Hallowed be HIS Name? at 12:29 PM

I just found this video last night on the David Boze Show blog. It's quite disturbing.

If you can barely stomach watching this entire thing, you're not alone.

"Obama be thy name, thy change shall come, thy will be done..."

Disgusting.

-Graydon L

It's my 200th birthday! at 4:56 PM

OK, so this isn't my 200th birthday, but this is my 200th post! Break out the confetti! It's time to party! wooohooooo! :-)

Alright, enough of that, I've got some pretty cool news!

As some of you have recently seen, my brother Jonny just created a blog! You can see it by clicking on the link in my "My Friends Blogs" link list, or you can just click here.

By the way, if you're wondering where he got the name "the Melting Pot", I came up with it :-) I was helping Jonny set up his account and blog and things like that, and of course he had to come up with a name for the blog. I suggested several names, all of them rejected, and after about 15 minutes I was just about ready to give up, when I finally spat it out.

Also, in case you didn't hear, Fort Nisqually was voted #1 in the King 5 Evening Magazine "Best in Western Washington"contest! Not only did John Curley and his cameraman come out to the Fort, but he selected it for a five-or-so minute segment as well as starting and ending the show at the Fort!

Yes, that is the Evening Magazine guy in the picture. You can see him just above Lane's head (she's the lady in the red coat in the foreground).



The coolest part is that all the AIs danced for a while and the entire thing was filmed, so I might get to be on TV!

If you want to watch the show, it will be coming on Channel 5 at 7PM on Friday the 31st. We're going to tape it!

Graydon L

Pumpkin Carving! at 5:20 PM

Just last week we bought some pumpkins and today we carved them! Jonny and I picked out the designs we liked and then applied them to our respective pumpkins.

Needless to say, I went political. GO RON PAUL!!!!

Jonny wanted to find a pattern online that was anti-Obama, but there really wasn't anything that fit that description so he just carved the one he liked the most. I gotta' admit, a wolf howling at the moon is pretty cool.

-Graydon L

And I Thought I Was Good With Tools... at 8:46 PM

If you've ever used a hammer before, you will have a very, very small idea of how hard this must be.

Check this out.

By the way, if you don't know what he's saying... you're not alone :-)

-Graydon L

The Good Ol' Days of Looney Tunes at 4:16 PM

As a little kid, I liked to watch Looney Tunes cartoons on TV, and just recently I thought to look them up on Youtube. Here is a favorite episode of my favorite cartoon, Road Runner and Wile E Coyote.

Enjoy! (I hope you like slapstick!)

Sugar and Spies

-Graydon L

MRM - Father Goose at 9:54 AM

I got this one from the Library on a recommendation from Sam.

Father Goose

Directed by: Ralph Nelson

Written by: S.H. Barnett, Peter Stone

Starring Cast: Cary Grant (Walter Eckland), Leslie Caron (Catherine Freneau)

Supporting Cast: Trevor Howard (Commander Frank Houghton), Jack Good (Lieutenant Stebbings), Sheryl Locke (Jenny)

What's It Rated?: PG for some language, violence, and use of alcohol

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Synopsis: Walter Eckland is a unshaven, alcoholic "filthy beast" content to sit out WWII in peace. But when the local harbor-master, Commander Frank Houghton tricks him into become a temporary coast watcher, he is stranded on an uninhabited Island with just himself, his damaged boat, and a radio to report movement by Japanese planes and ships. But Walter's little world is shaken apart when he answers a distress call from another coast watcher on a different Island but ends up rescuing a "goodie-two-shoes" schoolmistress and her seven girl students.

My Take: As you may have been able to tell from my previous movie reviews I'm really not much of a romantic comedy guy, but I really enjoyed watching Father Goose. There's just enough about WWII to make it interesting for your die-hard action film lover and an unlikely romance to keep the girls watching too.

