Poopenshire

I'm Totally Pocahontas

2008-10-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Allison did this on her blog, so I just had to see what disney princess I was. It seemed so accurate for Allison, I thought it could do the same for me. But maybe I should have found the disney hero quiz or something. Oh well.

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Do Polar Bears Really Hate Jesus?

2008-09-30T01:53:00.000-07:00

Many months ago, I was completely disinterested in seeing the Golden Compass movie. I saw the preview on TV and thought to myself, "Ooh, them polar bears seem surly", but that was the extent of it. Then, Allison and I got a forwarded email that warned us to avoid this movie at all cost. The reason being that it was written by an atheist and was designed to trick children into thinking that religion is stupid. Being my defiant self, I suddenly became interest in seeing this movie. I just had to see what kind of trick these polar bears had up their sleeve that could powerfully alter the minds of unsuspecting christian children. I had a bunch of laughs about the movie boycott with my friend at work who has his own issues with organized religion in general. His take on the matter was, "It's just polar bears..fighting".

So we made plans to see it to figure out what all the hubub was about. We never got around to it, but recently it was netflixed to my house and so I watched it as I did some crocheting for my new baby girl. As I watched it, I couldn't see anything dangerous about it at all. It's just a story about a girl in an alternate universe who goes on a little adventure to the frozen north, meets some polar bears, saves some kids, bingo bango, the end. Sure, I could try to read into the overall meaning and message, but kids aren't going to do that, so why all the boycotting. Is it becuase atheist don't deserve to get paid for sharing thier talent through literature. If you don't want to see a movie for any reason, just don't see it. You have that choice. In this case, let the rest of us have the same freedom. For me, it seems like making and forwarding emails like the one I got was just a sign of insecurity. Are you hoping that everyone you send it to will see you as a super great christian soldier. Sorry, didn't work for me.

Overall however, it's still a lame movie.

-Zip`

Cleaning out my Virtual Closet

2008-09-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

I posted some of these a few years back. Then as I was organizing my files last week, I noticed that there was a few that never got posted to the ole' blog. So here are the rest of them. Who knows, maybe I'll even make some more someday.

Web Albums

2008-09-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

If you're a fellow blogger, you might find this review worth your while.

I was just finding it very annoying to upload all my picts that I want to share onto this blog thing. However, I know that it must happen to keep the blog worth looking at. It also helps for those Looky-Lews who choose not to read and just look at pictures. It takes a long time becuase the pictures are generally large and upload slowly(about 10-15 seconds per pic). My other option was to shrink them all down one by one but that took a while also.

Now there's a solution (commercialism). Google's new Web Albums allow me to upload a whole mess o' pictures all at once into a nice organized album that can be viewed by anyone. So instead of uploading them one by one and trying to write captions I can just put a link on a blog post and those who click it can view all the pictures I have there. So I no longer have to post a select few. When one goes to my web album, they can veiw the pictures one by one or watch a slide show. I can also put captions on each picture quickly and easily. The captions even show up on the slide show unless the viewer opts to remove them. The veiwer can even download any picture they want and get their own prints. Since the image is still a good size, the prints should be quality and free of pixeliness or graininess (although I haven't tried that yet).
I can create as many different albums as I want, too. For example, my first album was all my Utah pictures. Now I can make another Albums for our new baby's pictures to link to a post later.

Drawbacks: The only problem I've experienced is that sometimes a few pictures will have trouble being veiwed in the slide show. They might show up with super-sized boxy pixels or not show up at all. Sometimes, you will have to start it over again or just veiw the screwed up pictures seperately. Also, anyone who wants to make their own web albums will have to have installed Google's Picasa picture organizer. It's not a major problem since Picasa is the most user friendly picture organizer I've used and it's free. There is a limited amount of space that anyone can use on their Google account but it's a lot of space and it gets bigger all the time. There also seems to be a way to upgrade your space.

So overall, I've found it very useful. I really didn't want to use my blog as a recap of my life through pictures. Allison already takes care of that for us both on her blog. If I did the same thing, it would get redundant. Now I can do simple posts with links to albums when I want to share pictures and spend the rest of my time rambling about other stuff. Not that I've really figured out my format yet. I've been hoping that it will develop itself. Product and service reviews already seem to be a part of it. Anyway, I guess I should start with my Utah Album. You can view all of my Utah pictures by....
Clicking Here.

Moab 2008

2008-09-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

I managed to go down to Moab while I was in Utah. I've always liked to scenery down there as well as the recreational activities. Moab is world famous for it's Bike Trials and I likes me some bike trails.

