Best Rap Battle Ever!

I can rap better than these guys. You owe it to yourself to at least wait for the second guy to rap. He is just ridiculous, and his eyes bug out in this really inhuman way.

Best Rap Battle Ever!

Disgusting Little Buggers

From "The Life Story of a Tick" by Constance Casey, Slate Magazine: "Ticks not only extract blood, they ooze pathogens from their salivary glands into the wound they've sliced with their tiny claws and penetrated with their barbed mouthparts."

Aubrey and I had a run-in with an army of ticks a couple of months ago. We went to my parents' house near Oakford to get a bunch of pine needles for some flower beds we were building in the backyard. We bagged ten lawn bags with pine needles, loaded them into my dad's truck, and called it a day. We saw quite a few ticks on the bags and on our gloves. We checked ourselves and everything looked cool. No big deal.

A couple of hours later, we started seeing more ticks. Aubrey had a couple on her upper leg, and I found some on my leg, too. Aubrey's ticks had attached themselves and we had to pluck them. I hate that.

We decided not to use the tick-infested pine needles. The next day, I went to get my dad's truck. I drove the pine needles directly to Evans Recycling and paid $1 a bag to have them turned into mulch. Then, I had them give me a full scoop of mulch from their pile. So, I essentially paid $10 for a free scoop of mulch (plus the labor of bagging all those needles, plus the travel of driving to and from Oakford).

Here's the full story on the life of ticks. Pretty disgusting.

Out of Left Field

You learn something new everyday. "Out of Left Field" is a common expression. I often use it. I have never even cared to know where it came from but a recent article shed new light. Being a Cubs fan, I can say this is turning out to be a very fun year. Unless things go to crap real quick, the Cubs will have 50+ wins by the All-Star break. I wanted to know if they had ever had this kind of record at this point. That led me to West Side Field. The last stadium in which the Cubs won a World Series. The left field in West Side Park is the left field in "Out of Left Field". There are two similar stories that are associated with this. One is that when the stadium was torn down in the 1920's, the University of Illinois College of Medicine built its Neuropsychiatric Institute where left field was. Therefore, if you say something a bit crazy, you must have come from left field. The other explanation is, and I found two stories on this, is that there was a Cook County psychatric hospital located behind left field. According to a few historians, there were random things yelled from the hospital windows to left field. I want to believe the latter story. It sounds more "Cubs". People still shout random crap from left field. Another interesting note about West Side Park is that is where the poem "Tinkers to Evers to Chance" originated. The killer double-play combo. Franklin Pierce Adams (very presidential name) wrote it in frustration as a New York Giants fan.

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double --
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

What's the answer to my original question? I can't be sure because of the research time required but the last time the Cubs had this type of record by this point was in 1908, in West Side Park. Tinker to Evers to Chance was in full effect. In 2008, that would be Theriot to Derosa to Lee. Sounds good to me.

Female Physician Parking Only?

Aubrey raises a good question here.

I was with her the night she took this photograph. We were actually parked on the street, and Aubrey was snapping pictures of Incredibly Delicious across the street. When she came back to the car, I said, "Look at the signs in that parking lot."

What could possibly be the purpose for designating those spaces as "Female Physician Parking Only"? I am all for racial/sexual/demographic equality, but I can't help but think if there were a section of parking spaces labeled "Male Physician Parking Only" that hell would be raised. Hell, even I would raise hell if the spaces were labeled for men only.

Can anyone shed any light on why these spots are for female physicians only?

The Hand

I found this today as I was browsing an appendix on Hamlet in Google Books. I thought it was pretty cool. It looks almost like an album cover or something for a noise band. They always have the most random album covers.

Buy Fresh Buy Local

Aubrey and I went to the first Local Flavors dinner tonight at Maldaners. Local Flavors is a dinner series sponsored by the Illinois Stewardship Alliance that will be ongoing throughout the summer at various local restaurants. The concept is simple. Each dinner will be served at a local restaurant, and each meal will be made from locally grown foods. The whole series is intended to raise awareness for the launching of the food campaign "Buy Fresh Buy Local Central Illinois." Buy Fresh Buy Local works to raise awareness of local agricultural producers and to connect those producers with consumers in the Central Illinois area. For future Local Flavors dates and locations, click here.

