kevinmcdowell.net

Reading in 2011 and 2012

2012-01-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

I had set the goal in 2011 to finish an average of a book a month. This is how it went:

So, basically, I failed to complete a book from July to December and only finished 9 books in 2011.

I am optimistic though, and have reset the goal of

and felt the need to illustrate it.

Pirate Map

2011-12-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

Having grown up watching Goonies a billion times, who doesn't dream of hunting for treasure?

A Few Little Projects

2011-12-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

I have been keeping the kids entertained with some little projects that we have worked on. Here are some pictures of mine with the Instagram treatment on the pictures.

This is my Christmas themed paper house from thetoymaker.com.

My pin-prick art. Made on a piece of cardboard with a thumb tack.

After our tree topper was broken during the unpacking, I fashioned this one from some paper and a toilet paper roll and spray painted it silver.

Real World Cut the Rope Game

2011-11-08T23:29:00.000-08:00

I made a game board for a real-world version of the I-phone game Cut the Rope. THEN, I put together this little video that looks kind of like you are playing the game. I drew the menu screen myself too. My favorite part of the video is the menu screen, which I hand-drew and then edited on the computer. It is similar to the one in the game but oriented horizontal instead of vertical. Then I have my crappy animation of a hand pushing the button. Maybe I will try animation again and a little better?

My video was blogged on some Portuguese website called Treta.

Crooked Bookcase & Diagonal Desk

2011-11-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of designs for some odd furniture. On the bookcase, it is wider at one end and has shelves that are slanted. The desk has a top that is more narrow at one end, and has a hole cut in the wood with a glass top.

Jenga

2011-10-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be cool to try to draw a Jenga game in progress, then decided afterwards that I would make one in Paint on the computer. Here are both of them.

Evil Bacon

2011-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

A lame little comic that I made

McDowell Bag

2011-10-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

I drew my last name on a bag

Isabella Gets Her Ears Pierced

2011-10-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

They wouldn't let me record the actual piercing, so I had to settle for pictures only.

Space Dragons

2011-10-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

One of the podcasts that I listen to regularly is Fourcast. It is a show where there are two hosts and two guests each week and the guests take turns making predictions about the future and the four of them discuss each prediction. Each episode starts with a prediction e-mailed in by a listener, and this week they read my e-mail. It was such an amusing prediction that they named the episode "Space Dragons" in my honor and made constant throw-back jokes to the subject of me e-mail. Frankly, I don't care if they are laughing at me or with me, it still amused me.

They start reading my e-mail at about 2:05, had a throw-back just after 28:00, another just after 39:15, and another after 50:40.

The text of my e-mail:

On the last episode of fourcast one of the guests suggested that we would likely have conversations with aliens sometime in the next couple hundred years. I think that a lot of people believe that if aliens come to Earth, that they will be advanced beings that have built technology that makes them capable of traveling vast distances in space. This is a rather human-centric view. I believe that the first aliens we encounter will actually be very technologically primitive and that they will just be creatures that are capable of surviving in space, in which their respiration is not dependent on oxygen, and that they will be gigantic space dragons!

The Girls in Ambigrams

2011-09-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

I just love ambigrams. I think that they are so cool, and an interesting challenge to try designing them. Here I did all the girls' names. Each one is the same upside-down as rightside-up. Isabella, Olivia, and Emily.

Graffiti Inspired Writing

2011-08-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

I really like art and drawing, and with my Netflix subscription over the past few months(it's a shame I am gonna cancel it this month when the price goes up by like 60%!), I have watched several documentaries on street art and graffiti. This has inspired me to try my hand at some graffiti style writing. I drew a couple others too, but these two turned out the best. I started my viewing with the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop. It was by far the most interesting of the documentaries I watched. It was more focused on street art, and stencils. The others I watched were Infamy and Bomb It, which were more of different takes on the history of graffiti.

I like how this one the M goes through the hole in the P.

I may try doing some sort of street art inspired stencil next. Maybe something like the amazing work of Banksy.

How to derive the Law of Sines, and the Law of Cosines

2011-06-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

When I was teaching the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines I decided to challenge myself by actually deriving each equation. The Law of Sines was pretty easy, but the Law of Cosines took me 3 tries before I was able to get it. Here they are.

Balloon Powered Vehicle

2011-05-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

For my students' science class they had to design and build a balloon-powered vehicle. I decided to make one myself and this is how it turned out. In the trial run it went about 6 meters. That was better than some of the student vehicles, but at least one went about 15 meters. The rules were that it had to be powered only by a nine-inch balloon, it had to be built from household items, and it had to have at least 3 wheels. If I were to make another one, I would try to make it as small and light as possible, but this one did okay.

Sudokubunny

2011-02-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

After I completed this sudoku I drew a bunny on it.

Lucky Number 5

2011-02-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

Since my birthday is June 5th, I always have kind of considered 5 to be my lucky number. I have never noticed anything particularly lucky about it, but still it feels lucky to me. I sketched this out with pencil, inked it in with a pen, and then filled all the colors using GIMP.

Sudokucat

2011-02-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

Upon completing this sudoku I was inspired to draw a big cat on it. Here it is.

Stars and Triangles

2010-12-18T11:30:00.000-08:00

I drew these out on some Post-It notes. I amazed myself with how straight most of my lines ended up even though I did them freehand.

Walk or Run in the Rain

2010-12-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

For a couple years I have wondered about whether you get wetter by walking or running in the rain. I know the Mythbusters have attacked this question, but don't remember their conclusion. I decided to try to tackle the problem mathematically, and while I made some assumptions, I think my conclusion makes sense.

Cream Soda

2010-12-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Just a quick sketch I made from memory of a couple of cream soda cans. It was lightly drawn with pencil, so it didn't scan very well.

