Come one, come all. June 19th for hot dogs and hacky sack. Nothing special, bring whatever you like and join us on Vulcan Circle for some summertime fun.
June 19th
Come one, come all. June 19th for hot dogs and hacky sack. Nothing special, bring whatever you like and join us on Vulcan Circle for some summertime fun.
We've only got time for a quick meal!
Kinda makes you wonder what this is made of.
http://consumerist.com/2010/03/this-1-year-old-happy-meal-has-aged-surprisingly-well.html
Well i know one thing, if mold doesn't want it, i don't either.
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http://consumerist.com/2010/03/this-1-year-old-happy-meal-has-aged-surprisingly-well.html
Well i know one thing, if mold doesn't want it, i don't either.
For the Creative Type
Hey guys,
I was doing some reasearch for 3M the other day and stumbled upon Seed.com. I knew about this project from AOL, but I never really gave it any attention. Anyway, this is something to check out, because they do pay small sums of money if you can churn out some content for them.
Anyway, that odd advertisement aside, how is everyone? The blog seems a bit slow as of late. What seems to be the problem?
Rhettismo
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I was doing some reasearch for 3M the other day and stumbled upon Seed.com. I knew about this project from AOL, but I never really gave it any attention. Anyway, this is something to check out, because they do pay small sums of money if you can churn out some content for them.
Anyway, that odd advertisement aside, how is everyone? The blog seems a bit slow as of late. What seems to be the problem?
Rhettismo
I have returned!
I have returned to the blog after bit of a hiatus. Work has been a bit hectic, and the last thing I remember to do when I get home at night is to check mail or the blog. But a man has got to make his pounds to have any fun in this country. Just in case you were wondering, I have to figure out how to sell the outfit to your right - among about 50 other brands - to people and businesses.
There are a lot of posts here, so I just want to make sure I know what is happening. Is the blog moving to a different site? Just let me know what I need to do and I will be on it. In addition, I noticed a third brother has joined Facebook; Mr. Mike Burch. Now where are the other two? I think it is quite sad for anyone in the journalism industry to not be on Facebook (hint, hint). Why, you never know how many potential sources are running around, especially on a college campus.
How is everyone doing? I am doing pretty well. Meg and I are going to Brussels next week to check out the home of the European Union. We plan to drink lots of good beer and eat some mussels. I will take pictures and post them on the ol' Shutterfly site.
Speaking of good beer, I cannot tell you how much I miss Sierra Nevada and Full Sail. The other thing is whisky (yes it is whisky when it is Scotch or Canadian). They have lots of Scotch here, of course, but it is far too harsh. I am a Crown Royal and Canadian Hunter kind of guy. What amazes me is that Crown Royal was made for the royal family, yet it costs £25 for a 750mL bottle. Give me a break! I had a friend get me a litre at the duty free on her way back to England for $23. Speaking of that, Geoff, you cannot come to England unless you bring me a litre of Crown Royal.
Anyway, I am off to read before bed. I have to be up at 5:30, so there is little chance for me to enjoy my Thursday evening.
Cheers,
Big R
New Family Site
Hey folks, I have put up a new Boxed Lightning website designed to expand on Zach's original blog site for the entire family to use. This site will incorporate all of the features you would expect on a typical social networking site like Facebook or Twitter, but it is privately contained as an intranet site for use by our family.
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The domain will be WWW.boxedlightning.com. There will be some upcoming changes made to it as Zach works on the design elements and I work on the technical end, but basically you can start using the site now.
You will not be able to log on to the site at ww.boxedlightning.com for a few more days while we get the transfer straitened up, but, you can click here to log on, and start using the site now.
The site will allow you to not only blog, but put up pictures, video, music, or even create your own web page for use by the family.
Some features are not immediately available, but check back often as we will be working on it each day.
Go To Site Here
Yo Mike
Or anybody else, you should check out www.facebook.com/potearth We have some really swell music there, and I think you'd be interested in the composition, production, and synthesis. We should chat about it. In fact you should come by some evening and we can geek out on music tech. You'd like it.
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Boxed Lightning it is....
