bryan foster feat. mike hanes

You’ve heard the rumors, now it is confirmed. Mike and Bryan will team up for an audio podcast. The shows will be recorded and published bi-weekly in an hour-long format and be sponsored by the Mazda Motor Company. This will be a free download available on this website and on itunes.  Some of the topics discussed will be:Bryan’s life, Mike’s life, Bryan’s wife Melissa and her family, Dogs, Fast Food, Funny Stuff, A Call-In Portion Where All the Really Good Stuff Happens, Europe, Panthers, Gluten and Textiles. I would plan your week around it.

Please do your best to spread the word about the podcast, the more downloads we get, the more cars Mazda is willing to sell to us. At this point you don’t even have to listen to it, just download it, but you will probably want to listen to it because it will be very high quality and not very unentertaining. Also Mike and Bryan will guarantee it is good. Also what have you got to lose? Also its not like you are doing that much with your evenings anyway. Also CSI is probably a rerun tonight. Also we might have free t-shirts for you to buy that will support our podcast. Also maybe you could be a guest on our podcast, if you are funny or are willing to be made fun of live on an hilarious critically acclaimed podcast. Thanks for all your support, we couldn’t have made it this far without you, the fans. Stay tuned for updates.  ~mike

Obviously, this blog has been a bore to read lately.  It’s just been very busy.  I know, dear reader(s) that you have been anxiously awaiting something, anything to appear when you open up your browser.  For that, I am sorry.  So we begin again, with a renewed sense of trust, faith, and so forth.

Maybe some more weighty topics this week?  Yes I say.

Not so weighty

•  Rafael Nadel wins the “best tennis match of all time” this week.  He bested Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final after seven hours of play and rain delays.  The match obviously went the full five sets with a score of 6-4 6-4 6-7(5) 6-7(8) 9-7.  Quite a match.  Unfortunately, I saw barely minutes of it because of the delays and time zone difference.  However, this ushers in a new era in tennis, one which is not dominated by Mr. Federer.  The Federer/Nadel rivalry is, by my account, the best in professional sports.  No two other players of any sport are so evenly matched and yet, extremely different in style.  Reminiscent of Sampras/Agassi but without the American undertones.  If you get a chance to see the highlights of the match, I highly recommend doing so.

More weighty

• This week, we say goodbye to the Seattle Sonics who will become the Oklahoma City something.  Anyone got any good suggestions for their team name?  I have a few.  The Wafflers, The Bennettites, or maybe something more mundane like the Southerners.  You certainly wouldn’t want anything like Bombers in that city.  I wonder what colors they will use as well.  For me, I don’t much care that the Sonics are leaving their long-time home and I am actually proud of the legislature and city of Seattle for making a stand against pro sports and public subsidies.  Pro sports teams are businesses and if they want a new arena, they can pay for it.  If Safeco Insurance wants a new hq building, do they ask the city for money?  I hope not.  Off they go.  Happy trails.  I do hope they continue to tank season after season.  I am not optimistic about the possibility of Seattle attracting another NBA team and frankly, I do not much care.  Personally, I have lost interest in the NBA.  What do you think?  Happy?  Sad?  Upset? 

This is my new favorite show, Talk Show with Spike Feresten You can watch all episodes at fox.com/talkshow  Writer on Seinfeld for episodes such as The Soup Nazi and The Muffin Tops, also a former writer on SNL and The David Letterman ShowThis is all for now  

Something else that is also funny is that Bryan never commented on my first post here 

So we just upgraded our phones after 2+ years and thus far, I am very impressed with my Sony Ericcson w580i.  For $30, it seems to be full of useful features and applications.  Of course, ideally, I would love one of the new $199 iphones that will be available in July, however, our family plan wouldn’t really use all the data features of the iphone so, this will do nicely.

So I am back in school for the summer.  Below is my progress thus far.  So far, with three courses completed, amazingly, I have a 4.0 GPA.  Psychopharmacology should be interesting this session.  Learning about the medications that are used for psychological conditions, their side-effects, and how they interact with the brain’s neurotransmitters is very interesting.

Psych 578 - Ethics: A

Psych 511 - Assessment: A

Psych 508 - Life Span Development: A

Psych 533 - Psychopharmacology: In Progress

Psych 563 - Clinical Issues in Human Diversity: In Progress

FYI

• Ryan and Nicole Barnard have a new website, located at rnbarnard.com.  Someday, they will have pictures from the honeymoon to Italy up there so be sure to check it out.

• Mike has got me addicted to the Ricky Gervais Radio Show Podcasts.  They are available on itunes and the show is pretty hilarious. Be sure to check that out.

• I’ve been playing the demo for the upcoming FPS Battlefield: Bad Company and I am looking forward to release later in the month.

That’s the news for now.

Play a record!

Wow!  How great was that finale?

So, this week will be more like a discussion on Lost instead of an analysis…

As the series enters the home stretch,  what shape do you think the last two seasons will take?

• Will it be the Oceanic Six’s journey back to the island?
• Or will season five start with them already on the island and will the show use its traditional means of explanation, flashbacks, to fill us in on how they got there?
• How do you think Locke died?
• Is Jin dead?  Which would be very sad for me.
• Are Michael and Christian Shepard dead?
• What’s the deal with Octagon Global Recruiting?

