Steins

The past couple of days when Hannah wakes up in the morning one of us gets up and carries her from her crib to our bed, where she lays down in our bed with us for about 20 minutes, as we watch her Little Einsteins DVD, which she adores.

Well it turns out that after they got back home from dropping me off at work Hannah decided she wanted to continue watching her movie, so she somehow climbed up onto our king sized bed, plopped herself comfortably down into our 450 thread count sheets, found the remote, turned on the TV, and somehow figured out how to play the DVD and she sat on our bed solo watching her "Steins" (thats what she calls them.) Luckily Heather caught a video of it, as well as a few photos.

Enjoy!

The Simpsons

Here is what I would look like if I was to live in the animated city of Springfield. If you would like to make your own Simpsons character feel free to go to the movie website and partake of the fun!

The Simpsons

Click on the image if you'd like to get a closer look.

4th of July

I'm a little late but who cares I used vacation time from work and so I had a long weekend, I was off 4th to the 8th. July 4th we were invited over to a friends house with a bunch of other families with little kids for a bar-b-que. Hannah had a blast playing with everyone, the food was good, and they even had vanilla coke, and A & W Cream Soda. We ended that day shooting off small fire crackers in the front yard of the family hosting the party. The entire time I was like is it legal to shoot off fire works here or something. I let Hannah hold a sparkler, and shake it around and she enjoyed that. The rest of the time I was chasing her around in the heat while everyone else was watching the little fire works go off, and other kids continued to play with sparklers when coming up the street was two police officers, and they slowly came to a holt infront of the house. They calmly told everyone that they were illegal and that someone was going to have to recieve a ticket, and the rest of the fire crackers would be confiscated...

Thursday & Friday were spent relaxing around the house with the family. We watched a few movies, I played with Hannah, we made a few trips to the store and the mall, and that is about all I can remember.

Friday was my moms birthday, and Thursday night Mark had arrived in San Antonio. I wanted to get down there on Friday, but it didn't pan out, and we ended up leaving for San Antonio Saturday morning when we woke up.

It was pretty awesome because almost my whole family was together, we were missing my sister Shauuna and her family. I can't even remember the last time my entire family was all together, so having this many of them was a big treat. Kelly and her son Trevor (3) and daughter Lauren (1.45) had already been in town visiting for a week, Matt is living in San Antonio, and Ethan is still living with mom. Then Mark his wife Mo and their 3 daughters Maile (4) Michaela (2.5) Marissa (2.5) all had made the trip down, and then Me, Heather, and Hannah (2) showed up. It was a very full house to say the least. Hannah had a fabulouse time with all her cousins and uncles.

We left Sunday night around 7:30 after we ate some of Kelly's delectable meat loaf, & letting Hannah swim with Trevor and Lauren in Kelly's blow up pool in the back yard, and also letting Lauren and Hannah take a bath together.

Sadly we forgot our camera so no pictures or special moments were captured, for now all we have is the memories infused in our minds and hearts which hopefully can transcend time.

Movies Watched:

Black Snake Moan (intresting.)
Driving Lessons (Stars the red head from Harry Potter has a good Soundtrack, and it was a funny movie, also a good story.)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Disapointment.)
Blood Diamond (I really enjoyed this movie.)
The Groomsmen (Funny, sad, depressing, but ends happy. It should make you laugh a few times though!)
Fur (wierd.)
Little children (intresting way of telling the story through narration, it was intresting, a few wierd moments, a few moments where we were both laughing pretty hard, and other moments where I was worried, with suspence, the ending is a bit ho-hum, but it doesn't end as a tragedy like I was worried it would.)

Ethan Haas?

Well for that lucky multitude of people who were able to see Transformers already in theaters (me NOT included.) They all saw a very intresting and short trailer for an untitled movie which is either being called "Cloverfield" or "1-18-08" You can now see the preview here. There has been quite a bit of buzz about this movie, that apears to be some what of a blair witch project type movie where it is being filmed by ordinary cameras, as if it is simply eye witness accounts. Atleast thats how the trailer is. The movie is JJ Abrahms projects, he is the guy behind LOST.

Anyways here are a few links to sites related to the movie, I've become quite obsessed with figuring out everything, to learn more. One site has a bunch of puzzles that you have to unlock to be able to see a short and fuzzy video of a guy named Van Mantra who is giving different clues and information.

Ethan Haas was right.
Ethan Haas was wrong.
1-18-08.
Ethan Haas

If you are tired of trying to find the answers to the puzzles yourself, here is the cheaters guide.

Cheaters Guide.

My take on everything right now, is that I think it is going to be a movie based on The Book of Revelations, which will be an end of the world movie. I think Ethan Haas is playing the role of the Anti-Christ, thus the whole double website with Ethan Haas was right, and Ethan Haas was wrong.

Anyways the comments on Ethan Haas was wrong has basically turned into a forum of discussion and speculation from everyone trying to figure everything out as well. Also if you drop by You Tube and do a few searchs for all those names you will find plenty of videos on the same subject. Just search for 1-18-08, Ethan Haas, Cloverfield.

Happy huntings!

Morning Bliss

I feel the movement on the pillow as if someone popped their head up, and then a high pitched little voice says, "Daddy! Are you sleeping?"

I reply, "Yes"

The small voice quickly says, "ok"

Then plops her head back down onto the bed and hugs her yellow blankey closer to her and inserts her three fingers into her mouth and begins to softly suck on them. That only lasted for a few seconds because then a much louder and stronger voice came from out yonder, "SHANE, YOU NEED TO GET UP AND START GETTING READY!"

The little head popps back up, "You gna get dressed?"

I reply, "Yes" as I slowly roll myself out of bed and slide on a pair of soft nautica blue jeans, and walk out into the kitchen. Then I hear that small voice still in the bedroom crying out, "Help me, Heeeelp me, Heeeeeeeelp me!"

So I went in and picked her up and carried her through the house as I finished getting my things together....

Smells Fishy

As we both inhaled, the air entered our nostrils and ignited our memory as we walked down an empty isle (empty of people though the shelves were stocked to a comfortable level.) Our thoughts were perfectly in sync though Heather vocalized them first as she turned and said, "Something smells good."

I replied in a mellow tone drowning, and some would even say hiding my excitement,"Yeah smells fishy..."

