Roseyland

I heard a statistic that 80% of adults had not read a book in 2008. My first instinct was to stick my nose up at these people and spend some time thinking about how much better I am than them. I mean, the last book I read was The Golden Compass, and I read that in… um… November 2007. Hmmm… Surely I read something in 2008, how could I not? After thinking about it, I realized that I have not read a single book in 2008. Seriously. Feel free to stick your nose up at me now. But first, here are my excuses: (continue reading…)

Everyone has been posting pictures of their Christmas decorations lately, so I figured that I should too. It has been a lot of work getting everything just right, but I am finally done. Below are all of my Christmas decorations. It’s a nativity scene.

But wait, there’s more. This isn’t just a nativity scene, it’s a nativity scene puzzle.

Here are Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus.

Here are the three wise men.

Here are the animals.

Does anybody know what in the hell this thing is? It’s not really a human shape, and it isn’t really an animal shape either. Is it an angel? The Holy Ghost? The more I think about it, it’s kind of creepy.

This nativity scene used to be my grandparents. They would have it out every christmas eve, and when I was little we would come over for Christmas eve, and the puzzle would be in pieces. Then my Grandpa would tell me that I had to put it together, because I was the only one who could figure it out. This is where you say, “Ahhhhhh!”. It is a deceptively hard puzzle. So hard that it has a Polaroid picture attached to the back in case you can’t figure it out.

Here is a picture of the nativity scene puzzle with a cat. I have considered putting some lights on the cat to make him more festive, but I’m afraid that the PETA crazies would come after me.

So there it is, my only Christmas decoration. I have considered buying a tree for 6 years now. I even have the perfect place for it, and I know I would like buying Christmas ornaments. But I’m lazy, and I’m almost always out of town for Christmas. Also, the cat would find someway to destroy the tree, or get trapped in it, or eat part of it, or something. Happy Holidays!

A lot of blogger have lists of 100 things about themselves, or 100 things they want to do before they die, or 100 things that fit into some category. This is my list of 100 things. These things don’t have a theme, they are just the first 100 things that popped into my head. Maybe this gives some insight into my subconscious or maybe it’s all random. You decide

1. Cats
2. Dogs
3. Rain
4. Monsoon
5. India
6. Taj Mahal
7. London
8. Big Ben
9. Grizzly Bears
10. Tigers
11. Magicians
12. Las Vegas
13. Southwest Airlines
14. Peanuts
15. Leather
16. Cars
17. Highway 40
18. Bikes
19. Trees
20. Birds
21. Fireplaces
22. Smokestacks
23. Power Plants
24. Submarines
25. Russia
26. Sean Connery
27. James Bond
28. Aston Martin
29. Castles
30. Eiffel Tower
31. Trains
32. Subways
33. Lakes
34. TV
35. Tivo
36. DVDs
37. Movies
38. Popcorn
39. Sugar Daddies
40. Mixer
41. Cupcakes
42. Fiber
43. Protein
44. Carbs
45. Amino Acids
46. Organic Chemistry
47. Calculus
48. Art History
49. Term Papers
50. College
51. Beer
52. Wine
53. Hermann, MO
54. Norton Grapes
55. California
56. Nebraska
57. Corn Huskers
58. Barns
59. Horses
60. Cows
61. Manure
62. Perfume
63. Love
64. Death
65. Democracy
66. Fashion
67. Eddie Bauer
68. Jeans
69. Shoes
70. Belts
71. Arms
72. Legs
73. Toes
74. Rings
75. Books
76. Fantasy
77. Reality
78. Simulations
79. Airplanes
80. Guns
81. Bullets
82. Silver
83. Gold
84. Frankincense
85. Myrrh
86. Jesus
87. Buddha
88. Mohammed
89. Boxing
90. Ultimate Fighting
91. Disney World
92. Tower of Terror
93. Roller Coasters
94. Thunderstorms
95. Tornados
96. Oz
97. Rubies
98. Diamonds
99. Africa
100. Blood

Okay, for the record, I ended on “Blood” because “Africa” and “Diamonds” had me thinking of the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio. Which is a great movie. You should go watch it. But before you do that, what did you think of my list? Does it reveal anything about me?

