Day 131

So, apparently my thinking yesterday was off, it was day 130. My apologies. I think you'll manage to get over it.

On to today's awesomosity. As I told you yesterday, I am at a cheerleading competition all day today. hooray (for those that can't tell, that was some serious sarcasm). Cheerleading competitions suck in general. The music is horrible and WAY too loud, there are too many way too excited young girls, people are generally rude, and I've just been to too many of them. So, what could I possibly find awesome about today (and yes Jacobi, I am in a decent mood most of the time, and I do spend a lot of time thinking about what is awesome)? In-ear headphones.

Here is why the headphones that I have been wearing all day are awesome. They are not noise-cancelling, those would be much sweeter. No, these are just regular $20 in-ear headphones. They aren't like the ones that come with an iPod, those hurt after a little bit. No, these headphones have a small speaker, then a flexible rubber adapter piece so they are comfortable in your ear.

Why is this so awesome today? Because that way the ridiculous noise of horrible music, screaming children (and parents), air horns, whistles, wood blocks, and whatever else these people can come up with to annoy me, is all not near as loud since I can control my own volume and this style of headphones does a decent job of canceling out ambient noise.

Now, of course, actual noise-cancelling headphones would work better, like the one's Bose makes, but those are a little out of my price range, but if you feel generous this Christmas, I wouldn't turn them down (I'm kidding, if you feel generous this Christmas, help make it a great holiday and adopt a family that may not be able to afford it).

So, my headphones are awesome today, what do you think?

Task o' The Day: Listen to your iPod, and consider whether or not you like your headphones. While listening, do something productive, like work in the yard, or shovel some snow, or go for a run, whatever.

Here is my picture, In the same position I have sat in since 10:45 this morning, listening to horrible music with awesome headphones. Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow for day 2 of awesomosity in the midst of a cheerleading competition.

Day 129 (I think)

About the title. I think I'm on 129, but it could well be 130, I don't know, they all run together after a while.

You may be wondering about the pictures. Yes, I have a camera, monitor, 3 dvd burners, an audio mixer, a monitor, a DVCam record deck, a firestore (this really awesome thing that let's you shoot video straight to hard drive, very awesome), a 250 Gb hard drive, a distribution amplifier (lets you boost and send many audio or video signals), and a partidge in a pear tree. Phew! Now that is what you call a "Mr. Video setup".

A few weeks ago I worked in Nashville for MVP shooting some marching band. This weekend I don't have it so easy, I'm shooting cheerleading. Trust me, its not awesome, it sucks. However, I am working in Saint Louis, and they are short days.

Actually, that's what leads me to the awesomosity today, America's Center. I know what you're saying, AC sucks Ben, its a union only house, everything is too expensive, and it isn't that great of a convention center. Well, you're right, but here are the good things.

They have a cable tunnel, so I never have to to tape any cable down, awesome. They also have free wifi (and some you can pay for, which doesn't make any sense), awesome. It is also about 15 minutes from my house, extra awesome.

TASK o' THE DAY: treat your city like you are a tourist. Go see some sights this weekend. Ask random people for directions to obvious places. Eat out.

That picture is what I'll be doing most of tomorrow, but I get done around 5, so if you wanna hang, gimme a shout! Thanks for reading!

Day 129

Since I wasn't at all political yesterday, I think I will be today.

The awesomeness is once again not something, but the lack of something. Political ads. I have been seeing them for well over a year now, and last night as I was watching TV it was back to Erectile dsyfunction, hemroids, and properly dealing with "that time of the month". I never thought I would be happy to see so many commercials about tampons.

Since there aren't political ads on anymore, I thought I would look through a few funny ones over the past several years.

Here is a video from MSNBC that highlights a few bad ads. I like at the end, she is very excited about getting to interview Barack Obama.



Here is a great one from Bill Richardson in New Mexico. I think he wants to do the opposite of Reagan, and go from politics to acting.



This was a special ad from Mike Huckabee, sure to be one of the all-time best. How can it not be, it's Chuck Norris approved?!!!



And finally, probably the best sound bite to come out of politics in years. I give you Howard Dean.



Task o' The Day: write something. A blog, an email, a letter, a manifesto, a doctrine, I don't care. Just write. You never said the ToD had to be about that day's awesomosity, right?

Here I am looking spiffy for my business meeting this morning.

Day 128

I bet you are all thinking that today's awesomosity will be something political. Well, you're wrong.

Here is today's awesomosity:


And, what is that you ask? It's Chlorophyll! That's right, your favorite makin' plants green chemical! But, of course, chlorophyll is not really the awesomosity of the day. Really it's that lack of chlorophyll that is awesome. In other words, fantastic colors on trees. And they won't be here for long, so you better get lookin while the lookin's good.

