Resolution

New article this morning from my hometown paper, The Rolla Daily Snooze summarizing yesterday's Backwoods Missouri Terrorist. Here's the part of the article that sums up how nerdy a school it is:

Venkatramolla was supposedly upset after receiving the first two ‘B’ grades he’d ever gotten and falling behind in his classes due to illness, according to a source who wished to remain anonymous.

Wow. Seriously -- they're just grades. And, for most normal people, getting two Bs at one of the hardest, most-respected engineering schools in the world wouldn't lead them to want to commit suicide. Maybe it's an Indian culture thing that I don't understand.

WoW is Worth It

As a fellow World of Warcraft addict, I don't think this fella should be prosecuted.

I completely agree with the writer of this article that you shouldn't ever get upset with others using your Wi-Fi if it's not secured. It seem ridiculous to me that they want to police what people are doing on the open wireless connection. With the exception of things that are illegal or could harm others or are obvious (like gambling, phishing or looking at porn), I think you should be able to do anything harmless and non-offensive on an open network -- even at the library. And, for heaven's sake, the poor kid lives in Alaska! I'm sure it's beautiful up there, but many open Wi-Fi spots do you think there are in that town?

Backwoods Missouri Terrorist

Phil just sent me a link to this article about the university in my hometown. Just proves there are psychos everywhere.

It's a little funny, though, because my mom is ridiculously afraid of terrorists. When my sister and brother-in-law lived in Cairo, Egypt for the past two years, she asked them one time if they had disguises and escape plans set up just in case the terrorists were after them. Of course, they survived Cairo fine and never felt threatened in the area where they lived. Now someone claiming to be a terrorist attempts an "attack" in my sleepy hometown, less than five miles from the house where my mom and dad live, where I grew up. A little ironic, don't you think?

UPDATE: My mom just called and said they're staying in Springfield until they figure out what's going on in Rolla. And my mom's brother and his whole family are on their way to Springfield. I'd be a bit put off too, but when does that cross over to being paranoid and alarmist? Hmm.

Old School Video Games in Food

[Thanks BoingBoing]

We're Famous Dog-Torturers

Phil posted a couple of videos on YouTube of Allie with the radio-controlled helicopter the other day. Now you can enjoy watching us torture the dog from the comfort of your home!

Crack

Thanks to my new friend, the brains behind iBlog.

Even the Elderly Can Have A Wii Bit of Fun

This is awesome.

We got a Wii when it first came out and we knew instantly that it was a hit and our friends and family would love it. Phil had pre-ordered our Wii from our nearby GameStop. It came out at midnight so we went over at about 10:00 to pay for it so we could just pick it up later, when the rush arrived. While we were there, we ran into the guys who started and run the VS Gaming Center across the parking lot. Phil has been going in there since the day it opened. He's even done a few projects for those guys and that's one of our hangout spots if we have a couple of hours between dinner and movies, or whatever. Anyway, we saw Dave in GameStop and talked to him for a minute. He actually had arranged with GameStop to get the Wii a couple hours early, so he was taking it over to set it up right away. We went over there and played World of Warcraft for a bit to kill some time. Once Dave had the Wii set up, there was a huge crowd gathered around. They played baseball and did boxing and all of those teen-aged and twenty-something guys were laughing and screaming and having a great time. There were probably 30 guys gathered around awaiting their turn. Meanwhile, the PS3 that was released the day before sat over on the other side of the room with no attention. It was hilarious.

Anyway, we play the Wii all the time, but especially when we have company. We took it to my family get-together at Thanksgiving and my entire family loved it, including my mom and dad. In fact, they hijacked it for almost an hour as they played baseball and bowling and golf against each other. It was awesome. Then, we played with Phil's whole family at Christmas and that was a blast. His parents also enjoyed tennis and bowling and kept asking for another turn. That's when you know a game is genuinely awesome -- when non-video-gamers beg to play. So, seeing elderly enjoying it doesn't surprise me! I'm going to go see if I can get the second level of Pro on my Mii bowler. :o)

Still a Wimp

My leg is still killing me today, by the way. I was able to do cleans and push-presses fine this morning, but the right shin and right calf are throbbing. Does anyone know if it's normal for skin to not even show any signs of regrowing in a two day period? Yuck. Advil is my friend.

