Be Afraid. Very Afraid.

Watch this before you try Google Maps' street view feature. You've been warned....



Hat Tip: Clicked
Tags: Google; humor; YouTube

A Note from Chicken Little

Heads up! It looks like a rather large US spy satellite will be plummeting back down to Earth in the next month or so. News reports indicate that at least some parts of the spacecraft will survive atmospheric reentry and impact the surface, possibly in North America.

The NRO's US-193 was launched in late 2006 but it lost power, failed to reach its assigned orbit and was apparently never operational.

The Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are supposedly developing contingency plans. Hmmm.... I wonder if my homeowner's insurance covers damage from falling space junk?

Tags: NRO; space; spy satellite

10 Things I've Done That You (Probably) Haven't

John Scalzi made me do it:

1. Lived on a Franciscan monastery as a kid.
2. Won 1st Prize in a school science fair.
3. Seen a single movie 17 times in the theater.
4. Studied Russian.
5. Appeared in nearly every episode of a network television show (for 3 seasons).
6. Lived in a tent for six months.
7. Skinny-dipped in a lake full of aphanizomenon flos-aquae.
8. Met Rachael Ray.
9. Ticked off an elected official when I refused to move out of my seat at a meeting (he insisted it was his seat).
10. Been arrested by the US Secret Service (not related to #9).

This list was revised by popular demand. OK, maybe not by popular demand, but at least by request of someone I love dearly... and have to live with. My original (and much funnier, IMHO) list was only up for a few hours. So, if you managed to sneak a peek at the beta version... shhh! Just consider it our little secret....

;-)

Alright, I've shown you mine... show me yours? Thumper did.

Tags: John Scalzi; Russ Louch; 10 things

The Truth Is Out There

First ghosts, and now I find out Texas is a hotbed of UFO activity. Nice!

Tags: Texas; UFO

You Know You're in Texas When...

...even the electrician drives a pickup with a horse trailer.

Tags: Texas

Dog Tired

Today was a Watch DOGS day for me again. I'm used to it at this point in the school year, but still feeling pretty wiped out by the end of the day. Here's a brief look at my day:

7:30am - Arrive at school; sign-in (they use a system for visitors and volunteers that scans their drivers licenses and apparently runs them through a criminal database); take kids to their classrooms to drop off their coats and backpacks.

7:45am - Appear on school news program with my kids; introduce myself as the day's Watch DOG. I don't know how many elementary schools do this, but ours starts the day off with a student run and hosted television news show. They have an actual studio set up in the back corner of the library, complete with multiple cameras, teleprompters, green screen, etc. It's "broadcast" to every classroom in the school.

8:00am - 5th Grade; Social Studies. The class was studying the text of the US Declaration of Independence. Yeah! Not math! (I seem to wind up in a lot of math classes when I volunteer with the 5th graders).

9:00am - Kindergarten; reading/centers. The teacher read a story to the kids and then broke the class up into small group "centers" focused on various reading/writing skills.

9:50am - PPCD; Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities. Playtime! Yeah! Preschoolers are great; dinosaurs, blocks, puppet shows and dress-up... oh my!

10:40am - 2nd Grade; recess! Enough said.

11:05am - Kindergarten; lunch! Everyone ate lunch in their classrooms today since the cafeteria was filled with science fair projects.

12:00pm - Science Fair! I got to judge some of the kids' science fair projects. Cool stuff!

12:50pm - Perimeter walk. Basically I just walked around the outside of the school; kept an eye out for anything out-of-place or unsafe.

1:00pm - 2nd Grade; science. They were finishing up a unit on our solar system. More cool stuff!

1:45pm - Kindergarten; science (I think). We made "rocks" using a recipe of flour, sand, salt, water, food coloring and glitter. Very fun, but very, very messy.

2:30pm - Car-rider pick-up. Kept an eye on things outside as parents pulled up to pick up their kids; helped match kids up to their rides.

3:00pm - Sign out and head home!

Being a Watch DOGS dad is a blast and the kids are great, but man, I'm ready to hit the sack and it's only 7:30pm!

Tags: elementary; school; Watch DOGS

Roundup Those Yaks!

Hey, it's a New Year and my blogs are back! Obviously, you know about the Daily Yak (since your reading it now), but I thought I'd shamelessly plug the other members of the Yak herd. Err.... OK, it's only a herd of 2. I have other sites, but they're basically dormant, at the moment.

Anyway, here's a roundup of my most recent Yak posts:

Daily Yak

• What Do You Think of My Look for the New Year?
• The Sprite and I
• Who Let the Dogs Out?
• Stay-At-Home Marketing. Hot or Not?
• Zoinks!
• Don't Go Grocery Shopping When You're Hungry

Political Yak

• Welcome to Texas, Where Big Brother Can Change Your Vote
• One Person, One Vote? Not in the Texas Legislature!
• Texas Dems Force Kucinich Off Primary Ballot

Alright, we now return to your regularly scheduled blog....