We had the pleasure of dining with Tom Wise, one of the farmers with Veenstra Farms, at our table. Tom is very knowledgeable about organic farming and the community agriculture movement. He told us all about their planting and harvesting processes. He talked to us about the many varieties of fresh vegetables and flowers they have available this year. He even told us how we could improve the quality of the compost we're making in our back yard. The secret, he tells us, is worms.

The conversation was wonderful and informative, but tonight's dinner at Maldaner's was absolutely incredible. It started with an appetizer of locally grown squash, zucchini, beans, parsley, and tomatoes on bread. It was served similar to a bruschetta. The flavors were rich, bold, and clean. Next came the salad, which had a variety of greens that I won't even begin to catalog for you. This salad was delicious. It came with a light drizzle of oil and vinegar, which allowed the greens to really dominate the palate.

There were three entrees available: pork with grits, braised chicken with seasonal vegetables, and vegetarian pasta. Aubrey and I both got the braised chicken. Delicious. The chicken was braised to perfection. It had a wonderful flavor, and the meat was absolutely tender. The vegetables were a nice medley of carrots, purple carrots, turnips, onions, and potatoes. It was all so good.

For dessert, they served strawberry shortcake. The strawberries were organic and sweet and beautiful. Maldaner's shortcakes has a hint of cinnamon, which adds a lot to the depth of the dish, and the whipped cream was thick and rich (just the way I like it). Since Aubrey can't eat gluten, she was able to get her strawberry shortcake without the shortcake.

All this for $30. What a bargain!

How can you Buy Fresh and Buy Local? Look for this:

at the places you shop for food. One way to guarantee you're buying fresh and local is to visit the Old Capitol Farmer's Market every Wednesday and Saturday morning.

Another J2G Comic Strip

Still playing around with Toondoo when I get a few spare minutes. The idea for this one came after Micah, Amy, Aubrey, and I spent an entire Sunday night going yard in The Bigs. We all woke up the next day with sore arms, backs, obliques . . . you name it. Then Micah bought the game, and all I could imagine was him getting super buff from all the Wii he'd be playing.

This one is set in the ALPLM. Thanks Springfield Daily Photo for the backdrop.

Update on Just Two Guys

We're still alive, just not blogging as much as we'd like.

Micah recently started a new job that keeps him quite busy, and I'm in the throes of summer crunch at my job. There's always a big rush this time of year to get all of the products shored up for clients who want their materials before the school year starts.

As a result, we've been darn busy and haven't had time for much other than work. I'm still in the process of writing a book, which I'll be glad to be finished with when that thing is done. If anyone ever tells you writing a book is easy, kick them in the crotch. They are lying.

Access 4 has more locally produced shows on air now than ever before in the history of the channel. This is good news for the community, but it means it's hard for us to get taping time to tape new shows. We used to be able to get one or two tapings a month. Now we're lucky if we can get one every three months.

Good news: Ryan Capranica, the gent, who directed our short film, The Courier, has tapped us to act in a short film he's doing in the next couple of weeks. It's a competition film, and if he wins, he'll earn $1500. We are doing the gig solely for the acting experience, and we'd love to see Ryan win the money. He wants to use it to buy a new camera for shooting in the future.

Hope to see you all at a Sliders game soon.

Fin

The Courier, the short film Micah and I wrote and shot earlier this year, has just been completed. Ryan Capranica, our director and editor extraordinaire, has completed the post-production on the movie and will get us a DVD copy today. We are thankful to Ryan, who finished post-production with cracked ribs. What a trooper!

The film is finished just in time for us to enter it into the Route 66 Film Festival. All entries must be postmarked by June 15, so we'll be able to make that happen. Additionally, look for The Courier on an upcoming episode of Just Two Guys. We're also considering playing The Courier before our next Movie Geeks Club screening.

NOTE: The picture above does not link to the actual film. Ryan provided us with a preliminary link to the film, but it is not for public viewing yet. As you can see from the picture, the upload messed with the aspect ratio. The original is in widescreen format.

Panera, I Hate Your Radio Commercials!

