GLs Highlights

Math can prove you wrong...

2010-03-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

A while ago, Dad and I were listening to the Michael Savage show on the way home from the gym. I didn't hear the whole thing, but I managed to pick up the subject.

Apparently, there was some group of activists who wanted the story of Wally "Famous" Amos to replace that of Albert Einstien and Thomas Edison in the history text books used by the public schools.

Now, I don't know if you have any clue who "Famous" Amos is, but I soon found out the reason this group wanted a cookie salesman to replace two of the greatest scientists in history. It's really quite simple...

..."Famous" Amos was black.

So a black cookie salesman is greater than Einstien and Edison!?!?! I'm sorry, black or white doesn't matter, you can't say a cookie salesman is greater than the man who completely reinvented physics and the man who invented the light bulb!!!!

Anyway...

...back to my story.

Soon a lady called into the show to state the apparent fact that "Famous" Amos really WAS greater than both Einstien and Edison. Of course, Savage chewed her out like crazy and made her look like the idiot she was (pardon my language) and sent her packing.

But afterwards, I got thinking about it and I realized... I could prove this idea false quite easily... using only Math.

So I did. Here's how.

First off, we know that the 'white man' is equal in intelligence etc., to the 'black man'. there is no "evolutionary" difference between the two. We all know this is true (or at lease claim it) and to deny it is the epitome of racism! You heard me! Saying a black man is greater than a white man is racist!!!

but I digress...

So if the equation white man = black man is true then the two can be substituted for each other in equations, right? Right! It's called the substitution property (or substitution property of inequality), and it works no matter what. So let's do that. Let's substitute 'black' for 'white' and 'white' for 'black' in the following inequality:

black cookie salesman > white scientist becomes white cookie salesman > black scientist

I don't know about you, but I doubt that activist group would support replacing George Washington Carver (black scientist) with F. Ross Johnson (former CEO of Nabisco and technically a cookie salesman) in the history books.

-Graydon L

Youtubers

2010-02-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

So recently, I've found some really funny channels on Youtube (most of which are relatively language free!) one of which is called "Rhett and Link"

These two guys are lyrical geniuses, great musicians and super funny comedians, here's a fav vid of mine.

Hope you liked it! I don't know if these guys are Christians or not (I doubt they are) but so far I haven't heard any foul language and they tend to keep it PG rated. Obviously I haven't seen all of their stuff, so be careful anyway.

I guess that's all!

-Graydon L

A New Original Vid!

2010-02-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

So it's been way too long since I posted, but as I've said before, Facebook tends to eat up most of my "social networking time".

Anyway. A while back some friends came over to make soap with my Mom for the day and I ended up hanging out with Blake R for the day. Anyone who's met him knows he can get exited and get rather... active... so I came up with the idea of making a short movie to keep him occupied for the day.

Here's what I came up with:

It's not the best, but I had only one day for all the filming, editing, and final uploading. Plus this was almost just a test of a few special effects. Albeit simple ones, but effects none the less.

Btw, If you didn't watch all the way to the end... you should have :)

On a completely different note, I've been considering posting on this blog strictly with vlog posts. I really enjoy making videos (despite how high my voice sounds in them) and it's a lot more fun than typing for an hour. However, looking back on my last attempt at a vlog post (video review of Prince Caspian) you all are probably cringing right about now, but don't worry, I plan on using a completely different style. To see an example of what my vlogs may look like (as far as editing style) see my videos "how to install and set up Ad block plus", "review of KJW M9 full-metal airsoft pistol", and "why the ipad stinks" on my youtube channel.

Thanks!

-Graydon L

Issue #3 is here!

2010-01-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

Well, as I indicated a while ago on Facebook (www.facebook.com/graydonlangford) I started working again on my Hank O'Grady comic series. Well I've finished the 3rd issue, and it is now available on www.thehankogradyfiles.blogspot.com

-Graydon L

My Stint in Canada

2009-12-26T23:26:00.000-08:00

OK, so I recently spent a week and a half staying with my Bro in Canada to help him with his business marketing and stuff, and I thought I'd post the videos that I made!

Ryan's business is a music school called Resound, so I made him a custom Youtube channel and uploaded all the videos I made.

If you didn't quite catch it that the text above is a link, click here to go to the channel :)

Anyway, I thought they're pretty cool (especially the chalkboard one) so I just wanted to share.

Hope Y'all had a very merry Christmas!

-Graydon L

2009-12-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

The Fun Theory

2009-11-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

OK so it's been a while since I posted and I just wanted a cool video... so here you go :)

More videos here.

Enjoy!

-Graydon L

Getting a haircut

2009-10-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

I've been begging my mom for a haircut for like... a month and a half now, and she finally gave in and sqeezed me into her oh-so-busy schedule. But I had one condition that had to be met...

Check it out:

Mohawk! Rawk Own, DUUuuud!

-Graydon L

New template! (and other things)

2009-10-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've gotten lazy. I haven't posted in a week. Sue me.

...well, not really... getting sued would kinda stink :)

Anyway, The first thing you've noticed (I'm sure) is the new template! My old one was giving me issues, such as the header dissapearing, so I scrapped it and got a new one! I had it narrowed down to this one and another one that resembled the Mac OS sort of layout, style, dealeo thing, but I couldn't get it to work :P

So, I got this one from a place called InstantShift.com. They had a big long list of the top 120 blogger templates, so I took a look! If you're tired of the plain ol' blogger template you've got, check it out.

Unfortunately, getting a new template in the manner I tell you below WILL DELETE YOUR SIDEBAR ELEMENTS! Keep a record of the ones you want, or copy the nescessary code to your clip board or something, but be aware, they WILL be deleted!

After you pick out the template you want from InstantShift's list, jut hit the download button. Usually it comes in a ZIP folder, but all you have to do is extract it. No biggie.

After that, go on Blogger, click on the "Layout" tab, select the "edit HTML" sub-tab, and you see where it says "Upload a template from a file on your hard drive:", well just hit "browse" and then navigate to where you extracted your template file. After you select the template file, the file's address should show up in the white field to it's left:

Next, just hit upload, and after Blogger asks you (in scary red text) if you're sure you want to delete your sidebar elements, and you say yes, just save and view your blog!

That's how I did mine! If you've got any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Another really cool thing I just got recently, was DropBox. It's a free, downloadable program that basically is just a folder that you get to place anywhere on your computer! Once downloaded, all you have to do is copy and paste a few files into your DropBox folder, and they're automatically uploaded to the DropBox site, available to you from any computer! Also, if you download the program on multiple computers and sign in to the same account on both programs, when one computer has a file placed in the DropBox folder the other computer sees them almost instantaniously!

As you can probably tell, this is a fantastic way to transfer files from computer to computer in a work group, online seminar, or just to replace those pesky email attachments!

As I said, the DropBox program is free, but it only comes with 2GB of space. This is fine for just transfering files from PC to PC (I actually shouldn't say that, it works on Mac and Linux as well), but if you want to juggle large files, or keep your entire hard drive on it, you will need to upgrade. Upgrades are $5/month for 10GB, $10/Month for 50GB, and $20/Month for 100GB space.

To learn more about DropBox and watch their video tour, click here.

Well, I hope this upadate has been helpful at least, I know I'm exited about my new template. If you have any questions about what I've mentioned in this post, feel free to comment, and I'll try to answer your comments as best I can.

-Graydon L

The story of Jack Lucas

2009-09-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

He'd fast-talked his way into the Marines at fourteen, fooling the recruits with his muscled physique... Assigned to drive a truck in Hawaii, he had grown frustrated; he wanted to fight. He stowed away on a transport out of Honolulu, surviving on food passed along to him by sympathetic leather-necks on board.

He landed on D-Day [at Iwo Jima] without a rifle. He grabbed one lying on the beach and fought his way inland.

Now, on D+1, Jack and three comrades were crawling through a trench when eight Japanese sprung in front of them. Jack shot one through the head. Then his rifle jammed. As he struggled with it a grenade landed at his feet. He yelled a warning to the others and rammed the grenade into the soft ash. Immediately, another rolled in. Jack Lucas, seventeen, fell on both grenades. "Luke, you're gonna die," he remembered thinking...

Aboard the hospital ship Samaritan, the doctors could scarcely believe it. "Maybe he was too d***ed young and too d***ed tough to die," one said. He endured twenty-one reconstructive operations and became the nation's youngest Medal of Honor winner - and the only high school freshman to receive it.

Excerpt from James Bradley's Flags of our Fathers. Taken from John Pipers Don't Waste Your Life

Homemade Flu Vaccine!

2009-09-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what's in a Flu shot? Well this video made in Canada, not only tells you what's in it, but how to make your own! Yummy :)

-Graydon L

How to Download and Install Adblock Plus

2009-09-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

OK, so I just got the idea for this video and I'd thought it might be fun. If you are not using Mozilla's Firefox browser you need to! There are a million-and-one awesome ad-ons that Mozilla offers as downloads that can really enhance your browsing experience. I used to like Google Chrome, but I've spruced up Firefox so much I can't stand Chrome now :)

Other ad-ons I use are:

Aviary (screen capture and image editing)
Colorful Tabs (makes your tabs different colors so they're easier to distinguish)
Fission (progress bar is inside the address bar Safari style)
Personas for Firefox (allows you to change the "skin" of your browser in only two clicks)

And there a thousands more that you can download! From asthetics to spyware-blocking, if you want it, there's an add-on for it! Check out the directory here.

-Graydon L

So This is what he does in his spare time...

2009-08-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know if you all saw, but Jonny, who is supposed to be doing responsible things at his internship in North Carolina, hacked into my blogger account and changed the colors of my blog. This is what it looked like BEFORE I figured out what happened:

You can even see the post he made right below this one. He didn't make the text pink in his post, but as a reminder to myself to be more careful in future, I changed to pink for him.

This particular prank was very frightening to me, because as you know, my background is a custom one that blogger does not offer so the colors are not the same as the blogger colors. Which means, I had to take a screen capture snapshot of my blog, open it in a picture editing software, use the eyedropper tool to find the HTML code of the color I needed, and then apply that to my blogger color settings.

If this hadn't worked, I would've had to make an entirely new background which would've deleted all my sidebar elements... and then I wouldn't be so forgiving.

btw, Jonny, THIS MEANS WAR!!!!!!!! I encourage you all to view Jonny's blog now, I'm sure after my few minor tweaks it's much more interesting: www.jonnysmeltingpot.blogspot.com

-Graydon L

2009-08-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hello this is Jonny

I found out that Graydon didn't log out of his blogger account on this computer so now I can completely mess with your blog.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

My New Airsoft Gun!

2009-08-20T13:09:00.001-07:00

OK, so I ordered a new gas blowback pistol from Airsoft GI last week and it came just yesterday! If you don't know what a gas blowback pistol is, basically, the magazine not only holds BBs, it holds a type of gas called greengas (or redgas or propane). When you pull the trigger, the mag releases the gas into the chamber and it fires the BB.

These are the most common types of side arm amongst serious airsofters, and I thought I join the ranks :)

I got the KJ Works replica M9 pistol simply because it was the highest rated gun in my price range. If I had the money I would've gotten a Tokyo Marui brand gun because they're the best gas blow back guns out there, but I didn't, so I couldn't :P

btw, the video wasn't working for me on the blog, so here's a link to youtube where you can watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKIF9RHag7I

Hope y'all liked it!

-Graydon L

My 300th post and other things

2009-07-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Whattup?

It's been quite a while since I've posted and quite frankly, you can blame Facebook for that :)
I used to have a life, but Facebook ate it - Unknown

Anyway, just a couple of general updates, I've added another song to my Playlist (OK so I added a lot of songs, but just one in particular) called "Trigger Happy" by Weird Al Yankovic. I think it's hilarious, and chances are you will too!

Also, as you may have noticed, this is my 300th post! Yay, let's party, bring out the confetti... that was fun. I'll be done now.

Aaaand, something else I'm really jazzed about is this wicked new site called YearbookYourself.com. On this site you can upload a picture of yourself and then look through the years at how you would look from 1950-2000

Here's a Picassa album of my Yearbook pictures from Yearbook Yourself. Hope you like 'em!

-Graydon L

PS I hope y'all like my new Profile Pic!

Time to welcome someone new!

2009-07-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

That's right, we have a new member of the blogosphere: Sophia H. She just started her blog a few days ago and has already made several posts (including detailed descriptions of Fort Nisqually activities, which are always a plus, and also some pictures). She asked me to plug it for her, so that's what I did! Check it, homies:

http://revolvingattwospeeds.blogspot.com/

-Graydon L

I definitely need to get another hobby

2009-07-13T20:15:00.001-07:00

OK, so I created another one. Yes, it's yet another LEGO Transformer! As before I wanted to try new techniques and I did in the end. My goal was to refine the hood-of-the-car-becomes-chest-of-robot system and I did an average job. It kind of left a lot of stuff hanging off the back, but I made it look OK by changing it into a jetpack, which you'll see later.

Well enough talk, time for pictures and video!

As you can see, it would be cooler if it had tinted windows, but it's not exactly possible with LEGO so I had to do without :)

I just added the spoiler this morning. At first it was one piece, but that didn't work, so I split it into two pieces and attached them to the legs.

And now, the transformation video! I sped up the middle because it would've taken far, far to long to do and there was a lot of tedious, small-piece work to do which wasn't very interesting, not to mention impossible to see!

Here are the pics for after the transformation:

Here's the jet pack from above, It's basically just a jet engine with flappy thingies hanging over it.

A close-up of the head. He actually looked a lot better than I expected when I was trying out different designs. This design really makes him look evil!

On the left of this picture you can see the rocket/missile/thing (it's that big roundish black blob under his hand) attached to his lower arm. It actually fires, which was a plus for me!

Well that's all for now, I do have another idea for a different transformation style that is used many times in the movies, but I think I may try to make a jet first :)

-Graydon L

LEGO Transformer: Swerve

2009-07-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm sure you thought that the LEGO Transformers that I last posted about were pretty cool, but this one blows those two out of the water!

I built the first version yesterday and late last night, but he looked rather... fat... to say the least. So I made several modifications and basically slid the belly fat up and made it into a chest (I guess he started working out!), added some guns, moved the head lower down on the body, and jacked up the wheels to give it more clearance when driving in it's car mode.

