Shallow Thinker

These were actually in my feed in this order…

The first two items displayed here can be argued about their usefulness.  But not the third…

I know that the dehydrator had been opened, but I don’t know if it had ever been used.  All of the items in the box were still wrapped in plastic and the instructions sat neatly folded at the bottom of the box.

The possibilities with the Fry Daddy are endless.  Well, endless as far as small items that can fit inside it go.  I’m thinking about trying to fry one of everything in my refrigerator just to see if I can develop the next big fried-food craze.  Potatoes have been done.  Now it’s time to start on the spiced meats.  Fried pepperoni?

The awesomeness of this jacket cannot be conveyed in a simple photograph.  But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll see me wearing it around in the near future.

On Tuesday, I helped my dad and his brothers go through some of the stuff at my grandparents’ house. I have heard that people who grew up during and soon after the depression had a much different mentality on keeping things than we do today.  I couldn’t stop laughing at some of the “collections” that we came across in the basement.  There were at least 30 large, plastic bottles along the shelves.  They kept every electric razor that they’d ever owned.  Old hypodermic needles?  Yup, kept those too.  The things in the basement ranged from “Wow. This might be worth something!” to “um…..”

Since I offered my services to just load stuff for whoever needed it, one of my uncles found some joy in handing me a pieces of randomness and saying “here, go load this into your dad’s truck.”  The old Sunday School award that was given to a long, lost relative in 1964 had some sentimental value, I’m sure. And that’s probably why he wanted me to hide it to where my dad wouldn’t find it.  I wonder if my dad is now questioning the lesson that he taught me about respecting my elders and doing what they say.

At any rate, there were a few items that I came across that I couldn’t pass up.  This is my first installment of a few of the treasures that I brought home.  It should be noted that my wife did not know that I was bringing these home.  I think the look on her face when I pulled some of them out was pure joy.  Either that or disdain.  It’s tough to tell.

Lawn Darts

That’s right.  This is a full set of head-wounding action.  A wise man would have just let these sit on the shelf and pass right on by.  But I am not a wise man.  I can’t wait until Butterfly has her birthday next month.  I’ll bet this is the perfect game for a bunch of 5 & 6 year olds.  It’ll help narrow down the number of kids that need to eat cake at the end of the party.

Duck Glasses

I’m not sure what the official name for these glasses are, but there were 2 beer steins, 3 tumblers, and one shot glass, all with ducks on them.  If you’re going to be a man, you need to drink from a man’s glass.  I can think of nothing more classy than drinking scotch from a duck glass.  Unless, of course, we combine the drinking and the lawn darts. Brilliant!

Have you ever read a headline from the news and thought, “What in the…”  And you knew that you shouldn’t follow-up the story and find out what’s going on, but there’s a part of you that really needs to know?

I present to you a screen capture of headlines from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s front page:

There were some good things and some bad things about growing up in a small town.  And then there were some hilarious things that you’d only find when everyone knows each other.  I’ve pasted the most recent crime page from the local paper of my home town.  My comments are in red:

Editor’s Note: After clicking “publish” on this post, I ran across this article about music and the human body.  The final line of the article seems very appropriate - “ ‘Our bodies,’ Dr. Kraus concluded, ‘are made to be moved by music and move to it.’ ”

One of the things that I’m very passionate about, but rarely blog about is music.  It’s really a tough subject to talk about.  Everyone feels like they have to one-up your suggestion or rave about their own tastes.  If you ever disagree with someone’s musical tastes, they act like you have stabbed them in the face and insulted their family.

So please allow me to stab you in the face and insult your family by suggesting that your taste in music in inferior to mine.  I am one of the millions that claims to have an eclectic taste in music.  But that never includes heavy metal, gangsta rap, or grunge.  My likes and dislikes are typically regardless of the genre.  Take country music for example.  I love a good, clean, powerful voice like Martina McBride but I can’t stand the twangy style of Kenny Chesney or people like that. (See what I mean? If you like him, you should take this as an insult.)

It’s nearly impossible to explain what it is about really good music that draws me in.  Harry Connick Jr’s big band, Keith Urban’s lyrics, John Mayer’s guitar, tight harmony, clean acoustic guitar, rhythmic piano.  I know the music that I love and hearing it makes me excited. It completely changes my mood.  I know what I don’t like and no matter how much you explain it to me, it will never make me change my opinion.  Likewise, if you’re not a fan of Keith Urban, my explanation of his harmonic guitar playing won’t change your mind.

All of that to ask this question:
Are religious views similar to musical tastes?

I usually try to do my own thing on this blog and not link to other sites, but this one is awesome.  This is an on-line drawing program that helps you make some pretty doggone cool stuff.

http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/index.html#top

Here is my first creation:

My parents got the newspaper every Sunday when I was growing up.  After church, I would read the comics, then look through all of the sales papers, and if complete boredom still reigned, I would skim through the headlines of the paper.  I always skipped the sports and the fashion sections.  World news got a brief glance, but most of my attention would be devoted to the “Living” section.  I don’t know why it was called this, but it was a hodge-podge of random articles that didn’t fit anywhere else.

One Sunday, I think I was in ninth grade, things must have been really slow because I started actually reading some of the articles.  I read for a while and then hit one that was amazing.  The writing style was perfect.  The humor was amazing.  After I finished, I showed it to my dad and he said “Oh, that’s Dave Barry.  He has an article every Sunday.”  I was hooked.  I even tried writing a few reports in the same style.  (Looking back, I realize that it wasn’t a good idea.  The grade I received helped me reach that conclusion.)

