Premier Family Dental

My most recently designed website went live this past week. I'm really proud of what I have been able to accomplish in the ways of web design. I've been designing websites off and on for the past 5 years now. I wish i was able to somehow get all the websites I've done online as an archive so I could truly show you my progression from the beginning up until now. Actually I think I just may be able to do it. It will take some digging, and I think it may be worth it.

It even features such beautiful things such as this coupon which was drawn by me and tweaked by my creative director and friend Joel.

Anyways go ahead and click on the images to see the site Live & direct and In Full Effect!!!!

In the near future we should be able to add some actual pictures of the Dentist, as well as her office. Personally I feel this is the best site I have designed that is currently live and in it's natural habbitat.

Enjoy.

Broken Poptarts

Poptarts from Shane Guymon on Vimeo

Every morning for the past little while Hannah wakes up and comes and lays down in bed next to us while we watch The Disney Chanel cartoons. Eventually she will turn to me and say that she wants a poptart and KOOL-aid. The funny part comes, when she starts to eat it at some point the pop tart will begin to crack and break off at some places. When this occurs it is a terrible thing in the eyes of Hannah, so she begins to frantically tell me that the poptart is breaking and begins forcing me to take it from her hand and manually break the piece off and hand it back to her.

This morning even more evidence of her wierdness came when watching Mickey Mouse Playhouse, where Mickey was on the hunt for "RED" gummy fish and found them in a pond, only he had to rent a boat from the bad guy. The bad guy was napping in front of some tied up raftts and a cat began to play with the rope and then they show that the rope begins to come lose. At that moment Hannah begins to physically CRY and say, "oh NO! oh NO! the boats, the boats." When the boats fell on the sleeping bad guy she began to cry and tell me to fix it.

The same thing happens whenever she drops food on her while eating, or when her hand gets dirty. Also if she finds a lose string on her clothes, or blankey.

So it appears Hannah is a bit O.C.D.

The Invisible

I watched this movie this past weekend and enjoyed it. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting from the previews, but the soundtrack alone won me over. Just check the listing of artists:

"Music for a Nurse" by Oceansize
"Fashionably Uninvited" by Mellowdrone
"Wolf Like Me" by TV on the Radio
"Under Pressure" by Kill Hannah
"Bliss" by Syntax
"Open Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol
"Body Urge" by The Great Fiction
"Taking Back Control" by Sparta
"02-20 Boy" by Suicide Sports Club
"Stars & Sons" by Broken Social Scene
"Weak and Powerless" by A Perfect Circle
"Caterwaul" by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
"I Will Follow You into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
"Perfect Memory" by Remy Zero
"You're All I Have" by Snow Patrol

They open the movie up with a dream sequence that plays out as though it were reallity, which was kind of reminicient of Garden State. The acting is not great but good. I thought the two main characters (I didn't recognize any of the actors.) did a good job, some of the others weren't so great. The story itself is good enough to keep your attention. I felt it was a good enough movie to grab some snacks and stretch out on the couch when none of your favorite shows are on, and, "make it a Blockbuster night."

In My Ears

Lately I have really been into Pinback. I recently was introduced to them by my friend Angie. They have a real nice laid back sound, perfect to pop on some head phones and bust out some super fly funky fresh work.

New Photos

Click on the picture to see a whole slew of pictures I added yesterday to my Flickr account. I'll be adding the ones we actually took last night tonight.

Happy Halloween

It seems we have a fun night ahead of us, atleast if all goes as planned. We will have our camera with is at all times, and hopefully be able to capture the moment and share it with each and everyone of you.

Saturday we had a slight preview or a practice run at our church where they had a trunk or Treat along with a carnival with games and food (a chile cook-off.) They had a halloween costume contest where Hannah got robbed. Hannah really enjoyed going to each car and saying "Trick or Treat!" and left by giving a healthy "Tank you!" She lasted a decent amount of time holding her own pumpkin which all the candy was being thrown into. It wasn't until we were almost done and on the home stretch when she it finally got too heavy for her and she asked, "Help you!" which really means, "Help me!"

Funny thing is, lately at night she comes and sits on my lap with a pen or something and if she can find it her small handheld piano thingy, and says, "I wanna sing tinkle tinkle little STAR!" so we sing it as she either pretends to play something by tapping the pen or other object on my arm, or she will pound on the toy piano pretending to play. When that song is done she will look at me and say, "I wanna sing abcd lmnopeeeee!" So I sing the alphabet song as she repeats the same musical actions. It's lots of fun but it never really has an end....

NBA Preview 2008

A few pre-season games have already worked their way into the national progamming schedules of ESPN & TNT. This Thursday on TNT will be the first double header Pre-season game, and the season officially starts on October 30th.

So with no further adieu let's talk some basketball shall we. As soon as October hits, my blood starts to run a little swifter through my veins as the excitement begins to build up from the holidays... yes, but also because of the basketball season starting up. I slowly work ESPN and Sportscenter back into my rotation of what to watch on a daily routine basis, and ESPN the website becomes a daily stop throughout my daily surf threw the intraweb.

Teams I'm Excited to Watch:
Phoenix:
Has been my team since obtaining Steve Nash, not so much because I am a Steve Nash fan (although I am) but more because they are an exciting team to watch. They put up 100+ points a game and mostly shoot threes. Which is basically the way I enjoy playing when I'm found on the hardwood. So I will be looking for them to make it deep into the play-offs. They made a few small moves in the off season the biggest being that they signed Grant Hill, I'm not sure how smart of a move that was, but I'm anxious to see how it plays out.

Celtics:
This is the team that made the biggest moves in the off season and obtained two of my favorite players, thus making my heart twitter with that much more glee. Seeing as how I was raised in a Larry Bird home, Celtics was the team I rooted for from birth. Up until I learned of the greatness that is Michael Jordan where I quickly was converted into a loyal Jordan disciple which effected my life on and off the court. Moving forward I am happy that I now have a renewed interest in the team and will once again return to my roots and become a very avid Celtics fan. I can not wait to see what the trio of Kevin Garnette, Ray Allen, & Paul Pierce will do to an already weak Atlantic Division.

