Hello All!  Thought it was about time I checked in again...so here's a two parter!

I really am.  I promise.  I realize I basically haven't been using my little corner of the web for the last month and a half or so (although I know a few of you have been using the site to read my Twitter feed).  

All is well, I'm just REALLY REALLY BUSY getting ready for camp.  I feel like there's much I need to catch you all up on.  TV shows I've been watching (Justified is a great show, as is Community.  And 30 Rock is still hilarious).  Movies I've seen (Iron Man 2 is better than a lot of people are giving it credit for, Kick-Ass, well, kicked ass, and I'm going to watch Crazy Heart tonight.  Finally).  Events I've gone to (Timbers' games are awesome, and sitting with the Army makes them even better).  Plus lot's of other stuff I am of course forgetting right now.

For instance, I (somewhat begrudgingly) bought a new camera.  It's only somewhat begrudgingly because while I didn't really want to spend the money, anyone who knows me knows I love getting new technology to play with (ex. iPad).  My trusty Canon Rebel XT, which had been with me for 4 years and taken thousands of pictures, finally gave up the ghost while we were in Hawaii in March for Bobby and Melissa's wedding (that was a cold ass weddin' dog).  It got a little to close to the ocean while I was trying to be all artsy, and while it didn't get submerged it did get splashed pretty good.  The salt water corroded some of the circuits blah blah blah.  It would have cost about $500 to get it fixed and I probably couldn't have gotten it back before I leave for camp, which does me no good.  So after doing my research and struggling with whether or not to spend the money, I decided on the Canon Rebel T2i (Gizmodo review here) and found a decent deal online (and to save a little more money I just bought the body and for now will use the kit lens from my old Canon).  It is of course on backorder, so it's going to have to ship straight to Florida, but I'll start posting pictures to my Picasa gallery as soon as I get it.  I am excited.

Ok, that's a brief glimpse into my life right now.  I'd love to write more, but I have to get back to work.  Good times...Let me know how you're doing, won't you?

So this is really cool.  First, some background.  Sunday night about 8 p.m. here in the fair city of Portland, 911 started getting reports of a big BOOM! that people had heard.  They kept getting more and more reports, and they seemed to center around the Sellwood area of SE Portland.  No one knew what had happened, but they sure were willing to talk about it.  Within minutes the hash tag #pdxboom had emerged on Twitter.  People were posting their locations and how loud it had been.  A local designer decided to collate all this information into a Google map that people could continue to add to.  Within a few hours hundreds of people had added their info, and a pattern started to emerge.  The most severe reports seemed to stem outwards from a park.  The police went to the park and found a large detonated pipe bomb.  Still no word on who actually dentonated it.

But the cool part is how people and technology came together to solve this little mystery.  I've heard a few of the 911 calls; some people were pretty spooked because it was REALLY loud and even shook some windows.  This is a great example of crowdsourcing, which is kind of a buzz word in business right now, but obviously can be used for other applications as well, ones there more directly serve 'the greater good'.  And of course, this was a great opportunity for the New York Times to continue their love affair with Portland.

My day become a hundred times better once I found this video:

So let's see if I can get ALL the great comedians reprising their roles in this short: Will Ferrell as George W., Dana Carvey as his dad George Bush, Fred Armisen as Obama, Darryl Hammond as Bill Clinton, Jim Carrey as Ronald Regan, Dan Akroyd as Jimmy Carter, and Chevy Chase as...yeah, I don't remember who he was supposed to be.  Oh, and Maya Rudolph as Mrs. Obama.  But anyway, this is one funny ass video, and seeing all these guys together reprising roles that they are so well known for from their years on SNL was really great.

Oh yeah, and if you watch the 'behind the scenes' piece, you'll find out this thing was directed by RON FREAKING HOWARD.  Well now you won't, because I just told you.

I know you're all dying to know about my near tsunami experience, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll get it up soon.  In the meantime, I wanted to share this incredible Ok Go music video:

It's the Rube Goldberg Machine version.  Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist and inventor who was known for creating really complicated machines to accomplish simple tasks.  So now it makes sense why the video is called that.  Enjoy!

You know, I never really contemplated trying to make the Olympic ski team because I just assumed I wasn't good enough.  But after seeing this I think I may have rushed that judgement:

Now this skier is from France, so technically I'd have to become a French citizen to join the team.  But maybe they'd expedite my naturalization process since they could add someone to their team who could make it to the first gate.  Just saying.

He's my new favorite action hero.  This quote is why:

"I promise that you will not FOR ONE SECOND be bored during one of my movies.  You won't learn shit about the human condition, or feel a collective connection with the brotherhood of man.  But if you give me $10, I will fuck an explosion while a Slayer song plays."

He said that in some magazine somewhere.  It's not important.  What is important is that if he ever actually makes a movie where he's f'ing an explosion, that will be the pinnacle of movie making and no film will need to be made after that.  Oh, and the Slayer song should be 'Raining Blood.'