Cup Full of Joe

CNN Interview Gone Wrong

2009-08-13T19:20:00.001-04:00

Zombies!

2009-05-10T15:58:00.001-04:00

100

2009-05-02T18:24:00.003-04:00

A couple things.

1. This is my 100th post... woohoo!!!!

2. I have been busy, work finally started back up... woohoo!

3. Paul the Critic is threating to die again. I hereby tag Rachel to continue with the next portion of the story.

4. That's all I have to say.

Paul The Critic Round 2, Part 3

2009-04-13T10:30:00.000-04:00

"Paul we need your help to find your sister. If they made an attempt on your life after letting you walk away, then Richard must have learned that your sister had more than just the stolen data.” "Where... Where is She?" Asked Paul on the brink of unconsciousness. "Intel says she's in a Lubrizol plant in the North-East Amazon Basin. Probably being forced to finish her work.""I'm Coming" Slurred Paul weakly" Not like this you're not" Said Brice “I know what town.." Paul was breathing very slowly when his eyes closed and his mind faded to blackness.

Part 3

Lubrizol Plant, Santarem, Brazil- 06:00 hours

It was quiet, too quiet. Sarah could hear the buzzing of the florescent bulbs above her head as they flickered, threating to go out any moment and leave her in complete darkness. "Darkness would be great right about now, then I wouldn't be able to see all this filth" she thought as a rat scurried silently across the floor in front of her. She pondered the events of the past couple months... "Why hadn't I just gone to the authorities in the first place? Now Paul is poisoned, possibly dead by now, and me, the only one who can help him, is locked up in a cell with no hope of release." What she didn't know, is that Paul was fine, and quite close actually.

Outside of the small building, in which Sarah was a prisoner, a small group of men were silently gathered. "Kowalski, you and Jones take the east side. Rico, you and Phil take West. Private, you and Skipper take the South side. Paul, your with me.”

Paul was, of course, analyzing Brice, listening closely to the timbre of his voice as he spoke. He was a cool as a cucumber. There wasn't even the slightest hesitation, not even a hint of quivering. He had done this before, in fact he had done this so many times, he was almost beyond feeling anything. It was just another day's work to him. Paul still didn't like Brice. He looked at him as childish. A little boy trapped in a man's body, clambering for attention. All the things he did were based off of a need to be noticed, to be in charge. He was also worried that Brice's seemingly carefree, nonchalant attitude was going to get his sister killed. Paul looked around at the other men. Each one was checking their guns and gear, making sure everything was in place. Some were on one knee praying, others were looking at pictures taped to the inside of their helmet. They all knew this was a dangerous mission. Only Brice stood stock still, silently staring into the distance.

It was going to be light soon. Light was already creeping slowly across the sky, turing everything a pale gray. Brice knew they had to move soon. This was going to be a quick mission, they had to get in, secure the package, and get out. No time play around. Lubrizol had a small army made up of many of the locals. Brice didn't want to get caught in a fire fight in the jungle. Brice glanced down at his watch “06:09” it read, in small green numbers. One more minute and they would move into position. The jungle was starting to come alive, monkey and birds were shrieking and screaming throughout the forest, providing just the right amount of cover for him and his men to carry out their mission.

Brice silently waved his hand, the signal for his men to move out. If all went well, they would all be on the chopper headed back home in about 10 minutes. If all went well...

Lizard Tribute

2009-04-11T10:20:00.003-04:00

Both of my lizards are dead... ;-(

I think they may have both died of the same disease...

It's depressing, I miss the little guys, they were cool

Gerard

Julian

Hypocrisy Discovered

2009-03-22T13:47:00.001-04:00

Bake Oven Knob

2009-03-21T15:31:00.002-04:00

It was such a nice day that we decided to hit a local part of the Appalachian Trail for a little hiking. So me, Rachel, and neighbors Chris and Jackie complete with dog, hit the mountain. It wasn't really a long hike, more of a short walk over rugged terrain, to the lookout point called Bake Oven Knob. We packed a little lunch and made a nice relaxing Saturday out of it.

Panoramic View

Interesting Article

2009-03-16T12:22:00.001-04:00

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2009/03/nuclear

Bluing a Bayonet

2009-02-27T22:55:00.006-05:00

So a friend of mine found this old Bayonet in the trash a couple of years back, and gave it to another friend of mine to attach to one of his guns. However, the poor bayonet was quite rusty and pitted. Said friend contracted me to restore said bayonet to somewhat of it's former glory. It was quite a long, tedious process of removing the rust. I started out with steel wool, then went to sandpaper. I started at 60 for an aggressive removal as the blade was rather pitted. From there I moved through 80, 220, 400, 600, 800, and finally 1000. As a finishing touch I finger polished it using Jeweler's rouge. It came out pretty shiny and nice looking, the problem with this was, being as it was made some time ago, it is quality metal and not cheap stainless steel.

Ready to apply bluing

Leaving it shiny wasn't an option as it would be a collectors item sitting in the deep recesses of a basement. Painting wasn't really an option as would not give the desired finish. So I settled on bluing the metal. Unfortunately I don't have bluing vats and ovens at my disposal so I had to settle for the cheaper, less durable cold bluing. I got some cold bluing chemicals and set to work. First, and extremely important, you take the knife and clean it. The best way to clean it is to first use soap and hot water, scrub and dry several times. Then after putting gloves on, use a degrease and degrease at least twice. The reason for this is that any oils from your fingers, or dirt in the pores of the metal with cause undesired variances in the finish of the metal. Once the knife is sufficiently cleaned, you apply the bluing compound using a cotton swab. Apply and wait 30-60 seconds, rinse, dry, and polish with steel wool.

Un-polished bluing on the blade

The polishing with steel wool is quite important. It removes any of the bluing compound that didn't seep into the metal leaving the rest. Sandpaper, even 1000 grit will take too much away, defeating the purpose of polishing. Repeat the bluing, rinsing, drying, polishing process as many times as desired until you have a finish of your liking. (Note: It may also be helpful to slightly heat the metal for better adhesion of the bluing compound.)
So my personal opinion is that if you are going to blu a gun, or a knife that will be used, take it to a professional and have it done right. Cold bluing isn't anywhere near as durable as hot bluing, and it doesn't look quite as good. So that's it, now you know how to "blu" metal!

The finished blade

New Rims!

2009-02-22T14:53:00.004-05:00

So I finally got new rims for my car. I found a guy on Craigslist who was selling them, now I just need to get new tires for them...

Cheese Flan!

2009-02-21T09:35:00.003-05:00

Today my Sunday School Class is having an "International Progressive Supper" in honor of Missions Month at our church. Last year we had an International Party. We had dishes representing several different countries. All of it was quite good, I made a cheese flan, the only problem was that I waited too long to make it, and it did not have sufficient time to cool before consumption. So it wasn't quite as good as it could have been. This year I also made Cheese Flan, except this time, I made it with plenty of time to cool off, so now I just hope it tastes good!

Flan is basically a carmel custard that is slightly solidified. First you mix the sugar and water, melt it on the burner, and then slightly burn it to make carmel. That's the tricky part, once it is to the slightly browned stage sugar burns very quickly, resulting in a rather smoky house. After that it's pretty simple until you have to flip the flan, since in the pan it is upside down. Flipping it can be tricky if it isn't at the right temperature.
This is the recipe I use:

Cheese Flan (Flan De Queso)

Ingredients:
* 4 eggs
* 1 Pkg. 8oz. Cream cheese
* 1 Can Condensed Milk
* 1 Can Evaporated Milk
* ¾ cup sugar
* ¼ cup water
* 1 8"x10" Metal Pan
* 1 11"x14" Metal or Glass Pan

Instructions:
Take the 8"x10"pan, add sugar and water (this will cook the caramel. Put the pan on the stove on high until the sugar browns and thickens, (5 to 10 minutes).

Let it cool. In a blender, blend eggs, cream cheese, condensed milk and evaporated milk (3 to 4 minutes).

Pour mix into 8"x10" pan. Put 8"x10" pan inside 11"x14" pan. Put water into 11"x14" pan until almost full. Bake at 325 to 350 for approximately 1 hr and 15 min. When done take the 8"x10" pan out of 11"x14" pan.

Let it cool. Flip it over on a cookie sheet lined with foil.

Ski Trip

2009-02-19T23:54:00.002-05:00

Just got back from an impromptu ski trip with a couple friends. It was fun I guess, the conditions were horrible, everything was ice and there wasn't any powder. The trade off is that when it's icy, everyone is having yard sales (aka whiping out) so it gives you something entertaining to watch while you're riding the lifts. I haven't been able to make it out at all yet this year, so it was fun to get out and ski. Sorry Jordan, I didn't board... The best run was on the two terrain parks so we spent the evening there doing jumps and grinding on rails and boxes. I got a couple videos of the jumps, and rail grinding. We almost got in on the "special olympics" that were scheduled for tonight, but apparently we weren't special enough...

