Your Vision, and Your Values; Communicate with Charisma and Confidence

Video Player - Testing Videos for My Site

I was experimenting with YouTube's VideoPlayer system - here's one I generated as a test

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Go YouTube!

Apple iPhone - I'm a Believer

Well after thinking about it during my trip to Deadwood (more on that trip later), I went ahead and picked up an iPhone. It was actually a very good experience overall from start to finish. This morning I checked out the Apple.com website and made an appointment to see an Apple Specialist at my local mall store (Rosedale Mall in Roseville). Upon arrival at the Rosedale Store I was hooked up with my specialist and he gave me a complete run-down of the iPhone. He split his time showing my items from a showroom floor model and his own personal phone, which was a nice touch as it showed he was a big believer in what he was selling. After about thirty minutes of discusision with additional questions from my wife I was on my way out the door with my new 8gig iPhone! Once I got home setup was easy enough via iTunes and I've been playing with the phone and all of its features for a couple hours already! I went outside and snapped a photo of the Acura using the 2meg camera onboard the phone for quality considerations. The video quality is amazing and I've imported a ton of my music and videos onto the iPhone already. I'll keep you all posted as I get used to my new phone!

WoW Tacoma Toyota Commercial

Awesome commercial aimed directly at World of Warcraft players. Kudos to Toyota for really thinking outside the box with this one!

Flight of the Conchords

My friend Josh posted a couple sweet vids from the duo Flight of the Conchords. I still feel love for the Kiwi nation after so many years of covering Lord of the Rings for my old website Ringbearer.org

You can check out the official band website here.

Geek Kon - Wisconsin Geeks Gather in Wisconsin

Spotted this story in my local paper - The Star Tribune:

MADISON, Wis. — More than 600 self-described geeks are expected in Madison this weekend for a two-day convention that includes role playing, video games, and lots of science fiction.

Others might call it Revenge of the Geeks. The organizers call it Geek.kon, with .kon standing for convention. Like any conference, it's a place for people with common interests to gather.

"Your average American citizen does not know what a LAN party is, nor Warhammer, nor LARP, nor cosplay,'' organizer and panelist Jackie Lee said.

The convention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is sponsored by Geek.kon, a registered student organization made up mostly of members of the university's sci-fi and anime clubs, and the university's East Asian studies department.

"Madison is a great place for geeks, and we hope that Geek.kon will be a place for people to experience that,'' said Louise Behnke, one of the event's creators.

If anyone goes drop me an email or comment with your experience!

EcoGeeks Get Girls

My girl Maria recommmended this post from EcoGeek - here's a selection:

This isn't necessarily what EcoGeek is about. But I figure, as a fairly romantically successful EcoGeek with quite a few tricks up my eco-sleeves, I'd bestow some of my knowledge upon my faithful readers.

Now, I know that not all of you are guys, and I'm confident that many of those who are guys are quite capable of making the ladies swoon. But as a certified husband with a certified Master of Environmental Science, I would like to think that I have a special sort of knowledge.

So if you've got EcoGeek cred with the ladies, but aren't quite sure how to convert that into some good lovin' I've got a few suggestions...

Check out more of Maria's stuff at MariaEnergia.
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Now playing: Benzino Feat. Lil Kim & Petey Pablo - Rock The Party (Remix)
via FoxyTunes

Family Guy New Episodes

Have you been keeping up with the new Family Guy episodes? The Star Wars one was very funny! I've got my DVR set up to record all of em!


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Now playing: DJ Felli Fel Ft. Akon Diddy Ludacris Lil Jon - Get Buck In Here (Dirty)
via FoxyTunes

What I'm Up To Right Now

Updating my Fantasy Football Team - here's a link to my league - my team is the Country Bumpkins. And would you believe it? I've started off 4-0 this season!

The World Series of Poker is on TV. I watch it every Tuesday.

John Cena - the current WWE champ suffered an injury during a match this week so a new champ will be crowned at the next Pay-per-View. Should be very interesting to see what happens!

Some Quick Links - Friends and Cousins Update Their Sites!

My friend Josh updates The Anti-Trend Trend:

Thanks to an adventurous group, our sail back was undertaken as a night sale. In watches (shifts), the crew started for Thompson island, just a few ours from Thunder Bay. Lucky for us the night also happened to by highly active with meteor showers, and filled with enough wind to make using the engine unnecessary for the crossing (~30 miles). At Thompson island we were greeted by a lovely cove. The area had been converted into a haven for boaters. There was a sauna, trails, scenic views and a playground. My favorite memory of Thompson island was running from the sauna to jump into Lake Superior. Again, I can’t imagine a much more idyllic scene.

