A Guitar Player's Bathroom

I found this for sale on Deals.woot.com and it just made me smile. It's a Guitar Toilet Seat. I love this concept. Now, if only it had strings and you could actually play it while using the toilet... That would be awesome!

Bear Creek Green Belt

Our home is across the street from a nature preserve of sorts. It's called the Bear Creek Green Belt and it stretches for miles across metro-Denver following the meandering Bear Creek. Besides being a sanctuary for countless wildlife, it's loaded with trails for hiking, biking, jogging, and horseback riding. Plus, it has two large ponds for fishing and a large creek that runs through it. My boys enjoy taking hikes there. Both Joi and I (separately and together), have taken our boys there many times in hot and cold weather. My boys enjoy making little boats out of scrap wood and throwing it into the creek from a bridge and watching it float past the rapids. While hiking there, we've seen geese, foxes, coyotes, snakes, ducks, muskrats, prairie dogs, and other interesting wildlife. We haven't seen any deer, elk, or beavers there yet, but the Bear Creek Green Belt website says that they have been spotted. It's awesome to live so close to such beautiful surroundings and to enjoy nature. This is what we moved to Colorado for. I wanted my boys to be closer to nature and do boys things. Here's a picture of my boys doing "boys things" at the Bear Creek Green Belt yesterday evening. That's Bear Creek in the background. And for those of you wondering...Yes, that's a pirate eye patch that Gage is wearing. That's my boy!

Here's another shot moments later as the sun started to set. It was so beautiful, I just had to share it. These were both taken on my cell phone...so the quality isn't the best.

Big Stinkin' Monitor

When I started at UC Denver, I was given a laptop and a 19 inch widescreen monitor so that I could set up dual screens. Dual screens are so much more productive (especially if you split the screens so that you have two work surfaces). All of the imaging workstations and scan stations have dual screens now. As a result, they are starting to roll out dual screens to all users in Financial Aid. It turns out that there was a mistake with ordering the screens and one of the scan stations didn't get matching screens. I decided to order a new screen for myself and put my old matching 19 inch widescreen on the scan station. I tried to order another 19 inch widescreen, but Dell kept telling me that it was back ordered. After a few months of waiting, I got frustrated and looked elsewhere. I found a great deal on a ViewSonic 22 inch widescreen HD LCD monitor. It was cheaper than the Dell 19 inch screen and I figured that the additional space wouldn't go to waste. I went ahead and ordered it. It just arrived today and I can hardly believe how large it is. Especially next to my 14 inch laptop screen. It's huge! I'm posting a picture of the dual screen set up so that you can see what I'm talking about. I am enjoying the new monitor and LOVE the extra space. This will make creating Singularity workflows so much easier.

Old Yeller Dog Food?

I was looking at the grocery store advertisements the other day and I stumbled upon something that made me giggle. It was a dog food called "Old Yeller Brand Dog Food". This was a marketing fail if I ever saw one. I can see the slogan now. "Feed your dog Old Yeller and within a few days he'll come down with a bad case of rabies and you'll have to take him behind the barn and shoot him! Old Yeller - kill your dog the old fashioned way!" This just doesn't work, does it? Here's a pic so that you all know I'm not making this up.

Snow Day Means Snow Shoveling

When I left work on Tuesday evening, it was raining. When I got off the light rail in Englewood, it was raining hard. I got immediately soaked. In the two minutes it took me to walk from the light rail station to my car, the rain had turned from water to ice and then to snow. Between 5pm on Tuesday and 8am on Wednesday, about 16 inches fell on Denver metro. I called in to the Auraria Campus Weather Alert Hot-line and found out that they had closed the entire campus due to inclement weather. Woohoo! Snow day! I tried to sleep in and couldn't. So, I enjoyed some time with my wife and we watched the newest episode of Lost for the second time (still trying to make sense of the whole thing). The boys woke up and we went downstairs for breakfast. While Joi did school with the kiddos, I decided to shovel our patio and the walkways leading to our house. The last time I left snow on our patio it melted, froze, and turned into 4 inches of solid ice. So, I was determined to be on top of it this time. The snow was heavy and very wet (common for a Spring snow). Here's what my patio looked like when I walked out.