At the end of the isle was indeed a trusty employee behind a small table which was covered by a simple white tablecloth, but their was nothing fishy about what she was handing out. Our suspicions only grew when we rounded the corner stopping briefly to get a few more items checked off the grocery list (cheese, and hamburger buns.) only to find a similar employee behind an almost exact replica of the previous table only she was more energetic as she invited us to try a thinly sliced sausage at the end of a pretzel stick. Hannah was more excited about the pretzel portion as she stopped momentarily from pretending to drive in our shopping cart/race car. It wasn't until we began our journey towards the fruits and vegetables that the rather appetizing scent of fish became increasingly stronger. We looked forward to see what was causing such an enticing aroma. We approached the small table with the simple yet aesthetically pleasing white tablecloth and grabbed a small white cup with a very small slice of Alaskan Salmon. It was delectable to say the least, the kind lady behind the table politely pointed us to the area behind her where they had this fine specimen of the sea on sale. We then briefly consulted one another and decided on it's cheaper cousin the Atlantic Salmon instead and then quickly came up with a game plan of complimentary foods to accompany our new found dinner. We came to the conclusion that a freshly baked potato garnished with the regular butter, cheddar cheese, and Bacos as well as some canned green beans from that jolly green giant mixed with some diced tomatoes and a few pieces of greasy bacon would do the trick quite nicely. Heather also was feeling a bit salady so she entertained her desires with a few small items to satisfy the apatite.

It was our first time ever cooking fish, and when I say ours I clearly mean Heather's since she did all the cooking. She was a skittish to say the least over what the outcome would be, however when the plate was finally dressed with the baked potato, green beans, and beautifully cooked Atlantic Salmon it was indeed a beautiful treat. Heather did a fabulous job, and it made for a rather sumptuous dinner.

Warning: This could be viewed as an over dramatization of the actual story. Not to mention both a salmon and three potatoes were harmed even killed in the process.

I do however miss Barnacle Bills immensely...

Defined:

"Graphic design is an archaic description of the current practice of design. When design simply involved issues of form, it was graphic design. When the designer was responsible for both the form and content of messages, it became communication design. Today, the designer is responsible for communicating complex messages clearly, considering the form and content of a message and also the context in which the message is received by audiences over time. We consider this experience design. Design is the intermediary between information and understanding; its role is to make the complex clear and useful. Great design does this in a way that elevates the spirit."

-Ric Grefe, Executive Director, AIGA, New York.

I myself consider myself a "Communication Designer" but when I say that most people look at me wierd, so I say "Graphic Designer" they still are confused but atleast they have heard of that term before. Then I still ahve to explain what exactly I do.

Basically I design communication in whatever format that maybe ie logos, brochures, direct mailers, magazines, websites, advertisements...

Movie Review: Shooter

A short synopsis of the movie for those of you who have been living under a rock, Mark Wahlberg is a retired sniper from the US military that get's recruited to help find a shooter who is going to attempt to assasinate the president from shooting him a mile or more away. The FBI ends up attempting to frame Marky-Mark Wahlberg for the shooting, but he amazingly slips away and is on the run through the rest of the movie.

If you can get passed a few pointless slow motion shots, and Danny Glovers highly annoying wisper voice, you should be able to enjoy a really good action packed, big explosion, the bad guy get's it in the end movie.

Marky-Mark delivered some decent one liners, but the best part of the movie for me, is the fact that Marky-Mark was able to stay calm cool and composed in any situation without his "Funky Bunch." Despite a few cliche aspects of this movie in the beginning of the story, it's always enjoyable, atleast for me, to see a movie with one of those heroic characters that is able to squeeze his way out of any situation with only a few scrapes and maybe a couple gun shots to the leg or shoulder.

Creature of Habit

Hannah always gets into these routines, and once one starts it's almost impossible to stop. A few that I can remember in the past have been having to obsessively compulsively take every single toy in site to bed with her as she was leaving the room, going outside to play everyday when dad gets home from work (still happening,) after taking a bath you have to let her keep the towel and she walks around rapped up in it, also DAD has to carry her for a undertermined allotment of time as she is wrapped in the towel and has her head slung back looking at the world upside down as I spin her around in circles.

Well unfortunately I wasn't able to recall very many of her past "things" but onto what I really brought you here to read, so her two NEW routines are:

1.) She has to eat dinner sitting on my lap, which also in tells eating off my plate where she feeds me the first couple of bites, I suppose to test it out, because after that she takes all the bites herself. If she spills any food off the fork and onto her she freaks out until I get it off her as well.

2.) Every morning for some strange reason I have to pick her up and carry her everywhere I go throughout the house as I get ready until we get outside or to the car to take me to work. Also if she wakes up and I am not in the house she freaks out...

Even when we go outside to play the same exact thing happens, I even try to change things up a bit, but she WONT let me, she like freaks out, and stands there and looks at me and says, "Come on! Come on!"

What happens is when we go outside she has to have her toy Cadillac Escalade with a few toys that she will either hold in her hand or tell me to, "Take this!" When she forgets her truck, she quickly remembers soon after she leaves the door, and has to turn around and run back inside and get it. Then she rolls herself down the walkway to the play ground where there are three steps to get down, so she gets off the truck, I grab it and carry it down the stairs as she walks down the steps. Then I have to carry the truck across the play area to the other side where their is a sidewalk. I set the truck down and she gets on, and then I have to follow her as she strolls her way all the way down to the end of the sidewalk, across this small metal gutter cover thingy, that makes an interesting noise as she rolls over it, which she enjoys so she rolls over it a few times gets off the truck and then begins to jump on this metal cover thingy so she can hear the thump, and if the noise itself wasn't enough she makes her own mocking noise as she jumps, and I also have to do it with her. When I don't she runs over grabs my hand and pulls me over there almost forcing me to accompany her. After that I have to carry her truck up this sidewalk to the front of the pool, and the back entrance to the front office. There she enjoys picking flowers and running around in the patio area, getting up on the benches and trying to hide from me in the bushes. Then she returns to her truck and we roll down this sidewalk where she always gets off at the exact same spot, tells me to, "Take this!" meaning her truck and I carry it following her as she walks around the basketball court, and around the complex until I can finally convince her it is time to go back inside.

The other day Heather decided to follow us outside, and Hannah began to do this "routine" of hers, and Heather wasn't wanting to follow her, and Hannah snapped, went coo-coo for coa-coa puffs frustrated Heather to the point that she decided to go inside, and then me and Hannah did our Thang! and everything was as the cool kids would say, Cooler than a polar bears toe nails! (or maybe thats just what I say?)

Other than that, Heather and I both have been doing a bit of cleaning up with our computers, which for Heather means she is having to back up two years worth of photos of Hannah and deleting them off of her 40 GB hard drive that is almost obsolete in the world of computers these days. Especially since she is using like 30 GB's of space as of right now with pictures and music...

Movie Review: Summer 07, vol. I

Reno 911 Miami:
Basically if you enjoy the TV show then you are going to enjoy the movie. It's pretty much a two hour long episode uncut & uncensered.

Come Early Morning:
Stars Ashley Judd, who plays a depressed (I call it borderline psycho.) girl living in a small town in the South. She spends her free time getting drunk and having one night stands, then come early morning, she wakes up gets dressed and tries to sneak out and never talks to the guys again, until she meets a new guy where she attempts to do the same thing, and is persuaded to actually try to get to know him, when all the supposed pain her father's infedelity caused her in life has also reulted in her having commitment and trust issues, and she gets down right psychotic.

