Monday, April 20, 2009

My cruising vehicle!

I take you on a breathtaking tour of "how I roll!" Take a look at my sweet sweet ride!

Volvo makes a tractor

My second video explores the wonderful legacy of the Volvo tractor. It is groundbreaking!

Friday, April 17, 2009

The Flower Conspiracy

My first video with my new Flip Ultra video camera! Taken at the Tulip Festival.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

This is a test of the emergency updating system.

This is only a test.


Haha! It's strange how this test will look and feel like a real update (because it is). I woke up this morning ready to record a podcast.... unfortunately the groundskeepers decided today would be a fantastic day to use leaf blowers and other amazingly loud devices. The place is not very big so it always amazes me how long it takes these.... people.... to take care of the property (expletives were wanted here but I chose to say people to keep this more or less a PG rated blog). I always go through various urges to go out and kill. I tend to daydream of smashing their overly loud equipment against the concrete and handing them a broom. What ever happened to using a freaking broom? I can't stand the leaf blowers especially when they start before 8 AM! Of course, I have used a leaf blower and know that they are fantastically fun when you are the wielder. The noise is less annoying when you are using them then when you are debating whether or not to move from your comfortable bed and some jerk is running one right outside your window. Either way it is too loud to record a podcast at the moment and I can't say that I am completely awake enough to pull it off anyhow.

Let's move on to other topics. Lately I have been learning a new set of lessons for Mad Science. They are pretty cool looking but I feel nervous because I am not as familiar with them as I would like to be. Of course I will only be fully familiar with them once I actually teach them and get a real feel for the class. Either way I am looking forward to the challenge, unease and all.

Ooooh.... they have moved on to a power washer. Fantastic! If I only had Archimedes' Death Ray!

I have started a new 8 week course in my masters program and it is going swimmingly. Except for the whole fact that I think school sucks and wish that the purveyors of higher education, in all it's ridiculousness, would spontaneously combust in a most hilarious manner. I am forcing myself to jump through the hoops and the whole "I should have ran off to China" idea keeps reverberating in my brain. Yay school!

Of course in a weird turn of events I am thoroughly enjoying my beginning Japanese class. I can't say I remember very well yet but it is only my second week. Either way I like the class and feel excited to go every Wednesday! I think the excitement stems from actually learning something, which is sorely lacking in classes that shall remain nameless.

Last Friday, my friend Edie and I went to see The Roots in concert. The Roots are my favorite hip hop band and have nothing to do with the Alex Haley book or the made for TV miniseries starring the Reading Rainbow guy. Either way they are one of the few hip hop groups using real instruments. They have a fantastic drummer, Questlove, who is also a great DJ. They had a gentleman on the bongos, bass guitar, guitar and tuba as well. They completely brought it and rocked the night away. It was amazing. You should check out their music at Last.FM for free, realize that they are awesome, and then buy an album or two.

Yesterday I got a call from my friend Betty who was in a bit of a quandary. You see she needed to deal with some tax issues left over from the 2007 taxes. She was headed downtown and wanted company. She was not terribly worried about the evil of the IRS, at least not anymore worried then most people are. No, she was worried about the randoms. Betty is the type of person that attracts the randoms to lather in excitement. By random I mean the crazies of this city. Betty must look like someone they can and should talk to because they do and they follow her around as she ties to make good her escape. Of course she also lacks the ability to tell them "No, go away!" Not that I have that ability either but it is not that much of an issue. The conversations don't start very often and when they do they don't go on for very long. They most certainly don't follow me. Which is why I am a great person to elect for a mission such as this. All I had planned besides that was killing time with Facebook, doing some boring homework, finishing my Japanese writing homework and then going to NELA. All of which I managed even with a day of occupying various government offices. The Federal IRS office was very similar to a DMV. We got a number and had to stare at a digital display waiting for out number to come up. Of course like the DMV they don't just have one set of numbers but several so what looks like 12 people in front of you is more like 20. Unfortunately we needed the state office..... which was not in the same building and was actually back across the river nar my house. We snuck into a Buffalo Wild Wings before heading over to the other office. I had a tasty salad topped with buffalo tenders drenched in the Asian Zing sauce and a wonderful Huckleberry Lemonade. Then we headed over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we... wait. Nope, just over the river. We entered the building and headed to the office. There we discovered what she needed to know, which of course will require a follow up visit and more copies. Either way I was entertained and had the opportunity to get out of the house with something to do besides window shop.