My cuz Francis updates SuperFlewisTravels. Perhaps to be renamed SuperFlewisStudies now that she is in law school!

Another cousin of mine is traveling to Egypt!

My friends and I often joke about how we can no longer speak English. We struggle for basic words, our search for "humanitarian" results in "humanoidistic", "knife" becomes "tool use cut sandwich sharp" and so on. It's not that our Arabic has become phenomenal, or that I have taken to expressing myself in Egyptian poetry rather than bother with English prose. Quite the contrary, my Arabic is only plateauing while my English descends, placing me smack in the middle of linguistic no-man's-land. Instead of being content with this battlefront, today I decided to enter a new theatre of non-communication.

Check out Pauline's blog Marhaba!

Finally, one of Maria's posts made the front page of Digg today via her Green Options gig.

Shameless commerce: I just finished up the 2nd to last book of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind - check out the first in the series if you're looking for a good read.
Sword of Truth: Wizard's First Rule

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Now playing: Justin Timberlake - Losing My Way
via FoxyTunes

FoxyTunes - Control your music directly thru Firefox

I picked up FoxyTunes today:

The folks at FoxyTunes just added Blogger support to their Firefox plugin, which you can use to do a number of things, such as:

• Control your favorite music-playing app from your browser
• See what you’re currently listening to
• Append your current song to the bottom of new blog posts

Like this:
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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes
via FoxyTunes

Joram in the Bible

Yep - my name is from the bible - but I wasn't a total good guy in the Good Book :)

On Joram:

With no son to succeed Ahaziah, his brother Joram ascended to the throne to become the ninth king of divided Israel. Although an improvement on his parents Ahab and Jezebel, Joram ultimately failed to do right. He modified some of the worship of Baal, and at times had a respectful relationship with the prophet Elisha, but Joram lived in treacherous times. The nation of Aram was attacking from the east and God had set in motion an internal plot led by Jehu against Ahab's heirs. Finally Joram fell victim to Jehu's arrow ending the evil dynasty founded by Omri. Jehu took over the throne.

Via HolySpiritInteractive

Monopoly at McDonald's 2007 Rare Piece List

I stopped by McDonald's today for a quick bite and you get Monopoly pieces you can collect and also a code on each game piece you can enter online to basically play twice with each ticket! Fun times and a good way for MCD to collect a bunch of consumer info.

Here is a list of the "rare" game pieces via Wikipedia.

Property	2007 code	2007 prize
Mediterranean Avenue	801	$50
Vermont Avenue	804	$500
Virginia Avenue	808	$1,000
Tennessee Avenue	810	$5,000
Kentucky Avenue	812	$10,000
Ventnor Avenue	816	$25,000
Pennsylvania Avenue	820	$50,000
Boardwalk	822	$1,000,000 (annuity)
Short Line	826	$100

Play the McDonald's Monopoly game online here.

Starting to think about another new toy...

Well I'm still with AT&T Wireless... or is it Cingular... no it's back to AT&T again! So I'm thinking of finally upgrading from my old-school RAZR to a new Apple iPhone! I've only heard good things and it would be pretty sweet to have a nice new piece of tech in my pocket.

I'll let you all know if I decide to get one!

SNL - Iran So Far

I think they should do an entire show of digital shorts...

My new favourite GIF File - potatOWNED!

This makes my day everytime I see it!

Halo 3 - Official 90 Second Spot

Believe - pretty sweet trailer!

OktoberFest

A waitress whistles her way through the crowd as she rushes to customers with a load of full beersteins at the start of the Oktoberfest in Munich, southern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007. Millions of visitors are expected at the world's biggest beer and amusement festival. (AP Photo/Diether Endlicher)

Star Trek Animated GIFs

DaveMasteR999 does a lot of great animated gif videos for YouTube - here's a StarTrek one.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is best President!

Whoa - Combat Wombat

Spanish motocycle rider Alex Bautista poses with a wombat at the Maru Koala Park, Austrlia, in September 2006. Modern wombats are about one metre (three feet) long, 25 centimetres (10 inches) high and weigh 20-45 kilogrammes (44-100 pounds). (via Yahoo News)

Drama Prairie Dog

Starting to post again - reaction from a prairie dog...

Happy Feet vs Walk It Out

Thanks to my friend and co-worker Erin for the heads-up on this - funny stuff.

Late Night at ILM

Conan for the win! Geeks rule.

Dwayne Wade Gatorade Commercial

He's a large man D-wade...

