Perspective

Perspective is a word that I find myself using more and more these days since it is so applicable to so many situations and is often the cause for many misunderstandings. This concept for stuck out to me while watching Return of the Jedi as a kid and seeing the following scene (go 24 seconds in if you are really impatient):

Shortly after the first time I actually remember having that scene stick out in my mind, when I was around 7 or so, I started to have this recurring dream. In the dream, my visual perspective essentially zoomed out from my eyes to our families house and then from our house to show our neighborhood. From there, it zoomed out again to show the base itself and from there to show the county, the country, the continent etc until finally I was in the depths of space, struggling to wrap my mind around what actually is out there. It truly made me realize how small we are in the grand order of things and I think that perspective is something that I keep with me to this day. Imagine my surprise when I was surfing around the internetz this morning (looking for new, cool things to revel in) when I happened to stumble upon a video that somewhat mirrors the dream I used to have.

Granted, this video contains a lot more detail than mine dream did, but you might get a sense of the wonder that I used to get wrapped in thinking about what really is "out there" and how far "out there" really goes. I have watched this video around 3-4 times today already before writing this post up and I still can't help but wonder what is out there and if/when we might get a better glimpse of that from the human perspective.

LHS 2009 Reunion: The Blog!

I apologize for taking so very long to get this up. I will be very honest…part of me did not want to write anything since writing a wrap up on something is a very real way of saying that it is over and I wish that awesome weekend could have gone on much longer. For those of you who went to LHS and did not get to attend, it was honestly a blast and was well worth the trip. Getting a chance to catch up with so many old friends after so long, even though it seemed like it had only been a few months with how everyone jumped right in, was phenomenal. Ever since high school ended, I always thought put of our unique and special experience as being a product of our unique and special surroundings we all lived in while in England. Seeing everyone again made me realize that it wasn’t the unique or special surroundings that made what we had so amazing…it was, in fact, the people that gave us this near perfect upbringing.

After hopping the Atlantic for college, especially for me being in Texas, I have come to feel sorry for so many people that I talk to who had graduating classes bigger than our entire school since they did not get to experience the sheer awesomeness of honestly saying that they know everyone in their grade or, in some case, know just about everyone in their school. This also helped to make Lakenheath so unique and was proven by the fact that we had a reunion that covered several years, but that would not have been apparent to an outsider looking in on our weekend since everyone moved from place to place together. Sure, people may have hovered to the former Lancers that they knew a bit better or hung out with a bit more back in Lakenheath, but we didn’t all run off our separate ways either.

Now, I know that there are a lot of awesome things that I might not be thinking of or that I might have flat out missed, so please feel free to add anything that you think I missed by commenting on this long and overdue post. Without further ado, I give you the LHS Reunion 2009 Superlatives:

Most likely to be eating – Eugene Frier

Most likely to be running the country in 10 years max – Chris Henderson

Most likely to fly for the Air Force while drunk – Jeff Greensfelder

Most likely to do homework while at the pool of her High School reunion – Andrea Perkins

Most likely to come up big when his back seems to be against the wall – Alex Robinson

Most likely to be called an idiot more than everyone else – Stephan Lasher

Most likely to master the Ying and Yang leg lock – Eliseo Lopez

Most likely to be angry – Monique Lomax-Csqwioeuhsdjf

Most likely to bring military gear to a banquet – Adam Steele

Most likely to open a nightclub one day – Chris Hale

Most likely to have an awesome husband – Valerie Clinger-Hansen

Most likely to appear out of nowhere – Stanley Holder

Most likely to kidnap someone – Melissa Schonder

Most likely to rob a bank using nothing but his brute strength – Mark Howder

Most likely to get drunk before boarding the plane to DC – Umair Zia

Most likely to coordinate taxi services – Aaron Shepley

Most likely to roll 50 deep – Tony Ledwell

Most likely to choke a bitch – Kelly De Meis

Most likely to not appear pregnant while being looked at head on – Tasha Hostetler

Most likely to actually be a small forward for the New York Knicks – Terrance McBurnie

Most likely to get lost on the way to The Asparagus Joint – Sherina Florence

Anyone have any other superlatives or memories from the reunion to add?

Weirdest Dream Ever

Due to the high level of awesome in this dream, I decided to re post it here (from my facebook notes) to spread the weird. At the time I wrote this, I had a very flu like sickness over the weekend that pulled a fast one and mutated into my leg sicko infection again. What none of you know, however, is the adventure that happened one night over the weekend while under the effects of my flu medicine....

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So there I was, sitting in my house, when none other than James Fairchild decides to give me a call using a cellular device. Upon answering the phone, I can barely make out what James is saying due to the explosions I hear in the background and two distinctly different, yet inaudible, voices battling for supreme noise dominance. All I could make out from what James said was, "we can't do it without one more...can you be the fourth?" So, obviously, with the explosions and talk of needing a fourth, he must be talking about playing the popular X-Box 360 game called Halo 3, and just be in need of a fourth player to help them online or something so I said yes. Instantly, I hear a knock on my door and, before I can even get up to answer it, the door gets knock open and I hear James yell, "Come outside and get in the spaceship." It was at this point that I should have suspected something was not right, but, sadly, I did not, so off I went.

