Christmas Deocration

Here is our annual decoration day at 10,000 times the usual speed.

Making some beer for Christmas

It has been 5 years since the last time I brewed a batch. I used to brew at least 3 or 4 batches a year but just have not made time. I even used to teach a homebrew class for Fresno Adult School. It was fun. This was an American Amber Ale. It should be done by Christmas. I also bought grain & hops to make an English Stout so hopefully this batch will be done and I can re-harvest the yeast to do that by Saturday. If you like real beer and want one for Christmas, be sure to let me know... just be sure to give me back the bottle when you are done.

Chuck Norris Friday

The three long months of my water polo season are over and I once again qualify as "having too much time on my hands" so here we go...

There is no such thing as tornados. Chuck Norris just hates trailer parks.

Chuck Norris Friday

Due to a very busy water polo season, I am giving

Chuck Norris Friday's the season off.

Check back again in early November.

Chuck Norris Friday

Death once had a near-Chuck-Norris experience.

Chuck Norris Friday

Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.

Chuck Norris Friday

Chuck Norris let the dogs out.

Upgrade

Over Christmas break, I spent a ton of time editing video so I took the proceeds and built a new computer. This summer has been more of the same so I decided to look into filling my memory slots. I had 3 slots open so that meant room for 6 more gigs. Since the memory now costs about half of what I bought it for in December, I filled em up. I was really surprised how much it improved everything. I only expected to see it when rendering video with multiple processors but almost everything is faster. It used to take me about 2 minutes from power switch to Windows boot. This time it was done in just over a minute.

Chuck Norris Friday

If you spell Chuck Norris wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Chuck Norris?" It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."

So Scary

Today I got a call from my friend Don who I work with. Don has a friend that works in the County Jail and he gave him a call before the news broke. He told me that one of our co-workers, Jim Healy was arrested for child porno and hung himself in jail. I have become good friends with Jim over the past two years. He is our tech guy so I hang out with him a lot.

I had a really hard time believing that Jim would even get arrested, let alone be involved in child porn and commit suicide in jail. He is a good Christian man, a father and a really centered guy. I could not imagine what would lead up to this.

Immediately I started trying to find out if it really was him. I just could not believe it was. Lisa was able to find a website that lists arrest reports. It listed an arrest report with an address. I used my Fresno Unified directory and sure enough, it was the street where Jim Healy lives.

A few minutes later, I found an article when it first broke in the Modesto Bee. It said that Jim Healy, age 65 had been arrested. I know that my friend just turned 50. Things were starting to look up. A few minutes after we found another article that said he was arrested at school where he taught...J.E. Young. I immediately went back to my directory and there it was, two Jim Healys.

I talked to Jim on the phone tonight when we got home from church. He said it has been a busy night for phone calls and e-mails. I told him that I was glad he did not die in jail as a child porno guy. He was glad too.

http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/story/1565771.html

Done!

I have been working on this project since May 13th and I just finished it today. Check it out. You might want to follow the link to YouTube and watch it in HD.

Chuck Norris Friday

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

Bill's Shirt

Hey all you blog followers out there. My water polo buddy Bill came up with this shirt design after watching "The Big Bang Theory." He asked me to hook him up with a posting, so I did. Go buy his shirt.

Chuck Norris Friday

Most people know that Descarte said, "I think, therefore I am." What most people don't know is that that quote continues, "...afraid of Chuck Norris."

My Kids Surf!

Here is video of our family surfing trip.

Morro Bay

We had a great adventure today. We rented so Kayaks and paddled around for hours.

Goodbye Play Yard. I can only imagine what this looked like on the road. It actually was safer than it looked.

FREE Swing Set/Play Yard

Here is a great opportunity for my FB and Blog friends who have (or are soon to have) small kids. Our kids have outgrown their swing set and Lisa and I want to convert the "play area" to something else. The wood is in great shape but it probably could use a coat of paint. I made this out of 2 x 4's, 4 x 4's and 4 x 8's so it is plenty strong. Here is the catch... if you want it, you need to make arrangements to haul it. The swing part will disconnect from the main tower via 4 bolts. The tower is nailed together so you will proabably want to carry it out as one piece. The problem is that the tower is too big to fit through my gate so we need to lift it over the fence. If you want it, you will need a pickup truck and 3 strong peeps to help lift. When I bought this, it cost me about $800 for the plastic parts and the wood. It took me the better part of a day to build it. You can have it for free if you can haul it. Contact me if you are interested or if you just want to come by to have a look.

Why I like the Mayor of Fresno (even though I live in Clovis)

I am doing a short documentary for Fresno/Madera Youth For Christ. For the past 6 weeks, I have been conducting interviews. Here is some rough cut video of what Ashely Swearengin had to say.

Chuck Norris Friday

When Chuck Norris was born, the only person who cried was the doctor. Never slap Chuck Norris.

Fun on the 4th

This 4th, we had some extra fun. I set my camera to rear curtain sync so the flash would fire at the end of the 8 second exposure. This is the result.

Chuck Norris Friday

When Chuck Norris plays Oregon Trail, his family does not die from cholera or dysentery, but rather, roundhouse kicks to the face. He also requires no wagon, since he carries the oxen, axels, and buffalo meat on his back. He always makes it to Oregon before you.

Callahan

This is Callahan. Man Of Action.

Our Bullfrog

Yesterday I walked by the window and saw that our waterfall did not look right. Upon closer inspection, I saw what was blocking the water.