Another one of my goals was to copy another robot from somewhere else to test my skills at building with LEGOs. I would've copied from the movies, but good detail videos were hard to find and there were plenty on Youtube of other ones, so that's what I went with.

Here's my favorite, and the one I did most of my 'research' from. It's one of a series of ads for a German made car called the Citroen C4.

Pretty funny, huh?

And now, some pictures of the Robot in it's car-mode.

I named it 'Swerve' because (according to the all-wise name generator on Facebook) that's my transformer name :)

A (blurry) close up of the seats and roll bars.

From the front, with a good view of the steering wheel!

It's riding so low because it's on carpet, on a hard surface it's got about a quarter inch of clearance.

$0 down! 0% financing! Pay $0 for 6 months! Or lease one now for only $599/month!

And now it transforms!

It stands up on it's own!

I like this one, it makes his head look cooler!

Have a piece of THIS!

Swerve wants YOU for the Autobot Army!

-Graydon L

Atheism. It makes perfect sense

2009-06-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

-Graydon L

New LEGO Transformers!

2009-06-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

In Honor of the new Transformers movie, I have created two new LEGO Transformers! I wanted to post them because, quite frankly, there is a great lack of mid-sized LEGO Transformers on the Internet and I also haven't posted in a week :-)

This one is supposed to look like an F-22 (My favorite Airplane), but as always with Transformers and LEGO, it looks more like a cross between a MiG-29 and an F-22. Oh-well.

For scale against my hand in it's Airplane mode.

From the side. At the back there underneath the tail fins you can see the "Engine exhaust nozzle" which become a Gatling cannon.

A closer look at that Exhaust nozzle that becomes the Gatling cannon. Keep an eye out for that cannon in the video when I transform it. It will end up above the robots head.

Here's a video of me transforming it into Bot-Mode. Newbies, pay close attention :-)

This Next one isn't supposed to look like any particular airplane, but it ended up looking like a Su-37. It's the forward ailerons that add to this look.

From the side.

As you can see, it's a good 2 inches shorter than the F-22!

And of course, a video of me transforming this one.

Well, aside from their obvious fragility (if that's a word), they're some pretty good robots! If I get enough requests for instructions on how to build it (unlikely), I'll do that.

Signing off, Graydon L

MRM - Marley and Me

2009-06-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Directed by: David Frankel

Written by: Scott Frank, Don Roos

Starring Cast: Owen Wilson (John Grogan), Jennifer Aniston (Jennifer Grogan)

Supporting Cast: Eric Dane (Sebastian), Clarke Peters (Editor)

What's it Rated?: PG for thematic material, suggestive content and language

Genre: pets, memoirs, romance

Synopsis: John Grogan buys his wife a dog in hopes to delay her desire for children, but they soon find out that the dog was far worse than expected.

My Take: In all my born days I have never seen an more mis-rated movie ever!!! The repeated use of foul language, references to and explicit sexual content, humanistic worldview and generally immoral behavior was SICKENING! I never thought I'd ever have to skip a scene in a PG rated movie, but we skipped two!!! Normally I add what I think needs to be added to the rating in parentheses, but this time there is just too much to add.

Seriously!

OK, I've calmed down a bit now... IF you were OK with the above items, and IF you though you would like this movie, this is what I say about everything else:

Good story, truth truly is stranger than fiction as illustrated by the "book-to-film" of the Grogan family memoirs. The adventures of an incredibly neurotic dog are hilarious sometimes, but not others. In the end it felt rather long as the exiting wore off and the mundane set in, but all in all, an OK story.

As I said above, funny in parts, absolutely not in others. The repeated use of suggestive humor was a real killer for me and the rest of the family watching this movie.

Overall, Not recommendable at all. Don't be fooled by the marketing as a kids film, it's not. The characters deal with some complex issues and predicaments and some are not handled well. (there were two that were better, Sebastian asks John if he and Jennifer are getting divorced, and he balks at that saying: "Mend it, don't end it" stating a more committed view of marriage. Also, Jennifer Grogan decides to be a stay-at-home-mom and says later: "... I made a choice. And even if it's harder than I thought--I don't regret it!")

Story: 6.5 out of 10

Humor: 4 out of 10

Action/Suspense: N/A

Overall: 2 out of 10

-Graydon L

MRM - Paul Blart: Mall Cop

2009-06-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Steven Carr

Written by: Kevin James, Mick Bakay

Starring Cast: Kevin James

Supporting Cast: Jayma Mays (Amy), Keir O'Donnell (Veck Sims), Raini Rodriquez (Maya Blart)

What's it Rated?: PG for some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor, and language. (Plus mild nudity, and multiple mild sexual refrenses.)

Genre: Comedy, Kids, Thriller

Synopsis: Paul Blart is a mild-mannered, dutiful family man who works as a security guard in a New Jersey mall. For years, he has applied to become a cop, but he always fails the physical exam because he is overweight. One day, a gang of organized criminals put the mall under siege and take hostages. Blart becomes trapped inside, and because of his sense of duty, refuses to leave. He thus becomes the police department's eyes on the inside and attempts to stop the criminals on his own.

My Take: It's hard to say a lot about this movie, but I'll see if I can tackle this one and not make it seem as if I"m brushing off my "duties".

The negative elements are obviously first and foremost, so I'll nail those up front. The language is the first thing you notice obviously, but some violence and sexual references rise quickly to make you switch from "hmm, this movie is OK" to "This movie is stupid" and right back again. The fact that these things don't mix with the comedy and slapstick genre very well, turned me off more than made me like the movie more.

There is also one scene in a grill and bar in which the main character gets hopelessly drunk when he drinks a pitcher of margaritas when he thinks it lemon aid. However, this is almost "justified" (if you will) because he loses the respect of several other characters, and gets several tattoos, illustrating that many things that you do when under the affects of alcohol are impossible to reverse. I was a little more comfortable with this scene because it does portray alcoholism in a more negative light than most films--however, it was still alcoholism.

There is a silver lining though! Paul Blart does place high value on respect and good fatherhood and isn't portrayed as a complete ditz when it comes to family matters. This is, quite frankly, welcome relief from the typical war against Dads in Hollywood movies.

As far as humor goes, some is crude, but generally speaking stays away from the Shrek-type crude humor and for the most part stays with "fat jokes" more than stereotypical rude jokes.

Overall I'd say this movie wasn't really recommendable. The story was rather weak, and there were some inappropriate scenes that definitely could have been left out.

Story: 4 out of 10

Humor: 5.5 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 6 out of 10

Overall: 4 out of 10

-Graydon L

The Evolutionists keep working...

2009-06-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of articles I found in the Creation Magazine that we get from Creation Ministries International. I thought they were pretty disturbing.

Computer Game Spore: deception as a means to an end

Spore, a computer game released in September 2008, allows players to replicate the evolution of a creature from a single-celled organism to a space traveling civilization. Depending on the goals of the player, the creature can be a carnivore, herbivore, peaceful social networker, or a conquering predator

Designer Will Wright, best known for creating the Sims series of games, claims that the game is a 'philosophical toy' intended to change the way people think, and cites science fiction, SETI [Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence], and 'astrobiology' as a sourced of inspiration for the game, and admitted certain aspects of the game are 'very Darwinian'.

In a New York Times article, scientists praised the game for getting evolutionary ideas across, but criticized the simplistic and in some cases misguided way that evolution is presented. For one thing, player can 'intelligently design' their creatures to some extent.

However, Dr. Thomas Near hope that the game will cause people to accept evolution: 'This may be totally off about how evolution works, but I'd much rather be dealing with a student who says, "OK, I have no problem with evolution; I think about it the same way I think about gravity." If it does that, it'll be great.' He is not the first to condone deceiving students as long as they end up accepting the evolutionary worldview. (see, www.creation.com/deceive)

Christian parents should be aware of the evolutionary indoctrination even extending to computer games, so become increasingly vigilant to make sure that the messages that their children absorb are consistent with the true (Biblical) worldview. For more information see www.creation.com/spore

The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/science/02spore.html

_______________________________________________________

Atheists advertise on British buses

The British Humanist Association (BHA), with the support of prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, has launched a 'No God' advertising campaign on UK buses. They have raised more than 36,000 Pounds to pay for posters on both the inside and outside of London buses with the slogan: 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.'

The BHA is considering extending the campaign to other cities, including Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

According to Dawkins, this campaign 'will make people think--and thinking is anathema to religion.'

Dawkins may well be right in relation to false religion, but he's wrong when it comes to Christianity. The one true Creator of the Universe has instructed that we are to 'Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength' [emphasis added] (Mark 12:30). And He has instructed Christian believers to 'be prepared to have an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have' [emphasis added] )1 Peter 3:15, q.v. Isaiah 1:18) that other people might become believers while there's still time.

Now that's something worth thinking about.

BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7681914.stm 21 October 2008

______________________________________________________

-Graydon L

MRM - IOUSA

2009-06-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Patrick Creadon

Written by: Patrick Creadon, Christine O'Malley

Main Interviewees: David Walker, Robert Bixby, Warren Buffet, Ron Paul, Alan Greenspan,

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

Genre: Documentary, Economics, Government

Synopsis: I.O.U.S.A. examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. As the Baby Boomer generation prepares to retire, will there even be any Social Security benefits left to collect? Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.

My Take: EXCELLENT! Finally a professional, well made documentary that highlights the problems in the government that NOBODY IS RECOGNIZING!!! The Trade Deficit, the National Debt, the demise of Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are well presented in an easy to understand format that anybody and get fairly quickly! I highly recommend this film for everyone in the entire country to watch.

'Nuf said.

PS, It did feel a tad long the second time a watched it, but that's a small price to pay for the message it presents.

Story: 6 out of 10

Humor: (Not really applicable, but some interviews with the public can be a little humorous)

Action/Suspense: N/A

Overall: 10 out of 10 (A MUST SEE!)

-Graydon L

First and IPod. Now This?!?!?!

2009-05-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

You've all heard about how Barack Obama gave the Queen of England an IPod loaded with all of his speaches, but wait till you hear about Lizzy's latest modern gadget... with some ol' school style wrapped around it... literally. Article found on Yahoo! Games.

The Royal Wii

Bu Mike Krumboltz

The Nintendo Wii has positioned itself as the gaming console for everybody. As it turns out, that includes the Queen of England. Well, sort of. It's not like Her Royal Highness went down to Wal-Mart and bought one with her summer job savings. Rather, she was given a special version by gaming company THQ.

What makes the Queen's "Royal Wii" different? It's gold-plated, sucka! None of that lame white plastic for Buckingham Palace — the Queen needs her bling! Gaming blog Joystiq reports that the gaming company is hopeful that the PR stunt "will amuse Queen Elizabeth."

Meanwhile, Geek.com writes that the gift is actually meant to build awareness for the upcoming game, Big Family Games. An ulterior motive? What?!? As the geeks put it, "for a game that is meant to include the whole family from kids to grandparents what better family to send it to than The Royal Family in England."

According to Game Revolution, Big Family Games is a collection of mini-games, including "golf, tennis, ladder golf, lawn darts, horseshoes, bocce," and more. So far, search interest is rather scant. However, should the Queen declare her love for the gift, expect the title to get a right honorable boost in the Buzz. Silly as that sounds, it's not out of the realm of possibility -- according to insiders, she was "addicted" to playing Prince William's Wii last Christmas. Now she'll have one of her own.

________________________________________________________________

To read the original article in it's original page, click here (Yahoo! Games: Plugged In)

-Graydon L

My K'Nex Rubber Band Guns

2009-05-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

I was fooling around with my massive K'nex collection a while back, and I accidentally stumbled upon a design for a repeated fire rubber band gun! I'd seen many wooden rubber band guns in the past and I've always wanted to make one based on the same design, but I never figured it out... until now... BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! (sorry, that' wasn't supposed to be out loud)

Anyway... I now had a fully functioning lock and I quickly built a pistol around it. After that I built another gun with two locks side-by-side, effectively building a double barrel rifle. I was happy with this for a while but soon wanted a shot gun, so I slightly modified my lock design to be tougher and to handle a heaver load and then attached that to a 5 barreled short-rifle frame design. This allowed me to load 5 rubber bands onto the one lock for a single-shot of 5 "bullets".

This is the pistol. It has three little black clip thingies up on the end so I can load three rubber bands simultaneously plus more underneath them to be fired later :-)

The double-barreled rifle. Each of the two locks can hold two shots for a total of four consecutive shots.

All those rubber bands on the side are extra ammo. If you look closely at the top you can see the two side-by-side wheels (they're the white things sticking up on the top) that the rubber bands are loaded onto.

Aaaaaaaim... aaaaaand..... FIRE!

This is the shot gun. It has 5 hooky thingies on the end and one lock so I can fire 5 shots at once. at about 30-40 feet out I get a body-sized spread of bullets. Unfortunately, the combined elasticity of more than 5 rubber bands would break the lock if I had more than one load on, so I made this gun only capable of carrying one load at a time.

All three together for size comparison. Each one carries at least three loads of extra ammo attached to it's side. The Pistol has 3 extra loads, the Rifle has 9 extra loads, and the Shot-gun has 6 extra loads.

Here's a video of me explaining how the lock works:

-Graydon L

MRM - Star Trek

2009-05-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Directed by: J J Abrams

Written by: Roberto Orci

Starring cast: Chris Pine (James T Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock)

Supporting cast: Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (Old Spock), Eric Bana (Nero), Bruce Greenwood (Capt. Pike), Simon Pegg (Montomery Scott), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov)

What's it rated?: P-13 for sci-fi action, violence and brief sexual content (Not to mention language and some sensual scenes as well)

Genre: sci-fi, remake, origin story, action, adventure

Synopsis: Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

My Take: As usual, the caveats first: The most obvious caveat that lends itself to this movie is the genre itself: Sci-fi. This genre has been denied access into many Christian homes and quite frankly, I can understand why. The prevalence of one-world orders, total denial of God, and presentation of Aliens as a fact are some pretty good reasons not to watch any of the "classic" sci-fi movies and TV shows. I understand what these movies are; Fiction (no more) and therefore don't have as many issues with them, but if you do, Star Trek isn't for you.