The story was pretty good, it didn't really drag at any point in the middle like so many films do, and there was a bit of a surprise ending for me as well, although it did feel like the movie was over even though there was 2o minutes left. Other than the "double" ending, I kinda enjoyed it and it has even found a place in the ranks of my "I'll watch that again sometime" shelf.

Like I said, an overall good film, that perhaps I'd watch again sometime.

Story: 7 out of 10

Humor: 8 out of 10

Suspense/Action: 8 out of 10

Overall: 7.5 out of 10

This film was chosen for review on a recommendation from Sam Y! If you want to recommend a film to me, or ask me about a movie you were thinking of seeing soon, just leave a comment and I'll look into it!

-Graydon L

Issue #1 is here! at 12:00 AM

It's finally here! The long awaited comic book version of the classic Hank O'Grady Files! I have worked long and hard on this much anticipated series and the first special edition color-issue is now available to the public!

To read the new series now, without even leaving your computer, you can click on the promo poster in the sidebar, or you can just click here!

If the link doesn't work, just copy and paste this URL into your browser:

www.thehankogradyfiles.blogspot.com

Enjoy! I expect the next issue will be available sometime this winter (it takes a long time to make those things!

-Graydon L

Time, Perception and Fish at 5:24 PM

The other day, we went to the Seattle Aquarium with the Allens, and I don't know if you've ever been there, but they have a gigantic tank in the entrance of the building that makes up the first exhibit. 

Well as it turns out, just after we paid to get in, there was a fish feeding show starting at this tank. Apparently, the Aquarium has a lot of extra money to burn because when they feed the fish, two divers in dry-suits with full face masks that even had microphones in them get in the tank to feed the various species of fish.

Basically, the divers get in the tank, and feed the fish while talking to the public about them. It was during this show when one of the divers said something interesting. 

She stated that the salmon at the top of the tank swim very quickly, eat very quickly, have very fast metabolisms, and have a life span of about only 3 years. 

She also said the the rockfish at the bottom of the tank swim very slowly, barely go anywhere, eat very slowly, have very slow metabolisms, and have a life span of over a hundred years.

These statements got me thinking, what if time affects these two species of fish differently? 

Let's say that time moves very quickly for the salmon. In his own perception, he is moving at a perfectly normal rate. But as the rockfish looks upward to the top of the tank in his own little world of time-perception, he just sees a blur of all the salmon zipping back and forth! To him, watching salmon is like watching a movie on fast-forward, while to the salmon, watching him is like watching a movie in slowmo.

Here, let's try an example: In our example a human has a time-perception (we'll call it TP from now on) of 1, and the salmon has a TP of 3 (meaning he sees time as 3 times the speed of that of a human) and the rockfish has a TP of .5 (meaning he sees time as one half the speed of a human). 

That would mean that salmon move quickly, humans move at a perfectly normal rate, and rockfish go really slowly, right?

Wrong... sort of. There is a problem with this example, it's from a human's perspective, I said that humans are 1, right? well the salmon doesn't say that, he thinks he has a TP of 1, the human has a TP of 1/3rd and the rockfish has a TP of 1/6th. But there's a flaw with that too, the rockfish doesn't see it that way, to him, he has a TP of 1, a human has a TP of 2, and the salmon has a TP of 6.

confused yet?

It's like this, each of the three types of entities (humans, salmon and rockfish) have their own standard of measuring the events in their lives and the lives of the other two entities, but each of his measurements is affected by how he perceives time!

This theory that I have brought up is supported by the fact that, in theory, forward time travel is possible and that time is relative to the speed of the object perceiving it.

But what do you think? I know most of you probably don't even like studying fish, or quantum physics, but even if you don't like either of those things, or you just think I spend way too much time sitting around thinking about random stuff, (like fish watching movies in fast-forward) give me a comment!

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that this time perception theory is true, but it's definitely very interesting to think about it.

-Graydon L

the North Texas Battle Group at 11:01 AM

Yet another of the many great things that have come out of Texas: the North Texas Battle Group.

Check this out!

