The many faces of Kaitlyn

These shots are from today at lunch, she may look pensive but I think that she's a little tired after playing outside.





I haven't been taking many pictures with my Olympus E500 lately and was really missing the quality pictures it takes.

Highest jump up, AND down ever

Robbie Madison's Amazing Record Jump - Watch more Sports Videos

Family communication

The way families (and friends) communicate these days.

Beck hooked us up with 2 of these webcams (after reading this) for Christmas and we were messing with them and the girls *loved* them!

They were running back and forth from each room laughing and loving the technology.

The Atlantis "Jumps The Shark" or is it vice versa?

It was all too real when hotel staff saw that one of the sharks from the famous resort aquarium had somehow jumped out of its tank and onto a nearby water slide -- called Leap of Faith -- where it managed to slide down into the pool.



The Atlantis Bahamas Aquarists believe the shark was startled by an unusual circumstance that we have no way of defining completely. In the over ten years guests have experienced the Leap of Faith, the reef shark itself, harmless to humans as it is fed regularly by our staff, had shown no previous incidences of leaping out of the water in the marine habitat ...

There was no danger to our guests or staff, both of whom interact with these sharks daily in our various interactive programs (we have guests enter the shark habitat to swim and interact with the sharks in bathing attire only).


In fact, our concern was for the animal itself who defied nature to take this leap. The entire team at Atlantis is truly saddened by the loss of this animal who had resided in the Atlantis marine habitat for over ten years."

Uh, ouugh, move!

Passenger train FAIL.

Air traffic in 24 hours

The Money Hall Problem

This is cool!

More Science Experiments videos at 5min.com

Pizza delivery FAIL

From one of my favorite places.

Coffee Mug, by Paige

Beck had left early this morning to get her hair cut and I was still lying in bed.

Paige came up to talk to me and I asked her if mommy made coffee for me and she bolted out of the room to check.

A few minutes later she returned, with this drawing (on a napkin) and told me that mommy didn't make coffee, so she made it for me.

By the way, Paige is 5 years old.

A Christmas Tradition....

The Attisanos, Magliaros and Kaines have created a winter tradition. Becky makes home made soup and awesome sweets for after the families all cut down their Christmas Tree.

Life is good.

A message from US automakers

A message from US automakers, originally uploaded by -SPK.

You won't buy our shitty cars.

So we'll be taking your money anyway.

The Bailout. Coming this January.

You probably thought it was smart to buy a foreign import of superior quality, with better mileage and resale value. Maybe you even thought that the years of market share loss might prod us into rethinking our process and redesigning our products with better quality in mind. But you forgot one thing: We spend a shitload of money on lobbyists. So now, you're out $25 billion, plus the cost of your Subaru. Maybe next time you'll buy American like a real man. Either way, we're cool.

GM Chrysler Ford

We're the Big Three, we don't need to compete.™

Flag Football

I'm a little obsessed with playing flag fooball.  I'm not sure how often most adults get involved in true team sports like football, baseball, etc - but I can tell you this:  The last time I was involved was in high school.  That was 16 years ago. Hmm uhhh.  What exactly is it that makes us feel like men when we get organized and try our damnest to kick the other teams ass while trying not to get hurt?

This sport, not unlike many others before it,  has not been without it's injuries.  The first week I really hurt my ankle and on the same play someone had a compound fracture of his finger.  But you know what?  Every day that gets closer to Sunday morning 8 am, I get more excited to play.

How good am I?  I'm slow, I get tired quick, I miss some flags, and I get beat out a lot on routes when I'm covering.  What do I remember when I get home?  The touchdown pass I threw, the flag I got when diving and the comraderie of a bunch of good guys my age (and some my physique).

My ankle is getting better every day, thanks for asking.  Becky, the queen of all gymnastics - tapes *both* my ankles up every Sunday.  See, she can do this from her experience AS THE RECORDHOLDER IN VAULT and her ALL AROUND WINS IN MID STATE for 3 YEARS IN A ROW.  (love you babe).  I digress.