When I got to the spaceship of which Mr. Fairchild was speaking, I saw two other individuals sitting next to him. The first, many of you know but I am not sure how many of you have met yet. His name? Donkey Kong...yes, THAT Donkey Kong. He was shorter than I imagined. The other gentlemen I did not recognize or ever actually hear his name. I can tell you, however, that he was a tall, fair skinned Pig-Man of some sort who seemed to be working for some branch of the military. We all put on our space travel helmets and the spaceship took off taking us to our destination.

When we arrived at this unknown planet and got off the ship, Sgt Pig-Man dragged with him two very heavy looking crates that were covered with a very military looking, stencil/warning label that read, "Danger: Really Awesome and Dangerous Weapons." At this point, I knew that, no matter what we were doing, we had the fire power to back it up. Donkey Kong opened the crates and started handing out the contents to all four of us. Each crate was filled with an assortment of slightly oversized fruits and vegtables. As this point, I knew that, no matter what we were doing, we had a healthy and balanced snack to accompany our journey. And that was when the explosions started.

We ran for what seemed like a lifetime, but whenever I asked James or Sgt Pig-Man how much farther we had to go, they would just look at me and say, "Slide on the ice." We were getting attacked by an army of ninja bears on foot and they were being given air cover by what looked like, from my view from the ground, t-rex piloted fighter jets. I just knew that we ere doomed, but then I saw Donkey Kong throw a slightly oversized strawberry at one of the jets and it exploded into thousands of frowning emoticons. It seemed, at that point, that our weapons weren't so bad after all. Donkey Kong, being the only person unable to speak "English" in our group, seemed to be getting more excited the closer we got to the top of this tree like fortress we seemed to be invading. When I asked James what we were here for, he just looked at me and said, "Slide on the ice." Since that was all either he or Pig-Man had said to me since arriving, I will admit, it started to make a slittle more sense.

We finally got about forty yards from the top and then they was a giant explosion as the route we were taking got blown up by those clever pilots. Donkey Kong then pulled out four very special bunches of bananas and handed them to each of us. He threw his into the air and we all followed suit. What happened next, very much resembled the old Sonic the Hedgehog game when you would be running really fast and hit the series of springy things that would shoot you higher and higher into the air where you would hit the next one etc etc. Replace springy things with explosions and it was the same. Then we landed on top of the fortress and what we found there, I would have never expected.

On top of the fortress was a single, golden banana. Donkey Kong peeled back the shimmering skin as a tear rolled down his cheek. After he ate he, he grew to triple the size he was when I met him and had aquired the ability to talk and this is what he said:

"12 Banana...General Swine...brown stranger...thank you all for helping me get the golden banana. With this banana, I will have the strength to reunite my lost kingdom and the gift of human speak to gain admittance into a progressive four year university that can offer me a degree in industrial engineering. For that, I cannot that you enough. And now, we fly..."

Then the four of us flew away from the fortress as it blew up behind us and, while flying, I looked at 12 Banana and General Swine and simply said, "Slide on the ice."

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That is when I woke up from what was possibly the weirdest (and likely most medicine fueled) dream I have ever had.

Three Manliest Men Ever

Now, if only the previous entries three names could be matched up with these three individuals, we would have proof that superheroes really do exist:

Aron Ralston (http://tinyurl.com/bxs7nd)

This is the one most people will be familiar with. So Aron was hiking or something Man vs Naturishly awesome and all of a sudden, a giant hurtles towards him and pins his right arm down, preventing him from moving. Four days go by with him just surviving on water (and then that ran out) and when it got to the sixth day of him just, ya know, conquering nature when nature that that they had him, he decided there was only one course of action left to survive. He decided to cut off his own arm, with a pocketknive no less, in order to save his life.


Daniel M'Mburugu (http://tinyurl.com/2v62mb)

Daniel was a 73 year old Kenyan peasant farmer who, like many peasant farmers are known to do, was tending to his crops one day when a very aggressive leopard jumped out and made a move at him. Now, I know a great many people who are scared of my dogs and freak out when I am walking them down the street, so imagine for one second how you might act is a freaking leopard were to jump out at you. Lucky for Daniel that he happened to be carrying a machete for his yard work. Unluckily for the leopard, Daniel had apparently transcended the pinnacle of manliness and did not need simple toys like a machete to dispatch this minor nuisance. Apparently, Daniel's machete was only going to slow down his "wild animal tongue ripping out action" were he to continue carrying it, so Daniel dropped it and ripped out the wild animals tongue.


