Tonight we enjoyed some sparklers left over from our celebration of the 4th of July. Drew is making a big circle with a more modern sparkler. Notice how the sparks flying off are different at their ends than the old fashioned ones in the next two photos. The first three photos are each 1 second exposure.

Drew with an old fashioned metal sparkler, which supposedly burns at a higher temperature, making some crazy circles.

Finally, Drew with the same old fashioned sparkler making small circles.

I really love this photo I took of myself holding a sparkler. Canon 500D, f/2.8, 1/6 sec., ISO-100.

The same photo enlarged.

Finally, the full native resolution of the same photo. Pretty cool. I had no idea before hand how well it would turn out.

On December 31st I was sitting in a day long CLE (continuing legal education)...bored and trying to kill time, I surfed the iPhone application store and came across the free Lego iPhone App.

Will made of Lego studs.

Drew made of Lego studs. After the jump, a self-portrait I took during the CLE.

A blue moon isn't really blue. Rather, it is the second full moon to occur in a single calendar month. Tonight, the last day of the year, there was a blue moon. A full moon occurs every 29.5 days. Blue moons occur on average about every 2.7 years which works out to about 3% of all full moons. The last time there was a blue moon on New Year's Eve was on December 31, 1990. The next blue moon will be on August 31, 2012, while the next New Year's Eve blue moon won't happen until December 31, 2028. Finally, the last time a decade ended on a full moon (if you believe the decade ended tonight) was on December 31, 1819.

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i (500D), Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens, 1/400 sec, F5.0, ISO 100, exposure bias 0/1, 200.00mm, no flash, auto exposure, spot metering.

Previously, Half Moon.

Elsewhere on the internet, a fellow Oklahoman posted a beautiful picture of the moon he had taken with a telescope. I don't currently have my telescope hooked up but i do have a new digital camera and 200mm telephoto lens and thought that I might be able to reproduce similar results.

So, the boys and I headed outside tonight just before bedtime and with a tripod and timer set so that there wouldn't be any camera shake we got the above image.

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i (500D), Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens, 1/200 sec, F4.0, ISO 100, exposure bias -2/1, 200.00mm, no flash, auto exposure, spot metering.

Previously, I posted about Mary's awesome soccer ball cupcakes.

This year, Mary added basketball and baseball cupcakes to the mix for Drew's birthday party today.

Basketball cupcake pattern.

Baseball cupcake pattern.

The sports cupcakes were a huge hit with all the kids! Awesome job Mama!!!

Thirty years ago today I made my television debut as a magician...

...unfortunately, or fortunately, my interest in magic pretty much peaked at that moment and I don't recall performing much, if ever, after that. Basketball pretty much dominated my interests for the next decade. My parents were still a year or two away from getting their first VCR so all we have are these two pictures of our television during the broadcast.

The television show, called "Kidding Around," was a highly regarded childrens program which won 5 Emmy Awards during its 7 year run (1978-1985) on the local NBC affiliate in Chicago WMAQ. The show was co-hosted by Steve Smith who went on to become Director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College for ten years and an inductee to the International Clown Hall of Fame. Along with Steve Smith, the program had a number of young female co-hosts including, at the time of my performance, Shawn Gourdie, who later turned out to be a classmate of mine in high school.

The fine folks at the Earnest Parenting blog have awarded yours truly the Heroes in Parenting award! AmyL explains the award as part of a project "to highlight people who are doing great things in their parenting." I couldn't be more flattered, thank you AmyL.

AmyL adds: "If you know of someone else who deserves to be part of the HIP honor roll, please do let me know as I'm always on the lookout for more people to honor." Stop by her Earnest Parenting website and if you have a nomination pass it along.

Drew and Will got some soak-in-water and watch-them-grow toys for Christmas. This week's soak-n-grow experiment was the Amazing Spider-Man. Click on "Continue reading" to see before and after photos.

No "shrinkage" problem for Spider-Man!

Many of the problems encountered by users of hard drive storage devices can be avoided by simple annual maintenance. You clean and maintenance your car and other things around the house, why should your hard drive be any different? You've defragged, run other maintenance programs, but have you bothered to open it up and give it a good cleaning? For optimal hard drive performance, follow the easy steps below. (As always, read through all the instructions before beginning.)

Gently pry around the edges of your hard drive case and separate the cover from the main unit. It just pops off. Don't worry about any small plastic pieces that break off, they won't affect anything.