OK... so Boxed Lightning it is instead of Brabur. You know come to think of it a bur in the bra does sound a little rough... I'm jus' sayin'.
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So, what we can do is just log onto www.boxedlightning.com and go from there. Since I already have the site ready to go, you will need to change your DNS settings. Also, since I call it brabur on the server, we can change the .htacess file so the browser will show boxedlightning instead of brabur.
As far as the design is concerned, as I stated in the last post, it's pretty easy because there are a lot of templates available. I have built about 20 sites now using Drupal and of all the CMS suites I have used like joomla, word suite, etc., this is by far the best because of the functionality of it. The problem though is that because it offers so much integration and options, the learning curve is a little long. Plus, just grasping the concept of how it works takes some getting used to.
Everything about the system is customizable so each site you build is completely unique although the engine is the same. Here are some links to help you see what I mean.
The other thing I really like about this CMS is how easy it is to implement custom PHP code within your site. This is like the icing on the cake as far as really making your site a custom piece of work. Like I say, the learning curve is steep, but once you begin to grasp it, you can build a very functional, very professional site in no time at all.
With all of that said, with your graphics capabilities you should have no problems designing our site to be fun and exciting. The beauty is also that after you design the site the way you want it a click of the mouse will change the whole site and everything I've already done will be there, except with your design.
I look forward to doing this project with everyone and I really do think we will have a great time.
P.S. I Forgot To Mention
The site is fully functional now, but you cannot access it yet with the domain name. I will have this done by Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, you can access it here.
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When you get to the site, simply click on the 'Create a new account' link and register. You will have to be manually approved, and then you can start playing around with it.
Lattehead, as far as redesigning the look of the site, it's fairly straight-forward if you have say Dreamweaver and know a little java. Their are hundreds of templates already available that can be customized and implemented. Click here for details on theme customization and technical details on redesigning the look and feel of the site.
I am glad you approve, Lattehead, since you started Boxed Lightning originally. I just didn't want to step on any toes.
All right.... let's have some fun!!
Here's an Idea....
I am currently teaching myself the new version of PHP 6.0, which is a computer programming language designed specifically for structured query language enabling the creation of dynamic web pages with content that changes depending on certain programmable parameters.
I have been using 5.0 for several years, but the release of 6.0 has opened up a whole new set of programming tools designed to take advantage of 3G mobile networking, certain I-phone applications, web 2.0 and especially the new web 3.0, and a whole lot more. I am using this in tandem with the open source Apache server environment, which has now become the standard, and probably will be for awhile, due to the absurd instability of the Windows server environments.
By the way, if I seem like I am somewhat negative toward Windows, and Microsoft in general, well I am. Frankly, Microsoft produces the absolute crappiest source code in existence that serves nothing more than to use up absurd amounts of disk space and memory. I really do like their Microsoft accounting program, and a few of their games, but that's about it. And, from a programming point of view, I absolutely cannot stand Windows as an operating system. Not 3.1, windows '95, windows '98, windows 2000, Me, XP, Vista, or even 7, even though Windows 7 is pretty snazzy. Want to know what I am talking about? Try a Mac. Better yet, download a copy of Linux, and use it on the computer you use now. You will be amazed. By the way, Linux is free, Windows costs $299.
Anyway, I have also been using Drupal, which is an open source content management system for designing and implementing web page design, both in an Internet, and intranet situation.
The reason I bring all this up is I would like to expand on Zach's Boxed Lightning Blog. Almost like a social networking site within the family. Boxed Lightning of course would be the primary blogging tool, but we would add our family intranet site for everything else.
We could blog (boxed lighting), do pictures, music, video, email, Geoff and I and anyone else who wanted to could jam in real time over the Internet, watch movies, play games, you could have your own web-page, whatever. And it would be our family intranet, in other words, our own closed Internet environment, and only we would have access to it.
This would serve two purposes. One, it would let me practice my programming skills, and two, you could log in, and access anything from one domain.
For example, you would log in, then you could post to boxed lightning, or you could upload pictures of our Superbowl party to our picture department, or have your own web page, or anything you want. Plus, everyone would have their own email account so it would be really easy to email each other.