I took Pink to see Arches. Pink had never been to Moab (or Utah) and Arches is one of the must-see destinations.
This is one of the windows in Arches. We found out quickly that there's no point in trying to wait for people to get out of the picture. However, all the foreigners had no problem with using their broken English to tell us to get out of their pictures. I don't think I heard anyone speaking English, now that I think about it.

"Ding Dong!" Did somebody here a doorbell?

This picture of Double Arch was taken with Pink's camera. It kinda sucked in color quality but my camera ran out of battery and I didn't have 3 hours to charge it.

That's me inside one of the Double Arch windows.

We were able to leave while the sun was setting and caught this cool picture of Park Avenue.

The delicate Arch is one of the iconic Utah formations. It's also one of the longest hikes in the Park (Actually only a 3 mile round trip). As you approach the arch on the trail, you have the opportunity to peek at it through this small window.

This picture is what my dad calls "Artsy Fartsy". It's hard to tell, but I got the moon sitting right on top of the Arch. Hopefully you can click on the image to see it larger. I've had problems with that in previous posts.

Balanced Rock one of the coolest formation plus it's one you can drive right up to. So anyone who goes to Arches should have a picture. I liked this one because it looks like a mushroom cloud exploding behind me.
Against much opposition and budget complaints from Pink, I was able to get out on the Slickrock bike trail. I've never been on this particular trail but it's the most well known trail in Moab. People come from all over the world to ride it. Needless to say, it's very challenging. I had to go it alone because Pink didn't want to spend the money, plus he would have died.

The trail is made up of miles and miles of petrified sand dunes so the climbs and drops are ridiculously steep. All in all it wasn't too technical for my skills but it was way too strenuous for what I wanted to do. Slickrock style trails sound fun, but I really prefer some good old fashion single track. I rode about 8 miles of the trail before I called it quits.

-Zip

The Timp Hike

2008-09-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures from the Timp Hike during my vacation this year. The above picture is of the three of us with Timp in the background. It was from our 2005 trip. We didn't get to hike Timp that year becuase of the snow.

Mount Timpanogos is the second highest peak in the Wasatch Range, standing at 11,750 feet. To contrast, the highest point in the state of NC is Mt. Mitchell at less than 7,000 ft. I used to live near the base of Timp in Pleasant Grove, but was too lazy to get out and hike it. After 10 years, I returned to conquer it. It's about a 7.5 mile hike straight up the mountain with an elevation gain of about 4500 ft. Little kids do it all the time, but we had full packs so it was a little harder. Here I am at the trailhead, pointing to where I'm going. I really like to point in pictures.

As we zigzagged up the face of the mountain, we must of crossed this small waterfall about 10 times. At one point, the actual trail was the small stream. Good thing I had my waterproof boots.
As we climbed and caught more and more spectacular views, I often paused to comtemplate the vast wilderness. Actually, I might have just passed gas. I can't remember

This was our first good view of Timp's summit as we entered the Timpanogos Basin.

After scaling the cliffs along the Basin, we came to our campsite directly below the summit. This shelter was built like 50 years ago for the annual Timp hike that was discontinued in the 70's because it was harmful to the environment along the trail. This shelter came in handy to get out of the rain.

Our campsite already seemed to be occupied by some Mountain Goats. There looked to be about 100 of them. Click on the picture to see a larger view.
Here's a good shot of a large male. The really showed no fear in approaching us. I originally thought they were threatened and were trying to act tough, but we finally realized they were just hoping that we would feed them. I'm sure people have fed them in the past which is a terrible idea.
The next day we set out for the summit. This was our first view of the Wasatch Valley when we came over the ridge. Adam quit on us here, due to some poop issues he was having but me and Pink carried on for the summit.

The terrain began to get really steap at this point. We were scaling a rock cliff face from this point.
Finally we made it to the top and set the camera to take this terrible picture. Well, I guess it's not that bad.

There's a small metal building at the summit that used to be used for surveying. We signed our names to the book that was inside. "King Kong aint got sh*# on me!"

Timpanogos Basin

2008-08-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

For my 28th birthday this year, Allison let me go to Utah to have some fun with Adam Arellano. I took along my friend, Pink, from work and we all had a great time. One of the things we did on the trip was hike Timp. This is a great video of the what the Timp Basin looks like in August. Unfortunately, the video quality does not do the flowers justice. The colors were much more vivid when you're actually there. I'll make another post with more pictures, but I just wanted to practice posting a video.