As you noticed from the rating, there is one very offensive scene to be skipped. I can't remember where it starts, so I can't really help you out there, so just be forewarned this is not for young audiences. Another very crude line is in the very beginning where Kirk is talking to Uhura in the bar. Kirk tells her what her job description means (in answer to an insulting, quiz-type question) and what she says after that, quite plainly, needs to be muted.

Also, the worldview is somewhat skewed (that's Hollywood for ya'). The basic premise is that you control your entire life and you should just do what feels right. In the movie there is nothing wrong with this in it's correct context (Spock's father speaking to Spock. Spock has some feelings, but as a Vulcan he suppresses them, and his father is telling him to use them for some decisions) however, it is easily taken out of context and therefore applied to real life.

Now on to the good stuff. The story was excellently organized, presented and supported with few goofs or confusing facts. It's throwbacks to the old TV show and it's following movies are going to be a thrill for die-hard "Trekkie's" but isn't so confusing that a newbie (like me) wouldn't understand it. Basically, the hardest part to remember is the names of the languages and different cultures. Romulans, Klingons, Vulcans... you'll figure it out eventually :-)

Also, the Action and suspense were fantastic as well. Not just blood and gore flying everywhere but lots of adventurous events and situations, as well as some humorous ones! This action is very well complemented by the use of amazing computer graphics and artistic backgrounds.

All factors taken into account, I think that Star Trek is a great movie for more mature audiences, with lots of action and adventure.

Story: 9 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 9 out of 10

Humor: 8 out of 10

Overall: 8 out of 10

Next week on Movie Review Monday: I.O.U.S.A.!

-Graydon L

An Unimportant Post (You Don't Have To Read It)

2009-05-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

This is not an important post. I'm just posting a picture of my blog on my blog so that when I link to it in Facebook, I can make the link's thumbnail a picture of my blog.

-Graydon L

House Resolution No. 29

2009-05-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

I know most of you have already seen this, but I wanted to post it for all of you who haven't seen it yet. It helps to have seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, but even without, it's pretty ridiculous. Check it out.

______________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 29

BY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION STATING LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND COMMENDING JARED AND JERUSHA HESS AND THE
CITY OF PRESTON FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE MOVIE "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE."

Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Idaho:

WHEREAS, the State of Idaho recognizes the vision, talent and creativity
of Jared and Jerusha Hess in the writing and production of "Napoleon Dynamite"; and
WHEREAS, the scenic and beautiful City of Preston, County of Franklin and the State of Idaho are experiencing increased tourism and economic growth; and

WHEREAS, filmmaker Jared Hess is a native Idahoan who was educated in the Idaho public school system; and

WHEREAS, the Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention; and
WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho's most famous export; and
WHEREAS, the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered multiethnic relationships; and
WHEREAS, Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics; and
WHEREAS, Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transportation; and
WHEREAS, Grandma's trip to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes highlights a long-
honored Idaho vacation destination; and
WHEREAS, Rico and Kip's Tupperware sales and Deb's keychains and glamour
shots promote entrepreneurism and self-sufficiency in Idaho's small towns; and
WHEREAS, Napoleon's artistic rendition of Trisha is an example of the importance of the visual arts in K-12 education; and
WHEREAS, the schoolwide Preston High School student body elections foster an awareness in Idaho's youth of public service and civic duty; and
WHEREAS, the "Happy Hands" club and the requirement that candidates for school president present a skit is an example of the importance of theater arts in K-12 education; and
WHEREAS, Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and
WHEREAS, Kip's relationship with LaFawnduh is a tribute to e-commerce and Idaho's technology-driven industry; and
WHEREAS, Kip and LaFawnduh's wedding shows Idaho's commitment to healthy marriages; and
WHEREAS, the prevalence of cooked steak as a primary food group pays tribute to Idaho's beef industry; and
WHEREAS, Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools; and
WHEREAS, Tina the llama, the chickens with large talons, the 4-H milk cows, and the Honeymoon Stallion showcase Idaho's animal husbandry; and
WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of Their Lives!"
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the First Regular Session of the Fifty-eighth Idaho Legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate concurring therein, that we commend Jared and Jerusha Hess and the City of Preston for showcasing the positive aspects of Idaho's youth, rural culture, education system, athletics, economic prosperity and diversity.

______________________________________________________________

Tax dollars at work :-)

-Graydon L

PS. I saw the movie Star Trek the other day, and I know I'm a little late on my review, but I was busy wrapping books to be shipped today, at the Frog Hunt yesterday, and traveling home from Uncle Bob's the day before that :-) It's coming tomorrow!

MRM - The Dirty Dozen

2009-05-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Robert Aldrich

Written by: Nunnally Johnson, Lukas Heller

Starring cast: Lee Marvin (Maj. John Reisman), Charles Bronson (Joseph Wladislaw), Jim Brown (Robert Jefferson), John Cassavetes (Victor Franko), Trini López (Pedro Jiminez), Telly Savalas (Archer Maggott), Donald Sutherland (Vernon Pinkley), Clint Walker (Samson Posey), Tom Busby (Milo Vladek), Ben Carruthers (Glenn Gilpin), Stuart Cooper (Roscoe Lever), Colin Maitland (Seth Sawyer), Al Mancini (Tassos Bravos)

Supporting cast: Ernest Borgnine (General Worden), Richard Jaeckel (Sergeant Bowren), George Kennedy (Major Max Armbruster) Ralph Meeker (Captain Stuart Kinder), Robert Ryan (Col. Everett Dasher Breed), Robert Webber (General Denton), Robert Phillips (Corporal Morgan)

What's it rated?: Not Rated (I'd give it a PG-13 for intense moments of terror, violence, blood, gore and some language)

Genre: Action, War

Synopsis: Major Reisman already has quite a reputation as a rough-and-tumble, crude, unrefined soldier and when he's "volunteered" to train a group of military criminals to the meanest commandos in the military, things can only get worse for him.

My Take: As usual I have to start of with a disclaimer. Basically, not only does this movie paint the military in a bad light in several locations, but the biggest thing is that one of the Dirty Dozen claims to be the administer of "God's judgment" and, of course, he is a murderous racist bigot.

After that, if you like a great action movie with some pretty good humor thrown in, the Dirty Dozen is for you.

In my opinion, the story was pretty good. It was a little long because of the first training mission at the War Games, but pretty good overall. The humor was OK. It wasn't supposed to be funny lines or actions, but more situations. They try to make you laugh at the methods that the Dirty Dozen use in their training and in their missions.

Well, that's pretty much it. Once again, beware of the anti-God Hollywood message in movies.

Story: 7 out of 10

Action: 8 out of 10

Humor: 6.5 out of 10

Overall: 6 out of 10

-Graydon L

I <3 Macs!

2009-05-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

I love Macs!

At The Tacoma City Of Destiny Awards

2009-05-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, the Fort Nisqually Apprentice Interpreter program, of which I am a "member", won yet another award. We were selected as the "Youth Volunteer Group Of The Year" by the City Of Destiny Awards committee and (almost) all of us were at the awards ceremony last night to be congratulated.

Here's some pictures Mom got from the "grandstands" :-)

The Masters Of Ceremonies (I can't remember their names. Carol and Don or something...)

Before we got up on stage to accept our award, they showed a video on the screen of footage from around the Fort. Here's Jon and Dave.

We were all in Jonny's hands when he gave his little acceptance speech! It was a little scary, but he did better than I though he would. He also plugged the Queen's Birthday event this Saturday :-D

Afterwards was of course, a photo-op. We had to have our pictures taken with a bunch of politicians :-P

And, naturally, Mom wanted one of Jonny and I holding the award. It was made by the glass blowing class at the school where they held the award ceremony.

-Graydon L

Mothers Day at Lakewold Gardens

2009-05-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

After church on Mothers Day, we all went out to a place in Steliacoom called Lakewold Gardens. It's actually pretty neat!

The classic "Jonny" pose :-)

That pool was actually deep enough to swim in... hmmm ;-)

There's also a house there that was build in the early 1900s (or late 1800s, I'm not sure) I think, we couldn't go inside because they were having they're Mothers Day Brunch and general public wasn't allowed inside.

The Lady of the day: Mom!

Happy Mothers Day!

-Graydon L

BTW, I didn't review a movie this Monday because I haven't seen anything in a while, but I'm hoping that will change by next week.

South Hit Hard By 'Derecho'

2009-05-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

COOL!!!! You learn something everyday :-)

-Graydon L

MRM - Bedtime Stories

2009-05-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Adam Shankman

Written by: Matt Lopez, Tim Herlihy

Starring Cast: Adam Sandler (Skeeter Bronson), Keri Russell (Jill)

Supporting Cast: Guy Pearce (Kendall), Richard Griffiths (Barry Nottingham), Teresa Palmer (Violet Nottingham), Jonathan Morgan Heit (Patrick), Laura Ann Kesling (Bobby)

What's It Rated?: PG for some mild rude humor and mild language

Genre: comedy, romance, fantasy

Synopsis: Skeeter Bronson is just an average fix-it guy for a massive hotel with his own problems and annoyances to take care of when his Sister, Wendy has to leave for a week and leaves her kids, Patrick and Bobby in Skeeters care. He only has to take the "night shift" and Wendy's friend, Jill takes care of the kids during the day while they're at school. However, on Skeeters first night with the kids, they ask him to tell them a bedtime story... and the next day, it comes true.

My Take: I don't like Adam Sandler, I don't like movies about public school, I don't like crude humor, and I don't like the movie Bedtime Stories.

Basically, it was one Hollywood propaganda message after another with crude humor thrown in everywhere, a poor storyline, and barely a scene without immodestly dressed women. There were some funny lines, and I gotta admit, the idea had some potential, but I'm afraid they butchered whatever good there was left in it.

I know this is going to be a very short review, but I've basically said all there is to say about this disgusting movie wearing the mask of a kids film.

Sorry, Mr. Shankman, but your movie just plain stinks.

Story: 5 out of 10

Humor: 4 out of 10

Action/Suspense: N/A

Overall: 3.5 out of 10

-Graydon L

Obama Spending Cuts Visualization

2009-04-30T09:23:00.001-07:00

I just saw this video on Facebook, It definitely puts thing in perspective.

Pretty crazy huh?

The New Mac Ads

2009-04-29T12:53:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, I’m a Mac-user-wanna-be. So it comes as no surprise that I absolutely love those Mac/PC ads. However, I never was able to see them all in one place. On YouTube there’s all the spoofs you have to sift through that are crude or stupid, and you can only find the old ads from like, 2006.

No, that won’t do for me. So I went looking on Apple.com and of course, they’re all there. Go to Apple.com (URL: http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/ ) to see all the old, new and in-between Mac/PC ads.

CH Conference

2009-04-28T18:18:00.001-07:00

I meant to take my mom’s camera with me to the CH Conference so I could take some pics of all the volunteer… stuff. But, I completely forgot on both days, so the only pictures I got were of the Chorale singing on Saturday night.

Jonny’s there in the middle. You can see the top of my head there too down in the bottom left-hand corner.

There’s me!

All of us

I always end up standing next to someone really short! Last year it was David, this year is was William!

Hi Matt :-)

MRM - Hornblower

2009-04-27T21:33:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Andrew Grieve

Written by: CS Forrester (Books), Russell Lewis, TR Bowen, Patrick Harbinson, Mike Cullen, Chris Ould, Niall Leonard, Ben Rostal, Stephen Churchett (All Screenplay)

Starring cast: Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower)

Supporting cast: Robert Lindsay (Sir. Edward Pellew), Paul Copley (Matthews), Sean Gilder (Styles), Jamie Bomber (Archie Kennedy), Denis Lawson (Capt. Foster), Ian McNeice (Tapling), Cherie Lunghi (Duchess of Wharfedale), Antony Sher (Col. Moncoutant), Samuel West (Major Edrington), David Warner (Capt. James Sawyer), Nicholas Jones (1st Lt. Buckland), Paul McGann (Lt. Bush), Lorcan Cranitch (Wolfe), Julia Sawalha (Maria Mason), Barbera Flynn (Mrs. Mason), Tony Haygarth (Master Prowse)

What’s It Rated?: USA not rated (I Give it PG-13 to R for violence, language, sensuality, thematic elements, some nudity and sexual themes)

Genre: Action, Naval, War, Romance, Adventure

Synopsis: Horatio Hornblower joins His Majesty’s Navy as a midshipman and quickly, through many adventures, Hornblower shows his ability to rise to various occations.

My take: I watched this series on Youtube (call me cheap) a few weeks ago and quite frankly, I thought they were pretty good. You may be surprised that I wrote my rating including all that it did and then turned around and say that it was pretty good. Well, the stories were good, the acting was relatively good, and aside from a few scenes of intense violence or innapropriate situations, the rest of the scenes are pretty good. With something like a Clear Play box, obviously, you could change this series however you would want it to be and in that case only would I recommend this to almost anyone.

However, as it stands, those scenes are there, and most people don’t have a Clear Play box so I will have to take those few scenes into consideration in my review.

The stories were excellent when compared to a lot of movies and TV mini series’ and that’s probably because it’s based on a series of books. It does get a little predictable at some points, but for the most part, the story telling was very good.

Once again, be very careful when allowing younger audiences see this series; They’re pretty good, but as with almost anything, you must take it with a grain of salt and be careful what scenes you watch.

Story: 5 to 8 out of 10 (depending on which episode)

Action/Suspense: 6 to 9 out of 10 (depending of which episode)

Humor: 5-7 out of 10 (depending on which episode)

Overall: 5 to 8 out of 10 (depending on which episode. 1,2, and 7 are the best. Be careful with 3, 4 and 5)

Headin' off to the Conference!

2009-04-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

We're headin' off to the Christian Heritage Conference! I'll see if I can post some pics later!

-Graydon L

MRM – Foreign Correspondent

2009-04-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Written by: Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison

Starring cast: Joel McCrea (Johnny Jones)

Supporting cast: Loraine Day (Carol Fisher), Herbert Marshal (Stephen Fisher), George Sanders (ffolliott)

What’s it rated?: Not Rated (I’d say PG or PG-13 for violent images, mushiness, and intense scenes of suspense and/or torture)

Genre: Thriller, Conspiracy, War, Romance

Synopsis: Johnny Jones, dubbed Huntley Haverstock, is just an investigating reporter trying to get the scoop on the impending war in Europe, but he can’t help but get pulled into a enemy conspiracy group and uncover the story of the century.