Their is hardly a scene that she doesn't have a beer bottle in her hand. So what appeared to be your average everyday love story chick-flick ends in a disapointing mess of unresolved issues, and only hinting at happier times in her future. Feel free to miss this one all together since you probably didn't even know it existed in the first place.

Catch and Release:
This movie stared Jennifer Garner, and the basis of the movie is her fiance died coming home from his bachelor party, after his death he begins to find out all of the secreats he was keeping from her, while doing so she falls in love with his best friend (one of them.) The movie made me lauph a few times, and it even ended well, meaning it resolved all the issues, or concerns, and everything but ONE thing is answered. The movie is a bit slow at parts, and the love story is a bit awkward, and unrealistic, well thats the best I can do at summing it up atleast. To put it simply the story itself was a bit shakey, however the soundtrack is spectacular, the only problem is the cinemotagraphy didn't quite live up or match the music very well.

I will say that the movie was worth watching, and it left me with happy thoughts and feelings, so that is good right?

Breach:
Ending on a good note. this movie was really intresting, and a bit disturbing concidering it is based on true events. The movie is about the greatest security breach in US history, where an FBI agent has been leaking info to Russia since the end of the cold war, and it wasn't until 2001 that they finally caught him and brought him down. The only disapointment was that they never really tell you why he sold out the country. It's definetly a movie worth declaring a Blockbuster Night for...

I always find it funny that the movies I dislike often times are the ones I have most to talk about. I just want you to know the real reason behind that, is because I don't want to ruin the good movies, now the bad ones i want to give out a solid warning so if you do watch it anyways you definetly can't say I didn't tell you so...

Off Season

Another great NBA season, as well as basketball as a whole came to an end last night as Ginobali took over the game last night and not too mention a key steal by Timmy, and multiple rebounds in crunch time. Some how despite Timmy solid and consistant play throughout the finals and the play-offs as a whole, Tony Parker was awarded the Finals MVP award for leading his team in scoring and leading the league in dribbling and dribbling, and dribbling until he can finally create his own shot. Timmy I'm sorry the league frowns upon consistancy, and smiles upon ill advised shooting, and accesive dribbling and holding the ball.

We can now look back at some great moments in sports that occured throughout the college basketball scene, and the entire 82 game NBA season. Kobe may not of went off for 80+ again, but he did have a long span of 50+ games in a row. Let's not forget about some really great performances by my man Gilbert Arenas. Steve Nash had yet another stellar MVP deserving season, Amare Staudamire is back, killing fools in the paint. The bulls are back in the building, Detroit blew yet another opportunity, Miami choked themselves through the entire season, and an embarrassing showing in the play-offs.

As for College we can look forward to what was a young but talented North Carolina team to return next year ready to make a strong run at bringing home another title. Some great young players will be leaving and entering the draft, some of which should ignore the hype and stay another year, but wont, let's just hope they don't end up like Marcus Pfizer (who was supposed to be the man in the NBA.) or Stomile Swift, (who is still a HUGE disapointment.) Jonathan Bender, (where is he?) Kwame Brown (there still may be a very small amount of hope left for his career.)

MOVIES:
Now is the time where I go on a blockbuster safari to fill the void in my chest. So stay tuned for variouse movie reviews throughout the summer and into the early fall.

The Breakdown

Well if you are a graphic designer, web designer, or the likes there has been a lot going on lately, I'm a bit late to chime in on any of it at all, havent really had much time to actually sit down and gather my thoughts, but I'll do my best to give a quick breakdown...

BAD LOGO
Well if there was ever a way to throw away $500,000.00 this is it my friends. When this logo hit the public's eyes everyone ripped it apart, it even made Good Morning America, and I read about 5-6 blog entries about it, after that I just quit looking. I'm speaking of the 2012 London Olympic's logo that the 80's threw up and took $500,000.00 dollars to the bank for. To read up on the amazing logo click here.

GREAT INTERVIEW
From the talented folks at SmashLAB's blog Ideas On Ideas is an interview with Erik Spiekermann a very talented Graphic Designer, anyone starting their own business or running their own design business can definetly benefit from the insites he gives.

The Interview

WWDC 2007
This is THE confrence for designers, this is the confrence where Steve Job's gives his presentation of all the new things about to come out. This confrence didn't fail to deliver a handful of goodies, with Leopard (the new operating system for MAC.) coming out right around the corner, he gave out a few sneak peaks at some of the new features for MAC's new operating system, as well as apple redesigning their entire website. Also I'm sure most people have already seen the comercials but the iphone hits stores June 29th. Not to mention Safari is now available for Windows, so all you windows users out their feel free to follow this link and download a much better and faster browser for your internet pleasures.

Download Safari

Sizza

Heather pulled into the parking space and quickly explained, "I'll just jump out and get it."

In the back of th car a big voice exclaimed, "SIZZA! SIZZA!"

As I looked back I saw the cutest little girl in the whole wide world pointing her finger vigorously forward. I think she was a bit excited to say the least.

However this story gets a bit more entertaining.

You see the essence of Shane is very weird, and most of the aspects that make me who I am are flat out strange and don't always make much sense, at least to the average Joe taking his average steps through life’s journey. So in the essence of Shane lies a few quirks some of which are, when ordering a drink from a restaurant he always asks for no ice, and when purchasing a fountain drink as well, wearing basketball shorts underneath his clothing at all times, & ordering a hamburger dry (without ketchup, mustard, mayo, or any other sauces.)

The one we are here to talk about today deals with this thing called "SIZZA." You see we arrived home with our Sizza and breadsticks in toe, and sat down at our small table and began to eat. My official routine is to pick off all the cheese and toppings and eat it separately, then I eat the pizza, as in the bread and the sauce with the cooked in flavors of the cheese and whatever other toppings came along. So if you glance over at Hannah while she is eating her Sizza, she is doing the EXACT same thing as her father....

How hilarious is that, well some of you may lauph, but as for me I hold my head up in pride, that my daughter is not only beautiful like her mother, but she got her astounding smarts from her father, thus meaning she knows how to eat Sizza the RIGHT way.

Redesign

Over the weekend, I put in quite a bit of time at the home computer and redesigned my personal site, now I just need to gather up some of my newer work and update that portion of the site as well. So you can be looking for that hopefully sometime this month.

Anyways to anyone who reads this humble blog of mine, please bounce over to my site and leave me some comments here letting me know what you think.

My Website.

I would like to invite you to excercise your brutal honesty with all feedback please!

Fortune Cookie

Better Late...

I was waiting to upload some photos of the party to be able to share, but it's taking me too long, so I'm just going to make a quick post about it for now.