2 weeks ago, we played in the slush and the rain, this week we played in a fresh fallen snow, next week - NFL films shows up?  Doubt it, but I would be fun to watch a game through my eyes.

World Clock

A few observations about this clock:

- The net population growth this week was 1.3 million
- The earth's temperature is increasing by about one trillionth of a degree Celsius every second
-6 of 10 people who are diagnosed with cancer, die from it
-For every birth, there is roughly 1 bicycle produced
-For every three births, there is roughly 1 car produced

For you...

For you..., originally uploaded by -SPK.

... from Paige.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Visitors and commentors

How many visitors does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll?

The chart depicted above is the last 12 months worth of data related to the number of visitors that come to this blog.

My number one visited blog post by far is Coach Lou Holtz and the second is Bailing out the Auto Industry.  Interestingly, both posts are original content and not just me "reading the entire internet so you don't have to®."

I wonder if other bloggers feel like I do about comments? I desire to have more comments here and I'm not sure how to get them... I am a comment guy when I visit other blogs, I like to say what's on my mind or make a lame attempt to be funny. I could post provocative pictures of myself and get hate comments, or ask for reader feedback in return for some new posts - but then my fans would suffer. (read: no one would care)

So here I sit... typing and trying to be entertaining, cute, cuddly, and... well commented about. 

Now that I put it that way, I changed my mind. I may turn off comments. You will have to comment to YOURSELVES. Who the hell wants to hear *you* people and what you have to say anyway? You're here to hear (not easy to type) what I have to say - type - WHAT EVER. You know what I mean. AndIcanrambleonandonandonandyoucan'tsayanything.

There.

The definition of LUCKY

Amber fields

I've been admiring fields in our area that look like this. My eye loves the "standardness" of the vegetation and the amber colors.

Taken while pulled over and the camera leaning on the window that was 1/2 way down.

View map of location.

WHAT kind of bear is this?

Wait, how is it pronounced?

Snuggle FAIL

Kaitlyn and her dinosaur, originally uploaded by -SPK.

Bailing out the auto industry...

My Andy Rooney take on this:

I'm concerned about America's infatuation with throwing money at things. Money problems? Throw more money in the pit.

Lets take the auto industry: GM is basically out of business because they are losing billions of dollars every month. Why? Well, I'll tell you why: Because people are not buying their cars and trucks, they're buying other manufacturers stuff. GM has lost market share. It's very simple.

So, what does our government want to do? They want to take YOUR and MY tax money and give it to them to "rescue them." See, I am a capitalist. I believe that companies should rise and fall based on how they do in the free market. There is no need to rescue a company because the market has already decided they are done.

I have made a personal decision to buy Toyota when we purchased our last two family cars. I did this based on research, value, repair history, models available, and price. I chose NOT to give my money to GM, and I don't want the government to make that decision for me.

Lets do a comparison: The ice block delivery business was huge in the early 1900's, and there were many men and women employed in this industry. When the refrigerator was invented in 1911 - these companies started to fail. They lost "billions every month". They employed "thousands of hard working Americans". What if the government decided to rescue them? Throw money at the ice block delivery companies to keep them in business? What would have happened to the refrigerator companies? I'll tell you what: It would have significantly slowed PROGRESS. Innovation and the MARKET decided together that having ice delivered to an ice box wasn't as good as a refrigerator. Simple as that.

GM is an ice delivery company. Let them go if they can't innovate - don't SLOW PROGRESS!

Dear Government, let capitalism reign. Let good companies grow and poor companies shrink. Go ahead and let the bubble burst, it'll hurt for a while but the state of the economy in a few years will be much better than if you just prolonged the inevitable. Think of it like a forest fire, it's devastating when it's happening but in a few seasons you will see fresh, new, healthy growth.

Edit: Welcome reddit. For the rest of you, click here to see the other comments.