I haven't seen the movie The Golden Compass yet but their website has this neat tool that pairs you with some kind of animal spirit called a daemon (pronounced just like demon). In the fantasy world the movie is based on each person is split into a physical form and a spiritual form - their human body is the physical and the animal is their spiritual half. On the website they have a 20 question personality quiz that they use to match you up with a Daemon. My daemon is currently a female lion (daemons are almost always opposite gender to the physical half) named Theonella.

However, it is possible I don't really know myself as well as my friends and family do. So they have this add-on questionaire that you guys can answer to help better identify my daemon. So, if you don't mind please just answer these quick questions and we will see how it ends up. We only have 12 days to further refine my daemon before it is finalized so please just take a moment now to complete it. Thanks

#Movies #FunStuff #General #Geekiness #ThisSite

I just saw this cool image linked from someone else's blog and figured I would post it here because I think it is really cool. I know I never would have thought to take these photos and I'm not sure I would have had the patience to find the exact right spot/distance to take them from. Kudos to the photographer. You can click on the image to see a larger version.

#FunStuff

My friend Ryan has attacked the Patriots again - except this time he is being more brutal. Sure, this video is just wrong, but it's still kind of funny (in a sick way). Enjoy!

#Music #Sports #FunStuff #Entertainment

Last week Shannon had a couple days off school so I took the same days off work and the four of us headed to Cincinnati for the weekend. We left on Thursday with the plan of leaving kind of early and getting there in time to visit the zoo for a few hours. Of course the best laid plans rarely work out for us and this trip was no different. We didn't get out of Huntington until close to noon and then, about 3/4 of the way there we had a flat tire. I had Lisa set the parking brake and then pulled the jack out so I could change the tire. However, we were stopped on a long slow incline so as soon as the tire left the ground the van still slipped back a little bit and actually bent the jack up. So I quickly finished jacking up the van and replaced the tire with the spare and we got back on the road.

Eventually we ended up in Newport, KY (by now it was too late to go to the zoo) so we stopped at a Graeters Ice Cream shop for a snack. We had been looking for a Goodyear so we could buy a new tire so I asked the girl behind the counter and, as luck would have it, there was one immediately next door to the ice cream shop. While our tire was being changed we went to this little mall that was mostly restaurants and looked around. They had a Halloween shop where I bought some stuff for my costume this year (I'm going to be a "nice" werewolf according to Emily). We also stopped by a book store and bought a cookbook that is laid out in a nice format for planning meals - it does it for you. Each meal is broken down with a main and a side dish so all we have to do is shop and cook without thinking about the menu. Each meal is supposed to be a "20 minute" meal to make so it should be convenient.

Finally we got the van back and headed to the Millennium Hotel which we had booked on Priceline for $50/night - a great deal considering we were right downtown. For dinner we headed to a pretty nice seafood restaurant McCormick and Schmick's. Eventually we ended the day and went to sleep in anticipation of going to the Newport Aquarium the next morning.

The Aquarium was pretty cool. They had a ton of different fish and just as many different turtles it seemed. Emily was proud to let me know they are called "Tortuga's." We also paid a little extra for a "Penguin Encounter" which let us go back to a little room that three penguins live in and we got to pet them while the lady (Rebecca I think) taught us about them. These penguins were pretty neat and were from South Africa. Because they are from S. Africa they really challenged my idea of penguins. In my mind they are always from some frozen iceberg but these guys live in temperatures up to 110 at times. they were pretty cool and they really liked to play with the wrist strap on Shannon's camera.

After the Aquarium (which was right around the corner from the Ice Cream shop) we stopped at a German restaurant called the Hofbrau House for lunch and a big stein of beer. Lisa was driving so she made me drink most of her beer so I was feeling pretty good by the time we left. The food wasn't that great - but their weiss beir was pretty good.

On Saturday we headed to Kings Island for a day of fun (from 12pm - 7pm). We spent most of our time in the Nickelodeon part of the park riding rides that both Emily and Shannon could ride. However, there were also a few rides there that were perfect "in-between" rides for Shannon. She is too small to go on most of the Adult rides but she is too big for most of Emily's rides. Instead they had some rides like "The Avatar" and "The Raptor" which were perfect for Shannon. The Avatar is a big sled that spins and slides back and forth on a ramp. It spins pretty fast and the ramp goes up and down so it was pretty thrilling for her. Then the Raptor was a suspended roller coaster. It didn't have any big spins or loops but it went fast and was, by far, the biggest roller coaster she has been on so far. She really seemed to enjoy both rides which was cool because she wouldn't have even thought about going on them last year.