Click "Continue reading" for the rest of the steps.

Time to start unscrewing screws! These are the easy ones, a simple phillips screwdriver will do the trick.

Keep going, some of the screws are a little hidden. Be sure to save the screws for reassembly later.

Finally, we get everything unscrewed and unplugged from the hard drive, wrapped in thick foil in the center.

Carefully peal away the thick sticky foil from the hard drive.

Once you get all the foil off, you'll have to remove the screws from the hard drive itself. Some are hidden under stickers and all are the uncommon torx type. By this point you've probably figured out that the manufacturer hasn't made it easy for you to perform maintenance on your hard drive. Duh, that's because they are in the business of selling hard drives! Imagine if other manufacturers could convince consumers never to clean or maintain their product? What a scam!

Here's one of the hard drive's reading/writing heads. Oops, is that a scratch? Ha, ha, don't worry, modern drive's aren't affected by little surface scratches. Have you ever seen the back of some CD's and how scratched up they are but still play perfectly? Hard drives are far more technologically advanced and are even less affected by simple surface scratches.

In fact, feel free to scratch up the surface all you want. At this point in the process, I can promise you, you won't adversely affect the hard drive's performance. Some people like to scratch in the date, so they can tell the next time they open up their hard drive when the last time was that they cleaned it.

If you happen to bend the read/write head, don't worry, just bend it back. Be sure to press it down real good so it's as close as possible to the drive's surface.

Time to give everything a good wash! A little dish soap, some warm water and a scrub brush. Don't hold back with the elbow grease! Give it a good scrubbing.

Finally, you may find that some of the parts have worked themselves loose and are just spinning around uncontrolled. Good thing we caught this before it completely spun itself apart! Get yourself a hammer or a hatchet and pound them down until they are solidly in place. Once everything dries, reverse the steps to reassemble your hard drive.

In the first paragraph I promised "optimal hard drive performance." Following the steps above is the only way to absolutely guarantee you will never again loose valuable data and time to a failed hard drive. I know I'm certain the drive pictured will never again cause me problems!!! Not to mention, sometimes it just feels good to get "hands on."

Finally, yes, this is a joke.

My original YouTube video, "National Anthem: Star Spangled Banner," has now been viewed over 100,000 times! As of this post it has 100,923 views, 269 comments, rated 4 1/2 stars after 168 ratings and has been favorited 319 times.

From an October 14, 2006, post about the origin of the video:

This video was shot in September at Bricktown in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, during the Okie Blogger Round-Up 2006. I was on my way to dinner with Charles Hill and Michael Bates when I saw Bricktown's huge Old Glory waving against a perfectly clear blue background and just had to stop to take some pictures and video footage.

About once a year I grow a goatee/mustache...no particular reason. I came across a self-portrait from when I got my first digital camera in 2001. I thought recreating the pose before I shaved off this year's appurtenance would be interesting. Yikes, tell me it's the lighting, otherwise someone's getting old!

Is there anything as great as new sneakers? These are Will's new Stride Rites. Will is very proud of his new sneakers.

And, these are Drew's new New Balance shoes...the same brand that Daddy is currently wearing. We're pretty certain they make Drew jump just a little bit higher. But, don't new shoes always do that?

Thanks to my best friend Harry, I got to see The Police in concert in Chicago at the Rosemont Horizon (Allstate Arena to you non-traditionalists) last weekend. We went with Harry's nephew-in-law and JR's girlfriend Lisa. The seats were great, just three rows or so up from the floor seats and, thankfully, that allowed us to sit down during the whole performance...yes, I'm old.

The Police, of course, consists of bassist/lead vocalist Sting (Gordon Sumner), guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland. The opening act was Elvis Costello which was a perfect appetizer to the rock legend main course. Although, his sound technician appeared to have sacrificed quality for volume. There were a lot of times when the music was distorted and various cords resulted ear pain.

The Police Reunion Tour during 2007-2008, marks the 30th anniversary of their beginnings and is anticipated to possibly be the fifth highest grossing tour ever. The Chicago concert was part of their third North American Leg. There were approximately 14,000 in attendance. It was a great performance. We all really enjoyed the huge hi-definition screen behind the stage which really made you feel much closer to the action.

