Highlight #129

Hey y'all, Garage sale season is officially in full swing. I found a small pump at one sale for 3 bucks that I can rip the valves off of to make a air circulation system for my airsoft mask. I'm going to call my latest technological achievement "Automatic Internal Recirculating Thermally Internalized Mechanical Expansion" or AIRTIME for short :-)

AIRTIME works like this:

Basically, a mouthpiece is rigged up to two valves, an "in" valve, and an "out" valve. These two valves are attached to two tubes, one which runs up to the goggles, and another which runs out of the bottom of the full-face mask, respectively. This way, I am constantly removing the hot, steamy air (that's the stuff that fogs up your mask) and sucking in cool, dry outside air through the vents on the mask itself. The hot air is then pushed out the second tube by way of my regular respiratory system. Breath in: hot air out of goggles, Breath in: hot air out of mask. It's as simple as that :-) This system is designed for full-face masks because that's where the problem is usually the worst.
AIRTIME systems are available, pre-assembled, for the low, low price of $19.95 from the GL Highlights airsoft products division ;-)

-Graydon L

Highlight #128

Hey y'all, It's done! my very first modern Air Force fighter, the F-15 eagle, is complete. It took me approximately 7 hours to finish over the course of about a week, and I must say, this is my favorite plane I've made yet.

The construction is actually quite different from the WWII planes I've made before because those other planes were made by gluing clothes-pegs together and attaching wings to them. This F-15 is constructed out of various pieces of wood cut to precise dimensions in relation to the other pieces. Well I should stop gabbing and just show you the pictures, here you go!


I took this picture with the aircraft on top of my computer's mouse pad and I think it reflected the camera flash onto the plane making it a tad discolored. Oh, and yes, the slight darker color on the wings is intentional; a real F-15 has that same darker wings and fins.



Here I am holding it in my hand to show you the approximate size. As I've said before, it's almost 5 inches long.

I guess I did pretty good on it, but I'm not so happy about the canopy as I hoped I would be. Sure it looks cool, but It's a tad too long and wide for an F-15. Also, I couldn't get the curved canopy to work out, I had to go with the traditional "square" glass canopy.

Maybe I'll do an F-22 or F-35 next :-)

-Graydon L

Highlight #127

Hey y'all, I hope you all enjoyed your memorial day celebrations. We stayed home and worked in the garden and then went to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Christal Skull" look for my review on Monday! (oh the Suspense! mwahahaha!)

As for new stuff in school, I'm taking the Rosetta Stone Language Learning program in German, or Deutsch to the native German. I know I'm a bit old to start learning a second language, but ya' gotta start sometime! the cool thing about it is that I can check my grammar/pronunciation with my brother-in-law, Tim, who grew up in Germany and can speak German fluently.

Check out these pictures of a new "discovery" in action-figure technology. I invented it myself, and it actually works pretty well! check it out!

Basically I cut some army-guys up at the joints and inserted pieces of paper clip wire to act as a joint. It may look immobile, but these guys are so small and the wire is so thin, that it works quite nicely.


Here's a close-up of the the upper torso of one of my "subjects". As you can see, the head is connected to the neck by a piece of wire and the arms connected to the shoulders the same way. the process allows movement which was (of course) not there before, making dozens of other tasks possible. this one used to be your basic, run of the mill, pistol-pointed-one-direction-head-turned-another commander dude. Now, he can command the troops, wave civilians along, shoot the bad guys, and look before crossing the street, all with just a few twists and turns :-)
anyway, Happy Memorial day (again). If you make some maneuverable army guys of your own, take some pics and email them to me, I want to see 'em!
-Graydon L

Highlight #126

Hey y'all, again it's Movie Review Monday and as I promised I'm review the #1 Movie in America right now (and It's easy to see why)... Iron Man

Iron Man
year: 2008

Starring Cast: Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger), Gwynith Paltrow (Pepper Potts)

Supporting Cast: Terrance Howard (Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes), Lesslie Bibb (Christine Everhart), Faran Tahir (Raza), Sayed Badreya (Abu Bakaar)

Written by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

Directed by: John Favraeu

What's it Rated?: P-13 for violence, sensual themes, and some language

Synopsis: When genius inventor/Billionair Playboy/Weapons company CEO Tony Stark is taken hostage by terrorists, he is ordered to build a missile for them. But instead of a missile, Tony creates a bullet-proof iron suit designed to break out of the cave he is being kept prisoner in. After arriving back in America, he reinvents the metal suit to fight the terrorists that his weapons company is selling missiles to under the table.

My Take: Cenematicaly, this is an amazing film, I can see why it's the #1 movie in America. The CG is fantastic! the story develops well and is easy to follow while still being as tech-savvy and suttley humorous as say, the Bourne Ultimatum. It's really fun to watch, not only for the action, but just to see Tony Stark 'evolve' so to speak, from a self-serving jerk, to a super-hero.

Unfortunately it has some inapropriate scenes, as does almost every hollywood film, so I would advise Parental Discretion.

As with most super-hero movies, it takes on a 'one-on-one-final-battle' kind of ending sequence, which is a tad anoying, but unlike some other movies, it actualy fits quite nicely.

The only character that could have used some more explanation would be Obadiah Stane; he is a complex character with hidden motives that are somewhat hard to follow.