Captain Sigurdur Petursson (http://tinyurl.com/lewxsu)

Like most old Icelandic males nicknamed "The Iceman," Sigurdur is a fisherman. Unlike most Icelandic males, regardless of their nickname, Sigurdur holds the disctinction of besting the of the most feared animals on the planet 1 v1 . He saw his crew processing a recent catch, which fills the water with teh blood and guts of said catch, and noticed a 660lbs shark swimming towards them. Did he do what you would have done? No, he did not shriek like a child for his friends to run. Instead, The Iceman ran towards the monstrous beast, grabbed it by its tail and dragged it out of the shallow water to land...where he proceeded to kill it with his knife.

*****Honorable Mention*****

Although this man is not yet a man and is still a boy, I wanted to give an honorable mention to one young Norwegian named Hans Jørgen Olsen. This 12 year old World of Warcraft player used his "nub huntard skillz" to save the life of both him and his sister. Both he and his sister were cornered by a moose while taking a stroll through the forest (I guess as Norwegians do) when a moose that they probably pissed off, as kids do, started making moves towards them. Young Hans utilized the skill that most Warcraft hunters are known for to save the day. In WoW, hunters can basically fake their own death with an ability called (surprise) "feign death." Hans drew the moose away from his sister and did just that. The moose, now distracted by what he thought was a dead night el....errr, little kid went back in the forest to do whatever it is that moose do.

Three Manliest Names Ever

In an effort to get back in the habit of writing a few more things on ye olde blog, I am going to add this short entry as a part one of sorts for a two part tribute to manliness. In part 1, I offer you, my humble reader, the chance to read some of the manliest names in existence. Part 2 will bring you a few of the most manly acts of manliness ever to grace the world.

For the names, here are the best three that I have run across in my various journeys on the interwebz.

Enjoy!

Number 3: Elliot Bonebrake - a Kansas based Chiropractor (http://www.findlocalchiropractor.net/Kansas/Elliott-Bonebrake-Chiropractic-Clinic-32955.html)

Number 2: Sultan McDoom - Vice President for Product Engineering at Menara Networks (http://www.menaranet.com/company_management.htm)

Number 1: Staff Sgt. Max Fightmaster - Computer Technician with the Army National Guard (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/27/iraq/main575441.shtml)

King of Pop

Although it has been a few days now since the passing of Michael Jackson, I have to admit that I am still a little sad that he has gone. It seems that most of the stuff I see online about him since his passing lands on the realm of one or two distinct extremes. First, there is the sincere and heartfelt sadness in the "we will miss you MJ" type posts/articles/status updates out there and then there is the much more crass and harsh stuff focusing on his rather questionable last decade or so. Now, granted, I am a fan of off color jokes as much as just about anyone...hell, even more than most at times, but I find myself having a hard time even thinking about making these jokes about him right now. It wasn't until early this morning that I realized that there is a commonality shared by most of those spreading the latter message that I do not share and which is probably the reason I have not (and probably won't) been making any of these jokes myself. I realize that most of the people are much younger than I am. Working at a college campus, I do not see age as much as someone who is not around such a broad spectrum might. Daily, I interact with people whose ages can range from 17 to 55. I forget sometimes that the people I see a lot or talk with online are much younger than I am. I do not mean to say that their youth implies immaturity in this regard, more so I mean that those people who are making these comments, for the most part at least, knew a different Michael Jackson than I did.

Again, I realize how weird things got from about the late 90s on with him and I couldn't tell you the most recent song of his that I actually like, but I do know that he was essentially the composer to the soundtrack of my youth. Regardless of what else he ever might have done, that always remained in my mind when I thought of MJ. Granted, sometimes it was in sadness as we watched his life seem to spiral down into some weird places, but I still feel sad now that someone who quite literally changed the world is no longer with us. Many people called him a musical genius, but I think he might have even transcended that as well. For all intents and purposes, he made music and a part of American (and global in some ways) culture what it is today. Was he a little strange? Yeah. I am sure that was the case when he first embarked on a solo career although the public did not see that as much. Most geniuses throughout history have a little strange in them...that might even be why they are geniuses.

I do not write this to chastise anyone who has made jokes at his expense, rather I write this to pay my respects to a man who could keep me riveted to a television set when I was growing up, whose dance moves made someone (me) not even interested in dancing get up and make a fool of myself trying to emulate him, a man who, at one time, quite literally ruled the world and a man who, for a quarter of a century, made music that just about everyone on this planet knew all the words to and sang along with.

This is the Michael Jackson that I will always remember. This is the Michael Jackson that I will miss.



Michael Jackson, you truly were the King of Pop. Please know that, no matter what else people may say or write about you, you have had a lasting impact on this entire planet and on this one humble geek.

Rest in Peace

Greatest Sports Comeback Ever?

Being in Texas, I am sure many people have seen this. Hell, I remember seeing this video a long time ago...I just didn't realize it was Plano East and that they were playing in Dallas. This is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. I challenge someone to prove me wrong on this.

The Haters out there will especially enjoy last 37 seconds.

I will not spoil it for those of you who have not seen it.