We could have a chat session where we all chat at the same time, or video conference, or anything else our little imagination might come up with.
More than anything, this gives us all a unique but effective means of communication which I desperately need because I have such a hard time keeping up with everybody. Plus, it provides a history of our family activities and an ever expanding evolution of what our family does.
I have started the site now, and you can check it our here. It is going to say access denied so log in with these settings:
Username: user
Password: password
The site will probably be WWW.BRABUR.US (not .com), unless anyone has a better name. Please let me know as soon as you can and I will reserve the domain name.
I will set it up so that everyone can be an editor which means you can create pages, stories, upload pictures, etc., etc.
Also, you can have a new e-mail account if you wish which would be like EDCOX@BRABUR.US. You know who Ed Cox is don't you?
This email address works like any email address, but it really works good for communicating back and forth within the intranet site. You would have a complete set of tools like an address book, a calendar, and the works. This will allow me to continue to improve my skills on email site programming which I really need to do.
Let me know. I think we can have a lot of fun with this. By the way, as I'm sure you guessed the website name BRABUR.US is for Brackeen - Burch. The .US extension is for us, I thought that might be a neat twist. But, if you prefer, we could have .com, .net, .org, or whatever you want.
Oh, one more thing, I would love it if Zach would design a logo. Go to the site and see what I mean. This would be a logo for the top of the page.
Man, What A Game!!
How about that Saints and Vikings game? Was that not a thrilling game? You know, Minnesota should have won that game and they would have except for that ridiculous play with 19 seconds left in the game that Favre passed on. What the heck? I mean, don't we all know in that situation you do everything possible not TO LOSE THE FOOTBALL?
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Otherwise, I thought both teams played very well except for the turnovers on Minnesota and the penalties on New Orleans. Really, the game could have gone either way and I knew that whomever won the toss when they were going into overtime was going to win.
I really wanted to see Favre get them to the Superbowl... what a career ending that would have been. In fact, I would not be surprised if he played again next year. It's not unheard of.
Does anyone know who the oldest quarterback of all time was in the NFL? He played from 1949-1976, and also was a field goal kicker, a lineman, a quarterback and several other positions.
He also has the distinction of having played in the 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's. What a deal. Click Here to read about him.
Here I am.... Rock you like a Hurricane
Dear jimminy... I had no idea that scorpian has been around that long. I remember cruising Kickapoo in Shawnee (quit laughing) jamming to "Rock you like a Hurricane"
This is a live video from Russia of all places. I actually have always liked Scorpian, and went so far as to buy a cassette of theirs, which says alot, because I do not buy music very often, especially cassette tapes!!
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This is a live video from Russia of all places. I actually have always liked Scorpian, and went so far as to buy a cassette of theirs, which says alot, because I do not buy music very often, especially cassette tapes!!
I remember my yellow 1977 Pontiac LeMans playing this song. I had two 12 inch Cerwin-Vega subwoofers in the trunk with about a 500 watt amplifier so, needless to say, we jammed quite a bit to this song, especially after a Friday night Shawnee Wolves football game when we would all go to what we called Walkers Land and drink Boone's Farm and smoke some lefties.
Gosh, what a dork I was.
Anyway, this is very interesting. I guess all rock bands sooner or later must come to an end, except of course, The Rolling Stones.
Send me an Angel
Okay, so the title was a little....eh. If you are not aware, Scorpion, the band I most remember from
this house, (Zoom in a little, look at the street view, really try to recall the time Theodore wrote F**k Edie in the dust on the lamp), recently announced they are calling it quits. I recall Daryl, the female Daryl, singing, "Let's spend the night together "...from the song "The Rhythm of Love" atop the flattop mountain. This was just a hop skip and a jump from "Jimmies". I'll buy a bottle of good Pepsi Throwback to anybody that can show me where that was.
Seriously, the interesting part is not that Scorpion is ending it, but rather that they have been at it for 44 years. Yes, 44 years. That is 1965. Actually, when their world tour is finished, it'll be 2012 and it will be 46 years. That is older than Mike or my girlfriend.
That started in 1965. Mother, our mother, graduated High School in 1963, the same year Kennedy was shot.