Vrrrooomm

Well I finally had a chance to test drive the 2007 Acura TL Type-S today... awesome car. It's my current top pick ahead of the BMW 330xi. Still have to drive the Lexus and Infinitis; but I will keep you all updated.

Want to learn more about the stock market? Check out http://www.investopedia.com/ - I've been learning a bunch and I'm up 50% in my virtual portfolio already. Click here to see my portfolio and what I'm holding. I've made over 700% in one of my call options in Sunpower Corp.

My friend Josh fires up the wireless in his living room.

I've been spending a lot of time saving the world... of Warcraft. If you're ever on the Kael'thas server - look me up - toon name: Shanthis.

Okay... One Last Time, All Together Now... Shia La Beouf Is In INDY 4!! -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Okay... One Last Time, All Together Now... Shia La Beouf Is In INDY 4!! -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.: "It’s funny, because I think people misunderstood my initial reaction when I broke the story, saying that I was against his casting in the movie. That’s not the case. I think it’s problematic when new family members pop up in sequels, but that’s an overall thing. Although they haven’t confirmed what his role would be in the film, I’m guessing that my initial sources were right since they got the casting correct in the first place."

DJ Khaled

Awesome Song

Cars

Hmmm - which one would you buy? From top to bottom: BMW 330, Lexus IS350, Acura TL Type-S, Infiniti G35.

Alanis Morissette

Best parody I've seen in a long time!

SNL - United Way

Alright one more - my favourite commend on YouTube: " cledus1031 (10 minutes ago)
Why watch SNL on Saturday night? They post the 5 minutes of the show that's funny on YouTube. "

Busted

Love this commercial

Fortune Magazine Green Giants

My better half covers a story from Fortune Magazine on "Green" companies:

Looking to add a stock to your portfolio -I'd go long on Goldman Sachs:

Goldman's investment of $1.5 billion in cellulosic ethanol, wind and solar have paid off. Texas Pacific and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts turned to Goldman, which had built bridges to environmental groups, as they prepared a bid for Texas energy company TXU. Research clients are pleased that Goldman's equity analysts in Europe now factor environmental, social and governance issues into their reports. "The world's changing," says one Goldman official. The company is too - some cars that take bankers home are hybrids.

Look for more stock picks at this site soon. I'm not a professional - but I love watching the markets.

Not Dead... really this time

LOL - Big Toad.

Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.

Cane toads were imported from South America during the 1930s in a failed attempt to control beetles on Australia's northern sugar cane plantations. The poisonous toads have proven fatal to Australia's delicate ecosystems, killing millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them.

As part of its so-called "Toad Buster" project, Frogwatch conducts regular raids on local water holes, blinding the toads with bright lights then scooping them up by the dozen.

Read more at the BBC

Funny Pic of the Day: Ghostbusters vs. Jesus

My bro sent this one to me - as a big Ghostbusters fan I thought it was roflcoptors!

One of the Biggest Waves You'll Ever See

There is surfing.. and then there is SURFING.

Word of the Day: Ponzi Scheme

Overview

A Ponzi scheme usually offers abnormally high short-term returns in order to entice new investors. The high returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises (and pays) require an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going.

The system is doomed to collapse because there are little or no underlying earnings from the money received by the promoter. However, the scheme is often interrupted by legal authorities before it collapses, because a Ponzi scheme is suspected and/or because the promoter is selling unregistered securities. (As more and more investors become involved, the likelihood of the scheme coming to the attention of authorities will continue to increase.)

The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, who became notorious for using the technique after immigrating to the United States from Italy in 1903. Ponzi was not the first to invent such a scheme, but his operation took in such a large amount of money that it was the first to become known nationwide. Today's schemes are often considerably more sophisticated than Ponzi's, although the underlying formula is quite similar and the principle behind every Ponzi scheme is to exploit lapses in judgment arising out of greed.

Family Guy Clips

Ahh I Love Family Guy

Not Dead

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - I shall return to form shortly! Meanwhile, I'm going to go check out Germany vs. Poland in Round 2 of the World Cup!

Three Movie Trailers You Need To Watch Now

Superman Returns Trailer 2
Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world’s most beloved superheroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life.

Lady In the Water Trailer 2
Cleveland Heep rescues a mysterious young woman and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. As Cleveland falls in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that are determined to prevent her from returning home.

A Prairie Home Companion (filmed here in Minnesota!)
Garrison Keillor's old-school radio show is going to be cancelled. A huge cast directed by Altman. This one should be a hilarious character movie.