Chuck Norris Friday

Human cloning is outlawed because if Chuck Norris were cloned, then it would be possible for a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to meet another chuck Norris roundhouse kick. Physicists theorize that this contact would end the universe.

My mower of 19 years that I paid $119 for died this week. The throttle control died in the late 90's so I had it clamped full open. The back deck rusted through about 5 years ago so I had the grass bag wired to the top deck. One wheel really didn't turn and when it would not start and had oil all over the spark plug, I decided it was time. I bought a sweet new Honda mower. With my track record, this should be the last mower I ever buy.

Chuck Norris Friday

As President Roosevelt said: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself. And Chuck Norris."

Chuck Norris Friday

It is believed dinosaurs are extinct due to a giant meteor. That's true if you want to call Chuck Norris a giant meteor.

Haircut

Today I cut my hair.  My family helped me out.   This is part of the before & after series.

Chuck Norris Friday

When Chuck Norris says "More cowbell", he MEANS it.

Chuck Norris Friday

On a high school math test, Chuck Norris put down "Violence" as every one of the answers. He got an A+ on the test because Chuck Norris solves all his problems with Violence.

Chuck Norris Friday

Chuck Norris celebrates Memorial Day!

Mortal Enemies Friends At Long Last

The kids and I were very surprised to go out in the back corner of the yard and discover this. 

Of course, they were both up to what they do when the new dragonflies come back.  They have been "training" our dragons for 3 years now.  Each year, it gets easier and takes less patience.  I wonder if our dragons pass that trait down to the next generation.  Last year they even managed to get a couple of humming birds to land on them.  

 

Chuck Norris Friday

In the first Jurassic Park movie, the Tyrannosaurus Rex wasn't chasing the jeep. Chuck Norris was chasing the Tyrannosaurus AND the jeep.

Jeep Doors - Before & After

Summer is officially here! Another installment in the before and after series.

Summer is here from Jim Weaver on Vimeo.

Good Baby Advice

Two cool things - one night

If you watch the night sky, you know that from time to time cool things are visible. Jupiter and Saturn look amazing through a decent backyard scope or good binoculars. Mars when close, looks cool and if there is not a dust storm, you can even see the frozen poles. (Yes, there are times when we are closer but not ever as close as that bogus e-mail people keep sending me because I teach astronomy) Tomorrow, Saturday May 9th, there will be two cool astronomical happenings visible from the Fresno/Clovis area.

1. There is a fleet of communications satellites called "Iridium" that are highly reflective. Because of this, they act like a mirror in space. If you are in the right place at the right time, they reflect the sun and look really bright. The first time I ever saw one of these, I didn't know what it was and it actually freaked me out a little bit. They are so bright, you can actually see them during the daytime if you know where and when to look. Saturday May 9th at 8:05 and 44 seconds, look to the North Northwest. Look up about 35 degrees from the horizontal and you will see one of these satellites "flare".

2. The International Space Station will fly over, just after sunset. What makes this cool is that for the people on the space station, because they are high above the Earth, it will still be day. For us, it will night so the space station will look very bright. At exactly 9:33 and 31 seconds, look low in the sky to the Southwest. By 9:36 it will move almost directly overhead and pass into earth's shadow and disappear.

Again, these will only be visible if you live in the Fresno/Clovis area.

Chuck Norris Friday

Chuck Norris doesn't actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear.

Fresno Super hero?

I think it is about time to form a Fresno/Clovis branch. Will you join me?

Cool

Saw this on Vimeo.  Cool.

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

Chuck Norris Friday

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris? ...All of it.

Chuck Norris Friday

Maslow's theory of higher needs does not apply to Chuck Norris. He only has two needs: killing people and finding people to kill.

Snow Trip

Last Monday we went up to Huntington Lake for a late snow trip. We managed to find a shady spot with enough snow to ride on. It was really icy and fast so the kids had a good time. The youngest Weave had a little mishap but she is ok. (Be sure to watch the end) Now she knows that sometimes you just got to bail off.



Mom is not ok, she tore her ACL. More on that to follow.

Chuck Norris Friday

The show Survivor had the original premise of putting people on an island with Chuck Norris. There were no survivors, and nobody is brave enough to go to the island to retrieve the footage.

Chuck Norris Friday

Olympic Silver

I have played water polo for the Central Valley Water Polo club for the last 9 years. Each year we go to a National Championship and end up competing against very good teams. Often, these teams field ex-Olympians. This year, we have our own. Rick Merlo is a local boy who competed in Beijing this past summer. If you don't follow water polo, the men's team came away with silver. Last night, Rick brought his medal to show the Fresno Pacific women's team. Rick is likely to be a part time coach for FPU next year. Our 20's team should do very well this year with Rick's help at Nationals.

Sorry this looks bad, I only had my cell phone with me last night. Man those things are heavy.

I saw this a while back and really liked it. Yesterday while walking through Costco, the boy and I were watching the wall of TV's when they ran a preview for the new Disney Earth movie. The music Disney used sounded familiar and the boy remembered it came from this little film.


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Chuck Norris Friday

Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On March 18th, 1989, a naked Chuck Norris re-entered the earth's atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.

Braces - Before and After

This is part of the before and after series.

Before

After

A bunch of dirty hippies

The kids had hippie day at school on Friday. To prepare, we had family tie dye day. It was fun but as soon as it was over I felt compelled to give the kids an anti-drug message.

Doggie Haricut

Before

After