Luke on a board

Eric jumping

Me "grinding" on a box

Oh and by the way, Paul the Critic, Round 2, Part 3, is currently being written, so keep your eyes open!

Computer!

2009-02-13T17:21:00.004-05:00

So as some of you know, or may not know, I have been without a computer for about two years now. I just got tired of fixing mine and gave up on it. Prompted by the recent departure of my sister to another country, into which she took her laptop therefore leaving me with no computer to mooch off of, I decided to build my own again. Enough said, I have a computer, PtC with be along shortly.

Blog Fail

2009-02-01T15:58:00.004-05:00

So I admit it, my blog has been a fail recently, with no posts for two weeks straight. I do plan on posting the PtC story sometime soon. Some things came up and I was not able to get around to it. I have been out of work for a while now, but I am keeping myself pretty busy. This free time has given me a chance to work on my car, pursue some new hobbies, read several books, and appreciate my money even more. Spring time is coming, and hopefully with it will be work. My latest venture was helping a friend install a TV antenna on his roof. It turned out being rather fun, even though it took up two weeks of my time. We tried several mounting systems before finding one that worked. So now he has an antenna almost as big as his house. We even installed a rotator, so all he has to do is turn a dial, and the antenna spins. Oh and he pulls down 32 channels with it

So, keep looking for posts, there should be more on their way, oh and don't forget to vote in the new poll

FAIL!

2009-01-16T21:36:00.003-05:00

The First Knife!

2009-01-12T17:26:00.007-05:00

So on my first try, I successfully made a knife. It's not all the great. To me it looks more like a butter knife than anything else, but it was only my first try, so I'm not going to complain too much. Unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on any coal, but was so anxious to try it out that I used charcoal. Now charcoal burns really hot and quick, but it also has an abundance of additives and impurities mingled with it. Because of this the knife turned out a little rough and took quite a bit of time on a bench grinder to change it's appearance into something suitable. The side benefit is that charcoal is almost pure carbon which is transfered into the metal with every hit. The more carbon, the tougher the knife. There is a point at which it is to brittle and the metal will snap. So here are some pictures...

I made the knife out of a railroad spike...

The charcoal fire

The metal heated up and ready to forge (note: this picture was from today and another knife that didn't turn out because I was using coals for the first time and wasn't paying attention, the metal melted and burned up...)

And the finished product all polished and sharpened...

Some lessons I learned from the making of my first knife:

1. There is a reason why blacksmithing tongs are so long... and why pliers don't work very well

2. There is also a reason why blacksmiths wear leather gloves

3. Use coal rather than charcoal

4. And don't leave the metal in too long as it will burn up

Paul The Critic... Revisited

2009-01-11T15:03:00.003-05:00

So yes, after an extremely long sabbatical ,brought on by Bek (aka Mother Goose) Humphrey and her utter disregard to the suspense in which we are all bound by the abrupt note on which the PtC story was so carelessly abandoned, I have taken it upon myself to revive the story. Since it has been such long space of time, you have doubtless let critical parts or characters of the story slip your mind. I shall endeavor to remind you of such details I deem critical to the point at which we return to the story. So here goes...

Characters and their current status:

Paul- Paul rather unfortunately seems to have been poisoned by his very own sister. Even more unfortunate for him, there is no antidote for the chemical that is breaking down his body. We last saw him passed out, but safe(as safe as can be expected with death so close) in the very capable hands of the young Agent Brice...

Agent Brice- Agent Brice seems to be a very capable young man, not only is he suave and debonair, but he is also agile and stalwart. He works for the CIA in an undefined branch, the kind you never heard talk about unless you are part of it.

Sarah- Sarah is Paul's sister. She is also a very famous Chemist who works for the Lubrizol corporation. She is apparently trapped in the company doing illegal research on some rather nasty chemical weapons. In an attempt to keep from being discovered by her watch guard, Richard, she seems to have poisoned Paul in the hopes that she would have time to discover an antidote before he is gone. She was last seen boarding a plane with Richard to somewhere in the Northeast Amazon Basin

Richard- Richard is apparently a hitman in the Lubrizol Corp, he was assigned to Sarah and seems to have grown fond of her, the current state of their relationship is unclear as he was last seen literally dragging Sarah aboard a plane to the Amazon Basin

Chatterbox- We are not actually sure of this agents name, she has gone by the name "Laura" but we cannot establish the validity of this alias. She is working very closely with Agent Brice, whether she is CIA or not has not been established either. Possibly married to a large, ripped man who goes by the name "Darius"

Darius- Also working for Brice, possibly married to Chatterbox, this fact has not been established

Lucy- Lucy is another agent working for Brice, possible last name "Ball" unconfirmed, no further intel

Large Man- Was also working for Agent Brice. No name given, he is believed to be dead as he was shot by a sniper working for the Lubrizol Corporation, death cannot be affirmed as no body was found.

Mr. Jim Pietsch- Cabbie worked for the Caliente Cab Service, terminated in a car bomb intended for Paul

Short Italian man- Possible mob connections, has been known to do job for Mr. Richard Banks. Prone to SMS or "Short Man Syndrome", last was seen busy being a chew toy for junkyard dogs.

Ok, that just about sums it up. I believe I got all the characters, if I missed on just let me know and I will add them in. If you are still confused Tobi also wrote a summary and has compiled all the chapters into a google doc, there is a link to it on his sidebar. I will write the next part to the story sometime withing the next week.

Tag

2009-01-10T16:30:00.001-05:00

Oh I do detest tags, but whatever...

So I've posted this before, but whatever. Yeah, this was a fun day at work. One of my coworkers rolled one of our trailers with the hydroseeder fully loaded. This made water and grass seed go pretty much everywhere. Anyway, an update on the equipment. The truck suprisingly enough had virtually no damage done to it. The trailer was fine apart from a bent tounge, which was easily replaced, and a few dents and scrapes. It still works with no wobble or side effects. Pretty amazing after what it went through...

So 4 people I have to tag...

Umm...

1. Jordan

2. Aaron

3. Nathan

4. Jackie

If you've already been tagged, or don't want to do this, sorry and oh well

Switch Over

2009-01-09T20:41:00.004-05:00

Welcome to my new blog! Well, not really all that new, just new look and location, kind of, it's really an old location revisited, anyway. As part of the New Year changes and all I decided to go back to blogger now that they have added many new features. The main reason was I was tired of Wordpress' boring templates, and the inability to change them. I hate being stuck in this little mold of all these other bloggers and what their blogs look like, it's too... boring. I like customization, and respect personality. This was part of my plan for making my blog better in the 2009. Hopefully the other parts will follow soon. One rather annoying, unfortunate downside to switching is that all of the comments could not be transferred. Blogger and Wordpress import/export formats are currently incompatible, so I had to find a third party method. I only found one, and it does not transfer comments. So all of your "Witty Retorts" or thoughts and comments on my posts are still at the old location. Hopefully someday in the near future Blogger and Wordpress will settle their differences and just decide to get along. Until then, we will just have to make due. So that is that. Hopefully tomorrow I will be going to get some rather necessary blacksmithing tools, and will be able start on a knife... hopefully

Blacksmithing

2009-01-08T18:20:00.001-05:00

So most of you know that I like to get into alot of new hobbies. I am constantly making something or in the middle of a project. Recently I got into making knife handles and sheaths. I made three knife handles but quickly grew bored. I decided to move on to making the knife blades as well. I spent some time researching on youtube and other resources until I found some good plans to make a forge. I settled on making a 'Brake Drum Forge'. I took an old brake drum off of a truck, turned it upside down and bolted a 2" black floor flange to it. From there I put in a "T" with a one foot section to stick out the bottom of the "T" and a cap to screw on the other end. Then I stole my mothers' dying hair dryer and inserted it into the non-threaded end of the 1' section. I also took a thick wire grid and cut it to size to fit over the hole in the bottom of the brake drum. Fill it with coal, lit it on fire and Viola! a working forge.

Now all I have to do it get some metal to throw in, and make some knives. Hopefully they'll turn out looking like an actually knife and not a ugly hunk of burnt metal.