My Take: OK, here’s the thing. I like thrillers. I like black and white classics. I also like suspense in my movies. And all that in one film with some humor and a taste of a war movie thrown in are dynamite. But, I’m afraid the message didn’t go over too well with me. As some of you know, I’m an avid Ron Paul supporter, and thusly believe in a noninterventionist foreign policy, and Foreign Correspondent states quite bluntly the idea that when war comes up, neutrality doesn’t work. I, as I said, do not believe this, but whether you think so too, is up to you. I’ve stated my views, and now I’m going to review this movie without my beliefs factored in. I do this mostly because a lot of my readers don’t have my exact views as far as foreign policy, and they just want to know whether the story/suspense/humor make this a good movie for them to see.

Anyway, on with the review.

As with most Hitchcock thrillers, the story, suspense, and pretty well everything else you can think of were well thought out and well presented. I personally thought that it was a tad too long, but if you’re a fan of this genre of film, or just a casual moviegoer with a lot of time, that’s not a big deal at all :-)

The blend of slight, subtle humor with the suspense was excellent as well. Somehow, Hitchcock manages to squeeze in enough jokes and funny circumstances to offset his signature tense situations. Any other director probably wouldn’t have pulled it off, but somehow, the King of Suspense has a way to change all the rules and flip suspenseful filmmaking on it’s head to bring forth yet another classic thriller.

If you’re looking for an old classic thriller to make your heart pump a little faster, Foreign Correspondent is for you.

Story: 7 out of 10

Humor: 6 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 8 out of 10

Overall: 8 out of 10

Animator VS Animation

2009-04-16T14:52:00.001-07:00

Check out these great videos Jonny found on Youtube a few weeks ago made by a genius with a very witty mind.

The first one is called Animator vs. Animation.

The second one's title on Youtube is Funny Virus, but I think it's made by the same guy as a sequel.

-Graydon L

Could monkeys type the 23rd Psalm?

2009-04-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

I’m running through a book we picked up recently put out by Answers in Genesis called Evolution Exposed by Roger Patterson, and I just finished reading this article which was in Chapter 5.

Could monkeys type the 23rd Psalm?

In 1860 a debate between Thomas Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce turned the tide in the public’s acceptance of evolution. Bishop Wilberforce had published a review of Darwin’s book of which Darwin commented, “It is uncommonly clever; it picks out with skill all the most conjectural parts, and brings forward well all the difficulties.” Bishop Wilberforce presented several scientific arguments, and Huxley suggested that, given enough time and material, six monkeys could type the 23rd Psalm simply by randomly punching the keys. It is reported that the bishop had no response, despite his training in mathematics. So what is the answer to Huxley’s argument of time and chance?

Assuming a 50-key typewriter to accommodate letters, numbers, and punctuation, the chance of typing “THE” is one in 50 x 50 x 50 (50^-3), or one in 125,000. At a rate of one strike per second this would take 34.72 hours. For the phrase “THE LORD” the chance becomes 50^-8 and requires 1,238,663.7 years. The entire Psalm requires 9.552 x 10¹⁰¹⁶years to complete on average. The age of the universe is only 15 billion years according to evolutionists, so the probability is clearly outside of the realm of possibility. (It is possible that the event can happen at any given point in the trials, but the difference in time needed and time allowed is unreasonable.)

When considering the probability of the assembly of a DNA molecule, the same problems arise. Harold J. Morowitz, professor of biophysics at Yale, has calculated that the formation of one E. coli bacteria in the universe at 10^{-100,000,000,000}, or one in 10 to the power of 100 billion. Sir Fred Hoyle has offered the analogy of a tornado passing through a junkyard and assembling a Boeing 747, “nonsense of a high order” in his words. Natural selection cannot be the mechanism that caused life to form from matter as it can only work on a complete living organism.

<-- Despite many different calculations that demonstrate the virtual impossibility of the formation of even a single piece of DNA, there are those who accept evolution as a fact of nature.

The idea of an eternal universe has been proposed to allow for enough time, but the second law of thermodynamics states that the universe would have reached “heat death” at some point in the infinite past. Alternate universes and dimensions have been suggested, but there is little evidence to support such claims.

Another major problem with the probability argument is that the chemical processes that supposedly formed life are also reversible at every step. As water is released in the formation of amino acids, the water is then available to break the bond in the reverse reaction, which is actually more favorable. Oceans are the last place amino acids would form. Huxley’s typewriters would have to include a delete key for each other key in order for the analogy to be complete. No matter how much time and matter was available or the rate of interactions of atoms, the probability remains zero for the reversible reactions involved. The many distinct interactions within living systems clearly point to the presence of a designer, the God of the Bible.

________________________________

Another article written on the same subject but written another way can be read here. Link leads to answersingenesis.org

-Graydon

MRM - Bolt

2009-04-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Byron Howard, Chris Williams

Written by: Dan Fogelman, Chris Williams

Starring Cast: John Travolta (Bolt), Miley Cyrus (Penny)

Supporting Cast: Susie Essman (Mittens), Mark Walton (Rhino)

What’s it Rated?: PG for some mild action and peril

Genre: Family, Kids, Animated

Synopsis: Bolt, the superdog lives in a grand deception. In the only life he knows, he has super-strength, super-speed, laser-vision, and a nuclear bomb like super-bark. But Bolt finds out one day that what he thinks is real is just a lot of Hollywood Wizardry and he must travel across the entire nation to get back to his beloved person.

My Take: Disney had got something good on their hands with the new movie Bolt. Nothing ticks me off more than when some new movie comes out that claims to be family friendly turns out to be just another dirty-jokes-fest. However, generally speaking, Bolt actually holds true to it’s commitment to be good clean film with a pretty good story, however many times basic concept has been used before. There is one scene where Bolt meets some other dogs and find out about their habit of sniffing each other in inappropriate places, but it’s pretty short and isn’t really that bad.

The story, as I said, isn’t necessarily original; there have been plenty of movies about animals that travel across the country to find a certain person, as well as a fair share of films where the main character doesn’t know he’s the star of a TV show. But the combination of both in a family friendly animated movie that is genuinely funny, is actually pretty good.

The animation, as usual, is fantastic. The explosions look great, and definitely rival those of The Incredibles. It’s hard to really expound on something as subtle as the animation, but I just gotta say that is was very good.

As for the humor, I almost have never laughed so hard in my life! The instructions of Mittens the cat teaching Bolt how to be a real dog makes for some hilarious lines and scenarios.

Summing up, If you’re looking for a great funny movie everyone will love, Bolt is a fantastic option.

Story: 6 out of 10

Humor: 9 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 8 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

I Bought an iPod!

2009-04-13T18:16:00.001-07:00

After much deliberation, saving, and budget squeezing, I have finally purchased an iPod.

It’s a refurbished iPod Nano 4gen 16 Gb. I got it refurbished because it’s basically a brand new iPod, but with $50 knocked of the price just because it was returned. When it’s returned to Apple, they give it a new outside skin, a brand new battery and fix whatever the reason it was returned for. I decided on orange because black looked a little too goth, and green was too white looking. All the other colors were too girly.

I’m expecting it to arrive between Wednesday and Monday (next week)

Countering Couric: More People Die In Traffic Accidents Than Gun Violence

2009-04-10T19:22:00.001-07:00

Here’s yet another article I found online, It’s basically comparing firearm-related deaths to automobile-related deaths. Naturally the message in this article isn’t that we shouldn’t do anything about gun violence, but mostly to point out that people are directing their attention towards the wrong problem for the wrong reasons.

Countering Couric: More People Die In Traffic Accidents Than Gun Violence

April 8, 2009 - 12:26 ET

By Mike Sargent

CBS’s Katie Couric, formerly queen of “Today” show sunshine, has written a very anti-gun piece on her blog, Couric & Co. It seems worthwhile to do a point-by-point response, so below, please note that italics are from Couric's blog, and the response is in normal font.

Thirteen people shot dead in Binghamton, New York.

Four people crushed to death near the Georgia-Tennessee state line.

Eight killed at a North Carolina nursing home.

Four more people crushed or burned to death in Polk County, Florida.

Ten murdered across several towns in southern Alabama.

Seventeen people killed in Coalinga, California.

In the last month, seven mass shootings have claimed the lives of 53 people.

We all know the dangers of driving, but not many of us stop to think about it. Sometimes, a really bad accident can claim the lives of multiple people.

The enormity of these tragedies makes them front page news. But, on average, 32 people die every day in gun-related violence.

The enormous tragedy is, it's not front-page news. But, on average, 113 people died every day in a vehicle-related death in 2008. This is down about ten percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Gun control advocates say it is too easy for the wrong people to get their hands on a weapon.

Some say that it is too easy for the wrong people - young and inexperienced, old and physically unable, illegal immigrants, or even those convicted of driving under the influence - to get behind the wheel legally.

Background checks are meant to keep criminals from owning guns. But just

about anyone can walk into a gun show and buy a weapon from a private dealer, no questions asked.

Testing is meant to keep the woefully incompetent from driving. But in reality, just about anyone can walk into a state's Department of Motor Vehicles office and pass a basic proficiency test - no questions asked.

The Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence reports that 83% of Americans favor background checks on all gun sales.

There is no comparable campaign to prevent driving-related deaths. There are niche groups, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but nothing that deals with the entire problem of vehicle deaths.

Legislators have an obligation to protect the Constitution.

They also have a responsibility to protect citizens from more of the tragedies that keep replaying themselves in communities all across America.

But government has no obligation, or right, to deny firearms to law-abiding citizens for the sake of weeding out the minuscule amount of people who are depraved enough to go on murderous rampages. Like owning a vehicle, its proper operation and use can be beneficial and enjoyable - and improper operation and use can be deadly.

That's a page from my notebook.

Katie, your notebook is biased.

________________________

To visit the web page I found this on, click here. Link is to NewsBusters.org

A pair of funny signs

2009-04-09T08:08:00.001-07:00

On my way to the orthodontists office the other day I happened to look out the right side of the car… I saw this sign:

Then, just to see the other side of the road, I looked to my left…

Either somebody came up with a great April Fool’s Day prank, or a construction team just wasn’t paying attention :-)

These are real signs that were both place on opposite sides of the same road. No Photoshop here! LOL!

-Graydon

Pilot of Stolen Cessna Wanted U.S. Fighter Jets to Shoot Him Down

2009-04-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

You may have heard recently about the idiot who stole a plane from an airfield in Thunder Bay and flew it over the Can-Am border, across Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and finally Missouri. Well here’s an article I just found about the incident, I think you’ll find it enlightening.

Pilot of Stolen Cessna Wanted U.S. Fighter Jets to Shoot Him Down

By LISA STARK, PIERRE THOMAS, LUIS MARTINEZ and SARAH NETTER
April 7, 2009

The Canadian man who led fighter jets on a chase across six states Monday, flew his stolen plane into the United States. in hopes the military would shoot him down and kill him, according to a Missouri state trooper who apprehended the rogue pilot.

Yavuz Berke, who allegedly stole a Cessna plane from a Canadian flight school and was pursued for hours across the Midwest by fighter jets, was taken into custody after he landed on a Missouri highway late today and took off running.

(ABC News)

Missouri state trooper Justin Watson told "Good Morning America" today that 31-year-old Yavuz Berke, formerly known as Adam Leon, wanted to commit suicide, but didn't have the courage to do it himself.

"His idea was to fly the aircraft into the United States where he would be shot down," Watson said. "He stated several times that at any time he thought he was going to be shot down."

And he came close several times, Watson said.

________________

What an Idiot.

-Graydon

MRM – Napoleon Dynamite

2009-04-06T16:35:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Jared Hess

Written by: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess

Starring cast: John Heder (Napoleon Dynamite)

Supporting cast: Efren Ramirez (Pedro), Aaron Ruell (Kip), Tina Majorino (Deb), John Gries (Uncle Rico)

What’s it rated?: PG for thematic elements and language (I’d say PG-13 for language, crude humor, and sensuality)

Genre: Comedy, School

Synopsis: A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.

My Take: Okay, so it’s like this: everyone I’ve ever asked about this movie says either that it’s the funniest movie ever made, or that it’s the stupidest movie ever made. I wouldn’t put myself under either of those extremes, but I’m definitely leaning towards the “stupid” option. The characters had a lot of potential, but the story and some of the support acting didn’t do justice to a potentially okay film.

I do have to give credit where credit is due though, it wasn’t all bad. Some of Napoleon’s mannerism are pretty funny, and the “scattered” film style was actually able to pull the extremely weak story a little higher in my opinion from slime-covered-public-school-vehicle to the slightly higher kinda-quirky-story-that-you-kinda-don’t want-to-hear-more-than-once.

Anyway, to wrap up, I would say if you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE TO WATCH, you may, maybe have a small, teeny, tiny reason to watch this generally stupid movie.

Story: weak, bland, simple, 3 out of 10

Humor: Okay in places, stupid in others, 5 out of 10

Action/Suspense: Big time N/A

Overall: pretty dumb, 3-4 out of 10

The rest of the San Antonio pics, and my new B-17 model

2009-04-04T21:46:00.001-07:00

Here’s a slide show of the rest of the San A pics, scroll down to see my new model B-17 that I just finished!

I also finished making another of my wood airplanes. I chose the B-17G because the B-29 and B-52, although cool, don’t fully represent the idea of American air superiority like the B-17 does. I wanted to make a bomber just for the change and the B-17 has become the “representive” of all bombers throughout history.

This particular B-17G called the “Thunderbird” and actually still airworthy!

This is actually my first model that I’ve ever made that features the landing gear extended! Much harder than expected :-P

The two images above are the two pictures I did most of my research from. I got my color scheme mostly from the one on the top, and I used the one on the bottom just to put perspective to my three-view profile diagrams (below) that I used for the actually shaping of the plane.

Well, that’s all I’ve got right now. I’ve got to go and get some dinner now, so I guess I’m signing off!

-Graydon

A Little more 3D Modeling

2009-04-02T22:20:00.001-07:00

Here’s some pics of a 3D model I made for Jonny a while ago. it’s a small wooden box with a special mechanism that makes it so you can’t open it unless you slide a secret panel sideways. He was going to make this out of wood and wanted to see if I could make it in my computer first just to see if it would work.

Here it is closed.

