I Did the Right Thing

I forgot to post this last week.  Here is the book I bought at the Mike Huckabee signing:

And here is the autograph:

Mike Huckabee

I went to a Mike Huckabee book signing at lunch today. I was surprised at how fast the line moved. Of course we were told that, because of time constraints, the former Governor would not be able to personalize the signatures. He could only sign his name.

How Obama Got Elected

(from www.howobamagotelected.com)

I have no words.

A Great Day for America!

Something amazing happened today on Capital Hill. At around 11:23AM Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an adjournment of the House. It was passed and House Democrats left the building. Several House Republicans, however, stayed and continued to debate the energy bill that Speaker Pelosi will not allow a vote on. The Republicans stayed at it for several hours!

One of the most interesting parts for me was Rep. John Culberson's (R-Texas) use of Twitter and Qik to get the information about what was happening out the the people.
You see Speaker Pelosi ordered the C-Span cameras to be shut off, as well as the microphones and even the lights! While outside cameras are not allowed on the House floor Culberson and Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan) used Twitter to send out text updates.
Then, outside the floor, Culberson used his cell phone to stream live video via Qik. He interviewed some Congressmen and allowed us to see what was going on.

This is what the "New Media" is all about. This is what freedom and democracy are all about! I am so proud of what these Republicans did today and I am so proud to be an American!

"Dark Knight" Smashes Hollywood Records

"The Dark Knight" has broken a few box office records already. First it broke the top single-day movie grosses with $66.4 million. Then it broke the opening weekend record with $155.34 million, beating Spider-Man 3's $151.1 million record.
Will Hollywood and the MPAA get it? Sluggish box office sales should not be blamed on piracy or DVD sales. It's because of crappy movies. Give us a good movie and we will pay to see it. It's as simple as that.

"Borat" star fools Fort Smith (click for more)

Well, Sacha Baron Cohen pulled one over on Fort Smith last month. 1500 fans showed up to "Blue Collar Brawlin'" at the Fort Smith Convention Center on June 6th. The cage match ended with two male grapplers tearing each other's clothes off and kissing. It was all a stunt for Cohen's latest movie "Bruno".

Needless to say the attendees were not pleased.

Another article here.

Oops!

Last night I was backing out of my uncle's driveway and I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention. I got too close to the fence and caught my passenger side mirror on it. It got ripped off and was hanging there by the wire, broken.
Today I called the Toyota dealership and found out the replacement mirror will cost me $200.00 plus installation. I was expecting much more.
I went ahead and had them order the part and it should be in tomorrow. Hopefully I can get it installed tomorrow as well.

Alyssa

I tried to catch video of Alyssa dancing yesterday.  She has this little play set thing that she sits in and some of the buttons play music if you push them a few times.  So she bangs on them until the music plays then she starts dancing.  I didn't really catch it but at the beginning you can kind of see her dancing a bit:

She also seemed pretty fascinated by my camera.

Storms!

Last night some high intensity storms blew through the area.  The weather reports said we had 70-80 MPH straight line wind gusts.  A tree on some property behind my apartment complex blew over and hit my bedroom window:

Also a tree at the side of the complex blew over and hit the edge of the roof.  It landed on a truck in the parking lot but I don't think it did much, if any, damage to the truck:

Poor Alyssa

Alyssa Helmet 2
Originally uploaded by Michael Napier

My little niece, Alyssa, has to wear a helmet for a few months. She was born 3 months prematurely and the back of her head is a bit flat. I'm not sure what the cause of that is but this custom-made helmet is supposed to help to reshape her head.

She doesn't seem to mind it at all but right now she's just wearing it for a couple of hours at a time.

3G iPhone

Today Apple announced the next version of the iPhone. It will be thinner than the original, cheaper, will include 3G high speed data capabilities and have built-in GPS. It looks to be a very nice device. I admit I will be tempted to get one but I think I'll hold off for a while. The only feature that will appeal to me will be the GPS. I am rarely out of WiFi range so the 3G connection isn't very important for me.
What I'm most excited about are the new 2.0 firmware update and the new MobileMe service, both coming mid-July.

Ominous?

Ominous?
Originally uploaded by Michael Napier

Saw some cool rain clouds moving overhead on the way to work this morning.

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

Yesterday was my niece's first birthday. We had a little party for her over at my Mom & Dad's house. I don't think she really understood what was going on at all. She was born about three months premature so she's still trying to catch up.

Also, today is my Mom's birthday. I won't say how old she is. So Happy Birthday Mom!!

Harvey Korman dead at age 81

Link
Harvey Korman has died at the age of 81. I am deeply saddened by this news. I have fond memories of watching him and Tim Conway cracking each other up on "The Carol Burnett Show". I have probably seen every single episode but the one skit that sticks out most in my mind is their "Gone With the Wind" spoof:

Part 1


Part 2


RIP, Harvey. Keep them laughing up there in Heaven.

Pork & Beans

I love this new video from Weezer:



It has pretty much every big YouTube/viral video meme from recent years.
You can find out what they all are here.

Boom Blox!

I went ahead and picked up the Boom Blox game on Sunday afternoon.  I played it for about two hours that evening and it is extremely fun.  There is a slight problem with it, however.  A lot of the game involves "throwing" baseballs or bowling balls at stacks of blocks to make them fall.  This requires making a throwing motion with the Wii remote and you have to throw the balls pretty hard.  When I woke up Monday morning I could barely move my right arm!  Even today it's still very sore!  I want to play it some more but right now I just can't.  It's too painful!

