Saturday, December 15, 2007

End of 2007, Start of 2008

For my birthday recently, I garnered a couple of really cool gifts, including (but not limited to) the "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" DVD, and a really cool huge Star Wars 3-D pop-up book.

For Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Dave and Marcie Clark's house. Later that weekend, we heard that back in Nevada Tyler and Heather had an unfortunate 4x4 accident, resulting in Tyler loosing several teeth. Ouch! =(

In other random news, I finished listening to Robin Cook's "Abduction" on audiocassette, and also started (but never finished, due to a variety of factors) reading and/or listening to the following media offerings:
  • Michael Connelly's "The Concrete Blonde" on audiocassette
  • Jim Stoppani's "Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength"
  • Alwyn Cosgrove's "The New Rules of Lifting"
  • A Eugen Sandow biography
And, the latest version of Firefox (Firefox 2.0.0.10) was recently released. Yawn.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Christmas Pidgin Worms

I finished listening to "Letters from Father Christmas" by J.R.R. Tolkien a few days ago on audiobook cassette. At first I thought it was just a great series of letters, but when I read the liner notes and realized that his children actually received those letters every year growing up, I was thoroughly impressed!

We had some exciting virus/worm activity at work recently, a man-in-the-middle attack closely related to the "Trojan.exploit.131" exploit. Only lasted a few hours, though, before we got it all eradicated. Fun! (Not.) Speaking of work, we recently moved our warehouse at work across town, closer to the airport. Faster shipping for everyone!

Ok, here's a random question for anyone using Pidgin (the multi-network IM client): what do the different icons mean in this screenshot? I've looked at the Pidgin documentation, and see no reference to the icons at all:

Mysterious Pidgin icons

If you happen to know, please drop me a line! =)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Random Points, Pt. 3

We recently picked up a copy of "The Runaway Jury" (2003; Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack, Rachel Weisz) on fullscreen DVD, and enjoyed it.

I've also recently listened to (and enjoyed) three audiobook novels on audio cassette:

We viewed a video biography of the well-known early-20th century Dutch minimalist artist Piet Mondrian yesterday, entitled "Artists of the 20th Century: Piet Mondrian." Personally, I felt that they dwelt too much on his earlier works, and then glossed over his later pieces. And while many might feel that's a good thing, many of his later pieces were more colorful and enjoyable than his earlier, muted-color pieces.

I read "X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga" comic book book (a book comprised of many comic books) recently. It comprises nine Uncanny X-Men issues (#129-137) wherein each issue is a new chapter, along with an introduction by Stan Lee and a cover gallery at the end of the book. Very cool volume!

We all enjoyed a nice visit from my family over the weekend to celebrate Jared's birthday. During which, we enjoyed a great meal last night at Cooky's Famous Potato House in Marsing. While the service wasn't 100%, the food tasted wonderful and the atmosphere was quaint and refreshing (don't miss the applesauce!)

Our ward boundary lines were redrawn lately, so the ward has grown in size, and the number of people has seemingly nearly doubled. As such, today's Primary program at church featured lots of kids (many of whom are new), and while it went very well, I'm sure Misti is glad it's over.  =)

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Random Points, Pt. 2

I recently switched instant messaging clients from Trillian (my previous favorite) to Pidgin 2.1.1, the portable apps version with the optional OTR encryption plugin. Wow, it's definitely more stable and while the look and feel isn't quite as good as Trillian in my opinion, I definitely won't go back. Pidgin's the bomb!

We recently watched "Firewall" (2006; Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen) on fullscreen DVD, and "Ratatouille" (2007; Ian Holm, Brian Dennehy, Peter O'Toole) at the cinema. Firewall was okay, but the cartoon was better, LOL.

I just finished listening to "Forbidden Land" by William Sarabande on audio cassette. I'm liking this series.

Over the past few days, we've watched the entire Season 3 of "House, M.D." on DVD. It was nice to catch all the episodes we had missed during last year's TV season.

I'm back from the Olympia in Las Vegas - it was a fun time - we did approximately 180 video clips and interviews - lots of work, but it was great! Now it's back to the grind! LOL

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Free, Live Olympia Weekend Webcasts!

