Pumkin Pyrotechnics!

So, Halloween is over and now you are left with a surplus of mangled pumpkin carcasses. What to do.... Some take the traditional approach and make pies or cakes, and others just throw them in the trash. This year however turned out a bit different. We were invited to witness the result of pumpkins + rednecks + dynamite + a rifle = fun! And here it is for you to behold..



The story begins in the small town of Weston, Idaho. The people were looking for a way to discourage the teens in this small country town from going out and smashing the pumpkins all over the roads. After some discussion, and a pyrotechnicians license later, the annual pumpkin blowup was born. Everyone is invited to bring their pumpkins and then a short time later, a rifle is used to detonate the small amount of dynamite placed at the bottom of the pile. Some of those that we talked to commented that this year it was a little harder to get the dynamite, so there are several large pieces of pumpkin left. Normally all that one would witness is an orange mist billowing towards the sky.

Even though it was short lived, I really enjoyed it and I think that this might become an annual trip. Who says Rednecks don't know how to have fun. ( I think that I might have a little more redneck in me that I would like to admit.)

From the mouths of babes..

One of the most amazing things about being a parent is having the oppourunity to watch a human mind develop. It absolutly fascinates me. Everything that my 19 month old son does, he is learning. His speech is getting much clearer and now he is hitting what I would call the parrot stage. Everything he hears he trys to repeat. For example whenever he gets dressed he runs all around the house yelling, "Cute!" and waiting for us to dote on him.

Given this situation it is really interesting to find out the words that his mother and I must use often without even realizing it. "Whoa!" (one of his favorites) "Cool", "Neat", "No!"(that one is a given) and so on. None of those are really remarkable, but it fascinates me, by how quickly he learns them and is able to use them in the correct context.

Everyday is a new surprise and I only wish that I could learn as fast and as well as he does. (Let's just hope that he won't pick up on some of the rarely used "undesireables" that are muttered every so often, espically when one plays Halo.)

Nerd, Geek or Dork???

I was on Digg at lunch today and found this test. It is to tell you if you are a geek, nerd or dork. Yes apparently there is a difference. After answering the questions as honestly as possible, here are my results...

Joe Normal

43 % Nerd, 39% Geek, 34% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions

You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.
This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an outcast.
In any event, fairly normal.

THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST


So who would have thought, I am actually normal. All of this time I thought that I was a geek. hmmmm!!!

Halo Again!

Since the completion of school, I have found a few small spaces of free time here and there. I have taken this oppourtunity to play a few games of Halo with my brother-in-law and over 500,000 of my closest friends. That's right I have taken to playing Halo on Xbox live. My brother-in-law got me hooked and now I am one of the mindless rabble.

I don't play alot (by my standards anyway) and I am not particularly very good. But I do enjoy it. When the time comes to play I eagerly don the headset, and bask in the luminescent glow from the T.V. I anxiously await the start of the game, gripping the controller tightly in my sweaty palms. Then it happens, joy the game has begun, and I quickly get killed. Over and over again as my frustration grows, I am erased, sometimes I am successful in taking others with me, sometimes not. (By the way most of the time I am getting schooled by some prepubescant with a severe vulgarity problem.) Then the thought inevitably arises, am I really having fun? Why do I keep submitting myself to this? Frustrating as it is, I can't seem to give up.

This same senario also happens on the occasion when I have the chance to play a round of golf. This morning, was such a time and soon after we started, I found myself wondering, why it is that I really like this game? I am terrible, I loose lots of balls, what is the deal? The only bright side that I can figure is the fact that I am at least outdoors and enjoying the world around me.

I know that I am probably not the only one who these kinds of things happen to and I can only hope that I am drawn to these things because they are difficult. In the difficulty I find the excitement. If the games were too easy then I would be bored and have no need to continue playing. On the flipside, if the games are very difficult then I revel in every accomplishment and savor every victory. I guess deep down this is the philosopy of life, and the reason that we all get out of bed everyday and rise to meet the challenges of life. Carry on my friends...

Oh yeah for a few of you Halo geeks that might read this, here are some lyrics that a good friend of mine wrote to the popular Sound of Music tune, These are a few of my favorite things....Lyrics

Growing Pains

The other day someone asked me how old I was and I can't believe that the first thought that popped into my head was 17. I am closer to a decade above that number but for some reason, it has a hard time sinking in. That set another chain of thoughts in motion and suddenly I realized that I am an adult. For lack of a better term I am now, "All grown up." I have a wife, a child, A few weeks ago I finished my B.S., I have a profession instead of a job, and I am loosing my hair much earlier than any man should.

It's not like all of these events happened in one day, it took many years for all of this to happen. In fact I know that I have had these thoughts before, at the culmination of certain events,( My son's birth was a big one) but I guess that now that all of these things have come together, it sinks in a little deeper. After contemplating all this I am not scared, I am rather excited. I love my little family and it is so exciting to be involved in raising a child. I have wonderful friends, the best of which I am married to. I stand now at the beginning of a career and a grand adventure awaits me. Life is going to happen, but I plan to enjoy it along the way. I am sure that time will go by fast as it already has, but talk to anyone on the downhill side of life and they have great memories. So here is to being a kid at heart, and in the immortal words of Captain Jack Sparrow, "bring me that horizon!".

Might as well face it, I'm addicted to crud...

I have what I like to call an addictive personality. What I mean by this is that I am easily attracted to new things and then I go crazy with them for a short period of time. Some examples... My friend took me Rock Climbing a couple of years ago and that very day I stopped on the way home and bought myself a harness and over that summer I collected all of my own gear. That same friend took me Mountain Biking and soon I had to have all the fancy gear and attachments for my bicycle. We went boating and now all I can think of are boats, and what kind would be good to buy, etc. If I find a book that I am interested in I cannot put it down. I will stay up late, and basically ignore the world around me while I read. It's not just because I am enjoying the story but I feel a pressing need to actually just finish the book. It's weird but I can't explain it.

This last example has recently been driving my poor wife crazy, as the last few days I have been immersed in a good novel. Most of these things are harmless and either only cost money or time. It makes me wonder though what would my life had been like if I hadn't been raised in a religion that preaches abstinence from drugs and alcohol. Given the previous examples, I would be one mess of a person. I would be that guy dressed in the military fatigues with the greasy hair, missing teeth and whom you could smell a mile away, and tried to ignore as you saw me. Possibly I am exaggerating, but who knows.. I am just lucky to be me and have a wonderful little family and a good life. I just need to curb some of my enthusiasms.

If this doesn't work....I don't know what will

While watching one of the more recent podcasts of Diggnation I stumbled upon this little gem of a video. Rachel Gets Fruity. To be brief this was apparently an attempt by the British to increase awareness of testicular cancer. The video shows a sultry young lady acting rather sexually but giving instructions on how to do a self exam.

I find it interesting the different ways that those in the "advertising" community find to get our attention. Apparently this is one effective way of doing it, and although a bit racey for American standards, I believe this was put to use in the UK. God save the Queen!