After we had fun on the rides we played a few different midway games and everyone ended up winning at least one prize. Overall it was a cool day at the park. However, at around 7pm they start to shut down the kids rides and start to turn the entire park into a haunted house throughout the month of October. At this time the employees all start to show up dressed in costume and with pretty good fake injuries on their heads and stuff. While the girls dealt with seeing them OK I'm sure they wouldn't have liked it when the employees tried to scare them so we headed out. We ate dinner across the street from our hotel and then headed to bed again for our final morning before heading home.

Lisa had planned a nice surprise for the girls on Sunday and we headed to the US Bank Arena for the Disney Princesses On Ice show. The show was OK if you like watching figure skating and the girls seemed to really enjoy it so that was cool. Before the show started (we got there a little early) we actually got to see the Cincinnati Walk for Breast Cancer. It was huge - there had to be thousands participating. There was a small group of young women at the end cheering and yelling and just getting the crowd fired up. They had some pretty funny chants - one was "No Bikes, No Scooters, We're Walking for our Hooters" they were really into it and it was cool to see.

Here are some photos of the walk

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel

Thanks in no small part to the old adage "It's not what you know but who you know" I recently had the opportunity to go to the NHL Entry Draft. A friends brother is an executive with the NHL so he provided my family with amazing tickets that put us in the front row of the section reserved for draftees and their families. From this vantage point my two youngest brothers, my father, and I witnessed the first round of the draft. While, in all honestly, it did get a little boring at times (it is just a sequence of names being called out) it was still pretty interesting and a neat experience that I don't regret going to at all.

We arrived just before the actual draft began so we missed most of the Commissioners opening remarks and basically just had to wait a few moments for the Blackhawks to make their first selection - a young American named Patrick Kane. He was sitting in another section reserved for players exactly opposite us inside Nationwide Arena (in Columbus, OH). In fact the first five selections were all on the opposite side of the stadium. The third pick, Kyle Turris by the Phoenix Coyotes, was upstaged by the man who announced the draft pick, none other than "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky. I believe Wayne received the loudest and longest ovation of the night - even surpassing the announcement by Commissioner Bettman that the local team, the Blue Jackets, were on the clock.

I have been a lifelong Boston Bruins fan. My seat, however, was directly behind the Montreal Canadiens table. This is their "War" table where about ten team executives sit and debate who their next pick will be. If you know anything about the Bruins you know their natural rival is, none other than, the Canadiens. While the Bruins were able to pick with the 8th overall selection (Zach Hamill) it was the Canadiens who occupied most of my attention as I regularly sent out "boos" in their general direction. Their first pick was the 12th in the draft and they picked a guy right out of high school - Ryan McDonagh. I thought that was pretty cool, but interesting all the same. The NBA recently put a block on drafting kids out of high school yet baseball and hockey continue to do so. There was an uproar when kids were drafted into the NBA - so why is the media so silent on the same drafting policy of major league baseball and hockey? Inquiring minds want to know.

I took a lot of photos of the event but many didn't come out very well because I am a poor photographer however I put up the best ones I had in an online photo album. You can also read a much more humorous review of the draft over at Page 2 on espn.com courtesy of Bill Simmons

#Sports #FunStuff

Well Shannon's birthday celebration is finally complete! After three long weeks she is finally, officially, 6. She had three celebrations, three cakes, and eighteen candles to blow out but eventually she got there just in time for her 11 day spring break to end and for her to head back to school. I think she enjoyed all of the events and all of the gifts she eventually received.

As I have already discussed she had her fairie party with all of her friends. Then last week, on Easter Sunday, we had a Carvel Ice Cream cake when my Dad, step-mother, and youngest brother (Chris), came over for dinner. This past weekend we had the official family party for those family members who could reach our home. My father and his group were back down (sans Chris) with a friend from Oregon, Lisa's parents made it as well, as did Patti and her friend from the convent Barb. It was a nice little get together and Shannon was the recipient of a bunch of nice loot. She got some new clothes, some new bedding, some nice toys, a tinkerbell necklace, and some neat art supplies. As an added bonus both Emily and Shannon got a special treat from my dad and step-mother, Patty.