Compelling History

When Phil and I make our weekend treks in the Jetta back and forth to Iowa or Missouri, we stay entertained with audio books from Audible.com. Over the past few years (and 90,000 miles), we've listened to lots of great books; fiction and non-fiction. But this past weekend we heard one of the most compelling yet. It was a book called Manhunt and it details the chase of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

The author went through all of the notes and personal accounts of witnesses and everything and put it together as a story detailing John Wilkes Booth and his cohort's actions leading up to and after the assassination, until JWB was captured 12 days later. Incredible story. I realized I knew almost nothing about how Lincoln was murdered (except that he was shot at Ford's Theatre) and really actually nothing about John Wilkes Booth.

I always assumed JWB was just a monster. Of course, he was a murderer and I completely disagree with his justification and the actual act of murdering another human being, especially Lincoln. But he really thought he was doing what was best to preserve the Confederacy. His original plan was to kidnap Lincoln and smuggle him to the South and use him as leverage in the war. But, those plans fell through. So, he actually changed his plans the morning of the play when he saw the opportunity and had planned with his co-conspiritors to take out the President, Vice President and Secretary of State all on that same night. When I found out (sadly, not until the introduction of the book last weekend) that Booth was on the run for 12 days, I assumed he terrorized people all over during his time on the run, but that really wasn't the case. Incredibly interesting read (or listen).

Phil and I have always been fascinated by Lincoln anyway. I still don't know nearly as much about him as I wish I did, but I know he was an incredible man who allowed God to use him in amazing ways. Lincoln wasn't afraid of doing the hard thing and he remains one of the greatest historical figures and greatest democracy- and freedom-fighters of the USA's short history. Because of great leaders like Lincoln, the United States of America is a great nation and a free land. Let's just hope and pray for more great leaders like Lincoln in our future to bring us back from our negligence of the constitution of the inalienable rights endowed to all people by our Creator.

A New Phase of Life

Today is monumental for me. This marks the day I've been hoping would come for the past 28 years. Starting today, I no longer ever have any reason to step foot in a mall. I abhor malls. I get ulcers at malls. Do I have a phobia of shopping? Nope -- I just plain don't like shopping for clothes.

So, how have I figured out how to avoid the malls? The only store I need came right to me. The new stand-alone Old Navy opens up just down the road today and it's a symbol of my freedom.

My Other Site

I'm really proud of this new blog and I'm thoroughly enjoying posting my crazy thoughts and links here regularly, but my real passion is my other site, Kacie.net. Check it out.

Just kidding, of course -- Kacie.net isn't really mine, but a girl can dream, right?

Breach

Great movie -- go see it. It's a compelling story, based on the true events of the capture of the greatest security breach in US history, Robert Hanssen.

Chris Cooper is an amazing actor -- he makes my skin crawl a little bit, but he can also be really likeable at the same time. Ryan Phillippe can do no wrong in my book ... he's right up there with Colin Firth, but different. Their acting is all fine, but it helps that they are, too. What can I say? I am a chick and I'll admit it.

in the you ass of ay

Crumpler is the coolest! It's an Australian company who is now making it big in the USA (or, to see how they say it, see the title of this post). They make all kinds of bags that are fun and extraordinarly well-crafted. The company is entertaining and silly and it shows in their website, their bags and everything else they do. If we lived in NYC, we'd go to their events because they would just be a fun time. I just thought of them because they sent me a link to their 2007 catalog. Weird and hilarious.

When I got my Macbook last spring, Phil insisted that I get a new bag. If he'd pick it for me, it would be black and leather and boring. He wouldn't approve of a chick laptop bag like this one because the padding was not sufficient. So, I began the search. After about a week of research, I encountered Crumpler. I ordered The Luncheon in blue (with orange inside) and I've never had a laptop bag (or any bag, actually) that is so cool-looking, fun and so well-made. In fact, my picky hubby (who will admit readily that he has a bag fetish ... laptop bags, that is) ordered The Customary Barge bag for himself, his MacBook Pro and his Nikon D50.

