Ahh, junior high band concerts. Great times. Great memories. Great googly-moogly, that sounds horrid!

If you hate your dog and/or your ear drums, crank your volume up to eleven for this one!!

I’ve been waiting for this day for over a decade.

I remember vividly when the very first “Super Walmart” opened in Amarillo in the late 1990’s. They had groceries and they were open 24 hours. Back then, the only things open 24 hours in Amarillo were a few gas stations and the Waffle House. (Come to think of it, excluding Walmart, that may still be true.)

I also vividly remember my first, late-night visit. It was just after 2 AM. I waited in the car while some friends ran in for some late-night essentials. (It wasn’t booze, and other than that, I can’t think of anything that qualifies as a “late-night essential”, but still…)

My eyes grew wide in amazement at the circus of mulleted, flip-flop clad, beer-gutted wonders strolling in and out of the store with their late-night essentials. (This time, yes, I mean booze.) Since then, this day has been an inevitability.

It has come: People of Walmart, the photo blog. Check it out. And, if you catch one of those rare creatures, be sure you have your camera handy so you can submit your own siting.

My Aunt Jill posted this to Facebook. Now, I don’t usually do these things. They’re long, time consuming, and seriously narcissistic. But this one’s pretty clever and… It’s Aunt Jill, so it’s gotta be cool, right?!

I am very guilty of filling out the ubiquitous facebook list of questions, because, well, who doesn’t like to talk (write) about themselves? But many of these questions are somewhat silly and boring, so I decided to make Jill’s quiz. I challenge all 65 of my facebook friends (Not just the ones that always do these, but the rest of you too!!) to fill it out and post it AND add a question (and answer!) not on there. Ready, set, go!!

Jill’s quiz

1. Favorite word: (This is tough!) Auspicious

2. Worst hair style: The bowl cut I had at ages 0 through 12.

3. First movie that scared you: Jaws. That scene where the dead guy pokes his head out of the hole in the boat. Gheh… still makes me squirm.

4. Favorite quote: Are you kidding me? I’ve got over 400 white board quips. You can’t expect me to have a favorite! How about:
“If God had meant people to run around naked, they’d be born that way!”

5. First big purchase: Well, I did just by a house, but… Probably the $400 Canon Rebel G 35mm camera I bought in Colorado.

6. Best place you ever lived: Colorado Springs!!

7. Most people think you are… Either mildly retarded or really goofy.

8. A surprising book you have read: Surprising because I read it, or the book itself is surprising?? Hmm. How about Stephen King’s “Misery.” It was the first of his books I read and so much more shocking than the movie. She didn’t use a hammer on his foot, people. It was an AXE!!

9. Favorite costume you ever wore: Backwards man. It was the last Halloween on which I actually trick-or-treated… in college… I was 20. *shame*

10. If you could change anything about your home, what would it be? I just moved in! I’ve only just begun to change things!!

11. Funniest thing my kid ever said: “Dude! We should tap-dance!” (Yes, Kason, you are one of my many “chi’ren.”)

12. If I was invited to the Oscars, and my significant other couldn’t go, I would go with: How could I say anything but Drew Barrymore?!

13. Brush with celebrity: Cowboys running-back Tony Dorsett, in a gas station bathroom in Dallas when I was 16 and on my first solo road trip.

14. Most surprising skill: I can jump rope and hula-hoop like a pro. (Thanks public school phys-ed.)

15. Favorite thing on your walls: Real theater movie posters from all three Lord of the Rings movies. (Although technically, they’re only leaning against my wall at the moment.)

16. Most frequent (or favorite) vacation spot: Aspen, CO. Only stayed the night once, but made many drives over Indy Pass when we lived in the Springs.

17. Why do you do the job you do? Alt-N has the best culture of any company I’ve worked for (or heard of for that matter). I love figuring out difficult problems and making the website do amazing things. Plus, the better I do my job, the more money the company makes and the more fun stuff we all get to do. (Lake party!!)

18. If you could have a talent you don’t have, what would it be? There are talents I don’t have?! Seriously though, I want be able to play anything I want on the guitar.

19. What decision changed your life? Deciding to move to Colorado Springs and “start over.”

20. One word or phrase that says something about you in each time period that applies — Teens: Stupid, 20’s: Adventurous 30’s: Blessed, 40’s: I’ll have to get back to you on that.