Overall, I really liked this film and I would love to watch it again soon, but remember, it is rated PG-13 for a few things more than violence, so you might want some sort of filter to skip those sertain scenes that really need skipping.

Good job John Favraeu! you've really done a great job!

Story: 8 out of 10

Humor: 7 out of 10

Action/Suspence: 10 out of 10

Overall: 8 out of 10
-Graydon L

Highlight #125

Hey y'all, Today I'm adding a new segment called "This Day in History", which shall include a few major interesting news buletins every day at the bottom of every post. Every Saturday, I shall include a special expanded edition simply because I have more time on Saturdays :-)

May 24th in History

Today is the 145th day of 2008. There are 221 days left in the year.


In 1819, Queen Victoria was born in London.


In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought" from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line.


In 1935, the first major league baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati's Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.


In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British dreadnought Hood in the North Atlantic.


In 1958, United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.


In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.


In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.


In 1977, in a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo.


In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.


In 2001, 23 people died when the floor of a Jerusalem wedding hall collapsed beneath dancing guests in a horrifying scene captured on video.


Five years ago:

Furious crowds hurled debris and insults at Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika when he visited a town devastated by a deadly earthquake.

The U.S.-led coalition ordered Iraqis to give up their weapons by mid-June.

British actress Rachel Kempson, matriarch of the Redgrave acting dynasty, died in Millbrook, N.Y., four days short of her 93rd birthday.


One year ago:

Bowing to President Bush, Congress passed an emergency war spending bill that did not include a provision ordering troops home from Iraq beginning in the fall of 2007.


Today's Birthdays: Comedian Tommy Chong is 70. Singer Bob Dylan is 67. Singer Patti LaBelle is 64. Actress Priscilla Presley is 63. Country singer Mike Reid is 61. Actor Jim Broadbent is 58. Actor Alfred Molina is 55. Singer Rosanne Cash is 53. Actress Kristin Scott Thomas is 48. Rock musician Jimmy Ashhurst (Buckcherry) is 45. Rock musician Vivian Trimble is 45. Actor John C. Reilly is 43. Actor Eric Close is 41. Rapper-recording executive Heavy D is 41. Rock musician Rich Robinson is 39. Actor Billy L. Sullivan is 28. Actor-rapper Big Tyme is 25. Country singer Billy Gilman is 20. Actor Cayden Boyd is 14.

All news sources taken from news.yahoo search engine.


-Graydon L

Highlight #124

Hey y'all, Check out these hillarious videos I found on yahoo. LOL!



For the second vid, click here, and view the "techno Kitties" video under "featured"

-Graydon L

Highlight #123

Hey y'all, Today Jonny and I went to the woods near our house and attempted at playing airsoft. I say attempted because it's really hard to play airsoft when there's mud and water ankle deep everywhere and blackberry bushes sticking up wherever the water isn't, and there's only two people playing, and there are slugs wherever there's green foliage, and everywhere else for that matter :-(

After dinner, we watched a documentary called "From Freedom to Fascism". it's basically about the economic decline in America since the 1913 enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, and how this sets us up for a possible future police state. It's pretty good for the first half, then it kinda takes on a conspiracy theory/they're always watching you kinda' feeling. It starts out trying to find the law that forces people to pay income tax, and ends with the idea that the current government is controlled by bankers that want a single world government. Also, the Director (his name escapes me now) really doesn't give the other side of the story or a lot of hard facts and statistics. Maybe what he says is right, maybe it isn't, but I'd really rather have all the facts before I come to a decision about the current government.

Anyway, I had a great day, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow (garage sale season!!!) and the deals it entails. See Ya'!

-Graydon L

Highlight #122

Hey y'all, I was fiddling around with my LEGOs a few days back, and I thought, "wouldn't it be cool if I could make a LEGO car that could transform into a big robot?... nah, it would take forever and it wouldn't look very much like a car or a robot and I probably don't have enough pieces"... so I made it anyway :-) It actually only to two days to make and I just refined the shoulder joints today to incorporate more movement. All in all, it took about 6 hours to design, test new techniques, and build. Total number of pieces: about 300. have a peek at these pics I just took:



This would be the car. despite my initial speculation, it somewhat resembles an Audi R8, which is in my opinion one of the coolest looking cars ever built.



The car has just part-way transformed. Where the wheel well once was, an arm as emerged. Mister LEGO dude is toast now.


Oh-well, too bad for him... I guess LEGO people don't know a transformer when they see one :-)

-Graydon L

Highlight #121

Hey y'all, I know I've been posting a ton of videos lately, and I further know that you all have been waiting for SPY to be finished for quite some time, but Jonny and I have created yet another stupid video that I just have to share with you. But don't worry, SPY is coming along just fine, I expect we'll be done in a week or two!

Anyway, this is just another productive activity Jonny and I perform during a regular day ;-)

I now give you... the Uncredible Hulk!

P.S. if you don't know the story of the comic book 'super hero', the Incredible Hulk, this video probably won't make much sense. basically, a guy gets blasted with radiation (nuclear bomb) which transforms the molecular structure of his blood so that whenever he gets angry he turns into a gigantic green monster. Jonny and I are trying to recreate the Hulk.