This past weekend was the Royal Celebration for our little princess Hannah. Heather's entire family came into town and stayed at our house on Friday - Sunday. So that Friday her mom and brothers showed up in the late afternoon, so we kinda hung out while we waited for her dad's plane to land which kept getting delayed because of bad weather. He finally got her after 6:00pm so we ended up meeting him at Red Robin for some burgers and good conversation. A magician was even entertaining us through most of it.

I took the day off on Friday, because that was Hannah's actual birthday, so the beginning of the day was spent treating Hannah to some fun times, she loves to play anywhere, so we decided to take her to McDonald's for breakfast. So I was able to eat a sausage McGriddle, which is literally heaven between to pancakes. After that we hit up Toys R Us and an hour later we walked away with two gifts for Hannah, neither one was the actual toy she spent the almost the entire hour wanting.

Saturday was the big day, the beginning was spent relaxing, watching TV, and playing a little two on two basketball with the McCallons until Caleb quit the second game, but stayed on the court at least for all three. Despite Jacobs constant nagging to go swimming me and Matt held strong to not got swimming for breakfast, and to wait for the opportune time later in the day. We got back and ate some delectable sandwiches and watched Nacho Libre until around 1:50 when people started to arrive for the party. I was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call from my brother Mark informing me he was in Waco and on his way to the party with his three girls. Then a little after 2:00 pm my Mom, my brothers Matt, Mark, and Ethan all arrived at my complex, with a little humble directional help from a directionally challenged guy (me.)

The party went really well, it took Hannah a bit to warm up, and leave me lap, and not have me hold her everywhere I went. For the longest time she would not leave my grips without throwing a fit and crying. It was kinda funny I held the cake down to her level with a lit candle and people started telling her to blow the candle out, and so she quickly leaned in and blew that candle right out, only it was before we even started singing. So we did that a bit backwards, but it was all good. Then we started opening her presents, and it only took Maile and the twins (Michaela & Marissa) helping her open the presents to finally catch on that she was getting cool, stuff then she started opening them all by herself.

After the presents everyone went outside to play some more, and Mark, Matt, Ethan, & I all took off to the basketball court to get some old time two on two Guymon games going. It was Mark & Me against Matt & Ethan. Me and Mark won two and lost one. So we went home winning the series. In the last game Mark brought the thunder and threw it down ONE HANDED on poor old Matt. Matt also got his three point shot utterly rejected by myself in one of the games.

Fun Times, Fun Times!!

Finally Jacob's nagging paid off because after everyone left we meaning me, Matt McCallon, Jacob, Caleb, & Hannah jumped in the pool and had some true summertime fun. After that we went back to the apartment in time for some good ol' Bar-B-Que Grand Dad Mac was grilling up. We ate some Hamburgers, Chicken, Potato Salad, & Baked Beams, and it was all quite scrumptious, with enough left overs to feed me lunch the rest of this week thus far to boot.

Sunday we ended up just hanging out watching The Italian Job and talking quite a bit about eating lunch, but it never happen, then their was a scuffle, and a few frustrated people loaded everything up in a truck and took off back to the far far corners of East Texas to the beautiful land of Buna!!!!

So I'd like to thank everyone who made it out for the shin-dig, it was a lot of fun, and Hannah really appreciated ALL her gifts, and ALL the company, she even cried when the McCallons left, she was REALLY sad to see them all go, despite my various scams and plans to get them to stay ONE more day. I was just happy the ENTIRE family was able to make it to the event, it was good to have EVERYONE together, along with some really good friends.

(missed at the party was my sisters Kelly & Shauna who both live too far away to make the trip, but I consider you both at least present in heart & Spirit, Kelly even called to wish Hannah a Happy birthday, (only she called my MOM to do so,) funny how things like that work out. Speaking of that Mark if you are reading this, can you please tell Matt Happy birthday for me when it comes around again?)

Looking Back

I was looking through the pictures on my flickr account and came across this beauty, and I was just noticing how fast time flies. This is to say that this photo isn't even that old of a picture. I think it was taken around 6-8 months ago and I can still notice how much Hannah has grown and changed physically. Because her personality has stayed the same since she was around 6 months old.

That’s why I really make a strong attempt to live in the present as much as possible and try to soak in as much as I can and appreciate every moment because in a sense it is the last of that particular moment. It's funny because we take pictures in attempts to hold onto memories, and instances in time, but the most beautiful moments seemed to be captured in the mind, and sadly if you are me, the mind seems to let things fade and blur over time.

In fact just this past Sunday at church we were sitting out on the couch and Hannah was running around playing and she would run over to me and smile and giggle and then take off. The innocence and beauty in her eyes radiates from her, and her happiness becomes contagious with each little giggle and cheesy little smile. I am truly going to miss her little giggles, and I'm going to miss that little girl that yells for her daddy as her mom carries her off to bed at 2:00am. The girl that likes to push and pull me around the playground, the little girl who likes to drag me on long walks around the complex climbing up and down three flights of stairs just to turn around and walk right back down (without her daddies help.) That little girl that randomly runs to give her dad a hug throughout the day; the one who yells, "Shaaaaaaane!" from inside her room so I can go in and become her little slave. The little girl who has learned how to open "child proofed doors" to get to the little Reases Peanut Butter Cup candies, stealing 5-6 a day.

So many memories that I hope will never fade, and here’s at least one photo helping me hold strong.

Accountability

"I tell you the Lord places no sin in our lives. He has made no man wicked. … Sin was permitted in the world, and Satan permitted to tempt us, but we have our free agency. We may sin or live righteously, but we cannot escape responsibility. To blame our sin upon the Lord, saying it is inherent and cannot be controlled, is cheap and cowardly. To blame our sins upon our parents and our upbringing is the way of the escapist. One’s parents may have failed; our own backgrounds may have been frustrating, but as sons and daughters of a living God we have within ourselves the power to rise above our circumstances, to change our lives."

Spencer W. Kimball

The First Swim

As soon as her feet hit the ground when Heather lifted her out of the van coming home from work yesterday she immediately started asking and pleading to play. I had to spend a little quality time on the porcelain, so I told her she had to wait a few minutes. She surprisingly patiently waited for me to finish before pleading her case again.

The Playground:
We left the apartment and before we reached the playground she quickly remembered and began crying out, "car, car" so I turned around with her and opened the door and she ran inside jumped on her toy Cadillac Escalade and began pushing herself out the door. When we got to the playground it was in the upper 90's so we started walking with Hannah towards the pool where a few kids were splishing and splashing away in the pool. I took off my shoes and decided to walk around in the water to see how it felt, and it was GOOD!

Her First Steps:
Hannah reluctantly got off her car, and made her way to the pool, where she leaned over and touched the water with her hand first, then Heather tried picking her up and letting her stand in the water, and she began to cry, so we sat her down on the edge, and she slowly began to kick her feet in the water, then slowly she decided to stand up and slowly inch her way over to me.

