A New Original Vid! at 9:38 PM

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

New template! (and other things) at 11:49 AM

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

So This is what he does in his spare time... at 9:53 AM

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

An Unimportant Post (You Don't Have To Read It) at 10:03 AM

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

The #1 Way To Get Soaked at 7:16 PM

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

Quick Update on Things at 5:47 PM

I've made a couple changes to my blog recently, and I thought I would alert y'all to the situation.

First off, the playlist. If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of the country music genre now (Thank you Melissa and David!!) and I've been adding new music to my playlist like crazy in the last two weeks. I've put up so many songs that I can't remember where I put certain songs. This has prompted me to place them in alphabetical order for your (and mine) listening convenience. However there are some exceptions; the Pirates of the Caribbean music is still at the bottom because I figured that nobody would remember the names of those songs and the alphabetization would be more of a hassle than a help.

There's also a new poll concerning my playlist. Check it out!  ------------->

(You can select multiple answers)

Second, I have added a brand new widget to the sidebar called "The 5 Most Recent Comments". This widget compiles the 5 most recent comments so that you can see where the conversation is going on the most. It lists the person's name (who left the comment), the post they commented on, and a small snippet of what they said.

And finally, I have changed my profile image. While the F-22 Raptor is an absolutely wicked looking airplane, I found a picture of me in my bright construction jacket next to the campfire at the PBC church campout and I had to use it. I know I've had a lot of profile images, but I'll probably stick with this one for a while.

Thanks, and I hope y'all enjoy the changes! (If you don't, just leave a comment.)

-Graydon L

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

Graydon L

The Impossible Quiz at 2:37 PM

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


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



-Graydon L

My Quiz Results! at 1:58 PM

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

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

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

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

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

Correct answer: Mackenzie, BC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Name:                      Score:

David P                      28

Jonathan L                27

Susan P                      25

Janet L                       22

Sarah P                      20

Jonathan P                17

Sam Y                          11

Melissa N                   10

Thanks for completing my quiz! :-)

-Graydon L

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

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

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

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

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

#navbar-iframe {

height:30px;

visibility:show;

display:yes

}

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

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

That's It!

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

-Graydon L

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

of Blogs and Backgrounds at 4:06 PM

Recently all of my friends have been getting backgrounds from www.thecutestblogontheblock.com (with the exception of a few). I have done this as well and I have a little technical wisdom to offer on the subject.

Basically, I liked my background, but I didn't like the little blue box in the upper left hand corner. So, I checked out the HTML source code and it's actually pretty easy to remove.

Alrighty, when you copy the source code from www.thecutestblogontheblock.com, you get something like this:

So here's what you do; just remove everything that's inside this red rectangle that I've added to this picture:

once it's done, your code should look like this:

Just save the gadget it's in and you're in business!

Hope this was helpful! :-)

-Graydon L

What do YOU want changed? at 10:30 PM

OK, I know I haven't posted in a while, but I ask that you please forgive me, I was just recently at the Christian Heritage Father-Son retreat and naturally, I wasn't able to bring my desktop computer with me, nor any of my other accessories that go with it (yup, the speakers, sub woofer, ergonomic keyboard, laser mouse, printer, modem, router, Kleenex box, and all my many desk plants all had to stay)

Anyway, lets get back on track here. Basically, My blog feels boring... downright boring.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting more than a little annoyed looking at that dumb profile picture every time I log in.

Over the next little while, I want to hear EVERYTHING you have to say about my blog... no really!

I want to tell me what you ABSOLUTELY HATE about this little corner of the Internet!

You think the sidebar is cluttered... TELL ME! You think I'm a dork... TELL ME! (well, Melissa doesn't need to, she tells me that all the time anyway) You think I use bold, italics ,colors and sizing too much... TELL ME!

If you are thinking anything about this blog, I want to hear it!

You can email me, talk to me in person, or better yet, comment so that everyone can see your input! Go to it, lets hear some noise!!!!!

Also, on a side note, you may notice that there is a new sidebar element I just put up called My Followers. This is a simple yet fun little tracker that allows people to say which blogs they read. You don't have to run a blog to participate, all you need is a blogger account. Just log in to your dashboard and you can add blogs you read by URL. It's that easy! If the owners of the blogs you follow put up this element, your name and profile image appears there! Of course, you can choose to be anonymous in this, but I don't see why you would.

Thanks for your participation! LET'S HEAR IT!!!!!!