A good article

2009-01-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

This article came across on email and I thought is was very insightful. So many people like to frame the president as an uneducated, illmannered cowboy from Texas. If only they would take the time, they would find that he is a much different man than what they would belive. It's written by Karl Rove, the presidents former senior advisor.http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB123025595706634689.html

Airsoft

2009-01-04T19:39:00.000-05:00

So I thought I would put up a couple airsoft videos from yesterday. We had an Alumni basketball game scheduled for a while and decided to play some airsoft before it. The woods beside my house was elected as the spot. We had 6 guys all together, I only have 4 pictured though.The guys, and Nathan with his shoe untied...[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz1zcGXTds4]A fairly normal 'war'[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQrcqqWnzHQ]Me attacking poor Andy...So ya, Jordan, you need to come down here so I can whoop up on you, in Christian love of course. :)

New Year and such

2009-01-02T02:35:00.000-05:00

Happy 2009! It's kinda hard to believe that is 2009. I remember when I was younger thinking how funny some of the year names sounded. I guess they aren't really all that silly sounding now. Regardless, time does seem to fly even faster. Things are finally starting to slow down, or so it seems. Christmas was alot of fun, we spent most of Christmas Eve with the family. I got mostly clothing and a few other small things, even a really large lunch box.Winter Camp just ended yesterday, I really enjoyed it. We had four different speakers, and all the messages were first rate. The last day we were there we go 8 inches of fresh snow, that made the drive home lots of fun. I have some plans for my blog for the new year, hopefully I'll be able to unveil them soon.

Troop Tribute

2008-12-24T21:34:00.000-05:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpks-dujygw]This Christmas take a moment or two to remember our troops...Never Forget

A Study in... Christmas Traditions

2008-12-21T20:11:00.000-05:00

We've never done anything extra special for Christmas, just some quirky family traditions added in with the normal. I, like most American children, was always really into Christmas. I LOVED getting new toys to play with and always hated getting clothes. Our family tradition when I was younger was always to wait until 8:30 or 9:00 to get out of bed. We weren't allowed to get out of bed before my dad, or we wouldn't get any of our presents. So I would lay in bed staring at the ceiling until finally after an eternity he would knock on my door. Then came more torture, we would have to wait for my mom to make breakfast, and then eat it. After this we would all gather in the living room and stare at the presents, at least I did, while my dad read the Christmas story and tried to redirect my focus off the presents. Finally we would get to the presents. I normally got to go first, unless I was really rowdy, then I would have to wait till last. As I got a little older things changed, I wasn't as excited about the presents and was more interested in the sleep. This was when my dad started waking us up at 3:00 in the morning to open our presents. I liked this about the first two years it happened. Then my brothers got married and had kids, so now we spend Christmas Eve with them eating, playing games, and exchanging gifts. Christmas day, normally in the morning we finish opening the gifts we got from our parents and they open their gifts. The rest of the day we spend watching Christmas movies, eating junk food, and just being lazy. One of my traditions has been to put up the Christmas lights on Thanksgiving day, but I flubbed that this year. I was too lazy, and then went to the Eagles game that night, but the past couple years some people in my family have wanted to skip the Christmas tree, that hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it never will. I still do like Christmas a lot, and it is one of my favorite times of year. I love sitting in the living room looking at the tree all lit up and reading a book, or just drinking coffee. I even like Christmas music, mostly because it is only played for just over a month every year, so it always seems fresh and new. So that's what happens here on Christmas. Oh, and tonight at 6:45 EST we are starting the live streaming of our churches Christmas cantata, so tune in if you want to! There should be a red box on the main page of our website indicating that we are streaming.(Edit)Wisemen tradition... It really isn't torture, it's just something we started to make our manger scene more biblical. We take the wisemen and their camels and place them in the kitchen, on top of the microwave so that it looks like they are traveling to Israel, following the star. That's all... Oh and the snow if to symbolize sand dunes...

A Study in... Busy

2008-12-14T19:44:00.000-05:00

Ha, yeah, so I've been busy lately, plus I was just too lazy to post. So after a short sebatical, I am back! Yeah, that is a picture of a set of steps that were built for our Church cantata, or "Christmas play with a biblical message" for you people in Alaska! ;-) Anyway we were going to a first centuryish look, so I poured gasoline on them and lit them up. They turned out pretty good, and structurally sound, I think. Christmas is almost here and things are starting to get even more busy. I do however plan on posting a little more often than once every two weeks, LoL.

Eagles Game

2008-11-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving day wasn't a very typical Thanksgiving at our house. Normally my brothers and their families and my uncle who lives in town come over, but this Thanksgiving everyone was going to other places. So it was just my parents, Rachel, and I. It was a pretty quiet day. I just sat around being lazy, went to the range and made sure my gun was sighted in, and ate dinner. Finally the evening rolled around. A couple weeks back my dad got three tickets to the Eagles Thanksgiving day game through his radio program. Chris and Nathan Gable and I ended up being the ones to go to the game. The tickets were for club seating, and would have been rather expensive, except that we got them for free. When you walk up to the stadium there is the normal entrance, and then there is a special entrance for all the club level seating. People dressed in suits scan your tickets, stamp your hand, and direct you to the right section. The lobby is carpeted and heated with lounge chairs everywhere.The view was really good too, the seats were up high enough that we could see everything, without anyone's head being in the way, but not so far away that you didn't have a good view. There were even people who walked up and down the isles taking orders for food. It turned out to be a really good game. McNabb, the eagles quarterback, has had a rough couple games recently, and the fans weren't very happy with him to start, but he remdeemed himself and did a good job. We were seated next to a couple hardcore fans that made the game more fun with their comments. Overall it was alot of fun and definately worth going to. Oh, and the seated were padded with a dense foam that was comfortable and held body heat well, so that was nice too. A hotdog was $4.75 and a drink was $3.75 so it was a little pricey for food, but what do you expect for a NFL game...yeah, I was talking during the pictureDavid Akers warming

The makings of a knife

2008-11-23T01:31:00.000-05:00

While at one of my favorite local stores, WoodCraft, I discover a knife kit and decided I would try it. The knife looked like thisand the wood like this(sorry that's kinda blurry) anyway it's a drop point knife and the wood is "Bolivian Rosewood"I had no clue how I was going to get these blocks of wood into the shape and size of a knife handle. So I went a googling and found a couple ideas. I decided to go with the bandsaw approach.After cutting the wood to the shape of the handle, I took it to the belt sander to bring it down to size.After belt sanding came drilling the holes for the hidden rivetsThen came alot more sanding, working my way from 60 grit all the way up to 220 for a smooth, gouge free finish. So a couple hours later I now have a new kinfe. Now I just have to figure out how to make a leather sheath for it and I'll be good to go!

rAndOm

2008-11-21T01:48:00.000-05:00

This is just a random picture I took at work a couple days ago. We loaded the truck down just a little too much with wood. We had 50 2x4's, one 12ft 6x6 and other assorted pressure treated wood as well as pressure treated 16ft 2x10's sticking out the back and making the whole truck bounce with every bump in the road. I'm happy to report we made it out alive and safe.

New Phone

2008-11-15T03:25:00.000-05:00

Yup, my old phone was really starting to give me issues. We're talking dropped calls, calls that never come through, calls that showed up as missed 2 hours later, texts that wouldn't go out, or come through, random power-offs, ect... So I firgured it was time to get a new phone. I decided on the relatively new Pantech Matrix. I spent several days reading reviews, and researching other phones. So far I'm really happy with it, but I'm gonna wait a week before I really make up my mind. I got the black/green one. So here's a picture ...

Car Update: Exhaust

2008-11-09T21:04:00.000-05:00

So as promised I am posting a clip of my car with the new exhaust system. I went down to AutoZone and picked up a $23 Cherry Bomb Glasspack, (no resonator- so it doesn't sound like a tin can on wheels, even though it may look like one) popped it up on a lift, and swapped out the exhaust. So it maybe sound kind of dorky, but it sounds a lot louder and better in person. It did give me a boost in my gas mileage, about 2 miles per gallon better, so I'm happy with that anyway. Plus it gave me an opportunity to fix some rattling noises that were coming from the exhaust. So even though my car still looks like a piece of trash, it's getting better! :)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAtthpQZcw4]P.S. I was driving on the right side of the road, I just had the lid to my phone closed, so it reversed everything... Oh, and I put a pretty cool exhaust tip on it, I'll have to take a picture of it someday

AreoPress

2008-11-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

My brother bought me a new type of coffee making apparatus for my birthday this year. It's called an AreoPress. It works on the same concept of an Espresso Maker. The water is heated to a very precise 175 degrees Fahrenheit, coffee ground very fine, stir for 10 seconds, and plunge immediately. The combination of 175 degree water, very little time for the coffee to sit in the water, and steady pressure creates a cup of coffee with very little bitterness, 1/5 the acidity of normal coffee, and wonderful flavor. There is quite a bit of science packed into this little press.First go to Amazon and buy an Areopress Second, select your cupThird, select your bean( I recommend Boca Java)Fourth, boil your water to 175 degrees FahrenheitFifth, depending on how much coffee you want, select 1, 2, 3, or 4 scoops of unground coffee, grind and put in AreoPress on top of filter, fill with water to the number corresponding to the number of scoops of coffee, and stir for 10 secondsSixth, press immediately using steady, slow pressureSeventh, remove the filter guard, and press grounds directly in to the trash can, rinse press, and enjoy your espresso plain, add hot water to create an Americano, add milk to make a latte, or do whatever you want with it... but regardless, prepare to enjoy one of the best cups of coffee you will ever have!