Wait! I forgot an entertaining subplot of the story. Recently I have become enamored with Anime. The one I am currently in the midst of watching is Naruto. Naruto is about a ninja named Naruto and his various friends. It is pretty entertaining but I had not really expected it to hold interesting ideas for me. The idea was subtle enough that at first I had no idea that I had picked up on it. What is this brilliant idea I got from a cartoon? Well in Naruto's world everyone trains and works hard to move to the next level of ninjadom. Of course as ninja they can do some pretty cool things like flip around, build up energy until it crackles like electricity and what not. Of course my ideas were simpler then that and they came from several characters but they were driven home by a character named Brock Lee. Which is probably the funniest name in the show. At first you think Brock is his first name? And then you put the two together and add in his green jumper and laugh hysterically about him being a vegetable. Or at least I do. That is beside the point. Brock Lee is fighting an evil psycho kid to get in to an exam to test for the next level of ninja. He is fighting the kid and moving fast but the other guy is faster. So as his reveal he takes off these huge ankle weights that literally crack the floor and is now moving like three times faster. Now, I am not thinking "ooh I wish I was 3 times faster!" I am thinking "Ankle weights seem like a good way to get a little extra leg workout while just doing normal walking." So I go out and buy ankle weights and of course I have them on for our visit to the Federal building. I had to explain that they were just ankle weights and felt goofy taking them off and putting them back on again. Of course the weights did not quite dent the floor as they are not super heavy. I am kind of surprised I didn't get a more intimate search by the feds after being so silly as to where them into their building.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Guest Room pt. 9

It had been nearly a week since Joshua had arrived in Flagstaff. Dave had not said a word about New Mexico. He had simply went about his regular business; computer work he did from his home office. He put out two plates of food at each meal even if Joshua was not up to coming down the hall to eat. Joshua felt as if he was in limbo. He knew Dave was just waiting for the word, he was ready. Joshua wasn't. The downtime he had endured after the accident had allowed him to think. He wished he hadn't had the luxury. He had been overwhelmed by fears of the unknown becoming his worst nightmare. The fear of finding out what happened was paralyzing. He couldn't talk about it and he sure couldn't move forward. Part of him wondered if he truly needed to know what had happened to Sarah; she was gone after all. He knew this was just his fear and vulnerability talking. He knew that he would never truly sleep until he knew what happened and could lay her to rest.

Knowing that he needed to do it had not driven him to get it done. There was so much he had to take care of medically before he could do what he needed to do in New Mexico. He was getting used to moving awkwardly and his breaks, cracks and sprains were hurting him less each day. In fact, unless he did something incredibly stupid his ribs hardly hurt him. Unfortunately incredibly stupid things were done at least once a day. The doctor had advised he rest for at least 6 weeks to heal the ribs and broken leg; he was currently amidst the second week and going crazy. His ankle needed anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to heal. He had been looking at Web MD hoping to find better news about the time it would take to be fully mobile but had been disappointed when the information provided had coincided with the doctor's predictions. He had no idea why he had thought it would be different, he was just hoping it was. He had definitely done a number on himself. He often wished he could see what his car had looked like after the accident. It must have been ugly.

The court case was a little bit of a stress as well but Tom was true to his word and was on top of it. Tom had made an offer to the prosecutor to lower the DUI to something less notorious and so far the offer was still on the table. Joshua's rates would probably go up but a lesser offense was a world better then a bogus DUI charge. DUI's stayed with you forever and required a lot of extra paper work. To have a DUI without being intoxicated seemed incredibly unfair. He sighed at the thought and turned back to the window. He watched the elderly man ride his scooter out to check the mail; there seemed to be another day of no mail for the old man. He wondered what the man had been hoping for. He closed his eyes on that world of possibilities.

______________________________________________________

Joshua saw her that night. She was outside his window just staring at him. There was no emotion on her face but Joshua felt as if she was calling to him somehow. Screaming for him; psychically reaching for him. He woke up screaming her name. He attempted to move toward the window, forgetting his body's condition. He fell hard to the ground and pain shot through him but he kept crawling toward the window and pulled himself up to see her in the window. He stood there looking out; searching for her. It took him several minutes to realize that she had been in his dream. Sarah was not standing outside wating for him.

His heart was racing and his breath came in fast bursts that sent pain shooting through his body. The door was thrown open and a half awake Dave rushed in holding a pistol. He looked at Joshua and nodded. "I'll pack the car. We'll leave at dawn." Dave turned and left the room.

Joshua felt the hot tears bubble to the surface and send hot rivulets streaming down his cheeks. He was broken in more ways then one.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Arty of the Irst Art Podcast


This was a tiny pain to get online but it is finally up. Enjoy!


arty of the irst art.mp3

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Sorry that I was MIA!

Wow! I promise I am still alive even though it has been a while since I posted anything. School progressed to such a point that the idea of writing anything became deplorable and I wasn't even able to outline anything for a podcast. Without the outline I am not much good at making a podcast with any direction. Of course some would argue that I had no direction anyway but it could be much worse. Believe me... I actually hear dozens of recordings before I send out the crappy one for you to listen to. So yeah my apathy was incredibly high last week and most of this one. Tonight I get to pontificate upon the reform movement sweeping through science and mathematic curriculums. It shall be riveting....

I signed up with Twitter this week and I am not exactly sure why. So far I am not enamored by it but I will let you know how that goes. Speaking of things I am enamored with... SKYPE! Get on it and let's chat! All you need is a web camera and a quick Skype download and we could connect. It is fun to not only hear people but see them too! I am going to try and get another part of The Guest Room up by Sunday and hopefully a podcast as well. Keep your eyes peeled!