Open.

Open, looking down into the mechanism.

Closer in on the mechanism. I actually made that third panel from the front slightly transperant so things would be a little easier to understand.

Same deal here, except the almost the whole thing is transperent.

It’s a little confusing at first, but just concentrate and I think you’ll be able to figure out how it works.

Well, that’s it! I’m still getting used to my 3D modeling software, but I think I’m catching on pretty well! If you want to get started with 3D modeling, I highly recommend Google SketchUp. There are loads of touturial videos and also a gallery of completed models to check out and even change!

-Graydon

P.S. I’m compiling all my favorite HTML tricks for you, Sam. That way my last post will have a little competition as “Nerdiest Post of the Year”. Just kidding :-D

Conficker D-Day Arrives; Worm Phones Home (Quietly)

2009-04-01T14:23:00.001-07:00

I found this article on Google News today, It’s pretty interesting. If you haven’t heard, Conficker is a Worm (a type of virus that only infects unprotected PCs) that basically creates a massive “internet” network using infected computers. This could be used to farm financial info, email passwords, and other personal information. One of Confickers strong points is the ability to block users from accessing virus protections sites like McAfee.com and Microsoft.com. This is a bit of an Achilles heel though, because it makes the worm somewhat easy to detect. Anyway, Here’s the Article by Ian Paul.

Conficker D-Day Arrives; Worm Phones Home (Quietly)

Ian Paul

Apr 1, 2009 8:32 am

The Conficker worm today has begun to phone home for instructions but has done little else. Conficker was programmed to today begin actively visiting 500 out of 50,000 randomly generated web addresses to receive new instructions on how to behave. Conficker has begun to do this, according to security company F-Secure, but so far no doomsday scenarios have emerged.

Among security experts, the consensus seems to be that very little will happen today. This may be in part because of the high amount of publicity Conficker has received, but then again April 1 is not the first time Conficker has been programmed to change the way it operates. Similar trigger dates have already passed with little change, including January 1, according to according to Phil Porras, a program director with SRI International. Security experts at Symantec, the maker of Norton Antivirus, also believe the threat is overblown and says Conficker today will "start taking more steps to protect itself" and "use a communications system that is more difficult for security researchers to interrupt."

Technology companies and experts across the globe have been working together to halt the spread of Conficker, disrupt its communications and uncover who created the worm. Microsoft has even issued a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Conficker's authors. Despite the security sector's best efforts, very little is known about the origins of Conficker or its purpose. Nevertheless, some breakthroughs have been achieved. On March 30, Security experts with the Honeynet Project discovered a flaw in Conficker that makes it much easier to detect infection. IBM researcher Mark Yayson also believes he has discovered a way to "detect and interrupt the program's activities," according to The New York Times.

Since the Conficker worm was discovered in October 2008, the malware has only received programming updates from its author and worked to infect other computers. Conficker is believed to have infected 10 million computers worldwide mostly in Asia, Europe and South America. According to IBM, only 6 percent of North American computers have been infected.

While today may be a non-event, Conficker could be used to create harm in the future. Possiblities include a massive botnet, which would give Conficker's authors control over millions of computers worldwide. The botnet could then be used to attack corporate or government networks, commit identity theft, or deliver massive amounts of spam. Security experts warn that all Windows users must make sure their operating system and antivirus programs are up to date with the latest patches and virus protections. So far, Windows is the only operating system known to be vulnerable to Conficker.

For more information on how to protect yourself consult PC World:

Conficker Set to Strike: Protect Yourself with These Tips and Tools

Protecting Against the Rampant Conficker Worm

Conficker Worm Attack Getting Worse: Here's How to Protect Yourself

See more like this:

MRM – City of Ember

2009-03-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Gil Kenan

Written by: Jean Duprau (book), Caroline Thompson

Starring cast: Harry Treadway (Doon Harrow), Saoirse Ronan (Lina Mayfleet)

Supporting Cast: Bill Murray (Mayor Cole), B J Hogg (Mayor’s Guard), Tim Robbins (Loris Harrow)

What’s it rated?: PG for some action-suspense (and one mild sexual reference)

Genre: Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi

Synopsis: When mankind is about to come to an end, a group of scientists decide to create and populate a city deep underground. The city of Ember is to last for 200 years after which its inhabitants are to retrieve from a strong box instructions to return to the surface. Over time however, the message is lost and life in Ember is rapidly deteriorating. Their power supply is failing and food is being rationed. It's left to two young adults to unearth the secret of Ember and to lead the way out.

My take: While the acting, CG, and scenimatography are pretty good in Ember, It’s story is rather lame and dull. There are several “rabbit trails” that you think are going to lead to a climax… but don’t. And this isn’t just a one-time thing, this happens again and again. I think the director and writers didn’t really iron out this story enough.

There are several messages communicated in this movie that aren’t excactly what I’d agree with; first of all is the simple, depressing, pessimism that is all too prevalent. Sure there is a bit of a resolution at the end, but the overwhelming message is that it’s too late, there’s no hope, so don’t try to fix anything. However this isn’t all bad, because the protagonists, Lina and Doon, actually try to find a solution to the problem despite ridicule from others. The next message I almost didn’t pick up, and I probably wouldn’t have without the help of pluggedinonline.com. It is this: the people living in the city of Ember seem to have no particular religious view, but I beg to differ. Apperently there is a quasi-religious celebration called the “Great day of singing”, where all the people of Ember gather to sing about the greatness of their massive generator. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a religion to me and even though it’s not compared to Christianity, it’s depicts the religious leaders as fools and generally makes fun of all religion.

In conclusion, I’ll say again that the technical side of City of Ember was done pretty well, but the artistic element was somewhat lacking. That along with the subliminal messages sent through this movie make it not what I’d call a great film.

Story: 5 out of 10

Humor: Not really applicable, but for what there is: 6.5 out of 10

Suspense/Action: 6 out of 10

Overall: 4.5 out of 10

San Antonio

2009-03-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Understandably, I haven't made many posts in the last week or so because I've been in sunny mid Texas for a business conference. But I've got a few free moments now so I've posted a slidshow of all our pictures so far. I'll put the rest up later after we visit the Alamo etc.

-Graydon L

MRM – An Inconvenient Truth

2009-03-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Davis Guggenheim

Starring Cast: Al Gore

What’s it Rated?: PG for some thematic elements

Genre: Documentary, Environmental

Synopsis: A culmination of environmental messages is presented here as Al Gore gives a lecture to a live audience.

My Take: All I can say is “Is that the best you can do?”. I had always thought that An Inconvenient Truth was one of those films that if you can’t refute every argument, you will not be able to stop yourself from becoming an avid environmentalist. Nothing could be farther from the truth… inconvenient or not. With my limited knowledge on the subject of “Global Warming”, I was surprised at how easily it was to get through the statistics and charts that are presented in this film. Not only this, but Gore has to resort to intimidation just to get his point across, saying “Not one major scientist challenges this [Global Warming] belief”. I think this is a really cheap argument and a rather moot point seeing as how it’s not true at all. His statement is based on how out of more than 900 articles about Global Warming, not one was against it. Just 900+ articles; He never says who wrote the articles or which publication released them!

The outline is pretty good, I guess. Typical documentary style, partly narrated by Gore, part actual footage of Gore talking to a live audience. But one mistake I think they made was the use of cheesy, childish, “Simpsons” style animation sequences to explain certain concepts that were already explained. The animations did nothing more than throw me out of the film and make me feel really stupid.

Lastly I’d say, It’s easy to lie with statistics, and Gore has perfected this art beautifully.

Story: 6 out of 10

Humor: 6 out of 10

Suspense: 4 out 10 (10 out of 10 if you believe that GW is real)

Overall: 4 out of 10

-Graydon

Blogging

2009-03-22T17:44:00.001-07:00

I came across this poster on the internet the other day, I think it should be offended, but It’s still funny :-)

www.despair.com

More Coolness, and My Upcoming Trip to San Antonio

2009-03-18T20:50:00.001-07:00

As the title suggests, I and my family are traveling to San Antonio in a week for a business conference put on my Family EBiz’s Steve Beck. However, this presented a couple of problems to us because we have no good laptops that would be able to compute at the high level needed at this conference. Sooooo… drum roll… we bought a new laptop! It’s main purpose will be to be my mom’s new computer (this is so she can sit on the couch for her computing, which will be easier on her neck) and also so that Jonny can have mom’s old desktop to replace his, which is suffering from a terminal illness ;-)

This puts our total “Computers in the house” total up to 7. 11 if you count our PDAs and GPS unit.

The an extremely high rated Toshiba Satellite Pro with Intel’s forefront mobile processor, very good speakers, large display, great hard drive and, RAM upgradable to 4GB. I don’t have any pictures now, and Mom’s camera SD card is full of pictures already so there’s no room for more until she copies them over to her computer.

The biggest hurdle with this new computer for my mom is getting used to Vista. After using XP since it came out, and still not fully understanding it, Mom’s going to have a massive learning curve :-)

Another aspect of our trip is going to be pleasure as well actually. We’ve got a day before the conference to goof off, and also three days after for sight-seeing on the River walk and also visiting the Alamo again. I’ve actually been to San A before for another conference also put on by Steve Beck a few years ago. We walked along the river and saw the Alamo then too.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to heading out on Wednesday, don’t worry I’ve got an MRM in the bag for when I’m gone :-)

-Graydon

Am I a Homeschooler?

2009-03-17T14:25:00.001-07:00

OK, now it’s official: I am a sucker for these things.

You know how it works..... put "X's" in the boxes in things you've done copy and paste to your blog!

Growing up/now:
[ ] Own/have owned a denim jumper
[X] You were at least 13 when you got your first "trendy" haircut
[ ] Everything in your closet at some time was referred to as modest
[ ] You do/have tucked things in that shouldn't be tucked in
[ ] You have been a member of at least 3 co-ops
[X] You were a true 16 and never been kissed
[X] Your mom drives a van of some sort
[ ] You have at least one childhood picture where you, your mom, and all you siblings matched
[ ] At some point in your life you were more comfortable with adults than kids your own age
[X] Have studied ways to defend your beliefs, debate, and/or create laws
[ ] Used uber conservative ABeka curriculum

[X] You use big words that most adults could not use in conversation
[X] You can use the words sublime, epiphany, and cognicent correctly
[X] You have a favorite word.
[X] You have an understanding of Latin root words and how to use them
[X] People from the outside world are referred to as "public schoolers"
[ ]You or one of your siblings knits.
[X] You laugh at the decline in literacy in America
[X] You score constantly higher than "public schoolers" on standardized tests.
[X] You have no concept of cafeteria food
[X] Family vacations are/ can be referred to as "Field Trips"
[X] Traveling on said vacations have included stopping at historical site markers along the way
[X] You have never been in a public elementary school, middle school, or high school during regular school hours
[X] You have gone to or been involved in a homeschool convention
[X] You read books on a regular basis
[ ] You have taken part in a political protest
[ ] You were a Pride and Prejudice fan before the movie
[X] You were a Lord of the Rings fan prior to the movie
[X] You were a Chronicles of Narnia fan before the movie
[X] You speak a language other than English
[ ] You dream of dating characters from books instead of celebrities

Total so far: 20

It (has been) assumed that you:
[ ] Have won many spelling bees
[X] Have no social life
[ ] Have no friends of the opposite gender
[X] Are outstandingly smart
[ ] Are extremely inept
[ ] Only listen to classical music
[ ] Play piano or the violin
[X] Do not own a pair of trendy jeans.
[X] Have no knowledge of drugs or alcohol
[X] Don't date, only court.
[ ] Have never been to a "party"
[ ] Know no other beliefs other than what your family believes

Total so far: 25

You have been asked more than 10 times:
[X] If you wear pajamas to school
[X] If you get perfect grades because your mom grades you
[X] If your mom teaches you or if somebody else's mom does
[X] How do you meet people
[X] Why you aren't in school
[X] If you get days off whenever you want
[X] If you're going to be homeschooled through college
[X] If you have a big family
[X] What your parents are protecting you from
[ ] To quote something famous
[ ] For the answer, because supposedly homeschoolers always have all the answers

Total so far: 34

You have rebelled by:
[ ] Listening to "worldly music"
[ ] Wearing black fingernail polish
[ ] Wearing tight clothes or letting your midriff show
[ ] Watching a *gasp* PG-13 movie
[ ] Breaking dress code
[ ] Listening to music with a beat

Final Total: 34

1-10 You're not really a homeschooler...you just do school at home
11-21 You're a homeschooler, but not what the world expects
22-32 You're a homeschooler
33-60 You probably wouldn't have facebook to begin with...but congrats you're the stereotypical homeschooler

MRM – Spiderman 3

2009-03-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Written by: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi

Starring cast: Toby Maguire (Peter Parker/Spiderman)

Supporting cast: Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), James Franco (Harry Osborne/New Goblin), Thomas Haden Church (Flint Marco/Sandman), Topher Grace (Eddie Brock/Venom)

What’s it rated?: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence (I’d add sensual themes and language)

Genre: Action, Super Hero, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Romance

Synopsis: Spiderman’s image is just starting to clear up. People are finally seeing him as a hero and not a freak and Peter Parker is beginning to feel invincible. But soon the evil he has fought for so long is discovered in himself when a black oozing organism from another world attaches itself to his Spiderman suit.

My take: OK, here’s the thing, any time a director makes the main character say “You want forgiveness? get religion” and the bad guy ask God to kill somebody inside a Catholic church, I start asking questions. Am I the only one not OK with this? I know that Catholicism and Christianity are very different, but not everybody recognizes that.

Anyway, on with the rest of this… film. The story is OK, but not incredible. There are a lot of spots where you know what’s going to happen and guess what, it does! Surprise, surprise, surprise! Also, there a lot of “Nuke the fridge” moments. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a term taken from the recent Indiana Jones film when Indy climbs inside a lead-lined fridge to be protected from a nuclear test nearby. It’s a moment that is sooooooo unrealistic that it throws you out of the film entirely. Anytime that something happens in movie is incredibly ridiculous it’s now called a “Nuke the fridge” moment. So anyway, I can’t give away any spoilers here but be advised, Spiderman 3 houses a lot of these moments that get a little annoying.