Ah the Winds of Change.
I have not eaten a Chocodile since then, but I am sure they are just as good.
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this house, (Zoom in a little, look at the street view, really try to recall the time Theodore wrote F**k Edie in the dust on the lamp), recently announced they are calling it quits. I recall Daryl, the female Daryl, singing, "Let's spend the night together "...from the song "The Rhythm of Love" atop the flattop mountain. This was just a hop skip and a jump from "Jimmies". I'll buy a bottle of good Pepsi Throwback to anybody that can show me where that was.
Seriously, the interesting part is not that Scorpion is ending it, but rather that they have been at it for 44 years. Yes, 44 years. That is 1965. Actually, when their world tour is finished, it'll be 2012 and it will be 46 years. That is older than Mike or my girlfriend.
That started in 1965. Mother, our mother, graduated High School in 1963, the same year Kennedy was shot.
Ah the Winds of Change.
I have not eaten a Chocodile since then, but I am sure they are just as good.
Superbowl Formula
In honor of the Superbowl, I am bringing back a school project I did that gives the winning formula that every GM in the league should see. Click the image to see it in all of its glory.
Which Way Do I Go?
Very rarely in football do I have a problem deciding which team to pull for. I mean, look, I have a few favorite teams, whom I always pull for, then, I have a few teams that I pull for when they are not playing one of my favorite teams, then there are all the rest.
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For example, several years ago when LSU and OU played in the BCS game, obviously I was for OU, but it didn't necessarily break my heart that LSU won the championship. By the way, Les was not coaching LSU at the time. For the most part, college ball is easy; I always pull for OU, then there are some other teams that I usually pull for unless they are playing OU.
Pro football is a little bit different. Generally speaking, I pull for Dallas, Oakland, and New Orleans in that order. But I gotta tell you, the up coming Minnisota vs. Dallas game is going to be tough. Yes I would like Dallas to win, but then again I would love to see Favre win. o particular reason why, except perhaps because he is the same age as me.
In fact I predict Minnesota will win 24-10. What do you think?
The eyes of Texas are a crying
Texas had it coming. Life is harsh...To have a QB capable of winning a National Championship, to watch him go down early in his last college football game, and then witness the rest of the team melt. Poor Texas.
I just hope they muster up the energy drag there sorry butts to the Cotton Bowl in October because the years of Texas dominance is over.
And one more thing, Rhett must disagree...A dominant defense is no match for a power running game. Texas had the number 1 defense in the country, and Alabama wore that right side slick. The tide used three running backs and powered over the horns. I believe EZ Fingers is right, we will see more of the power run in the future.
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I just hope they muster up the energy drag there sorry butts to the Cotton Bowl in October because the years of Texas dominance is over.
And one more thing, Rhett must disagree...A dominant defense is no match for a power running game. Texas had the number 1 defense in the country, and Alabama wore that right side slick. The tide used three running backs and powered over the horns. I believe EZ Fingers is right, we will see more of the power run in the future.
Is This a Joke? What a sad story...
Robert Wosturnmik was the CEO and president of a fine scientific firm called R. W. Scientific Laboratories, Inc. in upstate Washington. Robert started the company about twenty years or so ago and had managed to turn it into a top-notch company in the realm of scientific research. In fact his company is responsible for many of the gadgets you probably use everyday, as well as being for improvements and refinements of items already in existence. The company for example made a small fortune on the 12-volt, plug in your car coffee warming mug.
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But, with all of this success, Robert found that he was working way, way too hard and barely had time for his wife and kids. After pondering over the situation for awhile, he decided to call in one of his lead scientists to help give him some advice on the matter.
Glen, his lead scientist, told Robert about a project the firm was working on concerning cloning the human body. He explained to Robert that it might be possible to make a clone of himself, and Robert could take some time off while the clone stayed on the job to get things done. Robert, after thinking it over, decided that this just might be a good idea. Glen, however, explained to Robert that they had not perfected the cloning process and that one of the main problems with the clone was that it cussed like a sailor all the time.
After further consideration, Robert decided that it might not be so bad to have someone with a salty tongue handle the day-to-day operations of the company and that perhaps someone with a little bit of a mouth might be a good thing.