For the rest of my high school days, I read Barry’s columns.  In college, I was fortunate to find his column printed on-line through the Miami Herald.  At my first job, my Monday morning ritual included reading the column from the day before.  (See, my ability to not work has been with me for a long time.) But, all good things must come to an end and Dave decided to leave my Mondays dry and bare.  He now returns with an article that recaps the happenings of each year.  That’s it….just once a year.  And now is that time.  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.  Or at a minimum, maybe your company’s internet filter lets it through like mine does.

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/1397654.html

I’m always scared to tell about good things for the fear that they will be gone.  I tempted fate in March of last year by bragging how I had free XM radio in my car.  At that point, I had been enjoying 6 months of free XM radio.  Surely, I wouldn’t be so stupid to post something like that again and tempt the powers of XM…

I’m about to start month 26 of my 3 month trial of XM radio.  I have tried to not become accustomed to it because eventually they’ll flip the switch and I’ll have static.  But I can’t help it.  There’s just so much good music and comedy I’ve always got it on.  Heck, I don’t think that I’ve listened to my CD’s or Zune in the car for several months.

A few months ago, I discovered what might just be my favorite music channel.  The coffee house provides acoustic versions of songs from singers, songwriters, and even some acoustic covers of famous songs.  Granted, some stuff is boring, but for the most part, it’s an amazing listening experience.  About a week ago, I heard Adam Rafferty do an acoustic rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition.  It’s a stunning version of one of my favorite songs. (The googles helped me find a clip on you tube that I’ve added at the bottom of the post.)

So, what’s the bottom line?  XM radio is some of the best money that I’ve never spent. If you ever get the chance to not pay for XM, I highly recommend that you choose to…not…pay. Otherwise, I suppose that you would be stuck where you are now which is to be not….paying…um….for not…listening. Ah, crap. Just watch the video.

The key to making money is to be ahead of the curve when it comes to trends.  Dear readers of my blog (or those of you who see the feed on Facebook), I have decided to pass along to you my new idea.  But I warn you to buy into it now because once it hits big, it will be too late.

Are you ready?  Too bad.  To really understand my idea, you need to have some historical perspective.

About 7 or 8 years ago, the craze to hit the video gaming was called “DDR”.  For those of you that are out of the loop, DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) is a game that requires the participants to step on a pad in specific spots in time with the music.  Think of the old Nintendo powerpad but with a groove.  The game was monstrously huge in Japan and saw some moderate success in the US.  An unexpected market for the DDR series came from people that were looking for a way to get fit but also have fun.  Heck, Kelley and I even bought a couple of mats (on sale for $7) and used them to get our legs in shape.  Twice.

A more recent craze has been the Rock Band / Guitar Hero series on the game stations.  Participants select their instrument of choice (lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or microphone) and then follow the on-screen prompts for making sweet music.  The premise is compelling because people with absolutely no musical talent (me) can feel like the a star playing “Sweet Child of Mine.”  I went to my first Rock Band party this past weekend and was amazed at how much fun the game was.  One of the more seasoned participants was able to play the guitar and sing at the same time.  It was so much fun that I told Kelley that we have to get the game.  Do you know how awesome that drum set would look sitting in our closet?

So, now that you have an idea as to what has swept the nation recently, here’s my idea:

A combination DDR/Rock Band game.  We were sitting there playing some of the Beatles songs and one of the people picked “Twist and Shout” for us to perform.  I won’t bore you with details about how stellar my drumming performance was, but I will tell you that a couple of people were tapping their feet.  And, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the back was doing a little twist, as well.  I thought to myself, why not invite all of those watching to come and dance while we play?  Better yet, why not make the dancing a part of the game?  You can combine two current technologies (low startup cost) into one exciting game (high profit)!

But any good idea has to have ideas for expansion.  Fear not, I’ve got you covered.  Two years after this has hit the market, we’ll come out with a brass instrument expansion pack.  Then we’ll release the game “Marching Band Revolution.”  Players will play the pretend trumpet while marching in rhythm on the pad.  They slowly work their way up to Drum Major.  For the fans of heavy metal music, there could be “Smash Dance Revolution.”  The musicians play heavy metal rock while the “dancers” jump all over the place and bash into each other.  Bonus points for guitar smashing.

Brilliance, people.  This idea is pure brilliance.  And I hereby claim the idea.  Since this concept will make tons of money, I’ll go ahead and sell the rights to you.  But I warn you, it won’t come cheap.  It will take at least 2 Chick-Fil-A biscuits to earn your chance at gaming history.

I thought a few shirts on both of these lists were funny and most on both lists were dumb.

• 20 coolest Christian T-shirts
• 20 coolest Athiest T-shirts

In general, I think that most Christian T-shirts are lame.  If the point is to share your faith, then why are so many of them like inside jokes?  Only people who understand the concept would understand the shirt and those aren’t the ones who you want to understand the shirt.  Understand?  My favorite one is “They will know we are Christians by our T-shirts.”  I actually have one of these, but mine is an original and a much cooler design.  (you can order it here!)  It’s funny because it’s true.

And now that you mention it (you did mention it, didn’t you?), I think that all conflicts should be handled with a T-shirt war.  The best t-shirt wins the argument.  Presidential debates would be the candidates wearing 5 custom t-shirts.  And to make it fair, they’d have an hour to make 2 rebuttal t-shirts.  The ratings would be through the roof.  Debates on capital hill?  T-shirts!  War in Afghanistan?  T-shirts!  Well, there might be some allowances here for messages on those things that the ladies have to wear, but the concept remains.

So, who’s with me?  Let’s solve our problems like true passive-aggressive debaters!

…is so that I can be like Uncle Rico:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/nintendo-kirfs-nerf-with-soft-football-patent-attempt/

Wiimote football controller