A Study in Bee's

2008-11-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

Due to the recent influx of bee's at our house, all trying to escape the cold, I figured I would do a "Study in Bee's".There are nearly 20,000 known species of bee, in nine recognized families, though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. -Bees fly an average of 13-15 mph.

-A bee travels an average of 1600 round trips in order to produce one ounce of honey; up to 6 miles per trip. To produce 2 pounds of honey, bees travel a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.

-Honeybees visit about 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.

-During honey production periods, a bee's life span is about 6 weeks.

-Just a single hive contains approximately 40-45,000 bees!

-Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.

-About 8 pounds of honey is eaten by bees to produce 1 pound of beeswax.

-Beeswax production in most hives is about 1 1/2% to 2% of the total honey yield.

-The average hive temperature is 93.5 degrees.

-Queens will lay almost 2000 eggs a day at a rate of 5 or 6 a minute. Between 175,000-200,000 eggs are laid per year.

-Bees from the same hive visit about 225,000 flowers per day. One single bee usually visits between 50-1000 flowers a day, but can visit up to several thousand.

-Honeybees have hair on their eyes.

-A colony of bees have to fly almost fifty-five thousand miles and tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

-A honey bee strokes its wings about 11,500 times a minute.

-Bees can communicate with other bees by dancing. Their dance can alert other bees as to which direction and the distance nectar and pollen is located.

-It takes 12 honeybees to make one teaspoon of honey.

-In one day, a queen bee can lay up to 1500 eggs in one day.

-In a lifetime, on average a honey bee produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.

-Honeybees use the sun as a compass which helps them navigate.

-A honey bee has four wings

-Honeybees are the only bees that die after they sting.

- Honeybees are entirely herbivorous when they forage for nectar and pollen, but can cannibalize their own brood when stressed.

- Honey speeds the healing process and combats infections.

- Honey never spoils.

- It would take about 1 ounce of honey to fuel a honeybee's flight around the world.

- Honeybee colonies have unique odors that members flash like ID cards at the hive's front door, so the guard bees can recognize the entering bees.

- Honeybees are responsible for the pollination of approx 80% of all fruit, vegetable and seed crops in the U.S.

C. Jeykumar of Dhalavaipuram, Tamil Nadu covered his entire body with 60,000 Italian honey bees for 24 hours from 12 noon on Sept 24 to 12 noon the following day. He also kept 175 bees in his open mouth for 3 min 7 sec. This exercise took place before the general public and Rotarians of Rajayapalayam.

This is a yellow jacket nest, I just thought it looked cool...

Car Expenses

2008-10-29T01:12:00.000-04:00

If I drive my car for 250,000 miles it will cost me...$18,750 in gas!$2,083 in oil changes$2,500 in wiper blades$5,000 in tires$2,500 in inspection costs$1,250 in air freshenersand about $8000 in general repairs and partsthat comes to a grand total of $40,083... But, the good news... At my current rate of driving it would take me 12.5 years to reach that many miles.

Tag Revisited

2008-10-22T01:14:00.000-04:00

So, I ran out of things to post, so I've decided to revisit the unimportant tag. 6 unimporant, or little know facts about me1. I like breakfast, alot in fact2. History was my favorite subject in school3. I hate tomatoes and beets... I just do4. Mustangs are my favorite cars... So that probably wasn't very little known5. I really like big cities, enough to live in one for a while6. Donuts are awesome, and I would like to meet whoever invented them And that's all folks

Fun Day At Work

2008-10-18T23:57:00.000-04:00

So recently on of my co-workers, who shall remain unnamed (no it wasn't me) rolled our dump trailer and hydro-seeder. We had a cool cop who came to the scene, but the under chief was an absolute moron( the one with the helmet on in the third picture), anyway, here's the pictures.Oh, and amazingly enough, the truck is fine, except for one dent, and a few scratches...

A dog in the house!

2008-10-18T01:01:00.000-04:00

There is now a dog in the Hammett household! We are now the proud owners of a 3 year old male beagle, born in May of 2005. He is very well behaved, house trained and pretty much awesome. He goes by the name "Gambit" which is a name for a chess move, we are going to try to change it to "Bandit" because of how close the two names are. He answers to Bandit just fine though. He came from a family in our church who could no longer keep him for various reasons. This was a big step for my mother who generally doesn't like dogs, but she seems to like Bandit just fine. :)

Tag

2008-10-12T18:42:00.000-04:00

So, sorry I didn't post for a while. I was gonna make excuses, but I really don't see the point. Anyway I was tagged for one of those stupid things that go around the blog-o-sphere (mainly on girls blogs), but I guess it gives me something to post so here goes. I guess I'm supposed to give 6 unimportant facts about myself...you know what, forget it, I can't come up with anything.I won't bother tagging anyone, because that would be pointless.

A Study in Skateboarders

2008-09-27T18:35:00.000-04:00

Skateboarders dress mostly the same, long, scraggly hair, a beanie or flat brimmed hat, tight jeans (ICK), some turned up at the bottom, normally an iPod blaring away, cellphone in hand, shirts and shoes supporting their favorite brand, some tattoos or piercings, most are just miniature punks not even old enough to shave. Skateboarders are generally classified as rebellious troublemakers. People generally look on them with disdain, for good reason too. Their attitudes more often than not match their stereotype. On a recent trip to B&N, a group of skateboarders came in. They walked up to the Starbucks counter, headphones in ears, and proceeded to order their drinks. Never once did they take their ear buds out. They raised quite a raucous yelling at each other above the music each was listening to. Pretty much everyone in B&N was mad at them, sighs of relief went up as they stepped out. So I decided to sketch this sketch of one of the skateboarders that was particularly stupid...Sorry if it's a little hard to see, the scan kinda made it messier. Note the stupid look on his face, that's a norm for skateboarders too, it comes from low IQ levels...

Obsession

2008-09-26T01:56:00.000-04:00

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke 1729-1779)http://www.obsessionthemovie.com

Ramblings

2008-09-21T01:51:00.000-04:00

Artemis FowlYes, yes, I know Tobi has already posted about this, but I haven't. During my recent trip to Alaska I was lead(by Tobi) to the author Eoin Colfer. He writes books for kids, some of which are dumb, but his Artemis Fowl series is pretty good. I have yet to read that latest book in the series, but it will only be a matter of time. Barnes and NobleI have started to frequent Barnes and Noble weekly. It's nice to go somewhere to read and study. Unfortunately our's doesn't have a really cool fireplace. I heard a rumor that they are building another B&N nearby, so hopefully they make it nicer.FallIt's finally starting to get cold at night, so I can now take my air conditioner out of the window. I'm really ready to lose the heat during the day too. I would much rather have to add layers than sweat. WorkWork has been ok lately. We've been working on the Boss' addition for several weeks in a row, but are now starting to pick up some fall landscaping jobs. So I'm happy for thesmall change of pace.That's about it though. Our Bible Conference is coming soon, so things are gonna get even busier. I'm hoping Jordan will post pictures of his hunting trip on Tobi's blog... HINT. Anyhow that was really boring but I had to post something.

Joe Cook commercial

2008-09-14T18:50:00.000-04:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8]

And Life Drags On...

2008-09-12T02:26:00.000-04:00

Around 2 and half weeks have passed since my wonderful vacation ended. All seems to have settled back into the daily grind. Bible Institute started again, populating yet another night of my week. All the fun of the trip has faded into plain old life. Depression battles to set in, and sleep doesn't seem to help anymore. Ok, so it really isn't all that bad. Hey, fall is on the way. The mornings are now crisp with the hint of fall. And with fall comes Pumpkin Spice Lattes, apple cider, and slight cold. Fall is definitely my favorite season. It provides the perfect opportunity for us Paions to don a whole new line of clothing, shedding the boring t-shirts of the summer, and once again take pride in the beauty of our state as the leaves begin to change. So while things are slow and boring, fall is on it's way. So I shall chin-up, and think of what is to come... Oh, I also get to bring a little Alaskan fashion to PA to...So that is pretty much what my jacket looks like. It was a good friend to me in Alaska...

