Zoomy

Of all the things I've found today, this is the zoomiest. It's starts 10 million light years away from the Milky Way and incrementally zooms in all the way to the quarks making up a proton in a leaf, and back again if you like. Quite fun, whichever direction you decide to go.

Details

Here's a little more info on this little videoblogging adventure I'm on. For some reason, I can't get the video to play in IE, but it works in Firefox. It's having some kind of problem downloading the Quicktime plugin (which is silly b/c i already have it) so it won't work in IE, at least not on my compy. If some other IE user out there would be so kind as to test it for me and drop a comment, I'd appreciate it.
Since Putfile.com wanked out (and wasn't that great to begin with) I moved to Ourmedia.com, which uses archve.org to host media. The interface is easy and they're very careful to protect your copyright to your work. It feels like they're putting some effort into it, but it's still in the early stages. Thus, the first graphic and video I uploaded worked with no problems, but the second graphic I tried still isn't available, 9 hours after I uploaded it. So it is perhaps not the most reliable, yet. Google's doing video now, but with their own stupid player...it's still a possibility, though. Something to look into.
If you like the idea of putting video on your blog, and want to save yourself the time it'd take to figure it out (assuming you're not an HTML deity), go here, paste the code into your template, make sure the link field in Blogger is turned on, and you're good to go, assuming you've found a suitable host for your video. The whole thing should take you about five minutes. Of course, you can mess around with it--change the size of the video frame, for example, which I plan to do on mine--but that's the basic template. And so I say 'thank you' toSvein Høier and Jon Hoem, and my desire for a video camera increases tenfold.

Video blog test

Well, I'm up a lot later than I meant to be...but I got it working! (This is the 4th of July video Netty linked to from her blog a while back.) Now that that's done, all I need is a good video camera. :D

Day 4, post 1

Dad finished his cookie run and we all met him at Galligaskin\'s, the oldest sub shop in Texas, or so they say. It\'s pretty good. I\'m enjoying a salami and provolone sandwich. After this, we\'re going to a place called \'House of Blades,\' which can only be cool...

Day 3

We didn't do as much roaming around today, but we had a good time. The day started when Lyndo woke us up to say that Audri and Ava were coming over. We put some chicken on the grill and Dad got back from his daily cookie-run just in time to eat lunch with us. During lunch, Dad got a call from the Kia dealership, saying that they'd found Lyndo's car. [Background: Lyndo got a used Isuzu Rodeo recently from the Kia place. When the 'Check Engine' light came on a few days ago, they took it back to the dealership to have 'em fix it. Turns out they send a lot of their work to a place down the street to be fixed, and that's what they did with this one. Well somehow, in the process of driving it six or so blocks, it 'got lost.' They actually called and said 'Yeah, um...we can't find your car...' Insane.] So all six of us (Lyndo, Dad, Audri, Ava, Netty, and I) crammed into Audri's car so we could go pick it up and then go visit Mom at work. Here's what the backseat looked like...kinda illegal, I know...



So we got to the dealership and Dad and I rode with Lyndo while the rest of the crew stayed in Audri's car. And thus began our next little adventure... The Rodeo is a manual transmission, and though she knew how to drive it, she was, shall we say, less than confident. So there were a couple of close calls, but no accidents. We did have to go by the shop that had fixed the problem, though, because they apparently hadn't reset the 'check engine' light after they'd fixed it. I'm glad it worked out that way, because I then got to see the slogan on their front door, which made me laugh.



After that little detour, we finally caught up with the other half of the group and went in to say hi to my Mom at work, and she introduced us to some of her coworker/friends. The place she works just happens to be right around the corner from the TCBY where Lyndo's boyfriend works (his name is Chris, which just isn't working out for me). So we stopped in there, too, and he gave us the frozen yogurt hookup. But now that I think about it, we had to pay for it, so it wasn't really a hookup at all... Dad amused us all, and embarassed Chris, by asking him if his intentions toward Lyndi were honorable. I believe the answer was yes.