Spurs:
Well let me start out by saying NO I AM NOT A SPURS FAN. Most people who do not know me very well will automatically assume that because I was born and raised in San Antonio that I would obviously be a die hard Spurs fan, however due to the ridiculous nature of "Spurs Fan," I have been left drained and unable to be associated with such a RETARDED group of people. That being said, I'm not a moron, so for me to just simply HATE the Spurs would be equally ridiculous. They are obviously either The Best, or one of the best teams of the last decade. Tim Duncan is the best big man in the league right now, and in the top 3 if not 2 players in the NBA altogether. Also I am a huge fan of Ginoboli despite his terrible ability to act, and over dramatize fouls on the court. So the Spurs are definitely a team to watch by any fan of the sport. Besides they are the returning champs, and seeing as how they have yet to repeat, it will be interesting what the season has in store for them, especially since they really didn't make any changes.

Houston:
I used to be a huge fan of Tracy McGrady, because of this I have always recieved a great amount of ridicule and late night phone calls or text messages from family and friends reminding me each and everytime he didn't come through and choked. So due to the fact that for the past 3 or 4 years he has consistently NOT produced, but instead he is consistently disappointing. I have taken a huge leap off his bandwagon, and am no longer promoting Tracy McGrady as nothing more than a decent ball player, who HAD a lot of potential, but that is NOT living up to it. With that being said Houston did make a few moves this summer, one huge one is bringing in a new coach with a new style of play. That alone sparks up the slightest hope that perhaps T-Mac will return to the greatness that he once was on the road to becoming. One move that I definitely think was RETARDED was Houston bringing Steve Francis back to their roster, kind of a BONE head move if you ask me, and might even be a worse fit than Steve being in New York. That move alone could very well bury any and all chances of Houston surviving the West, unless some how Steve learned how to lead a team and pass the freakin ball. However the last memo I recieved they weren't teaching anything like that up in New York, nor were any camps being held in Orlando, and last I checked even the Fun Police have retired.

Washington:
Each and every year for the past 5 years I am becoming more and more of a fan of Gilbert Arenas, and he has quickly climbed up the latter of my favorite players list. I could care less what the rest of his team plays like, well I shouldn't say that because I would love for him to have a strong supporting cast, but at the same time that won't stop me from watching him play. Just like the I never stopped watching Allen Iverson play with the 76ers.

Denver:
With Carmelo Anthony improving each and every year, and the fact that this will be the first FULL season Melo and Iverson (another favorite.) share the court, also they should be a lot more healthy as a team, so they should be pretty solid.

Sacramento:
Is going to suck BAD this year, they seem to be totally rebuilding their team, their coach has found a new home on the Houston Rockets sidelines, and I'm not totally positive what moves were made as far as players being added and subtracted goes, however they do still have the highly streaky and inconsistent play of Mike Bibby who in my opinion has the sweetest looking jump shot in the NBA. That reason alone keeps me tuning into their games. I get goose bumps seeing how beautiful his shot is. Sadly it seems that Sacramento sealed their own fate when they decided to trade Chris Webber and try to build their team around a guy who only had success because Chris Webber was on the court. (Peja Stojakovic. **100 bonus points to anyone who can tell me what team he plays for without looking it up online.**) It seems the team has gone on a swift downward spiral ever since.

I don't have any real solid predictions for you, in regards to who is going to win the championship, or who's going to win "ROY" not even a name for who's going to lead the league in points, however I will leave you with this

MVP:
Steve Nash, Kevin Garnette, LeBron James (It will be one of them.)

A Few Photos

Here is a photo of Hannah wearing her new pumpkin shirt.

Here is a sequence of photos I like to call The Many Faces of Hannah.




A Weekend With The Family:
This weekend we met my mom, Matt, & Ethan in Taylor, Texas at this Bar-B-Que joint that was featured on the Food Network, and I believe some magazine as well. It's called Louie Miller Bar-B-Que. I totally meant to grab my camera and be able to have some photos to share of the fun times, but I forgot to grab it as we walked out the door. We did have a good time though, and the food wasn't too bad either. OF course it wasn't any better than Tom's Ribs, which is my favorite Bar-B-Que joint in San Antonio.

Getting Older

"I check my face, I look a little bit older..."

So I turned 27 Sunday, and so whenever your birthday lands on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday that means the entire weekend becomes your birthday (atleast in my mind.) So Saturday my mom was supposed to make a trip with my brother Ethan to visit me and take us all out to dinner. I received a call around 8:30 as I was following Hannah through an empty yet brand spanking new Super Target, on the phone was a familiar but raspy voice informing me of the bad news. It was my mom informing me that she has been and still is sick, and wasn't going to be able to make the trip. It was sad indeed, but I decided to make the best of it and still enjoy the weekend. Hannah decided she wanted to look for bugs in target and was growing annoyed of me being on the phone instead of helping her, so we said our good byes, and I slid my cell phone back into my pocket and went on the hunt with Hannah.

Saturday was a pretty chill and laid back day, we walked around the mall a bit, hit up Baskin Robins for a two scoop Sunday, where Hannah decided my ice cream was her, lucky for me she shared. then to end the night I hit up the movie theater, sadly the last time I was at a movie theater was on my birthday last year. Anyone that knows me know that I am into about 3 things, Basketball, Movies, and music. If you ask me what I want to do I'm always going to chose going to the movies. It's hard for me to explain but there is just something about the experience of watching a movie in the theater. It may be due to the fact that I have a lot of memories of going to the movies with my father growing up. Then also that is something we also did as an entire family, and me and my brothers share the same passion for making a trip to the theater. It's been difficult to go recently one with Hannah, and two with how much the cost of admission these days. However there is a $1.50 theater not too far away, and I would love to make that something to do once a month or even once every two months.