MUMRA

2008-08-21T00:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a great picture of me and my mom from Jan 07. I got her this apron for her birthday that year.

You see, several years ago, my brother Jason refered to my mom as "MUM-RA", which kinda has the "MOM" sound in it. I thought this was hilarious considering that Mumra was the evil mummy antagonist from my favorite childhood cartoon, Thundercats. Mumra had the symbol on his chest that is also on the apron in the picture.

So does my mom have anything else in common with Mumra? I'm not sure. Mumra was an "ever living" mummy who resided in a pyramid where he would generate strength to periodically transform into a superpowerful dude and fight with Lion-O. Unfortunately, his strength never held out long enough to give the Thundercats much of a problem. So... you be the judge.

Over Two Years Later

2008-08-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

"It is the distant future...The Year 2000."
Actually 2008, but I wanted to keep the FOTC quote accurate. (I'll get to FOTC in a later post.)

So two years isn't that long. I've seen worse. I'm willing to bet that nobody really noticed. However, lately I've been noticing how religiously my wife has been keeping up with other people's blogs and then I noticed that other guys wives have also been exibiting the same behavior. So there's this big ole network of wives that keep track of other people's lives and report on it to their husbands when they find out something juicy. So, I guess the point of this paragraph is to simply say that now that it's 2 years later, it might actually be worth it to write a blog now that I know that all my friends wives will read it and report to their husbands. Ah who'm I kidding, I don't have any friends.

Allison developed a blog after I started mine that she has been faithful with and has actually gotten very good at developing little add-ons and what-nots. I guess I gave up when she took over. The only problem is that there's just too much of that stupid cat on hers. She keeps everyone up to speed on what we do with our spare time, but sometimes she uses excruciating detail. Actually, she's been getting better about that lately, now that I think about it. She mostly does pictures with captions now. Very veiwer friendly. So that gives me the challenge of developoing a format for my blog that is somewhat different. I have an idea of what I want to accomplish but it's not an idea that I can put into words becuase...well I acutally don't have an idea. Basically, I'll just try to invite people into my head a little.

First of all, I intend to to spend the next little while catching folks up on the last two years. I'll pick out some brief highlights that should have pictures to go along and I'll go from there. So stay tuned.

Thanks to the two people who will read this post.

-Zip (Hey I just invented a sign-off)

A New Blog is Up for Movies

2006-05-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

Big News!!!!

I just put a new blog up designed for watching all the movies put out by JAG Productions. They are hosted by Google video for free. It's a great service. There's a link to the new blog on the side bar of this blog so check them out and enjoy. There should be more coming in the near future. I'm still in the process of putting up all the movies I have on file, and I plan to make more for sure. CLICK HERE to go to it.

My Dad's Crash now on Google Video

2006-04-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Good news! I am now going into the business of getting my movies and videos on the internet. This is my trial run. You should be able to see my Dad's bike crash by clicking here. Try it out and look forward to more fun and games. You also can share it with others simply by telling people to google "Mike Lewis Bike Crash".

More Manual Covers

2006-03-30T04:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple more fun stuffs for your veiwing pleasure

I Love making these things

2006-02-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite one so far. I have some more I am working on. These things make great desktop backgrounds by the way.

More Funny Stuff

2006-02-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

2006-02-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

I created a new series of teachings books that some people might find interesting. There are many things to learn from the enemies of Superman. First in the series is General Zod. Having suffered through many hardships in his life, General Zod has forged his way through adversity and emerged an icon in Americana. This book will follow Zod through his misadventures in the Phantom Zone from the point when he was banished there by Jor-El to the time that a nuclear blast in Space from planet earth set him free. You will see how he demonstrated great leadership abilities from an early stage when he acquired his first two folowers in Ursa and Non. Stay tuned for further instalments in the series.

Funny Christian Arrogance

2006-01-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

So it looks like the First Baptist Church enjoys Conan O'Brien as much as I do. This message came from Arnold Schwartenn...whatever via satellite as he was talking about his stance on gay marriage. If you want to see it check out Conan's website via NBC.com and go to the video archives. Choose the one that says something like "2005 year in review."

The one thing about church signs like this one is that it's advertising plain and simple. In advertising, one organization is trying to compete with another organization for attention from the consumer. In this case, this First Baptist Church is trying to let the public know that they are funnier than the other First Baptist Church down the road and therefore deserves to be patronized more. And why do these churches compete for attention? Becuase they want to share the word of God, right. I seriously doubt it. If that were the case they would be content to let people go to the other place. So, we're left with one option, the all mighty dollar. Attracting more people to their church means more money in the collection plate. Sure that money goes to making the church nicer and things like that, but it also goes right in the pocket of those who officiate. And why not cut yourself a larger allowance when you get more from your loyal subjects. This is the inherent problem with paid clergy. There's no place for it in pure religion.