I wanted to blog about my trip back to college last weekend, but there are several pictures I need to organize, and I ended up watching a lot of college football yesterday, and I just haven’t had time yet. If you want, you can see the pictures in my Flickr set here. There is a lot I want to say about those pictures, so hopefully by next weekend I’ll have a post up.

Today I’m going to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m going to show you the contents of my kitchen. I seem to blog about my kitchen a lot, but your kitchen says a lot about you. And I know you want to know more about me. Why wouldn’t you? I’m fascinating. I took these picture right after grocery shopping, so this is about as full as my kitchen gets. You can click on any of the pictures in this post to see a larger version. The first picture is the inside of my refrigerator. Yeah, you probably figured that out didn’t you?

So much food, where do I begin? In the freezer there are a few lean cuisines. This is what I eat when I’m lazy and desperate. Below that are Spinach Munchies and a few related items. I have to thank CosmosGirl for introducing me to Spinach Munchies in her blog. They are like pizza rolls filled with spinach and some type of cheese. I also like the Broccoli Cheese Munchies. Below the munchies are frozen vegetables. I’m trying to eat more vegetables, but those vegetables have been in my freezer for a few months. Do frozen vegetables ever go bad?

In the top of the refrigerator, I have iced tea, mixed berries, and soy milk. I drink soy milk because soy is supposed to be healthy or something. Iced tea is my great addiction. I love unsweetened black iced tea. Those berries are from Whole Foods, and they are ridiculously expensive when you buy them all cut up like that. This does not seem to stop me from buying them. For snacks I have Sargento Chipotle Cheddar cheese sticks. These are amazing, just the right amount of spicy. I also have hard boiled eggs. I love hard boiled eggs, and aren’t the brown eggs pretty? They look so nice, I can’t imagine ever buying plain old white eggs again. In the beverage department, I have a bottle of wine, Sam Adam’s October Fest, pomegranate juice, and lemon flavored sparkling water. I have sparkling water instead of pop because I drink too much pop at work. (That’s right, I said pop, deal!). I like to mix a little of the pomegranate juice and sparkling water together for a healthy bubbly drink. It’s tasty, try it.

The picture above is the only cabinet I have filled with food. I have lots of cans of beans. Beans are very good for you, they have fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Eat more beans. Right now you are probably thinking that I fart a lot. Not really, if you eat beans regularly, your body adjust. Seriously. TMI? You can also see my tea and coffee. The coffee is only for guest, I never make my own coffee, too much work. Below that are my granola bars and nuts. I have a granola bar and soy milk for breakfast everyday, and a handful of nuts every night. Nuts are also very healthy. Eat more nuts. Oh, and on the top shelf is brown rice, sugar, and baking soda.

Finally, here is a small cabinet with some spices and other baking needs. I used to have a lot more spices, but I threw them out when I had my kitchen remodeled. So what do you think? You probably think I’m a little bit of a health nut. Kind of, but not really. A while ago I read the book SuperFoods RX by Steven Pratt. It changed they way I look at food. Instead of trying not too eat too much, now I try to focus more on eating healthy less processed foods. Things like nuts and berries and whole grains. That being said, I still eat out a lot and go to Ted Drew’s almost every week. I’m hoping the good foods will cancel out the bad foods You might also notice that I get a lot of my food at Whole Foods. This is mostly a matter of convenience. I do like Whole Foods, but I mainly go there because I live right behind it. Okay, that is all. If you have a blog, you should blog about what’s in your kitchen. I want to see it

Hey look! I got tagged for a meme! I’m totally one of the cool kids now. Onedadlife and Underthearch tagged me for the “Six Unspectacular Things About Me” meme. I’m a little hurt by the assertion that anything about me is unspectacular, but whatever, I’ll get over it. Let’s begin.

1. My Addiction

Every morning, I go to my neighborhood Starbucks and get a grande coffee. I’d order something fancier like a pumpkin spice latte, but there are a lot of calories in those things, and I try not to drink my calories. I’m a little freaked out by the way the Starbucks employees remember my name and order, but I guess they are trained to do that. Also, the manager of this Starbucks is hot. She’s this cute blond and she wears this black belt with those metal pyramid shaped stud things. It says, “I’m a nice girl, but I have a wild side”. That’s hot. I hope she doesn’t find this blog, that would be embarrassing.

