what a blog should be

Not only is this a real product (I ...sh*t you not [wink]), but Bella, one of the dogs here, is taking it. It seems to work; we haven't caught her chowing down on Hattie poo poo in a while. Maybe she's just being a little more clandestine in her coprophagia.

So I read an article somewhere written by the guy who supposedly invented the blog - it was mostly techno mumbo-jumbo, but he said that the only thing a blog should be is a list of links that the author has come across and wishes to share with his readers. In that spirit, I now present to you a list of links that I have come across and wish to share with you, the reader.

Wired.com has compiled a list of things that suck, and a brief explanation for why each one sucks so incredibly hard - it's worth checking out, and they're taking suggestions. I'm sure we can all help out.

Also on Wired.com is this relatively short article on the newest breakthrough in genetics, the synthesis of an artificial genome. There are, of course, way better sources for reading about this, but this article is short and easy to understand, which is a plus if you're impatient and dumb like me.

Here is Hotair.com's take on Billy Jeff Clinton sleeping through a MLK Jr. commemoration. You've probably seen it, and Hotair.com doesn't add anything, but it is a deliciously, hilariously ironic video (he was, after all, our first "black president," right?), worthy of multiple viewings.

Father Knows Shit is a pretty funny blog I recently came across, written by a new father who also happens to be one of the writers for Kissing Suzy Kolber (below). Very funny stuff.

Lamblefamily.com is the family blog of a good friend of mine, Adam. The Lambles are always entertaining, and Adam periodically updates regarding his antics as a first year medical student at KU Med.

Kissing Suzy Kolber is an NFL- themed blog that is very funny. The name comes from the infamous Namath-Kolber incident (see below).

That's all for now. Look for more of these as I grow increasingly disinterested with this blog.

Just read the headline...

So I just came across this article entitled, "Surgeons Perform Better After Playing Wii." I told my uncle about it. He's pretty good at bowling on Wii sports, for the record.

Portland/Near-Disaster

So I just got back from spending about a week in Portland visiting my uncle. It was a lot of fun, and I'll probably expand upon all of the cool things I got to do at a later date, but for now, I'll just list a few highlights - we went to the coast and looked around (the picture above is Haystack rock at Cannon Beach) , then stayed in my uncle's hotel in Astoria (check out the gallery on the website, it's a really cool place). We also went to a Trailblazers game, which was amazing - my uncle has amazing seats, and the Blazers are playing really well these days. We also bummed around Portland quite a bit, which was great because it's so much different than any other city I've seen, and also because I got to revisit some places I went as a very young child. On the last full day I was there, we went to the Evergreen Aviation museum and saw the Spruce Goose, among other things. That museum is amazing, and the Spruce Goose is unfathomably huge. I've posted some pictures, but it is really difficult to get a sense of the scale of this thing.Here is the view as you enter the museum. Below, you can see just the tail of the Spruce Goose dwarfing a whole slew of other aircraft, including a B-25. Look at the tiny people for scale. (By the way, the plane in the foreground is a Ford Tri-motor, which is the plane my Grandpa jumped out of as a Smokejumper here in Idaho). Anyways, the trip was great. Oh, and I got to meet a high school friend of mine, Caitlin, and her friends for a drink one night. It was a lot of fun. The flight back was even more fun, though. I got to experience my first aborted plane landing as I was coming back to Boise. We were descending through a thick layer of clouds, and when we finally broke through, I could make out not only porchlights and windows, but individual bricks on the houses we were flying over. And, we were going really fast. After just a few seconds (spent wondering whether I was just being overly paranoid about a normal approach), the engines suddenly throttled all the way up, and we were all pushed into our seat backs as the plane accelerated and climbed back into the clouds. After a couple of minutes, the pilot came on and said, "Uh, we, uh, are going to give that another shot. We were coming in high and fast and...the tower wasn't really helping us out at all, so we're going to try to do better." I couldn't help but laugh - not only did we almost land a mile short of the runway at about 700 mph (yes, that's an exaggeration), the aircraft control tower didn't even notice. Needless to say, I felt safe. So, we circled around and made an uneventful landing, but I was still a bit nervous.

