Crazy Uncle Ryan's favorite quotes


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."— Arthur C. Clarke

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I’m Wasting My Life, Get Me Out Of Here!

Oh, the dark and dreary wasteland that is Summer TV. The 3 ½ week saga I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! finally came to an end last night with the great Lou Diamond Phillips being crowned King of The Jungle. Torrie Wilson had been my first choice to win but if she couldn't take the prize I’m glad that Lou did. I did enjoy watching the show but to be honest, at the end of the finale I found myself wondering why I had wasted so much time watching a bunch of D-list celebrities running around in the Costa Rican jungle doing Fear Factor style stunts. Well, I can’t get those weeks back but at least it gave me something to watch while all my real shows are off the air for the summer.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

My First Father’s Day

This past Sunday was my first Father’s Day as a full-fledged daddy. Alisa and Collin did a very nice job of making it memorable for me. Alisa gave me a new computer chair. A wonderful gift considering the condition of my old one.Collin gave me some butterscotch suckers. Apparently he liked them too as seen from the picture below.
Collin also gave me a nice little dad sculpture that his mommy claims he made himself. I think he had a little help from Alisa with the painting.All and all, Sunday was a great day. I’m very grateful to be a dad and to have been blessed with such a wonderful little family.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Digital Transition

Well, as I’m sure you all know yesterday was the long awaited day when TV went all digital. I just thought I would let everybody know that the transition went quite smoothly in our home and I now have a whopping 33 channels coming in. As a matter of fact, I now get channel 20 (which I like to call “the anti-Mormon channel”) streaming simultaneously as channels 20.1, 20.2, 20.3 and 20.4. It’s so wonderful that I can turn to four channels to hear the same bearded, Bible wielding nut-job tell me I’m going to burn in hell.

Anyway, as I said, the transition went smoothly. In fact, I had my converter boxes almost a year ago and I got VCR/DVD recorder with the digital tuner back in January so it wasn’t much of a transition for me. I was a little annoyed when they decided to postpone the transition. I pointed out at the time (to anyone who would listen to me) the futility of postponing it. People had plenty of warning and if they were not ready by February 17th they would certainly not be ready by June 12th either. I was, of course, absolutely right. The news reported the day before the transition that around 2.2 million people across this great nation of ours were still not ready. Oh well, I guess there was bound to be some people that just wouldn’t make the switch until their TVs went blank.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Hummingbird Update

The little baby hummingbirds have hatched. Trust me, they're in there.

Job Fair

Well, yesterday I left Collin in the care of his grandma and headed up to Idaho Falls to attend a job fair put on by the Idaho National Laboratory. Considering how little luck I've been having with the job search here I thought it would be a good idea to take a look elsewhere. I felt like it was a pretty good experience. There were some companies that kind of brushed me off but I felt like I made some good contacts. There were a lot of people there so I had to park way off in the boonies and then wait in line for a while. But, while I was in line I got interviewed by a local TV station and I appeared on the news for a few seconds. Below is the video:

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

New Phone

So my old cell phone went the way of all the earth yesterday. Fortunately, I had insurance on it so I was able to trade it in for a new one for a small copay. However, they could not transfer my list of contacts to the new phone so if I send any of you an e-mail asking you for your phone number that is the reason why.

Monday, June 1, 2009

HUMMER THE HUMMINGBIRD

So, for the past few days I have been noticing a hummingbird hanging around in my backyard. I enjoyed watching it fly and I decided to name it Hummer. Not very original but hey, what can ya do? It was always darting back and forth between an old dead fir tree over the fence and one of my apple trees. I figured it must have a nest nearby. I was right. Yesterday I looked up and saw a little nest in my apple tree. I got my ladder and looked inside to find two very small white eggs just about the size of jelly beans. I went online to look up some information and confirmed very quickly that what I was seeing was definitely a hummingbird nest. I have always really liked hummingbirds so I was thrilled to see that one had taken up residence in my yard. Last night I took some pictures of Hummer while she was sitting in her nest in the hopes that I might be able to identify what species of hummingbird she is. All I really got a look at was her neck and most of the five or six species that can be found in Utah look pretty much the same from the neck up. That is especially true of the females because the males are the ones with the bright colors and stuff. I got some pictures this morning of the nest. Sorry, the pictures are a little blurry. My only worry now is what will happen in a few weeks when it’s time to spray the apple tree for the coddling moth again. I don’t know how pesticide will effect the birds but I’m gonna do some research. Yeah, I know. I'm blogging about hummingbirds and pumpkin patches. I really need to get a job.