Special New Year's Eve Edition

Well, it's that time of Year again, time for me clear out the old bookmarks. It's a New Year and time to go out with the old (old bookmarks that is). I accumulate a bunch of junk in my "blog links" folder that I either can't think of anything to say about or I've saving for slow blogging days. I started accumulating these Jan 01, 2007 and now I'm cleaning them out. Scroll through, click on what you want and enjoy.
*Special note: Unfortunately I had a lot of dead links and couldn't put them all on here:( . Also, there's some kind of weird issue with it displaying so you may have to scroll down a little to see the links.

Wikipedia: Unusual Articles	Lego Chruch
Anti-Everything Gun	Later Classes for Sleepy Students
Maro Comic vs. In Game	Sweet Guitar Method Tips
25 Hour Day	Spiderman + BSoD (Pic)
Tips to Not Being Tired	Taken Back Winning Lotto
Asperger's Survey	07 Underated Baseballers
Tea is the New Coffee	Studies Show Gaming Helps Reduce Stress
Paper Transformer Video	Possible Baseball Replay
What to Do if you Find ET	Landing on Typo-Squatting Sites
iPod Yule Log	Land Mine Safety Awareness Site
Mood Foods	Flying Humans (via /.)
Vodka Chugger Through Security	Japanese Jetpack Video
TMI Costs $

Reasons to Use the Command Line

It's a classical Computer Geek argument. What's better the GUI or the command line. The Unix/Netware group are gonna tend toward the command line. The Windows bunch is going to lean toward the GUI for the most part. Here's an interesting article that explains 10 Reasons the Command Line is More User Friendly than the GUI. I can see both ends of the picture, but I prefer the old school vi editor.

Tech Highlights of 2007

2007 was an odd year for technology. In my opinion, technology didn't have any huge news this year. I find it upsetting that the biggest tech story of the year was the iPhone. There are much better phones out there, but the hype is what made it the biggest story. Here's an MSN story over viewing some of the tech stories of 2007.

Daft Hands Video

I'm thinking that most people have already seen this "Daft Hands" video, but it was sent to me earlier today and I hadn't seen it before. This video features someone with highly talented fast hands dancing to the "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" song. According to the YouTube description, it was all done in a single take which makes it more impressive. As you can see, their skills have now paid off by the fact that they've had 11.4 million views within a year of it being up.

2008 - The Year of the Potato

I think it would be a safe bet to say that you've eaten a potato recently. Now that I think of it, I had potato soup for supper. Why's this relevant? 2008 has been dedicated as the International Year of the Potato. This has been done to emphasize the importance of this wonderful tuber. Fortunately potatoes are not only cheap, but versatile and delicious. The linked page has a lot of great information about this world saving vegetable.

LOST Recap

If you don't watch the LOST series regularly, I highly recommend it. If you want to, but just don't want to spend the time going through the seasons, here's a nice 8 minute recap of all 3 seasons. This was on ABC's site, but I didn't know how long it'd be on the LOST front page, so I just found the YouTube link and linked it.
Whoever did this did an excellent job. They compact pretty much all you need to know about the show with a little bit of humor added in. I would recommend this to those who are already caught up and want a refresher and to those who haven't seen the series and want to jump in on season 4. If you're currently watching the DVD's don't watch it 'cause it has some spoilers.

Tricked Out Vader Helmets

It seems like helmets are becoming a popular collecting item lately. They not only double as a Halloween costume, but they also make a sweet look'n decoration. Heres a link to some really nicely decorated Vader helmets. I'm not sure what the purpose here is, but it sure is cool.

Online Ads Better than TV Ads

Nowadays it's hard to avoid advertisements. It seems as though everyone wants some of your time and money. Recent research results show that online ads are more effective than TV ads. To me, this is not a surprise at all. It seems that online ads (excluding popups and junk) are much higher quality than TV ads. If an ad is well done, I'd be more apt to purchase their product. Also, the online ad is easier to access. With a TV ad, I gotta get up from my couch and go to a place or call a number. With online advertising, you just click on the ad or Google the product (more recommended) and you're there. This article seems to be geared more toward online television, but the same concepts apply.

