I Really Got Nothing

I don't think that anyone's noticed, but I'm trying to stay on schedule to blog twice a week. This of course does not take into consideration the exception weekend happening which usually deserves a post or two of its own. As I said before, I'd like to get paid for blogging and Raider Red Nation is taking up quite a bit of my time right now as it requires nearly daily updates. Wednesday has been my usual day to post an entry, other than on the weekends because there's been absolutely nothing on television.

Sunday morning I read an exceptional article from Michael Lewis, the guy who brought us Moneyball, on a football player named Michael Oher (via Kottke). The blog where I found this article had an even more interesting follow up thought to the article itself and although I was certainly thinking his sentiments, I don't think I would have expressed them. Not because I think that they're wrong, quite frankly I believe Kottke to raise some really good points, but because I don't know how others would feel about me making those same allegations. Homework is to read both articles and tell me what you think, but make sure and read the NY Times article first. Are we reading too much into the article or is there a point to all of this?

As an aside, these are things that are making me happy that are on television:
1. Scrubs (two every night on Comedy Central). I think they were better those first years and not so slapstick.
2. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. this is a really well written, and I would call it smart television.
3. The regulars (The Office, My Name is Earl, How I Met Your Mother, Two and A Half Men, etc.)
4. The Unit. I've just started watching this and it's really good.

Higher Rates

When I was single, I could save my duckets with the best of them. In fact prior to marriage and prior to renovating a house I had a really nice chunk of change put away. I've always been a saver and my wife will tell you that I'm obsessed with saving. Obsessed is a strong word and she's probably right because last night, Friday night, my party night, I spent the evening researching online savings accounts that get a better interest rate than my current rate 0.5%. I found this article on Lifehacker which detailed a recent CNN article about online savings accounts with APY as high as 5.15% with no minimum balance (currently I have to have at least $1,000 with my current bank in my savings account). I still haven't decided whether I'll go with ING or with Emigrant Direct. From what I can tell the basic differences are that ING is a little more user friendly and Emigrant Direct has the higher interest rate.

The first thing Miranda asked was if it was safe. From what I could tell, both banks are FDIC insured which is all the assurance that I currently have with my local bank. With a deposit of $3,000 I can earn $150 a month or I could earn $15 a month with my current local bank. These savings accounts are linked to your checking account and you can set it for an automatic deposit into your new savings account. If you need to put some money back into your checking account you simply do an automatic transfer approximately 2 to 4 days before you need the money. This is the biggest inconvenience, not having the money immediately, but that seems to be a really small inconvenience and I'm thinking that I can still keep a minimal amount at my local bank for that very reason.

If anyone can think of a reason why we all shouldn't be doing this then let me know. I've looked around the internet for user opinions and aside from the inconvenience discussed above and a couple of customer service questions, which I really don't care about, so long as I, I mean we, get a higher return on our money and the transfers are through the internet, then bring it on, on. Seriously, the more feedback the better.

Also, Ashley F. asked about printing photos from Flickr and I told her that all you needed was a Yahoo ID. This is not true, you need to sign up for a Flickr account, which is free and I have my settings so that any Flickr user can print photos.

The Possum

Last week, Thursday I think, Ashley F. notified me that there was something in one of our trees that was causing the dogs to go beserk. In the back, inside a cavity of one of the trees along our fence was a possum. Notice how menacing this sucker is, you can thank me later for taking these daring pictures and bringing you these exclusive pictures.

There's a couple of things to mention here. The first is DailyLit. The concept is that they will email you a portion of a book as often as you like. The thought being that so few of us take the time to actually read, but if what we had to read was condensed into smaller, bite-size portions, then we can probably handle that. Right now I'm reading "Famous Stories that Every Child Should Know." Don't get any bright ideas, I haven't been reading very much and I wanted something that might keep me interested. Also, it's only 116 parts and I didn't want to delve into Les Miserable which is 679 parts and if read everyday would take a good part of two years.

Lifehacker had a nice article about printing poster size images of your pictures and they recommended Pictopia. At some point in my life, I hope to have taken a picture that would be worthy enough of being made into a poster. Some day.

Texas Tech v. TCU

We spent the day, literally, in Fort Worth yesterday at the Texas Tech and TCU football game. It was hot, and a bit windy but otherwise a really good time, despite the fact that Tech didn't play very well at all.

We have some house-cleaning issues to consider before getting to yesterday's activities. First, the question came up as to the size of Central Park, NY. Well, it's 843 acres and you can learn more here and find lots of pictures here. Thus, we can definitively say that it's not 100 acres and it's not 30.

Some girls pawning Coors Light hats and coozies approached our group, and I had watched before as they quizzed individuals on college mascots. I mentioned to my wife that I know almost every mascot, it's one of my strange talents. Most of the mascots were easy except for the Tennessee, which is the blood hound. Most know of my freaky sports knowledge, which has no practical purpose, except to impress at parties. I am reminded of the challenge in law school my first year and someone didn't think that I really knew where every NBA player played in college. Once again, my sports prowess was unmatched as I no one could match my wits. Nowadays, I do not think that I could do this as I have lost touch with a number of basketball players and my passion has waned a bit, but I think I still know most of them.

Here's me after winning the Coors Light challenge.



Stephen and Ashley



Ashley T. and Miranda



Miranda, Stephen and Justin



Ashley F. and Miranda



Ashley F. and Ashley T., Ashley F. was obsessed with taking pictures of random people, and yet, it's art.



Me.



The stadium.

I want to thank Duk for participating in the 9.11 assignment, he's a really good writer, which I am sure is a product of years of law school. He has some really nice points and I encougage all of you to write about that day. I promise it will be good therapy.