2. My Car

I’m not really a car guy. To me a car is a practical necessity and nothing else. I love my car though. It’s a 2003 Honda Accord Coupe. Woah! The excitement is blowing you away isn’t it? Hey, it’s reliable, gets decent mileage, and I have it set up so that I can listen to my iPod through the stereo system and control it with the steering wheel controls. This makes me happy.

3. My Cat

I’m a cat person. I always have been. I like dogs, but cats are better. They are sleek and somewhat mysterious. Dog’s are easy, they love you no matter what you do. Cat’s are more complicated, they require a little seduction. Also, pound for pound, a cat could kick a dog’s ass any day. My cat’s name is Earl. You might be wondering why he is wearing a scarf and standing next to a purse. He has some gender identity issues, he’s my cat though, and I love him no matter who he is.

4. My Church

This is hard for me to admit, but I’ve gone to church nearly every Sunday since February. Please don’t think that I’m religious, I’m not. Spiritual?, maybe. Here’s my thing. I don’t believe that any religion is the literal truth or that any religion is completely right or wrong. That being said, I also don’t believe that life is just energy and matter interacting, and I believe that there is a deeper level of reality beyond what we can observe. I like my church a lot. It is a United Methodist church in the city with a fairly traditional worship, but the music is better and there is communion with real wine. They don’t require you to believe anything, and it is an open and affirming church (that means gay people are welcome). If you want, you can find out more here.

5. My Underwear

I wear boxer briefs. I think that all guys should. I wore tighty whities for an embarrassingly long time. They are gross and should be outlawed. Boxers provide way too much freedom though. I like things to be a little more secure down there.

6. My Fraternity

I was in a fraternity in college. This is my fraternity at our final blackball meeting during my senior year of college (Spring 1999). To this day, I can’t believe that I was in a fraternity. I’m so not the frat boy type. That being said, it was the time of my life. I love these guys and I would do anything for them. Next weekend, I’ll be back at my college for homecoming and my fraternities 125th anniversary. A lot of guys will be back. It should be a blast. I’ll probably blog about it.

Okay, there you have it. All six unspectacular things about me. It’s a good thing that it wasn’t 7 unspectacular things, because I don’t think I have 7. I’m supposed to tag other people now or something, but I’m not in the mood, and I’m not sure that there is anybody left who reads this blog and hasn’t already been tagged. If you haven’t done this meme yet, do it, do it now. Also, leave a comment so that I know to go read it.

I have a case of the oranges. What are the oranges? They are kind of like the blues, but not so much sad, more blah. I call them them the oranges, because I get them on Sunday evenings in the Fall, and orange is the color of Fall. Fall is my least favorite season. I know, I know, this is blasphemy to many of you. You want to say something like: “I love the Fall, the days get shorter, it’s starts to cool down at night, you can start wearing sweaters, football is on TV, and you can have chili for dinner”. I do like chili, but still, I’m not into Fall. In many cultures the seasons represent the cycle of life, and Fall is the season of dying. Okay, I have no idea if that is true or not, but it seems true, and really, isn’t that enough? Here is a list of things I don’t like about Fall:

• Shorter days - I’m a night owl, and I love warm summer evenings. When it gets dark so early and it’s cold outside, I feel stuck indoors. I feel like my day is over before I even get home.

• Sweaters and Long Sleeved Shirts - I have disproportionately long arms for my height (5′11”). I love the look of sweaters, but they don’t fit me. If I raise my arms at all, the sleeves end up working their way half way up my forearms, and then I spend the whole day playing with my sleeves. It’s so annoying.

• The Changing Colors of Leaves - I’m going to get hate mail for this, I know it. See the picture above? Most people think it is beautiful, and it is beautiful in a way, but what I see is dead decaying leaves. I like my leaves bright green and vibrant thank you.

There are things I do like about Fall, like the start of new TV shows, Husker football, and people bringing Halloween candy to work that I am forced to eat against my will. The thing is, I’m a person who loves new beginnings, and Fall is the season of old endings. I love to start new projects and try new things. I’m not a big fan of endings. Fall is like completing a big project or finishing a good book, sure there is the sense of accomplishment, but then you are left with a “Eh, What do I do now?” feeling.