Star Wars More Popular than Santa

In Orange Co. CA the California Integrative Hyperbaric Center had a Christmas event staring both Santa and Star Wars characters. Ends up that Star Wars characters are more popular than Santa. My opinion on why this occurred is that there is no prerequisite of hanging out with Santa in order to get gifts. The kids new they weren't naughty and decided to play nice with the Storm Troopers instead. Besides Santa would be at their house in a few days anyway (or at the mall, or on the side of the street advertising furniture sales).

Excellent Gaming Wall Art

I saw a link to a Super Mario Christmas mural earlier today, but then checked out the rest of the site and there were many more cool murals there too. The Christmas one I originally saw is all the way to the bottom of the page, with a video included. As you can see from some of their pictures, the wall art isn't permanent, but easily washes away with water. I bet with some careful planning on graph paper this wouldn't be too difficult to reproduce (assuming your have the art skills to begin with).

Tanakh Inscribed on a Pinhead

I remember when I was in high school there was a man that had his own stand for rice engraving. He would sit there and say "Write your name on a grain of rice" to the passers by in hopes of wooing in customers. I always found it amazing that the man could write so tiny. Now, with the help of nanotechnology, scientists have inscribed the entire Hebrew Bible (aka Tanakh) on an area the size of a pinhead. I can't really read that small so I'll have to take their word for it.

Worst Named Athletes

Several times I've sat down and actually thought of writing my own list of worst named sports players, but could only think of three or four at any given time. Fortunately, if you wait long enough, the Internet does your work for you. Here's a list of the 9 most Unfortunately named Athletes. Being a fan of baseball, I had thought of the Coco Crisp and of course Milton Bradley, but I'm surprised Kenny Rogers didn't make the cut.

The Christmas Story

Just in case you haven't heard the Christmas story yet this year, here's a chance to read it for yourself. I find it a great tradition for my wife and I to read some of the passages about the true Christmas story on either Christmas morning or Christmas eve. Below is a link to some of the passages.
As a prequel, you may want to check out the book of Isaiah where Jesus' birth is foretold several hundred years before it occurred.
The birth of Jesus is told in both Matthew and Luke, but I tend to read the Luke telling more. Here's a link to Luke chapter 2 which tells a little bit of the background of what was going on as well as the story of his birth.

Christmas Pun of the Day -- No L

Noel (Definition from Dictionary.com)

1.	the Christmas season; yuletide.

2.	(lowercase) a Christmas song or carol.

3.	a male given name.

Buying a New Car in All Change

Paying for your purchases in change usually makes for some angry people behind you in a checkout line. I can't imagine how long it'd take to count out $25,000 in change for a new vehicle, but an Indiana man did just that. I thought this was a really neat story. I'm sure the people at the dealership probably thought it was a joke when he brought in the money. The story mentions that he had rolled all the change. I wonder how long it takes to roll and count $25k and just imagine if he hand rolled it.

A Little Too Long At the Walmart

If you've been to Walmart recently, you've probably also been highly annoyed at the crowds. In GA, a lady spent three days there before finally getting kicked out. This brings up a few questions. First of all, I'm not sure why anyone would want to put themselves through that. Secondly, I wonder how they finally figured out she'd been there that long. Thirdly, I wonder why they would bring the police in to escort her out. She was a paying customer so I'd think she'd be welcome to stay as long as she likes.
Three days is quite some time to spend in any store, but it does seem that when I go to Walmart I spend more time than I want there. Last year, sometime before Christmas, I was waiting in line when I noticed someone had eaten a rotisserie chicken while in line to check out and just left the bones. Walmart is always an adventure during the major shopping seasons.

NES Weddings and Legos

If you're a fan of the NES, you may enjoy these links
NES in Weddings

Game inspired Legos.

I've seen these links over the past two days and thought I'd share. The Zelda wedding seems just a little weird, but I think they do stuff like that in Vegas all the time.

The Remake Blues

I read this article tonight about the new Knight Rider movie and how they made KITT a Mustang. A lot of these shows they're remaking lately (Transformers, Speed Racer, Ninja Turtles, etc.) were not originally the greatest shows ever, but the memory of them were great. Bringing them back, not only reminds us that they were not as good as we originally thought, but takes us further away from what they really were. I haven't seen the new Transformers movie yet, but I hear it was truly less than meets the eye. As much as I liked the original Knight Rider (which was already remade once into a movie in 1991 and partially filmed in Corpus Christi, TX), I don't anticipate being a fan of the new movie.
In a way it's kinda good that they're reviving these shows for the next generation, but it seems there should be a better way of doing so. I'm wondering how far away we are from a GI Joe movie coming out.