Let's Make Movies!

One of my good friends from L.A. wrote this book with his brother. It's called The Official Movie Plot Generator.

Book Description
Perfect for anyone who loves movies--The Official Movie Plot Generator is part humor book, part game, part creative tool. Simply flip the tabs to discover , hilarious movie plot combinations. Whether its A single mom fighting crime with a wise-cracking robot or Bigfoot coaching a little league baseball team, your combination is sure to become the next blockbuster.

Amazon.com: Official Movie Plot Generator

The movie I just put together:

A hooker with a heart of gold/battles an advancing horde of insectoid aliens/set against the backdrop of a Florida retirement community

Official Site: http://www.movieplotgenerator.com/

Put together a movie plot in the comments below!

10 Things I Hate About Commandments

I love watching how people recut movie trailers to portray the film as a totally different genre! Here's the 10 Commandments recut:

10 Things I Hate About Commandments



Throw your two cents into comments!

How About Some Video?

E3 Metal Gear 4 Video:

Let's just get it out of the way: Snake's gonna die at the end. Now, before anyone starts firing off the hate mail about spoilers, they should watch the trailer for director Hideo Kojima's swan song to everyone's favorite tactical stealth action hero. Once viewers get past the amazing visuals (all done using the in-game graphics engine, and not rendered cutscenes) and stunning details, they will see what is essentially a bittersweet denouement criticizing a future of corporatized warfare and the role of the military-industrial complex. Maybe. Or they'll just see an incredibly rendered, aesthetically pleasing finale to one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all time. Perhaps. Or perhaps they'll be stuck on the fact that Raiden seems to have up and gotten all badass again in a scene that sounds slightly cool in print and pants-crappingly amazing in motion. Yeah, that's about right.

Check out the trailer at GameSpy.com

AND:

New T.I. Video at YouTube.com

AND:

Conan O'Brien has a whole new site complete with a ton of videos from his show - check it out.

Trader Joe's Opens in St. Louis Park

Hey - another taste of California comes to Minnesota:

Trader Joe's finally opened in St. Louis Park on Monday, ending months of speculation for those who were eager to see the California food retailer bring to town its variety of quirky, cultish supermarkets.

But its successful business model of selling store-branded items -- 80 percent of the items are Trader Joe's private label -- already has made deep inroads into Minnesota, where Byerly's, Supervalu and others have jumped on to the private-label bandwagon.

Read more at the Star Tribune. Check out the TraderJoes.com site.

Froogle Wishlist

Just started playing with Froogle's Wishlist - I put up a couple pairs of kicks that look sweet. With this and Amazon.com's Wishlists you might always get what you want for the rest of time!

How The Kids Are Blogging

With the advent of text messaging (or "txt msgng") - I think we're on the verge of having an English within an English language. Check out this blog I found while surfing around Blogger.

FINALLY. finally can blog. =.=
Gt footy todae. Den gt eog test. I DIE liao. All e long long ans de, my ans all vvvv short. =.= Gimme 8 lines, i write 2 lines. =.=''' Den gt geog lesson. Miss ms seetho. =x Den gt HMT lesson. Gt compo test. I DIN WRITE FINISH MY COMPO. gosh. die. Den recess. dun lyk recess. always cant decide wad to eat. l0ls. After tt gt eng lit. Maths next. Yar. Still learing algebra. Can apporoach mi 4 help. Rmb? i m SUPPOSED to b gd at it. =.='''
YESH.G0in bak to help out e P5 camp. XD Wear wad ar? Fuchun uni???? l0ls. I dunn0 wares mine liao. =.= It's g0in to b fun. At least i tink it will b. l0ls.

Read more from Aikky at her blog FwenS ForeveRR

Reality Theory: It Always Feels Like - Someone Is Watching Me

Remember Will Smith and Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State? Well - we've finally gotten there in real life.

He said the work the agency did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina was the best he'd seen an intelligence agency do in his 42 years in the spy business.

"This was kind of a direct payback to the taxpayers for the investment made in this agency over the years, even though in its original design it was intended for foreign intelligence purposes," Clapper said in a Thursday interview with The Associated Press.

Geospatial intelligence is the science of combining imagery, such as satellite pictures, to physically depict features or activities happening anywhere on the planet. A part of the Defense Department, the NGA usually operates unnoticed to provide information on nuclear sites, terror camps, troop movements or natural disasters.

I wonder what else we can do with this kickass technology?

Privacy advocates wonder how much the agency picks up — and stores. Many are increasingly skeptical of intelligence agencies with recent revelations about the Bush administration's surveillance on phone calls and e-mails.