Well, first off, apparently chlorophyll is pretty awesome, or else it wouldn't be the Chemical of the Week, now would it?

Another thing you didn't know is that chef's use chlorophyll to dye stuff green, such as pasta. They have to mix it with oil first though, since it's not soluble in water. You can read about that and more here.

And that's not all! There are some Amazing Claims about chlorophyll, including that when taken in a pill orally, it can help with hereditary gum disease. Huh! Who knew?

Task o' The Day: Go look at some leaves and take a pretty picture. Then send me a link or post it up somewheres.

Anyway, here is a picture of me trying to get some pretty fall colors from my folks backyard.

Day 127

So, I voted today, I hope you have or will. I only had to wait about 10 minutes, so don't let the threat of long lines dissuade you. And you can get some free stuff.

How awesome is that? That you can exercise your constitutional right to vote, and you get rewarded for it. What can you get? According to USAToday, not only a free cup of coffee from Starbucks (totally gonna do that by the way) or a free donut from Krispy Kreme, but way more. Check it out:

•Coffee. Starbucks expects to hand out "hundreds of thousands" of free 12-ounce drip coffees (valued at about $1.75 each), says spokeswoman Jenny McCabe. "If everyone who votes comes in for a free cup of coffee, we'll have some lines," she says.

•Doughnuts. Some 85 of Krispy Kreme's 231 locations in the U.S. will hand out star-shaped, red-white-and-blue sprinkled doughnuts "while supplies last," says spokesperson Dana Hughens. The chain will give out about 200,000 doughnuts valued at 99 cents each. "People are definitely talking about the brand as a result of this," she says.

•Ice cream. Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. in each time zone, Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops will hand out single-scoop ice cream cones (a $3.40 value). "What better way to encourage people to be politically active than to give away free ice cream?" asks spokeswoman Liz Brenna.

•Sandwiches. In a local market promotion, several hundred of the nation's 1,400 Chick-fil-A stores will hand out $2.70 chicken sandwiches to adults who show proof that they voted, says spokesman Jerry Johnston.

•Phone calls. Credo Mobile, a wireless company that donates money to progressive causes for calls its customers make, will offer free outbound calls to current customers during polling hours in their states. The cost could be about $250,000, says spokeswoman Becky Bond.

•Discount haircuts. Then, there's Cristophe Schatteman, a top hair stylist known for giving former president Bill Clinton a $200 haircut on Air Force One. His salons in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Beverly Hills and Orange County, Calif., will offer all services — including haircuts — at half price today. A $500 haircut from Cristophe will go for $250.

I also checked StLToday.com, but they didn't have anything else that was special to St. Louis. But you can totally get a donut, then a chicken sandwich, then a cup of coffee, all for free (if you vote).

By the way, if you live in the 67th District, write me in for State Representative. I did.

Task o' The Day: Easy. Go vote. I don't care who for, just vote. Then get some free stuff.

Here is my picture, you may notice my "I voted" sticker, and the lack of stache. I shaved it to prepare for National Beard Month.

Day 126

Seriously, who would have thought that I would be going more than 3 months strong? Not me. Maybe that'll be my next poll question.

So, apparently November is National Beard Growing Month. I don't know who appointed this, but I'm getting involved. Seriously.

Someone (thanks Molly!) sent me a link to this guys page that includes a chart of beard types.

I think this month I'll go for the "Klingon". Thats a new one I haven't tried before.

I have written about the awesomeness of beards and razors, but this month, beard totally beat razors.

Sorry for the late, short post, but there it is. Beard Month is awesome enough in itself, dontcha think?

Here I am, high above Ballwin on someone's roof.

Day 125

You may notice that this is a pretty early post (especially by my standards). There is a reason for that, its just not necessarily a good reason.

First, what's awesome. The end of daylight savings time. This means that time actually moves back an hour. Rumor has it that it takes 5 giants, 2 bears, 3 giraffes, a hippo, 4 large-mouth bass, and 2 midgets to perform the ritual that makes all the clocks move their hands (or digits) back one hour. And the sad thing is that somehow the clocks in my house were passed over by the Teriffic Time Team.

The end result of me being passed over by the TTT is that I'm up a full hour to early. I thought I was going to be just on time, then I picked up my phone that had the right time. I guess that the ATT cell towers were not passed over by the magical TTT. So apparently this year I'm responsi ble for changing my own clocks. Oh well, now I got to eat a bowl of cereal (Life), watch some stupid political coverage, and have a small quiet time.

TASK o' THE DAY: Make sure the magical Teriffic Time Team didn't pass over your house too (though I guess its a little late for that now). If they missed you too, get a nap in this afternoon. If your clocks did get changed last night, then enjoy your extra sleep, that's awesome enough.

My picture was soon after I realized all my clocks were wrong and I had already prepared for the day.

Have a spectacular day, see you tomorrow!