Movies

When a new movie come out like "Tron legacy", "Transformers" or "Thor", I generally enjoy where the producers take the story line even if it is in a different direction than what I would have wanted. I try and not let plot twist and little mistakes about the movie distract me form enjoying it but some times I just cant help it. During these times it is good to know that someone out there has the talent to change the story. At "How it should have ended. com" has taken it upon himself to correct the mistakes in movies and tell them in a more logical way. here are a few that I like.

"Tron" Orignal


"THOR"


The new "Star Trek"


"Transformers"


One of my favorites is "Twilight"


I love the comments and jokes they put in each movie.

Music to muse

I love music it has the ability to be inspiring, soothing, and so much more.

Christmas decorations

last year I reported the overall decorating that I did on my house with a total number of light broken up between outside and inside.  Well this year is no different it just took me longer to post about it.  So last year my grand total was 1775 lights inside and out this year I added more. 

For one thing my artificial tree grew over the course of the year I know what you are thinking artificial trees can not grow. I would tend to agree however,  I had to add 50 more lights to completely cover my tree this year bring the total to a whopping 1,000 on just my tree alone.  last year I had a similar problem and I thought I would be just fine but no the lights from last year ended 2-3 feet from the top of the tree.  Needless to say I was very perplexed and confused, so I concluded that my tree even though it is not real grew a foot or two.  We also placed our tree in our living room window to add to the overall outdoor lighting experience.

In addition we also splurged and purchased a DVD of a fireplace to help set the mood for Christmas.  I can tell you even though it was a fake fireplace just watching it and hearing the popping sounds of the burning logs I could actually feel the warmth of a real fire.

This year we decided to start buying the LED light set, and slowly over the course of the next few years would replace our existing light with more power efficient strands.  However this year I just added to what I had because I’m like that, and I bet you can not tell which strands are the new one right.  

These pictures don’t show it but one of the old strands ( the same ones I used last year and suspended them form my celling on my patio) was set to a chase setting which created a interesting effect seeing as everything else was just solid.  This strand is on the gutter and above the main level window and door.

I also for fun put some lights in my girls window just to increase the excitement level for them.  I did this because I can remember back when I was growing up seeing the lights twinkling through my bedroom blinds and light up my celling.  I loved watching as one of the old c9 bulbs would blink while the others would be continues.  Just having those light on would make me so excited about the Christmas season, and I wanted my girls to have the same memories. 

So now comes the time where I tell you the total number of lights for this year with an astounding 2520 I can smile knowing I broke my personal record.  The break down goes as follows 1,000 lights on my growing tree, and 1520 on the outside of the house.  So until next year this is my new record for decorating.

Volcanoes

This semester in my classes we are learning about volcanoes, and everything that goes with them.  So I thought I would share with you some of what I learned first off geologist have a index rating for volcanoes that is similar to the rector scale meaning a change from a 1 to a 2 is 10 times more powerful.  This scale is called  Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) (check the link for more info)and ranges form 0 to 9 in intensity rating.  Each volcano has a different rating based on the plume height, frequency of eruption, its occurrence, and the total amount of ejected material.  With a little back ground I wanted to share some new knowledge about a type of volcano that I did not know much about they are called a “Maar” volcanoes and are very deadly.  They form like any other volcano by magma rising to the surface however in this case the magma comes into contact with an underground aquifer.  Water is instantly flashed to steam and as a super heated gas it need to expand rapidly but being trapped under ground applies pressure which is quickly over powered in a atomic like explosion earning a VEI of 5-6.  Some of these eruptions produce super heated plumes that can rise 55 kilometers in the atmosphere in case you are wondering NASA describes space as starting at 100 kilometers from the surface of the earth just to give you an idea of the height these plumes can reach.  They produce pyroclastic density currents(PDC) which are super heated ash flows that can travel up to 100 miles an hour, destroy anything in there path.  These PDC are what is responsible for the destruction of the city of Pompeii and all the people that lived there (note Mt. Vesuvius is not a maar but is a Strato-volcano like Mt St. Helens).  It is common to find maar’s as a shallow lake sometimes as deep as 10 to 200 meters  and as wide as 60 to 8000 meters.  I will describe more volcanoes and what I have learned in upcoming posts but until then get to know what your walking around on.

New Songs

It has been a while since I posted any music I relay like Andy Mckee.  What he can do with a guitar is incredible and enjoyable to listen to

I did not know they could do that….

I was reading a post about dolphins on another blog and got interested in all the other videos that were similar.  It took a few minutes until I came across this one and had to share it.

Sweet

It took awhile and a lot of hard work but I did it.

I passed my Calculus I class.

I. Am. Awesome.

Just wanted you to know,

about me and my awesomeness.

Go me.

Geology

As some one who is fascinated by Geology to the point that it even persuades my humor it was great to see a movie with some geology humor in to. What is great is that I'm not the only one who can laugh at a good geology joke. During the movie Planet 51 I was delighted to see one of the main character had about the same level of interest in geology as I do. Then when I thought this movie could not get any better there were two seen that made me laugh so hard so that I thought I would share it with you.

In this first clip "Rover" is collecting rock samples and finds more than just a rock what made me laugh is how he dealt with this pest (which is a scorpion / lizard).



On this planet when it rains it does not rain water; however, in its place is something I would never want landing on my head.



As a student of geology hoping to one day be a planetary geologist this movie was interesting.

The Reason for the Break

It has already been two months since my last post it all comes down to habits my are not the most predictable.  Have you ever had the moment where you do something very well for awhile then the habit slowly fades?  For me the most stand out moment where this will happen is when I play one of my all time favorite video games Final Fantasy 1.  Every time with out fail when I reach the last dungeon (which is also the fist one in the game) all of my ambition to finish off the game disappears. I think that has happened in a different way to my blog.  However I will try to rekindle my habits and post more regularly.

Recap of 2009

I have been neglectful when it comes to posting the experiences and stories of my life.  Over the past few months I started a few entries but they never seemed to get off the ground.  Which brings me to this point where I realized that a new year is upon me and I had not finished out the 2009 year on my blog.  So the point of this post is to share the last few months worth of adventures with a little back story.

One year ago about a week before Christmas 2008 we moved to in my opinion the best and newest apartment that we had ever lived in to date after M and I were married.  With the move happening so close to the holidays I did not have time to properly decorate our new home.  This was a problem I was going to rectify for the 2009 season. 

When it comes to decorating with lights I try and emulate Clark Griswold from the Christmas Vacation movie.  My only limiters this year was the amount of lights I could put up and the limited space on my 8 foot by 8 foot patio.  I started putting up lights out side over my Thanksgiving break yes before Thanksgiving Christmas lights were going up over at my house.  I am pleased that I was able to put up 835 lights on my patio I know what your saying "835 that's nothing".  Well to that I would remind you that my story is not done yet there is still more to come.  We also this year revived a new Christmas tree from my sister (thank you), and for the first time picked out an entire matching set of ornaments (the non-breakable ones) and a complete set of clear lights specifically for the tree. What is truly amazing is the fact that it took 950 lights to completely cover the tree which we set up in our front room window.  So my 2009 total lights count with the tree and outside lights combined is 1775 . 

For New Year's eve I spent it taking down 1775 lights and putting away all of our Christmas decorations.  With all the decorations down and in there place we can now start seating up the baby stuff before the next semester begins.