Among the government's most closely guarded secrets, the quality of pictures NGA receives from classified satellites is believed to far exceed the one-meter resolution available commercially. That means they can take a satellite "snapshot" from high above the atmosphere that is crisply detailed down to one meter level, which is 3.3 feet.

Clapper says his agency only does big pictures, so concerns about using the NGA's foreign intelligence apparatus at home doesn't apply.

"We are not trying to examine an individual dwelling, for example, because what our mission is normally going to be is looking at large areas," he said. "It doesn't really affect or threaten anyone's privacy or civil liberties when you are looking at a large collective area."

Well at least we have very experienced, professional folks running this branch of national security right?

Experience-wise, the agency is among the youngest of the spy agencies. About 40 percent of the agency's analyst have been hired in the last five years."They are very inexperienced, and that's just fine. They don't have any baggage," said Clapper, who retires next month as the longest serving agency director. "The people that we are getting now are bright, computer literate. ... That is not something I lie awake and worry about."

It always feels like - somebody's watching me - and I got no privacy!

Chuck Norris Facts

A few pre-weekend facts to get you going:

Guns don't kill people. Chuck Norris kills People.
There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.
There is no chin under Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only another fist.

For more visit ChuckNorrisFacts.com

More Joram on Blogger

While I have never met another Joram in real life - I did a search on Blogger on the term "Joram" and came up an interesting match:

Forging the Darksword by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Started: 4/21/06
Finished: 4/24/06
Pages: 391
Year: 1987
Genre: Fantasy
Grade: C
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the shelf (from a bookbox)
Blurb (from back cover): "In the enchanted realm of Merilon, magic is life.

"Born without magical abilities and denied his birthright, Joram is left for dead. Yet he grows to manhood in a remote country village, hiding his lack of powers only through constant vigilance and ever more skillful sleight-of-hand.

"Forced to kill a man in self-defense, Joram can keep his secret from the townspeaople no longer; he has no magic, no life. Fleeing to the Outlands, Joram joins the outlawed Technologists, who practice the long forbidden arts of science. Here he meets the scholarly catalyst Saryon, who has been sent on a special mission to hunt down a mysterious "dead man" and instead finds himself in a battle of wits and power with a renegade warlock of the dark Duuk-tsarith caste."

"Together, Joram and Saryon begin their quest toward a greater destiny-a destiny that begins with the discovery of the secret books that will enable them to overthrow the evil usurper Blachloch...and forge the powerful magic-absorbing Darksword."

Opinion: Anyone who knows me knows that I usually despise fantasy books. However, this one was okay-certainly not the best but I didn't end up throwing it across the subway while reading it.

I was often asked if my name came from this fantasy book when posting on message boards across the web - this is the first time I've actually seen something about the book! The fan reviewer pretty much trashed the book so I probably won't bother finding out too much more about it.

Check out Ollie's World of Books

You Know What I Miss? Bubble Up

I haven't had this pop (soda for the rest of you) in years... has anyone seen it for sale lately anywhere? It tastes like a blend of Sprite and 7-Up.

Links:

Wikipedia Definition

MySpace

I have a MySpace profile if you're into that.

New St. Paul Hang-Out: Chatterbox Bar

From StarTribune.com:

It's inspired by the neighborhood bar of the same name in south Minneapolis, which, even on weeknights, packs in hipsters longing for beer-filled evenings of "Battleship" and "Super Mario Bros."

The owners have expanded on that retro concept. The new bar is three times the size of the original, with more vintage sofas, funky lamps, black vinyl diner booths and bad landscape paintings straight from Grandma's house. They've boosted their gaming, too.

Sounds like it's actually a place I'd check out - beer and old school Mario Bros. on flatscreens! I looked for a website for the new restaurant but I couldn't find one - for a place that is catering to the Gen X/Gen Y crowd I found that very curious.

One For My Brother

My brother has a weakness for redheads. Here's a new one for you L:

Sporting a new red-haired look, Jessica Simpson applauds while presenting an award during the 2006 National Council of La Raza ALMA Awards in Los Angeles, Sunday, May 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

While I'm a gentleman and prefer blondes - I think it kinda works for Miss Simpson.

Pimp My Friends - Abstract Photography

Another shot from Abstract-Photography.com:



You can check out more digital B & W here.

Nintendo WII Coming

Well it's getting very interesting in the next-gen video game console wars. I admit I had basically given up on Nintendo coming up with anything interesting... especially when they gave up on making their new system as high end as the PS2 or the Xbox360.