JibJab 07 Review

It's a little early for 2007 reviews, but I found this review from Jib Jab that does a great job of it. It's easy to forget how long this year has been and what we've been through. There's a whole lot more of the year that wasn't included in this review, but I'm sure I'll post a few more of these before the year is completely done.

Is Your Son a Computer Hacker?

On Fridays, I usually get an email from my CIO that includes a humorous video of some sort that occasionally I'll put up here. Today he sent this "Is Your Son a Computer Hacker" video from an old Screen Savers episode. I remember watching this when it first came on. I really miss the good old days of Tech TV, and I'm sure many others do as well. This video is kind of strange, it's funny how non-techy people will sometimes get technology words mixed up.

No Longer Absent

If you check here every day (thanks) you've probably noticed I've not posted my daily blog for the past two days. I went to a Novell training conference in Provo, UT for a few days, but I'm back now. I did post a few nights from there, but didn't have the greatest Internet connection available, so I didn't surf too much. Thankfully, during this time, my wife sent me a lot of stuff that I was able to put up (the BK clip, the giant fowl compilation and such), so that helped out a lot.
Sometimes I do get lazy and go a night without posting stuff, but I think this was my first time going two nights without posting an entry. Thought I'd let you know what was going on and that I'm back now. For all of you who are traveling this Christmas season, good luck and be careful. I was fortunate enough to not get caught in too horrible of crowds at the airport (of course I was there @ 4am), but I could tell it was getting ready to get bad.

A Huge Fowl of a Christmas Dinner

If you're hosting a Christmas dinner and have a lot of time, money, and are pretty brave, you may want to check out this huge fowl Christmas meal. Personally, I think it looks disgusting, but some may like a dozen different birds in one. I had to read the part of the sentence stating "a behemoth containing no fewer than 48 birds of 12 different species" a few times to make sure I was reading that correctly. I did a Google image search to try to find a better picture of a multi bird roast, but didn't have any luck.... it just seems strange to me.

Beard & Mustache Champions

Who would've thought there'd be a worldwide beard and mustache championship, but it appears there is. Here is a link to the page featuring the winners. After looking at the pictures you can see that the awards are well deserved. I can't imagine how long it takes to grow and groom some of these.

Pirate Laws

Ever wonder if you have what it takes to be a pirate? To see how you'd square up, you may want to check out these pirate laws. I've learned I'm not hardcore enough to be a pirate see pirate law # 56.

Whopper Freakout

I may have mentioned it before, but my first official job was at a Burger King. Working there for over 2 years I became quite fond of the Whopper. It's still one of my favorite burgers even though for health reasons I don't often eat them. The question is, what would BK be without their classic burger the Whopper. In my opinion... not much. Here's a site that runs an experiment showing how customers would behave without their beloved Whopper. Fortunately, it does have a happy ending.

Underwater Rubik's Cube Record

I got a Rubik's cube in some swag from a conference I went to earlier this year, and still have not been able to solve it even with the help sites. None of them really seem to make much sense to me even though I've posted them on here before. I think it's something that has to "click" because many people are just amazing at solving these things. Anyway, if you've ever wanted to see one solved under water very quickly, here is the video for you. I think it's pretty cool how he had to use lubricants to get it to work properly under water.

There is Room at the Inn for Joseph and Mary

Here is an interesting story about a British hotel chain that is giving free rooms to couples named Mary and Joseph during part of the Christmas season. This is way cool news if your name is Joseph and your spouse is Mary (or vice versa), and you're in search of a room during this time. An odd story, but neat nonetheless.

We Miss You Pluto - Pluto Facts

I was going through some of the "Wired Magazine" articles and saw this one about Pluto. I'm not sure scientifically if Pluto should be a planet or not. I'm not an expert in the subject, so I can't debate it, but to me Pluto will always be a planet. I was kinda confused though when it got demoted. I too didn't feel as if there was sufficient enough explanation.

Insane Car Battery Hack!