Rustang

2008-09-07T19:51:00.000-04:00

I promised I would post pictures of the rustang, and after a week or so of trying to come up with something else to post, I give in. The first two pictures are really of the new top, try not to look at the poor rusting, dented body too much. The third is of my weekend project. I installed CAI or Cold Air Intake. Yeah, it gave more horsepower, and a better sound, but the real reason I did it was for the gas mileage. It is *supposed* to give me an extra 3 miles to the gallon, which is a nice bump up, especially with gas prices the way they are... I was going to spray paint it yesterday, but it was raining, so I decided not too. And yes, I am planning on doing more to the car to make it look better...Sorry if this was boring to you... But hey, it's a postP.S. Maybe I'll upload a sound clip after I install the flowmaster...

Home Again

2008-08-29T02:28:00.000-04:00

Late monday evening found us at the airport waiting to be picked up. We made it home about 1:00 in the morning on Tuesday. Considering my body was telling me that is was only 9:00, I really wasn't tired. So Tuesday was a great time zone adjustment day... It really wasn't that bad. On an interesting side note I skipped church last night! Don't worry I had a good reason... Noah was preaching! No but seriously I got some metal fragments in my left eye while at work and had to make a run to the ER to have them removed. And it is true, I do miss the Humphrey tribe. Life just isn't the same without Bek there to worry about something, and without Jordan there to do something dangerous or stupid with. And I even miss Mr. Jockels constantly telling me that I don't know how to play the PS3. But life must move on. Anyway I thought I would share pictures of my recently purchase Nalgene, complete with a iFish Alaska and OR stickers Sorry about the hand in the pictures, I couldn't find a suitable backdrop so I just used my closet. Oh, I got a new top on the old "Rustang" whilst I was in Alaska, pictures to come soon...

Alaska

2008-08-22T05:33:00.000-04:00

So yup, I've been in Alaska for 13 days now, and so far it's been pretty cool. I've meet some new people like Aaron, which I must say, contrary to my brothers opinion is a cool guy. Several other blogs have given the run down of what we did, and where we went so I won't bore you with the details that they have given. Today Thobius and I went to the Alaskan GoldPanners stadium and saw where my grandfather pitched a week of baseball games underneath the midnight sun. Thankfully there was a janitor there who let us in so we could look around. I got some pictures.

Gone

2008-08-08T01:15:00.000-04:00

So I leave for the airport in exactly seven hours, so yeah, I should proly start packing....

?

2008-07-31T01:53:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I'm still alive... Been pretty busy lately trying to make as much money as I can before going to Alaska. I leave in 8 days! So I'm pretty excited about going on a vacation. That's about it, my life pretty much consists work, sleep and the occasional party. Money is short, days are long, sleep is little, life is good. That's pretty much all I have to say, oh and I had no clue what to name this post, anyway, goodnight.

Project finished!

2008-07-13T20:35:00.000-04:00

So on Friday we finally finished up this huge patio project, So I got some pictures of the finished products. It turned out really sharp looking, and the homeowner was very happy with it... So anyway here they are And upon request I am posting pictures of the flip flops I recently purchase... whatever.Wow, I feel like a girl putting pictures of shoes on my blog... ANYWAY, they are comfortable, and they were 50% off, so I am happy with them.

Work

2008-07-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

So I figured I would give everyone a work update. So far work has been going well, I enjoy working with my friends and the different working pace. Lately we have been doing a hardscaping project for a financial officer of a local newspaper. It's been a really large project, originally estimated to take four weeks, but it looks like its only gonna take three cuz we are such an awesome company :) Anyway here are some pictures... This is our wet saw "Rubi"... Yeah, we like her...

:)

2008-06-29T19:34:00.000-04:00

40 DAYS TILL I LEAVE FOR ALASKA! just thought I'd share :)

Quick Update

2008-06-29T00:51:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been nearly a month since I posted, so I figured it was about time to post. I really didn't want a repeat of this... Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. Things have been really busy at work lately. For the past two weeks we have been working on a rather large retaining wall/paver patio project for the CFO of a local newspaper. When that is finished hopefully I will post some pictures of it so ya'll can see what I've been doing at work lately. Yesterday I got all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed. Suprisingly I'm not in alot of pain, they say that the peak of swelling and pain is reached 48 hours after surgery, so we will see how bad it gets. Today my sister and I booked out tickets to Alaska, so I am now in more debt than I have ever been, but hey, I'm going to Alaska! :) So that's it for now, and you can expect more coming soon...

Happy Memorial Day

2008-05-26T15:32:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, first I do want to dispel any myths about my being on vacation, I am NOT still on vacation, and besides that it wasn't really a vacation in the first place. Anyway, I do still plan on posting on this lame blog of mine, things have just been really busy lately. I started a new job on Saturday, and it promises to keep me even busier than I have been. So anyway I hope every one is having a wonderful Memorial Day...

Still Vacationing

2008-05-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I'm still on vacation, and I will try to post more pictures once I get home. Sorry about the below pictures, wordpress has been acting up lately, and I could only get them on as a gallery... So I realize some of them are confusing, and very odd looking, but hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want :) For now I just want to share a link with you www.chacha.com. ChaCha is a unique idea, if you have a cellphone with a texting plan, just text a question to 242242... yup, any question, other than the kind that wouldn't be public knowledge... Just ask a question such as, What month to tulips typically bloom in Pennsylvania?, and be patient, answers may take up to 10 minutes... Enjoy!

Vacation!

2008-04-23T02:01:00.000-04:00

[gallery]So yeah, vacation started this morning at 7:00... And we spent the day driving across the country. But we stopped at the Creation Museum in Kentucky and it was pretty cool, so I figured I'd post some picutres...

So we went walking...

2008-04-11T23:41:00.000-04:00

It was such a nice friday night, and the promised rain hadn't arrived yet, so Rachel and I decided to go walking. Yes, walking as in putting one foot in front of the other, the type of thing that Americans don't do very much of... I decided to bring my camera along to capture some of the more odd moments of our walk... But before we left I wanted to get a measuring wheel, the type that rolls along the ground measuring distances, because I wanted to figure out how many times you have to walk the paths where I work, to make a mile... So I stopped at my brothers shed, and spent ten minutes looking for said elusive wheel. Apparently Rachel was bored and took it upon herself to take pictures of odd objects...Yeah, encase you are wondering, that is my rearview mirror in above picture... I don't know, trust me, I don't know... Anyway, even though my brother promised that said wheel was in his shed, alas it was not, so Rachel, myself, my car, and my camera were the only parties involved on said walking trip... :( Oh well, some other time. We then traveled the 1.7 miles to my place of work and began walking. We first stopped to take pictures of some yellow flowers, none of them turned out. I decided to take a picture of RachelYeah, so it isn't the best picture, but hey, I was just playing with my camera so whatever... All went fine on the trip, except for some odd fellow that was powerwalking laps around us, until Rachel got sick. Yeah, it was kinda odd, all of the sudden she said she didn't feel good, so what did I do, yup I took a picture, and even got her to laugh, go figure...But then, even after laughing and all, she made me go get my car and come pick her up so that she didn't have to walk the rest of the way... Yup, she's that meanEven though she was sick, she still found energy to take a picture of me coming to pick her up, not sure why... but yup, that is the poor old "Rustang"And there's me, like a good little brother... Sorry if the pictures look really weird, the ISO sensitivity was all messed up, anyway, if you thought this post was really dumb, that's ok, it's a post right :) Ok, so maybe I could have done better, but I was getting desperate for something to post, so if you've already read this far, you just wasted a good minute or two which you will never get back...

Coming Soon...

2008-04-09T01:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, don't everyone freak out at the fact that I am actually posting something on this pathetic blog of mine. This is just an announcement that tommorow, or some other time this week I am planning on posting something, so keep checking back...

