Teh Awesome!

Yesterday was a really long day. We're under deadline at work for the annual show issues, which I am a managing editor of. Then the library was super busy again. I had no idea a library would get this busy over the summer. When I finally got home at ten I was tired and Brandi was tired and hungry (understandable since she's preggers). So I ran out to get her what she wanted to eat (of course she didn't want to eat anything we had at home, but that's ok). When I got back, I saw there was a package on the table for me...kind of.

It's a mystery package from Colorado...

What could it be? It's a package from fellow blogger and UCFer Janice! I wonder what's inside. It's a pair of very nice knit caps! Based on the addressee on the package, and the fact that they'd be a little small for my abnormally large noggin, they must be for baby #2.

A very stylish and excited Mr. Potatohead models the finely knit caps for us. He decided to go sans nose so that we could still see his dazling eyes.

Thanks Janice, the hats are great! It was a very nice surprise at the end of a long day. And the colors could work for either gender, which is good since we don't know yet. Brandi thought they were very cute and likes them too. They're just great. And here's another photo of them side-by-side for comparison.

Mr. Potatohead opted to sit this last shot out, after being under the lights of the studio he said he was baking.

Again Janice, thank you very much! The hats are fantastic. Guess we'll have to add another string to the UCF hairball.

Did you realize

that the deadline for our show issue is only a week away!?! Holy Shit! When I left work yesterday, it was like, yeah, no big deal, it's due on the 31st, we've got plenty of time. Then my coworker comes in this morning and says we've got a week. That's really different from saying that it's due on the 31st. We've got stuff written, but nothing laid out yet because the person that does layout for this particular project has been working on another project. I'm sure it will all get done in time (it has to), but still, a week left, shit.

Amazing Photos

My buddy Lance takes some incredible photos (I think they're professional quality, but he would tell me there not and start going on about lenses and lighting and aperture and shutter speeds and I would understand maybe a quarter of it).

Anyway, he has been on road trip to Colorado with his wife and her cousin for the last little while and he's updated his photo journal with some of the photos he's taken on the road. There are just some awe-inspiring shots of the mountains and flora and fauna they've seen along with his quirky/fun accounts of their travels. I've you've got a minute, you can check out his photo journal at www.tinymonkeys.net. There's also the link in the sidebar on the right.

Tunes

I am in need of something new to listen too. I'm getting tired of the library of music that I have on my iTunes at work. It's on random and I usually end up skipping past most of the songs that pop up because I've heard them too many times.

I like a range of music, but I'd be willing to give anything a shot. I picked up a CD at the library last night, which I haven't listened to yet, because I liked the cover. I think it was Beta Band, but I'd have to double check.

I like 60s and 70s rock, some alternative, some metal, a little country, a little blues. Not a big fan of hip hop. My current selection on iTunes features: The Beatles, George Harrison, The Eels, Oingo Boingo, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Queen, R.E.M., Smoking Popes, Talking Heads, AC/DC, Three Dog Night, Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys, Weezer, XTC, The Who, Blues Brothers, CCR, etc.

I've also been known to listen to The Police, B-52s, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, John Denver, Metallica, Moby, The Monkeys.

A coworker recommended the other day that I check out Eagles of Death Metal, which I did. I like it. (It's not death metal by the way).

So what do y'all think? What do you like to listen to?

UCF in the Multiverse

I like to play with acronyms of things. It’s fun to take an existing acronym or word and make up new meanings, so I decided to play with UCF, or Union of Collaborating Founders (of which I am lucky enough to be a member, see Random Michelle’s cool graphic to the right). For any of you who don’t know what this is, you can find an explanation here.

Acronymfinder has these acronyms for UCF:
University of Central Florida
Uranium Conversion Facility
Uniform Contract Format
Unregistration Confirm
Unit Capability Factor (power plant performance)
User Communication Form
United Cat Federation
Unified Communications Framework
Unión Cívica Femenina (Womens’ Civic Union, Guatemala)

None of these seems to work for the group as I’ve experienced it, except maybe United Cat Federation, as many of the UCF seem to have cats and like taking pictures of their cats.

So, if we were in an alternate reality, (as we probably exist in some other multiverse) what might UCF stand for?

Uncommonly Cool Fellows
Uncannily Creative Federation
Ultimate Cocoa Fanatics
United Colleagues for Fun

And here are some things that have nothing to do with any of us, as far as I know, but can UCF can be an acronym of:

Ugly Cod Fishermen
Urban Cannon Fodder
Undulating Copper Filigree
Unnatural Carp Feces
Unctuous Car Follower

I could go on, but there’s work to do.

Any other suggestions?

Monday Meeting, Uuuugggghhhh

I just got home a little while ago from an all day meeting. It was an off site, thing followed by dinner. We discussed our brands, our readers and our customers (advertisers). We were in a room at a local hotel, and it was frigid when I got there and the temperature in the room fluctuated through the day from uncomfortably hot to almost too cold. It was a decent meeting, but by the end of the day everyone was ready for a nap. Then we went to dinner, which was nice. But now I'm tired and I have a killer headache. It's time to sit back and relax.

F In Math + Finishing 8th Grade = Party?

My weekend is all booked up. Lodge thing tomorrow for most of the day, and then of to my mother-in-law's for my brother-in-law's 8th grade graduation party (there's 10 years difference between my wife and her next sibling, the party is for the youngest). I have to get up much earlier than anyone should have to for this lodge thing tomorrow, so I'm certainly not going to want to go to this graduation party, but I know I'm not going to get out of it. But in my mind, there shouldn't be a party to begin with.

You see, my brother-in-law FAILED math this year. He didn't just have a couple bad tests or some incomplete homework, he failed the class. Not that anyone would purposefully aim low, but between my mother-in-law's four kids and approximately 47 cumulative school years no one has brought home an F on a report card until now. I don't think there's ever been anything lower than a C, or maybe a C-, up until this point. Way to destroy the curve Little J!

I don't know that Little J was ever a stupendous math student, but he was never an F student. There are some possible reasons for this poor showing. For one, for the last year or so, the boy and his PSP have ceased to be two separate entities, but instead have fused into a RoboCop-like fusion of man and machine. Of course, there were times when he would have to set down the PSP...to pick up the Xbox or PS2 controller.

Also, when it comes to her baby, my mother-in-law is very lenient. Being sent to his room as a form of discipline doesn't do a whole lot when there's a tv with cable and a PS2 in the room. And no one ever stops him from playing his brother's Xbox when his brother's not home and he's not supposed to be playing it. If I have my way, when Logan's old enough and he gets sent to his room, I'll be able to cut the power to just his room on the circuit breaker so he doesn't have the luxury of those kinds of things. Ha!

So, there's the party for him tomorrow, which in the grand scheme of things 8th grade "graduation" really doesn't seem like a big deal. I know all the other kids had one, but come on, he failed math and you're still giving him a party!?! By doing this, he's essentially being rewarded for failure, or he's being told the F doesn't matter. If he were my kid there would be no party. Thankfully, Brandi agrees.

And one of the funniest parts is that he says next year, in high school where the grades are going to matter more, he can just switch it on and he'll be getting good grades in math. He'll be a math super star! Riiiiiiiiiight...whenever I toss a simple math problem his way off the top of my head he either gives me a dumb look or tells me to shut up. That reminds me that I should get a good congratulatory punch in the arm for him tomorrow.