We jumped on this chance and ran back to the house and got her in a swimsuit, and I myself decided to dust off the old Nike swimsuit and go for a dip. When we came back we repeated the same routine, and before you knew it she was splishing and splashing away as she laughed and laughed.

And Then Came the Confidence…
Well I grew tired of sitting in 6 inches of water and made my way to the deeper section of the pool to fully immerse myself in the soothing water, it was surprisingly warmer in the deeper section of the pool. So I decided I was going to stay there, and slowly Hannah worked her way over to me, and there is first a step down, and it took her some time to grow up enough courage to make that next step, but as soon as she did it once, she loved it, then she I was able to slowly but surely hold her and swim around the rest of the pool, until she grew so comfortable with that, that she decided she didn't need me to hold her anymore, and she could do it herself, and tried pushing and kicking herself away from me. I held on tight and tried explaining that she wasn't THAT big yet. She has yet to believe me thus far.

Heather ran and grabbed a floatey tube thing that we bought her last year, so we put her in that, and at first she loved it, and began kicking and laughing and playing, I was pushing her around the pool and spinning her around in circles, and then all of a sudden the tube began to be too restricting for her, so she began to cry out, "help, help, help." as she began to lean forward and try and work her way out of this floating device. She saw that other kids were able to maneuver around without problem, and her father was also doing the same, and no one was using these silly floating devices, so why should she.

We then made our way back to the 6 inches of water we started with, and the old saying, "give some one an inch and they will want to be a ruler" (or something like that.) became all too true with Hannah.

Transformer's Update

Straight from Michael Bay's website is the awesome hi-res images of all the characters in the new Transformers movie which hits theaters July 4th.

Optimus Prime
Bumblebee.
Starscream.

Frustration

Frustration began to weigh me down over the weekend, after Houston's loss in game seven. My phone began to vibrate with variouse text messages from Mark informing me of what I OBVIOUSLY already knew:

1.) Tracy McGrady once again will not make it out of the 1st Round of the Play-offs
2.) Tracy McGrady sucks...

I took a few days to recover, and moved all of my attention forward in delighting in the fact that Golden State blew out Dallas in game 6. Furthermore my happiness was only added upon with a blow out last night in Phoenix against the Spurs to tie up that series as they head into San Antonio for game 3.

IN OTHER NEWS

Hannah is doing quite fabulouse, we tried to get her into the swimming pool over the weekend, with no prevail, although she is obsessed with leaning over and sticking her hand in the water, and attempting to throw whatever debree she can get her hands on, into the pool. I think a huge part of her not wanting to get in the pool has to do with the fact that she HATES when you take her shoes off. Speaking of shoes, she is on this kick where she wont let us put any shoes but her tennis shoes on her feet when we leave. She specifically demands that you put them on, by screaming, "shoooooooes! & socks!" at you until you get the correct pair. We prefer sticking sandals on her feet, because we don't have to search for a tiny pair of socks for her to wear.

MOVIES:

"Deja Vu"
Starring Denzel Washington, ended up being not as GREAT as I thought it was going to be. That in no way is saying I didn't enjoy the movie, it just wasn't as good as I was expecting. The ending was kinda blahzey to me, and it didn't go into the whole theory of time travel as much as I thought, and well, it didn't cover a whole lot that I was thinking it would.

"Children of Men"
Although I wasn't satisfied with the ending in any way at all, I thought the movie was very intresting all the way through to the end. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who loves almost every movie dealing with the future, and time travel. I always find it intresting how people interpret where life is taking us, and how people will react to specific occurances throughout time.

In this movie supposeldy in 2009 women will begin to mis-carriage, until finally every human girl will become infertil, the movie never really tells you WHY this happens, only that it happens. The world is in chaos, and every city is pretty much destroyed, and chaotic accept for England (which is highly unbelievable solely on that point alone,) which was the only city to somehow maintain some stability, only, because of this, every person in the world is trying to sneak into England which has caused a HUGE problem with immigrants and keeping them out of LONDON, so anywhere you travel outside of the city, you run into a chance of being attacked by radical immigrants trying to fight back. Also even in the city their are radical terrorist groups (who are really the good guys) bombing different public places trying to fight back against the government.

Anyways the story really takes off when they are trying to get an illegal immigrant that miraculously became pregnant and has the baby along the journey to find a safe haeven with scientist, or some group that is trying to cure this problem. They are a mysteriouse group, that most people don't even believe truly exist. Along the way the group trying to excort this girl run into many problems along the way.

thats a long review for a movie I hated the ending too.


My movie watching always slows down dramatically come Play-offs, and March Madness.

Triumph

Good Bye Dallas! Time to go fishing baby...

5 Simple Rules For Happiness

1.) Free your heart from hatred.
2.) Free your mind from worries.
3.) Live simply.
4.) Give more.
5.) Expect less.

The Baron

How sweet is it to watch what Golden State is doing to Dallas. I am loving it, and was quite peturbed to find when I woke up at 6:30 this morning that I had fallen asleep and missed the end of the forth quarter, it definetly wasn't out of lack of entertainment, but pure exhaustion. Luckily for me there is ESPN.com and Sports Center to give me the details of what I missed.

On Saturday I heard my phone "buzz" telling me I was recieving a text message as I was watching Houston and McGrady get molly whopped by Utah in game four. Game three wasn't televised, thank goodness, because it was bad enough having to watch game four. The text message from Mark read, "My Spurs will walk into the finals... TMac stuck in 1st round hell forever." So I replied, "I hate you." I'm really hoping that McGrady can get motivated to take over back in Houston for game 5, because come crunch time McGrady wasn't showing up in game 4 and it was quite frustrating to watch.

Other than that, Heather has been sick the past couple days. We had an ice cream social that we helped organize this Saturday that had a fairly good turn out, and Hannah had a whole lot of fun eating ice cream and running around a huge field trying to keep up with all the other kids. I suppose she is starting to make some friends, because when I went to drop her off in nursery on Sunday a little girl saw her and said, "HANNAH!" and got out of her chair and ran over and held her hand and they ran off together and I broke out and went to class. there's no other big updates, as you can see my life is mostly consumed with the play-offs, and I spend most fo my free time in front of the television trying to enjoy all the games before I get sent into Sports Center remission as it turns into 24/7 highlights of fast balls, and double plays, which my by me saying I could care less about would be an understatement. Baseball may or may not be a fun sport to play as that is still up for debate, and watching it live may or may not be America's past time, but you can't get much worse than watching it on TV, and then to have it totally consume entire segments of highlights on Sports Center, well quite frankly thats a travesty, so it's a good thing their is such thing as the blockbuster pass because that my friends is when I go into a Sports Center hibernation and just about every night becomes a Blockbuster night....

A Royal Celebration

As many of you may know Hannah's birthday is coming up next month, and so to commemorate such a wonderful occasion we have decided to put on a "Royal Celebration" all decked out in the latest and greatest Disney Princess attire with matching plates and cups to boot. The invitations are being mailed out to a select group of individuals which were specially designed by Yours Truely (Your One Stop Shop for all your design needs.)