Anyways so I was able to see a movie Saturday night and I had a lot of trouble making a decision on what to watch. My choices were:

The Kingdom
Michael Clayton
We Own The Night
3:10 To Yuma
The Darjeeling Limited

The only two of those movies showing in the theater closest to me was The Kingdom & Michael Clayton. So I decided I didn't want to travel to far, so I limited my decision between those two movies. I read a couple reviews and finally decided on what was reviewed as being more action packed.

The Kingdom:
This was a GREAT movie, it far exceeded my expectations of the movie. Right from the opening credits and the graphics that were used to display a timeline of events to give a history of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia in regards to oil. It was beautifully done, and pulled me in right from the get go. The movie itself only got better as it went on uncovering more and more secrets, and ending with a lot of big explosions, and shootouts. The movie was also very cleverly filmed where there were many parts where it appeared as though someone was just walking around following these FBI agents and documenting it. There were a few shaky camera scenes to ad a bit of realistic touch. All the acting was up to par, and the music went well with the movie, perhaps not as cleverly as Wes Anderson does in his movies, nor was there as much pain staking detail as Wes Anderson puts into his movies, but that's not the type of movie that this was. It was a great way to end my night.

Sunday, which was my actual birthday was very low key and laid back. It was spent the same as all of my Sundays. We just lounged around the house, went to church, came home, ate dinner, and watched football with a few sprinkles of television shows. I also was able to squeeze in, Reign Over Me, which was a very nice and enjoyable movie as well.

Pushing Daisies

My all time favorite show thus far out of all the new shows that have kicked off this fall season is Pushing Daisies. I love everything about the show. The story is good, the acting is good, the set and costume designs are superb, and my all time favorite aspect of the show is the way it is narrated in it's, "Lemenony Snickets, A Series of Unfortunate Events" manner.

Be sure to tune in every Wed. 8/7c on ABC.

Elevators

Fresh off the presses, I turn 27 on Sunday October 14th, so mark your calendars and hit up your local Nike store, or good ol' fresh cash is always accepted as well. As a default I am always satisfied with a good ol' fashioned card, if it can make me laugh that will gain you extra bonus points. E-cards are also accepted but frowned upon unless they evoke a solid (not a courtesy) laugh.

In other news, I was recently, and by recently I mean Friday around 3:30, informed that I am getting a significant and also sufficient raise that went into effect October 1st. Not too shabby indeed my good friends out there...

I was looking back on a few old entries from blogs I have kept in the past, and came across this beauty that caused some beautiful memories to flood my brain.

"We both arrived on time...
which is good, I'm usually never on time.
I sat down as she approached the window to sign herself in
I began to read, It's a book I have been trying to finish for a few months now
I'm pretty weird when it comes to reading,
I enjoy reading but I go through spurts where I actually set aside time in my day to read...
It's really a matter of turning off the TV long enough to pick up a book.
Everyone who showed up after us seemed to get called in before us.

Finally I found myself all alone in a room sitting in a chair in the corner,
My wife was urinating in a cup...
I was left to my thoughts as I held my book in my lap.
Soon the silence was broken, and it wasn't long before the lights went out..
The only thing lighting the room was the screen, and the little amount of light that the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door would let pass through.
Before I knew it my little baby was on the screen in a very abstract way.
I struggled to be able to make sense of what was being shown on the screen.
The doctor tried her hardest to make sense of all the madness...
After staring into the screen long enough it finally made sense, and I saw her...
It's a girl!
It's so amazing to think about me being a father...(and scary)"

Reading through some of those old entries it's nice to remember the road I've traveled to reach where I am. That bumpy road has made me into who I am today. The crappy night time job I had taking catalog orders for Lane Bryant, Lerner, Chadwicks, and Brylane Home, as I was going to school full time. From their I got an internship that led to a more enjoyable job with low and painful pay. Then Hannah blessed our life and I kept pushing myself and pushing myself learning and growing through each and every bump in the road. It's fun to read my thoughts, and the different stories I shared. I really need to take the time and print all of it out or save it on a CD or my computer, maybe even all of the above.

"We moving on up in the world like elevators."

Fall

The new Fall television line-ups have officially been kicking off. So last night was my favorite night of television. Starting at 8:00 was an hour long episode of The Office on NBC. Where we found out that Jim and Pam have hooked up but are trying to keep it a secreat. Not to mention Michael was up to his shananogans by starting the episode off with hitting one of the employees in the parking lot.

After that I flip it to the "FX" chanel to catch another hilariouse comedy that not alot of people know about. It's called, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. The great thing about it, is they ahve been showing back to back new episodes. So that brings two hours of laughter into my life.

Other shows I'm watching:
How I met your mother (Monday)
Scrubs (New season hasn't started yet.)
Big Bang Theory (atleast the first episode.)
Psych

I also want to watch:
Life
Chuck
Las Vegas

hmmm, I'm drawing a blank and can't think of the others.... (I'll be updating this list as I remember.)

What are you watching this fall?

Landmark

I recently finished up a project for a dentist in Littleton, Massachusetts. I first did a Direct Mail campaign for him, which was followed up with a website. This in itself isn't that unusual at my job. In fact I have designed 10 direct mailers and 4 websites since I have been working with Practice Cafe. With two more Direct Mailers in the process of being printed, and another 3 Direct Mailers still in the design stages. I also have 4 other websites I am currently designing.

There are a few things that make this project different and special:

1.) This is the first website I hand coded in valid XHTML, & CSS. It is the first time I designed a tableless site solo.

2.) It was the first time I did the design of the site on the fly as I was coding it.

What do I mean by that? Well usually I would design a site in Photoshop or Illustrator. Then after I came up with how the site will look, I take my design and use it as a blueprint as I create the actual website.

So this time I just started designing and creating the site on the fly all in the code. I tried to rely as much on the power of CSS, and as little as possible on slices and images.

My only help in creating the website was this wonderful book called, CSS Mastery.