When I read the title of this video ("Insane Battery Hack") I thought, "what could be so insane about a car battery hack?". But then I watched it. Yep, it's kinda insane. I must admit, I'm not too sure it's accurate. I replaced the battery in my wife's car a few months ago, if only I'd known this hack then, I'd found me all kinds of neat stuff (mainly certain death and destruction).

Phone Recording Archive

As I was looking for blog stuff this evening I came across this "Phone Recording Archive" site and was thinking of all the fun stuff you could do with it. I can't help but to be tempted to leave some of these on my voice mail or answering machine. The two in particular I was looking at are the "please check the instruction manual" and the "deposit 25 cents", although the "not from the phone you are using may be good as well". Anyway, maybe I've planted some ideas for you out there.... enjoy!

1 K Blogs

So, I noticed last night, that I had blogged my 999th entry. This one makes it 1000. Honestly, when I started blogging, I didn't think I'd keep it up, but so far so good. It's taken me over a year to get here, but I've reached a milestone and thought I'd mention it. Thanks for all you out there that have been reading. I guess the next big miletone is 5000, which means it's more than 5 years away. I thought about doing a "best of", but I can't begin to choose what my favorite entry would be. If you have extra time, go back through some of the archives and comment on what some of your favorites might be..... Thanks again for reading

A Merry Jedi Christmas

If you've ever wondered what it's like in Star Wars land for Christmas (the Star Wars Holiday Special doesn't count), you may want to check out some of these Star Wars Christmas cards. Theres just something warm and fuzzy about a wookie on a Christmas card. I wonder if you can buy these to distribute.

Neat WiFi Externder Video

I had a friend send me this link to a really neat video explaining how to use your cellphone to boost your wireless signal. I've seen several of these out there, but not any like this. I'd love to know if it really works, or if it's just someone trying to be funny. If it does work, how geeky would it be to have you cellphone, some cat5 cable, and a salad bowl combined for a wireless signal.

Wii Attracts Roaches???

Last night I read an article about a theory that the Wii attracts cockroaches. I read it after I'd already gotten my blog on, so I bookmarked it with plans to blog about it today. As I was listening to one of my daily podcasts on my way home today, they were talking about this. Come to find out, this was just a rumor started in a Japanese game forum..... *cough* Sony.

The Great American Lie

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know my favorite sport is baseball. I must admit, I've tried to not think about this whole steroid thing too much, hoping it was a lie (yes, I'm naive, but in the name of baseball...). When I heard of the Mitchell Report earlier today and the initial list, I suspected the usual suspects like Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, but the report was way beyond my expectations. At this point I'm assuming the allegations are true, but should definitely be throughly investigated.
As a child I had a few major baseball heroes. Growing up in Texas, my all time favorite baseball hero was Nolan Ryan. Being a Braves fan though, and the fact that David Justice was such a great player at the time, he was also one of my favorite players. It was really a shock to see his name in the report. My only hope is that he picked up the habit not while on the braves, but later while on the Yankees or the Indians.
This whole story really does taint baseball. I was really looking forward to March when spring training starts. I had really been following the offseason this year and all the major trades (speaking of that, what's Houston gonna do if Tejada has to leave baseball). If this had happend about 5-6 years ago (right after the strikes), I don't think I'd watch MLB ever again. Now, I just feel it's absurd that they let it get this bad. As much as I like some of these players that have been revealed, if they do have sufficient evidence to prove they were or are currently using these enhancers, I say ban them from baseball. Taking into consideration banning these people's name from the hall of fame is also not a bad idea. In my opinion, tainting the sport in this way is much worse than what Pete Rose did.

Rock'n Mistaken for Death Threat

When you're alone in a building any noise can become frightening, even some kids Rock'n out to some G&R. As you can read in the story, the kids (one a custodian) were messing around on the loudspeaker singing "Welcome to the Jungle" and when the teacher heard it and hear the line "You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die" she mistook it as a death threat. Thinking about this story, kids can be pretty harsh when it comes to dealing with the aftermaths of incidents like this. I wonder what kind of nickname she has now. Or how many kids have set "Welcome to the Jungle" as their ringtone and purposely get calls in class.

w00t - Word of the Year

I was first introduced to the word w00t in 2001 when I started playing Everquest. It was something that was commonly used amongst that group of people. It has now been named word of the year by Merriam Webster. I'm glad they spell it properly with the 0's instead of o's. According to this article it became known as "we owned the other team". I have some problems with that. As far as I understand it originally meant "wow loot" or "wonderful loot". Also if it really meant "we owned the other team" in gamer speak it'd be "we pwnd the other team" hence making it wp0t. Anyway, congratulations to one of my personal favorite words..... w00t!