Panera, I've never had a problem with you. Your sandwiches are okay. Your soups are pretty tasty. You make pretty delicious baked goods, and I think your coffee is delicious. But, please, for the love of all that is holy, stop playing your goddamn radio advertisements that feature two Panera patrons having a discussion in your restaurant and a narrator describing their experience. I hate these commercials (and I'm not the only one). The patrons are annoying, and the narrator sounds like a creepy pedophile.

Here's an example of the dialogue in these crappy, crappy radio sinkholes:

(creepy pedophile narrator) "A father and his young daughter arrive at Panera. "

"Dad, I'm really sorry I smashed the car "(creepy pedophile narrator again'- says the daughter, as she takes a bite of her Mango Chicken Salsa Salad)

"It's OK, pumpkin, (creepy pedophile narrator- says the father, as he dives into his Bacon Supreme Sandwich), it's only a car. Now let me buy you a cinnamon roll."

Crazy Like a (Fire)fox!

Tuesday June 17 is the official release date of the latest Firefox browser, Firefox 3. The Mozilla folks have dubbed it Download Day, and they're attempting to set a Guinness Record for most software downloads in a 24 hour period. If you're a Firefox user, you owe it to yourself to get Firefox 3. I have not downloaded any of the beta versions, but I've been following them and Firefox 3 sounds awesome. If you're not a Firefox user, you should be. I switched to Firefox years ago and never looked back.

Want to participate in setting the record? Just click the icon below and sign up.

Just Two Guys Comic Strip

I had a few minutes tonight, and I found this cool thing called Toondoo. I made a quick little test comic strip.

Sliders Game

Micah, Amy, Aubrey, and I all went to a Springfield Sliders game Sunday night. Micah and Amy came over to our house for a cookout, and Micah had picked up a couple of free tickets at County Market that morning. I'd picked up a couple of freebies myself the night before, so we all decided it would be game on.

We had a good time. It's always a treat to watch real live baseball, especially when the heat of the day is waning, and the sun is dropping behind the bleachers. It reminds me of childhood. The game was enjoyable, and the Sliders won 5-1. I'd definitely recommend going to anyone in the area. There was a good crowd (1693 people), and there are a lot of activities throughout the night for children and adults alike.

Get out and support local baseball. If we can support the Sliders, they'll stay. And who knows? Maybe someday we can even support a bigger team.

Just a Trim

I was talking with the old Just Two Guys blog this morning, when the blog, well, he said to me, "I'm thinking of making a little change."

"What kind of change?" I asked. "You're not thinking of moving on us, are you?"

"Nah," the blog said, shaking his head, "I'm just thinking of changing my look. Maybe cut my hair. Trim my sideburns. Get rid of this shitnasty beard I've been growing."

Our blog kind of looks like this guy.

"That beard has started to stink," I joked.

"I'm still going to be the same old me," he said. "I'll just look a little different, like your dad when he cuts off his mustache."

"Yeah, that's weird. I don't like it when he does that."

"It'll be cool," the blog said, patting me on the shoulder. "It'll be cool."

NOTE: A new feature to the blog are association links. If a word or phrase strikes me as having a particular meaning or association, I'll link out to it. Click around and see what kind of zany things we come up with. 90% could be deemed educational.

Surfing Problems

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that occasionally when I clicked a link, I would get an error message stating, "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." Then the page would load. No browsing was interrupted, but it was annoying to see this message. Last night, Aubrey, using a different computer, complained about the same problem. We first started noticing it with her Springfield Daily Photo blog, and since then I've started noticing it at a few other sites. I scoured the web last night looking for answers, but I couldn't find anything to help.

This morning, I was glad to see that Marie's having this same problem. Sorry Marie, I'm not glad you're having problems. Just glad to not be alone in this. Ben left a comment with a link suggesting a solution to the problem. Tried it. Wasn't the problem. No improvements. I've also found several fixes that include buggy extensions or themes. I use the default theme and only have the following extensions: Adblock Plus, Copy Plain Text, FireFTP, and Talkback. None of these are indicated as being problematic in the web help pages I've found.

Started Firefox in Safe Mode. The problem still exists. I haven't updated any software recently. No changes to Firefox.

I just can't figure this out. Any help?