Algebra & Geometry

2010-10-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Ever since I read Dan Brown's Angels & Demons in 2004(?) I have loved ambigrams. Ambigrams are illustrations of words that from a different perspective appear to be the same word or a different word. They can be made to read as a mirror image or as I have done using rotational symmetry. For each of these you can tilt your head 90 degrees left or right and each will read the same. My favorite part of these two ambigrams is the M in geometry. That M just turned out awesomely.

Einstein and the Zombies

2010-10-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

A quick Einstein sketch drawn completely from my brain. Didn't even look at a picture to help.

A couple zombies inspired from playing too much Plants Vs. Zombies.

This one I finished up in Gimp (Free and open-source Photoshop replacement).

Crew Trip San Diego 2010

2010-08-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Video from our annual crew trip to San Diego.

Drawing on a Placemat

2010-07-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

This started as me drawing a couple animals for the girls. Then the girls wanted me to draw portraits of them. The one on the left was supposed to be Isabella but looks like a 14 year old, and the one on the right is Olivia and I think that one turned out pretty good.

The Girls Swimming

2010-07-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

The girls have been really impressing me with their improvement in swimming ability this summer. Isabella is 3 and swimming pretty good, and Olivia is 2 and swimming about as good as I could imagine a 2 year old swimming.

New England Drawings

2010-07-06T15:11:00.001-07:00

While in New England for a couple weeks of vacation in June, here are a couple sketches I drew of where we went.

Newport, Rhode Island

Wakefield, Massachusetts (Just outside Boston)

Niagara Falls, New York

Graphic Designers

2010-05-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Another original drawing by Kevin.

Slightly Obsessive Driving

2010-04-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

In February of 2009, as a mental activity, I decided to take a different route each day of the week when dropping my kids off at my in-laws before I go to work. After a couple weeks I decided to figure out how many routes there actually were between my house (A) and my in-laws house (B). Then I decided to drive each of those routes. To keep it still a mental activity I kept no record of which routes I had taken, but systematically drove each path. In any case where I was not sure that I had driven a route, I drove it, possibly for a second time. It took me 13 months, but at the beginning of the month of April I drove the last possible route that does not involve backtracking (except in the case of roads that curve). The sketch above is not drawn to scale, but does demonstrate all 258 different routes.

How Many Different Calendars Are There?

2010-04-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

While talking with my friend Cody about the possibility of reusing calendars every few years due to them repeating, we wondered if every possible calendar could occur, and how many years one would have to wait to have all the possible calendars. When I got home, I made a spreadsheet that identified the pattern.

It turns out that if we started saving calendars this year, we would have all possible calendars by 2036, and that some of the calendars from common years would begin repeating in 2019, so from 2019-2036 we would only need to save the calendars from leap years.

This pattern would continue until 2099. The rules for leap years would make 2100 NOT a leap year and the pattern would start over again in 2101. The rule for leap years is that every year that is divisible by four, except for multiples of 100 that are not divisible by 400 ARE leap years.

Chocolate Cake Smoothie

2010-03-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

I tried to leave all of the unnecessary parts of this video on the cutting room floor. Check out my sweet editing. My spinach smoothie video was so popular ( 255 views so far) that I decided I just had to do a sequel.

My Bucket List

2010-03-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hilarious, with a side of cheese.

Videos of the Girls

2010-03-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Olivia counting and making other funny noises.

Isabella singing Allstar from the movie Shrek and made popular in the late 90s by Smashmouth.

An Offer on a House

2010-02-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

I made this quick MSPaint drawing that shows the floorplan of a house that we put an offer on. We aren't too optimistic that we will get it, but if we do that would be cool.

Fireman, I mean Fire Fighter

2010-02-19T15:07:00.001-08:00

I drew this the other day for my friend to use for a Powerpoint presentation.

Julie's Berry Planter Box

2010-01-20T05:57:00.000-08:00

I spent a few hours this weekend building this planter box for Julie. She wanted a place to plant different types of berries on our porch. This box is approximately 37x15x18 and cost just under $30 to build. A smaller planter box was for sale at the nursery for around $80.

UsedCarville for Facebook

2010-01-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

I thought I would be funny and make up an application in Facebook called UsedCarville. These are the posts that I posted as a ~~phony-balogna~~ phony-bologna app.

New Empty Shirt

2009-12-29T00:44:00.000-08:00

Just put together a new design for an Empty shirt on Zazzle. If you don't like the color, you can change the color from yellow, but yellow is the color that I ordered. You can check the shirts out here. Because I had ordered some shirts about 6 months ago they had mailed me a coupon for $10 off, but there is a coupon code on the site that is good for like 20% off.

Astronomers On Twitter

2009-11-22T00:34:00.000-08:00

The other day I heard about a dwarf-planet, Eris, and looked it up. After finding that it is larger than Pluto and that I hadn't heard of it before, I tweeted about it and posted a link to the Wikipedia article about it. The internet, being awesome like it is, got my comment to the astronomer who actually discovered the dwarf-planet Eris 4 years ago, and he commented back to me. This whole internet thing is just incredible. My communications with the astronomer Mike Brown are below.

Rube Goldberg Invention

2009-11-02T00:04:00.000-08:00

To demonstrate Newton's third law (For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction) I had my students design Rube Goldberg inventions. Rube Goldberg was an artist, who made a series of comics in which there were ridiculous inventions that were very complicated and only completed a simple task. On the Smartboard at work, this is one that I drew with the kids to demonstrate how theirs could work. They only had to illustrate it and write a description and not actually build it.