Different Types of Help Desk Users

Earlier today ComputerWorld Magazine published an interesting article titled "The 5 users you meet in hell (and one you'll find in heaven)". I thought this article was really well written and somewhat entertaining. At my job we are fortunate enough to not have many (if any) users that go to any of these extremes. In a previous job I worked in a call center, so I've seen all these types before and a combination of them as well. I will say though, I think each help desk technician has their own idea of the "Dream User".... mine sends cookies and candy :).

AOL Web 2.0 Commercial

Now it looks like AOL is into the viral video market with their new AOL news commercial. Think this video is annoying, well, I think that's the point they're trying to make.
Special thanks to Wally for this post.

Have a Merry Tesla Christmas

What better to light up your Christmas than Tesla art. Tesla coils are always neat things to watch. I saw this article on wired this morning about a Tesla coil artist and his Christmas projects. Actually it looks as though only one of them were related to Christmas, but they're still cool. You'll also find another use for that alien deterring foil hat you created a few months back.

Tesla Electric Cars

I read a story earlier today about the "Tesla electric cars opening a store in LA" and it made me wonder how many people actually have heard of these cars. First of all, let me start by saying they start around $98,000, but they are fully electric and do 0-60 in 4 seconds.
I don't think I'd buy one of these even if I could afford one (impracticalities and all), but I think it's interesting that with our current technology a fully electronic car with this much power can exist. I'd be interested to know how one does on a day to day basis. I wonder why fully electric cars are not more popular, if this can be done fairly inexpensively. Also, I've heard that if you get an electric car in LA, you can get free priority parking with electronic hookups, but I'm not sure of this.

Drive By Coffee Spitter Stopped

After a 2 1/2 month long drive by spitting spree, the drive by coffee spitter (coffee bukkake)has been caught. What an odd crime and what a waste of coffee, but I really enjoy the art.

Top 10 Worst Games of 2007

As I was looking through some of the Digg articles today, I noticed there was already a "Worst of" list out there, but it was the "Worst Games of 2007". When it comes to software and video games, it's important to "call out" the bad. Let them know they can't just put out junk and expect us to buy it.
One thing I did notice is that eight out of 10 of these games were for a Nintendo system. I'm really hoping the Wii and the DS, systems with such excellent potential, don't go the way of the Gamecube. I've been a fan of Nintendo since the NES in 1985, but was very disappointed with the quality of games available for the Gamecube. I don't buy many games, but when I do, I'd like to get my money's worth.

Crazy Blind Date

From time to time on the net you'll see these odd web 2.0 ideas, that actually work. This site "Crazy Blind Date" is one such as this. The idea behind it is, you go to the site, request a date from your city (currently 4 US cities are available to choose from), and you have one. The creator of the site also is the creator of another popular dating site, and created this type of site to make less work for the dater. You don't have to do research, you can have a date that night. This seems a little odd, but if you're young, crazy, and single, it may be something you're interested in.

Getting Fired - A Picture Show

While checking out Digg earlier, I discovered this "Why I Got Fired" picture show. These are truly amazing photos, and if you want to get fired.... well, there's probably better, safer ways, so don't try this at work.

Bubble 2.0 Video

Here's another odd Web 2.0 video that well, tells the truth. If you're here, you're probably an internet junky, so you'll probably know what it's talking about.

Software Design Explianed

In the world of business, you discover there are ways you see things, ways others see that you see things, and what they actually end up being. Here is a picture titled "software engineering explained" that kinda goes through this. One way I get around this, is when I'm writing a webpage, or a report, I ask the requester to sit down with me and draw a picture first to ensure we're on the same page.

Tim Teabow and the Heisman

I first heard of Tim Teabow last year when Florida played UK. Florida won of course, but I was amazed at the combo of how they used Leak and Teabow. After watching that game, I became a fan of Teabow and could tell he was going to do rather well. Yesterday I learned that Teabow was selected as the winner of the 2007 Heisman trophy, being the first Sophomore ever to receive this honor. It seems that he's going to be hanging around FL for the next few years to finish up his education. So far, from reading about him, his story seems like a legend in the making. It'll be interesting to see what he'll do in the next five years.