3.) I touched on it a bit in number one, however I believe this deserves it's own number. This is the first site I created that is valid. I'm sure there are quite a few readers out there that have NO clue what I am talking about. Well if you click on the link "valid" you will see that it takes you to a website that has a green bar that reads, "This Page Is Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional!" So this basically this is the first time I created a site on my own that I got a GREEN bar. Which means my code is correct, and should be understood by most if not all browsers.

Anyways I hope that Stephen Gianino is as happy with the results as I am. Also anyone living in and around the Littleton, MA area feel free to visit Stephen Gianino, check the website for a list of services, and any other info about his practice.

From A Cookie

Last Saturday I went and picked up some lunch at Panda Express and inside my fortune cookie was this fabulouse fortune dropping some knowledge:

"A financial investment will yield returns beyond your hopes."

Then Heather cracked open her cookie and Karatee chopped in the head with some more wisdom:

"You will soon recieve help from an unexpected source."

So whoever you are that is going to help me, SHOW YOURSELF! Also if anyone knows what this financial investment I am supposed to be making is, HOOK A BROTHA UP! I can seriously use some "returns beyond my hopes."

Chef-Boy-R-"G"

Sunday after church I decided to come home and get busy in the kitchen with some diced up tomatoes, chopped up bell peppers and a few knife fulls of butter. If you know me, then you know I don't cook, however I was feelin it, so I decided to let the family know that I can get down if I need to. Also who doesn't like a man to cook for them every once and again?

We followed it up with some steamed squash, with some shredded chedar cheese sprinkled over the top, and some mashed potatoes. I tried to do the entire thing solo, but Heather couldn't keep her BUTT out of the kitchen, so she did all the side items.

I'm not sure how Heather felt about the final product, but I was mighty pleased with the outcome. The only regret is I really wanted some onions sauted up in the mix. there's always next time though right?????

Who Cares

1.) What I was doing ten years ago: September 1997
I was a Jr in High School, I was just about to have my own car, my brother Matt was on his way to Russia for two years, and I was thinking I was the coolest kid in the world, too bad no one else agreed with me. (accept my mom, and she still thinks that way.)

2.) Five years ago: September 2002
Just putting my life back together after returning home from Brazil, I was engaged to Heather, and getting myself into my first Semester of College. Stressful times back then, too many BIG decisions to make in a small amount of time.

3.) One year ago: September 2006
I was in a job I really enjoyed for the first time in my life, but not getting paid enough to pay the bills, so it was always stressful to figure out how we were gonna make it from month to month. I was fresh out of College with an Associates Degree. A blessing in disguise is that, I was laid off a month later and luckily found the job I am currently at.

4.) Yesterday: September 15, 2007 (Saturday)
I woke up and hung out with Hannah for a bit in bed watching a mixture of Sportscenter and cartoons. Heather went to donate plasma and left at 7:30, leaving me and Hannah at home solo to play. So me and Hannah had a party until mom got home three hours later. (sad thing is I can't remember what all me and Hannah did.) at 9:45 we went to McDonalds for breakfast. I think we also went to the store. Then Hannah took a nap around 1:00. I left to rent "The Lookout." and I picked us up some orange chicken at Panda Express for lunch. When Hannah woke up we met this lady at a park, and I followed Hannah around baking in the heat for a good 2 hours while Heather sat in the shade chatting it up with a possible babysitting opportunity. When we got back we went and hung out at a friends house who have two kids around Hannah's age, and they played for a bit. We came home ate dinner together, and gave Hannah a bath, and then I watched The lookout, which was a decent movie, I enjoyed it. My only complaint is when reading the brief description on the back of the DVD box, it said their was this clever unexpected twist, and I kept waiting for it, and it NEVER happened. Even without a "clever" twist it was a good movie.

5.) 5 snacks I enjoy:
1.) Chips: Flaming Hot Cheetos (I just finished eating some.), Funions, & Baked Lays
2.)Frosty with French Fries
3.) Ice Cream (Baskin Robins Banana Split with lots of marshmello on top, or marble slab with a cone crushed into the ice cream.)
4.) A nice cold fountain drink (some of my favorites include: Vanilla Coke, Mountain Dew, Big Red, & Root Beer.)
5.) French bread with cheese.


6.) 5 Things I would do if I suddenly had $100 million:
I'd hook my family up, try to hook up a few friends, become debt free, buy a house, two decent cars, throw a decent amount into savings, and invest a little bit. Probably donate a large sum to my church to help out needful causes, and people. I'd definitely make sure that my mom, and my In laws were totally taken care of, especially my mom though, who definitely deserves to be retired, and debt free. I would no doubt continue to work, because I LOVE what I do, and I would not buy a HUGE house, or crazy things, you would probably NEVER know I had that much money, unless I told you.

7.) 5 locations I would like to run away to:
1.) My Moms house
2.) My Brothers & Sisters houses
3.) Brazil
4.) Bucky's House
5.) Utah (just to visit, NOT to live.)

(Although beyond this list here are places I would love to visit: New York, Rome, Scotland, Ireland, Egypt, Jerusalem, Africa, China, Russia, & Chile.)

8.) 5 bad habits I have:
1.) I'm a stacker
2.) I'm slow moving in the morning
3.) I'm very forgetful

I really can't think of any others, but I'm sure they are there...

9.) 5 things I like doing:
1.) Spending time at home, playing with Hannah, chilling with Heather
2.) Playing basketball
3.) Watching movies (at the theater.)
4.) Listening to GOOD music
5.) Work (or rather doing Graphic Design.)

10.) 5 TV shows I like:
1.) Scrubs
2.) The Office
3.) It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
4.) How I Met Your Mother
5.) Sports

11.) 5 things I hate doing:
1.) Eating anything with mayo
2.) Sleeping past 9:00am
3.) Watching a crappy movie
4.) Driving with the windows rolled down
5.) manual labor

12.) 5 Biggest joys of the moment:
1.) Hannah
2.) My bed
3.) Music: Feist, Pinback, Imogen Heap
4.) Football
5.) Being home with my family

I'm NOT tagging anyone, because the last time I tagged 5 people NONE of them did it. I only did this because Heather wanted me to, or rather she tagged me.

