Our New Camera

As our Christmas present to ourselves, Megan and I got a new camera. It is a Casio Exilim, 10.1 megapixel. We love it. The other day we went to Balboa Park in San Diego and I took this photo of one of the historic buildings there:I really like the video quality and capability of this camera as well. I do wish that cameras this size could handle much higher quality video, but whatever, it does okay for what we need. :)

This video (below) was taken with my new camera a couple of days before Christmas. CUTE!

Ch-Visit

I had an awesome visit with my best friend, Rich on Christmas Eve. I hadn't seen him in over a year so it was a welcomed reunion. When we get together it's like we were never apart.

And of course Rich wouldn't be Rich without a SUPER AWESOME TRUCK!Thanks for the visit, CH!

Kaelyn is SO cute

I rest my case

We're a Two Car Family Again!

It was finally time for us to get a van. Our family is just getting too big for our little car. Not to mention that we've been a one-car family for a year now.

We felt very good about our purchase. Megan and I are pretty good about taking control of a sales situation and telling them what deal they're going to give us rather than waiting for them to give us an offer. My Dad says that the next time he buys a car, he's going to have us do it for him.

We ended up getting this 2006 Kia Sedona for $3500 less than both Blue Book and Consumer Reports say it should go for.

The next day I asked Megan, "Aren't you supposed to have buyers remorse after making a big purchase? Because I don't."

And I don't. I love our van. :) YEA!

New Year's Resolutions

I've heard so many studies that claim that 80 to 92 percent of new year's resolutions fail (just google it, you'll find those numbers accurate and consistent). And 35 percent of new year's resolutions fail by the end of January.

So why do we make them? Why do we continue to promote the creating of goals for the new year? It's not even the start of a new season, but just some random day that we denote as starting a new cycle of the Earth around the Sun.

Knowing that statistic, I've often said: "I won't make my new year's resolutions until February. Then I don't fall into that statistic and I'll have more chance of success." But of course, by February I don't make any resolutions.

So this year I was thinking a lot about it and I think I've come up with a good answer. There is something about a new year that make us feel new. Something about finishing December and doing away with date that you've signed checks with for a year feels fresh. When we enter January 2009 it feels like "the future," it feels like we've entered a new era, a new chapter in our book of life. So we feel empowered to make a change. We feel like, hey, if there was ever a time to start doing something different, it's now.

This year, I think I'm going to try it. Not huge goals, but goals none the less. I'm going to enter the statistic race and treat January 1st like the start of all things new. This not only includes my own health, weight, etc (the most common new year's goal) but things in work, how I run my classes, what I expect from my students, what we are going to set out to achieve and how we're going to achieve it.

Who knows how successful I'll be, but it can't hurt to try.

Wish me luck.

Snow in Vegas!

THIS IS INSANE! Not only did it snow today in Vegas, but it snowed A LOT! We're talking like 3 or 4 inches! This is the craziest thing ever. They say that it hasn't snowed like this since 1979, almost 30 years! Here are some pictures.

Best. Video. Ever.

This is priceless. You MUST watch this video. Enjoy:

Black Friday

So I started off today by asking my friends and family: "They say Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year. But have you ever known ANYONE that goes shopping on Black Friday???" Every single person I asked (a mere 5 people) said "no." This was baffling to me. I mean, if it's SUCH a huge shopping day, and the crowds are unbearable, then statistically speaking, shouldn't you have met someone along the way that shops on Black Friday?

So anyway, my parents are out for the week and my Dad and I were going to work around the house a bit to fix some things up. One of our big projects was to buy and install a new garage door opener. So we went to Lowes. I had been there the week before to check out prices, but today the same garage door opener we wanted was $60 cheaper! Wow, I thought. This is GREAT! On the way out, there was a wet/dry shop vac on display, regularly $90, on sale only now through Monday for $29. Holy COW! What a deal. I really need a new shop vac. I can't pass this up!

So out I walk to my car, pleased with my savings of $120.

And then I realized. I just shopped on Black Friday. And I even took advantage of the Black Friday deals. So it does happen. People do shop on Black Friday. In this case, however, I'm glad I did. I saved a TON of money.

Great Videos

So I was bored the other day and found a couple of great videos on YouTube that I thought you might like.