Anyway, after creating the clone, and Glen telling Robert it was ready, but warning again of his somewhat vulgar use of the English language, Robert decided to take some much needed time off and let the clone be in charge for awhile.
However, it wasn't long until it became apparent that the clone wasn't going to work out as intended. The clone couldn't hardly say a single sentence without uttering some type of profanity. As a result, the company began loosing customers, and several of its employees quit.
Even though Robert wanted some more time off, he decided he had to return to work and see what was going on. He reasoned that, maybe if he spoke with the clone about his improper use of his profanity, maybe the clone would understand and curb his tongue a little. So, Robert went back to work and asked the clone if they could have lunch in the cafeteria on the top floor of the building. The clone agreed.
While they were at lunch, Robert tried to explain to the clone that he just couldn't continue to use such vulgar language, that it was making customers mad and causing many of the long-term employees to quit. The clone however responded with very disgusting language, calling Robert all kinds of names. This of course began to make Robert very mad and before long both Robert and his clone were yelling back and forth, screaming and shouting, and causing quite a scene.
In the course of all of this the clone continued to call Robert all sorts of terrible names and finally Robert had had enough and punched the clone in the nose. The clone fell backwards and through the window of the cafeteria on the top floor, and fell all the way down 32 stories to the street below. Robert, who by now was in complete shock, realized what had happened and ran down the stairs to the street to see what had happened to the clone.
By the time Robert got down to the clone, the police, fire department, and an ambulance had arrived on the scene and several people from nearby offices and buildings had come outside to see what all the commotion was about.
Finally, Robert got a chance to speak to an officer. The officer responded, "Sir, we are going to have to place you under arrest!"
"Why? Why are you placing me under arrest?"
"Well, " the officer replied, "can't you see? You made an obscene clone fall..."
A Football Prediction
I don't know if anyone watched the Georgia Tech vs. Iowa game Tuesday night, but it was a great game. The most interesting thing about the game was watching Georgia Tech use the option. Talk about bring back memories of OU in the 70's.
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My prediction is that a lot of college teams, and perhaps even OU, will return to the smash mouth run offense. I tell you why.
First, the west coast pass offense is old and stale. It's where the run option game was in the 80's when everyone was using it and became easy to defend against. Although I was glad to see a change to a more pass oriented offense in the 90's, I think it's time has passed. As everyone witnessed this year, most all the teams that used this style of offense did rather poorly.
Texas may be the one exception, although they seem to be using a much more balanced style of play, using the fullback more often with an older style of I-formation, but also using a pass-option style.
In other words, the west coast style of pass offense has become easy to defend against.
Secondly, most of the college players today do not remember or were not alive when the option offense was in full swing. A return to a more option oriented offense would throw a lot of teams off guard.
Thirdly, as has always been the case regardless of the type of offense used, the team that controls the clock generally controls the game. As you know, a run offense is much more time intensive than a pass offense.
The downside of course to a run style of offense is that it is very difficult to come back from behind if you are behind by more than two or three touchdowns. I am sure we can all remember some of those hairy OU games where we would get behind by 14 or 17 points and barely win the game, if we won at all.
Nonetheless, it is time for an offensive change in college ball; and after watching Georgia Tech, I think a triple option may be the way to go. This doesn't mean we would never pass, like the days of Switzer, but the pass would simply be one option out of say two or three.
Unfortunately because of new recruiting rules and the length of time it takes to impose such changes, we probably won't see such a major change until 2013 or 2014, but indeed I do believe we will see such a change.
What do you think?
Rockport here come.....
Hey Hey Hey.... Good News; well I think it is anyway. Pat and Elaine, some very good friends of mine in Medicine Park, have just purchased a summer home in Rockport, Texas. In case you are wondering, Rockport is about 60 miles north of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Anyway, they purchased this home in an online auction. The house appraised at $149,000, and they wound up buying the house for $50,000. Not a bad deal.
Pat and Elaine, and several others of us will be going down to the house this spring and doing some remodeling and other needed work on the home. We figure the place needs about a month of work on it to be good to go.