I would be interested in people’s theories on how Ben moved the island…is it really some sort of time-travel device…I suppose it could be, as Halliwax stated about the bunny disappearing for a short time, theoretically, you could do that to the island for a longer period.

I look forward to your conclusions…

Some things in life are very complicated, this is not one of them. From the Bellingham Herald, my fourth favorite newspaper:

 Many in county will be unaffected by switch to digital TV signal

The transition to all-digital television broadcasting in 2009 will be a non-event for most Whatcom County viewers.

That’s because the federally mandated switch to all-digital broadcasting, beginning Feb. 17, 2009, will have no impact on televisions that get programming from U.S. stations via cable or satellite dish. People on pay-TV systems won’t need to do anything to prepare for the change, no matter what the age of their televisions.

“It could be 50 years old, and you’re fine,” said Comcast spokesman Steve Kipp.

For those who are content with the limited local selection of over-the-air channels, that won’t be the case. Older analog sets won’t be able to receive the new digital signals. But viewers who don’t want to buy a new set can fix the problem with a converter box available for as little as $40. And the federal government stands ready to help, with a $1.5 billion appropriation to provide coupons to cover the cost of the converter boxes.

Any household, regardless of income, can apply for up to two coupons, worth $40 apiece toward the cost of a converter box. More than 11 million of the coupons have already been mailed to applicants, according to Marcellus Alexander, executive vice president for television at the National Association of Broadcasters.

Whatcom County is in a special situation thanks to its proximity to Canada. Canadian stations will continue traditional analog broadcast programming until Aug. 31, 2011. But Bellingham’s KVOS, as well as Seattle stations, will be only digital after Feb. 17, 2009.

As of now, KVOS and most other U.S. stations are broadcasting in both digital and analog.

Steve Hunter, chief engineer at KVOS, said the transition to digital may not be smooth for those who want to continue to get their programming over the air, without paying for cable or satellite service.

Digital signals tend to provide a clearer picture for those who can receive them. But viewers in fringe areas may find they are out of range of the new digital signals, even if they were able to pick up analog signals before the change.

Digital signals are “more susceptible to trees and stuff like that,” Hunter said.

Hunter also advised people not to wait to apply for their coupons.

“I sent away for it in the middle of January and I didn’t get it until two or three weeks ago,” Hunter said.

After he got his coupon and purchased a converter box, Hunter said, the box conked out within a few days, and he’s still waiting for a replacement.

so we have had quite a busy time of it…so here goes.

The Barnard/Edwards wedding.

• Good times in Pt. Townsend May 17th.  Ryan and Nicole were married on a fine, sunny day in the fine, beautiful town.  I was honored to stand by them as they said their vows and walked through the door of marriagedom.  They are currently somewhere in Italy, having a time of it I am sure.  Congrats to them!

The Lytle/Henault wedding.

• Good times in Bellingham May 24th.  Jonathan and Liz were married on a fine, sunny day in the fine, beautiful town.  It was great to see some familiar faces and wish those two happiness in their newly-minted life together.

Hanes-Foster Shimsham

• After the wedding, Melissa and I stayed in Bellingham with Mike and Sara.  It was a wonderfully relaxing time and I believe that Mike and I finally agreed upon terms of a joint(ish) blog so look for some of his ramblings, writings, essays, exhortations, and sing-alongs in the near future.  Stay tuned.

Check it.

Pretty good stuff.  Rough language at the end.

…”and I got a million pounds of candy….yay!” (Name the quote)

• The Office

So kind of a mediocre episode, however, the finale is shaping up to be exciting…will Jim propose to Pam?  Will Dwight and Angela’s relationship be rekindled?  Will Jim be somehow disposed of by Ryan?  We shall see.

Jim’s anxiety over his job was somewhat surprising…I kinda thought he wouldn’t take Ryan as serious as he did.  And Andy, oh Andy, could you be any more awkward.   Oh, and will there be a new temp/intern next year?

• Ok, on to Lost…

Alright, so we have baby Locke with a mother that looks like a young Reese Witherspoon.  So, yeah…moving on.

So, we have the ageless, timeless Richard Alpert…that was interesting.  Mittelos/Alpert seem to follow Locke through his life as he is invited to a summer camp at Mittelos during High School.  Ok, so just as Juliet was recruited aggressively, it appears that Locke is as well.

Shameless plug for myself!  So I knew, from the moment I saw Locke in his wheelchair with his orderly, I knew it was Abaddon.

Alright, moving on.  So we have the island manifesting Horace and telling John where to go.  Obviously, Christian was going to be there but I was surprised to see Claire there…and then I remembered the scene where Claire sees “dad” in the last episode.

Again, moving on.  Kahana.  I had it figured that the Doc was gonna get murdered because the Losties found him.  So I get there is this time discrepancy between the island and the rest of the world apparently.  Keamy can’t kill Michael because the Island won’t let that happen, unfortunately the same isn’t true for Captain Gault.  Whatever device Keamy has strapped to his arm seems to represent the end of the world to those on the ship.

Good ole Lepidus seems to be somewhat trustworthy and he dropped that sat phone to the Losties, helped Michael, and seems to be a wealth of information (Widmore not responsible for the fake plane wreck), which, blessedly, supports my personal theory.

So, all in all, a good episode with many new twists and turns.  I am still most interested in the Black Monster and the Time/Directional Issues that are associated with the Island.  I am excited for next week.

check it…