Old School Mug Shots...

We are used to seeing the mug shots of Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, and Nicole Richie.  But these so called A-List celebs, have nothing on some of these brilliant old school mug shots from the 60's. 

 I guess now mug shots are a status symbol.   We need to go back to the old school look and feel where people were not very happy when they got arrested!

Google Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary

Google is always up on the latest with anniversaries and celebrations via their logo design.   They recently updated their logo to celebrate Thanksgiving and Veterans Day just this month, and have been pushing a new logo (somewhere in the world) about 3-4 times per week .  Beyond the traditional holidays and celebrations, they have celebrated everything from Halloween to Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th Birthday to John Lennon's 70th Birthday.

You can see the history of these great logos at the Google Doodles Site and these logos go back to their first custom logo which celebrated Burning Man on August, 30th, 1998 - this version of the logo was pretty simple and the actual custom burning man looked like they had not yet hired graphic designers at Google.

Well, they have done it again.  Google is celebrating a great event in our history and highlighting the one year anniversary of that fateful night (or early morning) or November 26th, 2009 that changed the future for all golf and sporting fans worldwide.

This guy is cool...

Given all the crazy stories going around lately about nutty religous nuts trying to burn books, this story made me smile.

Leave it to a guy that looks like Jesus Christ on a skateboard to put things into perspective...

Great quote on Facebook today...

Thanks goodness life has no meaning, or I would have failed big time! :-)

Advertising Tricks of the Trade…

I always love when a fast food or restaurant chain commercial comes on TV. It is really such a true disconnect from reality in most cases, but it is great to see how well these marketers are able to position their products and services. I think that they are the best of the bunch in creating a value and emotion out of some French fries.

I remember growing up when my dad was running an ad agency in Chicago. He had clients like McDonalds, Jack in the Box, and Mr. Pibb. It was fun to see the creative work they put together to market to consumers and position themselves. I am sure some of my dad’s ideas are still in the commercials we see today, for good or bad.

My dad’s agency even designed the McDonalds flag, which of course seems pretty simple now, but it probably took many meetings with the client and focus groups with picky consumers.

Anyway, I remember when my dad was working with one of the fast food companies, It was either Browns Chicken or Jack in the Box, and the CEO insisted that all the food in the commercials and print ads were real. They would have to run down to the local franchise and buy the food and then bring it back and try and make it look good.

As I am sure you are aware, this undertaking was a challenge, and after thousands of dollars wasted in production costs, they finally came up with something that worked for the market, while not compromising the integrity of the CEO. I think what they ended up doing was just showing a box of the food, rather than the actual cooked food.

I found this posting that someone had put together that shows the marketing version of fast food and then the actual version. You can see what my dad was up against in these photos. It is hard to be a marketer, but even harder to be a consumer.

Pop Quiz of the Day...

You Say Potatoe and I say Potato

If you are looking for something fun to do with your kids this summer, why not teach them about the joys of a garden? It is a great way to involve the kids while also getting some work done. You can have them plant some flowers with you or even show them how to mow the lawn, if they are old enough.

My two sons (6 and 4) love to work in the yard and help out. They actually enjoy helping with the mulch and planting flowers or plants. We make it fun by picking up interesting flowers or plants that we can have them enjoy throughout the spring and summer.

They also love to help with blowing leaves in the fall and jumping in the piles of leaves, which I never realized was so dirty until I became a grown adult.

One thing that we did this summer was show our kids how to grow vegetables in our garden. We live in a pretty shady area of the city so it is hard to grow anything substantial, though we are trying asparagus this year. But we came across an old bag of potatoes in the pantry a few weeks ago and showed the kids that the potatoes were already growing, though they were scared to death the first time they saw these things with the green arms coming out of them.