Why No One has Filmed a Flying Penguin

My wife is a huge fan of penguins. In undergrad, she did a research project on them, and has been a big fan every since. Honestly, I've grown to be quite fond of them as well. I mean, why not, they're a bird, that can't fly and dress rather dapperly. Here's a really creative video of why we think penguins can't fly.

Flux Capacitor On Sale

In 1985 something truly amazing happened. Dr. Brown invented a time machine in the form of a Delorian. Now, you too could have your own flux capacitor. Unfortunately this isn't going to be available for Christmas, but I've already waited til April, came back, wrapped it and put it under the tree for myself. A present that'll be sure to make me say GREAT SCOTT!!!

Real Life X-Wing

If you're a Star War's fan you've probably, at some time or another, dreamed of flying around in an X-Wing fighter. The next coolest thing to that, is making your own. The sad part is that these guys put all that work into the X-Wing for the one launch..... although they did get their day of glory. I also must add, the replication of the X-Wing looked great.

The Fogotten Technology - Recreating Stone Henge

It couldn't stay a secret forever, but thousands of years isn't too shabby. If you're wondering how Stone Henge was built, watch this man as he start recreating it. This is a really neat video of a man who's hobby is moving big things via manual labor. It's a little longer than most of my blog posts, but hey, it's Friday night and this is all I'm posting tonight.

Other Stuff to Do with your Computer

Working in the IT field, you hear people threaten to take out their aggressions on their computers quite often (sometimes I want to as well). If you give in to this urge and thrash your computer, here's some creative ideas on what to do with the left over pieces. Of course if you work at my company, any cool object you make from your left over computer parts automatically becomes part of our Christmas tree :).

WoW Helps Kid Escape Mad Moose

Who ever said video games were bad for you hadn't taken into consideration the evading and battle skills it hones. Here's a story of a boy who was attacked by a moose, "drew aggro" away from his sister, and feigned death to escape the moose. The boy learned these tactics thanks to the World of Warcraft(WoW) game. As the link says, this story may not be true, but it makes for a good story. Me, I think I would've taken the moose to the guards, found an enchanter to charm it and make it my pet, or perhaps cast a SoW (Spirit of the Wolf) spell on my sister and I for increased run speed and took it to the zone.

Wipe Us Off the Map

Being from small towns all my life, I know what it's like to want you city "put on the map". It's odd to hear that a city wants to be taken off the map. This is an odd little story about a town that wants to be taken off the map because GPS maps route large trucks down their small streets. The streets don't appear very large at all and this has lead to great amounts of congestion. I've not had much experience with a GPS, but I've heard both good and bad stories about them. As useful as it is, I guess we need to learn not to always rely solely on technology.

Chimps Memory Better than Humans

On Earth, us silly humans are thought to be the dominant being, however the chimp isn't quite ready to quit trying for that goal. Recently chimps beat humans in a photographic memory test. You're welcome to check out that link, but the video is more telling. The test is actually a photographic memory test that flashes a series of numbers very briefly. So, next time you meet someone with a photographic memory, it may be appropriate to call them monkey-brain.

Star Wars ABC Photoset

Going right along with the previous entry (for you Star Wars geeks), here is a photoset of Star Wars ABC's. Although this set is great, it doesn't look like it's quite complete. I wonder what the author is going to use for X and Z. There's so many minor Star Wars characters out there I'm sure they'll think of something.

56 Geeks Poster

There are all kinds of geeks out there, the question is, what type are you? Here is a poster of 56 types geeks that may help you decide. I enjoyed looking through these, however, I'm still not sure what type of geek I am.

The Justice File

I'm glad to announce another great blog that a good friend of mine is starting. The title of the blog is called "The Justice File" and will be updated by Wally Justice. The blog is a Christian themed inspirational blog that I'm looking forward to. Right now there are only a couple of posts up there, but it looks like he's off to a great start.

WoW Laptop

It looks like Dell is going to be coming out with a new XPS laptop dedicated to WoW (World of Warcraft) players. The XPS traditionally is the top of the line computer designed for gaming. Here it looks like they went a little bit further and made it for a specific game. This would be an excellent (but expensive) gift for the WoW player in your family.

