Friday, November 28, 2008

Most Epic Rick Roll EVAR!

Holy crap, so I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Things are going along as expected, and then up rolls a float for Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. It's a kids cartoon on Cartoon Network. My daughter used to watch it when we had cable TV. It was a pretty funny show. Anyway, the float rolls up, the TV people announce it, and the camera bounces around as the characters on the float begin to sing some kiddie song. Then, the music suddenly stops. New music starts, and within a few notes, I realize what is coming. Out comes Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up. Oh my god, this is possibly the greatest Rick Roll in all of recorded human history! Freaking Cartoon Network owns! Whoever came up with this idea is genius. Completely out of the blue. And that's what it's all about! Below is a YouTube video of the epicness. Enjoy!

OMG! OMG! OMG!

Okay, so at Thanksgiving dinner today (or yesterday technically as it's just after midnight), we also did Christmas with my grandparents, my brother and his wife and one of my sisters and her fiance. Got some gift cards and other good stuff, but my brother got me something awesome. He got me a ticket to a Dragonforce concert! Freaking awesome! He's going too, and anyone else we can find that wants to go, and it's going to be awesome! I'm a metal fan, and I absolutely love Dragonforce. A friend of mine turned me on to them three or four years ago. Yes, before they were on Guitar Hero III. Anyway, I'm really excited. That's a really different gift. I don't get to go to very many concerts. It's been a few years, so this is really cool. I can't wait to go!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Video Update!

Yeah, I've been lazy again. I want to get on here and share stuff, but I just can't seem to get up the gumption! Oh well, I'm here now. On today's episode, I'll be sharing a couple of videos I ran across today.

Up first, you may have heard about the meteor spotted coming down over Canada last week. It was big and bright. Some people think it may have made it to the ground. Unfortunately, Canada is a vast, and largely unpopulated chunk of land. This video was taken by a police cruiser dash cam. It is easily the best of the videos I've seen. It's pretty awesome. Just watch.



Pretty sweet huh?

Up next is a pretty funny video. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I'm a big metal fan. I've taught my daughter the pinkie and index finger up while sticking your tongue out, and of course she can do some air guitar. After seeing this video, I guess I need to get on it! The little girl is at her best during the first minute or so, but if you like your Iron Maiden, stick around for the rest. These kids sure aren't half bad!



Rock on!!!!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Want to be a Quadrillionaire?

Move to Zimbabwe. A friend of mine sent me this article yesterday. Basically, Zimbabwean currency has been devalued by so much that the effective exchange rate is 642 quadrillion to one. In the timeless words of Frank Barone, "Holy Crap!" Everyone thinks our currency is worthless. It isn't great, but it's a lot better than that! According to the article, a single egg would cost about $35 billion Zimbabwean dollars. That had better be a damned good omelette!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Waiting

I posted earlier about the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Well, it is freaking awesome! The only problem is that because it's so awesome, all 11 million subscribers and all their friends are playing. That means LOOOOOOOOONG queues to log in. When I first logged into Burning Blade, my server, I was 1054 in the queue. I'm approching 45 minutes waiting, and have another 10 to 15 to go. Almost there!

A lot of people like to complain about it. Yeah, it sucks, but in a couple of weeks, most of the people just trying it out, or coming back to see what it was, will lose interest and the queues will get shorter or non-existent. In the meantime, I'll just do my best to actually log in an hour before I want to play.

Well, it might be getting close, and I don't want to miss any of my small amount of play time!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Taking

Well, I promised a review of the Dean Koontz book, The Taking, when I was done. I finished it a few days ago. I must say, it was a VERY suspenseful book. I swear, I spent the whole time thinking "what the hell does that mean, and what does it have to do with the story!?" Basically, I was guessing, incorrectly, for the entire book. Which believe me, is not a bad thing!

The story centers on a couple, and their struggle to survive in what is turning out to be a new world. It's hard to really say much about it without giving things away. One of the first scenes in the book involved a mysterious downpour and some very strange behaviour in the local fauna. Of course, this leads to an incredibly eerie encounter on the main characters front porch. Koontz is good at completely sucking you into a scene. I almost felt like I was there.