21. Best birthday: 12th when I got my own motorcycle. (Living in the country has its perks!)

22. Best present: Well, there was that motorcycle. But probably the picture frame filled with pictures of a bunch of my “chi’ren” that I got last year. (Thanks, Katie!)

23. Most interesting thing about my siblings is: Sabra is a college professor! She doesn’t seem to like it much, but I think it’s awesome!

24. Place you want to go: Ireland.

25. What would you change about your life? Many times I think about how different my life would be if I hadn’t made so many stupid mistakes when I was young. But, those mistakes led me to where I am and I am very happy. So, I guess, nothing. No! Wait! Washboard abs! YEAH!

Don’t forget to add your own question and answer.
26. Worst mistake you ever made: Getting physically involved with my high school girlfriend… then marrying her out of guilt. Worst three years of my life!

Cats are fascinating creatures. They retain so much of their wild hunting abilities and instincts while being fully domesticated. They are incredible athletes and remarkable gymnasts. I admire them as creations of God. BUT, they do make your house smell awful. The do make my wife, dad, and many others unable to breath in a matter of minutes. And they have that nasty habit of treating their owners like pets instead of the other way around. I would NEVER willingly own a cat.

All that said, they still entertain me.

If you haven’t heard of LOLCATZ (For the clueless, that’s pronounced “lole-cats.”), what rock have you been living under?

I love the lolcat site I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER. Not every post makes me laugh, but many do. They are purrrfect (aha…) bite-sized humor kibbles for when I’m working hard, but have to wait a couple of minutes for a build or a script to finish (like right now, for instance).

With my proclivity for naps, this one really got me giggling.

I really like David Crowder Band. I really like internet memes. I really like Twitter (but I’m not addicted). I really really LOVE this video!! (And yes, I’m going to tweet it too.)

I firmly believe that I could not survive in Japan. Tom Selleck made it work in Mr. Baseball, barely, but I’m pretty sure I’m just not tough enough.

I don’t like sea food (Especially when it’s not cooked!), I don’t like karaoke, and I don’t like anime.

In case you have any doubt about just how weird Japan is, check out this trailer for their latest video game release for the Wii. If you suffer from seizures, you may not want to watch this. I’ve never had one, but I felt like I had by the time this video was over!

Nope. I’d never survive.

Here’s a fun way to kill time. Put the lyrics to your favorite song (poem, movie quote, Bible verse, whatever) into one free, online translator, then put the translated text into a second free, online translator and see how screwed up the resulting English comes out. It’s like the old telephone game but better!

Here’s a verse from U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)”

One man caught on a barbed wire fence.
One man he resists.
One man washed on an empty beach.
One man betrayed with a kiss.

I put that into Yahoo’s Babelfish to get a Spanish translation. Then I copied the Spanish into Google’s Translate. Here’s the result.

A man caught in a man near one of the barbed wire that he opposes.
A man washed on an empty beach man betrayed with a kiss.

I tried it again, this time Google first and I used German as the carrier. This was better, but aparently, barbed wire didn’t translate at all.

A man imprisoned on a Stacheldrahtzaun.
A man holds.
A man washed on an empty beach.
A man with a kiss betray.

This is a PSA in Australia recommending flu shots. It starts off a little slow, but stick with it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to sanitize my everything.

…or you could just COVER your FREAKING MOUTH!

I recently discovered a cool time-waster on the intertubes.

Wikipedia has the most comprehensive “This Day In History” collection that I’ve seen. I was surprised by today’s entry (April 20th).

There were major, commercial plane crashes on April 20th of 1967, ’68, ’78, and ’98. Is it just me, or is that statistically remarkable?!

The other major event from April 20th was the Colombine massacre. Do you remember were you were when you got the news? I was sitting in Computer Algorithms class at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs (less than an hour away from the school). My friend Bryce Webster, the first person I knew who owned a PDA, told me after he had read it on a news feeder.

If you are afraid of spiders don’t click the link below.

If you are interested in graphic programming, especially in Flash graphic programming, especially browers based Flash graphic programming, then you should click the link regardless of how you feel about spiders.

Clicky!

Mover your mouse around. click. Even click and drag the little dude. Then try out the settings menu on the right. Really truly seriously amazing.