After using the restroom, turn on faucet(A) which will fill up sink(B). As sink fills, it will allow boat(C) to float up, lowering shampoo bottle(D). The bottle will land on toothbrush(E) and causing it to pry up toilet-paper roll(F), so that it will roll down ramp(G). When the TP hits toilet-plunger(H) it will fall down and allow the swinging shelf(I) to turn. When the shelf turns, the toothpaste(J) will drop, pulling handle(K) and flushing toilet(L). If anything goes haywire, you can always just flush the toilet manually.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Olivia talking, and the girls dancing around on Halloween. If you look closely, you can see me Time Warping in the background.

Here are our jack-o-lanterns. I carved the cyclops for myself, and the skull for Olivia. Julie carved herself the witch, and the bird for Isabella. The pictures of them lit up didn't turn out all that great.

Jack-O-Lantern

2009-10-29T05:45:00.001-07:00

Drew this to wish everyone a happy holiday. Marker, pen, and colored pencils.

So Cal Dude Trip 2009

2009-10-12T23:33:00.000-07:00

A Bed of Nails

2009-10-12T21:35:00.001-07:00

I always thought that it would be interesting to experience laying on a bed of nails, and I got to at the Discovery Science Center. It was a little pokey, but the lady that was watching over it said that each nail tip ends up supporting 1.5 pounds of body weight and that is why it doesn't puncture the skin. That would mean that I was being supported by approximately 100 nail points.

Sand Lizard

2009-09-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

This was a month or so ago, but I am at least moderately proud of this huge lizard that I built from sand when we went to San Clemente to camp. It was supposed to be a dimetrodon, but the sail was hard to get very thin or tall. To help imagine the scale, the body was between 2 and 3 feet long.

RIP Sunglasses

2009-09-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone has worn a pair of sunglasses so long without losing or breaking them, but mine have finally broken. Some super glue may help them to last a little longer, but they are officially broke. I bought them from the surf shop by my apartment in San Diego in 2001. 8 years. That is more than 25% of my life that I have worn those glasses. I was playing with the kids at the park and they fell off when I was going through a tube and I ended up laying on them. Rest in peace red Arnette's.

Shrimp Coffee

2009-08-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

You have just got to love the 99 cent only store...

Wooden Tractor

2009-08-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

Julie got me this tractor from the 99 cent store. It looked like it was just supposed to all go together and kind of snap in, but it took quite a bit of super glue to keep it from just completely falling apart. I love building stuff.

Picture Frames

2009-07-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

I found this slightly broken down picture screen thingy (left) and I cut it up and painted it and put some pictures in it and hung them in my hallway (right). I am not quite a trash digger though because I found it adjacent to the trashcan, not in it.

New Bookcase for the Girls

2009-06-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

There is a useless space underneath the crib in the kids room so I built this bookshelf(?). This shelf is only one shelf high and the backing is made of cardboard, so that I would have a place to store the girls' books without them getting lost in the crevace by falling back behind each other. I made it from wood that I took apart from some old and tall bookcase a couple years ago, and put a fresh coat of white paint on it. Beautiful.

Paper Wallet

2009-06-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

A number of years ago, I came upon a website, Instructables, that had a tutorial explaining how to make a paper wallet. Last week I had a few extra minutes in my class, so I taught the kids how to make them. Here are the examples that I made while showing the kids.

How to Make a Spinach Smoothie

2009-05-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Most days before I go to work, I make a delicious and healthy smoothie to take with me. I have had a number of people ask about what I put in them, so I figured the best way to show it would be with a video. Wanna make your own green smoothies? Check it out.

Rip-Cord Wrapping Paper

2009-05-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

While I was excited at the idea of my rip-cord wrapping job, in which the present would open like a pack of gum, this version did not open as I had hoped. I had taped the string to the inside of the paper so that it would stay where it should until it was pulled, but the tape did not rip and actually held the two sides of the paper together once it was ripped. Now I know that if I do it again that any tape holding the string down needs to be between the string and the paper. It worked pretty well as my sister pulled the cord and it ripped the paper, it just didn't work out perfectly because the paper halves were still stuck together. We are calling this wrapping job version 0.5 and elected to not go with a 1.0 designation until it works properly. The paper was also actually put together as a net, meaning that it was shaped like a lower-case t and folded up around the present with only little tabs of paper as overlap when it was taped up. I also "decorated" it myself with "this side up" and arrows that pointed in all directions.

Good idea...executed unsuccessfully.

My Girls May 2009

2009-05-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

My girls are super cute, and I was able to catch some of their super-cutosity on video this month so I thought I would share it with the world.

Miscellaneous Junk

2009-04-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

Student: Mr. McDowell, I think I saw you Saturday. Were you riding your bike by Memorial Park?
Me: No, but I did go for a walk over by Memorial Park.
Student: No, this guy was definitely on a bike.

This made me laugh. I don't know what people will support next...I also like how you can see a distorted reflection of me in the window.

Empty Tee Shirt Designs

2009-04-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Been working on some Empty Tee Shirts. I plan to order a couple in the next few days, but they are now available on Zazzle.com if anyone else wants to be cool and wear any of my designs. I have some other ideas rattling around in my brain too, that may materialize on my product page in the next couple weeks.

Newest Video of the Girls

2009-04-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of Olivia from last month when she was just getting walking figured out. Isabella is also acting silly by running in circles, and making faces for the camera.

Digital Monkies

2009-04-18T08:44:00.001-07:00

I made a couple of monkies on the computer. I like the second one the best.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-04-14T21:50:00.001-07:00

I am a little overly proud of this drawing that I made of a leprechaun on the board in my classroom. So proud that I left it up all week, and took a picture on my cell phone so that I could share it here....not proud enough to remember to upload it a month ago when i made it though.

