"the terrible towel was poised to strike. and boy, did he strike."

stuff white people like.

No. Really. That's all there is to this post -- Stuff White People Like.

It's as if they tapped into my soul and unleashed my most private dreams.

it's not kosher

It's a sad, sad day for Steelers fans across the world, as Myron Cope has passed away. I was able to secure a recording of his reaction to reaching the Pearly Gates.

Pretty much all of my memories about Steelers football revolve around Myron and Jack Fleming broadcasting on AM radio on Sunday afternoons. To many of us, Myron and Jack are second only to John Facenda as the voice of the NFL. Even today I get goosebumps hearing snippets of their play by play. Myron was one of a kind, and Steelers broadcasts have never been as good as they were back in the day.

Was this prophetic? (I'm guessing that was immediately after yet Neil O'Donnell interception. Or Kordell. Or Tommy Maddox. Or ...)

I would say he probably died face down in a Primanti Bros. sandwich, with a cold Iron City beside him.

Yoi, indeed.

The sound files can be found here

Tester Guy - Dancing computer cart video for Ergotron

"Clever advertisement for a computer cart." Or so Digg would have you believe. I happen to have worked with the Tester Guy in question, and he treated all the computers in our department like this. Some of the female art directors, too, though that was mainly a rumor.

David Harris is a talented performer, old friend and former manager (in that order) from my days at Target. I came across this video on Digg and decided to blog about it. This is his attempt to hit the "big time," so David -- once you've "hit" it, don't forget the little people on whose backs you were carried along the way.*

* note -- about five people read my blog, so i am one of the more rare "extremely little people"

read more | digg story

sinister phase II?

(1) Alert, alert, alert: All American Starbucks shops will shut down this evening between 5:30 and 9 p.m. local time to conduct what the company is calling "a historic in-store education and training event."

(2) SEATTLE–After a decade of aggressive expansion throughout North America and abroad, Starbucks suddenly and unexpectedly closed its 2,870 worldwide locations Monday to prepare for what company insiders are calling "Phase Two" of the company's long-range plan.

well, i'm going to jackson ...

jackson II, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Trotter has a "best friend" (insofar as dogs can have best friends) about four houses down. Jackson is 85 pounds of pure golden retriever muscle; he slammed into my foot last summer and I was certain he a broke a few of my toes. He's strong.

He's also not fixed, and if one dog year is like seven human years, he's about 19 years old and still a virgin. So you can imagine the energy he's got. In fact, I don't have to imagine it, but that's another story for another blog post ...

He came over for a "playdate" today -- yes, I can hear you thinking it, but we don't need a real child, thankyouverymuch -- and the two of them wore each other out in the back yard. Jackson is a very hard dog to photograph sitting still, so I'm kind of proud that I managed to get this one.

lunar eclipse

lunar eclipse, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Yeah, I know it's a day or two late ... but here's a collage I took of the lunar eclipse. It was insanely cold outside, so I had to run out, take a shot, run in and set my hands on fire ... rinse and repeat, and boom! You've got a collage.

all dialog guaranteed true

if this were true, i'd never get any sleep at all

found on flickr

Scan10375, originally uploaded by peramurmur.

catch me if you can, and egos

picked this up at Target for $5. It's not widescreen, but for $5 it's still worth it. The title sequence alone is worth the cost ... It has that Rankin/Bass look, which of course is what attracts me. And it sets the tone for this movie, which is fun and effortless in a way that only Spielberg can do -- it very much wants to be a '60s Cary Grant movie, and in some ways I think it succeeds. I certainly wouldn't put Leonardo DiCaprio at the top of the list of the "new" Cary Grants. That spot is reserved (in my mind) for George Clooney, who also is at the top of my "Entertainers Whose Politics I Happily Ignore" list. 

Completely, totally unrelated: this is the coolest blog aggregator site i've seen. and i love the URL as well.

love is ...

originally uploaded by pr9000.

... touching paws while you're on the electric blanket because it's eight freaking degrees below zero outside and you're a lazy cat whose lazier cat sister is taking up more than half the blanket and you just want to remind her who was here first even though she won't listen and besides the dog is the real boss anyway and i haven't eaten for a few minutes and i'm going into ketosis so this might be the end and i'll just fall over and die right on the hardwood floor until mom or dad comes over and pokes me in my stomach at which point i'll wake up and follow them into the bathroom and cry and cry while they do their business ...

i have a dream ...

that one day, on the red hills of Rigel VII, the sons of former Starfleet captains and the sons of former Klingon battle commanders will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood ...

things i wish i'd done, vol. 1

El Museu de les Ciències Principe Felipe (XVI), originally uploaded by manuela.siener.