The unexpected ending did well to tie up the loose ends too. I'm sure not everyone will like what he did with it, but if you can get past the "theme" he used and just take it as fiction, you'll be just fine.

I also like how this book was setup. It had normal chapters, but it was also broken up into seven sections (I think it was 7). Each section proved to be just about perfect for an evenings reading. I hate it when chapters are so long that you have to read for an extra half hour just to get to a good stopping point. Yes, I always stop on the chapters. I know some people who don't, and I just couldn't stand that.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this book. It's an interesting blend of drama, mystery, horror, with some sci-fi mixed in for good measure. All in all, a good read that kept me wondering what would happen next!

Wrath of the Lich King

Well, I finally talked my wife into letting me get the new expansion for World of Warcraft. I installed it last night after we got back from Traverse City at around 11pm. Once installed and upgraded, I waited in a queue of about 700 to log in. Took about a half hour. Then I played for around 3 hours. So far, a lot of fun!

The server that I play on is Burning Blade. We had our first player to reach level 80 last night. Players name was Veloxis. He is a Night Elf Druid. He hit level 80 at around Midnight, Eastern time. He claims it took him about 46 straight hours of playing. So pretty much the second he got the game, he started playing and didn't sleep until he hit 80 yesterday (this morning). There were a lot of upset people. I don' t really get that. I probably won't be in the first 100,000 to reach 80, LOL. Anyway, congratz to Veloxis!

He wasn't the first to reach 80 worldwide. It was someone in Europe I believe (that's what I heard). Not sure what their name was. Really, I just want to hit 80 on one of my characters before my game time expires in two months. I'm about halfway through level 70 (between 70 and 71). I should be able to reach 71 tonight. I might try to snag a group, maybe even some Ðwntrddn, for one of the new instances after that. I want to get my fingers into everything! I do plan to take my time and enjoy it, unlike some others....Veloxis

The new continent is really cool. Blizzard improved the graphics of the game. Nothing photo-realistic or anything, just a step up. It's nice. I'm playing in the Borean Tundra right now. A nicely varied zone, but picturesque in places. I haven't explored all of it yet, but a pretty good chunk so far. Seems like more thought was put into the quests in this expansion. Yes, there are still the "go kill 20 of these things", but they mix them up a bit too. There were a couple I did that involved baiting traps, and releasing baby mammoths from traps. Still a go do something so many times, but it's nice to collect and release instead of just killing.

So far, the tentative truce between the horde and alliance seems to be holding. I only ran into one group of horde who were ganking everything in sight. Otherwise, everyone was pretty much leaving everyone else alone to quest. That's another thing, the area isn't nearly as congested with players as Hellfire Peninsula was when The Burning Crusade came out. I think the new Death Knight class is helping with that. A lot of people are starting a DK, which starts at 50 in a new zone in the Eastern Kingdoms. Probably cutting the number of people in Northrend by at least a quarter. I can't say if it was intentional, but good job Blizzard! I may also play around with a DK tonight as well. Lots of new things to try, and not enough time to try them!

Well, hope to see you in Northrend. Hopefully I don't pwn you!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

How very Odd

I read quite a bit. Just about every day actually. I recently finished reading the Odd Thomas series, written by Dean Koontz. It's a series starting with Odd Thomas, then Forever Odd, and finally Brother Odd. These were some of the best books I have read in a very long time. They are funny, intense, exciting and dark all at the same time.

Basically, it's the story of Odd Thomas. A seemingly normal guy living in a small town. However, he has a unique gift. He is able to see the lingering dead. He takes it upon himself to try and help these spirits move on, or to help them get justice. I must say, the books were not what I was expecting when they were loaned to me by a friend. Odd is such a human character that it's hard not to connect with him in some way. I must say, the ending of the first book hit me like a ton of bricks. Yes, I'll admit, I cried a little. I like to get into my books, so sometimes it happens. In any case, I would highly recommend this series to anyone.