 It's hard to tell from the photo, but that was a LOT of snow. So, I put on my iPod, put on some of my favorite tunes, and bundled up to begin to tedious task of shoveling snow. Actually, I don't mind it. It's good exercise, it gets me outside, and it's nice alone time. Immediately, I realized how heavy the snow was and figured out pretty quickly that this was going to be no easy task.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. First I made a path from my front door to the gate. Again, it's hard to tell but if I was laying on the patio, the snow would completely cover me. It's that deep.

I'm making progress. I had finished one entire side of my patio by this time. I was working up a sweat...even though it was only in the mid-30's. Did I mention what great exercise this is? My arms were already starting to feel the burn.

The finished product. It's great to feel the accomplishment of a job well done. I was tried, pooped, worn out, exhausted, and tuckered out. So, where did all of that snow go to? Well,  I shovel it out to the grass outside of our gate. Here's where it all went.

Yep, that giant pile was all me. Whew! Also, I was a nice neighbor and shoveled the entire walkway from the neighbors house on our left to our neighbors house on our right...and all the way to the street...so that any visitors can get to us without trudging through knee high snow drifts. Today, my arms are a little bit sore. But, my patio was nice and dry this morning as I walked out. I love the snow and the chores it creates for me is enjoyable too. The funny part about this whole thing is that Wednesday was fairly warm and a lot of the snow melted on it's own accord. Oh well....it was still good exercise.

Heathcare Reform - A Government for the people?

I'm not entirely sure where I stand in this health-care reform issue. On one hand, I don't want a government run health-care system. I don't want to be told what health-care I can and can't have. I've heard from several Canadian residents that a government run health-care system is not good and that they hate their system. So, why can't we learn from them and stop this now? On the other hand, my Mom is one of those people who can't get health-care. It's too expensive for her. She's got some preexisting conditions and is in the "too old" category to get affordable health-care (even though you're not too old, Mom). Unfortunately, when her husband passed away five years ago, the company sponsored health-care that she had from her husband's job went away and she's had to do without health-care ever since. So, I'm on the fence. I tend to lean more toward not wanting a government run health-care system because it doesn't seem to work, will cost lots of money in additional taxes that I have to pay whether I want to or not, and I don't like having to support questionable medical practices that I am against, like abortion.

However, here's what really chaps my hide. First, Obama promised that the health-care reform would be drafted in open-door forums and without bribes or kick-backs. But, we all know that neither of these things happened and actually quite the opposite. Second, I'm saddened that this deal was voted through by using bribes and kick-backs. What happened to honest politics? What happened to a state representative that actually had the common good of the people he/she is supposed to represent in mind? Lastly, the public is against government run health-care. In the latest polls that I could find (a couple hours old), the public at large is against this bill. Only 37% is for it and 48% is against it. So, how can a government that is supposed to be "for the people" vote into law a bill that a majority of American's are against. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Also, I read today that Obama's approval rating sunk to the lowest point it has been since he took office. Doesn't this give him a little glimpse into the minds of the American people who elected him into office? Apparently not.

Bass - How Low Can You Go?

I have been itching to play the bass again lately. I really enjoy the bass. Ever since I was a kid and listened to 80's songs like "Keep Feeling Fascination" by the Human League and "I Can't Wait" by Nu Shooz, I just fell in love with the deep sound of the bass. Okay, maybe those two examples were actually synthesizers, but it was still a cool bass sound and it made me want to learn the bass. My first stringed instrument was a bass guitar. It was a short-neck bass made by a keyboard/piano company. Not very well made and it sounded crappy, but it was my first bass. My Mom took a artistic photo of me holding that bass and later made a drawing of it, which is still displayed in my living room. Maybe I'll post a picture of it later. That same summer
I remember using my Step-Dad's beautiful Red Epiphone Semi-Hollow bass guitar and I spent a whole day learning the entire A side of U2's Joshua Tree album by ear. Years later, I founded "Cry for Mercy" and enjoyed the times when Joe (the bass player) and I would switch instruments (I played guitar), so that I could enjoy the bass for a while. Joe and I later went to see Primus in concert and after seeing what Les Claypool could do with a bass, I was amazed and humbled. But, even more than that, I was spurred on to explore the bass guitar even more. Unfortunately, I've never had very many opportunities to play the bass. Most of the bands I was in left me playing guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, banjo, or other strings instruments. Sadly, there were other better bass players who filled that role. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to buy an old bass that Joe used to use in Cry for Mercy. It was a yellowish B.C. Rich with a very pointy head stock. You could kill a man with this head-stock. It was a good bass and I enjoy fiddling with it through the years. Unfortunately, I had to sell it when we were hurting for money and needed to creatively come up with some cash to pay bills. When my Step-Father passed away, I inherited a fretless electric stand-up bass. It's a beautiful bass. The only problem I have is that it is fretless, which is no easy thing to learn. You have to be dead-on in the right spot in order to not horribly clash with the rest of the group. I will master this bass, but I think I need more practice on a regular style bass guitar before I'm ready for the advanced fretless option.
I've been craving a bass so much lately that I even considered telling my wife that all I want for my birthday this year is a regular bass. I thought that maybe she could just tell everyone that all I want for my b-day is a bass guitar and if they wanted to chip in, awesome! So, I started looking online to see what kind of bass I would want. Man!...those things are not cheap! A decent bass starts at $500 and goes up to $4000. I would LOVE a full scale Epiphone Violin Bass like the one Paul McCartney plays. But, again, not cheap. I'm still toying with the idea in my head and looking for more affordable basses that strike my fancy. I'd love to get a regular bass guitar that I can play with again...so that someday I can get back up to par with it and play in a group or in the worship band. Maybe someday...