There will even be a little goody bag to take home so not only does Hannah get to recieve gifts, but everyone gets a little something as they leave. We are hoping and praying for a sun filled day, because our plan is to have the party outside, as our apartment is truly fit for a King, it is not equiped for the entire kingdom...

Wheather depending you may want to bring a swimsuit as our kingdom is equipped with a very enticing pool. Stay tuned for other updates, to stay abrupt on all the latest and greatest news.

Play-offs

I'm a bit late with my picks however I'm sure you still wont mind me giving them right?


Houston Vs. Utah
I am taking Houston over Utah, with the remarks that McGrady made in a recent interview with Scoop Jackson of ESPN, where he basically said that if they don't make it out of the first round this year, he is putting the blame on himself. I personally feel that if and when McGrady has determination behind him, he is virtually unstopable, I mean we've seen it with 12 seconds to go in San Antonio a few years ago, and we saw it in the second half of game 1 against Utah this weekend.

Denver Vs. San Antonio & Dallas Vs. Golden State
I have a feeling that Denver is going to upset the Spurs but it's going to take 7 games to do so.

I think Dallas will win the series with Golden State, but I see this one going 7 games as well. Especially if my man Baron Davis keeps playing like he did last night.

Phoenix Vs. Lakers
The MVP Steve Nash will lead his team to victory in a six game series to the AMAZING Kobe Bryant. I just don't think the Lakers have a good enough team to withstand all that Pheonix has, I mean last year it went to 7 games, but last year, Pheonix didn't have Amare Stadamire. Not to mention last year Kwame Brown was actually living up to his potential for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant is amazing so I think he will make it difficult but it wont be enough in the end.

In the east, it's a little bit more tricky, just because I really think it's anyones game, and just about every team has a legitamate chance at surviving, well accpet for Orlando, but here we go.

Miami over Chicago
Detroit over Orlando
New Jersey over Toronto
Washington over Cleveland (My boy Gilbert can play!)

Hover Box

I recently designed the update to our business website here at Practice Cafe. I recieved a bit of help in the beiginning stages from my good friend Bucky. After a few over the phone tutorials with Bucky I was then able to take off from there and handle the rest solo. I was also able to learn a few new tricks without Bucky's aid.

One of these tricks came when my creative director Joel, decided he wanted some of the items in our sample section to blow up a bit larger, I found a helpful tutorial here So from their I was able to apply it to our website, and I think it worked out quite nicely.

the best part about the solution is that it is all done completely with CSS, which means it is really just one image, which helps on the loading time, & the time in which to create the effect. Also the action is basically creating a container that is floating over the top of everything else which was perfect since the way the site is designed I only have a specific amount of space to work in.

QUIPSOLOGY

"Tracy McGrady
The lost MVP candidate this season. Lemme know if any of these tidbits interest you:

A. The Rockets were 50-21 when he played this season and 2-8 without him.

B. When Yao went down for 32 games with a fractured kneecap, T-Mac carried the team to a 20-12 record and boosted his stats to a 29-6-6 for that stretch.

C. Other than Yao, his best teammates were Shane Battier, Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard, Dikembe Mutombo and Yugoslavian gunner Turdo Sandowicz.

D. On a personal note, I don't trust basketball stats beyond a certain level because they can't interpret somebody's general impact on a game. Tim Duncan averages a 20-10 every night with two blocks ... does that measure everything he does for the Spurs? Of course not. Along those same lines, T-Mac and his cousin finished this season with almost identical numbers (a 25-5-6 for T-Mac, a 25-6-5 for V.C.), but unless you watched the games, you wouldn't know that Vince happens to be a streaky offensive player, a moody teammate and a defensive liability, and T-Mac happens to be a great teammate and superb all-around player who only goes for his numbers when absolutely necessary (like when he recently bumped his numbers to push Houston into the fourth seed).

If you asked 100 NBA players who they'd rather play with between Kobe, Vince, Arenas and T-Mac ... T-Mac would win the vote in a landslide. You win with Tracy McGrady. Wasn't always the case, but it's the case now. He's a true superstar. Now he needs to prove this in the playoffs. Please."

see Page Two for the complete story.

Hand In Hand

Depending on wheather I usually take Hannah outside to play on the little playground outside every day when I get home from work. She will usually head straight to the slide, and go down the slide a few times and then she kinda just wonders around a bit, yelling at other kids, and jabbering.

The last couple of times she has gotten on this kick where she will run over to me and grab my hand, my leg, my shirt, and proceed to push, pull, or attempt to drag me to where she wants to go, which is walking around the complex. So we will proceed to walk hand in hand around the complex as she jibbers and jabbers to me the whole entire time. If I stop she will get behind me and start to push me to keep going, it's pretty comical.

The problem is she has carried this to the house as well, so when I am sitting on the couch she will come over to me and grab me by my head, arm, leg, shirt, or whatever she can get ahold of and continue to strain, grunt and groan until I get up, where she will then pull me or push me into the kitchen so she can get ahold of something she shouldn't have, so then I ahve to tell her no, and she begins to throw herself on the floor, kicking and screaming!

So we just ignore her, I go sit back down, and after a few minutes she will stop, and everything returns to normal (well as normal as life gets with an almost 2 year old.)

What is wrong with this picture?

Some how the Number 1 story on CNN.com is that, "Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby," does anyone else see a problem with that?

With a war going on, and everything else going on in the world, the top story is who is the freakin Father of Anna Nichol Smith’s daughter?????

Transformers

I saw the new trailer for Transformers this weekend while actually talking about the movie (new and original cartoon) with my two brothers Matt, and Ethan. I can't wait for this movie to hit theaters, especially since it is starring "Shia LaBeouf" I really enjoy his movies, and the characters he has played.
Every preview I watch for this movie I get more and more excited. It's not one of those movies like Spawn that I got super excited cause I used to collect the comic books, and then you go see the movie, and the costumes and special effects are so horrible that it is a complete let down. You see with this movie, Michael Mann has gone all out to use some top notch special effects, and the action that he is known for.

As a kid I remember watching the cartoon all the time, and then we would go play with our transformers toys even more. Even as I got older and the cartoon was no longer on TV, I would randomly rent some old episodes from the local movie store just to refresh myself of some of those good old childhood memories. I can't say I'm a fanatic, but I am definetly a fan.
Here's a link to the site that I found the two trailers on for your viewing pleasure.

enjoy.

Routine.