Did you know? There are free, live 2007 Olympia Pro Bodybuilding, Fitness, & Figure webcasts being streamed this weekend, courtesy of Bodybuilding.com, Flex Magazine, and MuscleTech! (If you do miss the live show, however, webcast replays will be made available shortly after the show.)



Check out all of the on-going Olympia weekend pre- and post-show coverage! =)

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Random Points, Pt. 1

In a small effort to get more cholesterol-free protein in my breakfasts, I've been cooking up some Wilcox Natural Liquid Egg Whites lately - pretty convenient, really.

I've finished listening to 2 audiobooks and an opera on cassette during the commute each day, including Selected Stories from "The Golf Omnibus" (compiled in 1991) by P. G. Wodehouse (including short stories from 1926, 1950, and 1959), "Corridor of Storms" (1988) by William Sarabande, and "La Traviata" (1853) by Giuseppe Verdi, starring Luciano Pavarotti.

Recent videos we've viewed:

- "Kipper™ Puppy Love" (2005) on fullscreen DVD
- "I, Robot" (2004; Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, James Cromwell, Bruce Greenwood) on fullscreen DVD

In random news, we recently moved offices at work. Here's a video clip of the event. I recently tried a new energy drink, and it's wasn't too bad, called Pissed Off Energy Drink, and Firefox 2.0.0.7 came out.

Monday, September 03, 2007

End of August Already?

I can't believe August is over already, too! Wow, this summer is nearly gone...

I tried some Reed's Cherry Ginger Brew (All-Natural Non-Alcoholic Cherry Ginger Ale). Not bad, and we scored a new bottlecap in the process. Made the purchase at the Boise Co-Op.

We ate lunch at the Cracker Barrel on Cole Rd for the first time on Saturday. I thought it was very tasty, but others in our party didn't necessarily think so. LOL

We visited the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise on Saturday also, and got to see a Red-Tailed Hawk up close and learn more about raptors and birds of prey and the endangered California Condors in the process.

We enjoyed a nice picnic yesterday at the Historic Boise Assay grounds. We were the only ones there, and got to enjoy some wonderful shade from the heat provided by the nice, tall trees.

Congratulations to Erik "The House" Fankhouser who won his IFBB pro card at the 2007 IFBB North Americans this past weekend! He's got the craziest calves in the business!

And in shocking news, Traci Hurrle finally found me on MySpace! Geesh, some people and technology. LOL

I've accumulated 135 points now at MyCokeRewards.com, which sadly still only gets me stuff like free sodas or ringtones for the cellphone that I don't have. I only need like 2000 more points to get the good stuff... Grr.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Cachefire Paint Gym Potters

Well, we haven't been geocaching in nearly two years now, but we recently went and found a few just to see if we could rekindle the habit, but the jury's still out... The 7 we found over the past 2 Saturdays were:
Media Update: We've viewed the following notable features lately:
  • U-571 (2000; Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi)
  • My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006; Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson)
  • Walk the Line (2005; Reese Witherspoon)
  • Oceans 13 (2007; George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon)
  • M*A*S*H final episode (1983; Alan Alda, Harry Morgan, Loretta Swit, Jamie Farr)
  • That Darn Cat! (1965; Hayley Mills, Roddy McDowall)
More notable media offerings we both recently enjoyed immensely were the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling, as well as the film for Harry Potter #5 (Order of the Phoenix) in the theatre recently. Simply amazing!

This past weekend was the 2007 Europa Super Show in Dallas, Texas. If you missed the free, live webcasts of the Europa Pro Bodybuilding shows, check out the webcast replays on Bodybuilding.com!



Misti's done a superb job this summer with her outside landscaping in our front and back yards. Not only has she planted a colorful array of flowers, added some brick work, and some solar lights to the sidewalk, but she also painted the trim on the house, too!

Firefox, everyone's favorite web browser, was updated twice recently, moving from version 2.0.0.4 to 2.0.0.6. My new Powertec home gym finally came today. I'm excited! More info and photos to come! Becky's bottlecap collection has grown by leaps and bounds lately - I'll post an updated photo soon. One notable recent addition was Switch soda (in bottles), which we enjoyed, thus garnering Becky another new bottlecap.   =)

Friday, July 27, 2007

End of July Already?

I can't believe it's almost the end of July already, too! Wow, this summer is flying by...