During the concert, Sting said that the Rosemont Horizon was the last place where the band had played together on tour as "The Police" in 1986. However, I think he may have misspoken, as the Rosemont Horizon was the second-to-last place The Police played on their 1986 Conspiracy of Hope Tour. On June 13, 1986, they performed at the Rosemont Horizon, followed by a June 15th, sold out, all day, outdoor, mutli-artist, performance at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The video is a montage of clips from a few songs towards the end of the concert (Roxanne is really blurry). As best as I can gather from the internet, with verification from my own memory/pics/vids, the following are the songs played during the concert:

Main Set
Bring on the Night
Message in a Bottle
Demolition Man
Walking on the Moon
Voices Inside My Head-When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Driven To Tears
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Can't Stand Losing You/Reggatta De Blanc

Encore I
Roxanne
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take

Encore II
Next To You

Click "Continue reading" to see a whole bunch more photos that, along with the video, should give you a good idea of what the concert was like.

Not a whole lot to post about so here are some simple flash physics games. I find the simply elegance of these games/simulations appealing. I can still remember the day when these would have been considered advanced and marveled at for hours...ahhh simpler times.

I can remember my college roommate, Jon Platt, and I spending way too much time playing a simple orbital simulation on the University of Illinois PLATO computers. It was either that or actually doing our physics labs, so it was an easy choice.

A new and improved version of "What American Accent Do You Have?" is out and now with result mapping. Last time my accent was described as "The Midland." This time, I'm "Neutral":

Having grown up in the Chicago suburbs, far enough away from Wisconsin not have a northern influence, I would say the quiz is still spot on and confirms the fact that I do not have an accent.

What American accent do you have?

[Update #1:] Mary scored a "Neutral" too, so maybe there's hope for the boys to not have too much of a southern drawl.

[Update #2:]

Donelda scored a "Northern - That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for."

(full size image)

Last week Will's vocabulary doubled almost overnight. In a just a day or two span he went from "mama" and "dada" (much more of the former than the latter) to include "uh-oh" and "nana" (a much loved fruit). For Will, "uh-oh" included accidentally dropping his sippy-cup as well as throwing his sippy-cup...as in, he's done drinking, he tosses his sippy-cup, we turn and look at him and he says "Uh-oh!"

I'm always forgetting to write down the funny things Drew says, but here are a couple of recent items:

Mary: (reading traffic signs on trip from St. Louis to Chicago) 259 miles to Chicago!

Drew: Mama that's a lot of miles.

Mary: Yes. It's over three hours to get there.

Drew: Tell me when there are zero miles.

Drew: (playing eye-spy in the car) I spy something yellow.

Mary: (after many wrong guesses) Give me a hint.

Drew: It has green around it.

Mary: (after many more wrong guesses) Give me another hint.

Drew: It is outside of the car.

Mary: (ponders a long time) I give up, what is it?

Drew: Corn. (they were driving through central Illinois surrounded by fields of corn)

Drew: (in McDonald's...a person passes the table and in a surprising clear and not-so-soft voice) Is that a boy or a girl?

Mary: (*pause*...*pause*...in a low voice) I don't know, let's wait and see which bathroom the person goes into.

Mary: It's a girl!

Drew: (coming out of the bathroom at home) Daddy, the little boat is a big boat.

Don: Yes, Drew, the toilet is clogged. Thank you.

(The outline of the water surface is the shape of a boat's hull, normally small, but big when clogged.)

In May a website started that I only recently found called Military Motivator. It is a takeoff on the well known inspirational posters but with a military theme. The site encourages reader contribution and so I created and submitted five of which four were used (one really wasn't that great). You can make your own too (on any subject). Here are two of the ones I made with three more after the jump.

GRATITUDE: How do you thank those who most bear the burden of ultimate sacrifice?

[UPDATE:] Blackfive has determined my "Gratitude" MilMo (Military Motivator) to be The BEST Military Motivator Photo- EVER.

FIRE POWER: Knowing that when each side calls up to heaven, your side will deliver the goods!

FOG OF WAR: Only those that have put their life on the line get to second guess a soldier in the field.

U.S. NAVY: Providing the greatest office views since 1794.

PARTY TIME: Having a few friends drop in.

Yesterday's celebration of Flag Day pushed my original YouTube video, "National Anthem: Star Spangled Banner," over the 20,000 views mark! As of this post it has 20,257 views, 74 comments, a rating of 84/100 and has been favorited 101 times.