Paul The Critic Pt.4

2008-03-27T02:09:00.000-04:00

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3Part 4: Stuck in a cafe with Chatterbox and Co....Paul was about to let loose is wrath, when a feminine voice behind him said, 'Hello Paul who are your friends here?""Oh! You must be Paul's sister! How nice, my name is Laura, whats your name? You look like Becky..."Paul just sat there with his head on his hands, groaning. Would this chatterbox ever shut up and leave him alone? It was bad enough that he had run into her three times, but now she had met his sister, Sarah! Slowly the chatterbox's grating voice filtered back to him..."...Oh Sarah you should have seen it today, I just happened to meet Paul on the elevator today. It was a good thing too because our elevator got stuck, and we could have died, but Paul was so brave. Oh this is my husband Darius, isn't Darius such a cute name? He and I met two years ago on an elevator, isn't that so romantic? He is such a handsome guy, with such a cute name, kinda like Paul. Don't you think that Paul is a cute name....Paul was really starting to get angry, he had been minding his own business in the elevator. He hadn't asked for any of this, now his sister was getting dragged into it, could it get any worse?Finally after what seemed like hours to Paul, Laura finally said, "Well, Darius had better get back to work and I have annoyed you enough for one night Paul, bye." With that Laura and Darius turned to leave. Sarah sat down across the table from Paul, and asked, "What did she mean when she said she had annoyed you enough for one night? Were you mean to her? She seems like a very nice girl.""Yeah, a really ditzy one at that...""Paul!""Hey look, I was stuck in an elevator with her for what seemed like an hour, and then she just had to be sitting next to me in the opera, and made a very embarrasing entrance. And now she shows up at this cafe... I am really started to get annoyed!"After this Paul and his sister settled in to their normal conversations. Before they knew it the cafe was closing. Paul watched as his sister caught a cab and left. Paul ran out to the edge of the sidewalk and called for a cab, seconds later a common yellow cab pulled up to the sidewalk where he was standing, and he got in."4th and Harrison," Paul mumbled as he shoved $10 at the cab driver.As the cab weaved in and out of traffic his thoughts drifted back to the events of the day. His nose wrinkled with disgust as he thought of the Chatterbox, before he knew it the cabbie told him they were there. Paul didn't pay much attention to where he was, he just got out. He had just gotten his foot out of the car when the driver peeled away..."Moron!" Paul exclaimed as he turned to mount his apartment steps. It was then that he noticed, this wasn't his neighborhood. He had no clue where he was. "Great! This is just not my day, not only do stuck in an elevator with a chatterbox that ruins the rest of my day, I get stranded somewhere in New York City by some idiot cab driver!" Paul ranted on for several minutes, screaming down the street at anyone who came within earshot of him. Suddenly everything went black... Paul woke up, he had no clue how long he had been out... His head was throbbing, he tried to move his hands, they were tied up, everything was quiet and dark...Part 5: Paul tied up in a small dark room - will be written by Kluane

Lizard Photo Shoot

2008-03-17T21:55:00.000-04:00

Today I got the lizards out for some pictures... Well at least Gerard was willing to come out, Julian on the other hand had many objections, ran away, and sat on his turtle... So anyway I figured I would make a quick post with some pictures of the lizards. The first three are of Gerard the Leopard Gecko, and the last three are of Julian the Bearded Dragon...

The Promised Post

2008-03-15T19:19:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I promised that I would post about my lizards so here goes....I currently abide with two lizards. One is a Bearded Dragon named Julian, and the Second is a Leopard Gecko named Gerard. Julian is a lively, young lizard, where as Gerard tends to be more calm and easy going. I had kept both lizards in differing sizes of Aquari up till two weeks ago. Julian was starting to get rather large and Gerard had long since outgrown his small 10 gallon aquarium. So I took a trip down to our basement and brought up a monster of a terrarium I had built oh so long ago for my 2 day lizard friend, the Iguana. It was quite a bare terrarium since it had only had a resident for 1 night, so I set to work upgrading it. The first part was to get some scenery. So I threw all advice to the wind and went for a walk in the woods. (You really aren't supposed to take anything from outside and put it in a lizards cage, everyone says that there are all kinds of diseases on outside objects which will kill your lizards... It's been two weeks and counting...) I found a couple suitable sticks. I then purchased a couple harmless living plants. I was quite happy with myself and how the cage looked, but something was missing, the flooring. I was using newspaper, which is a good substrate, but it leaves alot to be desired, it just looks cheap. So I took a trip to good old Home Depot and found some suitable carpet. I figured rather than spend $50 on reptile carpet from petco, I would make my own. Don't worry Tobi, it is the grassy like astro-turf so their claws won't snag or anything like that... I then moved to Gerard's terrarium. He is quite a large gecko now, so I upgraded him to the 29 gallon tank that Julian was in, added a little astro-turf, a stick, and a new water bowl. Both lizards were quite scared in their new environments, but I was quite happy with how they looked. To finish it all off I added a stone turtle directily under a basking light to Julian's terrarium. I also had to add a line of clear scotch tape around the top to keep the crickets from climbing out the top... Gerard's TerrariumJulian's Terrarium... Can you find him?

Lizard Post

2008-03-12T00:54:00.000-04:00

Ok folks, don't quit reading my blog just yet... I do plan on posting in the near future. I have finally finished setting up the cage for my bearded dragon Julian. It is a quite large seeing as I built it myself... So I will have to take pictures and post them, with a little write-up on Julian, So just hang in there, I will post it sometime this week

Spring Day Drive

2008-03-07T01:53:00.000-05:00

Yup, it was such a nice day out that I put the top down on the old "Rustang" Mustang. And in honor of me putting the top down my sister and I went on a drive. Horror of all horrors we actually went for a walk at my place of work. It was kinda weird because as I was walking I began to notice everything that I had to do. But nonetheless I still enjoyed it. So we spent an hour or so cruising the backroads with the wind in our hair... So I figured I would post some pictures from out trip. I put one of them as the new header, it was taken where I work. Maybe one of these days I will post more pictures of work...

FYI

2008-03-02T04:12:00.000-05:00

Wow, aren't you all proud of me? Really, I made four posts, in four days! I must be turning over a new leaf... but seriously, I do not plan on posting only stupid, extremely long, drawn out stories. I will try to come up with more interesting things to post about... but If I run out of ideas, I will post another wierd story. If I don't "The Imposter" might come back... because it can still log into my account, because it would be too much hassle to come up with a new password to use that I wouldn't forget. So anyway hang in there, I will do my best to post, but hey, If you don't want to, don't hang in here... really, it is up to you... G'night...P.S. There will be a post soon about the lizards, with pictures... of course

So I walked in to work... Continued 2

2008-03-02T04:04:00.000-05:00

So here I open this door to this fridge at work and guess what I find.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Yes if you guessed vitamin water, you are correct, as if it wasn't blatently obvious from the picture up top... Yup, my boss was so kind as to stock the fridge with vitamin water... how cool is that?!?!? This concludes our story...

So I walked in work... Continued

2008-03-01T01:58:00.000-05:00

I walked up to the fridge, opened it up expecting to find neatly arranged rows of water, but that isn’t what I found… Now don't get me wrong, it isn't that there wasn't neatly arranged rows of water there. First let me give you some background... my boss and I are alot alike in organizational areas. If you were to go to my place of employment right now you would find that all of the blinds are exactly the same height, shovels are in their respective compartments, files are all neatly and alphabetically arranged, and the fridge is full of neatly arranged soda cans, and water bottles. Now to continue... So I was expecting to just see bottles of water and cans of soda but I found something else, now by now you are probably getting rather annoyed at the fact that I am not telling you what I found, but that's ok, because I am gonna make you wait another day lol... To Be ContinuedPS... Hope you like the header

So I walked into work...

2008-02-27T22:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you who regularly visit my blog, you know that I have trouble posting regularly. So after a recent encounter with "The Imposter" I have decided to try a method of sharing things that happened to me during a regular day. I am going to try to take these completly useless facts suspending them needlessly over at least 2 days. I will only tell part of the story a day, and I figure that way, I might post more. Besides I got lots of useless pieces of information to post about :), so without further adoooo, the first part of the first useless piece of info...So I walked into work today, said the usual greetings to my boss, and dicussed the day with him, so far quite a normal day. I continued going along with my daily chores, feeding the birds, picking up sticks in the lawn so on. It was about 11 o'clock when I rentered the house to get a bottle of water. I walked up to the fridge, opened it up expecting to find neatly arranged rows of water, but that isn't what I found... "To Be Continued"

Umm...

2008-02-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

I find the actions of this "Imposter" all well and good, except for one thing... She NEVER should EVER put a picture Lucy Ball on my blog EVER again!!!! I don't know why but she has always been one actress I couldn't stand. And as far as getting e-mail on my phone it is quite convenient, and the "Imposter"'s assumption that I do not post because of lack of comments is quite untrue, while it is slightly annoying at times, it has nothing to do with no posting. I have been busy, but not without time to post, I just haven't come up with anything I felt like posting. I have been forced back into the world of blogging my an imposter putting gross things on my blog. I still don' t know what to post, but I will make my best efforts so that something like this doesn't happen ever again... please excuse my run-on sentences, horrible abuse of the english language, and continue to check at least once ever few days, cuz I will start posting soon... maybe even todayHint- If you have no clue who the imposter is look at the category for this post, that ought to give you a good clue...