Also, you can look forward to next Movie Review Monday, because I have just seen, and evaluated the #1 movie in America right now; Iron man. Don't Miss it!

-Graydon L

Highlight #120

Hey y'all, As you know, I enjoy creating model airplanes out of wood, specifically clothes-pegs. After completing my F4-U Corsair last week, I set out to make an aircraft a bit more High-tech... an F-15 Eagle. Here are the pictures of my almost complete F-15E, I have yet to add the cockpit and paint the entire plane with flat grey paint. The cockpit will actually be a bit of a challenge because it's designed to seat to people, a pilot and a navigator, this makes it extraordinarily long. If I am to have any hope of making an accurate looking canopy, I'll have to bend clear plastic into an arc, and then make two cones of clear plastic and slap 'em on each end of the arc to make the canopy. Anyway, have a sneak peek at my very first attempt at a modern aircraft, It looks kinda rough right now, but that's entirely normal.

This airplane is quite a bit larger than my previous models, as you can see from this picture, it's entire length is almost 5 inches.

I know this picture is quite fuzzy, but it's only respectable one of the back of the jet I could get.

Hope you like it! pretty soon I'll have it finished and painted; ready to be loaded up with missiles.

-Graydon L

Highlight #119

Hey y'all, Today is the day! it's Movie Review Monday, and I have a special treat; a video review of a brand new release. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

-Graydon L

Highlight #118

Hey y'all, Ft. Nisqually had an event today, it was fun, but very,very, very hot! it was boiling out in the sun! I had to constantly drink water not to feel any fatigue. Actually, someone passed out from heat exhaustion! But other than the heat, it was great fun.

here's the second Prince Caspian movie trailer commentary, just as I promised. as before, the quality isn't very good, but like I said, it would take forever to load if it was any better.

enjoy!



-Graydon L

Highlight #117

Hey y'all, I hope you will forgive me for writing such a small post, but really all I have to say is that at this exact moment, I'm staring up at a gigantic screen watching the movie I've been waiting almost a year and a half to see... the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Updates coming tomorrow.

-Graydon L

Highlight #116

Hey y'all, It's Finally here! tomorrow is the day Prince Caspian is released to theaters, and I get to see it in all it's big-screen, high def, computer-graphic glory on opening day! Tomorrow, the the Bryan family and our family are getting together to see it at the first opportunity possible; 11AM. I would like to say it's because we couldn't wait a whole 5 more hours to see it, but it's actually because we wanted a matinee price :-E

I can't wait! oooohhh 17 and 1/4 hours... Must I wait 17 and 1/4 hours!


On a completely different subject, check out this funny pic I found online:

Isn't that great! I found it just yesterday and I had to put it up here for you. I hope you liked it!
note: as you can see, this picture is from ahajokes.com. they say that they only have clean jokes and cartoons, but I've seen a few that were questionable so visit at your own risk.
See ya'!

-Graydon L

Highlight #115

Hey y'all, Check out this video I just watched about the US foreign policy of interventionism. by the way, I've done a lot of research in this very subject and although Cong. Ron Paul Doesn't state any hard statistics, all his statements are entirely true and can be backed by statistics.



If you still want some more info click here or read on...

This is a graph showing the Rank ( eg. #1 would be the country with the highest military budget), Name, and Military budgets around the world. As you can see, the US budget is more than China's, Russia's, France's, the UK's, Japan's, Germany's, Italy's, South Korea's, and India's Military budgets PUT TOGETHER! And the US budget still exceeds that number by 100 Billion dollars!!!!!





This is not only going to propel the US Government into a mindset of eternal war, but it's going to bankrupt us to boot! Ron Paul Says it well: "We'll either wake up, or go broke"


Think about that...

-Graydon L

Highlight #114

Hey y'all, two news flashes I'm sure you've all been waiting for; firstly, I have finally finished making and painting my F4U Corsair WWII fighter, I'm really quite happy with the final product, I had expected it to not look as good as my P-51 that I made earlier, but I think that the F4 actually looks better! take a look for yourself and compare it to the pictures on
Highlight #83

I know they're quite fuzzy, but that's cheap digital cameras for you :-I





Second, I'm sure you'll all be happy to hear that were able to get some more filing done on SPY last night. We've weaved in the assassination scene with the break in scene and also added the escape/fight scene. all that we have left to do is the top-of-the-stairs fight scene and the conclusion. I hope your curiosity is aroused :-)

Also, when we finally release the theatrical version of SPY, we're going to have a "spot the bloopers" contest. Basically, you try and find all the bloopers in the film, and if you guess the right number of mistakes, you win! sorry no prizes, we're a little over-budget as it is ;-)

SPY: coming to blogs everywhere in the near future


-Graydon L

Highlight #113

Hey y'all, my mom just showed me this video today, and I think you'll find it enlightening... even if you don't support Ron Paul as I do.



Think about it...

-Graydon L

Highlight #112

Hey y'all, Finally I've gotten to view, and now review, a recommendation. This film was originally created in 1939, and then remade in 1956. I've heard that the first edition was no good, and so I set out to review the second version.