This one had me laughing so hard I almost peed my pants:

Ernie and Bert Go Brutal

This is a funny SpongeBob parody about life in China. Pretty good stuff:

This isn't a funny one, but I stumbled across it when Maddy was asking for "Dah-fin" videos. This is REALLY amazing stuff. These Dolphins create bubble rings  and then play with them. You've got to see it:

Okay, if you're still bored, you can't go wrong with a good Veggie Tales video. I LOVE the silly songs! This one is FUNNY. Enjoy

Free Dr. Pepper for America!

Best. News. Ever. Guns N Roses is releasing an album that took 14 years to record. To celebrate, Dr. Pepper is giving the ENTIRE COUNTRY FREE DR. PEPPER! You just have to go to thier website this Sunday to get the coupon.

Read the press release for yourself: Click Here

Dr. Pepper: I salute you.

Gmail Themes

I just discovered this, and probably by this time tomorrow (or yesterday) this will be common knowledge so I thought I'd blog about it now. Gmail has new themes. Pretty cool. Here's what my inbox looks like now!

Our STUPID Electoral System

I love our country, but I have only recently become interested in politics. Tonight, after watching an unexperienced socialist get elected into office, I realized something: our voting system sucks.

Apparantly we have so many electoral votes per state equal to the congressional representation of the state. "The electors generally cast their votes for the winner of the popular vote in their respective states, but are not required by law to do so." (wikipedia)

WHAT!?!? Are you kidding me? So basically, I go cast my vote, but it doesn't really matter because they electors just vote for whomever they want?

And another thing (and this is what really chaps my hyde): when a candidate wins 51% or more of a state's vote, they receive ALL the electoral votes for that state! This means that 49% of the votes didn't count! Think of it this way: Two neighboring states have 1 million people each and (say) 9 electoral votes. State one has 500,001 people vote blue and 499,999 people vote red. So all 9 electoral votes go to the blue candidate. State two has 700,000 vote blue and 300,000 vote red. So all 9 electoral votes go to the blue candidate for a grand total of 18 electoral votes (between the two states). But let's say the 499,999 voters from state one move to state two and vote the SAME way. Now every citizen of state one (500,001) vote blue, they get 9 electoral votes. But state two now has 700,000 that vote blue and 799,999 that vote red. Suddenly the red candidate has 9 more electoral votes but the same people voted the same way! So it doesn't really matter what your vote is, it matters where you live!!! This is perposterous! If this were a perfect system, then every vote would count for one vote. Forget states and districts. If I vote one way then my vote should count for that candidate. PERIOD.

I've always been so proud of my country. But I can't say I am tonight. In today's age of modern technology we need a better system of voting. If it's a true democracy then make every vote count.

Ready or Not

Last weekend I traveled to Bakersfield with my quartet, Ready or Not, to compete at the district level barbershop competition. Bascially what this means is that 100 quartets competed at the division level, and only about 20 were invited to compete at district. We sang on the first night, and only 10 were invited (qualified) to sing the second night. In the end, we took 6th place (out of roughly 100) so we were very excited about that. If you'd like to see us in action, watch these videos of the contest. The first one is the 2nd night of the contest--I think we sounded a lot better the second night so I'm posting it first, just in case you only want to watch one of them.

For more info on our quartet, we have a website: www.ReadyOrNotQuartet.com

September Pics Are Up

At the end of each month I post whatever pictures I took that month onto my flickr account. This way I can keep track of what I've uploaded and what I haven't. Mostly, as you know, all the pictures are of my kids. SO CUTE! I think I uploaded about 60 pictures so if you'd like to browse through them, see my photostream by clicking here.

Otherwise, enjoy some of my favorites here below:

Drive Through Yosemite.... From Home!

Most of you know that Google Maps has the awesome "street view" option. This morning I had the idea of seeing if street views were available in Yosemite. Yea, they were! I enjoyed driving around with my mouse. Makes me feel like I'm there. You should try it too.

Here are a couple of screen shots I was able to capture from my drive:

That's Half Dome on the right:

Mission Photos

I estimate that I took around 500 or so photos on my mission. This, of course, was back in the archaic days before the advent of digital photography. Saddly, my HUGE stack of mission photos is just sitting in a bin somewhere in the garage. One of these days I need to dig them out and spend 74 thousand hours scanning them in so as to preserve them.

I actually attempted that about 6 or 7 years ago. I scanned in merely about 50 photos. Apparantly, to my dismay, I only scanned them in at SUPER low quality. Nonetheless I found those scanned photos hidden in an obscure place on my hard drive. So after reliving the memories for a few moments I uploaded them to Flickr.