This isn’t a very happy post is it? I’m sorry. Really, I’m a very happy guy. Let me try to end on a positive note. I’m a big believer in balance, Yin and Yang, and all that crap. I absolutely love Spring. It is the best season by far. In order for spring to be so great, the opposite of spring must exist, which is Fall. So Fall isn’t a bad season, it’s just a “temporary seasonal adjustment” that must occur so that we can experience the joys of spring in a few months? I’m not anti-fall, I’m pro-spring.

The image in this post is Fall River Bend by Jim’s Outside Photos, and is licensed under Creative Commons.

I was reading this post about shoes on the Under The Arch blog, and I thought to myself, “I have shoes, and I’m not above blatantly stealing another bloggers idea for a post”. So here we are, I have a shoe fetish. Not that kind of fetish, it has nothing to do with other people’s shoes, only my own shoes. It’s a self loving shoe fetish. What would you call that?… um, never mind, moving on. Here are my shoes in their natural habitat. Please don’t tap on the monitor, it stresses them out.

My shoe fetish started 6 years ago when I started my first real job. This job came with an unwritten dress code. Khakis and a polo shirt. I’m not exactly what you would call fashion conscious, but I do get bored easily, and wearing the same thing day in and day will slowly drive you insane. Sure you can wear any type of polo shirt you want, but after a while, they all look the same. I feel sorry for polo shirt designers. I’m pretty sure every type of stripe that could have been invented has been and is on a polo shirt somewhere. So how do I stop the insanity? Shoes. There are all kinds of different shoes out there. The shoes below are currently my favorite pair. I like them so much, I couldn’t be bothered to take them off for this picture. Also, isn’t that a nice calf muscle? Say yes.

I think these are my second favorite pair of shoes. They remind me of the first somewhat fashionable bowling shoe style Steve Madden’s that I bought when the whole shoe fetish thing started. Notice the frayed shoe lace. The cat has a shoe lace fetish.

I tried to do a catless post, but the cat had other ideas. I like these shoes a lot, because they are understated. At first they look like any other brown shoe, but that stitching gives them some type of extra touch or something. Unfortunately, I don’t wear these shoes much in the summer, because they don’t work with shorts. No, I don’t wear shorts to work, but for some reason I still can’t wear these shoes in the summer. Issues, I has them.

These are my default tennis shoes. I don’t wear them much, but they are a staple.

I call these thongs, that’s right thongs. When I was little, flip flops were called thongs, and once my brain has assigned an object a name, it sticks. I don’t wear these much either. I’ve never gotten into wearing thongs. The strap between my toes annoys me, and I always feel like they are going to fly off. Also, I think I have ugly feet.

I think these shoes are totally cool, and I need to wear them more. The only small complaint I have is that they have a very soft sole. It’s almost like wearing a moccasin. They are very comfortable around the house, but out on the street, they feel weird.

I loved these shoes when I bought them, but for some reason when I see them on me, they feel just a little too out there for me. I still wear them though. They are a good casual shoe.

There you have it, my shoe fetish out in the open for all to see. I used to have more shoes, but I never wore most of them, so I donated a lot to goodwill. I buy most of my shoes at DSW shoe warehouse. It’s really the only option I’ve found for men’s shoes in St. Louis. There used to be a cool store for men’s shoes in the Galleria, but they were expensive and my fetish isn’t that strong. When I was in Chicago, I found a lot of cool shoe stores. If you know of a good place to buy men’s shoes in St. Louis, please leave a comment.

Around three years ago, my Grandma gave me a cigar box full of old pictures. I’m just now getting around to scanning them into digital form. In the process, I’ve learned a little bit about how to use GIMP, which is totally cool. You should check it out if you haven’t already. This post contains a few of the pictures I have scanned so far.

This first picture is from the summer of 1977 and is the earliest picture of me I have. This would be a great picture of me, if someone’s giant hand wasn’t in the way. Silly Grandpa.

I’m guessing that I’m about 4 years old in this picture. I loved cardboard wrapping paper tubes. Come to think of it, I still do. I’m not sure what is on my head, but I know it was important.