Rock'n Out of House and Home

Sometimes, you just have to rock! Many people who love music, but don't have the musical talent of rocking out can now experience it through games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Here's a story about two tenants who received an eviction notice for rock'n too hard on Rock Band. Unfortunately for these guys, the neighbors nor the landlord understood the need to rock.

Eel-lectric Christmas Tree

I've heard that this year the New York City Christmas tree is going green. With the LED lights and solar power and such. That's pretty cool, but what may actually be cooler is "going fishey".... or whatever you wanna call it. In KAKAMIGAHARA, Gifu (Japan), they are using an electric eel to power some of their Christmas lights. I wonder how many of them it'd take to power my house, I bet they'd make great pets.

Sorry, Internet

Here's a pretty neat video trying to help out the writer's on strike. The concept behind it is really cool.... since the writer's aren't being treated fairly, dogs aren't gonna skateboard, and cats aren't going to play piano. There's a sad slow sound of Chocolate Rain going on in the back ground as well. Anyway, the video explains it better than I do.

Here's to You Unsung Computer Heroes

I subscribe to a free ComputerWorld magazine, and rarely ever does it have anything good in it, but occasionally it will. Actually, this link of Unsung Computer Heroes came from their daily email they send, but it puts some credit where credit it due. I bet the guy who was the "Father of Spam" gets beat up a lot. As for the guy who put the @ sign in email, it'd be really cool if you could say.... "You see that @ in your email there, yea, that's my fault". They didn't mention the person who decided to put www in front of web addresses, but I often wonder why it's still there, we all know we're on the world wide web.

Too Cool for a Ticket

I've heard stories of girls getting pulled over and crying their way out of a ticket. For some reason, I don't think this same logic applies for guys, although, the cop may get a good laugh out of it. I guess for us guys, our only way out is if we're so cool, the cop has no choice. I'd like to think that a cop would treat me this way next time get pulled over, or heck, next time I go through a road check. I'd like to see what the poem is about, although I prefer sonnets.

Zando Calrissian

I thought I'd give the Star Wars Photoshop thing a try so, I found a picture of Lando, put Tay Zonday's head on it, and put him in cloud city with the bounty hunters (that's the only good picture of cloud city I could find, but I'm sure they love his music too). Looks like those may be some Chocolate Rain clouds in the background.

Pike County Culture

I got an email the other day that contained some cultural items that pertained to Pike Co. (where I live) and I thought I'd share them with you.

You KNOW you're from PIKE COUNTY WHEN.....

-Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a coal truck on a mountain.

-You wait all year for April... because you know that means one thing: HILLBILLY DAYS.

- You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it.

- You think everyone from a bigger city has an "Northern accent."

- Friday night football games are required for conversation in Sunday school.

- Going to Wal-mart is a favorite pastime known as "goin wal-mart in" or off to "Wally World."

- A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola, or coke ... it's a Pop, regardless of brand or flavor.

- You "warsh" your clothes.

- Your English teacher says things like "Y'all" and "Ain't Got None"

- No matter how bad UK's basketball team actually is, you still believe they'll pull it off and make it to the Final 4 anyway.

- In the summer you don't wear shoes

- Every time you hear Family Tradition you throw your hand in the air and give a hillbilly scream no matter when or where you're at....

- You refer to Pikeville as "P-Ville" and Prestonsburg as "P-burg".

- A "Night on the Town" takes only 11 minutes.

- Your teachers call you by your older siblings' names.

- You never use a clean word when a "cuss" word would work just as well!

- The 3rd is considered a county wide holiday

-Hurricane Creek is pronounced "hur-i-cun"

-Marrowbone is pronounced "mar-bone"

- Noone REALLY knows how to get to Allegheny

-You know who Marlow Tackett is

- Everyone knows who Wayne T. is

- You've call Ronnie Ford a chicken

- You leave, and you miss the thousand Eric C. Conn billboards.

- You've been yelled at by the movie theatre rent-a-cop.

- You hear that they're going to put in a new business, thus getting all excited and then "aw shoot, it's a Staples."

- Your ears don't have the ability to pop anymore when the elevation changes.

- A Mini Mall consists of a "poo hall" and a furniture store

- The answer to a question is a strong "no" it is instead pronounced "neeeewww."