If you'd like to browse through the few I have, click here to view my mission photos Flickr set.

Otherwise I've posted a few of them here on the blog. Enjoy:

Heroes is Back, Among Others

The best show to grace TV airwaves is back on the air. Heroes delivered a fantastic 2 hour premier last Monday and this coming Monday cannot come fast enough.

As with previous seasons, this is the one show that I simply cannot DVR and watch later. I must watch it live, or at least only 15 minutes behind (enough to fast forward through commercials).

So far the season has started off wonderfully.

In addition to Heroes, there are a few other geek-favorites of mine that are starting up. I DVR'd the first episode of the new Knight Rider but haven't watched it yet. The second season of Terminator has started and, in my opinion, it is a fantastic show--love it!

And don't count out Smallville. Going on thier 8th season, this one has started off strong. I LOVE that Lana is out of the picture but I hate that Lex is gone too. The show isn't what it used to be without him. Still, the new producers have churned out a few great season-starting episodes. While the dynamic has changed over the years, I still easily count this as one of my top favorite 3 shows.

I started watching Fringe. I've seen the first two eps so far. It's supposed to be the new JJ Abrams show. So far I'm not terribly impressed. I think I'll give it one more episode to hook me in but somehow that doesn't seem likely. It's kind of like an X-files but seems to drag for me.

I'm interested in seeing "My Own Worst Enemy", starting next month. Looks interesting.

And of course there's Lost. Hasn't started yet, but I'm still waiting like a boy on Christmas morning for it to get underway.

I also enjoy Criminal Minds. The season premier recorded, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Cold Case is good, hasn't started yet.

I don't typically think of myself as a huge TV watcher but looking at this list, you'd wonder how I have time to do anything else. I didn't even mention American Idol or College Football.

But in the end there is only one hierarchy of shows--the top three. I could probably give up the rest if forced to at gunpoint, but these three would have me questioning mortality if given the same option:

1. Heroes
2. Lost
3. Smallville

Enjoy the season.

Bike Not Good Enough!

So apparantly biking isn't good enough to get my legs in shape for hiking. I rode four miles a day for two and a half weeks, and all the while I could feel my thighs burn. At the end of each week my legs were fatigued. I thought I was getting fit for my Half Dome hike.

Well this weekend I had my choir retreat. At the tail end of the retreat I went up with a bunch of my students to play laser tag. Basically it's a big indoor area, dark, lots of ramps and different levels to play on, and the object is to shoot and not get shot. It's a LOT OF FUN. I did it once with my brother before when he came out to visit and I had forgotten just how fun it was.

The game lasted 15 minutes. That's fifteen minutes of running in a crouched position. It's hard to explain how much of a workout it really is until you do it yourself. We were all drenched with sweat by the end of it. Half way through our time my heart was beating SO hard I thought I would die.

This morning, my thighs were SO SORE! After only 15 minutes of hard upper-leg work I am sore, and remember, that's after riding a bike 4 miles a day for 2.5 weeks.

So there you have it. I need to do some SERIOUS work to get 

in shape. If fifteen mintues kills my legs then a few hours hiking Half Dome could put me out for the rest of the week. And we CAN'T let that happen (Bob, Aaron, Jon and Dad) becuase we have a LOT more hiking to do that week.

So my plea to my Yosemite friends is: don't just assume that you'll be fine. You will NEED to get in GOOD shape for what we're setting out to do. The last thing you want is to be left behind at camp because you're too sore to go on the next hike.

...now to take my own advice.

Rockapella

Tonight Megan and I went to a concert. We saw Rockapella. You may remember them from the show: "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" (click the link to hear the song). It was a GREAT concert. They put on quite a show.

They have a bass, George Baldi III, that was fantastic. His voice was so smooth and easy to listen to. He was, to me, the highlight of the evening. Next in line was Jeff Thacher, the vocal percussionist. He was downirght awesome. Just as good as Blake Lewis, IMO.

The best song of the night was thier rendition of a familiar Mills Bros. tune: Paper Doll. It was fun and held a beat that you could relate to.

It's great to go on a date with my wife, and escape the screams of a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old for a few hours.

Here are a few pictures I took tonight:

Trophy Wife

I rest my case

I'm Famous!