I just discovered that the fourth book in the series, Odd Hours, is out. I really need to get it or borrow it. From what I see, Koontz plans on writing at least six or seven books in the series. That's awesome. If the rest of the books are half as good as the first three, I'll be very happy. I also see that the website for these books has a series of webisodes that make up another Odd Thomas story. Believe me, I'll be checking them out as soon as I have some free time.

I'm currently reading another Dean Koontz book called The Taken. I'll probably finish tonight, so look for a review of it in the next few days. Later!

Antarctica

The Boston Globe has a web project called The Big Picture. Every few days they post a series of pictures covering some theme. These series often contain stunning and powerful images. A few days ago, they posted a picture series from Antarctica. It is a dangerous, but immensely beautiful place. Below are a couple of pictures from the picture series.

I've always been a big space fan. Not just sci-fi, but astronomy in general. Space can be a beautiful place. This is a spectacular picture of one of the manned stations in Antarctica with an amazing view of the night sky overhead. Just wow!


This is just a picture of an iceberg. An absolutely awesome picture. The rich color combined with the starkness of the surroundings makes it look unreal. Again, wow!


I highly recommend keeping an eye on The Big Picture site. You never know what you might find.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Where did he go?

Yeah, I haven't posted in a few weeks. No excuse really. Just been too lazy to get on the computer. How bad is that? Anyway, here I am.

Gas! Yes, that liquid that you pump into your car that costs an arm and a leg. Well, now it only costs an arm! A few days ago, gas dropped below that $2 a gallon mark here. Today, it was $1.97. How sweet is that. I do remember back in high school when gas was about 90 cents. Not quite back there yet, but after $4.25, I'll take it!

What else has been going on around here. Oh yeah, the Iceman Cometh! The Iceman Cometh (or Iceman for short) is a mountain bike race held the first Saturday of November (unless the first Saturday is November 1st). It's a 27 mile point to point race starting here in Kalkaska and ending in Traverse City. Obviously, being in northern Michigan, there is no guessing what the weather will be like. I've ridden the race four or five times now. My first year the weather was sunny and 60 degrees. Other years we've had a couple feet of snow. I haven't done it in the last few years. One year because I was busy with family, and a couple because I've missed the sign up. I know, no excuse. I'm planning on going for it again next year. I love riding, and this is a great race just to finish. There are several thousand riders, and you meet some interesting people on the trail. Maybe I'll use this blog to track my training progress for the race. First up, drop 50 pounds! LOL!

Speaking of losing weight, I really need to get healthy. Just a few years ago, I was down to about 220. I'm 6'1", so that's not much over what I want to be. I've managed to put on about 70 pounds since then. It's really depressing when you think about it. I really want to get back into shape. My daughter has endless energy, and it's all I can do just to play with her for an hour after work. Leaves me exhausted. That's not how I want to live. I'd love to get it down to about 200 pounds. That's not as low as "The Man" says I should be, but for me, that's pretty skinny. Plus, I'd like to actually have some muscle. If I was at the 180 the government recommends, I'd be a fraking twig. I've been trying to eat more reasonably the last few weeks, so if I can keep that going and start working in some exercise, I should be able to get some weight off. Maybe I'll do a weekly weight post to track my progress. I seem to do better when I know that someone might be checking on me!

One more event from this past week, SNOW! Yes, that dirty little four letter word. Yes, there are some things I like to do in the winter. I used to cross country ski a lot. Actually, that's about it. Tubing is fun, but I almost never go. I also like downhill skiing, but I do that even less than tubing. I do get to do a lot of shoveling. Yay......not. I hate shoveling. I know, it is some exercise, but it takes away from the little bit of time I have with my family during the week. I know it's a necessity. Better that losing my house to a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado if I lived most anywhere else in the country. I still don't like it! LOL

Well, I suppose that's enough for tonight. However, I'll leave you with something really cool. I saw this in my Uncle's blog. Not sure where he got it, but....WANT!!!