The Imposter

2008-02-27T02:18:00.000-05:00

Good evening, folks. Please, before you fall out of your chair because of shock that there is actually new post on this blog, be forewarned this is not Sam typing behind your screen. No, this is The Imposter. If you don't know who The Imposter is, well, you probably don't know Sam very well. And if you don't know Sam very well, then I have no idea why you are on this dusty old blog. If you're still confused, just think of me as Sam's greatest, dearest, sweetest, kindest relative. Who bakes him things. And (sometimes) makes him coffee. So you figured out who I am? Good.

Sam seems quite unmotivated to post, of which you are all acutely aware. This could be due to many things:1) He has no computer. Now that he receives his e-mails to his cell phone, he hardly ever borrows my laptop, except to buy stuff online. Like Boca Java. And I'm all for that. But the point I'm making is that he is rarely on the internet long enough to write out a post. This obstacle is not insurmountable, however. It's not like we live in technology-deprived household with only one computer (haha...that's a joke). In fact, I think we have three or four right under this roof. And access to a few more next door.2) He doesn't think he has anything to post about. This is quite a foreign concept to me, and if you visit my blog, you know that. I never run out of things to write about. No, I'm not linking to my blog. I'm The Imposter, remember? I'm not supposed to reveal my identity. As I was saying, I really do believe there is much he could post about. Various carpentry projects, for instance. He could enlighten everyone and explain how he made them, not just show pictures periodically...things like the basket drawers, Julian's cage, a small table, some footrests. He could always go the route of "What God has been teaching me lately." There is the Minor Prophets project he could post about, and even share the video with all of you. He could share photos and anecdotes of various baking attempts...like the soupy, and then rubbery, flan. Or the undone brownies. Or would that be brownies undone. Regardless, they are pretty amazing. Ask him about which ones you would like to hear. I'm sure he'd love to share.3) He doesn't get many comments. I can understand this one, but I don't think it's a very valid excuse. After all, I rarely get more than 3 comments on a post, yet I have almost one hundred daily visitors. I don't take it personally. I like lurking on a lot of blogs too.4) Okay, I'm out of reasons now. If I think of more, I'll come back and edit this spot. :)I'm hoping Sam will take this little hint and post soon. And I'm wondering how long it will take him to figure out I put this up here. Haha.... Leave a comment, which he will get in an e-mail on his phone, and then he'll be really confused! :)

Fries with that?

2008-02-01T01:49:00.000-05:00

Yup, I got my deer meat back from the butcher, on Tuesday! So, in following my tradition, I had some unfrozen, fresh from the butcher, deer steak! And let me tell you, it was awesome... So I figured I would attach a picture of it, to show you how big the steaks were, and yup, they were that good...

General Update

2008-01-27T03:11:00.000-05:00

Yup, life is pretty busy around here right now, and things aren't looking up yet. Out of this whole next week, Thursday is the most open day I have. Since Christmas life has been a blur of nonstop work, church, chores, school, and hunting. Sleep has been little, and days have been long. Don't get me wrong, although life has been busy, it hasn't been without blessings. Yesterday my brother and his family returned from three years of missions work in South Africa. I has been fun getting to talk with them in person once again. This morning, the last day of extended doe season in the Lehigh Valley, I got a deer. A small deer, but a deer none the less. My car has been running well, my family has stayed pretty much healthy, despite all the sicknesses floating around, my lizards Gerard and Julian are both doing well and growing daily, so all in all I have alot to be thankful for. Life has certainly been good, busy, but good.

My Life

2008-01-22T03:44:00.000-05:00

Wow, the dust has certainly started to collect here... So before I lose what extremely small readership I have, I shall post. I haven't been able to come up with anything good to post lately, so I will just tell you what is going on around here. Umm... lets see here, as is a tradition, our churches' Teen Winter Retreat started yesterday. This was supposed to be my first year without going to camp, but at the last moment, I found out that I wasn't going to be working today, So I tagged along for part of it anyway. The speaker this year is Bro. Paul Morrison, a missionary to New York that our church supports. He is preaching on the subject of being "Unmoveable" in our standards and conduct, the idea of being steadfast in the faith... Unfortunatley, I have to work tomorow, so I could not stay as long as I would have liked. This Friday my brother and his family will be flying back home from South Africa, so I am pretty excited about seeing them. I am also supposed to be transfering jobs sometime soon... and I will finally be able to save enough money for a trip to Alaska, hopefully... So anyway, no matter how boring this post was, I figured I should post something... Oh, and I am trying to find a theme that I like, so if the site looks different everytime you visit, don't worry, eventually I will settle on one I like. Night everybody...

Yup, I'm still alive

2008-01-13T00:51:00.000-05:00

Yes, yes, I know I haven't posted in a while, but before you write me off, I am not planning on stopping posting for months again. My sister was gone to Texas for a week, and she is pretty much my only source for a computer, since I am either too lazy or too poor to build my own. Also, I couldn't come up with anything to post about, so a combination of these two aforementioned events has led to the recent relapse in posting frequency. Hopefully something exciting(or really boring) happens soon so that I will have something to post about.

Winter is Here!

2008-01-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

Finally, the season I have been waiting for with bated breath (ok...maybe not) is here! This is the first winter I have had my Nikon D40 DSLR camera... and I am quite excited about it. For those of you who know a little bit about Photography, winter is the perfect lighting season. Most other times of the year sunrise and sunset are the best times to take pictures, but then you have to get up early, and the lighting changes very quickly. I mean, sure, you can use filters and junk, but nothing is quite the same a pure natural lighting. So, now that winter is here, there will be more outside pictures than usual on my blog (hopefully). So here are a few I took today...

The Name Has Been Chosen!

2008-01-02T04:03:00.000-05:00

First off, I would like to say thankyou to all of you who voted for a particular name. Nebuchadnezzar was the overwhelming majority pick... BUT it was not chosen :( sorry everyone. Thanks to Tobi's suggestion, I came up with a name that was not placed on the list. Tobi suggested that I name the lizard Julius... now while I like this name, it didn't seem right for this particular lizard (plus it makes me think of fruit juice), but even though I didn't choose Tobi's suggestion, it gave me an idea. His suggestion is very similar to a name I have always liked, for some odd reason, and it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the suggestion. So without further ramblings to draw this out any further, go here to see the name... :)

Name Update

2007-12-30T21:43:00.000-05:00

Even though I changed lizards in the middle of this name quest... I still need a name for my Bearded Dragon. So, I think I have narrowed it down to three possible choices...1. Hidalgo- it is of Spanish origin and means "noble one"2. Bilbo- umm... originated from a book, no clue what it means3. Nebuchadnezzar- originated in Babylon, also no clue what it meansSo what do you think, do you like one of these choices, hate them all? Think you have a better suggestion? Oh, and Tobi, I liked your choice of "Reilly", love the name but I got a friend here in Emmaus who has a dog named Reilly... so that one is kinda out. Good choice though... Oh and people, please comment... :)

That was quick!

2007-12-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

Well, the iguana didn't last so long with me... my impulsive decision came back to haunt me. With more research, came more regret for having been so impulsive. I am now of the state of mind that taking care of an iguana can be related to taking care of a small child. To keep such an iguana would require boatloads (ok maybe not) of greens, veggies, and fruit, as well as an insanley large cage. So, I went with the better choice (thanks to Tobi) and bought a Bearded Dragon from a local breeder. The one I got is a rather inquisitive little fellow. He watches me the most of the time I am in my room, pressing his nose against the glass. When he isn't watching me, he is chasing crickets, trying to eat the fake plants, or basking happily on his log. He like music, and loves it when people hold him, he tries to find the warmest spot he can, and is content to perch there for long periods of time. I am still undecided on a name, so keep the ideas coming...

The Iguana

2007-12-27T18:32:00.000-05:00

Today I decided that I would be impulsive, So I went to the local pet store (aka Petco) to find something on which to spend gobs of money. After several minutes of browsing through aisles of white laboratory rats, $500 birds, and odd looking crabs, I finally decided to go with a lizard of some sort, shape, and color. I took me another several minutes of browsing terraniums, and trying to find one that I liked. Finally I settled on one very special lizard. I bought an Iguana. Supposedly they can reach up to 6 feet in length, but that is supposed to take a couple years to happen... hopefully :) I am currently without a name for him, and am open to taking suggestions... This ought to be sad, with the very small number of people that read my blog.