Really the only thing Spiderman 3 has going for it is the humor and action, and the action isn’t that great either. Bad guy throws some punches, Spiderman falls down. Spiderman gets up, throws some punches, bad guy falls down. Bad guy gets up… etc., etc., etc. Toss in some acrobatics, spider webs, and exploding cars and hey, you’ve got a Spiderman action sequence!

The humor is great though, with the editor of the Bugle, JJ Jamison providing a lot of much needed comic relief with his grouchy attitude and quick temper.

One more thing though, the CG. The graphics were actually rather disappointing for a film released in ‘07. I mean, it’s not like Spiderman movies are known for great costumes or good CG, but they did a better job on Doc Oc’s mechanical arms in Spidey 2 than they did with Venom’s mouth in Spidey 3.

in conclusion, it’s an OK one-time see, I might watch the action sequences again just for the acrobatics, they’re cool… so are the exploding cars come to think of it :-)

Story: 5 out of 10

Humor: 7 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 7 out of 10

Overall: 6 out of 10

Obama to Wear Motion Capture Suit for Entire Presidency

2009-03-13T17:39:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON—In what is being hailed as a breakthrough in the field of historical record-keeping, the National Archives announced Monday that it would immediately begin outfitting Barack Obama's chest, limbs, and face with an array of motion capture sensors for use in preserving a 3-D account of his time as president.

"The presidency of Mr. Obama is truly a landmark event, and I can think of no better way to honor it than with this $2.5 billion advanced digital-imaging project," acting archivist Adrienne Thomas told reporters. "Not only will our sensors provide unprecedented moment-to-moment documentation of a sitting U.S. president, but they will also give the American people the breathtaking realism and seamless layer animation they have come to expect."

According to sources at the National Archives, Obama will spend the next four years in a custom-made, lycra-and-neoprene bodysuit, featuring 238 reflective "marker balls," which will instantly relay trillions of bytes of information to a central computer in Centennial, CO.

Designers at the motion capture firm Vicon Motion Systems will then use this information to build a lifelike 3-D wire-frame model of the nation's 44th president, before digitally "painting" over the structure with computer-generated skin, hair, and clothes.

The data will be stored on a hard drive at the National Archives, where curators will employ it as a complete record of Obama's tenure in office.

"Our 78-person team is committed to capturing each and every nuance of the Obama administration," Vicon CEO Douglas Reinke said. "Years from now, historians will be able to access high-quality images of what the former president might have looked like while he was, say, meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on April 3, 2009, or tying his shoelaces on the afternoon of June 3, 2011."

Added Reinke, "It's like actually watching the presidency unfold."

Reinke explained that Obama will be required to wear the motion capture device at all times during his presidency, barring a few minutes each day to shower and change into a fresh bodysuit. In addition, the president has been instructed to refrain from performing any activities that might cause the sensors to malfunction, such as running, breathing heavily, or letting his core temperature rise above 99.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sources at Vicon also confirmed that members of Obama's Secret Service detail will have to carry a large green-screen background behind the president at all times.

"We will extend our full cooperation to the people at Vicon in order to make this 3-D record a reality," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs rold reporters Monday. "Nothing is more important to us than preserving this moment in history at 120 frames per second, with perfect surface anatomy, and total texture definition."

Many scholars have also praised a feature of the motion capture technology that would allow future generations to digitally alter the president's wire-frame model by retroactively modifying clothing, facial features, skin tone, and even accessories.

"Imagine being able to see what it might have looked like had Obama been wearing a bow tie when he delivered his first State of the Union address," American historian Joseph Ellis said. "Or if he'd been sporting a luxurious mustache while sitting down with the prime minister of Japan. The possibilities for customization are endless."

Despite the unprecedented level of access the motion capture suit provides, a number of firms are pursuing additional technologies that might lead to even more precise records. Such proposals include a miniature camera that could be placed down Obama's throat to keep track of his exact food and drink intake, and a small microphone that could be inserted in the president's inner ear to pick up the sound of him humming or any low-level mumbling he might emit while in office.

"In a perfect world, we would like to have a record of every single physical detail of Obama's historic presidency, down to even the most minute anatomical processes," said Stephen Dunkin of Mycore Electronics, which is currently developing a device that will retrieve and store any dead skin that Obama may shed during the course of his presidency. "But unfortunately, we're just going to have to accept the fact that, with the technology we have now, certain details will simply be lost to the sands of time."

The president himself was unable to be reached for comment on the new technology because he and his staff were still busy trying to figure out a way for him to sit down.

Article by the Onion News

NOTE: The Onion News is an organization that is NOT always family-friendly. Some of their fictional news articles and videos are VERY inappropriate. I have to say who wrote this article because of copyright laws, but if I didn’t, I would not place a link here. Proceed with caution.

-Graydon

Global Warming, My Foot!

2009-03-12T10:17:00.001-07:00

This is a video I found on Yahoo today about some… interesting… recent news:

Thank you, Al Gore, you’ve successfully reversed global warming and now an ice age is on the way… smooth one pal. Did this reversal have anything to do with your gas-guzzling jet and your 20 room mansion?

Here’s another one that I searched on YouTube, the sound is a little off, but it’s still pretty good.

Cool, isn’t it? (no pun intended)

You can read the post, A Tale of Two Houses, that I made in July of last year here.

The World’s Tallest Building

2009-03-11T11:13:00.001-07:00

And I thought the Seattle Space Needle was tall! Take a look at the Burj Dubai.

Woah.

MRM – 12 Angry Men

2009-03-09T20:50:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Sydney Lumet

Written by: Reginald Rose

Starring cast: Henry Fonda (Juror #8 – Davis)

Supporting Cast: Martin Balsam (Juror #1), John Fiedler (Juror #2), Lee J. Cobb (Juror #3), E.G. Marshall (Juror #4), Jack Klugman (Juror #5), Ed Binns (Juror #6), Jack Warden (Juror #7), Joseph Sweeney (Juror #9), Ed Begley (Juror #10), George, Voskovec (Juror #11), Robert Webber (Juror #12)

What’s it rated?: Not Rated (I’d give it PG for some intense scenes, heavy subject matter and one swear word)

Genre: Drama, Courtroom Drama, Jury

Synopsis: It’s an open and shut case: an 18 year old boy is convicted of murdering his father, there is an eyewitness, another witness who heard everything, and the boys alibi doesn’t hold water. But the preliminary jury vote yields that one man isn’t so sure.

My Take: 12 Angry Men was a recommendation from Sam Y.

Have you ever watched films that were really void of everything? Have you ever watched a film and then felt it was a waste of your time? Well, 12 Angry Men isn’t one of those.

All I can say is that this is a great film. It’s relatively family-friendly, the plot is quite good (considering the limited possibilities of jury room dramas), there are some great lines, and an overall fantastic job filming. The writing was also very good; a writer not giving each character a name and yet still giving each his own personality and style of speech is fantastic. That was one of many things they did a great job on.

One thing you may notice if you see this film is how long of it was taken inside the confining 16x24 foot jury room. All but three minutes of the entire 1 hour 36 minute movie was taken inside that one room. Trivial, but still interesting :-)

Overall, and excellent film. Worth watching again and again… seriously. I watched it on Saturday and then on Sunday I watched it again with the rest of my family and I was almost surprised by the ending all over again.

Story: 8 out of 10

Humor: simple and refreshing, 6 out of 10

Suspense: 9 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

-Graydon

Will it Blend?

2009-03-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled upon these videos on YouTube while searching for slow motion vids. I think they’re pretty cool :-)

Apparently, this guy is the owner of a blender company that sells “industrial strength blenders” and he’s become a bit of a celebrity by blending “un-blendable” items on YouTube.

You can see more of his “Will it Blend” videos on the Blendtec YouTube Channel

Happy blending! Don’t breathe this :-D

-Graydon

The Ponzi Scheme

2009-03-06T18:38:00.001-08:00

This is a report I wrote yesterday for school about Charles Ponzi and his famous 1918 pyramid scheme and I thought y’all might like it. Enjoy!

The Idea

Named after Charles Ponzi's 1918 plan to sell International Reply Coupons on debt, Ponzi Schemes are basically a form of pyramid scheme, with the first investors being paid by the investment money from later investors. The so called Ponzi Scheme has been slightly altered or copied by many swindlers after the inventor's death in 1949. The most well known use of Ponzi's idea is that of the Social Security program put in place by the Franklin D Roosevelt administration in the 1930s. This system was supposed to help US citizens who did not have the means to support themselves; namely the elderly, the poor, widows, and fatherless children. This seemed like a good idea at the time because it was supposed to encourage the elderly to retire, creating openings for younger workers and then lowering unemployment as a whole. However, this did not work over a long period of time as soon the entire population had social security numbers and there were no longer any more “investors” to support the retirees.

The Original Ponzi

The idea for Charles Ponzi's first large scale scheme came to him when he received a letter from a company in Spain asking him about an advertising business that had failed just a few weeks before. Inside the envelope was an International Reply Coupon, which is basically to allow someone in one country to send a letter with an IRC to a correspondent in another country, who could use it to pay the postage of a reply. IRCs were priced at the cost of postage in the country of purchase, but could be exchanged for stamps to cover the cost of postage in the country where redeemed; if these values were different, there was a potential profit. In post-WWI Italy, the inflation was astronomical and IRCs could be purchased extremely cheaply then sold in America for a much higher price. This was merely a form of arbitrage; buying low an selling high, which is not illegal. Ponzi soon realized the potential of this idea, so he took out a loan and sent the money to relatives in Italy to purchase some of the coupons and send them back to him. However, when he went to sell the coupons, he ran into a mass of red tape. So to bypass this, he convinced investors in Boston to make an investment of $1,250 for a return of their money and an extra $750 within 90 days. He delivered as promised, and started the “Securities Exchange Company”. Huge profits rewarded him, and by January 1920, he brought in $5000 (approx. $54,000 in 2008 dollars). By march, that total was up to $30,000 ($328,000), then in June his numbers reached $420,000 ($4.59 million today), but the peak came in July when his total take was millions of dollars. People were mortgaging their homes to invest in this up and coming new company. By now, Ponzi was through with the stamps and just started taking in investments and giving out returns. This only worked because of the frenzy he had created; most people didn't take their profits, they just reinvested it... then told their friends to do so also.

First Suspicions

Naturally, his sudden wealth was not unscrutinized. A Boston financial writer did a little digging and wrote an article about Ponzi's scheme and how it could not possibly pay out full returns in such a short period of time. Ponzi sued for libel and won $500,000. It seemed at the time like Ponzi's golden empire would never crumble. But several popular papers sent investigative reporters to look into the Securities Exchange Company and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was also threatening to investigate the company's books. Ponzi was able to slightly divert their suspicion temporarily and he started to look for a way out of the scheme. But time ran out, and Ponzi's publicity agent, William McMasters went to the Boston Post with several incriminating documents saying Ponzi was $2 million in debt, almost 4.5 with interest factored in.

The Scheme's Downfall

After McMaster's article was published, a massive crowd raided Ponzi's office and he had to pay out $15 million. He had taken in over $20 million, but he had lost over $2 million gambling, and the rest wasn't there just from the nature of the scheme and from Ponzi's luxurious living.

Charles Ponzi was arrested by federal agents on August 12, 1920. That same day, auditors stated that he was over $3 million in debt. His investors were devastated, receiving less than 30 cents on the dollar.

Charged with 86 counts of mail fraud, Ponzi was sentenced for 5 years in a federal prison, but was released after 3 and a half years. He then had to face 22 Massachusetts state charges of larceny and was sentenced to 9 years in a state prison as a common and notorious thief.

Resources, images, quotes, as well as a further reading list about the Ponzi Scheme and also the rest of Charles Ponzi's life available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi

Bizkit, the Sleepwalking Dog

2009-03-04T18:15:00.001-08:00

Yet another funny animal video found on Yahoo!

LOL!!! :-D

MRM - Casablanca

2009-03-02T17:46:00.001-08:00

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Written by: Murray Burnett, Joan Alison

Starring Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund)

Supporting Cast: Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo), Claude Rains (Captain Renault)

What’s It Rated?: Rated PG for mild violence. (I’d add mushiness to that)

Genre: Romance, Adventure, War, Espionage

Synopsis: Rick Blaine is a saloon owner in Casablanca, a city in unoccupied French Morocco. His former love, Ilsa Lund, didn’t come with him to Casablanca when he left Paris the day before the Nazis marched in, and he is consumed by it. But when Ilsa shows up in Casablanca with her husband asking for Rick’s help to escape to America, It get’s worse and he is forced to make some hard decisions.

My Take: This review was on a recommendation from Sarah P.

Because Casablanca is more of a Romance than any other category, this film probably wont end up on my favorite movie list. However, I also like a good story, and Casablanca has that. The romantic elements aside, it’s a great film worth watching over and over; the characters are well developed, the supporting actors provide excellent high-class comic relief, and the plot twists and turns thrown in are all perfect touches.

But then, there’s the romance. If you like this genre of film I suppose you would enjoy Casablanca more than I would. As it stands I think it was over-done and annoying.

This may be a tad picky, but I’m not much of a Humphrey Bogart fan. He just looks too… Hollywood for my tastes. Plus he reminds me of John Travolta and the disco era :-P

Story: 8 out of 10

Humor: 8 out of 10

Suspense: 6 out of 10

Overall: 5 out of 10

Peter Schiff Was Right

2009-02-26T15:28:00.001-08:00

Just got this video off a Vodie Baucham Ministries blog post , you can read the original post here.

Anyway, on to the video. Watch Peter Schiff (who, by the way, was Ron Paul’s economic adviser) predict not only the recession, but the true cause, the timing, and the magnitude, way back in 2006 as so-called economic experts literally laughed at him.

Vodie Baucham puts it well, “I [can] barely keep my chin off the floor”. To be frank, I’m having trouble hanging on to my jaw as well ;-)

Whoa, whoa, whoa… wait a sec here… Back in ‘07 they said to buy Washington Mutual? Didn’t WAMU go down the tubes in late ‘08? Didn’t Peter Schiff say to stay away from finance companies? Didn’t Schiff say to buy gold shares? So where is the gold price now? I’ll tell you where the gold price is, it’s at almost $1000 per ounce!!!!

Go Peter Schiff! GO RON PAUL!!!!!

-Graydon

The largest Nuclear Weapon EVER!