[Update 07/09/07: 25,000+ views]

[Update 08/28/07: 30,000+ views]

[Update 10/14/07: 35,000+ views]

[Update 11/16/07: 40,000+ views]

[Update 12/18/07: 45,000+ views]

[Update 01/16/08: 50,000+ views]

[Update 04/25/08: 75,000+ views]

[Update 09/10/08: 100,000+ views]

According to the Internet Movie Database, filming started this week on the movie version of my absolute favorite cartoon as a kid, Speed Racer!

It is being directed by the Wachowski brothers (Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta) and USA Today reports that, "unlike those darker movies, Speed Racer is going to be very bright, very family-friendly...and it will have great effects like the Matrix, just with the car."

I won't hold my breath on the "family friendly" aspect. Hollywood pretty much attributes a different meaning to those words than I do. However, I am still very excited about the movie which is scheduled for a May 2008 release date.

(Click on the Mach 5 to hear the Speed Racer theme.) Go Speed Racer Go!

If the first week of posts is any indicator GeekDad could be the greatest blog ever! I mean, its geeks and dads...what could be more cool? An ex-NFL player dad? I don't think so, sounds like a one trick pony. Hey, ya wanna hear about how my dad did roids in the big league? Nah, we heard about that last week when he was going in for his kidney dialysis.

Instead, how about, ya wanna make oobleck, create stop motion animation, fly combat gliders, install a Lego autopilot, capture a spider web, learn to talk backwards, make a video game out of drawings, prove the theory of relativity in the minivan, or build the world's cheapest aerial video platform? Heck yeah! Your dad is sooo cool!!!

Did you happen to catch Wheel of Fortune the other day? It was a pretty easy puzzle. After all, the clue totally gave it away.

(And, yes, I'm aware they're not "clues," they're "categories.")

You can create your own dancing paint-person at Pictaps.

Very busy lately, so not much posting. I only have time to pass on a message from Will and Drew to go Elf Yourself!

Update...Drew now has a message for you!

Last night it snowed 10" in Tulsa. It was an all time record November snowfall and particularly amazing considering Tulsa averages just 9" of snowfall a year. The entire city is shut down today. Nothing is open. And, I got to stay home and play with the boys! Unfortunately, Will could only watch as Drew and I made snow angels, built a snowman, threw snowballs and played in the deep snow drifts:

After playing around our home, Drew and I went sledding down the hills which are part of a flood retention reservoir near our house. For over an hour, Drew sledded down while I chased after and hauled his sled back up. A couple of times while I rested, Drew carried his own sled up the steep snow covered hill, "like the big boys do." He was so exhausted afterwards, he had to be carried home. After getting into some warm dry clothes and having a snack, Drew almost immediately fell asleep for a long afternoon nap.

I liked this item because one of the questions it asks involves "Don" and "Dawn" which are two very distinct words which sound nothing alike...unless you were born and raised in Oklahoma. I swear, every native Oklahoman I've met pronounces them the same. The other is the fact that it confirmed the fact that I have no accent.

(I tried centering the box but wound up centering the red bars too since it's not an image but rather a table. I could center the box and then individually left justify the cells, but I'm too tired. Besides, I'm fairly certain I'm the only one that cares.)

[Update:] Mary took the test and scored: "The West - Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.

We've all been very busy lately so not much time for blogging. For the first time that I can remember, we all took a nap together today...Mommy, Daddy, Drew, Will...and Joey (the cat)...were all sacked out in bed for a lazy afternoon snooze.

The picture is a rainbow on our carpet that appears during certain times of the year when the early morning sunlight comes through our front skylight at just the right angle. The intensity of the colors is really amazing...Roy G. Biv in all his glory.

Given Google/YouTube's latest political shenanigans, deleting or flagging as potentially "inappropriate for some users" conservative YouTube videos while far more shocking and inappropriate leftest and jihadist videos go untouched, I went in search of another free video hosting service and after comparing a few, I found Vimeo (video with an "m" instead of a "d" so that it contains "me," as in "me video").

Signing up took less than 10 second and I was uploading my first video only a few seconds thereafter. The first area in which Vimeo whips up on YouTube is availability of the video after upload. With Vimeo, my video was available to everyone immediately when the upload finished. With YouTube, I've upload four videos, two were available in 5-10 minutes, one took over an hour and one took more than half a day. As to probably the most important consideration, quality, I think Vimeo may also be superior. Finally, reliability, for which YouTube has been touch-and-go lately, will be determined after more usage.