From Yahoo News:

Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS) new Wii video game console, considered the underdog in the console wars because it lacks the high-definition graphics and multimedia features of its rivals, is stealing the show at this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show.
The wait to try out the Wii at E3 pushed past four hours on Thursday afternoon, while the wait for hands-on time with Sony Corp.'s (6758.T) PlayStation 3 was barely 30 minutes. Both consoles will hit the market later this year, though the Wii is expected to cost much less than rival consoles.

The Wii (pronounced "we") uses a motion-sensor enabled controller that looks like a TV remote and allows users to direct action on the screen by wielding it like a sword or swinging it like a baseball bat, tennis racket or golf club.

"It's basically a whole different thing from anything I've seen before," said Josef Faulkner, who had been waiting in line for three hours to get his hands on Wii. He still had an hour to go. "This is definitely the biggest thing here."

Faulkner and other attendees agreed that the unique controller is what is drawing people to the Wii.

Unlike other next-generation consoles, Wii doesn't sport high-definition graphics or make any promises of being a multimedia entertainment hub, but it promises a unique, fun experience new to video games.

While the fun vs. graphics equation has worked in the past (I believe Duke3D was eminently more playable and fun than Quake) - I'm still not sure how WII will stand up against Microsoft and Sony's plans on making their systems the center of our media worlds. Intel is also putting a lot of marketing muscle into their Viiv technology - which is the same sort of concept - have a computer run all of your music, photos, movies, etc.

More Coverage:

• Local Minneapolis blogger Noel covers booth babes at Pop Whirled.
• Read about Nintendo's entire philosophy behind Wii.
• A whole slew of Nintendo Wii news at NintendoRevolution.ca

Which system are you most looking forward to? Already own an Xbox360? Saving for the PS3? Or holding out to see if Nintendo has some more tricks up their sleeve?

Hey I Went To Japan

If you've never traveled to Japan I highly recommend it. Such a different culture - so different than America. Very clean, safe, and so much to see.

Check out an album from my last trip there with my wife. Big thanks to Elise for letting us stay with her and showing us a great time in Aomori!

Next Trip: New Zealand and/or Austrailia. Can't wait to see where they filmed Lord of the Rings (NZ)!

A Bit About My Links

I thought I'd drop some info on the links you see on the right side of the page. They are all sites run by friends of mine:

the anti-trend trend - Josh riffs on music (especially hip hop), movies, observations, food, and art.

abstract-photography.com - One of my college roommates has a site for his impressive photography. Check out my fave here.

Random posts from an MN girl in Japan... - Elise teaches English in Japan - these are her thoughts and experiences from her travels in the Land of the Rising Sun.

ImprovLarry - One of my co-workers has a site dedicated to his improv act. You can download clips of some improv performances!

Thomas Schirtz - A friend from Los Angeles has a site showing off his art. Check out some of his work here.

Send me a link to your page and I'll check it out!

About That Immigration Debate

Let me go on record again stating that I fully support immigration of all kinds.

Actress Eva Longoria performs at the 2006 'NCLR Alma' awards at the Shrine auditorium in Los Angeles May 7, 2006. The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) gives out the ALMA awards to honor outstanding Latino artistic achievement in television, film and music. The show airs on June 5 on ABC

Especially this kind.

My Favourite Song This Week

Nelly Furtado ft Timbaland - Promiscuous

What a totally sweet beat laced with hip hop tracks from Nelly Furtado. Some of the early feedback from fans has been that they don't like Nelly going away from her more lyrical sing-songy style of music... I say: stop hatin'. This collab with Timbaland is amazing and I hope she goes "all the way" with this style on her new album. If you want to check out the video - I recommend MTV Overdrive or YouTube.

YouTube - Lose Hours of Your Life Watching Online Video

Two dorks do their own video of the Mortal Kombat theme song. The one brother who keeps yelling MORTAL KOMBAT gets funnier every time you see it. This vid also points out that you really don't need to spend much money on props or cameras to make interesting content for the web.

MTV Overdrive - Controlling Your Own Entertainment

Do you have a broadband connection? Do you like music videos or some other kind of MTV content? You can stream a lot of their stuff from their Overdrive site. I guess I'm one of the old school types who likes his MTV to be full of music videos and not Newlyweds, Punk'd, etc. (Isn't that what MTV156 is for?) With Overdrive you can create a playlist of music videos and they'll play in order with only an occasional break for a 30-second commercial. I wish the videos were of a bit higher quality - played at full-screen they're very pixelated. Oh well. It's Overdrive 1.0.