Tags: Daily Yak; Political Yak

Don't Go Grocery Shopping When You're Hungry

A couple days ago my wife walked into the kitchen where I stood munching on a chocolate chip cookie. I had just come back from the store, finished unloading 8 bags of groceries and decided to have a snack. She paused, stared at me and said, "Don't tell me, you just bought cookies?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"But look, not just chocolate chip. I bought some that you like too!" I smiled. I'm a thoughtful husband (she is one of those weird people who don't like chocolate).

She just rolled her eyes. "You do realize that we have 37 cases of Girl Scout cookies sitting in the dining room, don't you?"

"Uhh...."

Tags: cookies; Girl Scouts; idiot husbands

Zoinks!

Hey, check this out! My town is haunted!

I was doing a quick search for other Round Rock, Texas, blogs and stumbled across Round Rock Ghost Tours. Cool! Something to do with the kids, though maybe I'll wait 'til the calendar is a bit closer to Halloween.

Tags: blogs; ghosts; Round Rock; Texas

Stay-At-Home Marketing. Hot or Not?

Stay-at-home moms. Stay-at-home dads. How about a stay-at-home server?

Yeah... server. As in computer network server. Microsoft recently launched a new marketing campaign touting a server for home use. Apparently, some people take issue with the ads. Me? I thought they were pretty funny.

What do you think?

Hat Tip: Rebel Dad
Tags: computers; Microsoft; servers; stay-at-home

Who Let the Dogs Out?

I've been volunteering at our kids' schools since our youngest entered kindergarten 3 years ago, and have become used to being one of the only dads in the classroom. I would venture to say that most parents never volunteer in class, and of those that do, the vast majority are moms. That's not surprising, of course, since moms are much more likely to be the stay-at-home parent (in families that have a parent at home with the kids).

Still, I know how rewarding and helpful it's been for me to be in the classroom (rewarding for the kids and me). I have a much better grasp of what's going on during my kids' school day, more insight into the lessons and related homework, better relationships and communication with the teachers, etc. And the kids benefit from my better understanding of their day and circumstances, as well as being able to see that I value their education enough to take time out my day. Basically, volunteering at the school helps me be a better dad.

Most dads, of course, aren't stay-at-home dads and don't have the same opportunities to volunteer as I do, but I've always hoped to find a way to share a bit of my experience and perhaps show more dads that even volunteering a little bit during the school year would be beneficial to them and their children.

So, I was excited when, earlier this school year our PTA, working in collaboration with the staff and school administration, announced that our school was going to be the first in the district to start a Watch DOGS program.

Watch DOGS is a nationwide project with the goal of getting dads to volunteer just one day a year in their kid's school. Ideally, schools in the program aim for at least one dad on campus each day of the school year. The dads spend the full day at school with a busy schedule of helping out in classrooms, in the cafeteria at lunch, on the playground at recess, etc. They encourage the kids, assist teachers and also help keep the school safe by acting as an extra set of eyes and ears on the lookout for potential problems.

I was was volunteering 2 mornings a week in my kids' classes already, but I signed up for an additional day each month as a Watch DOG. It's a blast to walk into the cafeteria and have kids shout out "Watch DOG!" The younger kids line up to get high-fives and shake hands. Kids recognize me in the grocery store - it's like being an elementary school celebrity!

Of course, it's a challenge too. The first day I was a Watch DOG, my schedule had me helping out in a 5th grade math class. I walked in as the teacher was writing "compound factor trees" on the board and asking for someone to explain what they were. I had a real are-you-smarter-than-a-5th-grader moment hoping she didn't call on me. It's been a long time since I did 5th grade math!

Now there's at least one (sometimes 2 or 3) dad at our school nearly every day and other schools in the district have started their own programs. A local television station even came to our school one morning last month to report on the Watch DOGS program. Check the video out if you have the chance, and contact the national group if you'd like information on starting the program at your school.

Tags: dads; elementary; schools; volunteer; Watch DOGS

The Sprite and I

This is for Thumper (see the comments of the last post).

;-)

Tags: Sprite

What Do You Think of My Look for the New Year?

Hey! Look! It's me... as a shepherd! Why, might you ask, am I all done up in sheep herder's garb? The infectious excitement of my 7-year old daughter, of course!

At a luncheon for new parishioners a few months ago, we learned that our church in Austin produces a play each year, just after Christmas. It's called the Boar's Head Pageant (kind of a musical, medieval Christmas tale and celebration of the Epiphany). Our daughter grabbed a piece of paper, wrote down her name and phone number and went off to sign up for a part. The lady in charge came up to us a few minutes later, just to be sure we had given our permission. And that was that.

So how did I get hooked into playing a part as well? Well, at my daughter's costume fitting last month, she asked the costume designer if she could show me her outfit before she took it off. The designer's ears perked up. "Oh, is your dad here?" I was in the next room. "How tall is he?" The next thing I know, I am being fitted for my own costume.

She was, apparently, in need of a 6'1" shepherd, much to the delight of my little girl.

There were numerous preparations and rehearsals, involving well over a hundred of our fellow parishioners (I'm guessing), all leading up to two packed performances this past weekend. I was actually surprised how much fun it was! Why didn't I ever sign up for drama in high school?

Oh, that's right. I was that shy, kind of geeky guy....

Tags: Boars Head Pageant