Bad weather should be reason enough to run.

Think of all the money you have saved, just by me not guilting you into buying cookies or wrapping paper form my kids. But Lonnie, you don't have kids. Exactly, and that means more money in your pocket. You are welcome.

If you would like to pass some of that cash on, here's where I'm accepting donations for this weekend's 5k. https://fundraising.intelis.com/jafw/?A=180326 It all goes to Junior Achievement. They're the ones who build puppy cannons for the less fortunate, or something like that.

But Lonnie, this is such short notice. A toy drive event was rescheduled due to bad weather, so I'm running in that weather. You know how much I love my weekend charity work.

Plus, if you would like the opportunity to run me over, here's the route, we start at 9am...

View 2011 Jingle Bell Run in a larger map

Here's more run information.
Please stop reading here.

Is There Talent in West Texas?

***SPOILER ALERT***
Yes.

West Texas has Talent audition started around 11am on January 29th, 2011 at Music City Mall in Odessa Texas. The top five winners are guarantied and audition in front of the America's got Talent producers in Houston. The West Texas Roughnecks will pick up travel expenses for the first place winner. Winners will also serve as half time entertainment at this years Roughnecks games.

Crystal Crews from NewsWest9, Luise Carlos Mendoza from Telemundo20, and Dale Morris from the Roughnecks were the judges and NewsWest9's David Marrino hosted.

Less words more video...

Third place went to Murder Monroe.



Second to Mariachi Cisne de Mario Alberto.



And first went to Justin Langston.



The rest of the (poor quality because they were originally netcasted live over 3G) videos are at http://qik.com/lonnie247

(The winners on stage)

DoS for sale!

Denial-of-Service is now for sale! QB1 Roethlisberger, QB2 Fitzpatrick, WR's Johnson & Jennings, RB's Hillis & McCoy, TE Davis, and Pit's D. Solid team with a healthy and bright future, (RB Bush ready for next week, and much more.) Number two in total points, with more than 1k going in to week 10. Over 5 moves left. This team is ready to play hard, and set for a big play-off run. Don't miss this rare opportunity. Bibbing starts at an all time low of $50. Start your own Denial-of-Service attack today!

How to Make a How-to Video on Making Coffee Pods

The other day I was talking about making my own coffee pods for my Senseo, and Jon said, "You should blog about that." I'm not sure if he thought it would be a good idea, or if it was his polite way of saying, "Leave me alone. If you write about it, it would be less annoying and easier to ignore."

Either way, here I am. The only problem is, I learned how to do it from a blog. So I didn't want to just rewrite someone else's words. How about a video showing just how easy it really is. Not just a video, a duel camera video. That would be a challenge, so that's what I decided to do. Here's how I set the whole thing up.

The main camera (a Canon ZR850) would shoot down at my kitchen counter. Two legs of the tripod set in the sink with the third on a TV tray.


This camera fed a small black and white monitor in my cabinet, so I could see what I was doing.


Next to the monitor, I put my Flip video camera. And so I could see what it was shooting, I put a mirror behind it. This is also the camera that captured my audio.


For lighting I just the kitchen lights (CFL bulbs,) an incandescent shop light reflected off the cabinet door to soften the shadows on my face, and I mounted a small fluorescent tube light under the cabinet to help with shadows in the work area.


I set my iPhone in a Mini DV tape case next to the Flip to keep time.

Now the setup sounds all well and good, here's where I take a left on What! street.

To show how easy it is to make the coffee pods, I would do it first thing in the morning. No showering, no brushing the hair, no changing out of the PJ's. Just out of bed and shoot a video.

Where's how it turned out.



Editing was super easy. I used Adobe Premiere Pro, synced the two videos and cut out a lot of my morning head.

Just as simple as that.

Remember, if you're gonna consume internet, you gotta feed internet. Go create.

Dust Off Those Old Memories, Then Throw Them Away

Cleaning. What a pain. It would be so much easier if it wasn't my stuff. I could just shovel it all up, fill trash bags, and toss it out. But it's all my own crap that i kept for some reason or other. Now I have to go through, examine each item and determine if it has reached it's expiration date of usefulness and sentimental value.

Old birthday cards, blurry pictures, obituaries, news paper clippings, those are the tough things to sort through. So I decided to tackle one shelf stuffed full of old magazines. Here's some of what I found.

(Upper left to lower right.)