Awesome I Shot That! New Beastie Boys Movie

Building on an earlier post about the digital video revolution - I finally looked into the new Beastie Boys feature film I've been hearing a lot about. Here's the blurb:

A formally innovative feature film experience, the Beastie Boys handed out 50 cameras to audience members at their sold-out performance in New York’s famed Madison Square Garden in October 2004. These 50 different passionate perspectives shot from the point-of-view of the audience take the viewer deep inside the world of a live Beastie Boys show.

Additional Infoz:

Beastieboys.com - Main site for the Beastie Boys!

Awesome I F'n Shot That - Feature Film Official Site

Official Trailer - Check out the trailer in Quicktime

You Think That's Good Salsa?

Some commercials that I find eminently funny are the new Axe Keep Your Cool commercials. I like The One Upper, Mother Hen, and Fake British Accent Guy.

Check out the commercials online.

What's your favourite commerical on TV currently? Or since TIVO/DVR have you not seen a commercial since late 1998? Drop comments below.

A House-keeping Note

Links from many of my old posts will not work due to the archiving practices of sites such as Yahoo News and StarTribune.com. In the future I will make sure posts make sense without having to click-thru to ensure readability.

-Joram

Movie Fridays

In Early Development:
I spotted this graph in a Yahoo News story:

A new big-screen movie, apparently featuring the early adventures of Trek forefathers James T. Kirk and Spock, and boasting the handiwork of Lost creator J.J. Abrams, is being primed for a 2008 release.

Very interesting. While I've yet to sit down and watch the DVD seasons of Lost - I've only heard good things about their plotlines and show dynamics. In my opinion - if you nail these two criteria for Trek you'll have a great series. I'll keep an eye on this one. More info at StarTrek.com.


Upcoming Release:

X-Men 3 - The Last Stand. Check out the Official Site for the trailer. Back in the Fandom.com days I was following the release of the new movie very religiously. I'm hoping with a shift of directors (to Brett Ratner of Rush Hour fame) that they can still maintain the feel of the first two movies. It looks like they've at least put the right amount of money into the budget! For additional coverage of the movie I recommend CHUD.com.



This Weekend:

Predictions:


Big Winner: United 93 - Everyone is talking about it - Plus it's first to market after 9/11. I think America is ready for it.
Big Loser: RV - Robin Williams vs. cranky RV. Snore. 10 million tops.
Surprise Performer: Stick It - performs well with MTV crowd and dads volunteering to take kids to it.

Drop a comment below if you dig this subject matter!

Digital Shorts

I am very excited about the rise of digital short films hitting the mainstream. My friend Josh tackles the hip-hop angle on a couple of SNL's best. (ChronicWHAT?!) I'm into giving the power of entertainment to the masses. Having spent a couple of years in Hollywood - I only got a taste of what's wrong with commercialized productions; i.e. too many sequels, cookie-cutter scripts, etc. The digital revolution will change how we create and consume our entertainment options.

The sun sets on an old blog... and will rise again with a new one

Well it's good to be back online. I'm testing some features for the blog.

Yahoo! News - Tempers Flare During 'Taboo' Board Game

I love this game...

Yahoo! News - Tempers Flare During 'Taboo' Board Game: "CONWAY, Ark. - The party game wasn't the only thing taboo. Three men were arrested on felony charges after a game of Taboo went awry at a Conway home.

Officers were called to the home Sunday after two men threatened others with guns because they were losing the game, in which one teammate gives clues about certain subject matter, but using certain words is taboo. "

Open up those icy gates

You know you live in Minnesota when...

Open up those icy gates: "About 27,000 ice blocks are in place. The ice rink has been Zambonied. The ice thrones are in position. Even the windshield washer fluid is ready to spew from the ice fountain. "

Yahoo! News - Looking for porn? Now you can just Booble it

HILARIOUS

Yahoo! News - Looking for porn? Now you can just Booble it: "LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Online pornography aficionados got a boost when a US entrepreneur launched a new search engine for raunchy Internet material dubbed 'Booble.com'. "

Real Men Need Poker Night / God, sex, cars, really good scotch and a lot of five-card stud. Might just be essential to your health

