Fun

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Best Web Junk (July 4)

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Don't be too dissappointed.  But you cannot change your name to a vulgarity.  Even if your current legal name is "Variable" However you should be able to change your name to "Variable" if you current legal name is "D'les Elexia Star Spiderbite"

Key quote from this story ""It's creamy-ranch- dressing-looking crap."

These are wierd and really neat - via Digg

My favorite fail of the week

Here's a really good breakdown of NCAA basketball uber-freshmen from last year

I really like Jackie Chan movies, even the poorly dubbed ones, mostly because of the stunts.  But after watching this I wonder if it was worth it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1AwZN4ZYg]

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Best Web Junk (June 27)

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First, something serious.  You really should read this, and think about your church's business meetings - from Bart Barber A bunch of really cool photos from Mars

If you're going to the olympics you can't order "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman"...sad.

I used to watch WPSD news every day, but I never saw a chicken in the forecast - from Dave Barry

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKzTDcw-rG0]

or aliens

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBSYbpIKS-0]

Do Critics Matter?

I heard this story yesterday.  And it got me to thinking.  Why do I care about game reviews when I don't care at all about movie reviews? I occasionally read movie reviews, but at least as far as critics are concerned, movies that they love, I can almost count on hating.

But video game reviews are different.  I tend to be in agreement with video game reviews very often.  The only exception is that game reviewers usually don't mind vulgarity, and that is enough to keep me from playing a game like GTA, that may be fun, but I can't stand the hyper violence or horrible language of those games.  I also don't like games where you have to kill a lot of people. My theory is that game reviews are very practical, and less about opinion.  Game reviews point out actual flaws in games, like a stupid auto aiming gun, or a camera angle that keeps half the story hidden.

So feel free to chime in.  Does what movie or TV critics have to say matter to you?  Do you also place more faith in game reviews?

Here's a list of game franchises I realy like

Splinter cell - A lot of sneaking, very little killing

Prince of Persia - Cool puzzles and wall running

Madden - I have bought every madden since 92 (that's pretty sad)

Burnout - Crashes is fun

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Best Web Junk (June 20)

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Whether this photo is a tornado or not, it's pretty amazing.  Better yet.  Click here for a bunch of interesting pictures of the flood The best fail I saw this week - This has to be a joke

I think I said this a while ago - via Digg

Woman dies in front of TV, not found for 42 years - via Digg

Why is Dana not at work tonight?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG4UMxP3HsM&e]

Feedbags = funny

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw_1CIwwEIA]

100 Things to do Before I Die (okay...actually about 40)

I have long said that I have only 1 material goal in my life - visit and do something meaningful (experience the people or geography) in all 50 states - but I have recently seen some lists like this on different blogs, so I decided to make me a list of 100 things to do before I die. Most of them are just things it would be nice to do. But some of them I take seriously and actually work for. I’ll try to put the important ones at the top of the list, but outside of the top 10 they are pretty much just random.

Feel free to comment on my list, or put your own top 10 list in the comments.