-Graydon L

The Door to my Room at 6:01 PM

Every once in a while, I make a new sign for the door to my room, this is my latest concoction :-)

hope you can read it :-I

Also, I would like to direct your attention to the sidebar of the blog, there are two new elements I would like you to view; the NASA Picture of the Day, and a new poll right below it. I have allowed you to select multiple answers simply because it's almost imposible to select one as the best of all of the answers I could think up :-)

-Graydon L

Just a little blog Admin at 5:15 PM

OK, so just recently I got some comments on my last post, "My Amazing Blog Readership", and of course, as is my custom, I was going to post a comment to answer the questions in the already posted comments. Well, I had already written my comment and I clicked the "publish comment" button... and it didn't work. So I saved what I had written in my last comment and added it to the comment I was writing ( I thought that maybe you can't post two comments in a row) and I hit the publish button... and nothing happened. So now I've pretty well given up on publishing a comment, and I'm going to put my answers on this post.

this is an answer to the two comment by Melissa and Sarah on the post "My Amazing Blog Readership"

Melissa - I guess the search engines like me because I talk about a semi-wide range of subjects, and search engines also treat each post as a separate web page. The more posts, the more chance of being found in various searches.

Sarah- It is a lot of fun! I get quite a kick out of checking out what countries have seen my blog!

__________________________________________________

As you may have noticed, as well, there is a new sidebar element on my blog labeled "Free Software I Recommend". This list included the name of the software and a snippet of what it does as well as it's upgradeability. All of the softwares listed are free, downloadable programs available on the Internet.

Check it out!

-Graydon :-)

Stay tuned, there's a "My Trip to Northwest Trek" post in the works!

My Amazing Blog Readership at 1:08 PM

A while back, Sarah asked me if I was using an analytics web site to see who came to my blog and when, as well as what country they're from, what web page they came from, that sort of thing. I answered "yeah, but I'm not really using it right now". She then recommended Google Analytics.

When I got back home, I was just about to get rid of my current Analytics System and switch to Google, when I thought, "why not take one last look at StatCounter (what I was using at the time) just to sort of, say goodbye".

It took me a couple tries to remember my password, but when I logged in, I was amazed. This is what I saw:

(These pictures were taken using Wisdom-Soft's ScreenHunter program. Available for free download here.)

7 returning visitors? wooooohoooooo!!!!!

Just look at this map!!! just look at it!!!!!

I don't recognize half of those flags! (Oh, yeah. This is funny; I've had more people from Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands, than I have had from Canada!!! :-D )

StatCounter.com

Wisdom-Soft.com

Well, That's my amazing blog readership. I highly recommend ScreenHunter, it's a very powerful program, and I thing Wisdom-Soft even has some motion-capture software as well. Check 'em out!

-Graydon L

Want to rate my posts? Now you can! at 8:02 PM

I just found this new thing on Blogger in Draft that I'm really quite excited about. It's called the Star Rating System, and you can see it at the bottom of every post I've ever written. Basically, you just click on the number of stars (out of 5) you think the particular post should get, and the blog automatically saves your entry. Although you can only rate a certain post once, you can always go back and change your "vote" to something different. Check it out, now you can leave feedback, without having to write an entire comment. Enjoy!

-Graydon L

Behold! the new face of GL's Highlights! at 6:07 PM

It's sleeker, It's faster, It's the new face of GL's Highlights!!!!

As per popular request, "the cost of the war in Iraq" and "Post Labels" have been deleted, and also the sidebar elements have been shuffled around a tad. In addition, I have smashed the usual title format of "Highlight #---" and replaced it with a more usual format... whatever I think the title aughta' be :-) And, although it isn't a bit deal, gotten rid of the usual starter phrase of "Hey Y'all!" in my posts. It kinda got in the way sometimes and got rather cheesy over time. But improvements aside, It's still the same old cool place it always was... sort of. Of course, this doesn't mean I won't take any more survey entries, I would love some more, and I need some more, but I've recieved enough info to make the changes I've already made.

And now on something completely different: I've run it by Sam, I've designed and sketched the first issue, and I'm almost ready for production. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the newest graphic novel venture by Tree Top Publishing;

The Hank O'Grady Files: Hunt for GL

Story by Sam Y, everything else by Graydon L

COMING SOON!!!

Highlight #142 at 4:44 PM

Hey y'all, I just got some survey entries yesterday, I'd like some more before I make any serious changes.

As recommended, I've changed "This day in History" to an automatic feed system. I've only seen today's entries so I'm not sure whether I'll keep it or not, but I'm willing to give it a try. If I find that the news in the timeline is in any way inappropriate, I'll see if I can find a better one to put on.

also, I've discovered a glitch in the GOOSE system, the check box questions are not working properly and when I receive entries, the answers to those questions are hidden from me. Fortunately, I've been doing OK without them and I've been somewhat able to decipher what the answers were. But until I can get the bug fixed entirely, I have replaced the check boxes with single-line text fields. In those text fields (the ones asking what your 3 favorite and least favorite sidebar elements are) please confine your answers to the following:

Cost of the War in Iraq
Post Labels
My friends Blogs
Past Movie Reviews
Pandora Radio
This day in History
My Shelfari Book Shelf

here's the fixed survey, the glitchy one has been deleted from Highlight #141.