So there's this website called Schmap.com. From the looks of it, they are an internet mapping program like Google Maps that professes to go above and beyond (meaning they provide descriptions and reviews of places, etc.). Well a few weeks ago I got an email from them saying that my photo (found on Flickr) was a finalist in thier selection for a photo of the Mariposa grove in Yosemite. They wanted to know if they could have my permission to publish it on thier site if it was selected as the final photo in ther pool of selections. I said sure, why not? I'm all for the free world of trading photos--among other things (*cough* *music*). But anyway I responded in the afirmative and thought nothing more of it.

I just got the email today. They've decided to use my photo! So now when you go to Schmap and look up Yosemite, you'll see my photo at the Mariposa Grove description.

See for yourself. My photo (shown here below) can now be seen at Schmap. Click here, and cursor over "Mariposa Grove." My photo will show up on the right hand side of the screen (and you'll see my name credited under it too).

So if you want my autograph, I'd be happy to give you one ($100 each)

I Have the Coolest Friends

Check me out. Can you see what I'm drinking? POCARI SWEAT! If you didn't know, this is the best drink on the planet. It's sort of Gatorade-ish but more refreshing (in my opinion). I fell in love with the stuff when I was in Japan but knew that, sadly, I may never get to drink it again. I wrote a blog about the drink and it paid off.

I have a good friend that just spent a year in Macau China (singing at the Venetian). He read my blog while there. He just came back from China this week and he brought me a gift. Best. Gift. Ever.

Thanks, Skyler. You da man!

Metallica is Back

Since I was in high school, if you ask me what my favorite bad is, I would say Metallica. Why? Don't they play crazy mind numbing heavy metal? Not really. Don't get me wrong, they have thier share of heavy metal, but most people don't know that in spite of the heavy/goth sounding name, Metallica is actually a very musically tallented group of people.

A few years ago, they came out with a new album: St. Anger. It sucked. I was such a big fan that I tried to convince myself that I liked thier new sound. In the end I had to face reality: Metallica had hit a new low (well not a new low because they didn't have one to begin with).

But in 2 days Metallica will release a new album: Death Magnetic. IT. IS. AWESOME. They totally redeemed themselves with this new album. It harkens back to the good old days of Justice for All and Master of Puppets. I've listened to the whole thing a number of times now. HOW? It's not even released yet! Well the album leaked online a few weeks ago. You can hear the music in any number of places including YouTube.

Metallica never ceases to amaze me with their tallent. Killer vocals and fantastic melodic guitar riffs accompanied by perfect chord structure and a constantly advancing musical form.

Enough from me. Hear it from the masters themselves. Here are my two favorites from thier new album.

This is one of my favorites. AWESOME! (Cyanide)

This Song is instrumental only but awesome: (Suicide and Redemption)

My Kids Rule

Well I've uploaded my August photos to flickr. It's a small upload this month (only 86 photos)--guess I didn't take that many pics. But I did take some REALLY GREAT ONES. So, you can browse my flickr account, or just look below at some of my favs:

This is my brother-in-law, Jason, on the wake board. I thought I took a great pic, so I wanted to share :P

CUTE Kaelyn!

SUPER Cute Kaelyn!

Cute Madelyn!

4 Miles a Day

So I've done it. I just finished my first week of riding my [borrowed] bike to work and back. My school is 2 miles away; round trip is 4 miles.

The great thing about riding the bike is that I can say "I rode 4 miles today" but I don't have to take time out of my day to "work out" -- It's simply a means of transportation.

And how did it go? My legs hurt a lot. I never really felt sore per se, but my knees seemed to weaken over the course of the week. I couldn't wait for Saturday (today) so that I could take a break.

I haven't lost any weight but that's okay--I'm not really doing this to lose weight; I'm doing it to get in shape for my 26-mile Yosemite hike in June (though losing weight would be a nice side effect).

Riding to school is tough because is a gradual uphill almost the whole way. It's not terribly steep; as a matter of fact I never realized it was uphill until I started riding my bike. The ride home is much easier for the same reason.

Hopefully I can keep this up. I want my Yosemite trip to be perfect and it won't be if I'm tired and exhausted the whole time.

Star Trails

Using my Google Reader I subscribe to the Yosemite photo pool at Flickr. Basically this means that anytime someone posts a new photo to the photo pool, I get to view it using my Google Reader. Usually that means between 3-10 photos per day. I love it.

One of the things I've discovered while viewing these posted photos is Star Trails. What this refers to are photos that are prolonged exposure shots, some as short as 10 minutes and others as long as 2 hours! (meaning the camera shutter is open for that long!) and in the process you can see where the stars have moved in that amount of time. See for yourself:This photo has an exposure time of 91 minutes! I think it's pretty incredible!