So we showed the kids, as they participated, how you can put a potato (cut in half) under the dirt of the garden and actually grow food. This was about 3-4 weeks ago, and we had not had much time to check on the plants since, as they were really out of the way. Well, this weekend we were working in the yard and realized that the potato plants that we had planted were huge! Jennifer had initially thought they were weeds and pulled a few out, to only be surprised that they were actually potatoes.

We showed the kids what had happened and that we now had two (baby) potatoes that we had grown all on our own. We brought them in and washed them and then baked these two miniature spuds. They tasted delicious. Yes, they were so small that there was not even room for sour cream, but we did get a little butter and salt, and they were great.

This is a great way to engage your kids with nature, while also teaching them about how food can be grown and that it is better than what you get in the store

The Man...

The difference between Obama and Jesse Jackson is that Jackson is yelling about how many black men and women are in prison and Obama is wondering why there aren't more black men and women in law school and medical school. He is demanding that men and women mentor their kids and let them know how high they can soar.

I'm glad that he's married to a high powered lawyer/administrator. That couple says so many positive things to men and women. Meanwhile, Jesse sees his time slipping away and he's ticked off beyond belief.

Good Cartoon of the Day...

The History of the Universe - Cool!

What is the history of the Universe? -well it’s a long, long storythat begins 13.7 billion years ago inside a bubblethat is smaller than an atom.

it is a long, long story; but not so long that the History Channel can’t tell in well, in less than fourminutes, complete with time lines and computersimulations, in the video below...

Spoiler Alert - 2008 Presidential Election Results are Out!

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early. 'It's Not the People Who Vote that Count; It's the People Who Count the Votes' ~ Stalin

Stryde's Valentines Day Present for Mommy

It Is Hard To Find A Good Listener...

Especially when you are drunk or stoned!

Never Give Up...

Do you think this guy is running Hillary's Campaign also?

Don't Try This At Home...

One of My Favorite Photos Ever!

The boys and I were playing around one rain filled Saturday. The house addition was almost done and we were having a great time running around the new home. It was fun and we were laughing and having a great time.

The kids were really being best friends and I felt like I was one of their best friends at the time. We played every game possible and even more. They had a blast, and I had an even bigger blast.

It is a day I will never forget. I took this picture when we were playing, and every time I look at the photo, it takes me back to that day. This is what having kids is all about!

Me and Stryde...

What a cute little boy. He is such a good kid, I love to spend time with him and play. He gets stuck having to do more sports and grown-up kids stuff and sometimes I feel bad that he doesn't get to spend as much time on the little kid games, that I know he loves so much. I do try to play with him a lot, but he won't play with me as much as he loves to play with Dryver.

It is really a joy to watch those two play games with each other. The best is Star Wars or Army. I can play those games and usually end up as the bad guy trying to catch them. It is a blast!

First Cub Scout Hike...

Dryver and I went on our first official Cub Scout hike today. It was fun to go around Great Falls and see the wildlife, while Dryver got to play with his friends. They all were running around and climbing on trees and picking up sticks and looking for bugs. They were actually pretty well behaved for a bunch of 1st graders who had never gone on a hike before.

Dryver had his Tai Kwon Doe Gold Belt graduation before the hike, so we were about an hour late. Luckly our cell phones worked in the woods and the scout master was able to meet up with us half way down the hike. We were really lucky to fit in a soccer game, graduation, hike and dinner in one day.

It was great to spend the day with Dryver, it really is starting to bring back some great memories from me and my dad. I remember all of Cub Scouts and all the times with my friends going over to the Den Mom's house after school and having hotdogs. I also remember my dad helping out with the Pinewood Derby and even being a scout master for our Webelos group.

I am sure Dryver will remember these days for the rest of his life, and I am really happy that we can spend this time together.

Joining Cub Scouts...

Not that Dryver doesn't have enough to do, but now he is involved in Cub Scouts. I am happy that he is joining because it gives us some time together and I remember the great times with my dad growing up in Cub Scouts. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did.

Photo of the Week: In Space...

At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was further out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984.

The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.