This is where the good news comes in - I will be able to use the home anytime I want to. I spoke with Pat and Elaine about the possibility of using the house sometime in June or July and having my family come along. They said that would be fine.
Therefore, if anyone is interested, I thought we might all go down there for a week or so sometime this summer. We are about 1/2 mile from the beach. The house is three bedrooms and also has a guest house in the back, so there would be plenty of room.
Now the bad news is that it is an 11 hour drive to Rockport. Nonetheless, I thought this might be something that we could all enjoy this summer.
If you might be interested, please let me know ASAP so I can put the plan in motion. I know it is only January, but you know how time flies. Plus, it would give everyone a chance to take off work if possible, and it would allow me to make sure there would be no scheduling conflicts with other people that will be using the house from time to time.
I think we would all have a grand time. It may not be as fun as going to the lake house, but it could be really neat. Like I say, the beach is only about 1/2 mile from the house. It has a full bar, a big screen TV, plenty of room, and would definitely be a good get away.
Let me know.
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Anyway, they purchased this home in an online auction. The house appraised at $149,000, and they wound up buying the house for $50,000. Not a bad deal.
Pat and Elaine, and several others of us will be going down to the house this spring and doing some remodeling and other needed work on the home. We figure the place needs about a month of work on it to be good to go.
This is where the good news comes in - I will be able to use the home anytime I want to. I spoke with Pat and Elaine about the possibility of using the house sometime in June or July and having my family come along. They said that would be fine.
Therefore, if anyone is interested, I thought we might all go down there for a week or so sometime this summer. We are about 1/2 mile from the beach. The house is three bedrooms and also has a guest house in the back, so there would be plenty of room.
Now the bad news is that it is an 11 hour drive to Rockport. Nonetheless, I thought this might be something that we could all enjoy this summer.
If you might be interested, please let me know ASAP so I can put the plan in motion. I know it is only January, but you know how time flies. Plus, it would give everyone a chance to take off work if possible, and it would allow me to make sure there would be no scheduling conflicts with other people that will be using the house from time to time.
I think we would all have a grand time. It may not be as fun as going to the lake house, but it could be really neat. Like I say, the beach is only about 1/2 mile from the house. It has a full bar, a big screen TV, plenty of room, and would definitely be a good get away.
Let me know.
Updates
Second, Mike, congratulations on becoming a midwife. I do believe you are entering the profession at a time when midwives are out of favor, but you have never been one to back down from a challenge. Actually, I am kidding. I know I will get a chance to see you when I gear up Dennis to run a Skype conversation again. I hope you are doing well, though.
Finally, I have posted pictures from Turkey (click this link and the password is ernie (can't remember if that is capitalized)). There are a lot of pictures of stray cats, so let me explain. Turkey is known for having a large population of stray cats, and that is quite common in the Mediterranean area for some reason. Regardless, it is interesting because the cats eat any rodent in the city, and people feed these cats a ton, so it is like free labor for the Turkish people. Meg thought this was fascinating, so she took pictures of as many cats as possible. If you are unsure of a picture, such as where it was taken, and if you would like me to explain it, please let me know what the picture number is. I will try and add descriptions of locations later, but there are a ton of pictures.
On that note, I am off. I hope to speak to all of you again soon. Have a great weekend.
-Rhett
So Sorry.....
I deeply apologize for not making it to Ted's on the 1st; a good friend of mine had her baby that day-her birthday will be 01/01/10. Pretty neat.
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The baby wasn't due actually until the 11th; however, it came early. I had come up to watch the OU game on the 31st with the full intention of going to Ted's on the 1st.
Chrissy started having labor pains the evening of the 31st and by 9:00pm she was going to the hospital. Needless to say, I was assigned house duties including cooking, feeding the dog, and driving people including the grandma that don't know who or where she is, to the hospital.
I think I got maybe two hours of sleep between Wednesday and Friday due to all of this fantastic activity. When I got back to the house at around 4:00pm Friday, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until about 11:30pm. This is why I missed going to Ted's.
Again, I apologize. But I must say, watching a baby being born is an absolute miracle from God, there is just no other way to describe it.