Strong Wimp

Training at the gym this morning, I did jumps and squats (not all at the same time, Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow). For jumps, I basically have to go from the ground and jump up with both feet at the same time to a little platform thingie. Today I went to the 2-foot-high one. I must have had a mental block because my right foot got stuck under the platform (my left foot made it up with room to spare) and my right shin nailed the corner of the thing. I've never had a cut and scar so deep or painful, especially not on my shin. Ouch. My trainer kept saying, "I've never seen something that gross. Are you sure you're okay?" It does hurt a lot, but I don't think I need stitches or anything. It might be to the bone -- I can't tell. I doubt it, but that tibia is awfully close to the skin on shins. I did go on to do my jumps easily so I'm sure we'll move up to the 30" platform next week. Ouch, again.

Of course, then I went on to squats, which were fun and easy-ish again today, even with the heavier weight and the injured shin. The human body is amazing.

The Governator

I just remembered when I linked to the Missouri website on my last post that I went to college with the Missouri governor, Matt Blunt. His dad Roy was the president of our school, Southwest Baptist University. Mr. Governor Matt liked the bottle back in the day. An accomplishment for a dry county. Anywho, word is he's a good governator so far.

Ice Nightmare

We went to Missouri last weekend to meet our now two-week-old neice Sadie and visit 17-month-old Ethan, our sweet nephew. It was an awesome visit with the fam; everyone including my sister is doing really well.

But the trees there in Springfield, Missouri are not doing very well! They got an ice storm in mid-January, which is nothing new in Missouri (believe me -- I grew up there; winter = ice storms). What was new was that is was at least three inches of ice everywhere. In Colorado, we could probably weather that pretty well. But, with oak and maple trees galore that are hundreds of years old, that much ice didn't sit well in Missouri. We couldn't believe the damage. HUGE oak trees were just split in two from the weight of the ice on the branches. All of the trees' tops were broken and hanging down instead of reaching for the sky. My brother-in-law had cleaned up the downed branches from his six old oaks and had a pile of branches 10-12 feet by 8 feet wide and probably 10 feet tall -- and their damage was minimal. Check out these pictures from the Springfield paper documenting the storm and aftermath (click on the galleries under the "special coverage" section.

Also, because the cables there in Springfield are above-ground and also had so much weight on them, they're stretched out and draped lower to the ground. Just in the three days we were there, a utility truck went under a cable two streets over from my Grandma's place, accidentally caught the wires on the top of the truck and inadvertently yanked a bunch of them out of the main box, causing outage of power again in about 1/4 of the city. Funny that it was a utility truck ... too bad they didn't get it fixed for about 24 hours. Then, shortly after we heard Grandma's power was back up and running, we heard a truck drive by in front of Erin and John's and *boom* -- HGTV went fuzzy. The trucks going around picking up the branches had pulled the cable out of the cable box for Erin and John's house and it was just laying in a pile in front of their house. Lovely.

Anyway, all of this to say, "What a mess!" It's hard to describe or even understand in pictures, but it looks like a series of tornados ripped through town, and the aftermath is somewhat similar, too. Hopefully things will keep improving! More posts about the weekend in Missouri later. I had a fun time at the ghetto gym I've got to share. Later.

Music & Lyrics

Phil and I had a fun, albeit relatively low-key, Valentine's Day!

We decided to go out to eat for dinner, for the first time in a few weeks, which might be a record for us! So we went to the Fox & Hound Pub & Grille (Phil calls it Grill-eh) that opened on our side of town about six months ago. It was "eh". It would have been better with a big group around us watching the Cardinals win the World Series, or something like that. But Phil was super excited about the Hardcore Cider from Sam Adams on tap, so I'm sure we'll be back. Ha!

Then, he took me to Dick's Sporting Goods to pick up new wrist straps for my weight lifting, which seemed weird but I'm glad to have Phil's support on those endeavors. :o) Phil also got me a new teapot since we had to pitch ours because it was rusting after 8 years of heavy usage (we got it for our wedding). The new teapot looks great and works great -- I used it to heat up water for my Constant Comment today!

I got Phil a Chipotle calendar, a book of coffee drink recipes, and a radio-controlled helicopter. I don't usually go crazy for V Day, but my gifts to him at Christmastime were kind-of a dud: the radio-controlled helicopter I got for him then stopped working, so this was a replacement for that one and I got him something for his Gaggia espresso machine for Christmas that didn't work with it, so I got him the coffee book to make up for that dud. He's a good sport!

