New Beginnings and a Merry Christmas

This is our Christmas tree this year, 

Some things most of you may not notice, there are no ornaments, just a few candy canes. The odd part about this  is that we have ornaments, and extra lights (this is a pre-lit), but in what I feel was a little bit symbolic, they just never got put up. We have had a wonderful year, though things have been a little tight. Some happy moments in the last few days (even if they made me a little sad). Due to a few wonderful weddings, we hadn't made any plans to visit anyone this year, but hearing from those of you who were so excited to see us made me happy, even if we couldn't come, though we're already making plans for next year. Overall, its been a good year to be truly grateful, to see those little miracles that have come together to make things ok. Thanks to all of you who have been a part of it, the calls and the little surprises, Merry Christmas, and all our love,

Steven and Alexis

All I want for christmas...

Today on woot

only 350 grand too.
(this really was on woot.com)

This is a real picture

The largest adult insect ever found

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/look-giant-bug

Ig Nobel

I think I found my favorite IgNobel Award for this year:
Public Safety: John Senders, from Canada, ran a series of experiments in which the test subject navigated a major highway while a visor repeatedly flapped down over his face, blinding him. 

Words

Influence in this world is made in words. Not in the simplicity of them being spoken, though it is certainly possible to influence through what we say, but in the power of creating words. Who can argue against the power that Tolkien wielded when he created words like "Hobbit" and the stories that defined them, just as Philo Farnsworth forever changed the world with the word "Television". The things we do everyday have the power to change the world, and the echoes and ripples that come to us, in their strongest form, are the words that we use. We even define ourselves through our words, whether we believe them or not, the words we describe ourselves by change who we are. I hope someday to change the world with a word, whether through a story, an invention, or, most likely, through the word I use to describe the greatest thing that comes from a person, my child. I want to change the world.

What exactly is "thin air"?

I love google

I know this may not make sense to a lot of you, but todays special google image

One of the links was to the article below titled:
Why Pierre de Fermat is the Patron Saint of Unfinished Business

I highly recommend it
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0817/Why-Pierre-de-Fermat-is-the-patron-saint-of-unfinished-business

Gmail motion

How it started

(this was an april fools joke)

(or so we thought)

Who has this much time on their hands?

Sandwich

Recently Alexis introduced me to something very dangerous, I have dubbed it the Reese's sandwhich. Nutella and peanut butter. I think its going to make me fat.

Limits

I came to a very odd realization today as I was writing my final paper for the semester. I have never disliked writing, but there has always been something missing in it for me, and the truth of it came to me, writing is 2 dimensional.  I dont mean this as 2 dimensional lines on a piece of paper, but as a 2 dimensional process of thought, you can only ever convey your thoughts in a line segment, a piece here, a piece there, but if you cut up your pieces too small or try to connect too many at a single point, you lose your meaning. My thought processes run in 3 dimensions, every point serving multiple purposes, ideas spreading in all directions, so that when you try and take a 2 dimensional snapshot for a paper, some of the lines cross each other in the wrong places or have to be edited out so you can see others. That is what unsettles me, that I have to choose an exact path, and no one who ever reads my writing will see the beauty of the many branching paths in my mind.

Phonezoo

The opening to this video is my new ringtone, it makes me happy (it was what I was doing instead of writing my paper on what the rest of it is about)

Justice in the Universe

So, lately I have been taking these Nature Valley Granola Thins to school for lunch (it takes about 6, I didn't buy them) but much like reese's peanut butter cups, they come with this little piece of cardboard that the bar sits on so that even if the chocolate melts you can still get it out. So I opened my first one for lunch today, and much to my surprise, it didn't have the cardboard. More than an hour later (I eat them slowly throughout my day) I opened another, and to my amazement, it had two cardboard pieces. Coincidence? Possibly, though its more likely to have something to do with the factory's process for packaging them. And now that you've read this far, most likely expecting me to make some point, I think the most honest thing I can say is that this is it, the thought doesn't go any deeper, have a nice day.

Seven (now 8 apparently) Intelligences

Maybe I am the only person who has not heard of this before, but there is a Harvard professor who has put forth a theory in which he defines 8 intelligences.
-Self
-Language
-Music
-Body Movement
-Nature
-Math/Logic
-Spatial
-Social

In his theory he says that everyone is a genius in at least 1 of these areas, and I like that thought. I think too often people spend their lives worrying about the areas in which they are not geniuses, and miss the opportunities to focus on those areas where they are truly amazing.

Hope you all have a great day.

What every true geek needs.

(If you cant tell, its a pizza cutter)

Pancakes.

The Station

Feel the Power

(sadly it has now been disassembled, what you see here is two desktops, a laptop, a wii, a VCR, as well as a broken laptop under the desk)

Cori was right (as always)

The router was receiving wireless interference, so I couldn't access its settings. Que household Faraday Cage.

 

CRASH

I finally got fed up enough to pull the "Windows Vista" sticker off my laptop. I was trying to think about places to put it, and had finally decided I would put it on the car. Then I thought, that would be stupid, I'm already having car troubles, why on earth would I put something on it that is just an invitation to crash.

The Manly Cookbook

This is the next cookbook I want:

Why? Because there just aren't very many cookbooks out there that call for ingredients like liquid nitrogen and a commercial grade centerfuge. It just sounds fun.

You know its time to do the laundry when....

My New Dream Job

I have been going on an adventure today. As any of you who know me (and obtain information about my life in ways other than this blog or facebook) know, I am currently both unemployed and not attending school, so today I set out to explore the world of my mother-in-law's netflix account, as well as fold the laundry. This is when I discovered top gear, a british car show for people who aren't very serious about cars. So far they have turned a small car into a makeshift space shuttle

>

as well as driven a regular pickup truck across the english channel.

Add to this the opportunity to test drive cars like the Bugatti Veyron and the Lamborghini Gallardo.

I would be willing to move to england to do that.