Just In Case...

This was on my Google homepage. I think it'd be more useful to those on the coastline or Hawaii, but I thought I'd post it even though 5/6ths of my readership lives in Iowa.
"Step 1: Prepare for the Worst."
...I already trust this wiki article. You've got a giant .jpg of an EXPLODING MOUNTAIN. I'm already planning for the worst. Nothing about the words 'volcanic eruption' makes you think cute smoke calmly rising from a crack in the ground. 20 years of Hollywood ensure me that never happens. Mountains explode, or its just a hot spring.
"Step 3: Leave the Area Promptly if told to do so."
I hate to tell you this, but by step 3... I'm already gone. This should be higher than step 3. Really all this wiki needs is one step. Step 1: RUN DAMNIT! GTFO!
And that's really all you need. See the exploding mountain, face directly away from it and then move in that direction at top speed. Come back and see if whether your house/friends were melted in the ensuing lava flow in a few days.

New Star Wars material on the Big Screen

George Lucas announced that he'd be sending The Clone Wars series to theaters soon.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars were an animated series of 2-minute shorts that aired on the Cartoon Network while I was in college. They added up to about 35mins of solid footage. They were pretty well done, and built up the characters of Episode III. General Grevious made his official debut on the series, as did another similar villian. These shorts are cool, yes, but I'm not sure they'd flesh out to an entire stand alone film. Still, anything that brings Star Wars back into the public's focus is cool with me. I just don't understand why the keep fleshing out the same storyline and characters with so much Lucas-approved material that came out in the first few books. The story-arcs featuring Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Luke's new Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 provide so much content that could become a seriously kickass feature film.

Yes, We Can

Props

Its weird to be praised by people you don't know. People you've never even met or seen. They're on an internet forum. They aren't doing you any favors, they're being honest as hell. They have no reason to be flattering you, they can and DO rip people apart all the time.
So when these same jackals are referencing someone ELSE'S attempt at the same build you've done and the forum thread (conversation) turns to, "You know who blew this one out of the water? Caboose's build." Without you even being IN the conversation, just watching from the sidelines, suddenly startled awake saying, 'woah, are they talking about me?'
Yeah, they are.

Thickfreakness

So I'm into this band called The Black Keys. They're a really blues-based rock band from Akron, OH. Just two guys, a drummer and a guitarist/singer. Pretty heavy stuff.
Here's my favorite song to play of theirs. ***WARNING*** This clip starts out REALLY loud, and doesn't get much quieter, so have your hand on your volume settings.


Then I happened across these little freaking kids who ROCK harder than I do playing the same song. I see that they're ~16 years old. Damn you ankle-biters. Well done.

RHCS Strat

The current project is coming along slowly. Found this neck on ebay for crazy cheap, and it turned out to be a pretty high-quality neck. Its a lefty neck on my right handed body. This is known as a 'reverse headstock' and alleged to have a slightly different tone than the regular neck. I'm doing it for asthetic reasons, copying others who've done it in the past. Steve Miller, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and John Mayer to name a few. Hendrix's entire guitar was turned upside down, because he played left handed on a right handed guitar, but the contours of the strat body are really uncomfortable like that. This is usually how most Jimi-esque emulators compromise.

The Puritanicals

Boy Scout stops Assassination

"Boy Scout Mohamed Jaisham Ibrahim is being hailed as a hero in the Maldives after he stopped a many with a knife from killing President Abdul Gayoom."
----
I was in Boy Scouts for a while, and we never covered this. I never got my How to Stop a Knife Attack badge.
Full story here

Love & Unity

Going through old photos and found this again. I miss this sidewalk, it always brought things into perspective when we're all so used to seeing profanity, hate, or penises carved into the concrete. Good to see some positive vandalism for once. This was from the ISU campus, it was on the DEAD CENTER of campus. I used to go out of my way to walk by it.