Granted I don't really get much physical exercise, especially in my arms, but I really can't believe that I'm this sore.

Yes, I know I'm a wuss.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

Wii

I finally decided to buy myself a Nintendo Wii today. I had been thinking about it for a while but what pushed me over the edge was finding out about a new game called "Boom Blox". It's sort of a weird version of Jenga but not exactly. It was created by Steven Spielberg. I haven't gotten it yet. So far all I've done is played a game of bowling. I got a 163! Not bad considering I had never even touched a Wii before.

Done (sort of)

I think I got all my old posts moved to the new blog. Unfortunately I couldn't get the comments.
Oh well.

Changes

I have decided to stop using my .Mac for my blog and just use Blogger.com. This will enable me to post from anywhere and it's MUCH easier to use.
I'm in the process of moving my posts over to this blog so it may take some time.

Air Show!

I went out to the Fort Smith Air Show on Saturday the 17th. My brother was able to score us an excellent parking pass and VIP wristbands so we got to watch it from one of the sponsor tents. I won't say the show itself was the best one I've seen but the overall experience was the best. We didn't have to walk far at all from the parking spot, we had the tent to shield us from the sun, the portable bathrooms were right behind us, and we weren't crowded by tons of people.

I've posted some photos I took on my flickr page

Nature at it's fiercest

I heard about this on the Rush Limbaugh show. This is a photograph of the volcanic eruption in Chile last week:

From the UK Daily Mail:

"As clouds of toxic ash and dust tower into the sky, they ionise the air, generating an explosive electrical storm. Colossal forks of lightning spark around the noxious plume as it spews from the volcano's crater, creating an image of raw, terrifying energy - as if the air itself were ablaze."

911 Call

Four-year-old Johnny calls 911 for help with his emergency:

SNAKE

So I get an MMS message from my brother last night titled "Matt's new pet":

Matt is my nephew who works part-time at Petco.

Looks like I won't be visiting his apartment any time soon.

Well Gosh....

It sure has been a while since I posted anything. I guess I'm just too boring to have a blog.
Anyway an update on the whole Wal-Mart PS3 situation with my cousin. Wal-Mart held fast and refused to take the PS3 back so he ended up having to send it back to Sony, along with $125.00, and now he has a new one.

I read something the other day that I really liked so I think I'll post it here. I'm sure it's not a true story but there's still truth in it:

A very self-important college freshman attending a recent football game took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen sitting next to him why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his generation. "You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one," the student said, loud enough for many of those nearby to hear.  
"The young people of today grew up with television, jet planes, space travel, man walking on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars.  We have nuclear energy, electric  and hydrogen cars, computers with DSL, light-speed processing ....and, …” (pausing to take another drink of beer)
The Senior took advantage of the break in the student's litany and said, "You're right, son.  We didn't have those things when we were young.....so we invented them.  Now, you arrogant little jerk, what are you doing for the next generation?"  
The applause was resounding...

Wal-Mart Woes

I don't think I have ever heard of anyone having trouble returning an item to Wal-Mart. My cousin's husband (my cousin-in-law??) bought himself a Playstation 3 at Wal-Mart on December 30th. He had been wanting one and called to see if they had any in stock and they said they had just gotten one that day so we drove there and got it. Paid cash for it too.
It worked fine for about a month or so but then, suddenly, it just stopped powering on. His first instinct was to call Sony. For some reason they told him he could send it in for repair but they would charge him $125. This didn't sound right to me but that doesn't matter now.

He still has his purchase receipt so he decided to exchange it at Wal-Mart. He now lives in Van Buren so he tried taking it there first. When he bought it there was a special offer inside to get (5) free Blu-ray movies so he sent in the offer, which required he cut the original UPC code of the box. The Wal-Mart person removed the PS3 from the box to verify the serial number. They told him something didn't match so he would have to return it at the store he purchased it from.

He drives to Fort Smith only to be told that the serial number of this unit indicates it was bought at Best Buy! They even called Best Buy and confirmed that it was true. They even knew that the unit had been bought at their store on November 30th and the name of the customer! He maintained that he DID buy it at Wal-Mart and he had the receipt to prove it. They argued that there was NO WAY that PS3 was sold at Wal-Mart. He ended up talking to a couple of "managers" who practically accused him of trying to pull a scam and they refused to take it back. The theory is that the guy who bought it at Best Buy, for some reason, put it into a box that came from Wal-Mart and was able to return it. They must not have opened it to verify the serial number on the unit itself. So now he's stuck with a $400+ game system that won't work and Wal-Mart thinks he is a liar.

He put in a call to the corporate office and they are supposed to be calling him back in a couple of days. He even had his mother-in-law (my aunt) try to return it herself and she ran into the same problem. Then she tried taking it to Best Buy and they wouldn't take it back either because no extended service plan was purchased.

Obviously someone at Wal-Mart did the very thing they are accusing him of doing. They took back a PS3 that was actually sold at Best Buy and they the re-sold it! But now they are claiming that that is an impossible scenario. What they should do is check their records and see who returned a PS3 on or around December 30th and see if that name matches the purchaser in Best Buy's system.

Hopefully someone at the corporate office will be able to get something done. I didn't even know that the stores kept track of serial numbers like that. 

Bill Has a Dream

Wow, it's been over a month.  I guess I haven't had anything to say.

Oh well.  I thought this was funny:

Bill Clinton keeps nodding off during an award presentation for Martin Luther King Jr.