As requested by Sam Y:

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Year: 1956

Starring Cast: James Stuart (Dr. Benjamin McKenna), Doris Day (Mrs. Josephine McKenna)

Supporting Cast: Brenda De Banzie (Lucy Drayton), Bernard Miles (Edward Drayton), Christopher Olsen (Henry "Hank" McKenna), Daniel Gélin (Luis Bernard), Ralph Truman (Inspector Buchanan)

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Written By: John Michael Hayes, Charles Bennet

What's It Rated?: PG for Violence and Suspense

Synopsis: Dr. and Mrs. McKenna are on a vacation in Morocco and are thoroughly enjoying themselves until a Dieing man tells secret information to Mr. McKenna. in order to keep him quite, their Son Hank is kidnapped. Soon after the abduction, Dr. and Mrs. McKenna set out to find Hank on their own in London with only a single clue to go on: the words the dieing man told them.

My Take: Although this is a good movie, there are several scenes that drag on longer than they should, and I think that a little more character development could have been used on the Draytons. Overall, It's very good movie, although the suspense and "knife scene" make it one film I wouldn't show to younger audiences. The story unwraps surprisingly well, and the humor weaved into strategic places throughout the film are an oasis from the heat of suspense. Like I said, it's a Good film but the knife scene could have been toned down a bit, but other than that, worth watching again and again.

Be prepared for a lot of drama, as the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, unveils a true classic.
Story: 7 out of 10

Suspense: 10 out of 10

Humor: 7 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

Thanks for recommending a great movie, Sam!

-Graydon L

P.S. If you would like to request that I review a film, just tell me the title, and either the year, directors name, or several of the actor's names, and I'll be happy to look into it! Thanks!

Highlight #111

Hey y'all, Happy Mothers day! Today, Mom got the day off in a way; Dad, Jonny, and I made dinner for her. We were going to take her out to a restaurant today, but we figured that everybody else would do that and we would have to wait at a restaurant for too long, so we barbecued steak instead. I hope y'all enjoyed mothers day as much as I did, It's always fun to do stuff like that for people, and Mothers day is always fun.



I would like to put one out there for Sam, He has been wanting me to review a movie for a long time, more than a month I think, and I finally watched it today. I'm talking of course about "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Alfred Hitchcock, staring James Stuart and Doris Day. Look for the official movie review tomorrow.



Also, to do with Prince Caspian, I'm going to do a trailer overview before I see the film as well as one after the film. Just a minute, I need to find a downloadable trailer that I can narrate... I'll be right back...



...Ok, I'm back, Here you go! :-)

Remember, there's two more vids coming after I see the feature film! keep your eyes open!


-Graydon L

P.S. I know the quality is pretty bad, but if I had made it any better, it would have taken forever to upload to blogger!

Highlight #110

Hey Y'all, In keeping with the many requests for more pictures on my blog, I've posted the various photos from around-and-about my very packed day. At Ft. Nisqually all the AIs got to shear "Junior" the Sheep. Kinda fun, kinda icky... mostly icky:


"grrrrrrrrrrr"



Junior on his little "sheep elevator"

When we got back from the Ft. Nisqually, Dad had bought a whole pile of Beauty-bark for the garden, and we helped him spread it around:

That shot makes me look like such a wimp!


Before...


After.

As you can see, I actually did have a packed day. I would have liked to read my book, "The Thousand Year War in the Mid-east, and how it affects you today" by Richard Maybury. Pretty good, It's by the same author as WWI and WWII, as seen in my Shelfari Shelf, but it's not quite as good.

Anyway, Keep your eye open two weeks from now for a Video "Movie Review Monday" on Prince Caspian! We're going to see it on opening day, so I can post a review on it two days after on Monday. Also, Once I see the entire Film, I'll go through the trailer with you in a video and sort things out about locations and people, that sort of thing.

Prince Caspian Trailer Overview "release date": Saturday, May 17th

Prince Caspian Movie Review "release date": Monday, May 19th

See Ya'!

-Graydon L

Highlight #109

Hey y'all, I'm back! I just walked in the door 30 minutes ago, I haven't even unpacked yet! But I needed to check my email and what I found in my email I just had to post about!

Before you watch this video, think about every roller coaster you've ever been on, multiply that fear by 10, then add that to the most frightening thing you could ever think of, then add that to something even worse and you'll have the general idea about how I felt when I saw this video for the first time.

"enjoy"... yeah right


See y'all on Sunday! (or tomorrow for some of you)

-Graydon L

Highlight #108

Hey y'all, I have received even more feedback from my survey today, for a grand total of 4 entries!

Changes include, as per one request, the comments will come up in a pop-up window and a link list has been added to the sidebar.

Mom and Jonny got here at 6PM, and they're going to stay the night and then we'll head out tomorrow morning at 9.

I've finished my very first project on the apple imovie program on Ryan's mac, and I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on imovie. It may be just that I'm already used to Windows Movie Maker, but I think it's just because It takes a whole lot longer to figure out how to use. In my mind, imovie's selling point is it's vast libraries of effects and music as well as it's simple import/export functions for computer files. But I should stop yapping and just show you the video:



All pictures came from istockphoto.com, music is from the imovie library, text was drawn in Paintbrush.

Thanks for watching, I hope to, according to popular demand, publish more pictures here. So, I'll see ya' Later!

