Shot in the Arm
May 29, 2006 | 7 Comments
While helping my uncle put up the walls for his new garage I was accidentally shot in the arm with a nail.
We were at the top of a wall securing two sections together. The top was fairly secure, but I felt it needed another to snug it in securely. I told my dad to put one more in. When the nail was shot into the corner of the 2×6, the corner broke away. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and exclaimed, seeing the missing chunk of wood, I initially assumed I had been hit by the shrapnel. Oddly though, the pain didn’t seem to go away. Had I been cut by the flying debris? I looked down and saw the nail buried 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch into my forearm.
My father, being an EMT for years, immediately told me not to pull it out. He inspected the wound and thankfully it had missed any major veins. He applied pressure and pulled the nail out. No major damage done, the wound was cleaned with alcohol and a band-aid placed over the hole. I went back out and we finished the remaining walls.
An amazing aspect to this injury was that the nail traveled at least 3 feet through the air before embedding in my arm. The shot was entirely unavoidable and equally unlikely. This was probably one of the best places to be shot with a nail. There is a lot of meat in the arm and it never truly hurt that badly. In fact I fear the tetanus shot I’m going to get will probably hurt worse.
About 8 years ago my father shot himself with the nail gun while we were putting trusses up in his garage. Two things were much worse about that injury. First, the nail went all the way through his finger. Second, it stuck into the truss he was holding, spattering blood across the truss and he needed to pull it out with a hammer.
The good news is that in both instances we were able to continue on and finish the projects without noticeable delay.
Tags: construction, injury, nail, nail gun, shot, tetanus
X-Men 3 Review: Astonishing, Uncanny…
May 26, 2006 | 8 Comments
I expected to like this movie, but instead, I loved it. Without Bryan Singer directing I feared this may be a disappointing conclusion to a great series. Instead the movies just got better with each installment.
I was initially doubtful about the casting of Kitty Pryde and Juggernaut, but both actors played their parts to perfection. Combined with reading Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, I’m now thinking Kitty may be my favorite X-man. Right when you think think “how can she be useful in a fight?” she calls Juggernaut a “dickhead” before leaving him unconscious. Yes I’m serious.
In general the movie throws a lot of unexpected events at you. From who the funeral is for through to the after credits clip which will leave you wondering if this is truly the Last Stand for the X-Men movies.
The only thing I was not entirely satisfied with was the surprisingly small role Angel played. Also, does anyone know what happened to Nightcrawler?
Tags: "astonishing x-men", angel, astonishing, bryan singer, comics, Juggernaut, Kitty Pryde, last stand, movie, Nightcrawler, review, uncanny, uncanny x-men, x-men, XMen
The Collected Ramblings of George W Bush
May 26, 2006 | 5 Comments
Sara sent along this site that collects all the ramblings of our president, the page is titled: The Complete Bushisms, Updated frequently. Many of these you may have heard, but I was surprised to find so many that were new to me.
Here’s a quick sample of some of my favorites:
“The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany.”—Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006
“I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome.”—Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 2005, on the reception of American forces in Iraq
“Listen, I want to thank leaders of the—in the faith—faith-based and community-based community for being here.”—Washington, D.C., Sept. 6, 2005.
“I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend.”—On the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005
And if you still haven’t, take 20 minutes and go watch Stephen Colbert roast the president at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner. No matter how many times I watch this I still think it is hilarious. I may even need to buy the DVD from C-SPAN.
Tags: 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, Bush, bushism, bushisms, george w bush, incompetent, politics, quote, quotes, rambling, roast, stephen colbert, white house
Nuclear Cooling Tower Imploded
May 25, 2006 | 1 Comment
Knowing that The Bison has an obsession with nuclear whatnot, I figured I should blog this video purely so I’d remember to show it to him. Most entertaining to me is the delay in hearing the explosion from when you first see the tower begin to implode.
Apparently on May 21st the only cooling tower of the Trojan Nuclear Plant in Rainier, Oregon was imploded. This is the first step in a multi-year decommissioning project. The plant has been shutdown since 1993 after a cracked steam tube released radioactive gas.
There are some great old promotional photos of the plant you should check out as well.
(Photo from the Seattle Times)
Tags: energy, explosion, implode, implosion, nuclear, nuclear power, Oregon, power, power plant, Rainier, Trojan Nuclear Plant, video
Great New Emerging Blogs
May 24, 2006 | 23 Comments
Over the last few months a few friends and colleagues have started their own blogs. Since then each has put out some fantastic articles and I wanted to take an opportunity to summarize why these are great blogs and highlight my favorite three stories from each.