44.  Win my fantasy football league again (Done 2009)

43. See the northern lights

42. Memorize the book of James

41. See one of my youth group alumni become a career missionary

40. Go on a foreign mission trip (to the third world)

39. Travel somewhere by train

38. Eat frog legs that I gigged myself. (I’ve done this many times but not in over 5 years)

37. See a World Series game

36. Earn a ThM (only because it’ll probably be a necessary step toward my PhD)

35. Get a passport

34. Donate to my alma mater

33. Witness 52 times in 1 year

32. Teach an ESL class

31. Eat a crazy expensive meal

30. Read 24 books in a year - Done 2008

29. Beat Phil Thomas at Scrabulous - Done 8-26-08

28. Have a really great looking yard

27. Grow a 100 lb pumpkin

26. Get 100% on one song at intermediate level guitar on Rock Band

25. Fish all the open lakes on Ft. Bragg (Done 10/24/08 Last one was Smith Lake)

24. Teach on a university level (Done, Though CBC is only in candidate status for accretidation)

23. Write a book

22. Lead 10 people to Christ in one year (2 so far this year)

21. Catch 20 different species of fish (5 so far this year)

20. See a race at Daytona

19. Go on a cruise

18. Catch a 10 lb bass

17. Become scuba certified

16. Get 500 blog hits in 1 day (Done 05/14/2012)

15. Write 500 blog posts (Done, Here is post #500)

14. Write a list of 100 things to do before I die ;-)

13. Make a budget and keep it

12. See a TV show taped live

11. Visit 6 continents

10. Catch a 7 lb Bass

9. Go peacock bass fishing in the Amazon River

8. Have me some kids

7. Earn a PhD

6. Be completely debt free

5. Go 3 months without missing a single day of quiet time

4. Lose 80 lbs

3. Get married

2. Become a Certified Apologetics Instructor (Done 08/11)

1. Visit and do something meaningful in all 50 states

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Best Web Junk (June 7)

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This is a bit late, but I'm in the basement for the next few days. There may possibly be a post from Indy but I wouldn't count on it. when I return I'll regale you all with full details. Auditory Illusions - via Digg

I know a while back I declared the Rickroll to be lame and over, but this is pretty clever

Apparently a new term to replace "jumped the shark" when dealing with movies, "nuked the fridge." I'm not sure I totally buy in.

Who's worth more - rich people vs. rich dead people

The TSA is checking you out now

I don't know if this is real, but if it is, it's amazing. If it's fake it's still really cool. - via Myextralife

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iC3b5JnSIE]

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Best Web Junk (May 30)

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I know this post is a couple of days early.  I'm in the basement til Saturday.  So enjoy the best of the web this week, and I'll post about my adventures on Monday. How Google really places map markers - via Digg

Find the Lizard - Here's the answer key - via Digg I wasn't sure it was there at first. But it is. And once you cheat, you can find it right away

Bacon Salt "Because everything should taste like bacon" - via @hangry

This video makes me certain that there is a God.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsOeLcUARw]

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Guerrilla Fishing

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You know you are really fishing when you come home all scratched up. I fish most of the time in a private lake between two neighborhoods. It is the middle in a string of three lakes. And it is the only one of the three I have fished.  The one above it is very small, and is located behind an apartment complex. And the one below it is huge and located on about 3 apartment complexes, 2 neighborhoods and one of the busiest roads in town.

At the eastern end of the lake is a fork. As you can see in this picture, Both lakes 7 roadit looks like a peninsula that reaches out into the shallow end of the lake. The guy I fish with, Jack, always calls it an island, and says that he has been all the way around it before, but I never quite believed him. We usually fish as far as we can go into the shallower of the forks, and it is one of our most productive parts of the lake. The other fork is much deeper, partly.  It is much deeper in a channel about as wide as the boat. The rest of that fork is about a foot deep.  That channel is the main channel feeding the lake. For some reason, Friday I said, “Why don’t we go under the bridge and see if we can get to the spillway of the next lake.” (That would be the upstream lake. The one on the left in the picture.) We didn’t know if we could make it, but it seemed worth a try, so we headed out. Immediately I learned a lesson. It is, in fact, an island. Island on Left, road on rightHere you can see the water on the back side.

So we proceeded under the bridge, we didn’t know which side to go up, and I was afraid of it having a concrete bottom, but we chose the right and headed out. Through Bridge with beaver dam blocking one side I was surprised that there were no bats under there, also that it was so easy to get through. There was one limb in the path, but we could put up the trolling motor and paddle past with no trouble. When we came out the other side I could see we chose the right side, because the other had a beaver dam blocking the entrance.

Also after we came through the bridge we were navigating a stream only about as wide as the boat. We moved along with the paddle and by pulling on low hanging branches. It forked several times, but we always took the path that seemed deepest. We were just getting the hang of it, when we were blocked, unable to make it to the spillway in the boat. We came to a place where we could see the spillway probably 50 yards in the distance, but we were blocked by a beaver dam. Stupid beavers. end of the road

We thought since we’ve come this far, we should get out and see if we can walk to the spillway. It was strange, I sort of felt like a 12 year old out “exploring” in the woods. Also I learned a lesson, though it is a lot lighter it is much harder to walk through the woods with a fishing pole than a gun. It’s longer and gets tangled on every stupid branch. So we tried working our way up the stream then had to turn back. We tried to go around the thicket but were swamped in by all the forks in the creek we didn’t take the first time.