Random recent stuff: the car is so stinkin' close to hitting the 100,000 mark, it's just a matter of days until our car is OLD! =(

I've been blogging so much (mostly coordinating others blogging, actually) on our BodySpace Pro/Am Contests Blog at work lately, that I haven't had much blogging mojo left to express myself here, it seems... Sorry for the lack of updates recently! =(

Sunday, July 01, 2007

End of June Already?

Wow, I'm a super slacker - one post in the entire month of June - ouch. I can't June is already over. Unfortunately, I don't have too many things of interest to report really, so... on with the random stuff:

I tried out some InStone High Protein Pudding at work, and it's pretty yummy! One small 6.4 oz can contains 20 g of protein, and is sugar free, low carb and low fat (no trans fat or saturated fat at all). Try some!   =)

We did a little minor landscaping (planted some flowers and installed some solar night lights) in our front yard at the beginning of the month, and it looks fairly nice now. they're growing really well now with the increased sunshine, warm temps, and daily watering.

We enjoyed a family bike ride yesterday in the hot sun, earning us a little redness, but not too much. We finished the ride off with some tasty snow cones at Tropical Sno. Yummy!

We traded our Open Season GameCube game to Bonny for Super Monkey Ball 2, which turned out to be a much better 4-player game than Open Season. We love it so much, in fact, that all 4 of us play it all the time! LOL Check out MonkeyBallWorld.com for more info on all the monkey games.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Firelite Cowbird Skiblood Gamedip

Every once in awhile, I get this really long blog post that I keep postponing over and over again, such that at some point, I just have to bite the bullet and come back and finish it off. This is such a post, having been started in early March, and just now coming to fruition. The longer I wait, however, the more stuff gets added to it, so maybe I'll split it up...

I am trying out some Champion Nutrition Ultramet Lite (chocolate flavor protein powder) - very smooth and tasty! Mixes well in milk. I also recently tried some Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb spreadable cheese wedges. Mmmm.

I upgraded my email client from Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 to 1.5.0.9 (portable edition), and then to 1.5.0.10. Now, it's saying that 12 is already out. Ugggh. I must admit, though, that with the recent version (10), it almost works like it should. A few more tweaks and it'll be perfect!

I sampled a Daredevil Lighter Fluid energy drink (containing B vitamins, Guarana, Taurine, Ginseng, Gingko, etc.) recently, and found it not bad. It contains only 20 calories and 6 grams of carbs (from sugar).

Time to whine and moan about Firefox browser problems, so grab a tissue and queue the miniature violins...
1) Embedded Windows Media players don't work properly with videos of odd sizes in Firefox anymore (since the "upgrade" from 10 to 11) - but they do work just fine in IE 7. (The control button bar slides down or disappears completely - lame.)

2) The really annoying "disappearing cursors in textarea boxes" issue, which is completely lame because you can't see where you're going to type. This is not a problem in IE 7, of course.

3) Another related one: sometimes Firefox won't let you type or even select text in the address bar. Lame. And this is even with the recently upgraded Firefox 2.0.0.4.
We visited Powell's Sweet Shoppe in Southeast Boise on St. Patrick's day, a local treasure of which Willy Wonka would be proud! We, of course, purchased lots of various and bizarre candies, obtained lots of great new bottlecaps (including Cap'n Eli's Root Beer), and took a stroll on the river walk. We even heard some St. Patrick's Day bagpipes. We then headed up to Bogus Basin Ski Resort and watched the skiers descend the hill while we enjoyed the warm of the sunshine. It was truly bizarre that people were still skiing when it was nearly 80°F out (admittedly, most of the snow was very slushy). We didn't care too much for the hairpin curves on road up, but the weather was excellent, and it turned out to be a great day overall!

On a different weekend, we played tennis in the warm sunshine, but Becca accidentally got hit in the nose, which quickly turned bloody, so she understandably doesn't want to play anymore.   =(

On a different Saturday, we bought our first game for our newly acquired GameCube, "Open Season" (based upon on the cartoon movie). Even though it's technically a 4-player game (as noted on the back cover), it's honestly just a one-player game. The whole reason I got it was for it's 4-player capabilities, but I was sadly disappointed. Becca thinks the game is too hard, so it hasn't been getting much use.

I watched part of a horrible film that I just couldn't finish, "Down with Love" (2003; Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce). What a waste of time. Not recommended at all.