On iTunes

Here's my playlist that I have on my itunes at work. Click on the image to the left to enlarge it and actually be able to read it.

What are you listening to these days?

Hot Fuzz

Heather rented Hot Fuzz for me a few days ago, but wasn't intrested in watching it, so Saturday night I set up shop in the living room while she stayed in the room, and I watched the movie.

I have to say I was rather impressed and found the movie very humorous, and the story was actually pretty darn good. It was far better than my expectations. Not sure what I mean by that, I suppose I thought it was going to be lacking in plot, but be a humorous shoot em up type movie with subtle splashes of dry humor.

Hot Fuzz was done by the same guys that did Shaun of the Dead, which was basically a parody movie with their own personal twist to add comic relief. I enjoyed it, so that's what made me want to check out this movie of theirs. I have to say I heard alot of sub par and negative reviews from some people about Hot Fuzz. They said that they were disapointed, but after watching the movie I am rather confused as to why. I felt Hot Fuzz was better than Shaun of the Dead. The only thing I can think of, was they were expecting Hot Fuzz to be another horror film with a splash of comedy. Also Shaun of the dead had more in your face comedic moments, and Hot Fuzz was more subtle, and it was more dry. As for my personal opinion I feel humor is best served DRY.

I have to say that the end of this movie, or the last 20-30 minutes is one of the best endings I've seen in quite some time.

Best line of the movie: "You're a doctor, deal with it!" (I edited it to keep my site family friendly.)

Fresh Kicks

Throughout my life I have always had a great love for shoes. In my ladder years of high school I began accumulating shoes, because for almost any occasion that would warrant a gift I would ask for a pair of shoes, then I got a few short-lived jobs during the summer and used a portion of that money to also purchase shoes. Currently I have roughly 20-25 pairs of shoes (I've never officially counted.) I've lost a few pairs, some I let people borrow and they were never returned, and others lived their full life. For some reason as of recent I haven’t had a pair of high tops, and that never really mattered until the recent series of unfortunate events. Four to five months before moving to Austin I badly sprained my left ankle playing basketball. Then in January I sprained the same left ankle (as if I had more than one left ankle.) playing basketball. It swelled up and became very bruised, since January I have tweaked it multiple times, and sprained it two other times, the last one being 2 weeks ago. At first I was going to simply purchase an ankle brace, but then thought if I just had a good pair of high tops that would also do the trick.

So this weekend on a pure whim, we made a trip to the NIKE Factory Outlet in Round Rock, to see what they had in their inventory. We were really on our way to HEB, when Heather decided to keep driving. I found these bad boys (pictured above.) I found a box for a size 11, opened up it up and the air was filled with that fresh smell of new shoes. I pulled out all the paper tightly stuffed inside the toe of the shoes, slipped them on my feet, laced them up and took a small walk up and down the isle. They felt good, comfortable, lightweight, and seemed to give adequate support. So I pulled them off my feet, jammed the padding back into the toe of the shoe, and placed them back on the shelf.

Heather was confused, she was asking, "I thought you liked them? Don't you want to get them?"

I replied, "I need to take the walk."

The walk:

Is a customary voyage that can take anywhere between 5 minutes to a month at sometimes. It's where I leave the item walk around elsewhere to see how much the item sticks with me. If it stays with me and I still have a desire for the item, then I return to purchase the item.

I wanted to use my "walk" time to go to the Adidas outlet, and check out what they had to offer. Although they had a fresh pair of black and white high top flavor. The price didn't sit as well with my bank account. The smell of that new pair of shoes was still thick on my mind, and I could still feel the way those all white Nike’s with a hint of silver accents was hugging my feet. So we made the voyage back to the NIKE store, where Heather and Hannah waited in the car while I returned for my new pair of shoes.

I'll be able to give an official report on their performance on Wed. but until then they are sitting pretty beside my bed.

Welcome Home!

P.S-Here's some pictures of our Labor Day weekend Bar-B-Que that the church had at the park. (Free food... I'm there!)

DisturbiaMimzyFractureEx

I keep forgetting to update my movie watching, and now so much time has passed I can't recall all the movies I've watched, so here are a few highlights I do remember.

Disturbia: This movie was decent, it ended a bit too quickly and didn't really develope the story or develope any sort of suspense like I was expecting. It was worth watching at least once though.

The Last Mimzy: A kids movie, that wasn't terrible, but also wasn't spectacular. It wasn't the "Feel Good" movie I was expecting it to be, but it was decent. Despite Keli (Heather's good friend) complaining throughout the entire movie.

Fracture: I spoke to my brother Mark, and my "BFF" Bucky and they both said they had the movie figured out pretty early. Me, I never figured it out, and so I felt the movie was pretty darn good, and very entertaining. I spent the entire movie trying my hardest to figure it out. I figured out ONE aspect, but not the MAJOR aspect. Anyways it is one of the better movies I've seen, NOT "300" good, but it was good.

The Ex: I have been keeping an eye out for this movie to hit theaters for awhile now, because I'ma HUGE fan of Scrubs, and a bigger fan of Zack Braff, so when we were strolling through Blockbuster and I saw it on the shelf I was rather surprised because I never even knew it hit theaters. Regardless I quickly snatched it up and it wasn't the GREATEST comedy, but it was definetly funny, and enjoyable. So it's definetly worth anyones time.

The Capitol

I've lived in Texas my entire humble 26 years of life, most of which was spent in San Antonio, which is an hour away from Austin. Now I've been living in Austin for 8 months, and this was my first ever trip to the State Capitol.

Keli, Heather's good friend, was in town visiting us, and most of it has been spent in our apartment, so finally this weekend we actually decided to get out and do something. It was a lot of fun, we were able to find a parking spot right across the street, and paid 50 cents to park for 33 minutes. I took a bunch of pictures while we were there.