It turns out, we went all that way for nothing. Then we had to figure out something that hadn’t occurred to us before. How do we turn the boat around? After taking the trolling motor off, and putting Jack in the boat, (to float up the front) I was able to stay on the bank and swing it around. Then I managed to get back in without falling in the water, and we paddled back. Back under the bridge, Back through the bridgeand into familiar home water. We caught nothing, but it was an interesting little adventure. So I thought I’d share it. Home water

Despite that detour, I had a good day fishing. I caught 2 bass and 2 jacks (pike) and I had a third bass hooked. In fact I had 2 fish on in my first 10 casts of the morning. (a topwater chugger with a 3 foot trailer) But I had to fight about 25 backlashes trying to throw that rig.

This post was kind of a rambling mess.  Thanks for reading.

Best Web Junk (May 16)

Putting up this week's Friday fun post a bit early.  Statistically speaking this is the most posts ever in one week for me.  this week also had the busiest and slowest days ever on this blog.  Odd. Maybe the awesomest and scariest pictures I've ever seen - From Ryan

guyforceshiswifetodressinagarbagebagforthenextthreeyears.com - From HIMYM so weird that networks register every website mentioned on TV.

Youngme/Nowme - Ryan showed me this a while back, then I saw it again this week. Very cool

Mirror's Edge - I obviously have no idea what this game might be about. Looks like some sort of first person Ninja game. Look at it. It's so pretty

Extreme sports have clearly gone too far - via Dave Barry [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67fFDiPRsrk]

Tagged

So yesterday in this post, Adam tagged me. And although I normally am not a fan of these chain letter sort of things, it seemed harmless and sort of fun. Plus I got a movie to add to netflix out of Adam's list. So I have decided to play along. But my part of it will die, because I don't have 3 blogging friends to tag next. Here it goes: My top ten favorite films (in no particular order)

  1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Edition) - It's probably cheating to name 3 movies in one line, but there is nothing resembling an ending in the first two. They are one story, and this is my list so you'll have to like it. Also the extended editions are the only way to go.
  2. In the Line of Fire - "I know Things About Pigeons, Lilly"
  3. Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore - These are the great trilogy of stupid movies that make up my college experience. Again not just one movie, but I associate them so closely and have pretty much memorized them. So I put them in one line.  But if you forced me to choose only one I'd pick em in the order they are listed.
  4. Return of the Jedi (Star Wars Ep. VI) - I'm a geek, what can I say. And I know this is supposed to be Empire Strikes Back, but I like Jedi better, and this is my list,
  5. Thirteen Days - About the Cuban missile crisis follows the book very closely. I Love me some Cold-War history
  6. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - I've seen this movie every December since about 1994. it's not Christmas till I see it.
  7. Rudy - Always makes me Cry
  8. Toy Story 2 - Very nearly a flawless movie.
  9. The Princess Bride - The book is better, I'm reading it now, but I love this movie.
  10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Easily the worst ending of a good movie ever. Fortunately you can just watch selections and it feels like you've see it all

The rules of the “game” are simple: 1. list your top ten favorite films (in no particular order). 2. if you’re tagged, you’ve got to post and tag 3-5 other people. 3. give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post 4. give a hat tip (HT) to Dan

My Life So Far

Today is my 33rd birthday. Birthdays have a way of making me take stock of my life, and even though I'm not freaking out today, I still like to look back. (BTW I really freaked out over turning 29.) I figure that, even with wishful thinking, at least a third of my life has passed. So, just for fun, I’ll break down my life so far into thirds and share some highlights.

Age birth – 11: I really accomplished a lot, relatively speaking. Mostly, like other kids, it’s learning stuff. Here’s a partial list that is in no particular order.