On a better note, I just finished listening to a very short abridged version of Seth Godin's new book "The Dip". It's one of those self-help, you-can-be-the-best-in-the-world type of motivational books that oftentimes just come across sounding corny. This one, however, wasn't too far fetched, and had a lot of great take-home messages. Recommended listening.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Robin Night Val Sun

I finished a great book a few weeks back, "Contagion" by Robin Cook on abridged audiocassette. Wow, what a great story - highly recommended (by me)!

Jared's favorite movie lately has been "Night at the Museum" (2006; Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais) on fullscreen DVD. He loves the dinosaur parts, of course, but also the dialogue between the son and Ben Stiller.

I tried a new apple soda called "Manzanita Sol" the other day. Quite tasty, mmmm.

Congratulations to Valerie Waugaman and Kai Greene for winning the Shawn Ray 2007 Colorado Pro/Am Classic this past weekend! If you missed the show, you can see the free webcast replays and weekend coverage at Bodybuilding.com.   =)

Friday, June 01, 2007

Free, Live Colorado Pro Webcast Tomorrow!

Did you know? There's a free, live Colorado Pro Bodybuilding & Figure webcast tomorrow, courtesy of Bodybuilding.com, Flex Magazine, and ISS! (If you do miss the live show, however, webcast replays will be made available shortly after the show.)



Check it out! =)

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Free, Live IFBB New York Pro Webcast Today!

Did you know? There's a free, live New York Pro Men's Bodybuilding webcast today, courtesy of Bodybuilding.com, Flex Magazine, and MET-Rx! (If you do miss the live show, however, webcast replays will be made available shortly after the show.)



Check it out! =)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Jungle Warfare


In this video, watch Richard wield a crimson weapon of war and battle the evil forces of the jungle!   =)

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Microsoft has no background...

Am I the only one that's been consistently annoyed with Microsoft Update's lack of a defined background color in that bottom left-hand rectangle?

no background color

Meh.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Fun with USB 2.0

I recently replaced my old 128 MB generic USB 1.1 thumbdrive and my old 512 MB Apple iPod Shuffle (the flash drive version) with a new SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 thumbdrive (2 GB) which I picked up on clearance at Wal*Mart for only 30 bucks.

I also picked up a wonderful Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 USB 2.0 external harddrive (360 GB) for pretty cheap there, too. Nice!

Tip: if your USB 2.0 devices are detected by your computer when you plug them in, but appropriate drivers cannot be found, all you need to do is point the Found New Hardware Wizard to the "c:\windows\inf" folder. (As opposed to the system, system32, or system32\drivers folders.) Strange, but a simple fix.

Another Tip: to get rid of the annoying U3 Smart "feature" on many thumbdrives (and thus remove the annoying read-only second partition), and the built-in removal tool doesn't work (LOL), then all you need to do is visit the U3 website and download their U3 removal tool, which actually does work... Also strange, but a simple fix.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Recent Visits, Films & Audiobooks

Over the past few months, we've visited with the following notable persons:
  • Scott & Tawna Larsen & Family
  • Ryan & Bryna DeLuca & Family
  • Dan & Twyla Harrison & Family
  • Chris & Sarah Newcomb & Family
I've also listened to the following great audiobooks recently:And we've also seen the following notable films lately:

"Fun with Dick and Jane" (2005; Jim Carrey, Téa Leoni, Alec Baldwin) - mildly amusing, but not our favorite Jim Carrey flick.

"Rocky Balboa" (2006; Silvester Stallone, Antonio Tarver). Very cool, and a great end to the Rocky legacy.

"Bulletproof Monk" (2003; Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott) - very cool and action-packed.

"Eragon" (2006; Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich) - an awesome fantasy. I can't wait to see the sequel!

"Uptown Girls" (2003; Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanning, Marley Shelton, Donald Faison, Heather Locklear) - funny for a click flick.

"The Karate Kid" (1984; Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue) - a timeless classic.

"The Kid" (2000; Bruce Willis, Lily Tomlin) - seen before, but didn't remember it until about ½ way into the movie. LOL

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

New York Pro Fitness & Gold's BFE

This past weekend was busy! Did you watch the live New York Pro Fitness webcast on Saturday? I sure did! (If you missed the live show, check out the replays!)