Mickey

2009-03-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

Another trip to the Disney's Animation Academy at California Adventure and Mickey was who they were teaching us to draw. It took less than 10 minutes for the guy to teach us how to draw him. Mine still seems to be a little off. I think Mickey's head is actually a little rounder than mine ended up.

Update: I hadn't realized at the time but, this was my 100th blog post. Yeah!

My Superhero

2009-03-22T15:29:00.001-07:00

A coworker said that in her art class she was going to have students make a superhero version of themselves. I used this assignment as an inspiration to quickly (less than 2 minutes) draw out my own superhero self. Not sure what my powers would be, or what the real value in having a cape is but this is what I ended up with. Maybe my power could be to turn invisible...that picture would have been even easier to draw.

Classifying Quadrilaterals

2009-03-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Julie was working on how to classify quadrilaterals for her class, so I made up this chart that kind of breaks it down. I thought it turned out pretty good, and it gave me a chance to use my Kevin font. The one thing I didn't include was kites which have two sets of congruent sides that are adjacent to one another.

New Blog Layout and Look

2009-03-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Decided that it was time to update the look of the ol' blog here. The idea was to make it look like everything was drawn onto the blog, so I actually drew everything and scanned it in. It didn't turn out exactly the way I designed it because the border was drawn too crappily to line up and look good. The two images below are my drawings that were used. I used the buttons (all crooked), the little Twitter arrow, the title, and the four little pictures modified in Gimp to make the sweet background. I think it looks better.

The Kevin Font

2009-03-08T20:54:00.001-07:00

I went to the website www.yourfonts.com and created my very own font which I have named Kevin. Now I can bypass actually having to write by hand to have something written in my 0wn hand. And, if anyone wants to print out a forgery of my writing all they have to do is download the Kevin font and type something, print it, and blame it on me. Or, you can be a nerd like me and go create your own font.

Mmmmm Smoothies

2009-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

For breakfast I usually make a smoothy at home and bring it to work to drink at the beginning of my work day. Last week one of the girls that I work with asked my where I got my recipe from and I told her that I made it up. She asked for my recipe, so I drew her this picture as the recipe. Go ahead, make one yourself. Feel free to substitute any kind of fruit in place of my choices. The coolest part is that all the spinach turns the smoothy green, and you hardly taste it. Oh, and I DO know how to spell spinach...

Big Numbers

2009-02-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

Most people don't know a lot of large numbers. I myself do not know a lot of large numbers, but I know more than most people, and I am going to share some with anyone who wants to read about them. Most people know thousands, then millions, and billions. A large number of people probably even know that after billions comes trillions. But what comes next? Is it Gazillions? Bazillions? Nope, quadrillions. Here is the breakdown...not all of them, but enough to sound smart.

1,000,000,000 (1 x 10^9) One Trillion

1,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^12) One Quadrillion

1,000,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^15) One Quintillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^18) One Sextillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 x 10^21) One Septillion

1 x 10^24 One Octillion

1 x 10^27 One Nonillion

1 x 10^30 One Decillion

skip ahead

1 x 10^99 One duotrigintillion

1 x 10^100 (a 1 followed by 100 zeroes) Commonly called a googol (not google) it could also be called ten duotrigintillion.

1 x 10^(10^100) would be a googolplex. That would be a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes.

Engagement Strategies

2009-02-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

I am a teacher, and one of my coworkers asked me what some of my engagement strategies are. Engagement strategies (for non-teachers), are just things you can do to help keep the students focused on the lesson instead of getting distracted or losing focus. This drawing was my response.

I Am Gonna Win!!

2009-02-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

There was a contest in this throwaway magazine that came from my cable company. It basically says that if you write a letter and say what show/actor/website you like and they publish it that you get a free ipod. So, I will let you know when I get published and win my free ipod.

My picks: How I Met Your Mother, Demetri Martin, and zenhabits.net

I guess I will have to get used to using itunes...

Anyone Can Draw

2009-02-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

Went to the happiest place on Earth on Saturday and got to go to the Animation Academy show in which they spend about 10 minutes showing you how to sketch out a Disney character. This is my Goofy that I learned how to draw. I forgot to draw in his hair because the guy was about two steps ahead of me by the end. The hat is a little small, and the nose is a little flat, but otherwise it turned out pretty good. At least I think it did. Hopefully Disney doesn't sue me for putting one of their characters up on my blog.

Chair Drawing

2009-02-13T10:30:00.001-08:00

Drew this chair at a training I had to go to for work. This was drawn from an actual chair, on a Post-It note.

Teenage Mutant Pirate Turtles

2009-01-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

Last week, or maybe the week before I randomly got the idea for this. Tonight I sat down and drew it out in pencil, inked it in with my pen, scanned it, and then did all the colors in Photoshop. I just thought it was a funny idea.

Funny Baseball Cards

2009-01-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

When I was in junior high the price guides for baseball cards always had some cards that were modified to be funny. When I was about 12 I modified some of my own to try to be funny. Here are the cards that I modified 17 years ago when I was in 7th grade.

Bomb Squad Logo

2009-01-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

I made up this logo for a fictitious brand called Bomb Squad Clothing. The circle didn't turn out very round, but I think it looks cool. I may tweek it a little and have the logo put on a shirt. Possibly a black logo on a red shirt?

Paper Dolls

2009-01-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

Isabella likes the little people bookmarks that I made of Julie and I to hold our spots in the books we are reading. Unfortunately that leads to her pulling them out and us losing our places. Her playing prevents the bookmarks from being able to do their jobs. So, I made her a little set of paper dolls of our family. I thought they turned out funny. My doll looks like a little kid, Julie's has linebacker shoulders, Olivia's head is an odd shape, and Belle is a little big for a two year old. Diesel is pretty much spot on. I also made a living room, much like our own, for the paper dolls to play in. I even put a horrible drawing of The Little Mermaid on the TV. Everything is laminated with clear tape.