This video was shot in September at Bricktown in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, during the Okie Blogger Round-Up 2006. I was on my way to dinner with Charles Hill and Michael Bates when I saw Bricktown's huge Old Glory waving against a perfectly clear blue background and just had to stop to take some pictures and video footage.

Some time ago, I got a hankering to play some old Nintendo games that I used to play with friends. I looked around at old consoles and determined that I didn't want to waste a bunch of money on old equipment and cartridges knowing full well that I really only wanted to get a quick fix and wasn't likely to play them much afterwards.

I searched the internet and found there were software emulators for the console, Nintendo 64, that played the games I remember playing years ago. After a little research, I picked the emulator Project64. Next, I needed a controller. First choice for maximum authenticity was to purchase a used Nintendo 64 controller and a USB adapter. However, no adapter was available locally and I was too impatient to wait a few days to get one by mail order. So, it was off to BestBuy to pick up a Logitech RumblePad 2 Game Pad. Besides immediacy, this also had the benefit of being able to use it for other non-Nintendo games.

Now, I suppose I could have just played the game on my computer but that wouldn't fully duplicate the same sit-on-the-couch and play-on-the-TV experience of the real thing. So, using our laptop and a cable or two I was able to hook everything up to the big screen. In no time at all I was up and running old classics like Donkey Kong 64 and Super Mario 64 among others. I also took the opportunity to download a bunch of games for Drew and Will: A Bug's Life, Elmo's Letter Adventure and Number Journey, Tigger's Honey Hunt, Tom and Jerry and...Drew's favorite...Toy Story 2.

These are a few screen shots from Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue. They don't do the game justice as I wasn't able to get a good action screen shot while, at the same time, working the controller.

I make a lousy Simpsons character.

Perhaps you can make a better one yourself.








[Update] Va va va voom! Mary created her own self-portrait!

I must say, her character looks more like her than mine does me.

Here are the top ten best photos we took this past year with links to the original posts:

Best Use of a Mammal as a Cushioning Device:

Best Outdoor Life Appreciation:

Best Look Towards the Future:

Best Product Placement:

Best Example of Unionized Zoo Animals:

Best Example of a Phrase You'll Never See in a Modern Day Memorial (in light of the designers of the World War II memorial in Washington D.C. going out of their way to make it wholly devoid of any mention of God):

Best View:

Most Postcard Like Image:

Best Swim Break:

Best Portrayal of a Fictional Character:

PC World recently listed their 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years. The list is a little too heavy on cell phones (five), too few on calculators (one) and omits some ground-breaking gadgets like the Mattel Electronics handheld LED games of the 70s or any mention of a GPS device. One gadget that brought back memories and made me think of a trivia question was the Zenith Space Command which is ranked ridiculously low at 21st since its progeny is probably more used by more people than anything else on the list. And, the question is:

Do you know why old people sometimes call the TV remote the "clicker"? Because, the first untethered remote literally clicked:

Zenith Space Command (1956)

Zenith's Dr. Robert Adler suggested using "ultrasonics," that is, high-frequency sound, beyond the range of human hearing. He was assigned to lead a team of engineers to work on the first use of ultrasonics technology in the home as a new approach for a remote control.

The transmitter used no batteries; it was built around aluminum rods that were light in weight and, when struck at one end, emitted distinctive high-frequency sounds. The first such remote control used four rods, each approximately 2-1/2 inches long: one for channel up, one for channel down, one for sound on and off, and one for on and off.

They were very carefully cut to lengths that would generate four slightly different frequencies. They were excited by a trigger mechanism - similar to the trigger of a gun - that stretched a spring and then released it so that a small hammer would strike the end of the aluminum rod.

The device was developed quickly, with the design phase beginning in 1955. Called "Zenith Space Command," the remote went into production in the fall of 1956, becoming the first practical wireless remote control device.

While you couldn't hear the high frequency sound that was being emitted, you could very much hear the striking of the aluminum rod which is why remotes used to sometimes be referred to as the clicker. Interestingly, if you threw your keys down on a table near a TV controlled by one of these remotes it would sometimes cause the TV to change channels due to just the right sound being created.

You can now send me emails directly to my cell phone by sending them to "cell" at my domain name (the name of this blog/website) dot com. How cool is that?!

