More New York

Robert arrives. We see the Hello Deli. We hit the MOMA. We try the Carnegie Deli.

Fist Night

Despite being dead tired, we made the most of our first night in NYC. We hit the world famous Stage Deli for some sandwiches, then we followed up with some high end NYC cheesecake. Next we hit Times Square. Finally, I saw a desert bar at a bakery that only Erin will truly appreciate.

NEW YORK!

The New York trip is on. After a hellish day of travel we finally arrived in NYC. The bus from Newark featured rush hour traffic, but I did catch this nice view.

Despite the travel woes, Dad kept his spirits up.

We checked into our hotel and enjoyed the awe inspiring view! Despite it not being so great it is literally the length of a thrown stone from here to Times Square.

Starting to Show

As you'd expect, Steph has begun to show a bit. Here's a little evidence...



Steph already had a shower thrown by her Intel team. As a result we were able to pick out and get our stroller. And I'd thought a stroller was a stroller was a stroller! We tested it out on Kodak - he was right at home in the thing!

Crown Molding is Easy....NOT

We've been trying to add crown molding to two rooms recently...the new office and the new nursery. Now you can find plenty of tips on crown molding littered throughout the internet. Read them but know the value will be limited - they do temporarily boost your confidence. Now, for a real confidence builder go to YouTube and watch a few videos on how to do crown molding...you'll come away feeling it is easier than sitting down for a bowl of ice cream.

Unfortunately, it isn't.

But with patience, some extra wood and a friend it is possible. Oh yea, and caulking, joint compound and sand paper.

Here's a piece of molding in up in the nursery - finishing work is underway.

Baby Mode

Things are beginning to shift a bit more into baby mode...we've eased into the concept ourselves and will ease this blog into it as well.

The theme for the baby room will be vintage toys. We kicked off this theme by securing an old Fisher Price Snoopy Sniffer off of eBay recently.

The 'boro 'bucks story

A star, bucking the system

By Sherry F. Pruitt

Sun staff writer

JONESBORO -- Making the documentary film, "Starbucking," was the goal that a 1991 Nettleton High School graduate wanted to accomplish before law school.

"For me, making this documentary was the realization of a goal that I set for myself more than 10 years before," said Bill TANGEMAN, whose parents, Richard TANGEMAN and Jane Comstock, have lived in Jonesboro for more than 30 years.

"I worked for a few years in broadcast journalism," TANGEMAN said. "When I left that for law school, I created the goal of making a documentary as a way to continue using my journalistic and video production skills. It was great fun to create."

TANGEMAN said he is especially proud the film was good enough for a distribution deal.

"Starbucking" tells the story of a man named Winter, who for 10 years has been spending all of his money on a mission to visit every Starbucks coffee house in the world, TANGEMAN explained in an e-mail interview.

"He sleeps in his car and is continually on the road traveling to new Starbucks. He has been to more than 7,000 stores worldwide," the filmmaker said. "'Starbucking' is an examination of an extremely bizarre and obsessed individual who leads an insane lifestyle."

Winter, TANGEMAN said, is a native of Houston whose given name is Rafael Antonio Lozano, but he legally changed it to "Winter."

"Starbucking" is just under an hour and a half. The DVD also contains some bonus footage and a full-length director's commentary track, TANGEMAN said.

"The name is descriptive of the lifestyle of the subject of the documentary," he added.

The film was screened at a number of film festivals around the country and may screen at a festival in Sweden in October. It also played at theaters in Nashville and New Mexico.

Northeast Arkansas residents also can view the local man's work. In Jonesboro the DVD is available at Barnes & Noble, Hastings and Circuit City. Hollywood Video and Netflix also have it for rental.

"I read an article in the Washington Post about Winter in 2004 and knew right away that he was an individual who would make a fascinating subject for a documentary," TANGEMAN said. "I contacted him right away and he agreed to let me make the film. I shot the first footage in November 2004 in New York City."

He said he began working on "Starbucking" in the summer of 2004 and finished editing a rough cut in December of the following year. The final version was released on DVD a few weeks ago, the Jonesboro native said.

TANGEMAN said his high school journalism teacher, Debbie Findley, was a great inspiration for his work, but added that the main character of the documentary also was inspiring.

"[Winter] is willing to go against the norms of society to pursue his own goal," TANGEMAN said. "He shows amazing tenacity in the face of enormous criticism by people who simply label him as insane."