It's that time again...

It's been a while and now it's time for another thumbs up special. This one goes to Martina Hingis, world-famous tennis star, who just tested positive for cocaine. Yay! They were testing her for blood doping, and thankfully, that came back negative. I guess the cocaine was a added bonus. Even though she's retired, she's still been suspended for two years (that'll show her) and will have to forfeit $130,000 in winnings. The picture above is meant to illustrate who really suffers from stories like this - the children. She really doesn't look like a coke-head, but then again, neither does this guy. Or this guy.

In other news, I saw Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem yesterday. It was...confusing. And a little disappointing. Parts of it were pretty good, and it was way better than the first one, but I really don't think that I like the premise of these movies. I think I have trouble liking these movies because what I really think they should do is a reboot of the Alien franchise. Go back to what works - aliens in space, stalking and killing people and androids coughing up milk. I should totally be a Hollywood producer. I will say, however, that AVP:R did a better job than its predecessor of capturing the mood and it (thankfully) avoided any ridiculous teamwork between humans and predators. I give it a solid B-.

On a more positive note, I think I'm finally going to see Juno tomorrow. I have high hopes. My hopes are equally high for another movie starring Rainn Wilson - The Rocker, which come out sometime this year. I'm hoping it's not aimed at a younger demographic, but with the little I know about this movie, it could be pretty funny. Here's an interview with Rainn Wilson about it, and you can probably see the picture below, which is amusing.


One last tidbit - I came across perhaps the greatest story of all time today. The headline: Boy, 11, Uses Toy Lightsaber to Defend Mom From Attacker - do yourself a favor and read it. It's short, but heart-warming. Feel free to insert your own punchline (the force is strong with this one...), but this kid is way cooler than star wars kid.

Back to School

So, Molly went back to school today, and my class starts up in just a few short days. For these reasons, I have posted the video below. It's from a strikingly odd show called "Time and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!" I've only seen a part of this show once, but after seeing this clip, I think I will be doing some investigating...


In other news, I'm going to see Alien v. Predator: Requiem with my cousin Megan today. I have high hopes, and I'm very glad that she is willing to go with me - this is one of those massive nerd-movies that I'm not sure my failing self-esteem would allow me to see in the theater alone. I'll be sure to tell you all (both of you) what I think. I'm just hopeful that it will be better than the last one (pictured below).

Happy 2008!/Not out of it, yet

This is officially my first post of the new year, and I'm just as excited as you, I can promise you that.

Well, after waiting on pins and needles, I finally received a letter from KU Med (they actually sent it exactly when they said they would, but I was up in McCall when it arrived). As expected, this letter asked me to be patient until the middle of March when they complete all of the interviews and rank all of the applicants. By the way, when I say,"as expected," what I mean is that I either expected this or to be rejected outright. The fact that I wasn't accepted at this stage of the game merely means that I wasn't in the top one or two interviewees of my group, but the fact that I wasn't rejected means that I wasn't in the bottom 1/3. My point is, I'm very glad to still be in the hunt, even though it means a few more months of patience and carefully controlled terror.

In other news, I went skiing today with Megan and Molly (Amy had her wisdom teeth out today, so she declined [rudely] to join us). It was a lot of fun, though it was cold and windy. It was a little sad, because this marks the first time that I've gone skiing for real without the rest of my family (my mom, dad, brother or some combination thereof). I got to spend some good time with them over the last week or two when they were up here for Christmas, though. That's probably it for now.

Oh, I just came across Patton Oswalt's blog. It's pretty funny stuff, and it led me here, where a bunch of people review pretty much everything (a lot of it's pretty funny - I think they are in some way related to the Onion, but I'm new to it and don't really know yet). I probably could have sold both of those links better, but whatever. Go there. Or don't. But do go to erikebelingart.com. Especially if you live in Chad.