I need a weekend!

I've only been back to work for two days after a month and a half off and I feel like I really need this weekend! Now before you judge me as completely pathetic, I did just finish up my second full term at University of Redlands, so I have been working on school related stuff. Also, the first few days back as a teacher are a bit more taxing for me than for many others in that I am in charge of helping all of the teachers with technology, and since we just switched over to a web based attendance system, that's been a full-time job in and of itself!

I still can't find that camera cable, so I can't get the photos from Atlanta off my camera, but I did just order a new one, so any day now.

I hope you're all well. Here are some random things I found on the web this evening that I thought we're worth sharing. Enyoy!

Check out the blue hole here. I want to dive this!


Does THIS come as any surprise?
If you want something "bottled at the source," make sure the source isn't the tap. I am not a greenie, but I do think water bottles are a ridiculous waste...although I am known to have one with me most of the time. At least I am cheap enough to refill my bigger water bottles a few times before trashing them.

See if you can figure it out...

...I didn't until the end:

The N64 Kid

More videos...what can I say, I am not feeling very original lately, and my homework has my brain on standby mode when I'm not anxiously engaged in writing a paper. So for today: Home video of a boy getting a Nintendo 64 years ago made its way around the net and eventually became so popular it was used in a TV ad for BMW. Now there's another one floating around. The key, you see, is to use slow mo to show off how freakishly ecstatic the kids are. So here's the original N64 kid and then I'll embed the new one:

Original (watch the double fist pump, it's beautifully executed):



This kid has got the facial animations going on:

Funny video edition

No, I have not updated this thing very much lately and I'm sorry, not that most of you were checking in often, hoping from some incredible post that would change your life. What I feel bad about is the fact that I still don't have the cable to connect my camera to the computer and thus all of the cool photos I took on my trip are still locked up on the memory card. Anyone else have a Fuji camera?

Anyway, here are some very funny and/or interesting videos. I'll try to link them directly onto the blog so it won't necessitate navigating away from this page. I hope everyone is enjoying a great summer. My break is rapidly coming to a close and I'll be back to work next week. Until next time...

VIDEOS:

Comedy gold if you're an internet geek. Beware, satire ahead:


Patton Oswalt is one of my fav comedians. He's also the voice of the rat in Ratitouille or however you spell that:


Don't answer your cell at a live concert...or get p0wned!

What the? Watch this video...

If you can make ANY sense of this, please let me know. And yes, this really is THE David Hasselhoff:



Also, check this one out just for fun:

Just got back...

I just got back from the National Education Computing Conference. It was stimulating as a professional, a geek, and as a tourist since we had the chance to check out the city. We (my buddies Jay and Dan from the school site) went to a Brave's game, checked out the biggest aquarium in the US (Georgia Aquarium), and toured CNN.

I am going to post photos and write ups as soon as I can get the cable to upload the photos from my camera.

For now, check out this AMAZING PHOTO

Northern lights as seen from space

(click on the mini-photo to link to the full size).

Talk About a Wheelchair Ride!

I know this is the second post I've made having to do with wheelchairs. I couldn't resist this one though since it's strange, funny, and has a happy ending.

Check out the LINK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY HERE.

Listen to the 911 calls about the wheelchair attached to the semi truck (requires QUICKTIME)

PAW PAW -- A young man has quite the story to tell after his wheelchair got lodged in the grill of a semi truck, which dragged the chair and the man inside for five miles down a road.

Muscular dystrophy forced Ben Carpenter, 22, of Alamo into a wheelchair eight years ago. He was on one of his twice-weekly outings, this time in Paw Paw around 4 p.m. Wednesday.

As he crossed Red Arrow Highway in front of a semi truck, he didn't make the traffic light. The truck driver apparently didn't see Carpenter and a collision occurred, causing the wheelchair's handles to become lodged in the truck's grill.

Carpenter remembers the sound. "Kind of like train cars coming together, something like that," he told 24 Hour News 8.

Unable to hear Carpenter's cries for help over the hum of the diesel engine, the truck driver continued down Red Arrow Highway at speeds of approximately 50 mph.

"It was fast, I know that. Faster than this chair was made to go," Carpenter said.

"I was thinking, the cars keep going by and nobody bothered to stop."

But they were calling 911.

The Michigan State Police Paw Paw Post and Van Buren County Central Dispatch began receiving strange reports of the situation. Police initially thought the report might have been a prank until they started receiving more calls.

Time was running out on Carpenter as the dark streaks on the road were marks left by the smoking tires on his wheelchair.

"I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere, 50 or 60 miles somewhere. What if I end up in South Haven? I mean, I would have been dead way before that."

Luckily for him, the truck driver stopped five miles down the road at Ralph Moyle Trucking Company, which owned the truck.

"If I had gone any more miles, the tires would have been gone all the way," Carpenter said.

When troopers arrived at the scene they discovered Carpenter unharmed and unfazed by the incident.

"I was happy. Thank God it was over," Carpenter said. "I thought it was kind of like a fair ride. I don't remember feeling any bumps though. I must have, but the road must have been pretty smooth."

Police approached the driver and advised him of what happened. The driver did not believe them until he stepped out of the truck and saw Carpenter still sitting in the chair.

One trooper on the scene said, "You could work another 90 years in law enforcement and never see something like this."

Everybody said they are just glad no one was injured.

Authorities say no charges will be filed.

Movie Reviews (w/Spidey 3 Review)

Movie Reviews! I found something else I'd love to write for my blog. My reviews are not going to be in-depth, and I will rate the movie on a 5 star scale just to make it easy. I am sure I will disturb some of you since art is subjective and since movies are an art form, then our ideas about movies are going to be essentially different. In fact, I just had a thought: I'll give a movie my rating, and then my "pop" rating which will refer to how I would recommend it to a wide audience. For example, X-Men 3 was a cool movie, but I'd give it 3.5 (above average/good) but for the set that likes pop sci-fi movies, I'd give it a solid 4.

0- Terrible, don't watch it.
1- Poor film, but has some redeeming qualities.
2- Below average, maybe a rental
3- Average film, probably worth watching
4- Good movie. Recommended.
5- Excellent. A potential classic that should be viewed as soon as you get the chance.

Anything by Wes Anderson, for example, is a 5. jk
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SPIDERMAN 3 Review
Overall rating: 3.5 (*** 1/2)
Good: Heaping portions of special effects, looks great on the big screen, Tobey does a great job acting out the comic book role, 2/3 villians are compelling and scary.
Bad: A bit too long, plot should have been tightened up some, the "Sandman" character was both the most expensive and the least interesting despite the compelling moral ambiguity.

I am not a big fan of the Spiderman movies thus far, but I've enjoyed all three of them so far. Spiderman 3 is the most enjoyable of the three films for me and that's due largely to the villains, minus the Sandman. I thought Venom was very interesting both visually and because of the internal conflict element that he/it introduces. It also turned Peter Parker into a very tragically funny character. His friend, the name escapes me at the moment but is played by James Franco, is also very interesting because he's not really a "bad" character but lashes out because of a misunderstanding. Anyhow, I don't have time to write an in-depth review, but suffice to say that the film is a fun popcorn flick but suffers from a plot that sagged in a few spots and could have done without the Sandman character entirely and, instead, should have focused on the other plot elements which I personally found more thought provoking and/or simply entertaining. The budget was absolutely ridiculous, perhaps the most expensive movie ever made, but once it hits DVD it'll likely become one of the highest grossing moves of all time.