-Graydon L

Highlight #107

Hey y'all, a little update on the survey on the last post, so far I've recieved two entries with come very revealing information! believe it or not, 100% of the entries say that they like peaches! I did not know that peaches were so popular! ;-)

but really, I'm really happy for those two entries but I'd like to see at least 3 more come in in the next few days. basically, I can't change anything on this blog on the whim of one person, so the more entries I get, the more likely this blog will see some positive change. So enter away!

In answer to an entry I have received, someone (the author of said entry will remain nameless) has asked for Pandora Radio to be removed. I'm deeply sorry, I'm going to have to say no to your request. If you don't like it, try to ignore it, 'cuz it's not going anywhere. Not only do I like it, and use it a lot, but the other entry stated that it was the best element on the sidebar. Sorry, I'll need a whole lot more entries against Pandora Radio to take it off.

More news! I just got an email from the Germain Productions blog, and the movie web site is up! Right now it's just a "coming soon" page, but it's still very cool! check it out here.

I cannot wait for the movie to come out!

Oh, and speaking of new releases, "Prince Caspian" is coming out next Friday! We are sooooo totally going to see it on opening day! I can't wait! visit their movie website here.

Further, to show how I can't wait for it to come out, I have added a widget which counts down till Friday May 16th. check it out, it's pretty cool!

anyway, I kinda need to go, we're just about to eat dinner, and I really don't want to miss it; we're having pizza! See ya' later!

-Graydon L

Highlight #106

Hey y'all, As you have probably noticed, I am not reviewing a movie today, this is simply because I haven't seen any movies lately that I can review. I hope you will forgive my "vacation".

I got up early today, which is sort of not normal, basically if I don't have a radio on all night, I have to sleep in. If I do have the radio on all night, I can't help but get up really early.

Anyway, I got up, read my bible, did my school work, and took a look at my list for the day. Number one, was find some classified ad web sites to get some free advertising for Ryan's business. eventually, I got sick of doing that, and I went to work on the promo vid that Ry and I are working on. Eventually, I ran into a problem and switched over to "look for web form" mode. soon I found a pretty good site that I could make free web forms on.

I have already made a registration form and I'm working on an employee application form. If you ever need to make an official looking form for your web site or blog, go to www.mycontactform.com. all you need to do is sign up, and start making web forms!

I just got an email from Josh N, he said that the Frog hunt was lots of fun. I am so disappointed that I wasn't there, I've been looking forward to the Frog Hunt ever since the last one. Come Sunday, I will be demanding a play-by-play narration of the airsoft battle! be prepared!

Well, I gotta go, remember, I am going to want to know about the airsoft battle! have your war stories ready! ;-)

-Graydon L

P.S. I've created a little web form survey to see how I can make this blog better in your opinion! All you have to do is fill in the information and hit submit! there not all required fields but I would appreciate it if you filled in them all. Be brutally honest! ;-)








First Name:
First letter of your last name:
E-mail Address: *
How much do you like the type of content on my blog?I love it!!!!
Its pretty good.
I really dont care about it
Its not that great.
I hate it!!!!
How much do you like Movie Review Monday?I love it!!!!
Its pretty good.
I really dont care about it
Its not that great.
I hate it!!!!
Do you find Movie Review Monday posts helpfull?Absolutely!
sorta
Not at all!
Is there any info I have not been providing on Movie reivews that you would like to know?
What type of Movie would you prefer me to review?
Would you be interested in a Joke of the Day widget on the sidbar of this blog?Absolutely!
sorta
Not at all!
Do you think the Sidebar of my blog is too cluttered?Yes
sorta
No
What is your favorite sidebar element?
What is your least favorite element?
Do you even pay any attention to the Sidebar?Of course! how can you not!
Sorta
Well... No
Do you like peaches?Yeah theyre great! the hair is the best part!
Sorta
Not really, the hair gets on my nerves
Do you find it refreshing to see that I update my blog daily?yes, nobody else does it!
sorta
nah, it gets redundant really fast
How high would you rate my blog (out of 10)
If I could do one thing to my blog to make you happy with it, what would it be?
If I did that one thing, how high would you rate it then?

* RequiredPowered by myContactForm.com

Highlight #105

Hey y'all, You probably haven't noticed yet, but at the bottom of this page you can view something called a "Shalfari Book Shelf". Basically, you sign up for Shelfari's service (it's free, all they need is your name, email, and a password), you pick which books you want on your shelf, decide what you want the shelf to look like, how wide, how many rows, etc., then you get the HTML code, put it on your blog or web site, and viola! an easy, free, book recommendation widget! you can go to Shelfari's web site, or you can simply click on the link underneath my shelf that says "get your shelf now". It literally takes 5-10 minutes (depending on how many books you want on your shelf) and it's one of the easiest things I've ever done concerning web widgets. Very Cool!

Anyway, now that my little commercial is over, I'm free to tell you about my day. I had to get up extra early to go watch a friend of Ryan's running a marathon, all the runners were raising money for cancer research and stuff. Ryan's friend raised $3000!

After that, we went to a few electronic stores to buy a cable for Ryan's camcorder and then we headed home.

Well, that was my day, I kinda don't like missing church, but it's not like they have marathons every week. Anyway, I'll let ya' go, I think I hear a computer game calling me :-) I'll see y'all next Sunday, I'm coming home this week!