So, we actually had a pretty nice shower Monday afternoon and I didn't take any pictures of rain so I know that you'll all be disappointed about that. Lucky for you, I do have more pictures of dogs so don't worry.

Blue



Zoey



Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. First, it's the start of football season and this makes me happy. Secondly, we get new TV shows. Entertainment Weekly has a breakdown on the new shows for the fall. My money is on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock.

I also stumbled upon a website that was one of my staple websites during my time in Austin when I was really bored. It's just a guy's photos of and around NYC and other places. Check out Lightning Field. Also linked on this website is a compilation of photos taken 9.11.01 and photos taken at the very same places on 9.11.06.

Miranda and I are going to the Tech v. TCU game in Ft. Worth this weekend. Of course, you can expect lots of pictures, hopefully of a Tech victory. Go Raiders.

September 11, 2006 - Five Years

Is there a more appropriate writing assignment than this, where were you this day? I don't want to make this more dramatic that what today is really about, but where were you. Here was my inspiration, Rocketboom. I also recommend taking a look at these pictures, they were taken September 13, 2001 and they are incredibly detailed, something I haven't seen before.

I have been mentally avoiding this day for quite some time, but I do feel that it's important to try and remember those feelings that you had that day. Write them down, anywhere, on a napkin and tuck them away somewhere.

I distinctly remember that it was a relatively cool day, in other words the 100 degree days of August had seemed to pass that day and I remember that today was going to be a good day. I had not yet found a job after graduating from law school and I was still working for my dad on our farm. This morning I began mowing at 6:45 a.m., just me, myself, and my radio. I remember the sky being an incredibly beautiful color of blue that day. There was so much calm that day, like any other day for me when I worked at the farm.

As always, I was tuned into The Ticket, a local sports talk radio station. For some reason I remember Gordon Keith doing the news and he was getting word that something was wrong with the World Trade Center towers, but really couldn't tell what it was. It wasn't until some time later where Gordon, Miller and Dunham were essentially listening to Good Morning America and as the network was providing news so were they. I remember sitting there and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I wasn't able to get to a television until noon that day and I couldn't believe the footage, it was so much different than what I expected. I remember thinking that this seemed to really be taking its toll on Peter Jennings as this really seemed personal with him (not that it wasn't with anyone else). I stuck out the rest of the day and was glued to the television the rest of the day.

I know that my wife really doesn't understand my unusual connection with The Ticket, but strangely enough, I really connect with all of those guys and even though it's been five years later, I still have that connection. Don't get me wrong, it's the sports and humor, but it's a little more than that. They are your everyman and that has appeal.

Raider Red Nation

I have started another blog, Raider Red Nation, which is intended to cover Texas Tech football. Eventually, I'd like to blog under the SB Network, but until then I'll blog here. I know that not everyone cares about this, but for those of you who do care here it is.

We Finally Got Some Rain

It's bee a really long time since we've received any significant rainfall here in North Texas (I actually think it's been since July 4th) so to celebrate, I decided to take a couple of pictures to memorialize the day.



Our chimney.



Blue and Zoey wishing they were outside.

Nothing Today

I've really got nothing today and I've made it a fairly regular practice to post on Wednesday so I'm just posting some links I've stumbled upon recently:

How to take fantastic digital photographs.

Create your own seal like I did on the upper left portion of the old blog.

Click on this link to find out everything you wanted to know about your birthday.

If you have a Dell make sure that your battery won't explode.

I'm thinking that we are all due for a writing assignment in the near future. I haven't quite figured out what it will be, but be keeping this in mind. As as aside, I believe I like writing more in the winter than in the summer and the winter is slowly creeping up on all of us.

Four Birthdays, First Monday and a Baptism

Very busy weekend with lots of family things going on.

Friday night we celebrated Miranda's, Saralyn's, Marilea's and Mom's birthdays at Saralyn's home. The gumbo was great and Miranda and I left early enough to check out the new addition to the Northpark mall.

Mom, Grace and Miranda.

I'm sure that Darius is proud, Grace and Jensen fighting over a doll.

Blake, Thea and Marilea. I apologize in advance for the lack of quality, but lack of a flash, my poor photograph skills and not enough light = poor photo quality.

Saralyn, Ryan and Jensen.

Jackie.

Saturday morning, Miranda and I went to First Monday. The weather was perfect and we had a really nice time. Now, the biggest problem I have with First Monday is the number of perfectly healthy and capable people who insist on driving a Rascal or buggy. I know that we see these people at Wal-Mart who are so large they can't even walk through the grocery store, yet they are purchasing 24 glazed donuts, driving in these machines. Don't get me wrong, I understand that some people are hadicapped, that's not who I'm talking about here. They infuriate me and it's easy to see why America is fat, we're too lazy to walk. In fact there was a woman driving one of these devices, smoking a cigarette, and nearly running over a child. Priceless.

Finally, we had Thea Rose's baptism on Saturday night. The problem here was that I was trying to man two cameras at one time, thus causing to miss some of the action. I'll post some of the better ones and leave the rest up to you to view on Flickr.

Thea is not only almost complete in the water, but she is getting drenched. The priest made the comment that none of the 3 (?) girls who were baptized that night made any noise, that this would likely change over the years.

These next 3 shots are me trying to get a little fancy and take some artsy photos. I like the ones with the close-up of Thea's hand and the picture of Marilea, Blake and Thea standing at the front at the end of church. I also realize that black and white photography may be a little much in this case, but it just looked better for the situation. No rhyme or reason.