Lap Counter

When I'm swimming I have a hard time keeping track of laps. When asked how far I swam I would answer, "Somewhere between... and..." Call it short attention span, call it ADD. Whatever it is it I would rather be thinking things other than what lap I'm on. I saw this lap counter in a triathlon magazine and my wife was kind enough to buy it for me. Now I know exactly how many laps I did. They have fancy ones that keep track of splits and fastest laps but I only needed one to keep track of laps. Check it out at www.sportcount.com

Cletus the Fetus

Introducing Cletus the Fetus. I guess it is about 13 weeks along now. For some reason, God, in His infinite wisdom, decided that the world is currently incomplete with my offspring walking the earth. So... here it comes. Watch out world.

Dawnielle is not yet convinced of the quality of the name Cletus. I'm thinking that it will grow on her. I mean really. How could anyone go wrong in life with a name like that?

THX 1138

I just saw the movie THX 1138. Unless you are a nerd, like me, let me explain. This was one of George Lucas' first movies. Based off of a movie he made while in film school. It was released in 1971 and stars a very young Robert Duvall (Not sure why, but the whole time I pictured him telling Tom Cruise, "There is only so much I can do with a race car.")

Strange movie. Bears a striking resemblance to the movie "The Island". Just another proof that nobody has any original ideas anymore. THX is based in this stale all white underground building where the people are constantly monitored and given medications that keep them from feeling or thinking for themselves in order to be controlled and forced to build a robot police force. The Robert Duvall character stops taking the medication, realizes there is more to life than this, and tries to escape. He ends up being thrown into a prison with no walls, just an endless sea of whiteness. The rest of the move is him running through this world of whiteness looking for a way out.

Not exactly sure what George Lucas was trying to say with this movie. Maybe it was just that we have become a non-feeling, emotionless, blank society that needs to find a way to escape. Maybe it represents a deeper search for meaning or even for God, which is represented by a vague video of a picture of Christ with some prerecorded comforting sayings.

If you are looking for an interesting yet very slow movie with some thought provoking social commentary then check it out.

If I knew it was that easy...

About two years ago I made the awesome move of leaving my laptop on the floor. Of course, I stepped on it. Not on the edge or the corner where a crack wouldn't have made much difference but right in the middle of the screen. It was one of those moments that you think shouldn't have happened. The kind you wish you could take back and not do something stupid like that. Well, since I have no powers over the control of time I couldn't. When I booted up the laptop it was bad. Right in the middle of the screen looked like a big upside down consamant V. Everything outside of the V looked alright with the exception of some lines through part of it. What was inside the V was blank. This was not good. I called HP to ask about prices for repair. They told me $500. That was a little crazy. I mean the computer was three years old, a dinosaur. So I suffered through using an external monitor when I needed to use it.

Then, I realized I could buy a new screen for less than $100. I waited around for a while to decide if I really wanted to repair this one or if I wanted to look into getting a new one. Last week I decided to do it. I ordered the screen from Amazon.com (is there anything they don't sell?). In the manor of about 8 screws, a couple of plugs, and about 1 hour it was back up and running. As good as ne... As good as a 4 year old laptop with a new screen.

"I feel the earth move under my feet"

A couple of years ago there was a small earthquake somewhere in southern IL. It was enough to wake me up and I thought "I think that was an earthquake" then went back to bed. Yesterday early morning was a little different. I was awakened at 4am with the whole house shaking. When I lived in a condo that I didn't own I felt a little less responsibility. Now, when I wake up to the house I own shaking my first thought was still earthquake but then I thought "What if it was something else?" Dawnielle said, "Was that the wind?" That would have been a serious and long gust of wind. So I got up to check it out. I thought it may have been a car skidding off of the road in the snow and hitting the house. Or maybe the furnace (which has issues) exploded. Got up only to find nothing wrong. Went back to bed only to find out the next morning that it was in fact an earthquake with the epicenter only about 20 miles away from us.

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