Just about every night I will be laying on my wonderful maroon pleather couch, as Heather is lounging on our love seat across the room. We will be watching one of our shows (or Heather's lame reality shows.) Hannah is usually running around in circles singing, dancing to every commercial that has music (especially Old Navy, and Target commercials.) She will carry her blanket, milk, and toys back and forth between me and Heather and climb up to sit or lay with one of us as she takes very short breaks between her playing. Then 8:15 rolls around and Heather will usually ask, "Hannah are you ready to go to bed?" Where Hannah will stop what she is doing scan the room to first locate her blankey, then she will proceed to try and gather up EVERY toy that she sees in the room, usually saying, "sody, sody" or whining as she does so, because she doesn't think she is going to be able to get all the toys she wants in time. So her mommy helps her carry some because some she will hold with her teeth, to free up more arm space, then she takes off to her room, and runs straight to her crib. She will proceed to play a bit on her own in her bed until she falls asleep for the night.

Every night is a priceless treat to watch this take place.

In The Life of Hannah

Hannah has extended her vocabulary a bit, sometimes it takes us a few days to realize the translation of the words. None the less here is a list of a few words and phrases:

1.) "sorry" which is pronounced "soddy"
2.) "Where'd it go"
3.) "Wow"
4.) "Uh-oh"
5.) "nanny" (which for some reason is what she calls her "Blankey")
6.) "nemo" (she spins in circles or gallops in circles singing this word over and over, not sure why)
7.) "Jew" (which means "Juice" which refers to ANYTHING she drinks, wheather it be milk, soda, or actually juice.)
8.) "Dah" (this is how she say's "Dog" which we recently found out a bear is a dog also)
9.) "Cheese"
10.) "AHHHH-CHEEEEEEW!" (she loves to pretend to sneeze REALLY loud.)
11.) "Slide" (she LOVES to go down slides!)
12.) "Shane" (Hannah loves calling me by name.)
13.) "tooth" (whenever she sees a toothbrush, she loves to pretend to brush her teeth.)
14.) "tee-tee" (which is pee.)
15.) "poo-poo" or "doo-doo"
16.) "shoes"
17.) "Socks" (and she'll say, "shoes and socks.")
18.) "baby"
19.) "pooh" (for her stuffed pooh bear.)
20.) "Diego" (the cartoon)
21.) "Ball"
22.) "I see" (when she wants something you have.)
23.) "Here ya go."
24.) "Honey" (Heather refers to me as honey alot.)
25.) "No" (her favorite word.)
26.) "Blues Clues"
27.) "Mommy"
28.) "stop it." (this was one of the first phrases she started saying, but doesn't use it as much any more.)
29.) "roar" (She will roar or growl and then want you to chase her.)
30.) "bock-bock" (cause thats what a chicken says.)
31.) "Hey"
32.) "Hudo" (which is "Hello")
33.) "Nanuh" (which is by far her favorite fruit, she usually requests it as soon as she hits the floor in the morning, "Banana")
34.) "daddy" (yes she still accosionally will call me dad as well.)
35.) "Eyes" (usually as she is poking yours.)
36.) "nose" (as she attempts to tear her's off her face.)
37.) "Les Go!" (obviously "Let's Go!")
38.) "Psycho"
39.) "I know" (She just said that last night.)

There's more but I can't think of all of them. As I remember I will update this list.

Also Hannah has grown a new love for stickers, where she will stick them on everything and take them off until there is no more "stick" to the sticker. She loves to eat pizza, she loves to jump, and she is actually able to get both feet off the ground and land, even when she is standing on my chest as I lay on the couch, of course she lands on her butt in that case.

Hannah can locate:

Eyes
ears
feet
fingers
hands
arms
belly (she will lift her shirt up and run around the house.)
butt
mouth
nose
ear
head
hair

Stranger Than Fiction

A week ago I watched a movie that I had been anxiously awaiting it's release date onto DVD. I was mostly excited about the fact that the movie had one of the funniest people alive in the starring role. So I was VERY pleasantly surprised when I found out that the film was even more impressive with its cinematography, and motion graphics that were brilliantly displayed on the screen. The music of the soundtrack helped to paint the picture of the emotion and theme of the movie as well. Here is an example of all of these aspects.

As the movie went on I became more and more entertained by both the actors, and the story itself. I was trying to figure out how everything linked together. Near the end of the film I was so impressed I almost left immedietly to buy a copy. Instead I refrained (it was late at night.)

Later I spoke with a friend about the movie, and he asked me if I had watched some of the bonus material, and I said, "no I hadn't." He then went on to mention how they have a behind the scenes look at the company who did all the motion graphics for the film. So now I REALLY want to either rent it again, or buy it so I can watch that portion of the DVD.

The typography, icons, and simply the graphics in general were just awesome. This is the first movie that I can remember that has taken this aproach to help tell a story, and it greatly inhanced the movie, and helped illustrate what was going on in the characters head.

So anyone who hasn't seen the film, get to the nearest video rental store, or head to your nearest Target, Wal*Mart, or Best Buy and get that movie, you can thank me later.

For Your Consideration

I first rented this movie a few weeks ago when it first came out, but then Blockbuster tricked me with their mis-advertisement of the greatness that is the Online Movie Pass, where I thought that Blockbuster totally rid themselves of late fees, and all movies had a two week renting time span before they just would hit you up with the cost of the DVD, as if you bought it. So I took back my movies I recieved by mail online and rented "For Your Consideration." took it home and tried to watch it that night, but I laid down in my BIG comfy bed and it was a little too late because I fell asleep and then ended up having to take it back before I got charged late fees.

This weekend I went back and rented it again, and started watching it earlier to avoid the whole falling asleep thing. The movie is about a group of unknown acters making a small low budget movie, while in production some of the actors catch wind of rumors floating around on different websites of some of the acters being nominated for Oscars.

One of the best things about this movie was it had one scene in paticular that I can totally relate to, where their is a graphic designer showing the Producer of the movie a few examples of different concepts she came up with for the movies promotional materials, such as movie posters, and DVD covers. Everytime the Graphic Designer would try to explain the concept behind the design, they couldn't ever get it, and were just so far off and more intrested in what made them feel good, which one of the samples had a picture of a guy holding baloons, and they went off on how Balloons make them happy, and reminds them of a party, but didn't really have anything to say about how it corresponded with the actual movie it was for. You would probably have to be a Graphic Designer to actually be able to apreciate this scene of the movie. Kind of like the business card scene in the movie, "American Psycho."

Net Worthy

You may of noticed a few subtle changes to my blog (all two of you who look at it.) On the side bar with my advancements in html, and CSS knowledge in the past few days I have learned how to make a few customizations. I've always wanted to have this feature on my blog, but never knew how to do it. Now I know, the main addition is a section labeled "Net Worthy" which are basicly all the things I find on the web that some would call "Note Worthy" since we are on the "Net" I am labeling it "Net Worthy." I am going to try and do the best I can at keeping that updated every time I find something worthy of sharing. Should be fun!

**UPDATE** (1-18-08)
I recently added a flickr badge to my sidebar which shows the 3 most recent photos I uploaded to my flickr account also providing a link to view all of my recently uploaded photos.

Quote of the Week.