Art? Alternative - "Bizarre, Abnormal, Weird, and Other Wonderfully Strange Stuff." It featured surreal art from the likes of Robert Williams, The Pizz, and Sandow Birk.

Subliminal Tattoos - "Art, Media, Behavior, Obscure Culture." Like Art? Alternative with less color and more words. Included music and zine reviews (zine's are now called "blogs without the dead trees,") interview with folks like Dana Crumb (R. Crumb's ex,) and plenty of illustrations from artists like Matt Feazell.

Adbusters - "Journal of the Mental Environment." It's still around, and a great place to find inspiration, for ads.

Brill's Content - "The Independent Voice of the Information Age." I have the complete set of this Steve Brill work.

Consumer Reports - "Expert, Independent, Nonprofit." Easy call here, they're out dated and I can just check the amazon reviews.

The Empty Vessel - "The Journal of Daoism Philosophy and Practice." I still pick it up a Barnes and Nobles from time to time, in case electricity goes away.

Chaparral - "1999"? It's Midland College's annual magazine. I didn't attend class there but a photo of mine was printed in it. So it's a must save. And it also features a piece by Staci Lumby.

Time - They all hit the trash. Well all but this one, (if you don't know, don't ask.)

Dog Fancy - Gone. I don't have a dog, and they don't have a website.

Newsweek - "The Year in Cartoons." They're online now.

Wild Cartoon Kingdom - This copy is online, but I think I'll hang on to it anyway.

Reptiles USA - Right up there with Dog Fancy. My reptile is dead and so is there web presents.

Yahoo! - "Internet Life." When the world was on dial-up, they had to kill trees to bring internet into your home. The first of two publications be Ziff Davis. And here's the second.

Internet Underground - "Hackers, Smugglers and Cheaters, Oh My." Because the internet was slower than ink drying on paper.

Cigar Aficionado - They're going up in smoke, too. Maybe not the trash, they may be better suited for the men's restroom at work.

My favorite find was the Popular Science, Flash Forward from 2001.
It tells of a day when your PDA will also play MP3's and connect to the internet via a Bluetooth radio signal to your cell phone. Stick the cell phone in the PDA/MP3 player and you have the iPhone.

Another article addresses cloud computing (Microsoft, Sun, and Corel.) Microsoft said, soon you wouldn't have to buy their word possessor program, you could rent it over the internet. Who would ever make that available for free? (Surely not Google or Zoho, they weren't even mentioned in the article)

The car of the future would take after Honda's new 70mpg Insight (not like 40mpg Insight of 2010.) And they said nothing about the 2000's Hummer craze.

I also turned up a few bonus items in the mag stack.
A $50 gift certificate to Wood's Boots that expired in 2000.

And a phone list from Big 2. I use to work there, but I don't now. Your loss Big 2, no mid 90's Cigar Aficionado magazines for your men's restroom.

How to Turn Toys into Food

Step one: Get a toy. I went to Target and picked up this pots and pans set. It looks like something my nieces would enjoy.



Step two: go to Jack in the Box. You give them the toy and they say, "What sandwich you'ld you like?" I got the steak melt. It looks like something my nieces would like me to have.



Step three: eat your burger.



It's just that simple. All the toys go to the NewsWest9, Salvation Army Toy Drive, so you'll also enjoy that warm Christmas cheer feeling.

The last day to witness this miraculous transformation is Saturday, December 12th of 2009.

The Lofts On Main

I figured everyone and their dog knew about the lofts being built in downtown Midland. I was wrong. While most people do know about the construction, almost all dogs are ignorant of the facts.

So please grab your pooch and share this information with them.

The address is 218 N. Main St. (on Street view & Bird's eye view) and the asking price is $355,000 $364,000-$395,500. In the old days it may have been a shoe store, but now it's (or soon to be) the finest in luxury living.

Here's a link to the listing.

And. If that gets pulled, this is the pictures of what it will be.

Each will be 3 stories with 2 bedrooms and 3 and a half baths, and measure 2131 square feet plus a garage.

But today this is how it looks.

These were supposed to open in the summer of 2009.

I hear there's only one left, so grab your checkbook, and snap it up before someone else does. And don't worry, pets are welcome, so bring along that ignorant canine.

UPDATE: Here's the story NewsWest9 did on the lofts.


UPDATED UPDATE: And here's Chris Beckett's walk through.


RE-UPDATED UPDATE: Here's a walk through with furniture
(and a giant tub of beer.)