-Graydon L

I've Been Tagged! at 3:45 PM

Sarah tagged me! I am supposed to share 6 random things about myself. Here are the rules: Link to the person who tagged you, list the rules, write six random things about yourself, tag six or so people by leaving comments on their blogs and let the person who tagged you know that you've written the post. This will be great! Now for some random things.....

~ 1  I hated my braces, but since they're off, I now hate my retainer instead.

~ 2  I like to wear orange or yellow shirts... after all, I have to express my individuality ;-)

~ 3  I'm addicted to country music

~ 4  I hate houseplants (fake ones anyway)

~ 5  I loooooove Mexican food!

~ 6  None of the food on my plate can touch, although the shared meals at church are helping me overcome this.

I am tagging:

Sam

Matt

Leanne

Jonathan

David

Melissa

-Graydon L

The Impossible Quiz at 2:37 PM

You may have noticed a new quiz on this blog. That would be the "Impossible Quiz". It is specifictly designed to be as annoying and frustrating as possible. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself though, just make sure you are in a good mood before you take it :-) (And just in case you were wondering, G is not the 7th letter of the Alphabet.)


And now for something completely different, here's something you just have to check out! Jonny was on Youtube looking up Mountain Lions, when he found this video. I think you'll enjoy it :-)



-Graydon L

My Braces Are Off! at 2:23 PM

That's right, today I went to my orthodontist appointment and had my braces removed!

(please excuse the dorky smile, but I just can't contain my obvious elation)

Among many other things, I can now have corn-on-the-cob, apples, chewing gum, hard candy, caramel corn, pop corn, soft or squishy candy, and of course, caramel.

I'm also allowed to chew my nails now... whoop-de-doo. ;-)

-Graydon L

Is it REALLY a Dollar? at 3:07 PM

Take a look at this $1 bill and see if there's anything weird about it.

In case you didn't notice, this isn't a dollar. A dollar is the old term for one ounce of silver. The reason we call this a dollar is because of the old silver standard that the US dollar used to be based on. Nowadays, one ounce of silver is worth about $15 (varying with the market, of course). 

That goes to show you how inflation is affecting prices. The value of silver didn't go up, the value of your US "dollar" bill went down.

This is one of the many factors that is putting the US economy in such a tight spot right now. Our "dollar" has no solid, precious metal value, just imaginary made up value.

This is a picture of the way things used to, and ought to be now.

At first glance, it looks like the same bill as the one above, but you will notice that it doesn't say "Federal Reserve Note. One Dollar", It says "Silver Certificate. This certifies that there has been deposited in the treasury of The United States of America, one silver dollar, payable to the bearer on demand." 

Back in 1928, when this bill was issued, you could walk up to the Federal Reserve Bank, give them this bill and they would give you one ounce of pure silver.

If you take a modern "dollar" bill to the Federal Reserve Bank, they will give you nothing more than a smile.

That's why you never see the old "Five and Dime stores" anymore.

-Graydon L

Even More on the Slowmobile V2 at 7:55 PM

I was at Church today and Sam Y asked me a series of very interesting questions. His first question was "what is the fastest airplane in the world?", seeing as I'm a bit of an Aficionado on the subject, I quickly replied "the SR-71 'Blackbird.' It can fly over Mach 3."

His follow-up question was "if the first gear on the Slowmobile V2 rotated as fast as the F-one seven..."

"SR-71" I corrected.

"SR-71, whatever. If that gear rotated as fast as the SR-71, how fast would the Slowmobile move?"

At this, I was perplexed. I genuinely didn't know. I knew of course it would be very slow, and I promised Sam I would figure it out.

Well, when I got home, I had to find out exactly how fast the Blackbird's top speed was so I could apply my brain to the task of reducing that number proportionate to the V2's gear system.

But I found so much cool stuff (and pictures) that I just had to make a video to answer the question.

And now, without further ado, exclusively to blogger, my video on the SR-71 Blackbird.