This morning I was sitting on the edge of the bed putting my shoes and socks on and Hannah was sitting next to me. So I leaned over to give her a kiss, and got a hand in my face pushing me away telling me, "NOOOOOO!"

One of her hands then was cuffed firmly over her mouth putting a permanant block on any chances pulling another attack. So I leaned over and said, "Please give me a kiss."

She held her ground and a muffled, "No!" was heard.

Heather called me into the kitchen so I got up and went to find Heather getting together something for me to take for lunch, answered her questions and went back in to sit with Hannah at the edge of the bed. When I returned she looked over at me and said, "I want a kiss."

So I smiled and leaned over and gave her a kiss, and then she held out her arms and said, "I want a hug daddy."

So I leaned over and gave her a hug, and then she said the cutest thing, "There you go daddy."

So I smiled and said, "Thanks Hannah."

The Bucket

Here is a story about Hannah as told to me by Heather:

"Hannah got mad at Jonathon (the boy Heather has been babysitting.) and threw a yellow bucket at him and so when I told her to come here, she walked in to where I was, looked me straight in the face, and I said "Hannah, did you throw something at Jonathon?"

and she just stared at me for a second and said "YUP!"

I kept a straight face and said "well I really appreciate you telling mommy the truth, now go say sorry to Jonathon and give him a hug and no more throwing stuff ok"

and she said "K! DONAFON! I HUG!!"

Freaking hilarious man..."

D-Day

9 years ago from today my father Michael Ned Guymon passed away. My life has forever changed since that day. Some days it seems like it was yesterday, and other times it seems as though it's hard to remember what life was like with him still here.

I feel as though I need to do something to honor The Man, but am unsure as to what I should or could do, beside keep his memory on my mind and pass on a little bit of him to the world.

My father was always honest in his dealings with his fellow man.
He was very sarcastic, and humorous and made life with him enjoyable.
He was loyal to his family and friends. (Family ALWAYS came first.)
He was supportive and the only reason he ever missed one of my basketball games or other events was due to health reasons making him physically unable to be present, but always wanted a detailed description of what he missed.
He will forever remain my Hero.

I received a text message from my brother Mark earlier that read:
"Long live Mike...Honor him."

So seeing as how my pops was big on Coke, and used to have almost a daily ritual of stopping by Texaco on his way to work every morning and filling up his cup with Coke, or Cherry Coke. I decided to get myself a Coke and pay tribute to The Man.

Enjoy the video

Injured

Wednesday is basketball night for me. So after we put Hannah to bed I laced up my white and gray adidas and headed out the door, my first stop was to pick up a Dr. Pepper & Snickers for Heather and took it back to her. Then made my way out to the church to play some basketball.

To give a bit of history back in January I twisted my ankle pretty bad, my ankle swelled up and turned all black and blue. Since then I have tweaked it just about everytime I play, and had one other minor sprain on the same ankle since now.

Well Wednesday I was playing pretty swell on the hardwood, winning some games I even hit two game winners, and my team had been successful at staying on the court for the majority of the night.

It was the last game of the night and I had the ball dribbling it up the court and I saw an opening in the lane, I already knew I could give the guy attempting to gaurd me the shimmey shake and breeze right by him, so sure enough I strolled up court until I reached the 3 point line, which is deceptive because 80 percent of the time, that's where I stop and that's where I am the most deadly, so I paused, and BAM! I was gone down the middle of the lane until another guy tried to reach me before I reached the basket and stuck one of his legs out into my path and my left foot steped directly on his foot resulting in me dropping the ball saying OW! and hopping to the stage rolling on my back and asking someone to take my spot...

Did I mention it HURT REALLY bad.

Thursday I had a date with a dermotologist in her office to look at a life long mole I have had on my back, which Heather has grown peranoid of, because her father had a bad one on his back that was cancerish. I was also having my skin looked at becasue I get these Sun spots, or something around my kneck and on my back.

Well the doctor looked at my moll, measured it, looked at my other moles on my body said that it didn't apear to be bad, but recommended getting it removed "just in case." She said it apeared to be a bit darker than my other molls. Then she said, "I've had some cancelations so we can go ahead and get this taken care of today if you'd like."

So I said, "How long does it usually take?"

Doctor, "Oh like maybe 10 minutes."

Me, "Ok..."

So the doctor left for alittle while, her assistant or nurse came back and and cleaned the area and stuck me with a needle to deaden the area where the mole was. Then the doctor came in and in one quick swipe the mole was gone, and I didn't feel a thing. Only problem is I put my shirt back on, and made my way to the counter and was informed that, that was concidered a surgery and I had to pay 120 dollars for it. Along with the 40 dollars for the visit.

I got back to work and a by the time I got through with lunch the medication wore off and my back started throbbing. So now I have a bummed ankle that I'm hobbling around on, and a chunk missing from my back.

The sad thing is I feel like a small piece of me is missing now, I've lived with that brown growth on my back for many many years, I even accidently tore it off one or two times just to ahve it come back. Now it is gone and out of my life forever, and my back will never look the same again.

Volume Control

Have you ever noticed that whenever a commercial comes on it is like 4 notches louder than the actual show being brodcasted through the tube.

It's rather annoying, I believe ABC and MTV are some of the worst.

If I could I would smash whoever is responsible like the picture above.

Speaking of the picture above if you get a chance click on the image so you can view a selection of similar pictures taken by a photographer, they are all pretty sweet. Each picture is a photograph of clay figures exploding.

Count From One to Shoe

We've been teaching Hannah how to count from 1-10 and she has been doing great at it every time. So then we decide to pull out the camera and make a video and this is was what happened.

Preston Ridge

Accosionally we get clients that come and go as far as communication is invovled, so some projects seem to just linger. This project was rather intresting for me in paticular because of how much personal growth was invovled as the project was happening. the first project I ever did for this doctor was an advertisement he was putting in the yellow pages. From their I started designing a direct mailer that would be mailed out to around 10,000 people in his general area. After that I did a general design for a website.