This is my Kermit the frog Halloween picture from 1982. I wore this costume to a Halloween party at the zoo, and this 3 year old girl was fascinated with me. The costume was really hot though, so I took it off my head and the girl ran away screaming. I’m pretty sure I scarred her for life. My bad.

Ahhh, Excellence in parenting. Here I am playing lawn darts with my Dad. That must have been safe. This picture is from around 1983. They banned lawn darts in 1988. What’s freaky about this picture is that my Dad actually looks a lot like me today. Weird.

In second grade I moved from Nebraska to Oklahoma with my Mom and Step dad. About this time I started wearing camouflage and pretending to shoot things. We moved from Oklahoma to Colorado the next year, that’s probably a good thing.

After moving away from Nebraska, I spent a lot of time flying back to visit my Dad and his side of my family. Here is a picture of my Dad, my Grandparents, and me at the airport.

I’m not sure what this picture is all about. This is me and my Dad doing some sort of pose. The consensus seems to be that I’m adorable in this picture. I actually think I look a little gay, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I hope it’s not the look I was going for.

There were a lot of dinosaur fossils where I grew up in Colorado. We also had this museum with animatronic dinosaurs. This is me pretending to be a dinosaur. I think I’m in fifth grade in this picture, which would be around 1987 or 1988.

This is my childhood cat. He was a great cat. See that collar he is wearing? That is a chain dog collar. He would chew through any other collar we put on him. If I had realized how unsafe a collar like that is for a cat, I would have never let him wear it. He never had any problems though, he could slip out of it easily.

Look! It’s me in a speedo. I think this is from my sophomore year in high school. I was a pretty good swimmer, I even had a school record in the 200 yard freestyle. Also, I have to say, I had a nice butt.

Here are the fronts of my high school IDs. Go Wildcats!

Here are the backs of my high school IDs. Notice that the IDs for my Freshman and Sophomore years contained “Rules To Live By”. The first rule was: “Do what is right and proper, avoid what is wrong… If you have any doubt, look it up in the Good Book!”. I’m surprised they got away with that. I bet those guidelines had been on the ID cards since the 60s.

Here is a picture of my Mom, Dad, Step dad, Aunt, and both sets of Grandparents at Pizza Hut after my high school graduation in June 1995. Actually, my Grandpa on my Mom’s side isn’t in the picture. He must be taking the picture.

This is a picture from my first day of college in August of 1995. I’m at some sort of orientation event, and this picture is so weird because I ended up becoming pretty good friends with a few of the people in it, but I had no idea who they were when this picture was taken.

Here is a picture of me and my Dad at my college graduation in May of 1999. Did we change any through the years? It doesn’t feel like it.

In case you are wondering, here is a picture of me today. Today as in May 2008. I know I was cuter as a kid, but weren’t we all?

There are more pictures in my Flickr set. I’ll also be adding pictures to the set as I get them scanned. I have over 100 left. Ugh! I think there will be a few more blog post of these pictures too. I want to do one post of family pictures I have from before my time, as in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and most of the 70’s. I also want to post all of my class pictures from elementary school and up. I don’t have them all, but I have a bunch. Stay tuned

If you read this post, you know that I love personality test. I took another personality test tonight that I stumbled across in somebody’s Facebook profile. According to the test, I am an Independent Thinker (IT). If you click on the button below, it will take you to a description of my personality type.

I’d say the IT profile fits me pretty well. It’s kind of scary, because the test only has 4 question. How can 4 fairly simple questions reveal so much about me? I thought I was more complex than that. Oh well. I’d love it if you clicked here and took the test yourself. Then tell me what your personality type is in the comments. How well do you think the profile describes you? The test is really short. Do It! Do It!

I love personality test. My favorite personality test is the Myers-Briggs test, which has me pegged as an ITNJ. I have taken a lot of other online personality test, but I think most of them are just plain silly. Do I really need to know what superhero I am (Superman), what Simpson’s character I am (Lisa), or what Muppet I am (Scooter)? I came across the Personal DNA personality test on Facebook, and of course I took it. It told me that I was a “Respectful Inventor”. You can read the full report here. I’d say the test is pretty accurate. It isn’t perfect, but it did get a lot of things right. It also creates the cool picture that you can see at the beginning of this post, and there is nothing I love more that graphical representations of information.