-Graydon L

It's Bigger!... It's Slower!... It's!... at 11:25 PM

A couple of weeks ago, y'all were treated to my video of the Slowmobile. Well, I've scrapped the first version and I've developed the new and improved (and did I mention, slower?) Slowmobile V2.

In addition to adding 7 new sets of 2:1 gears (meaning I slowed it down by 2 to the 7th power), I have added a handle for easy transportation, and some small arrows to show me which way to turn the on/off switch to make it go forward or backward.

All in all, It's a much better and, of course, slower K'Nex contraption.

enjoy the vid :-)

-Graydon L

P.S. In case you are wondering what happened to me in the last few days, I've been up in Canada with my Family. I had access to email, but little time to actually make a post.

MRM - Fireproof at 6:24 PM

It's finally here, the long awaited film made by the creators of Facing the Giants

Fireproof

Directed by: Alex Kendrick

Written By: Alex Kendrick, Stephen Kendrick

Starring Cast: Kirk Cameron (Caleb Holt), Erin Bethea (Catherine Holt), Ken Bevel (Michael Simmons)

Supporting Cast: Harris Malcom (John Holt), Phillis Malcom (Cheryl Holt)

What's It Rated?: PG for thematic elements and some peril

Genre: Drama, Independent film

Synopsis: At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighters adage: Never leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules.

My Take: If you've ever shied away from independent christian films before, throw that fear of low quality away. Fireproof finally offers an exciting film without all the junk that Hollywood throws in it's movies to make them "good".

As far as I've seen in christian films before, (except for most of Facing the Giants) Acting is a very weak point, But Fireproof has surprisingly good acting! There are several moments when you forget that it's the words the actors are saying were put there by a writer!

The effects and soundtrack are fantastic and are both integrated into the film by a clever and experienced hand.

As for filming, I thought this could have been it's weakest point. In a couple of shots, the camera jerked slightly, and it may have been the theater's fault, but I sorta' disappointed me a couple of times.

I would be careful about letting the whole family watch this one together however, It's main theme is marriage and so the main character and is wife have a couple very intense arguments. Further, it deals with uncomfortable issues such as pornography and divorce that made me feel a little uneasy. You can read about the directors reasons for this here at Fireproofthemovie.com

Also, Kirk Cameron, refuses to kiss any woman other than his wife. To film a scene in which his character kisses his wife, the filmmakers had to dress Cameron's real-life wife, Chelsea Noble, as the wife character (played throughout the rest of the movie by Erin Bethea) and shoot the kissing scene in shadow so the difference between Noble and Bethea would not be as evident on screen.

Overall, I think that this is a great film, the message is pretty good, the filming is very good, and I'd definitely enjoy watching this film again.

Story: out of 10

Humor: 8 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 9 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

-Graydon L

My Quiz Results! at 1:58 PM

Pretty well all of my friends and family have taken my test now (some even twice), and I think it's time to put up some results. (see note at bottom)

WARNING! IF YOU HAVE NOT TAKEN MY "DO YOU KNOW ME" TEST, I WILL BE VERY ANGRY IF YOU READ THIS POST BEFORE TAKING IT! TAKE THE TEST, AND THEN READ THIS POST!!!

Q1: What is my favorite Singer/Group? This one was obviously easy to anyone I've ever talked to seeing that all but my mom answered correctly with "Rascal Flatts".

Q2: Where was I born? Clearly and easy one, only one person got this one wrong. 

Apparently, Melissa thinks I was born in Arkansas. But I don't blame her... everyone knows that when you move from Arkansas to Washington you have to get a Green Card and have your citizenship changed from Canadian to American ;-) 

Correct answer: Mackenzie, BC

Q3: What is my favorite School Subject? This was a tough one, and I new it would be because I have told many people that I love math... except I didn't tell those people I hate Algebra. History is my favorite subject, and even when I wasn't in Algebra, History was very near the top of the list.