When Lisa was little she had a step stool that also could act as a small seat. The back folds down over the seat so a little person can more easily carry it. My dad borrowed the stool and managed to duplicate it exactly in size, scale, and shape. He made one for each of the girls. Then Patty brought her decorative painting skills to the table and with the help of all the party goers she managed to transform them into really pretty Tinkerbell and Bambi stools. Lisa's Mom traced the art onto thin vellum, I printed out a bunch of stuff on the computer, Lisa, Patti, Barb, and maybe even Joe all got involved in the painting process, and then Patty put the finishing touches on them that completed the transformation. They look really good. I'll put photos of them up later today (when I am back at home).

#Family #FunStuff

This past Saturday we began the celebration of Shannon's 6th birthday. In what seems an unusual trend we are having multiple parties for her this year. The first was her "friend" party in which all of her school friends, and other kids her age, came over to play, eat cake, and have fun. The second party will be more sedate as it will have more adults will focus on family members who can make it in town (the weekend after Easter).

This past weekend was the friends party and Shannon planned most of it with just a little guidance from Lisa and myself. The totality of my input was that it would be a "no-present" party. She has so much stuff, and always gets so much from her family, that her friends really didn't need to be getting her anything. If any of her friends families felt compelled to get her a gift then we would donate the gift to a local charity that helps out needy kids. Many of the parents were a little put off by this stipulation but, in general, they did a good job of respecting our wishes.

The theme for the party was "Peter Pan" with a focus on Tinkerbell and fairies. Most of Shannon's classmates and friends are girls so Shannon decided she wanted to have a costume party were all the kids would dress up as fairies. If anyone didn't want to dress up as a fairy they could dress up as a pirate or a lost boy from Peter Pan. In general all of the girls dressed up as a fairy (with one exception - she was Wendy in a dress her grandmother made just for the party). There ended up being just about 20 kids and nearly as many moms on hand for the event. Needless to say the house was full of fun.

We had a play dough table setup, tents and tunnels they could climb/crawl though, the Wii was setup for some of the adults to play, we had hopscotch on the porch (it rained a bit), and pin the wings on the fairy (another great Shannon idea) as well as pin the hook on the pirate (for the boys - she is very thoughtful).

I don't know if you have ever had apx 20 5-6 year old girls in your home before or not but let me tell you - they can be loud. They run, they scream, they scream, they scream, oh and they scream. They had a blast. Little kids in tights and wings fluttering around the house with about four pirates/lost boys tormenting them. It was hilarious and fun to watch.

For the first hour of the party though the true hit was Joseppie the Clown. Joseppie made balloon animals and took the demands of the kids in stride all the while wearing a huge red smile. He had a pretty good repetoire of animals as well; he made dogs, mice, giraffe's (a big hit), swords, and even one crown. He was a great help and we really appreciate him not just doing it but volunteering for the role in the first place. Shannon loved having a clown at the party and, for as long as we can keep it, she won't know his true identity. The other parents were all really impressed by Joseppie and I think he could make some good money if he were willing on occasion.

Eventually we had the cake and ice cream and then we ended the party with a mad dash for candy from the Pinata. Every kid had a ton of fun and I think the party was a huge success. Most kids parties now-a-days are held at party places like Chuck-E-Cheese (Billy Bobs Pizza here) or a Bowling Alley. By having the party at our house though the kids all got to actually play together and just have fun. Plus, with having a no present policy but having it be a dress up party all of the kids ended up getting a gift of a costume (if they didn't own one already). One of Shannon's friends, who normally won't go to the parties (due to lack of funds to by a gift) was able to come which was really cool.

Shannon was great. She was totally cool with the idea of a no present party, she seemed to play with everyone and made an effort to make all the kids feel welcome, and even shared most of her candy from the Pinata with kids who weren't able to really get any in the mad scramble. I often say she reminds me of Lisa and in this regard she is no different. I don't think I have ever met two nicer people. Now if only I could get her to give a natural smile for the camera. There are a couple more photos in our online album.