  • Successfully navigated the birth canalMe like 1 yo
  • Learned to walk
  • Learned to talk (possibly learned this one a little too well)
  • Inherited my brother and promptly, through regular beat-downs, established my dominance
  • Survived a bout with a life-threatening illness.
  • Learned how to use the toilet and clean up after myself (very important skill)
  • Learned to tie my shoes even though in the early 80s we all thought velcro would replace laces
  • Learned to ride a bike (this one took me a while)
  • Learned to read and write
  • Successfully passed Kindergarten through 5th grade (I turned 12 during the 6th grade)
  • Moved 10 times or so through 4 different cities (Franklin KY, Somerset KY, Bristol VA, Hopkinsville KY, Cerulean KY)
  • Became a Christian
  • Participated in a school play
  • Got pretty fat
  • Made it to the dice and bowtie (I can’t remember which is better) levels of Megamania

Age 12-22: Not so much about learning stuff, as accomplishing stuff or failing to accomplish stuff. This is obviously what I would refer to as my formative years. I am who I am mostly because of these 11 years. Again, here’s a list.

  • Managed to get through 6th-12th grade in one try (I won’t be saying that later on)
  • Survived the divorce of my parents
  • Saved the princess in Super Mario BrothersMy Sr. Picture
  • Saw my Dad become a Christian
  • Inherited a step family (which included 2 more brothers and a sister. Again I had to establish my dominance through regular beat-downs)
  • Actually went on a few dates
  • Played trombone in High School band
  • Totally graduated high school (again, it only took one try)
  • Lost a bunch of weight then got fat again
  • Moved away from home for college at UK
  • Spent a summer in Washington & Oregon as a NAMB summer missionary (This was life changing. If you are in college and want to be used by God, apply at apply.namb.net)
  • Spent a summer as youth director at the church I grew up in
  • Went to the 1997 final 4 and had great seats (Sadly, Kentucky lost)
  • Served as youth minister at Durbin Memorial Baptist Church
  • Flunked out of UK
  • Moved about 6 more times during this period
  • Worked for Universal Property & Casualty insurance company (I didn't live in Florida. It was operated by Kentucky National.)

Age 23-33: I realize that I'm just beginning my 33rd year, but I can talk about the previous 10.

Making that list was kinda fun. Hope you enjoyed it

Everybody's Got a Water Buffalo

My most popular post ever is "killing" and that is what this vid is about.  I just couldn't wait till Friday to share this one. This is a royal rumble.

The combatants:

- A herd of Water Buffalo (with one calf)

- A pack of Lions

- A humongous crocodile

It’s long, but really interesting. The croc comes onto the scene at 3:30, and make sure you watch at 5:47.

I won’t tell you the winner. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM]

btw - If you are not familiar, the title of this post comes from Veggie Tales.  It is a silly song by Larry.

The Best Junk I've Seen on the Web This Week

This is going to be my new Friday feature where you probably get a silly video plus links to cool junk I have seen around the web each week. It will be some blog posts and some just interesting NGC Strikes again - A bunch of amazing pictures (via Digg)

Emo Lincoln - plus a bunch of other interesting decorations of currency (via Digg)

Marvel Comics Wiki - I put this here just for Brent. But it looks very good and thorough

My thoughts on Boobies - A post about modesty, and the lack of it that exists in the church.  (That was embarrassing to type)

Ed Stetzer on political action and Christians

I'll end with a very good video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TsOk-32Q8]

Just curious, where do you go when you are bored on the web? I usually see what is at the top on Digg. (You can follow me here.) You can also see my diggs on facebook. Also if you to challenge me to a game of Scrabulous I'll probably play. Currently I'm down to one active game. I can't handle more than 4 at once.

Enjoy.

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Header Picture

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Brent’s comment here reminded me that I forgot to answer Roland’s question.

When will you put up the picture of Rupp Arena again? It is way better than the turtle.

My answer…Next March. It goes with the whole March Madness theme. The turtle is already gone. My plan is to change the header regularly, much like I change my profile pics on facebook & myspace.

I planned for this post to be a bit more entertaining with a little poll for the next header pic. It was going to be part of my Friday fun post, but I was so impressed with “Ken Lee” that I forgot.

When I was Twelve I used to sing "La Bamba" in Español

I'm so glad nobody was recording me so the entire hispanic world could laugh at me on youtube. This is completely hilarious. I present the famous Mariah Carey Song, "Ken Lee"

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RgL2MKfWTo]

"Tulibu dibu douchoo"

got this from Molly Wood via Twitter

update: It was also featured in this week's Buzz Report