And Jonathan P, I don't know what Flipinology is... I made that up :-)

Q4: What is my favorite Desert? Only two people got this one wrong! In case you were one of them, Pickle Pie is my favorite desert! (and I would definitely like it if you made one and took it to church, Sarah! My birthday is coming up you know :-D )

Q5: How many siblings do I have? Everyone got this one right. I had hoped the church directory would confuse some people, but I guess not.

Q6: How Tall am I? This really has only two reasonable answers, "5 feet, 10 1/2 inches" and "5 feet 11 inches", and the answers were really divided almost in half between these. However, I am sorry to inform you, I am just about 5 feet 10 and 1/2 inches tall. 

Q7: What is my favorite type of Sock? This was a fun one to think up! correct answer: crew, although I do fold them down to make them more like ankle socks.

Q8: What type of watch do I wear? It's amazing how many people think I have a Sieko watch! (sorry, I spelled it "seiko") I wish I had a Rolex or a Sieko, but I'm afraid I have just a piddly ol' Armitron. I don't even know if "Guarder" watches exist... I made that one up :-)

Q9: What is my favorite store? Behold! the hardest question! bwahahahah!  only ONE PERSON got this question right! David P, I don't know how you knew that Best Buy is my favorite store, but you were right!

Q10: Who is my Internet provider? This one was harder for my Family because I tell all my friends we use Earthlink, but in reality, we use Comcast through Earthlink. I know It's confusing, but I selected Earthlink as the correct answer. Only five people got this question right.

And now, who did the best on my quiz? The following is a list of scores based not only on how many questions you got right, but also on how hard those questions are.

Name:                      Score:

David P                      28

Jonathan L                27

Susan P                      25

Janet L                       22

Sarah P                      20

Jonathan P                17

Sam Y                          11

Melissa N                   10

Thanks for completing my quiz! :-)

-Graydon L

(note) David P and Sam Y both took the test twice, however I did not include their second entries in my formula or their second entries in my advanced scores list above. I did not look at either of their second entries but just used their first score for all of the stats in this post.

My New Layout and it's Issues at 3:52 PM

As you may have noticed, I have a new blog background! I think it's pretty cool but it has a few problems: first, when I got it, the Blogger.com Navbar at the top wasn't there. Second, the little blog menu underneath the header doesn't go all the way across; there's a gap on the right hand side that just drives me crazy!

As for the first problem, I have solved it with a little help from the almighty Internet. Here's how to toggle the Blogger Navbar:

Before we do anything, we have to enter in what I have named a "Toggling Widget". After logging in to blogger, go the the "edit HTML" tab by going through the "Layout" button on your dashboard. Simply enter in the following code anywhere in between the beginning and ending tags of the document:

#navbar-iframe {

height:30px;

visibility:show;

display:yes

}

(don't worry about the red text, it wont do anything or even show up in the HTML)

Now the Navbar will now be displayed! If you want it to stop being displayed, simply change the three variables (the text in red) to "0" (that's a zero, by the way), "hide" and "no".

That's It!

Enjoy having (or not having) a Blogger.com Navbar!

-Graydon L

P.S. As for the second problem, I fixed with a little HTML tweaking. It took me about 1 minute 30 seconds :-)

My new Blanket-Shirt! at 5:49 PM

The Candlelight tour at Ft. Nisqually is just around the corner and Jonny and I are ready! We not only made hard tack for snacking, but also helped Mom make us some blanket-shirts. I practically froze to death last year and so we bought some blankets at the muzzle loader show earlier in the year and resolved to make something out of them. At first we thought they would turn out as capotes, but capotes a pretty big blanket, bigger than we had. But I'm perfectly OK with a blanket shirt instead, if it does the job and look good, why not?

Enough talk; pictures!

Cutting from the pattern.

Just a little hand-sewing to touch up.

Aaaaand the finished product! I think it looks quite nice and it's definitely very warm!

Also, I'd like to draw your attention to the new "Do YOU know me?" quiz on the sidebar!

-Graydon L