Another fun thing to do (apparently) with long exposures is something called "Light Painting." This is simply the concept that if you take a long exposure shot, you can shine a colored light on something, or even write something with a laser pen, and the exposure would pick it all up. Here's one example:
Here you can see the star trails, but you can also see the red tint on the tree. This is due to the photographer shining a red-bulb flashlight up and down the tree trunk during the long exposure shot. This particular exposure was for 46 minutes (the lights in the background are all the cars driving by in that amount of time).

So there you have it: photography really is art. Now I just have to go out and by a $3000 camera to take pictures like these!

I'm Skinny!!!

...at heart (photo to the right is not me... sadly).

Some of you know that I'm planning a trip to Yosemite next June. I plan on hiking 26.2 miles in one week. Ironically, this is the exact millage of a marathon! This is no joke. Here are the hikes on my list for my Yosemite week:

Half Dome: 14.2 miles round trip
Upper Yosemite Falls: 7.6 miles round trip
Taft Point: 2.2 miles round trip
Sentinel Dome: 2.2 miles round trip
______________
Total: 26.2 miles.

Crazy. But anyway, I digress. The point is, this is a LOT of millage to hike in a week. While a marathon is run all in one day, half of my hiking will be UPHILL!

My dad, who is going with me to Yosemite, purchased a gym membership and some new work-out clothes and shoes in order to get in shape for this event. I too knew that I needed to take some measures to get in shape--I've known too many people that have climbed Half Dome (let alone all the other hikes I'm going to be doing) out of shape and just about died.

Two days ago I went on a walk--a good start for my seriously allergic-to-exercise lifestyle. I walked maybe a mile and felt great.

Today I got on a bike (borrowed from a friend) and rode 7.2 miles. It was wonderful! Needless to say I was exhausted after only about 300 yards, but I kept going. Anyone that says riding a bike isn't exercise should try getting on one again. My legs are spent, but it was an awesome ride. The wind was in my face, it wasn't too hot (94 degrees, hey that's not hot in Vegas), and I had my head phones on playing James Blunt.

I rode to Round Table Pizza where I had a lunch buffet and read my book, relaxing for about an hour (okay stop laughing at me and telling me that eating a pizza buffet negated my bike ride!)

I can't remember the last time I felt that good and relaxed. It was an overall enjoyable enough experience to do it again. I'm going to start riding my bike to work as well. Hopefully it'll be enough to get me ready for my marathon hike in 9 months.

Wish me luck!

Note: The guy in the picture above isn't me. Unless, of course, you really thought it was, in which case it is... of course.

And Then God Created Man

I got this as a forward. I thought it was hilarious:

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's fa mily. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'

The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said:

'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give y ou twenty years.'

But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service.

Pocari Sweat and Back to the Future

When I went to Japan this past June, I fell in love with a drink they have there: Pocari Sweat (see proof above). The title isn't that appetizing but the drink itself was to die for. I loved it and drank a few a day--it could be found in any corner vending machine.

The flavor is something like a flavor of Gatorade. It has sugar in it but it's light and extreamly refreshing. It was so humid in Japan (at least in comparison to dry Las Vegas) and water just didn't seem to replenish my system, but Pocari Sweat did.

I was doing some research today to see if there was anywhere in Las Vegas that I could buy Pocari Sweat. In the meantime I stumbled accross a wikipedia entry that mentioned that: "A sixpack of Pocari Sweat can be seen in the family kitchen in the movie Back to the Future Part II (set in the year 2015), humorously implying the drink has become a mainstream product in the United States."

WHAT??? You've got to be kidding me! That's AWESOME! I LOVED that movie as a kid... and... as an adult. So I popped in the DVD, and sure enough, there it was. I took a screen shot for you to see (it's the little blue box on the right side of the frame). AWESOME! (click photo to see bigger)If you ever get to go to Japan, get some. It's great! Otherwise, Wikipedia also mentions: "The 'Arctic Shatter' variety of Powerade-brand sports drink very closely resembles it, in both color and flavor." So I guess I'm going to have to try it out to see for myself.

P.s. For those interested in my movie/ficiton review blog, I've recently posted my reviews of: Next, The Andromeda Strain, TMNT, Accross the Universe, Fool's Gold, and others. Click here.