Real Men Need Poker Night / God, sex, cars, really good scotch and a lot of five-card stud. Might just be essential to your health: "But maybe I've been wrong all along. Maybe there are ways to do this sort of thing right. Maybe I've been neglecting an important aspect of life, that of the Gathering of Like-Minded Ones, the Reinforcement of the Gender Thing, the Great Weekly Bonding Event.
Because I now find I want to start a poker night. A real one. Sort of.
I want to gather a cluster of a few friends every week and have them bring buckets of spare change and whip up some exceptional food and enjoy much laughter and discussion and raunchy jokes and music and expensive scotch, and stay up too late until the last hand is played out and the last drop of whiskey is enjoyed and everyone goes home buzzed and askew and tired.
Because it's necessary. Because discussion and camaraderie and frequent deep laughter are dying arts. Because the Net is an isolating beast and television is slow poison and the world is increasingly bitter, and we all appear to be increasingly combative and wary and fearful. "

Hell yes

MSN Hotmail - Message: "Quote of the Day
'It's time President Bush played it straight with the American people. President Bush has shut the people out of government and told them they have no right to know what he says to special interests in the Oval Office. As President, my administration will be an open book. We need a higher standard of leadership in Washington.'

- Wes Clark "

Yahoo! News - White House Opposes UN Report on Obesity

Think the advertising lobby sent a couple bucks someone's way for this?

Yahoo! News - White House Opposes UN Report on Obesity: "The WHO report recommends eating more fruits and vegetables and limiting fats and salt. It also suggests governments limit food advertising aimed at children and encourage their citizens to eat healthier foods. Taxes and subsidies could be used to reduce the price of healthy food and make them more attractive to consumers, the report said. "

MSNBC - Coms Gone Wild

MSNBC -: "Will computers ruin consumer electronics?
So now everyone has returned from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, bearing extravagant tales of the digital audio-video miracles soon to arrive in everyone's living room. The glorious digital convergence is here, and customers will soon have a whole new set of audio-video choices from names like Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Microsoft. And all I keep thinking is: please, spare us.
advertisement

Why? It's because I know what's going to happen next, and it won't be pretty. The reason is inherent in a joke I used to tell to personal computer executives, but which I stopped telling because they never laughed. The joke was this: 'You people love standards. You have so MANY of them.'"

HBS Working Knowledge: Entrepreneurship: Balancing Priorities on Schedule

ahhh time management - something we all need to work on...


HBS Working Knowledge: Entrepreneurship: Balancing Priorities on Schedule

Franken to help launch liberal radio network to oppose Limbaugh

Yeah! Franken is one of the funniest guys going - plus he's from Minnesota!

Franken to help launch liberal radio network to oppose Limbaugh: "Satirical superstar and St. Louis Park native Al Franken has signed on as a prime player with Central Air, a new politically liberal radio network. Franken will host a daily talk show, his agent confirmed on Monday. When the New York-based network goes on the air later this year, his show is expected to run from noon to 3 p.m., going head-to-head in many markets with conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh."

Ahh Movie Awards That I Like

CHUD - Cinematic Happenings Under Development

Everybody else gives out hopelessly meaningless awards if they happen to have seen a lot of movies this year, so why not me? The year has been a bizarre mix of the who-gives-a-shits? and the oh-God-will-Hollywood-PLEASE-make-a-movie-not-by-committee?, but still, there were a handful of movies that fired on all or some cylinders, so I figured I’d trot these awards out again – started at Fandom a long time ago in memory of the “flame” nickname somebody hit me with on an AICN talkback back when I wrote stuff for them. Take all of this as merely opinion and an opinion that would likely be altered in one way or another at some other point in the year or after I’ve had more time to think about the flicks I’ve seen more recently. There are some films I haven’t yet seen, unfortunately (only 120+ films are represented here – nowhere near the 248 in competition for Oscar nominations – with sad exceptions such as The Company, The Girl With the Pearl Earring and others I haven't seen yet), but whatev – I did my best.

- if you're looking for one of the more unique voices on the internet for all things film - check out my friend, Smilin' Jack Ruby's, list of awards. You won't regret it!

Color him Ivy: Ventura to be Harvard fellow

Color him Ivy: Ventura to be Harvard fellow: "'He's extremely street-smart about politics and government,' Hillsman said. 'He will have a good time there, and he will bring more to the program than it brings to him.' Hillsman said Ventura's course or seminar likely will be one of the most popular of the spring term. 'Undergrads will really, really take to him,' Hillsman said. 'They don't come with an agenda attached.'"

Hell yeah Jesse! One of my favourite self-made men. Ventura got me into politics at an early age - who knew I'd turn out to be a little more progressive than he is, but I appreciate his fighting the fights. (are you listening Dems?)

A New Year - A New Blog

Greetings everyone - in 2004 I'll be trying Blogger a whole lot more. Should be a blast!

Cheers!
Joram