(1) Manuela Siener -- never met her, wouldn't know her if she bit me on the butt -- is on my Flickr friends list, and has been for a while. She takes the most amazing black and white photos. Her eye for abstract geometry makes me swoon. I wish I'd taken this photo.

(2) In a previous life, I was a headline writer for a daily newspaper. Right out of college, no less, when my sense of humor was a bit less ... refined, shall we say. When I'd proof the sports section, I'd try to get the word "hurls" in a baseball headline, because my sister just thought it was the height of hilarity that a pitcher would hurl -- I think both her and my sense of humor ended when "Wayne's World" hit theaters ...

I knew this man's most famous headline, or "hed" as we say in the business, but didn't know his name until I saw the obit.

"Oswald Still Dead" -- I wish I'd written that.

Happy birthday to me ...

Happy birthday to me ..., originally uploaded by pr9000.

I've got to tell you, I love my sister. She's pretty cool for all sorts of reasons, but the top one? 

• My niece, Hailey, was born on Oct. 18 -- my mom's birthday. Thus grandma and granddaughter have the same birthday

• My nephew, Ryan, was delivered on Feb. 14

• My sister's birthday is Feb. 2

Why does this make her cool? I don't have to remember any new birthdays for her kids! I already knew Oct. 18 because of mom, and I do think Feb. 14 rings a few bells for other reasons too. Factor in that my sister's birthday is Groundhogs' Day and ... boom! Easy to remember.

Ryan, pictured above, turns one today. He's already a big boy -- last night, she told me he's around 58 pounds -- and he's just starting to talk. His first word was "dog," apparently, quickly followed by "extra cheese" and "yes, I want fries with that." He's a handsome young man who apparently looks like his uncle. Don't believe me?

My brother as a baby, and Ryan at 7 months, originally uploaded by beths96.

(Note: the verification word from Google was "mybsag" ... yes, my butt does sag, but not at seven months, it would seem. And I guess we both drool the same way, too.)

So Ryan's one year old today. I hope to be around to wish him many more, and even though we can't be there this weekend, we'll be eagerly awaiting the YouTube video of him smashing the hell out his first cake. And then eating it, and the plate.

processed with Aperture 2.0

trotter p, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Apple released the next version of its image processing tool, Aperture. I'll have more to say on it later, but for now -- it's much faster, it still has a slight lead in interface coolness, but still lacks a lot of the presets and web page tools that made me go Lightroom in the first place.

cancun

dreams, originally uploaded by pr9000.

As I sit here, in my comfy chair with a cup of coffee and some goofy Food Network show in the background, it's 19º F in Chanhassen. A cold front is moving through today, with wind chills somewhere in the -40º F range, for at least two days. There is light snow falling, the driveway needs to be shoveled, and Trotter is going stir crazy because his dad just doesn't want to go play in the backyard.

But one week ago today, it was around 85º F, and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Room service brought us a delightful breakfast -- the hot chocolate was spiced with cinnamon, even -- and my biggest worry was whether to use a 30 SPF sunscreen or a 45.

You no doubt feel sorry for me. I'll give you time to get some Kleenex.

•••

the view, originally uploaded by pr9000.

We stayed at the Dreams Cancun Resort and Spa, which bills itself, in that quaint English-isn't-our-first-language way, as "Unlimited-Luxury Defined" -- which was about 90 percent true, but who's counting? The view from our room didn't seem real. The Caribbean borders the east of the resort, with the Gulf of Mexico right around the corner to the north. Dreams has the best of both, though the Caribbean was purely for looking, as the waves were just treacherous. We chose a Caribbean view room, and the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks just outside our window was almost hypnotic.

, originally uploaded by pr9000.

The water was just incredible ... I had no idea so many shades of blue existed. And I didn't enhance the water color at all -- that's a pure, RAW capture. Mom and Amina hopped on one of those jetskis and did a tour of the area (that's not them in this picture). I was kind of jealous.

this totally is photoshopped, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Speaking, though, of doctored photos ... Amina and Dad wanted to swim with the dolphins -- Dreams featured this, on site, in a special pool at the center of the resort. I think Dad was very affected by the whole experience; it was all he could talk about for at least a day afterward. They both got to dance with the dolphins and be pushed through the water, with one dolphin at each foot propelling them forward. Mom and I were documenting the whole thing, as we both were convinced that pool was just filled with dolphin poop and thus wanted no part in the fun.

originally uploaded by pr9000.