Check them out.

Pirates vs. Ninjas

2009-01-01T17:05:00.001-08:00

I have now officially joined the debate regarding pirates versus ninjas. It seems to be a big thing on the internet and you can find all sorts of stuff about the fictitious battle between the two entities. I take the side of the ninjas. They are so stealth and sneaky that I don't think a pirate would even see/hear them coming. My friend argues that muskets give the pirates a solid advantage, but as you can see above it didn't help this pirate.

I made this picture in Paint.

2008 Reading Goal

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

For 2008 one of my goals was to finish an average of a book a month. By saying average, it allowed me to have some lazy, less literary months, and then pick up my slack other months. I didn't complete the goal.

Here's how I did.

1. The Bourne Identity finished in January.
This was an excellent book, and although I started it in December, I still count it because the goal was to "finish" an average of a book a month. I had recieved the whole set of Bourne books for Christmas a couple years ago and have been intending to read them all because I enjoyed the movies so much. The book and movie are very dissimilar, but that is understandable because the book took place in the seventies and needed to be updated to not be behind the times. However, in updating the novel for the screen, they added a whole different plot line, changed some characters, and altered the way that Jason and Marie meet and how their relationship develops as the story goes on. The book was great and I am glad that I took the time to complete it. It was a difficult read though, and took quite a while to complete. It has a lot of pages, heavy language, and small writing.

2. The Four Hour Work Week finished in February.
I had seen this book at stores, and it had sparked my interest, but not enough to actually purchase it. After coming across a few interesting articles on the blog of author Tim Ferriss I got kind of hooked and read almost all, or maybe even all, articles on his blog about lifestyle design. All that reading in which he makes common references to his book may have brain-washed me enough to decide to read the book. All the articles I had read about frugality led me to hunt it down at the library where I waited about 2 weeks before I was able to check it out. The book itself was a super fast read. Mostly filled with anecdotes about how to automate so many things in your life to create time to basically live like you are retired, but while you are still young enough to enjoy it. It constantly makes fun of "too weak" vacations, which as a teacher doesn't apply to me. Many of the time saving techniques do not apply to my career, but it was definitely an interesting read, and has motivated me to consider a future as an entrepreneur. Now all I need is a million dollar idea.

3.It's All Too Much finished in June.
Cleaning and organizing shows are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. I like Clean House, Clean Sweep, Neat, Mission Organization, and any makeover show where they take a mess and clean it up. This is a book written by Peter Walsh, the organizer from the TLC show Clean Sweep. I actually also borrowed this one from the library when I was trying to see if I could check out a book with just my driver's liscense. I was able to and no longer carry my library card in my wallet. The book is all about letting go of clutter, and keeping only those things that you use and love. It delves into the psychology of why we hold on to things, place value where there really is none, and how our culture of consumerism promotes the continuous aquisition of stuff. While I do not have a clutter problem, this book has motivated me to get rid of some things that I know I don't use and either planned to le go but had not yet, or that I had not yet planned to let go and realize that I should or can get them out of my life. The book is filled with strategies for cutting down on the amount of stuff, anectodes about people he has encountered since becoming a professional organizer, and his ideas that most of the time all the stuff is not about stuff but is physical manifestations of other things. Some of it sounds reasonable, but some sounds a little like hocus-pocus to me.

4. Choke finished in June.
A book by Chuck Palahniuk that I couldn't put down. I finished it in 2 days. I had only ever read one other book by him, Diary, which I hated. However, Fight Club is one of my favorite movies. I got this one from my wife for my birthday. I had added it to my wish list after my friend Wade said how much he loved it, and the description sounded interesting. It didn't dissapoint. The novel was about a sexually compulsive main character and definately reminded me of the movie Fight Club, with all the time that was spent going to sexaholics anonamous, and the way the characters thougth processes worked. I really enjoyed this book.

5. Bluebeard finished in July.
A good and quick Vonnegut novel that I had not yet read. It centers around an artist named Rabo Karabakian and is written from his perspective as a memior. In Vonnegut's usual scattered sort of writing, it is written as a mix of Rabo telling about his past, and present in alternating chunks. Rabo is such a great artist that he abandons painting from life because it is not at all challenging for him. He can paint and draw so realistically that it looks perfect. So he becomes an abstract expressionist and becomes rich later in life because he is friends with a lot of other artists and would always help them out with their money problems in exchange for their art. They all become famous and his art collection is worth a ton of money. In his old age, when he no longer paints, he meets an old woman who is a writer, and she becomes his writing muse. She encourages him to write his memiors and he does. It is a fun story, that seems to have less dullness, but all the cookiness of Vonneguts other novels. I would compare it most closely to Deadeye Dick in that it follows one person's life very closely.

6. On Writing finished in July.
I had never read any Steven King before this book. I also do not read much nonfiction. This book however was a fun read because although I haven't read any Steven King before, I am aware of most of the books/movies that he has written. (I know that most of the adaptations for film are not written by him but you know what I mean) I liked this book because I enjoy writing and hope to write something worth reading some day. The thing that stuck with me most is that he says to try to cut out most of the adverbs, and that his opinion on writing is that you should come up with a concept then develop it through writing instead of outlining the hell out of it and making it very contrived. Quick and interesting read.

7. True Evil finished in August.
Got this book for Father's Day from my mom and dad. It was another page turner by Greg Iles. I enjoy the pace and setting of most of the Iles books that I have read, and this one fit right into his collection in those respects. Basically there is a doctor/serial killer who is using blood pathogens to kill people slowly and inconspicuously with different cancers. It was very interesting and seemed well researched, but came down to most of the characters ending up dead by the end. Kind of like an unrealistic shoot em' up movie.