I'll leave you with a sampling of the Mastermind of Les Claypool.

24 Hours in Colorado

As promised, here is a comparison of a few pictures taken from the same spot (or close) over the course of 24 hours. I love how changing Colorado can be.

 This is yesterday at 7:00am, as the sun was rising. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the mid-60's. The day before (Wednesday) got up to the 70's. It was a warm and beautiful week.

This was yesterday at 6:00pm, as my family and I were walking to the park near our house. You can see the boys riding their scooters on the sidewalk to the left. It was still a warm day. A light sweater was more than sufficient. The "Winter Storm Warning" was only six hours away. Joi and I looked at the sky and made jokes about the "one little puffy cloud" that might drop 10 inches of snow on us.

This was taken at 7:00am, this morning (Friday). I'm not sure how long it had been snowing. When my alarm went off at 6:00am, the snow wasn't even sticking to the roads yet. So, it may have just started. By this time, the snow was just starting to stick. The worst of the storm is yet to arrive. They are expecting anywhere between 7-10 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. I think I'll take another picture either tonight or tomorrow morning to show you the final comparison and post it on my blog. By the way, it's expected to only reach 27 degrees today. Colorado definitely keeps you on your toes. Yesterday, I wore a short sleeve shirt to work (and pants..for those of you who wondered). Today, a jacket, gloves, and a scarf.

Colorado Sunrise

No, it's not a drink. Now that the time change has occurred, I'm up, ready, and out of the house as the sun is rising in the east. This morning, as I walked to the bus stop, I caught this beautiful picture on my LG enV Touch. I'll take another picture tomorrow of the same view. Today is in the mid-60's and sunny. Starting tonight, the temp is going to drop and we have a winter storm warning all day. They expect several inches of snow in this one storm. So, tomorrow's view should be quite different. I love how much Colorado can change in 24 hours. Awesome!

St. Patrick's Day a la Veggie Tales

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I don't drink, so I won't be joining the throngs drinking green beer in the Kegs and Eggs event in LoDo. While Corned Beef and Cabbage sounds intriguing...I probably won't be doing that either. I'll probably listen to Celtic music while I work (Clannad, Enya, Maire Brennen, Anuna, The Chieftains, Meav, etc). My wife gave me permission to have sushi today, so that's what I'll be doing for lunch. While not remotely Irish, sushi is good and it's how I plan to celebrate. I'm going to celebrate my Japanese-Irish heritage. Okay...so I don't have Japanese in me. I do have Irish. And this part Irish guy wants sushi. Anyway...in honor of the holiday, I'll leave you with a funny and informative short about St. Patrick created by the Veggie Tales folks. Enjoy! And...Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Old Rock Stars

So, yesterday I posted about ABBA. So, I thought it appropriate to share a video from a new favorite comedian of mine named Tim Hawkins. He's a Christian Comedian/Musician and he's freakin' hilarious! Here is his take on old musicians and how their songs should change with their age. I wonder what ABBA would be singing now?

ABBA Rocks!

I'm not afraid or ashamed to admit that I have ABBA on my iPod. It doesn't matter what your opinion of ABBA is, you have to admit that they wrote and performed some very memorable pop songs. You can't listen to "Take A Chance on Me" without singing along or tapping your foot. Everybody knows and can sing "Dancing Queen" off the top of their head. Some of my other favorites are "Does Your Mother Know" and "Super Trooper" (Soo-pa-pa Troo-pa-pa). Nothing says 70's awesomeness like ABBA. Well, tonight, the Rock and Roll community agrees and ABBA will be officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Along with ABBA, other groups to be inducted are Genesis, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and The Hollies.