2009-02-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

I’ve been somewhat interested (more than usual) lately in the sheer awesomeness (if that’s a word) of nuclear technology in general. I found this vid on Youtube just a few days ago I thought it was pretty cool.

This is a portion of a Discovery Channel documentary about the biggest nuclear bomb ever made. The biggest, baddest H bomb ever… De Tsaar.

If you’re wondering about the really cool colored video window and control bar, these are options that you can easily change when you embed the video from Youtube. That’s pretty cool too :-)

MRM – Searching For Bobby Fischer

2009-02-23T19:31:00.001-08:00

Directed By: Steven Zaillian

Written By: Fred Waitzkin (book), Steven Zaillian (screenplay)

Starring Cast: Max Pomeranc (Josh Waitzkin), Joe Montegna (Fred Waitzkin), Ben Kingsley (Bruce Pandolfini)

Supporting Cast: Joan Allen (Bonnie Waitzkin), Laurence Fishburne (Winnie)

What’s It Rated?: PG for some language and depiction of drug dealers and gamblers

Genre: Drama, Family

Synopsis: Josh Waitzkin is a chess genius who plays just to have fun. But soon he, and his dad start taking the game seriously and they hire a chess master to teach Josh to play like the famous Bobby Fischer. However, Josh begins to realize that as he gets better and the weight of the chess world begins to fall on his shoulders, he stops playing for fun and starts winning to please his dad. But his own invincibility proves a disadvantage when winning holds no thrill any more, and Josh loses several chess tournaments.

My Take: This film was a recommendation from Sam Y.

I just watched Searching for Bobby Fischer last night, and my reaction was a very favorable one. It’s a great film that everyone should see eventually.

The film style is fantastic, mixing footage of the real Bobby Fischer with the story of Josh Waitzkin, comparing his life to that of the all time chess great. This, along with Max Pomeranc’s narration, produce a very interesting and, in it’s own way, slightly humorous film.

The story is one of the best I’ve experienced in a long time, and although somewhat predictable, doesn’t leave you with that sour taste of a pre-canned story. This is the story of a real boy’s life, and it’s different and interesting enough to make an excellent script.

Well I’ve go to wrap things up, but I’ll just put in a small warning. In the film, Josh plays chess in New York’s central park, which is where many alcoholics and drug dealers also play chess. One scene depicts, gambling and even a short clip of a man handing another a plastic bag (drugs). If you are not OK with this sort of thing, you should either not watch this film, or skip that scene.

A wonderful film, and highly recommendable to (almost) everybody.

Story: 9 out of 10

Humor: the comic relief wasn’t like any other film I’ve ever seen. Not laugh-out-loud, but a sort of smile-on-the-inside-delightful-funny. 9 out of 10

Suspense/Tension: 7.5 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

6 Top-Secret Aircraft that are Mistaken for UFOs

2009-02-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a great article from Popular Mechanics Magazine about some military aircraft that have been the source for many, many UFO "sightings"

Click here to read the article.

-Graydon L

Hillarious Rowan Atkinson

2009-02-17T08:02:00.001-08:00

After watching Mr. Bean’s Holiday, I searched Rowan Atkinson on Youtube, here’s what I found.

Prepare to be giggled, he’s on an invisible drum kit.

btw, none of the stuff he’s doing would be possible on a first try on real drum kit. Trust me, I play the drums.

-Graydon

MRM – Mr. Bean’s Holiday

2009-02-16T18:44:00.001-08:00

Just finished watching, so my memory is still sharp :-)

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Directed By: Steve Bendelack

Written By: Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis

Starring Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean)

Supporting Cast: Max Baldry (Stepan), Emma De Caunes (Sabine)

What’s it Rated?: G (Although there are some suggestive actions, and some swearing in Russian, with written subtitles)

Genre: Family, Comedy

Synopsis: After winning an all expenses paid trip to southern France, the Idiotic Mr. Bean walks into problem after problem starting with a train ticket on a chicken’s foot and winding all the way to Italy and an all too inquisitive guard, with hilarious results

My Take: I’ve been a fan of Mr. Bean TV shows longer than almost everyone I know and I’ve gone through thick and thin with the good ol’ stupid scenarios and great facial expressions that make Bean so funny… but this was a tad of a disappointment.

While not being near as bad as the previous Mr. Bean film (as far as language and almost everything else you could mention) Mr. Bean’s Holiday is more silly and lazy than the TV show, which was characterized for funny situations and British humor, not slapstick and stupidity. The shows did have some slapstick in them, but it was not what defined them.

Mr. Bean isn’t necessarily known for great stories, but this one was a real stinker. It has that feel of having sat on a shelf for ages just waiting for a director gullible enough to attach his name to it, and Steve Bandelack was the one to fall for such a schmaltzy plot. It’s such a predictable outcome and resolution that the small comedic off-shoots were the only thing that kept me watching, and if you’ve never seen any Mr. Bean before, they aren’t much at all.

There are funny parts that are truly funny, and it’s not crude humor, which I must applaud the director for. It’s so satisfying to watch something funny and not have to be embarrassed by foul or suggestive language.

Overall, I sort of enjoyed Mr. Bean’s Holiday, It was a pretty good one-time see, But I’d only recommend it to someone who is a lifetime fan of Bean and can sit through the silly parts.

Story: 5 out of 10

Humor: (Kudos for almost no crude humor) 7 out of 10

Overall: 5.5 out of 10

The Colossal Cucumber

2009-02-13T17:36:00.001-08:00

As a few of you know, one of my all time favorite foods is the plain-old cucumber, cheese and mayonnaise sandwich. I’ve been called weird, a health nut, and crazy for this particular taste of mine, but I’ve always loved CCMs and I’m definitely not going to stop.

That being said, you can see why I have posted this video.

Now all they need is two 3 feet square slices of bread, a 15 pound slice of cheese and 6 gallons of mayo.

drool, drool, drool ;-)

-Graydon

Movie Quotes Quiz (With Hints)

2009-02-04T19:25:00.001-08:00

I’ve been tagged yet again, I guess I’m going to be labeled as sucker for this sort of thing now, but I guess I can’t resist.

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.

2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.

3. Post them here for everyone to guess.

4. When someone guesses correctly, write the name of the movie above the quote.

5. NO Googling, using IMDb search, or other search functions.

6. Tag 5 people.

See if you can guess who said the following quotes (the character, not the actor) and the movie in which they said it. Post as many answers as you can in a comment and I’ll put the answers next to the quotes. Enjoy!

Quote #1 - Ted Hanover: [Talking about peach preserves] “Boy! Do I go for those! Why they’re great on… on… [Pause] … or even plain!”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: The Sting

Quote #2 - “Doyle, I KNOW I gave him four THREES. He had to make a SWITCH. We can't let him get away with that.”

- “What was I supposed to do… call him for cheating better than me, in front of the others?”

Quote #3 - Joy Boy: “I ain't gonna marry her! An' y'know why? 'Cause my wife don't like it when I go around marryin' people! She's funny that way!”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: the Longest Day

Quote #4 - “This is history. We are living an historical moment. We are going to lose the war because our glorious Führer has taken a sleeping pill and is not to be awakened. Sometimes I wonder which side God is on.”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: Valkyrie

Quote #5 - “Long live sacred Germany!”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: Batman Begins (Honorable Mention to Melissa N for at least guessing the right Super-Hero)

Quote #6 - [Screaming] “Where are you?!?”

- [quiet] “Here.”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: Back to The Future part 1

Quote #7 - “Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain!”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: Lord of the Rings, Return of the King

Quote #8 - “No tomb for Denethor and Faramir. No long, slow sleep of death embalmed. We shall burn, like the heathen kings of old. Bring wood and oil.”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: Groundhog Day

Quote #9 - “If you gotta shoot, aim high. I don't wanna hit the groundhog.”

Guessed Correctly by David P: Hogan's Heroes (TV show)

Quote #10 - Sgt. Carter: [on telephone] “Hello? Oh, hi... I didn't mean to hang up on you before but you really do have the wrong number. This is a prisoner of war camp. Who am I? I'm a prisoner.”

Guessed Correctly by Isaiah H: Ocean's 13

Quote #11 - “You shook Sinatra's hand. You should know better.”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y, then Melissa N: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Quote #12 - Sen. Jefferson Smith: “Either I’m dead right or I’m crazy!”

Guessed Correctly by David P: Gods and Generals

Quote #13 - “I never thought I'd see the day when the President of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country. No, Mister Blair, I cannot... I will not lead it.”

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: Father Goose

Quote #14 - “So far you're shared me out of my clothes, my food and my house. Now, how about sharing some of my things with me.

Guessed Correctly by Sam Y: The Hunt for Red October

Quote #15 - “I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?”

- “I suppose”

- “No papers?”

- "No papers, state to state”

- “Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives.”

- “Oh, at least”

I Tag:

Jonathan L

Sam Y

David P

Matt B

Sarah P

The Coolest Rube Goldberg Machine EVER

2009-02-02T14:17:00.001-08:00

Rube Goldberg was a guy who invented the very time-consuming hobby of creating machines that took a lot of work to build and a lot of time to run but which only accomplished small tasks. Nowadays they’re known as Rube Goldberg Machines and they’re quite prevalent on YouTube.

Here’s one I just uprooted off the net, enjoy!

I don’t know about you, but I think somebody needs more chores every morning.

Comments on how they got the chess pieces to move will be gladly accepted :-)

-Graydon

P.S. I just got a Comment from Jonathan that said that the video didn't work for him, if you are having the same issue, please comment and tell me. Here's a link to the video on YouTube: Best Rube Goldberg Ever

Super Bowl XLIII

2009-02-01T21:59:00.001-08:00

Well, another Super Bowl has rolled by again and I’m still left wishing they didn’t play it on Sunday for obvious reasons. Anyway, I was rooting for the Arizona Cardinals mainly because I don’t like the Steelers. Call me a jerk for holding a grudge against Pittsburgh, but I just can’t quite let go of Super Bowl XL when the Steelers beat my Seattle Seahawks (especially when the Seahawks played waaaaay better)

Instead of relating to you the details of the game myself, I’ll leave that to the sports experts at Yahoo.com

Here’s the link: Yahoo! Sports page

btw, here’s a slide show of some favorite pics. Mostly exotic cars, multi-million dollar jets, and expensive military equipment… as you can see, I’m a guy of simple tastes ;-)

My ‘Vacation’

2009-01-31T11:25:00.001-08:00

While my Mom and Dad went on a Carnival Cruise down the Baja Peninsula, Jonny and I got to stay at Matt B’s house. We did some work around their house with Matt; picking up branches, cleaning up the basement, and even some dry walling and mudding. Also on Thursday we went to the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport. After the Museum we drove to Fort Flagler. It’s an old WWII base with several gun batteries. Now it’s a state park and a lot of fun to run around in!

Say hello to my first Picasa Web album. I’ve never been able to figure this out until now.

-Graydon

MRM – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

2009-01-19T14:55:00.001-08:00

I just got back from the theater, here’s my take on Madagascar 2:

MRM – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Directed by: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath

Written by: Etan Cohen

Starring cast: Ben Stiller (Alex the Lion), Chris Rock (Marty the Zebra, and other zebras), David Schwimmer (Melman the Giraffe), Jada Pinckett Smith (Gloria the Hippo)

Supporting cast: Sacha Baron Cohen (King Julian), Cedric the Entertainer (Mourice), Bernie Mac (Zuba), Alec Baldwin (Makunga)

What’s it rated?: PG for some mild crude humor ( I’d put it closer to PG-13 for gay and crude ‘humor’, sensual references)

Genre: Animated, Comedy

Synopsis: After taking off from Madagascar in a salvaged plane, Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria crash-land on mainland Africa and experience what life is like in the true wild.

My Take: I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing a definite trend in animated movies; more and more crude humor. I could put up with a little, but the blatant and disgusting ‘jokes’ in Madagascar 2 made me cringe. Sure, there are other funny gags that are fine, but I just cant get past what they put in something labeled as a ‘family film’.

The animation is great, as usual, but as I said before, the crude humor is a definite turn-off for me. I also noticed something that I’ve never particularly noticed before in animated films before (aside from the obvious Ice Age); verbalized evolutionism. At one point, the leader of the penguins yells at a monkey, calling him a ‘higher mammal’ while one of the other penguins drops a screwdriver because he doesn’t have thumbs and shouts “curse you, Darwin!”.

Overall, It’s your typical sequel, and I wouldn’t recommend this to any family I know.

Story: kinda usual and bland so I give it 5 out of 10

Humor: (the clean stuff) 8 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 6 out of 10

Overall: 4 out of 10

-Graydon :-)

More Adoration of our President Elect

2009-01-17T11:20:00.001-08:00

As you all may have heard already, President Elect Barack Obama’s Old Chrysler 300 series sedan is up for sale on eBay… for a million bucks “buy it now” and 22 bids placing it at $110,100.

Now a used car of this make and year aught to be selling for about 15 grand… and a new one would have sold for about 40 grand in the year it was made. But all of a sudden, when one man (who, I might add, isn’t really any different from anyone else) has owned that car for three years, it’s value is multiplied by more than 66 times!

This is the kind of thing that drives me crazy! People aren’t following Barack Obama because he’s a great guy, or because they like his stand on political issues, they’re following him because… because… Oh, gee, I don’t know why.

Sorry to any Barack Obama fans out there, but I’ve only met two people who liked Obama because of his political standpoints, and one of them liked Barack Obama for the same reasons I like Ron Paul; the Iraq war.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that this blind following of one man, “just because” is ludicrous and very, very dangerous.

If you want to watch a video about it on Yahoo, click here.

If you want to see the eBay Motors listing, click here.

Another Computer Update

2009-01-16T18:01:00.001-08:00

Today was another computer setup kind of day; I moved my computer’s tower below my desk so the “fall-off-the-desk-and-get-smashed” risk was reduced. I also attempted to set up a network so I could print stuff without actually buying a printer.

At first I thought that setting up a network would be pretty straightforward, a couple of boxes to check, a couple to un-check, a few areas of my computer to explore, you know, basic stuff.

boy was I wrong.

Getting our three computers “network compatible” was pretty easy, and of course, the file sharing features came with that. But had no idea how hard it is to set up a network printer when the computer with the printer has XP and the computer trying to use the printer has Vista!