8. Third Degree finished in August.
Continuing my Greg Iles kick I got this book used from the library for a dollar. It is about a character who is actually dying of inoperable cancer (cancer fixation Mr Iles?) and discovers that his wife is having an affair. He takes his whole family hostage until he can find out who the affair is with. Things get tense and the wife ends up with her husband dying and her getting together with her lover. It was kind of a love story/love triangle/suspense novel. Of course a number of characters were shot or blown up, but that is normal for an Iles novel.

9. Turning Angel finished in September

Another Greg Iles book in which a doctor is having an affair with a 17 year old who ends up dead. His lawyer/friend is working hard to get him off for the crime that he is the primary suspect for. It turns out that the whole town is tied together through infidelity and drugs and that the doctor was not guilty of the crime.

10. London Bridges finished in October

A James Patterson book featuring detective Cross. It was an okay read but made a lot of allusions to older books that he had written, and that I had not read.

Maybe I will actually complete 12 books this year. Maybe my goal should ba a baker's dozen just to step it up. I haven't decided yet though. Maybe I will not set a reading goal, and just track it to see how I do anyway...yeah, that sounds better.

Picasso's Head of a Woman

2008-12-29T11:02:00.001-08:00

In college, while visiting the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Julie had noticed a Picasso that looked like a horses head and commented that she liked it. Several time over the years I have looked for a print of it but have had no luck. I have looked online, in stores, and even at the Norton Simon and just couldn't find it.

So I decided to paint my own version of it to give to her for Christmas. It took about two and a half hours and I painted it at work a few days after work under the guise of grading papers and taking care of work stuff.

I think it turned out pretty good, but if I were to redo it, I know I could do a better job. That is the thing about stuff you make. You always feel like you could do better after having done it once.

Check out the original here.

Rad Video (Well, kinda rad)

2008-12-25T14:51:00.001-08:00

Link to video

Time Lapse video I made on my camera. I paused at each spot for a count of ten. Bet I would have looked funny if the video had been shot in real time.

10 7 Reasons "How I Met Your Mother" Is My Favorite Sitcom

2008-12-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

(in no particular order)

1. It is the only sitcom I watch. Just not that into sitcoms generally.

2. Nothing is just good, it is AWESOME! The characters use the word awesome all the time. It is an underutilized word and just seems to add a degree of excitement to anything it is used to describe.

3. High fives. Lots and lots of high fives and high fives are awesome!

4. Doogie Howser. Out of the closet, no longer on Broadway, and on this show. Click here for the Doogie Howser theme song.

5. Lame puns. So close to my own heart.

6. Barney the womanizer. I love this character. He is so innapropriate it is hilarious.

7. Have you met Ted? A game that Barney plays on the fly in which he embarrassingly and unexpectedly introduces women to his friend Ted by turning to them and saying, "Have you met Ted?"

So I don't have ten. I could only come up with seven, but that is quite a few reasons to watch a sitcom. Better reasons than, "It was on", or, "It is the highest rated sitcom on television and I didn't want to be out of the loop."

Our Gingerbread House

2008-12-24T09:51:00.001-08:00

We don't make a gingerbread house every year, but we made one this year. With a two year old helping in the construction there is definitely a lot less pressure for it to look perfect. However, it turned out perfect anyway. Perfect for two adults and a toddler.

Isabella did the gumball pathway and most of the tree decorating.

Doodles

2008-12-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

I had plenty of time to doodle in my CPR/first-aid class today. They even supplied the post-it notes.

2008-11-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

A student of mine drew some gangster looking car with peace signs as wheels. When I was looking at it he said that he bet I couldn't draw a better car than his. While the kids were taking a test I spent about 6 minutes sketching this out. The student admitted that mine was better than his.

Breakdancing 101 Video

2008-11-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

I had my last breakdancing class last night. I learned quite a bit, but still have plenty to learn. The teacher recorded a few of our routines and here they are all cut together. Plenty of mistakes, but here is what I ended up with.

Isabella Dancing

2008-10-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun video of Isabella dancing in the kitchen to the music from her little magnetic farm.

Stairing Contest

2008-09-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

I got the idea for this while at the LA County Fair.

Renovations

2008-08-24T16:15:00.001-07:00

I was talking to the guy that is "renovating" this house. I put renovating in quotes because the guy basically tore the whole house down and is building a new house. The portion of the house that is still standing is just the original bathroom. It was a house from 1915 that was under 600 square feet, and it will be about 2400 square feet when it is completed. The guy who owns it said that it would cost about $20,000 less for the permits for a renovation instead of officially building a whole new house. I had been wondering for months what the deal was with this little tiny building piece that was left standing when the house and garage were torn down. Now I know, and you do to.

It seems from my recent blog posts that I just wander around my neighborhood...I suppose I do.

Stupid Sign

2008-08-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

I saw this sign when I was taking Diesel for a walk and the nerdiness took over. The result was this short film. Audio commentary done by me.

PETA is dumb

2008-08-20T06:10:00.001-07:00

PETA had a good campaign going a few years ago with the "I'd rather go naked" ads with naked celebrities in them, but their latest flash-based atrocity is lame. Basically, it has you dress up Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in a bunch of clothes made up of bloodied animal parts. The clothes are ridiculous, like "Maimed Muskrat Mules"(shoes), "Strangled Skunk Sweater" and "Baby Bear Skin Bloomers." It is like a paper doll for each of them.

Addendum: I realize that if PETA was just trying to get peoples' attention they were successful and even got me to write about it here.