We hurried home after that so Netty could finish and upload her homework by 6:00 (during which time I took a nap), and then we went to buy food for dinner. While it was on the grill, Ava and I fed some ducks, and after dinner, Lyndo's rollin' crew showed up for a bit and abducted her. The rest of us played with Ava in the sandbox for a bit, got our frog points for the day, and then watched The Incredibles (which I can now recommend--it was pretty good). And now I blog.

Day 2

All sorts of fun today. First, at my request, we went to Trader's Village, which is a freaking huge flea market type thing. We didn't even get through a quarter of it, though, before the heat (in the 90's) got to us. We did get a few things: mom got a roll of material for curtains, Lyndo got a giant paper fan to put on her wall, and dad bought a couple knives--one for him and one for me. I'd like to go back there sometime when it's not so hot. It's one of the weirdest places I've ever been; full of things like this monkey-type object, and this 'computer store.'

After that, we went to see Ed & Michelle (my aunt and uncle) and their new baby, Jake. We got a tour of their house, which is mucho spiffo, and then, when mom mentioned that they were trying to teach Lyndo to play poker the other night, Ed was quite eager to break out his poker set. We played a few hands of Texas Hold 'em, and Ed took all our chips. But it was fun.



Then we were hungry, so we pointed the car toward downtown Fort Worth, but it was ridiculously busy (some kind of low-rider festival going on...I'm not even kidding) so we ended up at the nearby Fort Worth Stockyards (a touristy kind of area, quite fun). We ate at Giovanni's, a pizza/pasta place that Lyndo goes to after concerts at 'The Door,' which is just around the corner. The food was actually quite good, but the real reason to go there is the owner. That guy is awesome, but very hard to understand.

After food, we walked around a bit and checked out the new riverwalk area that's 'in development' right now. We got our turtle points for the day, and Lyndo and I had an alien egg fight. And then we headed back to base. Much fun was had today.

T^3, d1, p2

Well, we're here. And my family has a computer good enough for me to post with! I would have posted on the way here, but you know Love's...stingy with their wireless internet...doesn't sound like love to me... Anyhoo, we got to see the new house, and it's pretty spiffy. I'll post some pics tomorrow or so. And now, off to bed.

The Tejas Trip, Day 1, Post 1

As all good trips do, this one begins at Pizza Hut, where we\'re about to enjoy some cheesesticks with the Shannon and Nicole Factor.
...30 minutes later...
Those were good. But we only ate about half of \'em.
Now that we\'ve fueled ourselves, we\'ll fuel our car and then go!

Because Jedi eat cereal, too.

Free in a box of Corn Pops, my very own lightspoon. And just think: with a little modding, it could become a lightspork...

Sometimes you feel like a hazelnut...

Hazelnut chocolate chip bagel, hazelnut cream cheese, hazelnut coffee...my HN points are gonna be maxed out after this. I\'m at Panera, waiting for Aaron\'s interview to end (his car/transformer is dead, so i drove him). I stopped by the old EB Games before this, was appalled once again at the rack of DVD\'s they have OUTSIDE IN THE SUN, and picked up \'Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance\' for 6 bucks. (It was a \'Buried Treasure\' on G4, for those who are down.)
The problem now is that I\'m mostly awake, but I know I\'ll be quite tired later on--4.5 hours doesn\'t usually cut it for me. But we shall see...

More fun with slang

From the same website, I discovered that we've kifed the word 'kife.' We use it to mean 'steal,' but here's what they say: Definition for Kife: Something that is insufficient or unpleasurable. Example: This cereal is kife." Our definition is much more fun.

Clutch!

Apparently someone else uses that word, too! "Definition for Clutch: A good thing or when something works out. Example: I checked out that resturant last night, it was clutch."

Isn't that clutch?