-Graydon L

Highlight #104

Hey y'all, Ryan and I did some filming for a promo vid he wants made for his business, It was fun because I got to use some really good sound equipment. Ry is a bit of an armature musician so he has some pretty good sound recording stuff, a good mic, a small audio input regulator, and a professional-grade sound editing software. It's kinda nice using more than just a digital camera for film making! One thing you need to know if you're going to do any really good filming for movies or short clips, you have got have lots of takes! There is nothing more annoying than sitting down to do some editing and you look at all your footage and none of it is as good as you remember. Do it one more time... always

I talked to Mom the other day, it looks like I'm coming home this Thursday when she comes to pick me up so I'll be back in time for church next Sunday! I wish I could have come back sooner, even for just one day just for the Frog Hunt at the Young's house tomorrow! I was looking forward to that a lot!

-Graydon L

P.S. I think the frog hunt is this Sunday, Mom told me is was, but hopefully she was mistaken!

Highlight #103

Hey y'all, Today, I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she said that it's a blogger tradition to list 100 things about yourself on your 100th post, unfortunately I let that opportunity slip through my fingers two posts ago, so I guess I'll have to write 103 things about myself instead "just" 100. Here goes!

My real name is Isaac
I'm 5' 10 1/2 tall
I have the biggest feet in my house, size 11
I used to have a hamster named Tuffy
I had a hamster before that hamster named Huey
I loooooove chocolate
I love M&Ms even more
I hate most TV shows
I hate the commercials even more (except for the ones during the Superbowl)
I can't wait to get my drivers licence
I love reenacting at Ft. Nisqually
I almost exclusively listen to country
Oldies music rocks!
Elvis music is cool too
Some Classical music is fun as well
I want to become an F-15 or F-22 pilot
I also like computer programing and stuff
JavaScript ROCKS!
I love to read
My favorite books are by Brian Jacques and Richard Maybury
I think Poetry is overrated
I think it would be cool to have a Mohawk for a few days
I like wearing jean-shorts and yellow t-shirts around the house
I think Mac computers are cool but they take a while to get used to
Windows Excel 2007 is WICKED awesome
I love animated kids movies (movies like Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo)
Pixar is one of my favorite companies
Google is cool too, but I'm not sure why :-I
emoticons are fun! ;-)
Ron Paul ROCKS! GO RON PAUL!!!!!
I have two fantastic brothers and one amazing sister.
My dad's brothers and sisters are reeeealy weird
My mom's siblings aren't exactly normal either.
I love playing pool, but I'm not very good at it
I have lots of really good friends who don't mind being around a guy who talks to much :-)
I have a great church where all my friends and I gather
I would like to be a musician but I don't know any instruments
I would like to be a country singer, but I'm no good at that either
One of my favorite things to do is blog
Math is one of my favorite school "subjects"
Writing is also fun
I have a little Sansa media player that I listen to ALL the time
I have a pair of Sony headphones I got for Christmas
My niece and two nephews are amazing and I love 'em to bits!
When I buy my first computer I'm buying a wireless keyboard! They totally rock!
I think that F-35, F-22, F-14, F-15, and F-18 are the coolest looking fighters ever built.
Except for maybe the Su-47 which is a reverse wing aircraft and looks futuristic.
I also thing that the F-23, F-16, and C-17 are really ugly
My ultimate dream is to have water front house, a Mitsubishi Eclipse, and a vintage P-51D
mustang painted like Ferocious Frankie
Wireless mouses are awesome too
I like to pretend like I'm playing the guitar and sing to the country music on the radio
I like beating up Jonny whenever he wants to wrestle
My favorite card game is Spades
Texas Hold 'em is cool as well though
My Grandpa has played pool with Ghandi
I haven't
My older brother Ryan has been to Scotland, India, and Japan
My older sister Amy has climbed mount Everest (not to the peak though)
I used to live in Nashville Arkansas
That's 20 minutes South-East of Murphysburough
And an hour from Texarkana
I've been to the Alamo in San Antonio
I like it in Texas
I don't like the bugs in Texas
They're biiiiiiiiiiiiig
Everything is Bigger in Texas ;-)
I've also been to 12 states (including Alaska)
I've been to Las Vegas
I know the keyboard shortcut for "redo" (it's ctl+y)
I also know lots of other useless things
did you know that there's a directer (over 60 films!) named Alan Smithee who doesn't exist?
I have been stuck on the Canadian side of the Border without a passport... or ID of any kind
I love trampolines
And Swimming Pools
And Roller Coasters
And Speed Boats
And inner-tubing
And- ... lots of other things :-)
Hogan's Heroes is the best TV show ever made
The Andy Griffith Show is hilarious too
I know how to make something italic and bold in HTML code
insert your text here
insert your text here
My favorite drink is Hot Chocolate, of which I consider myself a connoisseur
my favorite type of pie is Pickle Pie ;-)
I don't know the Swahili word for "apple"
Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't
I can count to 30 in German
I like watching movies
I enjoy a good joke
I play computer games every once and a while
I check my email twice a day
I check for blog comments twice a day
I like to draw/cartoon
I enjoy a good conversation with a like-minded friend
I prefer Oranges to Apples
I can't wait to get my braces taken off
I have a checking account
I love my country (the country, not the government... And they are different)
I can't stand spiders
I have a thing with unsafe heights
I have the greatest (but the weirdest) family in the world
I hate shopping for clothes
And finally, I'm happy to be who I am and where I'm at, and I hope things won't change from the
way they are.