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Photos

A couple of weeks ago Lisa "surprised" me with a Wii. My coworker, and friend, Ed had bought two of the three Toys-R-Us had (one for him, one for his sister) but it turns out his sister got one the same day in D.C. So Lisa bought the extra one and let me tell you, it is really fun. It comes with five basic sports games; bowling, golf, boxing, tennis, and baseball. I'm not too fond of boxing or baseball (in fact I don't like the baseball game at all) but I really enjoy the golf, bowling, and tennis games. I would probably like the boxing a bit more if more of my swings actually registered (read: if I didn't suck).

I haven't owned a new to market console since the Sega Genesis even though I have eyed the PS2, XBox, XBox 360, and the PS3. Lisa isn't much of a gamer and the girls aren't either so it was hard to justify the spending of hundreds of dollars on a game machine if I was the only one going to play it. While the Wii hasn't suddenly turned the family into avid gamers it has managed to draw Lisa in to play some games and Shannon really enjoys it (though Emily hasn't even tried it and won't for another year or so).

We have bought a few extra games for it; Sonic and the Secret Rings, Tiger Woods 2007, Madden 2007, and Wii Play (a set of nine mini-games). I haven't tried Sonic yet but Lisa, Shannon and Joe all played it. Lisa and Shannon seemed to like it somewhat but Joe didn't care for it. The Wii Play games are mostly lame but they can be kind of fun - particularly an old Atari 2600 rebirth of Combat! (the tank game). I am no good at Madden 2007 which is no different than my skill level at any other Madden game however the controls are a lot different so I kind of like it - even though it can be very, very frustrating. Tiger Woods golf is cool but the graphics are rendered a bit darkly on our TV so it is hard to see the hole on the green plus the Wii remote doesn't always register my swings when I'm putting so it can be very difficult to have good "touch" for distance.

The Wii has definitely taken up a lot of our time - we have reduced our overall TV watching substantially because we are playing Wii games (mostly Wii Sports - the five games that came with the Wii). The only real gripes I have with the Wii so far are that there is no online play, the graphics, and the controls. I really wish there was online play because I would really like playing some of these games against my friends without having to have them come over. While the graphics are "ok" they just aren't very good - particularly in Tiger Woods golf. The people all look "weird" and the animations of them are really awkward plus everything is too dark. If I squat and have the TV at exact eye level it is better but the point of the golf mechanics are that you stand up and swing the remote like a real golf club. Finally, the controller. Sometimes it is overly sensitive and other times it doesn't register my moving of it at all. While I love the concept of the controller and have a blast playing the games with it it just doesn't work well enough for sensitive movements. It's perfect for abrupt moves (baseball, golf driving, tennis smashes) but sucks for putting or tennis drop shots - you just can't be delicate and that really gets aggravating.

I have hope that the mechanics and online play stuff will be resolved eventually. I'm resigned to the awkward graphics and think the sports games designers should as well and not try so hard to be photo realistic with the people (Tiger) because they just look odd. My overall impression of the system is a positive one though. My arms have actually been a touch sore after playing a lot of boxing or tennis the next day and, at least with boxing, it is easy to break a sweat so I figure I'm doing myself some minor good by playing some of these games. The price still seems kind of high - and the $50 a game sucks - but that is only because I am cheap. I have gotten my monies worth in hours of entertainment already (as compared to going to movies, amusement parks, etc) so it really isn't all that bad.

As soon as I manage to get my "Mii" off the "Wii" I will get a screen grab of him and put him on the blog for you too see.

#reviews #FunStuff #Wii #Entertainment

I'm not a huge fan of manga or anime so if you are, and I'm misusing the terms, cut me some slack. Shannon spent a bit of time drawing this morning created this, anime-like self-portrait. She loves to draw and is regularly drawing people and things however this drawing is definitely an improvement on her normal style. Because of this I have started a new online photo album of bits of art she creates. As of this post this drawing is all that is in it. However, if you want to see it in a larger size you can (just click on the image)

#ShannonsArt #FunStuff

It is snowing like crazy outside today. I've lived here (Huntington, WV) for about 11 years (wow) now and it is snowing about as hard as I have ever seen it. It is also really, really cold - it was 1F today on the way to work. Brrr.

If school is delayed or canceled tomorrow morning I will probably go into work late so I can play in the snow with the girls. If, and this is a big if, I can convince Emily to actually play in the snow. Last time she just stood still.

Everyone else has already left work in order to avoid bad traffic on the way home.

#FunStuff #MyLife