The doctor approved the yellow page ad within a few days of me finalizing the design, after that we didn't hear from him for a month about any of the other projects. The next time we heard from him was because he was ready to print some business cards with the logo that Phil designed. Then he disapeared again. During that time I progressed a significant amount in HTML, XHTML, & CSS, as I jumped on the intellegent bandwagon of "Web Standards" which was started by Jeffrey Zeldman.

So I decided to totally redesign his website from the original design trying to impliment some of the new skills I had aquired. Today the website has finally gone live for the whole entire intrawebs pleasure.

Enjoy.

First Time

My good friend and once missionary companion on the mean streets of Modi Das Cruzes in Sao Paul, Brazil stared into his sons eyes for the first time yesterday. It was a very special day and moment. One that impacts you in a way that changes you all in one quick and solid instance in time. It's like you realize for the first time what pure love really is. The purity and innocence of a child radiates from a new borns eyes and you can't help but to be effected by it.

So a huge para bems goes out to my boy Burkman (Chris) and his wife Cindy. To get all the stats and a solid amount of first day photos click the picture above or here.

Quick Movie Update

We watched two movies recently which were both good.

Trust the Man: Heather and I both laughed alot through out this movie, and all in all it is a good story, and ends happy.

Bobby: I'm not a HUGE fan of any of the Kennedy's at the same time I say that I also know little to nothing about them. I just know we are from separate political parties. That being said I enjoyed the movie, but I enjoyed it not so much for what types of political undertones were being delivered, and the different stabs at what is also happening today, but I enjoyed the acting, I loved the Simon and Garfunkel song they played at the end. I also really enjoyed how Bobby Kennedy played himself by them mixing in actual footage of him anytime he was in a scene. There's a ton of well known actors in the film, so that was kind of cool aspect as well.

Also I just wanted to mention a few recent music finds I've been currently enjoying while I work:[Thanks Angie (I doubt she would ever even read this.)]

Cake
Postal Service
Death Cab For Cutie
Joshua Radin
Bishop Allen

Flickr

Recently I noticed that my flickr account recieved a free upgrade to "Pro" status which means I now have unlimited photos I can upload, as well as, unlimited amounts of groups of photos I can create. Which is great for me, because I love my flickr account, even more so since I also saw that you can download free software that allows you to upload large amounts of photos at a time in a breeze.

So over the weekend I went through some recent photos we have taken of Hannah and uploaded a large quantity, and will continue to do so, I may even take more recreational photos as well since I have always wanted to get into photography. I may be adding more work related photos as we are doing projects here just to kind of show our process of working through photos.

Anyways here's a link to my flickr account for your viewing pleasure, or you can simply click on the beautiful picture of Hannah at the top which should also send you zooming through cyber space to my wonderful home that flickr has graciously built.

click here.

*UPDATE*
My wonderful wife has diligently been maintaining an online arsanals of our myriads of photos of Hannah since her commencement into this beautiful yet often times cruel world at dropshots.

Tagged

1.) I hate mayonnaise. (This is one of the reasons I order hamburgers dry, no katchup, mustard, or mayo.)

2.) I eat my pizza by first picking off all the toppings, and occasionally will eat the cheese and some other random items (never peperoni.) Then I eat the pizza in all of it's crust and sauce goodness.

3.) I wear a pair of basketball shorts under everything I wear.

4.) Poop time is a sacred time that should be spent reading a magazine in solitude.

5.) I love high thread count sheets, and wont settle for anything less than 400. The first sheet set Heather and I owned was 600. (Stems from the fact that I love soft things.)

6.) I've worn a rubber band of some sort on my wrist since I was in 8th grade.

7.) Before I purchase something I always have to take what I call, "The Walk" where I walk around for 10 or more minutes, then if I still want the item, that is when I return and actually purchase it.

8.) My favorite thing to wear is sweats. (Which is why winter is my favorite time of year.)

TWO BONUS FACTS ABOUT ME:
9.) I love typography, and a lot of times I am able to name what font was used as I see them in their natural habbitat.

10.) I'm afraid of swimming in any body of water that has living animals in it besides humans. (Lakes, ponds, rivers, springs, oceans, seas, etc..)

I don't know 8 people to tag, but here are the only ones I do know, who most likely WONT participate, but they may surprise me. I can't complain, I only did it for my cousin.
Chris Burkman, Sam Burkman, Rand Blair, & Rick Doane

Ready, Set, GO!

Here's a video of Hannah jumping off the top of her slide. She came and told me that she wanted to, "Ready, Set, GO!" so I followed her to her room, she told me where to sit, and luckily I grabed the camera as I entered the room so I could catch her in action.

For more videos Click Here.

In other news:
My sweet wife Heather rented 300 yesterday right when Blockbuster opened and had it sitting on the counter waiting for me, so as soon as Hannah went to bed, and Heather left to do some grocery shopping I slipped the DVD into the DVD player poured a glass of grape Kool-Aid grabbed a small blanket and sprawled out on the couch and hit play.

The movie was spectacularly filmed and acted. It was beautiful and stunning. The way the battle sequences pan out where they keep switching from real motion to slow motion at the perfect moments freezing a crushing blow to the enemy on screen. Boy do I really feel like I missed out on catching this on the big silver screen.

I believe it delivers a great message of a people willing to fight for their freedom, a people who were happy to see death stare them in the face while fighting for their families, friends, and their nation.

Word Warrior

Just now Heather and I were lounging around watching an episode of snapped where they were talking about this crazy lady who killed her husband that scored a shocking 160 on an IQ test while in highschool. Hearing this reminded me of when I took an online IQ test myself. This is what I had to say about it on Monday 8-07-07:

So I just finished up an online IQ test at webtickle. Anyways the important thing is that I scored a 124, better than that is what it said about my score:

"Your Intellectual Type is Word Warrior. This means you have exceptional verbal skills. You can easily make sense of complex issues and take an unusually creative approach to solving problems. Your strengths also make you a visionary. Even without trying you're able to come up with lots of new and creative ideas. And that's just a small part of what we know about you from your test results."