Towel Rack

2008-08-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

When I was taking my wood shop class I started making this towel rack to put up in the girls' room for their hooded towels. It took me long enough to stain it and get the two coats of lacquer on it, but it is finally done...and it looks pretty good.

Tobogganing The Great Wall

2008-08-13T02:02:00.000-07:00

Faizal shared this video with me of where we rode toboggans down the Great wall. If you have 3 minutes, you can pretend you were there with us.

Spinning Isabella

2008-07-31T13:16:00.001-07:00

This was funny to watch. That air conditioner is sure loud.

Montana: The Video

2008-07-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

This year our annual "boys trip" was just Faizal, Adam, Paul and I in Montana.
What did we do?
We got groceries, ate Taco Bell, did push-ups, had some Herkey's Sammiches, went tubing, went wakeboarding, ate at Los Caporales, water skied, saw The Dark Knight, mountain biked, ate Mongolian food at HuHot, used Paul's pogo-stick, watched Jumper, set off fireworks, rode Kash's 50cc dirtbike, went to Glacier National Park, hit up Costco, went to Famous Dave's for BBQ, and watched Inside Man.
All in all, we had a great time!

Closing a Bank of America Savings Account

2008-07-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Simply go to the bank, show your photo ID, and tell them that you would like the account closed. They punch some buttons on the computer, give you the balance of your account in cash or a cashier's check, sign on the line and it is closed...unless you are me.

Trip one to the bank was at the end of January. After deciding to close the savings account I had opened for Isabella because it was earning virtually no interest. I believe the interest rate was .3% or something rediculous like that. I decided it would be better to just add a sub-account to my ING account to put her money in, which was making over 3% at the time. I had some other business to take care of at the bank so I had gone in and waited my turn to talk to a teller. I told her that I wanted to close the account and just have the balance transferred to my checking account. She asked why I was closing it, as she is probably directed to do, and I told her that B of A's rates were horrible. She agreed, gave me a slip that showed my balance of zero on the savings account, and my balance in my checking account which reflected the transfer of funds from the now closed account.

Through February and March the account still showed up when I logged into my online banking and ATM, so I looked at the account activity online. It showed that there was 1 cent paid into the account in February as interest, then it was removed, and that the account had a balance of zero dollars.

Trip two to the bank was in March. I calmly came into the bank and again waited my turn to talk to a teller. I told her that I had closed the account but that it was still open. After looking it up she discovered that there was "no closure code" put in when it was closed, which caused it to stay open, and then accrue a $2.99 maintanance fee for having too low of a balance. She called the manager over and he appologized for the error, informed me that the fee would be reversed, and assured me that the account would now be closed but would take a statement cycle before it was removed from the system. This seemed reasonable so I thanked them both and left.

The next statement cycle ended at the end of March and the account was still showing up. I thought that maybe since it was mid-cycle when I went in in March that I would give them April too for fixing the problem. April and May snuck by me. I was busy, cut me some slack! Come June, the account was still not gone. What did I have to do to get this dang account closed?

Trip three to the bank I was very frustrated and asked immediately to speak with the manager. I was informed that the manager was not in, but the assistant manager was, and that if I took a seat in one of the comfy chairs, she would be right with me.

I explained to this woman that I had tried to close this account twice and that it was still open. She said that there was no "close code" on it and got one of her lackies to call the help desk to figure out what the issue was. After about twenty minutes she told me that they would take care of it and that the account would probably be closed in 120 days. I told her that 120 days was not reasonable and that I wanted it closed as soon as possible. She sent an e-mail to whatever department might be able to close it sooner, but said that she was guaranteed a response back within 48 hours and that she would call me two days later to let me know what they said. I was irritated, but with her guarantee that she would call I left.

Trip four to the bank was on the third day after I had not recieved a call from the assistant manager when she said that she would call me. She saw me come in and I could tell that I instantly stressed her out. I told her that I wanted to talk to the real manager and not her. Of course, he wasn't there again. (Does that guy ever work?) She said that she didn't call because she passed the buck on to the manager and he should have called me but didn't. I said that this whole process has been rediculous and that I wanted her to get on the phone with whoever it takes to tell me exactly why the account was still open, what needed to be done to close it, and what date it would be closed by. 120 days was not an option. It had already been five months. She called someone at the tech department, and they couldn't tell her what the problem was. They suggested that she just close the account the old fashioned way by submitting the closure paperwork instead of finagling the computer system to "try" and close the account.

I was so irritated that I didn't even know what to do. She said that she would submit the paperwork and that in 3 days I could come in and see if it worked. How rediculous is it that she couldn't/wouldn't guarantee that the account would be closed? I made a plan to come in 3 days later, when she and the manager would both be working so that I could at least chew the ass of a slightly higher-up if this attempt failed.

Trip five to the bank and I ran into the assistant manager leaving as I got to the bank. She threw her hands up in the air as if I was mugging her and said, "It is closed! I have to go to a dentist appointment, but you can have the manager show you if you want. Bye."

I went to the ATM and finally the account didn't show up. I went home and it didn't show up in my online banking either. I am finally free...ahhh!

Isabella Rocks Out

2008-07-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

I thought that this video was pretty cool, and made it with a free program that came on my computer. You just add video clips, a song, title, credits, and hit "make muvee" and it spits it out looking like this. I was a little worried about posting it on You Tube because of the music and copyrights, but thought that there are tons of videos that are up with copyrighted music. Within a couple hours I got this e-mail from You Tube:

Dear YouTube Member:

UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video Isabella Rocks Out. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program.

Your video is still live because UMG has authorized the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

Claim Details:

Copyright owner:	UMG
Content claimed:	Some or all of the audio content
Policy:	Allow this content to remain on YouTube. Place advertisements on this video's watch page. Applies to these locations: Everywhere

UMG claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification program. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.