We also attended both the 2007 Boise Fitness Expo on Friday night and the 2007 Gold's Gym Treasure Valley Classic on Saturday night. Good stuff! If you also missed these shows, check out our BFE video clips!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Misti Meets Jay Cutler & Dayana Cadeau!


In this video, watch Misti meet the reigning Mr. Olympia, Jay Cutler and female pro bodybuilder, Dayana Cadeau at the 2007 Boise Fitness Expo this past weekend! =)

Sunday, April 08, 2007

"How to Make a Moustache" by Becky


In this video, watch Becky instruct you on how to make a Play-Doh moustache. =)

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Podcast #24: Classical Music and MySpace Friends

Our podcast tonight is a bunch of random stuff from our walk this afternoon in between Conference sessions. Hear about Misti's new haircut, her MySpace friends, and take in a little classical music from the Podsafe Music Network. Tune in here:

Show #: 24   mp3
Length: 19 minutes, 44 secondsPodsafe Music Network
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Size: 18.00 MB

Misti's new haircut:





Mentioned in the podcast:

177th LDS Annual General Conference
Mane Tamers
2007 Arnold Classic Video Interviews
Misti's MySpace Friends
Richard's Immodest MySpace Friends
Buddha Chill
James Clarke
Mario Ajero

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Phat Conference Feet Yet?

So, what's going on this weekend? Well, quite a few things, actually! We spent some quality time watching the Live LDS General Conference Webcast today, and will be watching tomorrow, too.

The live webcast is available via both byu.tv and also ksl.com, but KSL's beta player doesn't work in Firefox (lame), but BYU's webcast works well in both browsers, but as one expects from any webcast, there were a few times the live stream stalled, necessitating a page reload. (Makes me feel a little better when our work webcasts stall...) LOL

Did you miss the live webcast? Well, never fear - audio and video replays will be available soon!







This weekend on the BodySpace Pro/Am Blog: Isaac Hinds doing show coverage in Colorado this weekend, covering both the NPC Northern Colorado, and Jen Hendershott's Phat Camp.

We also watched both of these movies recently: "Are We There Yet?" (2005; Ice Cube, Nia Long), and the cartoon film, "Happy Feet" (2006; Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman), both on DVD. Good stuff! =)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Pink Mouse School

Brad's right, no one ever blogs anymore, LOL. Well, Brad, here's a little something to tide you over until I can finish up some lengthier blogs that have been sitting unfinished for several weeks...


This video* is me getting schooled by Becky at Mouse Trap. =(

*The video has an overall pink hue because her room is pink, and it was a sunshiny day...

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Whirlwind Past Couple of Weeks

Yes, it's been a crazy past couple of weeks. With the 2007 Iron Man Pro starting off the 2007 pro bodybuilding competition season about a month ago, followed the following weekend by the 2007 Sacramento Pro, then the 2007 Arnold Classic two weekends ago, then the 2007 Australian Pro this past weekend, it's been a wild ride! Lots of blogging, to be sure - which is why I haven't been doing a lot of blogging here on my personal site - it seems like I blog all day at work!

Here are a few of the blogs I've been working on lately:

I was fortunate enough to fly to Columbus, Ohio to attend the Arnold Classic and Expo this year - and yes, I got to see Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in person! In fact, I got within 15 feet of him backstage right before the Pro Men's Finals show on Saturday night, March 3rd. He, of course, was hilarious on stage during the show, and I happily watched him live from just 5 or 6 rows back from the front!

During the Expo, I was able to do short, impromptu video interviews with over 100 fitness and bodybuilding celebrities, and they're all freely viewable at Bodybuilding.com:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2007arnold_blogvideos.htm

Here's one such example:

video
NPC Star, Jerome Ferguson Interview!

We caught up with the impressive Jerome Ferguson at the Bodybuilding.com booth at the 2007 Arnold Expo. Hear what Big J.F. had to say about the Arnold Classic and BB.com! =)


Tip: Leave comments on this video here.

Windows Media (2.9 MB)

Misti and I also, just this past week, attended the Rascal Flatts concert here in Nampa at the Idaho Center. The music was great, and the snacks (onion dog and a huge, soft pretzel) were great, even if some of the crowd smell wasn't the best... LOL

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Arnold Classic

Well, I'm excited - the 2007 Arnold Classic is this weekend! Will you be watching the Live Arnold Webcast? I know I will be! =)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

60% Iron Man Organic Snakcast

In the continuing saga of me sampling new foods, I tried an Optimum Nutrition Complete Protein Diet bar (peanut butter flavor), featuring 20g protein, and it's sugar-free with no gelatin.