The 50's are not the 70's

I was listening to my iPod this morning and it got me thinking. The theme song to Grease came on, by Frankie Valli. Grease was a movie about teenagers in the 1950's. Frankie Valli was a popular singer in the 1950's. Okay...so far it all makes sense. But, as I was listening to the theme song, I realized that there are heavy disco elements to the song. That's where the logic eludes me. Why not make the theme song more 50's sounding? Why disco? I understand that Grease came out in 1978 and you had to cater to the popular music of the day, but I never noticed the heavy disco elements until this morning. It's weird the things that we let slip by when we aren't paying attention.

Beauty Distorted

I got another great email from All Pro Dad today. It was about fathers talking to their daughters about what beauty really counts, the beauty of the soul. I don't have daughters, but I can teach my boys about what really counts. The bible says "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Also, I can let my boys know about the media fabrication of beauty and the reality behind all of those make-up artists, hair stylists, and computer doctored photographs that we are inundated with. That is not reality. We shouldn't hold women to those standards and they shouldn't feel like they have to live up to those standards. No wonder so many women struggle with self esteem issues. Look what the media is making them strive for! It's unfair and quite sad. Watch this video.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

I like Ice Cream. "Like" might even be too weak of a word to describe my enjoyment of that ice cold, creamy goodness. Of course, I'm a minimalist when it comes to ice cream. My favorite is plain vanilla with hershey's chocolate syrup. Whip Cream is optional, but delicious. I don't really care for chunks in my ice cream. I'm not a big Chunky Monkey fan or Rocky Road. Give me plain vanilla with chocolate syrup and I'm good to go. When I'm feeling saucy and need a change, I use Knott's Boysenberry Jam instead of chocolate syrup. I enjoy ice cream. I can walk away from chocolate. Cookies and cake are nice...but I can limit myself. But, ice cream is a different story for me. If I'm not careful, I could eat ice cream at every meal. But, since Joi and I are being careful with what we eat, this is not an option. We were able to find a Slow-Churned Ice Cream that has 1/2 the fat and 1/3 the calories. We even found a generic version found at King Soopers that is cheaper than the name brand (by Dreyers). It's pretty good and not as bad for you as regular ice cream. So, it makes me feel a little better about my addiction. When I get to heaven, I imagine that at the great feast that we get to eat with Jesus, my setting will include a giant bowl of plain vanilla with chocolate syrup.

I like ice cream. I think it likes me back. The other day, when I opened a brand new quart of the generic slow churned ice cream, it was smiling at me. Me and ice cream....we have a good thing going on.

Proof That God Has a Sense of Humor

This morning, I was doing my normal routine before work. I got out my vitamins, left the cabinet open, and opened the refrigerator to get something to drink. When I stood up from a crouching position, I banged my head on the corner of the cabinet door. "Ouch!" was the interjection that exploded from my lips (although my brain thought a few other unkind words). Joi, who was sitting in the living room doing her morning bible study and prayer time, asked if I was okay. I told her what happened, while vigorously rubbing my coconut and checking for blood. She told me that she had just finished praying that God would keep me safe today. As soon as the words were finished in her prayer, bang!!!... I whacked my noggin on the corner of the cabinet door. Either this is a preview into what my coming week will be like, or God has a serious sense of humor. I tend to lean toward the latter.

Losing Sleep

I never have trouble sleeping. My wife will tell you that I can say goodnight, lay my head on the pillow, and be snoring within a few seconds. For the most part, I can sleep deeply all through the night until my alarm wakes me up the next morning. It's VERY rare that I have trouble sleeping. The last few days, though, I've noticed an alarming trend. I'm not sleeping very well. Work is getting very busy. We are right upon our go-live date for the new system implementation and there is still so much to do. On top of that, I now have more people reporting to me than I have ever had before in my working life. Keeping other people busy is a very time consuming task. Don't get me wrong. I love leading people. It's what I do well. But, man...is it time consuming. I'm pretty much the only one on my campus that does what I do (document imaging management). The other campuses (Boulder, Colorado Springs) have at least two people doing what I do (usually a technical person and a functional person). So, there's a lot of weight on my shoulders. I do have help when I need it. There are some wonderfully intelligent people in my office who are usually willing to help me when I get stuck or need more info. However, these same people are also buried in their own work. It's a stressful time for many of us. What I am now noticing in regards to my sleep habits is that I wake up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning and my mind starts whirling with all of the things that need to be done. I try to push it from my mind and think about other things, but it always comes back. For me, work is one GIANT to-do list and my mind knows it. Even though I realize that there is nothing I can do about that to-do list at 2am when I am in my bed listening to my wife breathing softly, my mind keeps going. And going...and going...and going....and going. I don't like this. I prefer sleeping soundly and deeply all through the night. I'm hoping that things will return to normal for me at work and during sleep.