Well it's Funday (Friday) and I came across this quote which is well worth anyones time who may stumble across this lonely blog and stay the few minutes it takes to read...

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our character, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender, charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God...and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in Heaven..." (Orson F. Whitney)

Bracketology

Bracketology
Originally uploaded by shaneguymon.

Well my friends as promised here are my picks, please click on the image for a complete set of photos, outlining all of my picks up until the end.

Make any comments you would like regarding my picks, I would love to see and hear about everyone elses predictions.

Pretty much every year my bracket always ends the same, and this year is no exception, so as always my pick for the winner of the whole shabang is North Carolina!

The Office

My Desk
Originally uploaded by shaneguymon.

We've been in a bit of a transition stage right now, but we are moving along, and I am really enjoying the work. I've been able to see four of my direct mailers printed, and their is an indescribable feeling of being able to see something you created on paper in mass quantities. Then to know that a couple thousand people will be receiving it in their mailboxes three times in a year, is also a very unique feeling. On top of all that you then take in the humble thought that 90 % of those people will most likely throw your creation in the garbage 20 seconds after viewing it is just mind blowing. Do you realize that my creations will literally be decorating the earth for the lifespan that paper has before it bio degrades or is recycled into someone else's trash.

Of course there is that very rare possibility that someone will like it so much that they will actually hang onto it, hang it on the fridge for a month, and actually give my hard work somewhat of a home and a life. At least I am able to grab a few out of the box, and keep them safely tucked away from the dust in my portfolio to have a lifetime of possibilities. They could win me a prize at a competition, impress another employer into giving me a job with even better pay, or they could one day be the reason for a promotion in this company.

I have a few websites that are in the works as well, that should be hitting the world wide inter-web in the VERY near future, as well as some potential logos in the works, those two things have much longer lifespan then the glorified garbage I create in the direct mailers and postcards.

MADNESS!

Let the madness begin, UNC won the ACC confrence tournament solidifying a number one seed in the NCAA tournament on Sunday which resulted in calling me excited a complete understatement. Since I don't have a working printer at home I had to wait until today to come into work and print out a few brackets for my guessing pleasure.

After I get my bracket completed I will be sure and update this and give everyone my picks for the final four and the WINNER!

I'm hoping to include pictures as well, just to make it that much of a more pleasant reading experience, I say all of this, but my lazy nature, may get the best of me, and before you know it their will be nothing but solid text.

I once had aspirations of having atleast one picture go along with EVERY post I make on this blog, and I have a flickr account which facilitates that for me, and yet it only lasted for ONE post thus far...

By the way "Dashboard" by MODEST MOUSE, is definetly the song of the month, and making a strong arguement for song of the year!

WORD.

Disapointment

the Office was a re-run again last night, and well quite frankly they can't do taht to me two weeks in a row. Thursdays are really a night that Heather and I look forward to. I mean I had to sacrifice and somehow make it through some lame episode of American Idol where they spend an hour just to tell us who is getting kicked off, that should be like a five minute show, yet somehow they turn it into an hour. It was especially hard when I knew the ACC tournament was on, and Duke was playing NC State.

Luckily NBC redeemed itself by having a brand new episode of Scrubs, which provided me with a sufficient amount of lauphter to feel my night. Of course then I went and jumped on the computer and spent an hour or more on the computer searching for music to feel my play list on VIRB.

I have to just throw this out there though. Jim on the Office reminds me of my boy Chris Burkman, so Chris I don't know how you got a show , but you made it, and your practicle jokes are hilariouse, especially liked the one where you put the stapler in the jello, and when you hid the cell phone in the cieling... AWESOME!

VIRB.COM

Although it basically serves the same purpose as myspace, it is so much not like it that the entire wave of people on the myspace bandwagon should hop off as quickly as possible and totally embrace this fresh new idea on how these things are done. On a code perspective the site is designed with web standards in mind. If you know css, and html you have so much freedom in the design aspect of custamizing your own personal site that it's insane.

You can sink your flickr photo albums to your virb profile, you can upload your own videos and share them with the world, you are able to have a 15 song playlist, and a personal player on your profile that feature three of the songs on your playlist to share with your friends. You still ahve the blogging aspect, you can still creat groups, find your friends, and all that hoop-la!

Go to virb.com now, find your favorite bands, listen to their songs, watch their videos, get a list of their upcoming shows, and just JOIN!

The Shimmy Shake with a twist....

No matter what moves I try to do I just can't seem to shake whatever viruses and bugs are out on the market these days. I seem to be getting them all. I usually try to stay ahead of the game and get the extra edge on the opponents.

In High school you could find me in the gym every day after school shooting 50 3 pointers on each side of the court which would equal to 100. Then I would play pick up games until around 5:30 - 6:00pm. (of course that also didn't REALLY work since I spent my senior year sitting the bench)

While in Brasil I never set my barefoot on Brazilian soil, I took my worm medicine every six months, and took a shower every morning.

Lately I have been washing my hands like Melvin Udall (bonus points for anyone who can tell me who he is.) and frequently rubbing hand sanitizer gel stuff on my hands as well, yet somehow this weekend I still ended up with a low grade fever, my stomach twisting and turning as if I had some small alien living inside me (perhaps I should call up Tom Cruise) and spending the majority of my time either laying in the fetal position on the couch or sitting on the toilet (I won't go into too much detail with that.)

This all started on Friday, and for some stupid reason I chose to lead my church team to a loss. So evidently I'm not Michael Jordan, but I definitely would of appreciated Scottie Pippen draggin me off the court after the game.

RANDOM BASKETBALL UPDATE:
Speaking of Scotty Pippen the latest news is saying that he may be returning to play for the Lake Show with Phil Jackson, I have always been a Pippen fan, even in his years at Houston, and definitely his under-rated years with Portland, and even when he decided to go back to Chicago to finish out his career. (Although I secretly wished Jordan would of gotten him to come and play along his side when he came back to the Wizards.)

RANDOM OTHER NEWS UPDATE:
In other news I was listening to my favorite morning show on the way to work, and because of their guest I tuned into the remaining portion of the show via the World Wide Web, because they had my main man Timbaland on, which he helped create a phenomenal album for Justin Timbalake, and now he is promoting his album which is going to drop on April 3rd, which includes a song he did with Fall Out Boy! How insane is that? They played the song on the air, and it is a good song. Although I HATE what he did with Nelle Furtado, just because it sounds exactly like Furge, (who I also HATE) who sounds like Gwen Stephanie (who I also dislike) So as you can see it's an inevitable chain reaction that can not be stopped. Of course I've never been a fan of Justin Timberlake either, until "Cry Me A River" came along, and now this album, and BAM I'm a fan and I got his album on my ipod shuffle, and I'm listening to it just about everyday as I work, and even as I type this post...

RANDOM MOVIE:
In entertainment news be sure to rent "For Your Consideration."