I also tried a Universal Nutrition Animal Snak bar (chocolate-peanut crunch flavor), with 30g protein, and quite tasty; and a Prime Health Think Thin Low Carb Diet bar (s'mores flavor).

I also tried some Earthbound Farm organic raisins in the snack packs. I thought the kids would like them, too, but apparently not. And, since I've apparently been consuming quite a bit of dark chocolate lately, I have another one to report on: Hershey's Extra Dark with Cranberries, Blueberries, and Almonds (60% cacao). Mmmmm.

In non-food news, researchers recently found two more security flaws in Firefox. Great, now I'll get even more flak for wearing my navy blue Firefox shirt around the office. =(

I watched the 2007 Iron Man Pro Men's Pre-judging this morning via live webcast, and can't wait for the Finals tonight, also available for free via live webcast.

Live 2007 Iron Man Pro Webcast

Are you going to watch it?!   =)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Dark Nutty Bush Trek

I recently tried some Isopure Zero Carb protein drink (blue raspberry flavor). Tasty, and an excellent source of protein! It's packed full of 40g whey protein, and has no aspartame, no preservatives, 0g carbs, 0g fat, 8,880mg BCAA's, is sweetened with sucralose, and is lactose-free.

On the flip side, I also tried a weird 'new' (at least new to me) candy bar from the Maverick gas station: Twin Bing, the nutty chocolaty cherry treat! Only mildly tasty, in my opinion.

In more chocolate news, I also recently sampled some Hershey's Special Dark, limited edition, w/ Raspberry flavoring and Mauna Loa Macadamia pieces - only 45% cacao - but a good source of flavanol antioxidants. This was just days after also trying a Hershey's Extra Dark with Macadamia nuts and Cranberries - 60% cacao, this time, mmmmm! =)

Back on the healthy front, I also sampled some ReddRox vital hydration drink - no sugar, no caffeine, no calories, replenishs electrolytes & antioxidants, no carbs, no calories, no fat, no protein, lots of minerals, and made from 100% organic South African red bush needles. Not the tastiest drink around, but not bad if mixed with juice.

I finished listening to the "Star Trek Voyager: Mosaic" abridged audiobook on cassette during the commute to work and back over the past week. Very cool, very suspenseful. Recommended.

I swear Jim Britain is trying to fatten me up. He also recently handed me some York Chewy Mints (w/ dark chocolate), and some Hershey's Cacao Reserve Truffles (35% cacao) - milk chocolate, not dark, but sometimes you have to compromise. LOL - thanks, Jim! =)

I've been listening to Dan Sindel's "Symphonic Guitars" Podcast - classical music on electric guitar. Very awesome, I especially liked Vivaldi's "Four Seasons - The Spring."

Monday, January 22, 2007

Pink Vinyl Axfighters

I've been enjoying some 'lost' musical gems lately - on vinyl records. They include:

Emanuel Ax - Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata & Eroica Variations
Glenn Miller - The Best of Glenn Miller
Al Hirt - Cotton Candy
Nat 'King' Cole - 10th Anniversary
CBS Special Products - Pipe Organ Spectacular
101 Strings - "The Sound of Henry Mancini"
Boston Symphony Orchestra - Mozart: "Jupiter" Symphony & Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Plus other gems found at local thrift shoppes. =)

Becky, also, has been taking advantage of our new record player, an Audio-Technica AT-PL50, that Heather got me for Christmas. Becky found some short kid's stories on 45's that come with a book, and she's been enjoying the likes of Jack & the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Peter Rabbit, Curious George, etc. Good stuff. =)

We viewed a few films over the past couple of weeks, including "The Pink Panther" (2006; Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyoncé Knowles) on DVD, and "Joseph: King of Dreams" (2000) on VHS.

I've also knocked out a couple of audiobooks recently, as well - "Star Wars: X-Wing - Starfighters of Adumar", and "Thought Patterns of High Performance People," a 1981 seminar by Louis E. Tice on audio cassette.