F'real

Thanks to the old AOTS, I've been exposed to new funniness, and you can be, too. This is a group of college guys and gals called Prangstgrup, and they do some pretty crazy things and film them. I believe AOTS described it as "like Jackass, but smart," and that's about right. I recommend the 'Lecture Musical.' It's the kind of thing you always wish someone would do on the last day of class, but no one ever does. I've only watched a few others, and they're not all at the humor level as 'Lecture Musical,' but even with the ones that aren't that funny, you can imagine them being hilarious if you actually saw someone doing such things in person (such as 'Reenactment Club'). Go check it out. *

Besides that bit of internetty goodness, I have only one other thing to share: my NationStates country, Grog Islands, has sucessfully combined pirates and ninjas! Grog Islands is a pirate haven, meaning that, of course, it's full of pirates. And when they inevitably produce offspring, and those kids become teenagers, many of them are recruited into our child-ninja assassin unit. Meaning that they're both pirates and ninjas! (The description of my country calls them 'shirt ninjas', which I can only assume is a typo, since 'short ninjas' makes much more sense.) This may not end the eternal struggle, but it does show that the two aren't mutually exclusive.


*As always, you retain the right to not 'check it out,' as well.

Possible bad news for the U.S.?

Europe has recently accomplished an increase of .07% of unique hits on this blog. Disastrous! I know it doesn't seem all that bad, but that's how they work--lots of little, barely noticable gains, but before you know it, they roll up on you and then it's all over. Sure, right now you have 84.51%, but if we don't keep an eye on the competition, calamity could ensue. A 70% buffer zone may not be enough. Let's shore up our defenses a little, shall we, U.S.?

Good job, Europe.

See? I knew you could do it! You got that number up from 10.35% to 10.42%! Fantastic! Now let's keep it up.

Fun with Photoshop

Not a great job, but it was fun. This is my Lizardman temple (and skinks in the foreground), with Shannon's High Elf archers on top, and the background is Tikal in Guatemala.

Hey U.S.

Hey America, guess what I heard... Rumor has it that Europe thinks it can generate more unique hits on my blog than the U.S. You gonna stand there and take that?

A challenge to Europe.

I just discovered that a little over 10% of unique hits come from Europe. I have to tell you, European Readers, that I think you can do better. Get out there and tell your friends about my random, useless crap! Tell them that my R,UC is better than that of others! I know that if we all work together, we can get that number up!

Ok, ok.

I've been getting a lot of complaints, and most of them boil down to this: "Chris, I like Pac-Man, but it's just too big. Help me!" Well, the best I can do is to send you here. I hope this helps.

What's better than peeling a potato?

Why, peeling an e-tato, of course! (My best time's 1 min 10 sec)

Guerra de los Mundos

Or, if you like, War of the Worlds. We (and Shannon) saw it today. And here's the deal with it: as a movie, it's pretty good. As a theater experience, it's quite good. It's the kind of thing that just wouldn't work as well if you were watching it at home. So there you go. I can't really say much more w/o spoilers, so I'll save the rest til ya'll've* had a chance to watch it.

Oh, and just so you're up to speed on my life (as I know you like to be), the movie was sandwiched between a Panera visit (their new portobello mushroom and roasted garlic bisque is tasty) and a disc-golfing (check Aaron's blog in 2 weeks for the score). And now Netty's making dough, cuz we's making pizza! Summer on, folks. Summer on.

*Double contraction. Booyah.

So funny

About those shirts. I know they just put English on clothes because they think it looks cool, but really, wouldn't you want to have some idea of what it says? Anyway, that's not the really funny part. The really funny part is that someone does know what these shirts mean. If they were just randomly picking words, they wouldn't make the little bit of sense that they do. So there must be someone who has the best job in the world--picking things to put on Japanese shirts. Now that I think about it, that may be the job I was born for...

Why I must NEVER go to Japan:

Well, besides the risk of being strapped to a battery of soda-bottle rockets, the other problem is that I wouldn't have any money for food, hotel, etc. Why? Because I'd be spending it all on clothes! Doesn't sound like me, does it? But when you have options like this, how can you not?

Such as this one.

This seems logical.

True.dat

This one's my favorite.

Oh Asia...

I've been saying it forever: Asia's different. They have completely different ideas than we do. Like this one.