Thanks

Graydon :-)

P.S. don't worry, there's a hundred and three, if you don't believe me, feel free to count for yourself but it might take you a while. :-)

-Graydon L

Highlight #102

Hey y'all, I finished reading "WWII and how it affects you today, and now I'm working on "WWI the rest of the story and how it affects you today" As I said in my other post, these are fantastic books and you NEED to read them, especially if you are considering joining the military!

the basic "plot" is quite simple; wars lead to hard feelings which lead to wars which lead to hard feelings which lead to... you get the idea. It all started in Europe (duh) in, believe it or not, 1870 with the Franco-Prussian War in which the Prussian government won. Of course the French government was overthrown (again) and a new republic was declared (again), anyway, all this planted the seeds of resentment between European Nations and paved the way for WWI.

Eventually 1914 rolls around and WWI brakes out between the chief Allied Powers, (containing Belgium, the British Empire, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and the United states) and the chief Central powers (containing Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey.) As you can see, the Central powers really didn't have a prayer, and the war ends with the treaty of Versailles. In case you don't know what that is I'll explain; the Treaty of Versailles was the "treaty" in which all the chief Central Powers surrendered unconditionally to the chief Allied powers. The Allies humiliate the Central powers by making the Centrals pay for the Allies' war expenses. The German economy is crushed, the citizens turn to Adolf Hitler. nice work, Allies.

Japanese attack Manchuria, Franklin Roosevelt send help to China in the form of the Flying Tigers.

Hitler signs a cease-fire with Stalin (Ha! two lying cutthroats promise not to lie and cut each other's throats!). Germany invades Poland, Poland surrenders in 24 hours. England, France and others say: "Hey! if he can cut up Europe and keep the loot, why can't we?!?!?" Germany Declares war on the British Empire in defence of the European "loot". Germany and England duke it out, but Hitler doesn't have any boats to cross the English channel with.

In addition to helping the Chinese, Roosevelt completely cuts off all oil and mineral imports to Japan, sends almost the entire US Navy fleet to uber-vulnerable Pearl Harbor, and starts sending patrols through Japanese waters. this is before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor!

FDR orders all the small craft, fighter planes and new battleships out of Pearl Harbor, but leaves all the old, outdated, WWI battleships in the harbor; the Arizona being one of them.

Defeated at sea, Hitler decides to a) keep attacking England from the Air, and b) attack Stalin in Russia. Baaaaaaaaaaaad Idea... let me tell you why; the very first lesson an officer learns when he joins the military is, NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ATTACK RUSSIA!!!!! here's why; the Russian Army has one of the greatest allies in history, one that can't turn on you... Winter. If the Russian Army doesn't slaughter you, the Russian winter will. Also, the Russian army has this little tactic they like to use on invading forces; fall back, stay low, draw them closer... then cut their supply lines. The attacker will be stranded in a frozen wasteland without supplies. If this strategy worked on Napoleon, it will work on Hitler too.

June 22 of 1941, Hitler invades Russia, September 12th of the same year, the first snow on Moscow, Hitler starts losing in the Eastern front... Russia's old Ally, Winter, has come into play.

Sunday December 7th 1941, 7:55 AM, Hawaii sees the first wave of Japanese fighters. The US Fighters are almost all destroyed because Admiral Kimmel, in charge of Navy activity in Pearl Harbor, has ordered all the planes be parked close together so the guards can watch them, Kimmel is afraid of Sabotage more than air Attack, it's not his fault, keep reading.

All this is part of Roosevelt's plan to get into the war, he wanted to get a piece of the action in Europe, but public opinion (acording to a gallup poll) was 88% against war. So he created a plan to goad the Japanese into attacking first, "unprovoked" and thus gain public support. So Roosevelt left bait; the USS Arizona and others, in an easy target; pearl harbor, and took away practically all the Ak-Ak guns Admiral Kimmel needed to protect the fleet.

In addition to giving Kimmel almost no protection, FDR frequently gave warnings to the Admiral saying that, "the Japanese are attacking soon"... Kimmel recieved almost 20 of these warnings over the course of... get this... 17 months! Washington DC was crying wolf, deliberately trying to get Kimmel to be unprepared. Want more proof? OK, you've all probably seen pictures of the USS Arizona exploding, well that picture was taken from the only safe spot in the harbor, with a color camera 8 minutes after the attack started! how on earth would a color (were talking about a color camera crew! color in 1941 would hard to come by!) camera crew who "didn't know when the Japanese would attack" be able to be up and running in 8 minutes without some sort of warning from Roosevelt? Coincidence? I think not!

Anyway, the US Declares war on Japan, hurtling just another European blood-bath into a World War.

Roosevelt starts calling for unconditional surrender... unconditional surrender, think about this for a second; unconditional surrender, meaning no conditions. Normally when someone surrenders, they ask for conditions, such as "I'll surrender, if you promise not to kill me", if you promise not to kill me is a condition. Unconditional means, "I'll surrender, and you can do anything you want to me".