Then if I wanted to, which I don't, I can spend 13 bucks for a 15 page report telling me all these other nifty things about me.

The only thing any of you need to know about me now is that I am a Freakin Word Warrior!

Don't Mess With Me!

You see I spent all this time throughout my childhood trying to become a blackbelt karate ninja master, by watching any and everything having to do with ninjas or Karate, from movies, TV shows, Cartoons, and I fell short of these skillz, it's because I was not meant to be a warrior in a physical way, but actually, "My tounge is the only muscle in my body that works harder than my heart" (If you can name the band, or song you get 1 million bonus points!!!)

Lost

Around four years ago the battery on my watch died, so I slid it off my wrist and into a basket where I kept a collection of personal items in. The basket sat on top of a dresser in my closet. Four moves later and for some reason I have gotten this gun-ho urge to revive the watch with a new battery. Only problem is, I don't have a dresser in my closet, and I know longer use that basket as a resting place for personal keepsakes. Despite these minor details Thursday night during a commercial break of "Mad Men" I decided to go on an all out hunt for the watch. 1 hour later Heather (my wife) and I dug up countless small treasures buried away in boxes that have been left relatively untouched throughout multiple moves. We even threw a portion of junk away.

The watch still remains to be un-found, and Mad Man is proving to be NOT as interesting as I first thought, especially since the search for the watch consumed the remaining 20 minutes of the show, and on until almost 11:00 pm.

The problem now is, with me I get really irritated when I can't find something, so it is just stuck in my mind and just keeps itching away at me until I finally find it.

What things have ya'll lost over the years?

In Other News:
Heather started watching a 6 year old boy who talks non-stop the entire day. Hannah has really enjoyed his company, not to mention someone to play with throughout the day. He seems to be a pretty good kid and it is a way for Heather to make some extra money to help us pay off some of our debt.

Movies:
Factory Girl: LAME!
Zodiac: Intriguing, and very entertaining. Also I'm a sucker for true stories.

Have you seen any really good movies lately?

*The movie I am really anxiouse to see on DVD is 300! Which comes out this coming up Tuesday*

Mad Men

Last Thursday a new show on AMC debuted called Mad Men. It's about a big Ad agency in New York on Madasin Ave, thus the name "Mad" Men. The show is set in the 60's when "Ad Men" were the superstars of the world, and had what most people felt was the most glamerouse job. The show is written and directed by some of the folks that brought you The Sapranos.

I was anxiouse to see the show mainly because that is not neccessarily the industry I'm currently in, but definetly the older brother, and most definetly one I would be very eager to join. So since the show hit's so close to home in the intrests zone, I will most definetly call AMC my home away from home come Thursday at 9:00 CST. I suggest you do the same...

I'm intrested to know if anyone else tuned in last week, and to get their thoughts on the show.

Pan's Labyrinth

This is one of the better movies I've seen in awhile. The movie is set in Spain 1944, and is totally in spanish, so unless you know spanish, you will be reading the entire movie, but it's worth it. The movie is rated R, and does have a few scenes of violence, because it is during a time of war. However this movie has one of the best messages of all time. The movie is basically a fairy tale for adults.

One great lesson the movie teaches is basically an analogy of life itself. There is a part in the movie where the girl who's name is Ofelia, has to go to this room and recover an item in a box to which she has the key for. This Faun tells her when she enters the room their will be a large feast, but not to eat or drink ANYTHING, & that it is necessary to her survival that she obeys him in doing this, because their was a being in there that was not human, and that was evil, and her life would be in danger. Also she had a specific time limit to getting back before it was too late. The Faun sends three fairies, which are his friends to go along and help Ofelia. So as she enters the room there is indeed a large table with a larger quantity of food of all sorts, and at the end of the table is a monster with it's hands rested on the table appearing to be a sleep, the monster has no eyes , but directly in front of him on a plate sitting on the table is two eye balls. The fairies fly over to three small locked boxes to the left of the table and so she figures out which box her key fits and opens it, retrieves a very shiny dagger or knife, then begins to make her venture back to the doorway. As she is walking back past the table of food it is becoming more and more enticing, and her appetites begin to grow. She stops and looks back at the frozen and silent monstrous figure at the end of the table, and she silently begins to move her hand towards some sumptuous grapes. The fairies make many attempts at stopping her and putting her back on course. She brushes them off and continues in her attempts to quench her appetite. As soon as she plucks a grape from the table the monsters hands twitch awake, and begins to feel around for it's eyes. All the while Ofelia is oblivious to the whole awakening of the monster. The one grape was not sufficient, and the taste was so grand that she had to have another, the monster by now has placed each eye ball in either palm and is now able to see Ofelia partaking of the fruit from his table. The fairies begin to flutter their way over to the monster in attempts to distract him, suddenly Ofelia becomes aware of the monsters awakening but is still not afraid, it was not until the monster catches two of the fairies and begins to eat them, then Suddenly she begins to run, and the monster walks after her in true cliché fashion...

Anyways as I was watching this portion of the movie, I of course was pondering over the fact of how easy a task it was to NOT partake of any of the food. It was a short amount of time, and as soon as she returned to her room, and the "REAL WORLD" she would be able to eat. It seemed so simple. Then I tried applying it to myself, and the many appetites that we are asked to suppress, and control as well. I thought that perhaps if I was to look at a distance at my own life, I would realize that this life is but a small, and short moment in the eternal aspects of our existence. So I am sure it is also easy for someone watching my life to be able to want to shout out the exact same things, and their thoughts are probably very similar that it should be so simple to just NOT partake in the sinful acts that quench our every appetite.

It's funny too because every time I become weak I am always able to notice something very similar to fairies (a friendly helper.) attempting to put me back on the true and correct path to happiness, and so often I brush them away and partake to appease my appetites.

Other Movies:
Apocalypto: Fabulous movie
Blood & Chocolate: Extremely cheesy!
Beer Fest: LAME!

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...