OK, so sending emails to cell phones is old-school. But sending them to my domain name and having them automatically go to my cell phone, I think, is pretty cool. I could have done this a long time ago, but it just never occurred to me to set up an email account to forward to my cell phone. The result is a lot easier for the sender than having to remember mycellphonenumber@mobile.mycingular.com.

Well here's a neat little item for displaying your city's high and low gas prices provided by Gas Buddy. Even if you don't have a website, checking your city's Gas Buddy site before you fill up makes a lot of sense.

They also have a search tool, although I like the city-personalized icon above better:

Search for gas prices by US Zip Code

From the Gas Buddy webiste:

[City Name]GasPrices.com is a local website which offers an online method for website visitors to post and view recent retail gasoline prices.

Our mission is to serve the public by providing a real time gas prices forum so that consumers can have access to the information necessary to locate the lowest fuel prices available. By working together as a community everyone will save money at the pumps.

Another issue of SmokeLong Quarterly is out.

For those yet unfamiliar, the point of SmokeLong is that the stories take about as long to read as it would to smoke a cigarette...and often shorter. The genre is also referred to as flash fiction. These vignettes of under a 1000 words (usually 400-700) are incredibly well written and well worth the small amount of your time they take to read.

The editor, Dave Clapper, is particularly fond of the latest issue:

Man, I LOVE this issue...I couldn't stop staring at it the first couple days it was in my hands. And the writing! Whoosh! Amazing.

Check it out!

Also, if you are interested, SmokeLong Annual, a hard-copy of the past year's editions of SmokeLong Quarterly, is available from CafePress.

Click on the puzzle picture on the left to visit our puzzle page where there are four puzzles of increasing difficulty.

The first puzzle is a picture of Drew made up of 35 pieces (7x5) and is very simple. The next two puzzles, one of Drew and one of Drew and me, are both 70 pieces (10x7) and just the right difficulty level. The last puzzle is a very cool photo from a news event this past week consisting of 247 pieces (19x13) and will take you over an hour...trust me!

There are links for pictures of what each completed puzzle looks like and they open in a new window so as to not disturb the puzzle you are working on. Enjoy.

In honor of National Hot Dog Month, July, and National Hot Dog Day, this past Wednesday, here are some pics of the Wienermobile I took in January during Okie-Blogger Bash.

* The first hot dog was created in Frankfurt, Germany... and that's why sometimes they're called "frankfurters."

* Americans eat more than 20 billion hot dogs a year, enough to reach the moon and back four times.

* The Wienermobile weighs the same as a million hot dogs!

* The first ever Wienermobile vehicle cruised the streets of Chicago in 1936.

Another issue of SmokeLong Quarterly is out.

Once again, the point of SmokeLong is that the stories take about as long to read as it would to smoke a cigarette...and often shorter. The genre is also referred to as flash fiction. These vignettes of under a 1000 words (usually 400-700) are incredibly well written and well worth the small amount of your time they take to read.

One of my best friends and father to the two greatest Godsons ever, is the Founding Editor of the SmokeLong Quarterly. SmokeLong is a collection of very short, very well written, fiction works which should naturally appeal to the goldfish-like attention spans of bloggers.






Their mission in their own words:

SmokeLong Quarterly is dedicated to bringing the best flash fiction to the web on a quarterly basis, whether written by widely published authors, or those new to the craft. The term "smoke-long" comes from the Chinese, who noted that reading a piece of flash takes about the same length of time as smoking a cigarette. All the work we publish is precisely that--about a smoke long.

I urge you to check it out...it won’t take much of your time.

Given my prior post and the reported/retraction/impending death of the Pope, I thought this photo was somehow appropriate. After Tulsa's last rain storm a week ago there appeared the brightest rainbow I'd ever seen. Again, my camera phone pic can't do it justice. You could clearly and distinctly see every color of ROY-G-BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Even the almost always invisible violet was bright and easily apparent. More incredibly, for me at least, it was the first time I had ever seen a rainbow go continuously from the ground all the way up and back down again without a break. It was truly beautiful.

'Nuff said...

I've got fifty..."five zero"...Gmail invites. If anybody wants one, for any reason, post a comment with your name and email address that you want me to send the invite to. Even if you don't want to use Gmail for your email, I suggest at least trying it out...you might get hooked.

This looked kind of interesting and so I thought I'd experiment with it as part of a post:

Anyone else been a member of the BOAC Junior Jet Club? Or, flew enough miles to get their 25,000 mile certificate? And, did this all before they were one year old? Without ever crying?