If you believe that this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you can dispute this claim with UMG and view other options in the Video ID Matches section of your YouTube account. Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes between YouTube owners. Learn more about video identification disputes.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

It seemed scary when I first started reading, but then I realized it basically said, "You WOULD BE violating copyright laws if we didn't already have this relationship with Universal Music Group. Shame on you! You got lucky this time.

So, enjoy the video.

The Bearded Man

2008-07-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

As is the tendency any time that I have more than 7 consecutive days off work, I have grown a beard. It is only at the 1 week mark, but I finally shaved my neck today to give it a little shape. I don't know how long I will keep it for, but it could be hair today, gone tomorrow.

Horrible joke....

Bella and Liv

2008-07-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

I just dropped a couple videos in The Tube so I thought I would share them.

Olivia just being cute and kind of bobbing around for the camera.

Isabella looking at the webcam on my laptop and telling us some animal sounds.

In other strange (to me) news, I have over 2,700 views on my other You Tube video of Isabella walking. That seems crazy to me.

June Wrap-Up

2008-07-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

How did I do on my goals?

Run 60 miles FAILED

Finish Towel Rack Project FAILED

I ran only 52.9 miles so I failed that goal. Maybe my goal was too lofty, or maybe it was that I got lazy and only ran one day between the fourth and the eleventh. Normally this month I would try to achieve what I didn't last month, but I seem to have bruised(or otherwise injured) the side of my left leg and running or even walking hurts. It is swollen and I have been limping for a few days. It has hurt some for a couple weeks, and I did two five mile runs this month already on the first and third, but before I finished that second run, my leg/shin/foot was hurting really bad. It feels like it is getting better, but still is not good. I did ride my bike about 85 miles though last month, as well as go for that 9 mile hike with John and Carlos. So I wasn't just lazy, but still did not reach the set goal.

I did nothing on the Towel Rack Project this month. I talked about it a lot, but with the heat, and kids, and work, I just didn't make time to complete it. Hopefully I will finish it soon, and post some pictures of it on here.

I did keep up with my hundred pushups training and am now two weeks in. I don't know if I can do more pushups than I could before, but they definately feel easier.

This month I opted to not set any real goals. I have quite a todo list that I hope to do some damage on. Some things I have been meaning to do, and other projects that are part way, or barely started. I also want to make sure that I take time to enjoy my month off of work. After all, my summer vacation (even as short as it is this year) is what I work all year long for.

Get Your Swurl On

2008-07-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon a new website that is very cool. It is called Swurl. The concept is that many people have multiple accounts throughout the web that generate rss(real simple sindication) feeds, and that they can be gathered in one spot sort of like a feed reader. This would allow someone to see all the various things that I have been up to at one place. The coolest thing about it is the timeline feature in which it shows when things were updated on a calendar type of thing. It is probably pretty useless, but if you want to check mine out you can.

Check out my swurl!

Hitting the Trails

2008-06-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning and I went for a 9 mile hike with my friends John and Carlos from work. We got an early start to beat the heat, and got to the trailhead at about 7am. We had driven up to Mt. Baldy village to hike the Icehouse Canyon trail, and with plenty of water packed, we started on the trail.

It was an easy couple miles to start, then got steeper and consisted of many switchbacks. It was 3.6 miles from the trailhead to "the saddle" which was kind of a groove in the ridge between two peaks. We could see down the north(I think it was north) slope from the saddle, and took a break to rest on a log and take a couple pictures. We decided that we were all still doing okay, and continued the upward trek a slightly steeper 9/10 of a mile to Timber Mountain.

At the top I signed the log book with our names and the date, just in case there was any question later as to whether we had made it or not. We took a couple more pictures and rested another few minutes while we enjoyed the 360 degree views of wilderness, and the 15 freeway off in the distance. We could see Silverwood lake, and on clearer days it is possible to see Catalina from where we were.

Heading back down was a pretty easy trip, as downhill usually is, and we even sped up our pace for fear that some of us might pee our pants if we didn't. I was using my new running watch to time our trip by using the lap timer to break up our times, but I still haven't figured out how to review the times yet. I do know that we covered a total of 9 miles, and that it took us 4hours 38 minutes total including our rests. We had a change in elevation from lowest point to highest of about 3500 feet.

Overall it was a good hike, and I look forward to spending a few more days during this summer break enjoying the mountains, which are so damn accessible from where I live, as time with friends, and excercise.

New Computer

2008-06-26T16:12:00.001-07:00

For my birthday I got a fancy new computer. My parents were generous enough to buy my sister and I each one. I have already had a lot of fun setting it up. I am actually writing this on it right now.

I actually went and bought it on Sunday, but there was a problem with where the power cord plugs into it. There is a blue light that comes on when it is getting power from the outlet. Occasionally that light would turn off and I would have to wiggle the cord to get it to come back on. This created some anxiety for a couple of days because I was worried that I broke it, or that I may not be able to exchange it for a new one, or that I may have to send my 2 day old laptop to the manufacturer. Yesterday, I went to Best Buy and they exchanged it without issue. The only bad thing was that I had to start fresh with setting it up. I had already done all the initial setup and installed some software, but it definitely went faster the second time.

Now I am excited to set up a wireless network to get it mobile, and to figure out how to hook it up to the TV using an S-video cord to be able to watch my media on something other than a little monitor.

Story of Stuff

2008-06-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting 20 minute video. If you have time, check it out. Warning! it will make you think.

The Story of Stuff

It discusses where all of our stuff comes from, and its environmental and social impacts as it moves through the cycle of consumption and disposal.

I am not a hippie!