This is where we spent the majority of our time. We even got Mom a cabana boy ... the waiters brought us waters and Mexican Coca-Cola all day long. It was, for me, the best part of the vacation, though for some reason days still seemed to fly by, even while we did nothing but watch the waves ... 

I like Mexico for many reasons, but what struck me this time: Mexico feels like a great hybrid of American and European cultures. You get the American amenities -- there was a Starbucks within a 10 minute walk -- but lots of little touches of Europe. You'll see cars that aren't sold here; everything's in metric; the stores have awesome foodstuffs you've never seen before; and, on the beach, you see all sorts of different vacationers. European men wearing Speedos, Brazilian women proudly displaying much junk in their trunk, a family of Italians at the buffet getting the pasta chef to make something authentic and garlicky ... You feel at home and a million miles away at the same time.

high contrast mayans, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Dad and I took off to Chichen Izta, to see the Mayan ruins. It was fascinating -- and hot. I can't recall ever feeling such heat in my life. When we lived in St. Louis, we had heat and humidity, which was downright oppressive. But this was an insanely dry heat, which meant it was subtle and kind of sneaked up on you. We managed to brave it for the first half of the tour, but we soon found shade trees more important than our tour guide's explanation of the ruins. 

I couldn't find a way to display in photos how huge this pyramid actually is. I have the photo above as my desktop image, and even on a larger screen it looks so ... small. Santos, our tour guide, did a quick job of explaining that (oddly enough) Mel Gibson kind of stretched the historical truth in "Apocalypto" with all the human sacrificing and whatnot. I'm sure he (Santos, not Gibson) has been asked about it by every American tourist over the past year or so.

mayaland, originally uploaded by pr9000.

We had a siesta at the Mayaland Hotel, which seemed to be a charming tropical oasis situated directly next to the state park housing the ruins ... Dad and I sat in the outside cafe and discussed, among other things, whether European coffee from those Douwe Egberts machines tastes more like ass or piss. Doing some research on the Mayaland brings up reviews like this, so apparently looks can be deceiving.

gull with lighthouse, originally uploaded by pr9000.

The physical beauty of the resort, and the Cancun beaches in general, can't be overstated. As I stated, I didn't know water came in so many shades of blue. The grounds at Dreams were expertly manicured, and the white sand beaches didn't really get hot -- you know how normal beach sand is almost unbearable after being baked in sunlight all day? My bare feet didn't even notice on this sand. The lighthouse above sits at the hinge in the "seven" that makes up the resort zone in Cancun. It runs (on the map below) just to the right of Puerto Juarez, then curves south. Dreams is right there at the point, and has beaches on both the Bahia de Mujeres (I had this wrong originally -- thanks, Alejandro!) and the Caribbean. Zoom in on the map and check it out, as I can't seem to get Google to give me that view embedded in this map.

View Larger Map

I think it's safe to say that we all had a great time. It sure beats the hell out of sub-zero wind chills and, you know, actually working for a living.

mom and dad, originally uploaded by pr9000.

"Gerald Ford, dead today, from an overdose of crack cocaine."

Every time I see this, I can't stop laughing ...

"I'm F*cking Matt Damon"

I think Jimmy Kimmel is mildly funny. I think Sarah Silverman is mildly funny. I think this song -- referring to Kimmel's running joke about not having enough time for Matt Damon to appear on his show -- is just hilarious.

at a market outside chichen ixta

at a market outside chichen itxa, originally uploaded by pr9000.

People who suffer real tragedy and trauma typically recover more quickly than they expect to and often return to their original level of happiness ... the good news—we are a hardy species, even though we don't know this about ourselves. The bad news is that the good things that happen to us don't feel as good or last as long as we think they will. So all that wonderful stuff we're aiming for—winning the lottery, getting promoted, whatever we think will change our lives—probably won't do it after all. We're resilient in both directions. We rebound from distress but we also rebound from joy.

This probably explains why I was relaxed and happy on Monday morning, but today feel like smashing a brick through a plate glass window.