Weird Days

If you've been reading my blog regularly...you'll remember the story of the basketball that tried to kill me. Well, it gets stranger. Yesterday evening, after bedtime, Gavin started screaming crying from his bedroom. His crying over the occasional bonked head or fistfight with his brothers is pretty common, so Joi and I weren't exactly quick in responding. When he said "Mommy, Daddy come here!"...I realized something must be up. He was putting away his nightly reading book when he stepped on a shard of glass (not sure where it came from). It impaled his foot and was a good 1/2 an inch long. So, I patched him up, put on a band-aid and put him back to bed. So, that's two down (me and Gavin).

This morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, I sat down on the couch and started chatting with Joi. This isn't normal, especially on a day when I am in a hurry to catch the bus. But, today, we were chatting. Joi was sitting against a heating pad because her lower back was hurting. As we were chatting, she leaned forward for a minute and a huge puff of white smoke drifted from her back. I quickly pulled her forward and away from the heating pad. She stood up and flames burst out. The heating pad had caught fire! It burned a little of our couch before I was able to get the pad up and put out. I checked Joi's back to make sure she wasn't on fire. A bit singed, but no flames. Whew! My wife almost went up in flames. Not good! Weird, weird days! Now I'm keeping an extra cautious eye on Garrison and Gage, who are the only two not yet affected.

Prairie Dogs and Killer Basketballs

This weekend, the boys and I took a nature walk in the preserve across the street from our house. We always find lots of interesting wild life hanging around....geese, ducks, muskrats, squirrels, prairie dogs, coyotes, etc. We decided to walk by the prairie dog colony that is near our house because they were all out and about. As we walked the length of their colony (called a township), we noticed that there were probably about 50 prairie dogs all watching us from various mounds entrances across the prairie. They would bark a high pitched bark as we walked along and then disappear into their mounds as we got close. Other prairie dogs would pick up the bark and watch us until we got closer. They were watching us and communicating to their colony members where we were and if everything was safe. It was interesting. The boys asked me what they ate and what their tunnels were like under the ground. We decided to go home and do some research on the interweb. We found out that they eat seeds, grasses, and roots. We learned that they are highly socialistic animals that like to hug, kiss, and nuzzle each other. They do, indeed, communicate with each other. Their barks have meaning and is used to warn other colony members about danger and safety. Their tunnels are intricate and consist of entrances, exits, and rooms that are dedicated to sleeping and meeting. They even have chambers that act as toilets and a nursery for their babies. Fascinating! We enjoy our neighbors. I like to watch them romp and play as I wait for the bus across the street. They are fun. It's more fun to watch them now that we know more about them. I love the internet.

On another note...this morning, as I was getting ready for work, I had a mishap. I was picking out some clothes from my closet. I found what I intended to wear and turned to walk to the bed to put them on. What I didn't see was my basketball (which is usually on my side of the bed but was near the closet - probably because some of my little ones were playing with it). I placed my first step square on the ball and, just like in a cartoon, my feet were swept from under me. I came tumbling down in a heap, crashed on my butt-bone and slammed into the wall with my side. I made no small noise as the full weight of my body came crashing down onto the floor and sent a reverberating crash through the entire house. As I lay there, wondering what had happened, I could hear my wife scrambling up the stairs in a panic. In her mind, I had passed out due to a massive heart attack or something of that nature. No! I was just trying to do a circus balancing act on a Wilson Basketball. I wasn't very good. No joining the circus for me. As I communicated that I was okay to Joi, the boys came out wondering what they giant noise was. I had woken them all up at 7:05am, much to my wife's chagrin. Aside from my ego being damaged, my butt bruised, and a nasty scratch on my side...I'm okay. A little sore, but okay. No fun! Not a great way to start a Monday.