Though film projects take lots of time and are very involved, TANGEMAN also balances other tasks.

"I'm studying Spanish and am in the process of becoming certified to teach high school Spanish through a post-baccalaureate teachers certification program at the University of Nebraska," TANGEMAN said. He plans to start teaching Spanish at a high school near Lincoln, Neb., in August.

TANGEMAN graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence with a journalism degree in 1995 and earned a law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law in Lincoln in 2000.

"With release of 'Starbucking,' I'm finally free to begin dedicating time to new projects," TANGEMAN said. "I've already started working on another documentary project about a man obsessed with reality TV."

Erin's 2007 American Idol Finals Vote

Erin voted about 10 times for her choice for the new American Idol. Who did she vote for? Watch the youtube vid to find out.

Street Dog

I've been seeing a hot dog cart rolling around the streets of downtown Lincoln serving the world famous Fairbury brand dogs. I tried a dog today. It was after the lunch rush so many of the toppings were gone. No onion, relish or krout. I had a dog with nacho cheese sauce and mustard. Tasty!

BRMC

We went to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in Omaha last night. It was a pretty good show.

Dark Chocolate Snickers Reviewed

In a candy world where everybody and their brother is adding dark chocolate to their products to be trendy, most new
dark-a-fied products really aren't much to write home about. Enter Dark Chocolate Snickers. This one took me off guard. I was expecting something as lack-luster as the recent green goo Shrek Snickers. Not so. The dark chocolate addition to the classic Snickers Bar makes for compelling eating. Good stuff. As long as this bar is available, I'll never eat an original Snickers again.

3 Way Chat

Robert, Mullins and I had a nice 3way mac video chat. Later Steph joined, then Ranger.

Self Heating Coffee

This mocha latte coffee product cost $2.50 at the grocery store. Expensive until you compare to premium drinks from places like Starbucks. This is a drink you can carry around and it packs the chemical punch to heat itself. First, you open the metal lid on the bottom of the container. This reveals a heavy clear plastic button filled with green liquid. You press firmly on the button and the green liquid drains to a place you can't see. After 10 seconds, you flip the container and let it sit for 8 to 10 minutes. After this time has passed, a pink dot changes to white. Ready to drink. You spin a plastic lid cover and then pull another metal lid off the top. Finally time to enjoy. The product was very hot and actually very good. It only contained about 9 1/2 ounces of consumable liquid. When I had consumed it all, the thing still weighed a lot. Nifty idea, but somehow I doubt it is very environmentally friendly.



Treat the following picture as a warning. Worst Hershey's product ever. This is a chocolate bar with browny bits. Nice idea, but the browny bits were crunchy and tasted like crushed Oreo cookie crumbs coated with artificial browny flavor. Not good. Avoid.

Penang, Malaysia

It's been about 18 months since my last trip to Penang, Malaysia. I arrived this morning (Sunday morning Penang time) and several of us went to a few of the tourist attractions. Here's a particularly cool view of downtown Penang from a Buddhist temple. Sadly, my flight times and the time-zone changes were such that I completely missed Cinco De Mayo :( I've have to get an icy Corona when I get home.



More pictures later...including a trip to the Snake Temple.

Weekend Objective: Baskin Robins

Nebraska to Join the Sun Belt???

Arkansas State was one of three Sun Belt Conference football teams announced Thursday as part of Nebraska’s 2009 football schedule.
The Indians are scheduled to play the Cornhuskers on Sept. 26, 2009, according to the Nebraska athletic Web site. Florida Atlantic and Louisiana-Lafayette are also scheduled to play the Cornhuskers in 2009. All three games will be in Lincoln, Neb.

Vista Pain...Progress Report

I've gotten most everything working with Vista with the lone exception of iTunes - which is a big problem. The biggest problem occured when I tried to synch our iPods. About half the songs would fail to synch due to an obscure permission error. I ensured permissions were fine on the associated files and folders to no avail. I then read a proposed solution - but it was painful. Move ALL the songs into the iTunes folder. Simple right? Sure - except you lose ALL your playlists, play counts, etc... It has taken several hours to recreate my old playlists. I first took snapshots of them to maintain a record, then deleted and then started recreating. I only do a few a night as it isn't fun. It does seem to have work though...so far :)

Here's my list of "Album" playlists...