Thanks to my father's job as a Geophysicist for Standard Oil/Amoco, my family traveled quite a bit overseas. Starting when I was just eight weeks old, I took to the air: Bangkok to Teheran to London to Johannesburg back to London to Chicago, New York to Manchester to London to Johannesburg for a total of 33,486 miles in just eight months. My mom says I did it all without crying. Here's the log book:

I have my 25,000 mile certificate somewhere...just not too certain where that is right now.




[UPDATE:] I have a scan of blank pages from my logbook which I will gladly email to anyone who is still filling in their logbook and wants a copy. Just leave a comment below with your correct email address and I'll send it out to you.

To one Danzfamily.com lucky reader, I give 10 minutes of free long distance calling thanks to Folgers, Sprint, my employer who supplied the coffee and my distaste for getting cutoff in the middle of a conversation.

Just go to the Folgers website and enter the code on the label and the other information requested. Enjoy!

Google has just released what may be the most useful software program since the spellchecker! Google Desktop allows you to search your own files using the Google search engine.

You can search files in all sorts of formats including AOL Instant Messenger, Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook/Outlook Express, PowerPoint, Text and Word. Finally, a useful method of searching Word files. This just made my job significantly easier as I frequently have to search through literally hundreds of thousands of Word files using only the limited and very slow Word or Windows Explorer search functions. Often, I wind up having to reinvent the wheel because I can't find the right document. In Google's own words:

After downloading Google Desktop Search, you can search your personal items as easily as you search the Internet using Google. Unlike traditional computer search software that updates once a day, Google Desktop Search updates continually for most file types, so that when you receive a new email in Outlook, for example, you can search for it within seconds. The index of searchable information created by Desktop Search is stored on your own computer.

Today's Terror Alert Level is "Ernie" for New York City and Washington D.C. and "Bert" for the rest of the country.

The indicator automatically changes color and matching Sesame Street characters with the current alert level of the real Homeland Security Advisory System. Accordingly, depending on when you are reading this, the alert shown may no longer be a combination of "Ernie" and "Bert." Continue reading for a legend showing all the alert levels.

Credit belongs to Geek and Proud and it all can be found here.

I have some Gmail invites to give out if anyone is interested. Just make a witty comment in response to this post being sure to include your email address and I'll pass along an invite. I will post a message in the comments when I am no longer giving out invites.

Our neighbors have a hideous two-headed monster dog that eats little children...or maybe just two adorable golden labs who want a little attention.

A good friend and avid fan of the classic rock group Rush has written an incredible review of Rush's now ongoing 30th Anniversary Tour. While there may be a greater Rush fan, although it's hard to imagine, there probably is not one who is as intelligent and articulate. Reading his review brought back memories of my own Rush experiences as he recounts the band's history through the songs they play, and don't play, during the concert. Below is JR's review:

I have been a fan of the band for most of their 30 years. The first time I saw them was on the Moving Pictures tour. It was Independence Day at Alpine Valley ("acoustically designed by Mother Nature" - ask if you want to know) and the Joe Perry Project was the opener. I remember enjoying the show immensely, even though (or maybe because) I had some drinks thanks to my older cousin who wasn't drinking age himself.

I have seen the band at least once on every tour since then. The band could do no wrong for a while. They always seemed to play the favorites and most of the new album when they came to town. And they'd usually bring along a good opening act (Gary Moore, Marillion, Primus, Mr. Big), so I could act cool (just an act, though) because I knew and/or liked the opener. Hey, it was the '80s.

During the mid to late '80s, the band made good music even though it didn't do as much for me as other stuff (Power Windows & Hold Your Fire are good records - I just preferred their bookends much more). They seemed to want to experiment more and, I feel, they lost touch a little bit with their essence as a rock band. I liked Presto and Roll the Bones (hell, I like all of the records - even the one with John Rutsey). When Counterparts came out, it was a revelation for me. They ROCKED again. The only problem with them as a touring act was that their back catalogue was becoming too large for a normal set and they were going to be leaving out more and more as they continued forward.

They read my mind and starting with the Test for Echo tour, they played 2 sets and, in a sense, opened for themselves (and it's cheaper that way, I'd imagine). Now. if they'd just kill off some of the big radio hits and open up the set for the freaks like me, I'd achieve nirvana (or Xanadu)...