My Gecko

2007-12-23T22:13:00.000-05:00

Well folks, I figured it was about time I introduced my gecko to you. He is a 6 month old Leopard Gecko. His diet consits of crickets and water. He is a rather sleepy gecko, and does not do much. Yesterday I finally got a picture of him that I liked so here he is.

Ski Trip

2007-12-22T15:59:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday I went on a skiing trip at Blue Mountain. Out of a rather large group that was supposed to come along, only three of us ended up making it. Fortunatly we still had fun, and the conditions were great. Oh and Jordan, just for you, I tried a Snowboard... and I must say, that I have alot more respect for boarders now. Suprisingly enough, it was much harder than it looks, and I did enjoy it, all except for the pain involved. I guess there is alot less pain when you learn how to stay up on the board.

Oh Well

2007-11-20T02:39:00.000-05:00

Well folks I had a post, I was all prepared. I went out, braved the cold weather, almost froze to death just to get a picture so I could post something on my blog, and what happens? My sister steals the picture and posts it on her blog, I should call for a retraction of this highly offensive action and proper ammends should be made, but she probably wouldn't care...

Cell Phone

2007-10-28T01:10:00.000-04:00

Well folks, that right, Rachel and I finally got ourselves some cell phones, now I am addicted to Twitter, but that is another story for another day, so check out the link to the phones, and if you want to find out about twitter, follow that link too.

My Car2

2007-10-22T02:40:00.000-04:00

Well folks, my car is finally out of the shop & up and running! I went on Thursday for my drivers lisence and passed. Yippee. No more depending on siblings or parents for rides hither, thither, and yon. So now I just owe my Dad alot of money for the repairs and title transfer and stuff, but I am on the road, and that is all that counts, right?

My Car

2007-10-17T02:06:00.000-04:00

Well folks, most of you who have known me for any lenght of time know that I have a 1989 Ford Mustang LX Convertible. It is a wonderful specimin of a car ;). Well "Rustang", as it has been so dubed by some of my friends, has finally taken a trip to the mechanic. It has an appointment for tommorow for a Pre-Inspection, to see what it needs to pass inspection, and if it is worth it. So here is a picture of my car Ok, mabye not, but hey that is what it 'could' look like, eventually....

Boca Java Update

2007-10-15T16:05:00.000-04:00

Well, the long awaited coffee has finally come! Six days after it was roasted, and ten days after it was ordered, it finally arrived. So tommorow or someday down the road, I will tell you what I think about it.

Boca Java

2007-10-14T19:59:00.000-04:00

Well, as an honorary first post, I will share something that goes along with my blog title. Recently, I heard about Boca Java Coffee. Many popular radio hosts, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, ... rave about this coffee on their programs. So I decieded to try it, I will keep you updated with what I think about it. So far I am very unhappy with their service, I ordered over a week ago, and they ended up shipping it two days after they said they would. It is supposed to come in tommorow, but we shall see.

I'm leaving

2007-10-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

I highly doubt that anyone even bothers to check this blog any more, but in the very, very off chance that some one does, I am leaving this blog, I do not like Blogger, and will be moving to wordpress. So farewell, this move does not mean that I will post more often or anything like that so don't get your hopes up, but I will try, so here is my new URL. cupfullofjoe.wordpress.com

Cool Site

2007-04-09T20:48:00.000-04:00

Someone sent me an email about this site the other day, and I thought it was pretty cool. You go through and answer all these wierd questions, most of which you have never really thought about, and then it tells you your personality. www.personaldna.com
I am an Attentive Inventor, what are you?

Stool

2007-04-08T12:11:00.000-04:00

Note*
The stool in the picture, is not the finished product, thus, the brown spot on the foremost leg is not there in the finished stool. Thank you

I did it!

2007-03-17T16:24:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I went ahead and did it, I upgraded to Windows Vista. I just couldn't wait to see all the new streamlined menus, taskbars, the 3D scroll feature, the new alt+tab feature. It is cool, but there are still a few bugs.

Finally... Finished!!

2007-03-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I started a woodworking project back around Christmas to enter into the upcoming competition, but after getting most of it done, I stopped working on it. Well, today I finally drug it out of my room and finished it up. So here it is...

Competition Logo

2007-03-09T07:29:00.001-05:00

Well the Independent Baptist Student Convention is coming up really fast. We leave two weeks from this Wednesday. I had decided earlier in the year to enter into the Graphics Design category, but have been unable to design a graphic until now, since I finally got my computer running again. The problem was that it is due today, so I spent last night trying all kinds of dumb ideas, until I came up with one that I kinda liked. The first image is the one going to competition, and the second is the ideas I came up with, after I sent them to Walmart to get printed. See if you can pick out the differences, I made 2 changes, one is obvious, the other one is rather subtle. So here it is...

Mexico Trip Pics

2007-03-08T03:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally got my computer back up and running, and just for Rachel's sake, I will post some pics from Mexico. I don't have very many pictures, it was a little hectic to get out at camera so here goes...

The View of Mexico City From the Latin American Tower The Hotel we stayed in... $19 a night for the biggest room!! The crowd watching me get an IV drip into my viens! :)

Mexico Trip Pics

2007-03-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

The View of Mexico City From the Latin American Tower
The Hotel we stayed in... $19 a night for the biggest room!!
The crowd watching me get an IV drip into my viens! :)

General Update :)

2007-01-25T20:23:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a boring title. Anyway, unfortunately I have not posted for a while because my computer is down. I came home the other day to find it fried on the spot. :( So I am currently PC'less. So now my posting will be even more sporadic, until it is all cleared up.

Busy Week!!

2007-01-18T18:59:00.000-05:00

This has been a really busy week, and still hold much to come. The week started out with Sunday(of course) at Winter Camp. Camp lasted until Tuesday night around 6:00. Unfortunately, it was my last winter camp as a camper, but it was a good one. We started the night on Sunday by watching a movie on the Rapture. It was a very good, thought provoking video(even though it was produced in the 70's, dress styles and all). The movie started out with a good song(good lyrics at least, a little cheesy but oh well) called, "You've Been Left Behind." It had a good message about how, after you hear the Gospel, you are responsible for what you do with it, and after the rapture, there is no second chances. We then kicked Monday morning off bright and early with the awesome senior class(that would be me, Eric, Jason, and Andrew) making an awesome breakfast of Breakfast Tacos, Sticky Buns, Tater Tots, and Orange Juice. We then had our first and second messages, and had the afternoon activities. As always, we played American Eagle in THE MUDDY Field. The mud was worse than normal this year, amounting to about a foot deep of mud. By the time we were done, we were all completely covered in mud. We then had another service, watched the second part of the movie, and went to bed. Tuesday went by really fast, it was all kinda a blur, and before I knew it, I was in the church parking lot, in the 20 degree weather, waiting for my luggage. Then Wednesday kicked school off again. It was a very sluggish day, after being off school for a while. That brings us to today. Tomorrow we have a Basketball game against a team from South side Philly, and Saturday we travel down to Odenton, Maryland to play a team there. So it promises to be a very full weekend. Then it all starts again next week with a basketball game on Monday, and then Before you know it, I will be in Mexico. Just another 15 days left to go!!

French Press

2007-01-10T02:52:00.000-05:00

If you are looking to get a good, fresh cup of coffee, a French Press is the way to go. And if you are looking for a French Press, a good place to look is Planetary Designs. They make really good French Press', at pretty good prices.

French Press

2007-01-09T21:52:00.000-05:00

Getting Ready!

2007-01-07T14:19:00.000-05:00

The day is drawing closer and closer. February 2nd still seems an eternity away, and contrary to my normal practices of preparing for trips, I have already started to get ready. Yesterday, Rachel and I went to Cabela's to buy some supplies for my upcoming Mexico trip. It was quite crowded there, but I did get what I needed. So I now have a new sleeping bag, a new pair of hunting boots, and UnderArmour Cold Gear. I can't wait until we go, and thankfully it is winter in Mexico, so the heat shouldn't be unbearable.

For those of you who think that this post was completly boring, and made absolutly no sense, I included links to see the gear I bought.

Coffee Recipe

2007-01-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

I have absolutely no clue what to post, so I will just post a coffee recipe.Iced Coffee1 Liter Double Strong, Boiling Coffee2 Large Glasses, full of IceTake coffee, sugar to taste, and pour into glass. Drink

Coffee Recipe

2007-01-06T17:08:00.000-05:00

I have absolutely no clue what to post, so I will just post a coffee recipe.

Iced Coffee
1 Liter Double Strong, Boiling Coffee
2 Large Glasses, full of Ice

Take coffee, sugar to taste, and pour into glass. Drink