My problem wasn’t with establishing the network, as I said, that was easy. Basically, my Vista computer wasn’t being allowed to install the drivers for the network printer, which was plugged into Jonny’s computer. Every time I went to install the driver for the printer I got an error message that said “Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied”. So, I did what everyone does when they have a computer problem… I hit the internet.

Several forums, help sites, and temper tantrums later, I finally figured out that I was doing the logical thing and telling the computer that I wanted to set up a network printer. Turns out, with the Vista/XP clash of systems, I needed to tell my computer that I wanted to set up local printer. Local meaning it’s plugged my computer… even though I don’t have a printer plugged into my computer.

If all this sounds really confusing, don’t feel bad, it is.

-Graydon :-)

PS I've gotten to know Windows Live Writer really well and I am really liking it. I highly recommend it. you can download it here.

My Acer Aspire AM3100!

2009-01-08T15:54:00.001-08:00

As I said in my earlier post, my new computer (which I have name Percy) arrived last night, and I gotta thank that UPS guy for braving the floods to get it here a whole day early!!!! I’m extremely happy with it, and Vista even it’s all that bad.

There actually a few things that are pretty cool about Vista. the side bar where you can display various gadgets it very cool, I’ve got mine set to display time/date etc., as well as a currency converter (set to the difference between the Canadian dollar and the American) and a Weather Bug local weather gadget. But my favorite gadget is the Notepad:

You can have multiple notes at once and they can be as long as you want! NO MORE STICKY TABS ALL OVER THE MONITER!!!! WHOOOHOOOOOOO!!! sorry, I just had to do that.

anyway, on with the pictures:

Here’s Percy parked right next to my (puny) Dell monitor and Acer mouse.

Acer really thought this one through, most people put their towers on the floor, so they put the USB 2.0 and headphone jacks on the top of the unit! Smart! I don’t have Percy on the floor right now, but that’s just because I’m using a camp table as a desk until I can find one on Craigslist for cheap, even even then, the ports on top are kinda handy.

Another look at my camp table festooned with $700 plus worth of equipment :-)

I’ve been on the computer practically all day now, transferring over files, downloading my favorite software, uninstalling all the junk programs Percy came with, and figuring out how Vista works. I found this AWSOME program that Windows has out called Windows Live Writer. It’s like a word processing program, but it’s liked to your blog! you can do waaaaay more stuff with your posts that Blogger lets you do, and it doesn’t have weird layout errors either. Bonus: a real spell/grammar checker!!!!! you can download it here.

Well that’s all for now, I have some more school work to get to, see y’all on Sunday!

My New Computer Is Here!!!

2009-01-07T22:17:00.001-08:00

After a long period of waiting, it's finaly here! I've scraped and scratched and I pulled up enought money to buy my own computer and it's finally here. I'll be transfering over all my files from my old computer tommorrow as well as posting pictures!

Unfortunately it came with Windows Vista, so I'll have a bit of a learning curve :-P

-Graydon L

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

Well it's been an... interesting year between the election, the attacks in Mumbai, and various insulting SNL skits, there's been a lot of crazy news out there.

At least I have a real reason to look forward to '09; my new computer! UPS says it's going to be here on the 8th of January. I can barely wait!

Naturally we stayed up till midnight last night. We watched some movies, had some sparkly apple juice, and then... my favorite part... I finally got to go to bed. I've been hitting the sack at past midnight a lot recently so I was looking forward to getting some real rest. Unfortunately, most firecracker wielding party animals don't hold the same priorities I do ;-)

Anyway, enough spouting from my grouchy-early-morning-self, I have some school work to get to.

Happy new year!

-Graydon L

My Christmas!

2008-12-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

We had my older brother and sister down for Christmas last week, and we had a great time. We had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of waffles and dozens of toppings, followed by present opening!

I got some clothes (which I desperately needed), a lot of chocolate in my stocking, some G.A. Henty books on MP3, $260 which (along with $40 of my own) I just used to purchase a refurbished $500-$600 (depending on where you buy it new) desktop computer, I also got another Ron Paul T-shirt, and a collectible Ron Paul coin!

But of course, the best part isn't the getting, it's the giving:

"What is it, Gampa?" :-)

I think Ryan liked the "Special Premiere Edition" of Dialtone I got him! I also got him an iTunes gift card because I was able to pick up Dialtone so cheap!

Abby in her special Christmas Dress!

"Look at the camera, Caden!"

Abby with her hand-made matching hat, scarf, and mittens. Is that not the CUTEST pose!?!?!

Well, that's all for now. I was really disappointed we didn't take more pictures, but unfortunately, we let Abby take to many pictures and we didn't many good ones! :-P

-Graydon L

Ninja-Cat!

2008-12-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

There have been a lot of viral video hits featuring cats... but I think you'll agree that this one takes the cake.

Watch out for the super sneaky Ninja-Cat!!!

:-D

-Graydon L

The Snow Architects

2008-12-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

We got about 7-8 inches of snow this week so Jonny and I decided to get out there and make some snow sculptures.

I've always been annoyed at how unimaginative people can be when playing in the snow; regular old snowmen and their families, regular old snow forts, regular old snowball fights... well Jonny and I go for the more interesting creations:

Like a SnowThrone! I made this one by myself out of our patented SnowBricks (TM, R, C). It's about 6 1/2 feet tall!

In case you're wondering, a SnowBrick is when you take a crate/box/hollow rectangle thingy, fill it with snow, pack the snow down hard, then flip the crate over and and lift it off the snow inside. What you're left with is a rock-hard rectangular piece of compacted snow!

And... A SnowStairs (also made of SnowBricks)! Up one side of the fence...

... and down the other!

Here's a video of me climbing/decending the stairs:

I'm wearing sandals because I didn't want to go through all the trouble of putting on my boots.

Well, that's all for now. I hope this has given you plenty of ideas for your own snow creations, if not I suggest you read some Calvin and Hobbes comics :-)

-Graydon L

A Very Strange... Um... Thing

2008-12-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

Watch this crazy video and then try and think of what this black "formation" really is.

A strange cloud formation? A storm brewing? Aliens?!?!?

Nope... birds. Starlings to be specific.

Didn't I tell you it was crazy :-)

-Graydon L

Movie Review... Wednesday - Valkyrie

2008-12-17T22:26:00.000-08:00

OK, so I'm a cheap, no-good schmuck that watches movies a week before they open to the public and then gloats about to all of y'all...

... And boy am I happy that I am :-)

Valkyrie (2008)

Directed by: Bryan Singer

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie, Nathan Alexander

Starring Cast: Tom Cruise (Colonel Clause von Stauffenberg)

Supporting Cast: Keneth Branagh (Major-General Henning von Tresckow), Bill Nighy (General Friedrick Olbricht), Tom Wilkinson (General Friedrick Fromm), Carice van Houten (Nina von Stauffenberg), Jamie Parker (Lieutenant Werner von Haeften)

What's it Rated?: PG-13 for violence and brief strong language

Genre: Drama, Historic, War

Synopsis: Colonel Clause von Stauffenberg is just back in Berlin from North Africa where he was wounded by an attack on his panzer division by British Spitfires, and he is intent on killing Hitler and ending the war through a new government and negotiations with the Allies.

My Take: Na-na-na-na-na, sorry... I just had to do that. I just got back from my press-and-invited-guests-only screening of the acclaimed film Valkyrie, and you know what, I reeeeeally want to see it again. Being fascinated with history in general (and also that man fails to learn from it), I really enjoy a good drama-oriented "thriller", if you will, about WWII... and Valkyrie delivers.

The story is excellent and well explained, operation Walküre (AKA, operation Valkyrie, designed to protect Hitler's Germany if he were to be assassinated) is well outlined and stated clearly that the Resistance is going to use Hitler's own protection-plan against him. Unlike similar "coup oriented" films like the Ocean's 11 films, Valkyrie is relatively easy to follow, and it all lends to this films excellent plot.

Naturally, a caveat must be thrown in here: brief strong language and scenes depicting executions by hanging and firing squad as well as suicide make this otherwise non-gory film possibly very disturbing.

In conclusion, I'd like to give a round of applause to director Bryan Singer. He's crafted not only a fantastic drama, but an almost tear-jerking, inspirational tribute the men that risked not only their own lives but everything they owned and loved to attempt to bring down a terrible regime and reestablish their beloved Deuschland to it's true, unperverted glory.

Story: Based on a true story, and I gotta say, truth is better than fiction. 9 out of 10

Humor (more like comic relief): 8 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 9 out of 10

Overall: 8 out of 10

-Graydon L

MRM - Dialtone

2008-12-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

The premiere has come and gone and I gotta say, It was better than I ever hoped. I know most of you have already seen Dialtone, but if you haven't found some way of seeing it, it's totally worth it!

Here is the Dialtone website: www.dialtonemovie.com

Dialtone

Written by: Brian Lohr

Directed by: Brian Lohr

Starring Cast: Brian Lohr (Greg Pleasant)

Supporting Cast: Craig Munson (the mysterious client), Natalie Lohr (Abagail Pleasant)

What's it rated?: Not Rated (I give it a General Audiences rating)

Genre: Drama, Independent Christian Film

Synopsis: A mysterious phone. A missing lawyer. An abandoned warehouse. They all help tell a story about Greg Pleasant, a Seattle lawyer who's held back from leading the dynamic life Christ wants him to live because he fears man's opinion of him more than God's. After Greg loses the control he believes he has over his life, an odd client tells him about an old phone that calls back into the past. When faced with the ultimate wake up call, how will he answer? How will you?

My Take: I've been following the production of Dialtone for over a year now, pulling in every scrap of information I could find, trying to get a glimpse of what Dialtone would be like. Now that I've attended the official Premiere and seen this fantastic film for myself, I have to say it's better than I ever dreamed.

Naturally, it's not perfect, almost every independent film isn't, but it's definitely the direction film should be going to reclaim the culture for Christ.

I'd say the story was pretty good, perhaps a little vague in places, but it's not especially hard to follow. There are a lot of movies that you have to watch several times just to understand why some character did something, I'd say Dialtone was pretty free of this.

As I said before, It's a great film, I totally enjoyed watching it, and I recommend it to everyone.

Story: 7 out of 10

Humor: N/A

Drama/Suspense: 7.5 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10

-Graydon L

Scientists Discover New Element!

2008-12-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

A guy who works in my dad's office sent him this and then Dad forwarded it to me. I think you'll find it quite humorous :-)

Administratium:

A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the
heaviest element yet known to science. This new element has been tentatively
named "Administratium." Administratium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons,
75 deputy neutrons, and 111 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic
mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are
surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since
Administratium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as
it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount
of Administratium causes one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when
it would normally take less than a second.
Administratium has a normal half-life of 3 years; it does not decay but
instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant
neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Administratium's
mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization causes some
morons to become neutrons, forming iso-dopes.
This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate
that Administratium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in
concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical
Stupidity." You will know it when you see it.

-Graydon L

My Crazy 16th!

2008-12-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday was my 16th birthday, and I must say, I was not a little surprised at what happened.

How can this be? Well my day started off normal enough with the usual early-morning "happy birthdays", and soon I came to realize that my family was planning nothing particularly special for my birthday. I thought to myself, "well I guess that's OK, I wasn't really wanting do anything fancy anyway"... but all that was about to change.

Shortly after leaving our weekly Toastmaster's meeting, I was grabbed, blindfolded and stuffed into the trunk of our car (actually, I got to sit in the front seat, but it sounds cooler this way) and carried off to an unknown location.

Soon I was rewarded with the sound and feel of gravel crunching beneath the car tires. "Ah", I thought to myself, "we're going to someones house", but I could not think of who I knew that had a gravel driveway.

I was guided out of the car up to a set of wood steps, with a small hand (who's owner was giggling unceasingly) grasping mine...

...I heard a door open...

...the blindfold came off...

A chorus of "Happy Birthday"s greeted me! Turns out that the day before Jonny had spent all his time making phone calls arranging a surprise airsoft birthday party for me at the Ng's house!

We spent the rest of the day playing airsoft, eating pizza, playing board games, and wishing that the Pollocks could have made it (We missed you guys!!!)

Well, enough talk. Pictures!

Yeah, Thanks for the gesture, guys ;-)

Amanda saying "happy birthday"

Josh even made a cake! Thanks buddy!

I had a great time and I'm very gratefully to have a group of friends (and a brother) that would go through all this trouble for a guy like me.

Thanks Guys!

(by the way, that little giggly hand turned out to be Hope :-)

-Graydon L

P.S. Thanks Ng's for opening up your home for us rowdy, trigger happy, crazed airsofters!

P.P.S. My brother, Ryan bought me a Ron Paul T-Shirt (which I will be wearing on Friday night.), My dad bought me The Dark Night on Blu-Ray ("ha ha ha ha ha! You're just a freak... like me!!"), and I got a bunch of money from other family members to go towards the computer I'm planning to buy.

The #1 Way To Get Soaked

2008-12-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another video I found on Yahoo.com, These people are either big-time idiots, or they did this on purpose to get attention. If their goal was the latter, they succeeded.

A hose at a car wash gets loose and goes nuts:

I would also like to formally welcome Christian R to the "Blogging Loop"! His blog is titled "A Christian View" and you can visit it here.

You can also find a link in my Blogroll.

Lastly, I'd like to ask forgiveness ahead of time for infrequent posting, I've got an insanely busy weekend/week-after coming up, and I'll probably not be able to post in the next week or so.

Thanks!

-Graydon L

Them's Fightin' Words!

2008-12-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

"I prefer fifty thousand rifles to fifty thousand votes."

-Benito Mussolini

"Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained."

-the Duke of Wellington

"It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience."

-Julius Ceasar

"I want you to remember that no *bleep* ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb *bleep* die for his country."

-Gen. George S. Patton

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"

-Mao Zedong

"In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is an eyelash."

-Gen. Douglas MacArthur

"Do not forget your big guns, the most respected arguments of the right of kings."

-Frederick the Great

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

-Herman Goering

"They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29 to 1. They can't get away from us now!"

-Gen. Chesty Puller

Merry Tossmas!

2008-12-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays? Season's Greatings? Merry X-Mas!?!?!

I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of not hearing "Merry Christmas"

I think this guy is on the right track.

-Graydon L