This makes Berlin think of their "unconditional Surrender" after WWI which ended in the treaty of Versailles. Think about this, if your mortal enemy, who is trying to torture and kill you, said to you "surrender to me and I'll torture and kill you", would you want to surrender? Well the Germans didn't want another Treaty of Versailles and FDR's demand propels the world into another 3 years of war.

with Russians still kicking some serious booty on the eastern front, the US and Britain attacking on the western front, the Italian Generals decide they've had enough of Mussolini, so they kill him, and switch sides to start fighting against Germany.

Meanwhile, back in the Pacific, the US starts Island Hopping toward Japan and is soon in sight of the Japanese Homeland. the Nuclear bombs are in production, and testing is picking up speed.

June 6th 1944: D-Day. the US sets foot on French soil and starts it's offencive against Germany to take a little pressure off of Stalin. Remember that, D-Day was not about "liberating the French" , many of the French didn't want to be liberated! D-Day was about helping Russia in the Eastern front!

May 7th 1945, Germany Surrenders about a week after Hitler's suicide, Japan holds out for another few months, even though it has no Allies (there's the Unconditional surrender for ya' again). Nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima August 6th, 75 hours later, before waiting for a reply, the US area-bombs some more, and then drops the second Nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. tens of thousands of Innocent civilians killed... no, murdered. The nuclear bombs were not necessary as most people think, Japan was just about to surrender, but Truman, who succeeded FDR, decided that, he needed to drop not only one, but two atomic bombs, and not so he could avoid a gigantic amphibious invasion, but to scare the Russians. yes, the cold war had already started before WWII ended.

One war leads to hard feelings, which leads to another war which leads to hard feelings which leads to... etc.

Now right about here I gotta say something, the Good guy vs Bad Guy model you've seen in every war film you've ever watched is false. WWII was a Bad-guy vs Bad-guy war, as is almost every war in history. "oh...well Hitler wanted to take over the world" actually, Hitler's ambition only went as far as "living space" in eastern Europe. Hitler declared the need for only "living Space" in a speech given before the war broke out. Further, read this letter written by Winston Churchill to Franklin Roosevelt, and I quote: "I [Churchill] am half American and the natural person to work with you [Roosevelt]. It is evident we see eye to eye. Were I to become Prime Minister of Britain we could control the world." end quote. I have put the last five words in red italics to make sure that you see them. "we could control the world"... wow.

if you have any more doubts about my idea of the bad-guy vs. bad-guy war, here are the body counts of the Innocent civilians murdered by their country's governments. these are not soldiers killed, or civilians killed in battle, these are men, women and children murdered as Hitler murdered the Jews.

Murders by the worst governments of World War II:

Axis
Germany: 20,946,000
Japan: 5,964,000
Axis Total: 26,910,000

Allies
Russia: 42,672,000
China: 10,214,000
Allied total: 52,886,000

And the Allies were the good guys?!?!?!?!?! if you measure badness by body counts, the allies were twice the cutthroats the Axis were! and don't get me started on the US and Britain! area bombing, unconditional surrender, and the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are bad enough! Believe it or not, the English actually had a formula that stated how many tons of bombs were needed to be dropped to destroy X amount of houses. They called it, "Terrorization", scaring the German people into submission.

by the way, this is not just another conspiracy theory, this stuff is nothing new, dictators have been murdering Innocent people ever since the fall of Adam... why should today, or 1939-45 be any different?

Also, all historical facts concerning Pearl Harbor were taken from the FBI's storage wear houses. Death tolls are well known to historians and are widely available for research, and historical incidents such as the treaty of Versailles are also widely known and available for research.

right now, you may be asking "why?", "how could anyone purposely slaughter thousands of people and not feel remorse?" three words: drunk with power. that's right, what good is it to amass a gigantic military and not use in on someone? Power corrupts, and the "leaders" during WWII were no exception.

Bear in mind, I'm not criticizing America's ideals, I love America, and I only want to live here in America, but the fact remains that given the power, people want to use it on someone. It's like a bully on a playground, why does the bully push over the little guy? Bullies are usually bigger than their targets; they have power. Why punch him? Why not? It's "fun!"

This brings me to my conclusion, what should have happened during WWII. America should have stayed put, like Switzerland, watch and shake your head, defend against attack, don't go looking to get into a war. Germany, England, Russia, Japan, China, and Italy would have beaten each other to pulp, Russia would be somewhat crippled, the Russian people wouldn't be afraid of the US and they would have revolted against their government far sooner, England would have had to release all it's colonies sooner, and millions upon millions of lives would have been spared.

Thanks for reading this extremely extensive "summary" of the event leading up to, during, and after World War II. Feel free to comment, I would love a good discussion. :-)

-Graydon L

P.S. The Nuking of Japan is also somewhat responsible for the 9-11 attacks on New York city! by scaring the Russian people with two unnecessary bombs, the US practically said to them "We're not afraid of you, or anyone else. Step out of line, and you'll all be little particles of radioactive dust" This statement made the Russian people cling to the only shield between them and and the force of the atomic bomb; their socialistic government. This started the Cold War, and made the US government make alliances in every direction... and making enemies just as fast. Osama Bin-ladin became an enemy...

9-11, just like pearl harbor, was not unprovoked.

Think about it.

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