Ken’s TEK
Ken is my manager at Plymouth State University. His history of forward thinking in the higher education technology space has continued to keep PSU out in front of the University System of NH’s other schools as well as many other higher education institutions. Trust me, I’m not just saying this because he’s my boss, when Ken finally gets a full handle on blogging, we’ll look back on his stories as clear indicators on what is what with higher education technology.
Pomp, Circumstance and Gonfalons
In response to a perceived lack of grandeur during the 2004 Plymouth graduation Ken suggested addition of gonfalons which went over amazingly in 2005. They were again used successfully in 2006. He explains the significance of gonfalons in this article.
Google Trends - Veeerrrryyy Interesting
A great use case for another one of Google’s sweet tools.
SunGardHE Summit Snap Shots
Images from our hugely successful trip to Summit 2006.
Ken has a pile of other great articles on identity management, business intelligence, vodcasts, online education, and more.
Changing gears, this is Randy’s second run at OS. His first incarnation was pretty cool, but this new one blows that old one away. I just hope if this one goes away, all the content doesn’t go with it… again… Randy is a DC comic book loving geek through and through. Me being a Marvel guy, this gives me some great insight on how the lesser half of the comic world thinks.
Seremuppety
An amazingly hilarious parody of Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity done with muppets.
Important Survival Information!
One of the …
Superman: A true Hero will fly again! and Superman’s New Look
Randy is far more excited about the new Superman movie than I am. I appreciate his level of enthusiasm, it is what has kept me paying attention to this movie.
Why is there nothing about Infinite Crisis on his blog yet?
Watersedge
Dan Bramer is the newest in this crowd, but shows great potential. Dan grasps new ideas quickly and is able to convert them into entertaining and insightful ways. Currently there is a lot of WebCT info that is finally being documented. I can’t wait to see what he does when he’s tasked with supporting Luminis and Oracle HTMLdb ongoing.
Tracking Flights in 3D with Google Earth
How flippin’ sweet is this?!? Google Earth is such an awesome application. I love when people take advantage of this application as a platform for additional functionality.
WebCT: The 6 day work week
Here’s Dan flexing his capable WebCT muscles. An insightful extract of previously unmined data.
Dan-a-thon: Disclaimer
An amusing defensive stance after being a key component of one of the most fun trips I’ve ever been on in my life. Dan drove our group through Disney at a break-neck pace, allowing us to see more than we would have expected on such a short trip.
I have to throw an honorable mention to his first story though, Ode to the ‘Construction Guy’, go read this it’s funny as hell.
So, that’s my summary. Check these blogs out and I hope you enjoy them half as much as I do. As for you three, if you’re reading this, keep up the good work.
Tags: blogging, blogs, business intelligence, comic books, comics, daniel bramer, firefly, gonfalon, gonfalons, Google Earth, higher education, identity management, jpss whedon, ken kochien, ken's tek, online education, optimal stupidity, randy szabadics, seremuppety, serenity, summit, sungard, sungardhe, superman, vodcasts, watersedge, webct
Ghost Rider Trailer
May 23, 2006 | 18 Comments
The trailer for Marvel’s new Ghost Rider movie hit the net today. I’m a serious Marvel zombie, but I have to admit, Ghost Rider does not excite me in the least. I read a few of the comics as a kid and even remember him having some cameo appearances in the animated Hulk series. I gotta say though, no one has found a way to make his character intriguing to me.
I really hope they update some of the CG effects before launch because some of the effects look outright cheesy. Nicholas Cage is usually entertaining and Eva Mendes is crazy hot so I’ll see this one in theaters come February 16, 2007, but my hopes will not be high. It appears the action will be non-stop and maybe that alone will make it worth seeing.
Note: Matt gave me the heads up on this.
Tags: cage, comic books, comics, eva mendes, ghost rider, johnny blaze, marvel, movie, movie trailer, nicholas cage, nick cage, preview, trailer
X-Men 3 - After Credits Clip
May 23, 2006 | 8 Comments
According to IGN Filmforce there is a special must see 30 second clip of additional footage at the end of X-Men 3: The Last Stand, after the credits. The scene is described as a “coda” for one of the main characters. I know I’ll hang around to see it.
Tags: "The Last Stand", comic book, marvel, movie, tls, x-men, X-Men 3, x-men 3 the last stand, XMen