March Beach Trip

Here are some pictures of our trip to the beach from March 18 - 22. We split a condo near Seaside, FL with Becky's sister. I think it was Seagrove, FL. It was a fun trip and a great way to say goodbye to the freedom of joblessness.

My long-necked friend is a Saints fan.


The view from the balcony.


A cool looking beach house.


Another cool looking beach house.


Sunset on Day 1.


"It's not that hot."


A skim-boarder at sunset.


The military invades.


Another balcony shot.


Going, going, gone.


On this day Becky and I took a walk from the condo to "downtown" Seaside. This is a "hidden" public access path to the beach. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It was surprisingly beautiful.


Self-portrait.


Interesting houses on the walk.


Proof that your house doesn't have to be fancy to be on the beach.

Yeah yeah, I should be working...

I just took the Pew News IQ Quiz. Here are my results:



How did you do?

Great Minds Think Alike.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who saw a parallel between the swine flu epidemic and a zombie outbreak.

Check out this Reuters article.

The "swine flu."

A couple of months ago I read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War mostly because a friend of mine read the jacket and asked himself, "When did this happen? I'm a well-read individual. I keep up with current events and know a thing or two about history. How come I never heard about this?"

That still cracks me up.

Anyway, I came across this book in the library and decided to give it a read. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I was never a big fan of horror or zombie movies. I did like Dawn of the Dead (2004), Shaun of the Dead, and I Am Legend (of course) but that was the extent of it. After reading this book however, zombie stories now intrigue me. I have always been a fan of stories that take place after a cataclysm and how people struggle to survive. Zombie stories seem to put a fresh twist on this genre for me. If you haven't read it, I recommend you pick up a copy and give it a go.

I am currently reading The Zombie Survival Guide by the same author, Max Brooks. It's pretty good so far. I like that it puts some logic behind the whole fantasy of zombies. It reminds me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual which does the same thing for the Enterprise.

Since I've had zombies on the brain recently (no pun intended), I can't help but see the parallels between the current swine flu outbreak and the impending zombie apocalypse. I recommend mentally switching out the words "swine flu" with "zombie plague" whenever you come across it in the news. It puts an interesting twist on things.

Remember, containment is key.

Do you remember these cartoons?

A Quick Post From Yuppie-ville.

Here's the view from our apartment!

I almost had to do this.

Ultimate Alliance 2!

The next installment of Marvel Ultimate Alliance is based on the Civil War storyline. It looks pretty cool!

Where do you want to live?

According to this article, Denver (at 43%) is the most popular place people would like to move to. The least popular was Detroit at 8%.

8%?! Detroit isn't THAT bad!

Percentage of Americans who say they want to live in this city or metropolitan area:

Most popular
Denver: 43%
San Diego: 40%
Seattle: 38%
Orlando: 34%
Tampa: 34%
San Francisco: 34%

Least popular
Detroit: 8%
Cleveland: 10%
Cincinnati: 13%
Kansas City: 15%
Minneapolis: 16%
Pittsburgh: 17%

Source: Pew Research Center

Scary.

Someone needs to send these people back through a basic math class.

Do what the Cylon tells you.

Less than 2 days to go.

I love that our President-elect is a big nerd. Not only has he read every Harry Potter book, but he also collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Obama Spider-Man Comic Bribe

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Beach Pictures.

I've been visiting my Mom in Florida for the past week. Today was a really warm and sunny day, so we took the dog for a walk on the beach. Here are some pictures.

Here's me with Marla...

...my Mom with Marla...

...and Marla ditching us because she's had enough of the picture taking.

I like how blue the sky looks in these next two pictures.


Here I tried to get some pictures of the wind blowing the spray of the breaking waves.






Here are some surfers enjoying their Sunday. If I lived out here, my Sundays would be spent the same way.

...and we're back.

December 2, 2008:
Our trip to the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi, Finland. After going through the pictures on my camera, I realized that all the good ones were taken with Becky's camera. Hopefully one of us will post those soon too.






December 14, 2008:
The last night in our apartment in Oulu, Finland. At this point, the only thing we had left in our apartment was our luggage and mattresses. Everything else, including the light fixtures and curtains, was moved out. This is a picture of Becky using her computer on the floor of living room.

December 19, 2008:
These are some pictures from my Dad's house in Michigan. That's a pretty big snow drift at the back door.


That's my Dad clearing the driveway.


Here's my goofball friend Eric in front of his house.

These are his bunnies. If you look in their eyes, you can see the hellfire that spawned them.

December 25, 2008:
Some pictures of Stoney Creek Metropark. You can see that I learned to stay warm since living in Oulu.

Here's my Dad!

Coming Soon...

Sorry about the lack of posts everyone. I have two planned but I need to find a moment to get them going.

Stay tuned.