random dancing
Brent | May 23, 2009
Field Day
Brent | May 21, 2009
Really excited about today.
Today is “Field Day” at my daughter’s school. It’s a day where school is “in session”, but it’s just a play day. The school yard is set up in stations of games involving water, activities, relay races of all sorts, etc. and each teacher takes their from station to station to participate. Parents take the day off and volunteer to work at these stations. The students bring their lunch for picnic lunches, pizza is usually provided by the school for the volunteers.
But the topper is the middle of the afternoon, when the sun is at it’s highest, the city fire department will graciously provide a firetruck to come hose the children down. It’s bedlam! I’ve got to give HUGE accolades to one Talmadge Reasoner for being the mastermind of this event.
Thank you, Talmadge, for giving the parents and kids great memories of our school !!
I thought I’d post a few pics from years past, just to take you there:
(as always, click on the picture for full view)
Bring the Rain !!!
yes, they're having a ball...
icky fun!
Blue Snowcones bring happiness...
Students vs. Staff Tug-O-War !!!
Kids love the water!
Tin: Old Skool – SOTD #15
Brent | May 17, 2009
The Tin Man comes dropping the hammer!
Yeah, today’s Shirt of the Day is completely bad like that.
The shirt’s title is Tin: Old Skool, and comes from the middle-ages of the woot derbies. This derby was for your favorite element, which brought some fairly unique ideas.
The idea behind this shirt is obvious – that the “old-school” metal of tin is still pretty tough, and can hold it’s own against the new-age, fancy-schmancy metals and elements that are floating around these days. The scene depicts a not-so-disguised Tin Man from Wizard of Oz opening up a can of whoop-ass on the space-aged, not-so-disguised form of C-3PO of Star Wars. (And for the one or two people that have NOT seen either of these iconic films, I’m not gonna bother to explain).
I don’t know how woot got around the copyright issues with this one, as Star Wars in particular is very protective when it comes to someone printing images from it’s world. Regardless, it’s a fantastic scene of a funny beat down, with a character from old literature coming out on top of a figure from the future.
Whenever I wear this in public, I always get several comments on it. Probably because both figures are easily identified, but comments range from “Yeah, Tin Man would totally kick his ass”, or “That’s not gonna happen, I bet the Wookie would protect him”.
The topper to the great design is the “CLANG!” text, reminiscent of cartoon battles between enemies. Just great. Plus, the shirt is worn, comfy, and fits me perfectly. Just the way it should be.
Signposts
Brent | May 14, 2009
Since I’ve had so many great comments about how people like my little corner of the internet, I thought today I’d use it as a signpost to guide you to other people’s blogs that I like to visit.
(click on the title to visit their world)
*) Dan’s Theatre of the Absurd –
A great collection of variety. Probably the most all-around versed individual on any given topic, he’s never at a loss for interesting, quirky, and sometimes bizarre stories. He’s also listed first on my “Other Sites to Visit” section. From IronMan Triathlon, to chicken farming, to Child Welfare stories, ya just never know what’s coming next…
*) Jimiyo’s Art and Palaver –
Just an extremely talented artist, cat lover, and all-around good guy. Recently the phenomena known as twitter has taken some of the oomph out of his blogging, but he will still post some great stuff. If you twitter, however, follow him and you won’t be disappointed.
*) Chris Pirillo –
This dude is everywhere. The creator of Lockergnome, which is itself a large community of blogdom, Chris comments on all thing Tech – technology, electronic gadgets, computers, software, etc. Ya know, really really geeky stuff 
The most interesting to me is the streaming live video and chat. The guy is a trip.
Here is an example, with Chris explaining about what twitter is:
*) SingulariTee –
A man who goes by the name Adder, but not for the serpentine reference. He comes from the world of art and T-shirts. Where those two meet, that is where he resides. Adder reviews submissions and prints from other T-shirt sites, and has an uncanny knack for seeing designs and knowing they will or should be printed. He also has a knack for being completely blunt and unapologetic when it comes to identifying less-than-quality. The moniker Adder fits him well in this regard, too.
*) Joel Bauer –
You just have to see this guy in action. Just for the sheer entertainment value, if nothing else. You’ve heard of motivational speakers? This is the new breed.
Here is an example of Joel and the topic of business cards:
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I’ll probably add more later, but just wanted to give a little glimpse into other people’s blogs that I visit. Very interesting world we live in…
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be nice to someone today
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The infamous Boomer footage
Brent | May 9, 2009
We have a dog. His name is Boomer. He’s a great dog, really. My daughter Casey loves to take him in our back yard, do tricks with him, and film him doing jumps, obstacle courses (“agility training”), or whatever she can dream up.
During one of these sessions, she had the camera set low to catch a ground angle shot. Boomer decided the camera looked like more fun than sticking around for the training!
(Make sure you have the sound turned up)
Check this out – from Boomer’s perspective:
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Thanks to Casey for posting on her YouTube page so I could link it here
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Suburban Blitzkrieg – SOTD #14
Brent | May 6, 2009
As it warms up and summer is coming soon (not soon enough), I figured Suburban Blitzkrieg is a good shirt to highlight.
It’s from the “Summer” derby at woot last year and designed by Travis Gentry, woot mainstay. The shirt really has a couple good references. Obviously, the shirt is a play on ice cream trucks instead of bombers. The ice cream trucks are swooping down on unsuspecting subdivisions, dropping tasty bomb pops for neighborhood kids. The term “Blitzkrieg” is German for “lightning war”. You can look up the details yourself.
As for the shirt, the colors are fantastic. The creamy dreamsicle orange colored trucks really look great on the cranberry shirt. Add the classic red-white-and-blue of the bomb pops, and the color scheme works great.
There’s also some anti-war sentiment going on, wistfully suggesting we can replace bombers with ice cream trucks.
Don’t you think that Somali pirates would really giggle at the prospect of some tasty ice cream treats? Maybe we could make friends with them, so that they’d feel really bad about attacking our ships…
The Run for the Roses
Brent | May 2, 2009
One of the greatest events in all of sports happens today.
The 135th Kentucky Derby. “The Run for the Roses”. (If you are completely uninformed, the winning horse gets saddled with a blanket of roses as part of the winning ceremony.)
It’s called by some, and recognized by most, as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports”. I would not disagree.
For as long as I can remember, our family has made a great day of this. Now, with my own horse-crazed daughter, for the last several years we’ve made our own tradition. On Saturday of the Derby, we’ll get up early and go the store and get donuts for breakfast, and a copy of the Louisville Courier Journal. There is a special race insert with all of the horses and information about them. Their Sires and Dams (dads and moms), their jockey’s, their bloodlines, trainers, the farms they’re from, etc. Casey and I will look through this and pick our horses for the day. Of course, racing is going on all day long, so that’s what the TV will be tuned to.
Possibly one of the greatest music tributes, that will forever be tied to an event, is Dan Fogelberg’s “Run for the Roses”. I’ve listed this great video, I think the original airing of this song. Enjoy.
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OH – and my picks for today are Dunkirk and Friesan Fire. Who you got?
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