First Name: E-mail Address: * Since the last survey, Has the content of my blog gotten better? Its waaaaaay better!!!!! Its a little bit better Its about the same Its kinda gone downhill Its going downhill... at 100 MPH!!!! What can I do to make the content better still? Do you think the Sidebar of my blog has too many elements? Dude, It makes my room look clean Well, yeah Its about where it aughta be You could expand it a tad Dude, you could add a ton of stuff to it! Do have any ideas as to what I could do to make you like the sidebar more? If I could only keep 3 sidebar elements, what would you want me to keep? (please confine your answers to the elements listed above) If I had to get rid of 3 elements, what would you want them to be? (please confine your answers to the elements listed above) Explain your answers to the above two questions: In the last survey, a lot of people said that their least favorite sidebar element was Post Labels. If you were one of them, please explain your answer. Do you like Pomegranates? Sure do! those little black seeds are the best part! Sorta Whats a Pomegranate? If you ran my blog what would you do to make it better? How high would you rate my blog (out of 10) 10987654321 If I could do one thing to my blog to make you happy with it, what would it be? If I did that one thing, how high would you rate it then? 10987654321 Do you like the basic Post Title format: Highlight #--- ? I have been recently toying with the idea of getting rid of this custom. What do you think? Do you appreciate these surveys, or do you think that theyre just a waste of time? theyre great! I love giving feedback to you! I guess theyre pretty helpful Theyre OK I only do em because I have nothing better to do. I hate em so much, I print them and then burn the print. * Required Powered by myContactForm.com

-Graydon L

Highlight #141 at 6:22 PM

Hey y'all, you're in for a long post so stay with me now. We went to Five Mile Lake yesterday, it's only a few miles away, almost walking distance. It was sunny, warm, and we had nothing else to do, so Jonny and I packed up some garden implements and are large collection of Army guys, and we set out to make the coolest diorama ever to be populated by little plastic guys with guns.

Despite the fact that most of our army guys have modern guns and equipment, we set up a diorama I call "a section from the beaches at Normandy". Maybe it isn't very historically accurate, but hey, we were just having fun. check out these pictures:

Here's your basic overview from the front.

A more in depth look at the defenders.

take a peek from the attackers point of view!

In the trenches at night... well not really at night, but I sort of looks like it.

Of course, every defencive base must have a motor pool. you can also see the back of the forward hill.

Our downed helicopter.

Enter at the Gate.

See what it's like from the back!

The forward Hill.

The rear hill. This hill is used for observation and targeting.

The authors of this amazing creation.

The forward hill, complete with bunkers.

A threesome of Snipers sneaking up and shuffling along in the sand.

Fire in the hole!!!!

Of course, you can't see the full glory of our amazing creation just through pictures, but still you get the idea. Hope ya' like my pictures!

And now, just as I promised, the Great, Overexaminary On-blog Survey/Exam (or GOOSE for short)

I'll take all the entries I can get my hands on!

~Note~ the survey has been deleted from this post as various glitches have been discovered in it. the errorless version can be found on Highlight #142.

-Graydon L

Highlight #134 at 6:19 PM

Hey y'all, Yes, the news is in. Barack Obama has just won the Democratic Nomination, sort of. Hillary Clinton has already resigned although an official declaration is yet to be received.

I see two (well, there's a few more, but I these two are the big ones) issues with this:

1. John McCain, as much as I don't like him, is the only "good" choice in this election, and now he faces a more unified Democratic party. To make this even worse, Obama and Clinton are having discussions, perhaps Clinton as Obama's Running Mate?

and 2. Obama, being the greater candidate of the two major Democrats, wasn't "muddied" enough by Clinton in the Primaries and Caucuses, making him a more formidable foe to McCain.

I would definitely have liked Hillary to stay in the race till the Democratic convention at least, better yet, run as an Independent. Unfortunately, these problems remain, and I fear that We're in for some crazy times coming up if Barack wins the General election.

Now for a completely different subject; as you may have noticed, I have replaced my age-old "My Friend's Blogs" link list with a special new list. This I have also titled "My Friend's Blogs" but you will notice, it has some very unique characteristics. First, the links themselves are not in Alphabetical order or any other conventional sorting technique, instead, they are placed in order of which blog has the most recent post. Now you don't have to go to every blog to see if it has been updated, all you have to do is look at that list and see when each blog was last updated!

Also, to get your blog to the top of the list, you need to post more often! You want to be at the top, update your blog more. *Karumph SamandMatt cough cough* ;-D

You will further notice, the most recent post title is underneath the blog title and under that is a date indicating how long ago the blog was updated.

I hope you enjoy it!

-Graydon L