- You know who Dave Mulligan is and enjoy his platform shoe

- You cry at night because you cant decide between dorsie's or dairy cheer

- You know that reynold's produce still sells tab cola and has the one and only pickled corn you'll eat

- You still go to great lengths to have food city birthday cake imported to your birthday parties in Lexington

- Your lunchroom served cornbread and pinto beans and even sometimes sauerkraut and weiners!

- You attended your first Bluegrass concert at Deskin's Motors

- A $10,000 reward goes out for a missing attorneys manikin

- The life of Jesco White doesn't seem that far fetched

- You find your self having to explain what a food city is when you're anywhere away from pike county.

- You know 3/4 of the people in this group, and if you don't know someone, their name sounds familiar to you.

- You get excited if you see Dr. Don... anywhere!

- You go off to college, someone asks you where you're from, and you have to spell it because they think you're saying 'pot county'.

- When your version of the American dream involves moving a double-wide in back of your mom's trailer

- Your entire family goes to Walmart for the Black Friday sale!

- When your honeymoon consists of a case of beer and a trip to Dog Fork

- Everywhere u go they make fun of how u pronounce your "I"s in The word Pike, right, night, light, or anything else that sounds like that..

- You stand beside your crotch rocket or s-10 in the movies parking lot every weekend.

- You say you're going to the mexican...and everyone knows what you're talking about

- You say the name fuzzy and everyone knows who you're talking about.

- Your from pike county when you have been to the same rehab as your dad

- You don't go to school from December to March due to "inclement weather"

- Nothing is odd about a fourwheeler being driven on the main road

- You can go 2 miles in any direction and find a church.

Binocular Soccer

I've never played soccer before, and it seems like it'd be a difficult game to play, especially with binoculars on. This is another one of those odd (but cool) Japanese videos. It looks like it could be dangerous, but also looks fun.... except the outfit.

A Huge Debt

From time to time a person will have a bounced check or perhaps be late on a bill, but I'm not sure I've ever seen someone with a $211,010,028,257,303.00 bill. Obviously this was an error on the bank's side, but it'd have to give the guy quite a scare. If it were me, I think I'd walk into the bank and tell them I wanted to pay my $211 trillion debt and ask them if they would take pennies. When I read this, I asked myself how I could possible incur a $211 trillion debt even if I tried. I guess I could start by writing a check to pay off the national debt, but then what?

Country Metal

Over the years Country Music has changed quite a bit. Once upon a time I actually liked it, and there are still a lot of good Country singers out there. Since Country music has been evolving into really bad Pop music, one could conclude that eventually it'll go to Rock and maybe someday Metal. In that case, this guy in this Hardcore Country video is way ahead of his time. I really don't think I've heard anything like this before.

Wii Everywhere but Nowhere at the Same Time

Right now what's going on with the Nintendo Wii sales is really kind of odd. On one hand, when you go out to look for one, there are none to be found, however, but on the other had, Nintendo is still having record sales. Wired put out an article the other day explaining why you still can't find the Wii, but I find it amazing that the demand is far larger than the supply. I remember last year while I was standing in line for my Wii at 5am, I thought, "this is kinda silly, in a month these things will be everywhere". Me and several other people were wrong in this type of thinking. I'd hate to be looking for one of these this Christmas season. At least last year, it was assumed they'd be hard to find, this year, it's a little unexpected.

December's Question

For November my questioned pertained to Thanksgiving and the results are now in.
The winner is "Bring on the Turkey" which was closely followed by "Football!". My vote was for the desserts. Although I do enjoy the turkey, I always save the most room for dessert. During Thanksgiving it seems like someone ends up making that one special dessert. Last year and the year before that, it was the chocolate bread pudding. This year it was an apple stack cake. I'm kinda odd, but that's what was exciting to me out of the available answers. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
For December, I thought I'd do something similar to the November vote to see how you felt about Christmas. To me Christmas is a very special time, but I know that not everyone shares that opinion, so hopefully I can find out how you feel about it. Here's the question.
Christmas?
Bring on my Presents
Can't wait to Give
The most Wonderful Time of the Year
Another Day to Me
Humbug! I hate it!

I hope I covered most people's feelings on this holiday, but probably not. Thanks in advance for voting and thanks to all of you who voted in November.