The band is celebrating 30 years as a touring act and they refer to this as their birthday party. A few days before the show, I looked at the songs in iTunes and picked out material they haven't played forever or for a while and left out the hits. I gave up at Hold Your Fire because I had about 40 songs...

I saw them in Chicago with a long-time friend and in Milwaukee with another group of people while some long-time friends were in the audience.

Show time was 7:30 and they started just about on time (better than many airlines, I might add). There was a video montage which featured all of their album artwork morphing into one another and was very cool. Then we discover a short film featuring the world's oldest RUSH fan, Jerry Stiller. As he does a skit and as implores the guys to get on stage, Alex Lifeson rushes on to the stage and the band launch into a medley of snippets which has the crowd in a tizzy. We go from Finding My Way to Anthem to Bastille Day to Passage to Bangkok (yes, that song) to Cygnus X-1 to Hemishperes/Prelude. As the crowd (and Jerry Stiller) roar their approval, Alex Lifeson starts playing the famous intro to Spirit of Radio and off we go again. As the band and crowd catch their collective breaths, the taped intro to Force Ten breaks the chronological order of the set and hurtles us into a later phase of the band's career. Next up was Animate, a personal favorite of mine and one I was happy they wheeled out (it was not played on VT tour). Old studio/live favorite, Subdivisions, gets the crowd excited. A VT song, Earthshine is up next and features some excellent video work as stars appear to be shooting from the guitar during the solo. (Cynical comment alert) The crowd, weaned on today's Classic Rock stations which ignore bands current material and, thus ensures an aging and potentially dwindling listener base, heads for the bathrooms. I hope they washed their hands before they ran back to hear Red Barchetta (for the first time since Power Windows tour, I think). After Bravado, they play YYZ (sans drum solo) and The Trees. They have a new CD, Feedback, out now which features RUSH covering some '60s & '70s tunes and we get their take on The Seeker (The Who) before One Little Victory heats things up again and the band head off and take a well-earned break.

After 15 minutes or so, another funny video montage starts and leads us into Tom Sawyer. Secret Touch (VT) is an impressive live song and is noticeably heavier live. My other favorite for the evening was Between the Wheels which I may have never seen live (can't remember them playing it on GUP tour). My only real complaint about the show was that they played Mystic Rhythms and followed it up with Red Sector A. I really like these songs - I just felt they stunted the momentum that was building. After Neil Peart's drum solo on his wicked looking new kit, we get Resist and Heart Full of Soul (cover #2) acoustically with Geddy Lee playing a Taylor (a man after my heart!). In the band's defense, they may have slowed down the pace because they increased the energy at the end as they ripped through Overture/Temples/Finale, La Villa Strangiato, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, Xanadu (ALL of it), and Working Man. Whew. Did I mention they weren't done? Sorry 'bout that.

For an encore they played a couple of covers and another song you might know. We heard Summertime Blues, Crossroads and Limelight before Jerry Stiller and the band's light set said "Bye bye."

A tremendous evening of awesome music played by people passionate and talented for a very partisan crowd. Besides Camera Eye, what else could I ask for...

For anybody that was wondering, we heard something from every album except Presto.

If you made it this far, thanks.

Any complaints, you've got the e-mail address. Just remember, this is one-take with no overdubs or tapes used. Just spell check.

Special thanks to Murph Dog (for asking me to do this) and to Randy and Dave for always being there as 2 shining examples of what friendship is truly about as well as tremendous RUSH fans.

JR

Gridlock, by Corwin Derkatch, is a donationware puzzle game with 40 addictive levels where all you have to do is slide the blue block out the right hand side exit. It's a very elegant game which is simple to play but yet has a difficulty to solve akin to Solitaire or FreeCell which is perfect for playing during a conference call or short break. If you don't delete your cookies, you can come back another day and continue on at the level where you left off.

I was given an invitation to create a Gmail account by a friend. I've only used it a little bit as I am in the process of transitioning from my Hotmail account that I use for everything that is non-business and non-personal such as registering products and communicating with miscellaneous companies.

Already, I can tell you that Gmail is faster and easier to use than Hotmail which sometime ago apparently adopted the theory that its service would be better if you were forced to wait 5-10 seconds in between every action you want to take. Yahoo! mail isn't nearly as bad as Hotmail, but it still has its faults. I highly suggest that when Gmail finishes with its viral marketing beta program and goes fully public that you give it a try.