beef

Sack and I tried out gtalk last night for an hour or so. Overall it was a pretty good experience. Every once in a while I would here a little bit of feedback through my speakers but nothing else. I think it is basically an IM client with the ability to transmit voice. If you want to talk, download the client and search for me beef22 a t gmail d o t com. I should have it on most nights.

I’m sure all of you have been anticipating the beginning of another bowling season. The season started the week after Labor Day. The third week of the season was last Wednesday. For what ever reason, I’ve found the bowling touch early in the season. Previously, my high average had been 158 – solid and increasing each of the five previous years.

This season has started off well. It might be too good as expectations are raised and I have less of a handicap to help correct the mistakes I’ve made. After nine games, my average sits at 187. The first two games of the week looked like they were going to pull that average down a bit as I started with a 150 and a 160. But my brain finally kicked in at the end of the third game, every ball I threw was hooking a little bit too much at the end and hitting the left side of the pocket. I decided to speed my delivery up a bit to take away some of the hook and viola – I started hitting the pocket.

My previous high was 242 and it sat taped to my cubicle wall for the past year or so. I was lucky enough to eclipse that mark and roll a 257. The scanner is put away and I’m too lazy to get it out or I would scan in the line but instead I’ll recreate in print.

Sing the praises! I ended the game on an eight strike run. I was quite close as the 3rd and 4th frames were solid balls but I left the 10 pin (back right) each time. Finishing up my point from the first paragraph – after three weeks of bowling my average is going to be about 187 – talk about all downhill from here.

Tra la la. I can’t wait until next week.

I’ve got my gallery set up using Gallery2 and the WPG2 plugin. It looks all right. My fixed width body makes things look weird. Two folders acroos is going to make for a funny looking page. I’ll have to try and modify the style sheet for the page, maybe shrink the text, etc. Good luck, Beef. I haven’t had much success with this in the past.

However, I may forgo the integration into the wordpress blog and just link directly to the stand alone Gallery 2.

For future reference, Beef’s Gallery can be found in the sidebar.

Our garden supplies many moments of entertainment for me. This installment takes a look at vegetable that everyone can grow and a quite beautiful flower.

I asked Megan to let this zuchinni grow so I could see how big it could get. This picture does it some justice but it is still hard to really appreciate its size. I measured it and it is currently about 2 1/2 feet long and about the same in circumfrence. I’m sure it would be absolutely awful if eaten. The other two pictures are of an artichoke that has flowered. Quite excellent and quite similar to the chardoon but they aren’t the same. If you go back aways in their evolution, I think they come from the same plant originally.

Another link to Google Maps fun.

This is an interesting site. Basically, the more blogs that link to the story, the bigger the headline. What is really interesting is then it also lists the main blogs that are discussing said article. I will watch for a few days and see how things evolve. They have both a page for politics and tech.

Friday night and it’s time to take my lady out and show her a good time on the town. Nothing but the best for a classy lady.

Unfortunately, the only party we could find on this friday evening was a wake. We were mourning the loss of youth and innocence.

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I’ve been watching some anime series recently. Quite fun. Some action, weird plots, and decent music. I think all three have been on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim at one time or another plus, as always, you can get them from Netflix. I’m going to explore a few other series in the near future, but the ones I’ve enjoyed immensely so far are as follows.

Cowboy Bebop – What can I say that hasn’t already been said. Space cowboys, eccentric combo, hidden pasts, and great music. A great series for most anyone to enjoy.

Wolf’s Rain – This series has more of a cohesive story that runs through the whole length of the series. The wolves are hidden from the rest of the world by their ability to appear as humans. The goal of the four wolves is to find Paradise with the help of the Flower Maiden, Cheza. The music isn’t quite up to par with bebop but I was still enthralled by the whole story line.

Samurai Champloo – A warrior, a ronin, and a waitress embark on a quest to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers. I’m about halfway through this series and really enjoying it. Lots of funky beats and wild subplots.

A couple of interesting points about these series. I don’t know how to precisely describe the animation but its not the bubblegum style that a lot of anime comes off as. I think there are clear connections between the three as far as anime style, music, and story lines. As I write this, I’ve realized that a main theme in all three is the constant hunger of the main characters. Most of the subplots to the main goals of the series related to the characters doubling over in pain from lack of food with their wacky adventures trying to accomplish the goal of finding food for that episode.

The three of these series consist of 25-28 episodes with episodes about 22 minutes in length. Cowboy BeBop also has a movie one can watch that was made after the series but fits in the middle of the series storyline.

Here are a few series that have caught my eye and which I will be investigating in the future.

FLCL and Paranoia Agent

If anybody has any suggestions for series similar to the ones above, I’d appreciate it.