As for recent supplement products, I've recently tried some new Diablo Ice energy strips, Solaray L-Glutathione, some Nature's Way Turmeric, and a trial size bottle of iForce Nutrition's Amplified Thermoxyn fat burner.

Becky's got quite the green thumb, it turns out. Here's a status update photo of Becky's Paperwhite Narcissus flowers (just 3 weeks old):

Paperwhite Narcissus

At work, I've been busy trying to stay up-to-date with both of my blog teams on the 2007 Iron Man Blog & the 2007 Transformation Blog Contest. That's a lot of blogging! =)

Monday, January 08, 2007

Rumpole's Snicket Map Fiasco

We enjoyed listening to "Rumpole à la Carte" by Sir John Mortimer, as read by Frederick Davidson, an excellent narrator, on Blackstone cassette audiobook - one of the best audiobooks I've had the pleasure of listening to (ever)! The reading in an excellent British accent really made this series of stories believable and entertaining.

We watched "Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events" (2004; Jim Carrey, Emily Browning, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Coolidge, Cedric the Entertainer, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall) on widescreen DVD a few nights ago. A great film, especially if you had already read the book (as I had), and the all-star cast made this film truly excellent.

Google Maps has gotten depressingly worse over time - so much so, that it's almost impossible to print anything anymore, especially in the latest browsers. It's a shame, too, because it used to be so good and easy to use, but now it sucks so bad.

It's gotten to the point where the most efficient way to get a printed-out map is to first get the map the way you want it, then take a print screen (take a screenshot), save it to your desktop (as an image via Photoshop), then use the built-in Windows Photo Printing Wizard to actually do the scaled printing (as nothing even comes close to printing images as well as it does). A few extra steps, yes, but the results are always better than trying to fight with the scaling issues presented by the browsers themselves and/or by Google's scaling options.

The problem is that Google and the browsers are fighting against each other over who is going to try and scale the images onscreen to your printer's sheet of paper. The browsers by themselves can print regular webpages scaled pretty well (sometimes), and Google maps - in a older browser - used to be okay, but when you have the two of them both trying to do the scaling, it's a retarded mess.

Since the browsers aren't going to change anytime soon, it's up to Google to remove (or improve) their scaling and print logic, otherwise I'm afraid it's pretty much unusable.

In brighter news, we helped a family move into our ward on Saturday, and we also attended a baptism for a new sister in the ward. Overall, a great day (except for the map printing fiasco which sparked the aforementioned rant)! LOL

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Movies and Blogs

Yesterday, in between blogging, errands, shopping, grazing, and bowl games, we took the kids to see "Open Season" (2006; Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Sinise) at the $2 cinema, and also viewed "Mission Impossible 3" (2006; Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Maggie Q, Laurence Fishburne) at home on DVD. Great stuff! =)

I switched over from the old version of Blogger to the new version, and luckily, most everything works. I've noticed a few bugs with blog links going to the wrong locations, etc., but it still works for the most part...

Monday, January 01, 2007

BSU Wins the Fiesta Bowl!

Congrats to Boise State University on beating Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl in an amazing overtime win, 43-42! Great game! =)

First Boring Post of 2007

As I sit here eating a luke-warm bowl of Chocolate Malt-O-Meal, yet listening to some wonderful classical music from the Magnatune Mozart podcast feed, I've decided to kick off the new year with a short blog regarding a few new items of general interest.

First off, college football: it seems that any time that UNR has had anything to do with Boise recently, they always lose, including last night's MPC Computers Bowl loss [results]. LOL

And, of course, BSU is also playing Oklahoma tonight in the Fiesta Bowl in just a few short hours. BSU is only the 2nd non-BCS school (after University of Utah in 2004) to be in a BCS (Bowl Championship Series) bowl game.

Yesterday, we enjoyed some wonderful Sam's Choice White Cranberry Peach flavored juice cocktail, as well as some Chocolate Malt Ovaltine. This was in addition to the DareDevil Energy Drink that I also had enjoyed the previous day after inventory at work.

This morning, Becky and I planted four Ziva Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs using an indoor growing kit. 4 to 6 weeks from now, we should have some nice fragrant flowers assuming Becky remembers to water them each week... LOL

Today is also the official start of the BodySpace 2007 Transformation Group Blog Contest. Check it out!