After dinner and gifts, we went to see the new Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore flick, Music & Lyrics. It was cute! They nailed the 80's pop band music and today's teen star music. Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant actually sang on all of those songs, which is impressive. I got the soundtrack from iTunes to entertain us on the way to Missouri today.

The whole evening was just relaxing and fun! Of course the most fun part was not the dinner or gifts or movie. I just plain enjoy spending time with my amazing and fun husband. He's the best!

Brach's Conversation Hearts

A post about my favorite candy from one of my favorite new blogs: Indexed.

Cursing Christians

Is it weird or bad that I like when my coworkers curse? I work at a small Christian non-profit.

One of my coworkers just called and said he was calling in response to the email I sent him with some smart-ass comments. I just cracked up and raised my level of respect for this coworker.

I'm not a very good curser when speaking, but I like it when people I respect a lot throw a curse word in or two. I heard a rumor that the pastor of our church teaches his kids some of the main curse words and teaches them that they're just words. I love that he's teaching them how things really are.

Although, I do have to say, I'm not a big fan of the f-bomb. I'm relatively used to it (sadly) because of my lack of discernment in TV, movies and music, but I don't care for it in real life so much.

What do you think?

Valentine's Day

If you're going to get your sweetheart anything this Valentine's Day, treat it like any other holiday with gifts and give them something they'll love. No half-assed efforts with just chocolate and roses this year (although if that's what I end up getting today, I won't complain becuase I almost never, ever get either one, so that makes them a rare treat for me). But, most of you have been giving chocolate and roses for years and you can do better. Here's a list of 10 suggested gifts for your nerd girl sweetheart this year. As a nerd girl, I endorse this list.

The only three gifts I remember getting from Phil for Valentine's Day over the past 10 years (8 of them married) are ...

• Allie the dog in 2000:
  
  A great gift! She's still kicking and acts like she's two months old instead of six years old, although she has a head cold at the moment, which is really weird.
  
  
  

• An iPod mini in 2004 (my first iPod, which Phil traded me for his 10 GB 2nd generation regular iPod about two months later because I had 8 GB of music at the time and the iPod mini was only 4GB, I think).

• My dream car, a new Volkswagen Jetta TDI, also in 2004 at the end of February:

  Best car we've ever owned. The German engineering is amazing. She has almost 90,000 miles on her three years later and she runs great. And, she's a blast to drive with the turbo. We've decided to only get Volkswagens in the future. Our next car, the Touareg. Well, maybe not the next one because they're so expensive, but it's a lovely dream.

The Office at Home

So, last weekend, we watched season two of The Office.

The entire season.

All 22 episodes.

22 episodes @ 20 minutes each = 7.33 hours of valuable weekend time ... and it was worth every second! We watched the UK The Office with Ricky Gervais a couple of years ago and it ended too soon. But, we jumped on the bandwagon late for the US version with Steve Carrell, so we bought season one from iTunes and downloaded season two so we could watch it also. We didn't plan to watch the whole season, it just worked out that way. If you don't watch, you're missing out on a lot of painful office humor and fun, believeable characters. Now we only need to watch the first 16 episodes of season three to catch up ...!

Sneezer? Am I Prone to Illness?

So, why would I pick "sneezer" as part of the title of my new blog? Am I prone to "expel air forcibly from the mouth and nose in an explosive, spasmodic involuntary action resulting chiefly from irritation of the nasal mucous membrane?" Not particularly!

The reason I threw "sneezer" up there with my name is because I've often been told that I am, according to Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, a maven on some subjects. Before Malcolm Gladwell was popular, back in the day, I read a great book called Unleashing the Ideavirus by the extremely insightful Seth Godin. In Ideavirus, Seth talks a lot about people who like to spread the word about things they think are good or bad, and he refers to them as "sneezers." I've always fancied myself more as an accidental maven, so a sneezer seems appropriate. But, I do like to talk about ideas or technology or restaurants or TV shows that I think are particularly interesting, for one reason or another. Those are the fun topics for me.

So, here's a new spot to spout about what I find interesting. I opted to start a new blog. My previous blog was read by pretty much just my parents and my husband's parents, and was more of an update on life in our family. Some of that will be here, I'm sure, but I'd prefer to have this for me and for a random audience to just share things I think are cool. So, thanks for joining me! I'm sure you'll get sneezed on in the process, but hopefully that will be a more positive experience than you are expecting!