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Chinese Terrorism Preparedness Halftime Show

Can someone explain to me how laying down in the shape of the Olympic rings while women squat and scream counts as an "anti-terrorism drill"?

HT: The Big Picture

Blow It Up!

Hey, everyone! Have a great Independence Day. Along with the 3rd Annual Young Adults 4th Of July Shin-Dig Laura and I will be hosting, I'll also testing out the trebuchet Danny and I have been working on. I'm just hoping to keep all my digits.

And now, a blast from the past. Go America!

Spontaneous Clubbing

Wow. I ripped this clip off the TiVo and threw it on YouTube months ago, then completely forgot about blogging it! In fact, Ali and Kaylee don't even watch this show anymore! GAH!

Ni Hao Kai Lan is, more or less, is a Chinese Dora the Explorer. Cute bilingual girl protagonist? Check. Monkey side-kick? Check. Single parent who lets the child run free unsupervised? Check.

Yes, I know Dora's dad makes appearances from time to time, but don't you get the feeling he's one of those guys you find out has, like, a whole other secret family the next state over? Like maybe we'll get a shot of him peeking through the kitchen window of one of The Backyardigans? Anyway...

In this particular episode, Hoho (the monkey) is learning an important lesson on patience. So while the other (more intelligent) animal friends are fixing the car, Hoho has been doing stuff like building a rock tower and playing hide and seek. But it's just not jonesing his ADD. So...

Gotta give props to Laura for spotting this gem.

Sized For Children

"What is this, a center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can't even fit inside the building? The center has to be at least... three times bigger than this!"

And Then There Was One...

It couldn't have been some random side piece, no no. It had to be HIS FRICKIN' NOSE.

Handy Hint

I know this might be an odd way to break my recent (unintentional) radio silence, but it seemed like something that would be helpful to know if you were ever in a similar situation.

You see, at lunch today, I learned that a co-worker had put ice cubes up his butt (only one at a time) to help reduce swelling of his hemorrhoids. Good to know, I guess, but I haven't been able to look him in the eyes again yet.

Have a happy Friday!!

Still Not Dead (Yet)

Malcolm pointed out to me today that the last thing I had posted was about going on this cross-country road trip and some of you might think I'm dead. Thankfully, I am not! We did have a hairy little incident where we drove through a break in a tornado-infested storm front in Kansas, but other than that I'm great.

Making me even happier is the first two rolls of film I just got back from my Diana+. They're from about a month ago, I'm guessing, from a trip to a local playground & water park. Ali still had her big three-tooth gap going on. You can check out the shots in the increasingly misnamed Holga Archiva.

I also got a couple of rolls back off the Fisheye2 from a short family vacation we took last month. I tumbled those puppies.

Ready To Hit The Road

Well, amidst the bustle of holiday weekend traffic, I will be embarking on my second near-cross country (after two cross-country, and one North-to-South) road trip. From early Saturday morning to late Sunday night, I will be helping my buddy Josh transport his car, some of his junk, and his two cats from Gainesville, FL to Denver, CO.

Yes, two days. Two cats. I'll let you know how the Claritin RediTabs that I got through a Bzz campaign work.

Since they can't fly Ella (you can't take your own oxygen on a plane), and they don't want to expose her to all the germs on a train (and trains suck. and stink), this is the plan. Our mutual friend Jeanie and I drive up to Gainesville today. Then Josh and I drive the Westmobile (Jetta), some stuff, and some cats to Denver (while Jeanie stays with Tina). Josh and I fly back on Monday to Orlando, rent a minivan, and drive back to G-ville. Then we'll load up the van, Jeanie and I head back south that night, and on Tuesday morning, the five-day trek to Denver begins for the West family.

They've been here since August, so it will be a welcome trip home for them.

I'll be tumbling from the road, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to blog. I'm sure you'll get detailed reports of both us on the road and the ladies staying home over on Ella's blog.

Prayers are always appreciated. See ya next week!

Jon Lester, Conquerer Of Worlds

This is one of those sports stories that isn't so much about sports, but about a person's resilience in the face of obstacles. Specifically, a 24-year-old kid named Jon Lester, who happens to pitch for the Red Sox. Allow me to share a short version of events leading up to last night's game, compliments of Red at Surviving Grady:

In 2006, Jon Lester was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

In 2007, he won the clinching game of the World Series.

In 2008, just a few hours ago in fact, he pitched his first complete game--a motherf@#king no hitter against the Kansas City Royals.

For you non-baseball fans who are still reading, a "complete game" is when one pitcher starts and finishes the game. Happens often, but is getting rarer as the game now features relief pitchers more and more. For Lester, this was not only his first complete game, but also his highest pitch count (number of pitches thrown) of his career.

A "motherf@#king no hitter" is a complete game where the opposing team gets NO base hits. Walks and errors can contribute to players getting on base, but there are no base hits given up by the pitcher (or the defense: hello, Jacoby!).

For reference, Wikipedia claims there have only been 256 no hitters in the history of Major League Baseball (with 17 being perfect games).

So last night we witnessed an incredible outing by a guy who had to battle to get to the bigs, got knocked down by the Big C, fought his way back, sacked up big time to get the final win of the World Series, then comes back this year to throw a no-no. Nicely done, Jon. Congrats.

As always, Soxaholix has a fun take on it. :-)