I suppose I may be overlooking one alternative to why these signs may be posted with their clever messages. They could be a message to the non-church goers or the "sinners" out there. Those who haven't been to church in a while or who have never been. They have money too and some of it would be much appreciated in the collection plate. After all, "Church is not a place for the Healthy but a Hospital for the Sick," and doctors need to be paid.

All the same though, I still appreciate them. I laugh at them alot, but I never feel sorry for my sins.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2006-01-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

Do old people deserve respect just becuase they are old or know trivial facts about random stuff?

I say no. The only people of any age that deserve respect are those who show it to others.

Here's my story...

For Christmas, my younger brother and I received some Lazer Tag guns from our older brother and we decided to try them out a couple days after the Holiday. After a few round in the woods adjacent to our backyard, we opted for a change of venue to our local Country Park. It's a park that I've been going to since I was a child and it has some history in the Revolutionary War, but is now used for collecting dog feces as the dog owners speed walk their way into oblivion.
We played a few rounds at many sites around the park and eventually decided to try out a field that is used for Rev War reenactments once a year. We thought that what might have once been a battlefield would be a good place for a round of Lazer Tag. However, unknown to us, we were followed to the feild by some old guy in a car. He looked nothing like the guy in the provided picture for this post, but his demeanor was the same. He asked what we were doing in a condescending tone and I responded to his question and asked if there was a problem. Now comes the meaningless lecture about how sacred the land was, something about a Pow Wow and Negro Slaves. Nothing relevant to what my brother and I were doing. I responded to his trivial info with a bewildered, "Okay?" And he followed with the old man phrase, "Is that all you have to say about it." Now, I didn't know that there was a good way to respond random trivia from strange people in the park, but I could tell that he wanted us to leave and play our game somewhere else. I even understood his point and may have obliged him but he never really asked us to leave. He simply broke into a lecture. So basically, I'm angry. I am not a little kid to be scolded and I'm not scared of old people. I asked him if he owned the land in question, to which he responded that he was a tax payer. I am a tax payer too, and I informed him of that which means that I have just as much right to be there as he did. Various stupid questions followed that I said were none of his business. He felt the need to inform me that he lived around the park for 20 years, yet another irrelevant fact. When I told him that I had been there for the same amount of time, he scoffed at me is disbeleif, but it was indeed true. Finally I got him really angry with my lack of cooperation, s0 he swore at me and left. I too left the field.

So here's the thing. The old man came to me asking in a round about way for respect. Respect for the land I was on and respect for him becuase he was old. The problem was that I recieved zero respect from him. He constantly talked down to me, insulted me, swore at me, and harrassed me.
Respect can not be demanded, it can only be earned.

Eat Poop and die, Old Man!

Christmas Overview 2005

2005-12-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

Whew, Christmas is over and what a bittersweet thing it is. I love the christmas season with all it's Ho Ho Ho's and Jolly ole crap. However, at the same time the actual day of christmas prooves to be more difficult than I could imagine. This year was by far the craziest of them all. I had 4 stinkin families to spend time with in one day. This might not be too bad if I wasn't a nocturnal creature by profession. By the way the four were.

My own wife, Allison, along with my two brothers spent the morning before church exchanging the gifts that we got for each other.
Then we mozied over to house of Allison's Dad and had there little shin dig involving food and gifts and drooling babies.
Next, we shacheted over to Allison's Mom's house and had another ritual and snack eating.
And finally, we galavanted to my own parents house around 8pm for the final exchange of stuffs.

By the end I was passing out from exhaustion quite literally. Now I know why most people move away from their families.

Anyway, here's some fun pictures. The first picuture (above) is my gingerbread whitehouse. I tried to do something different from the traditional this year.

Here's a picture of one of the elves that appeared in our living room on Christmas morning. Superman was assisted by Batman, Homer Simpson, King Kong, and some other monkey that I got out of the claw machine at work.

What makes a Giant Monkey Iconic?

2005-12-19T12:02:00.000-08:00

As a young person, I used to think that the idea of the King Kong was pretty cool. Giant monkeys are good for any young person. However, I don't think that any of the Kong movies are kids movies in any way. Kong was made for adults, so what is it about a old stop motion monkey that became so legendary. You would think that it would have been laughed off with serveral other silly films that were made back in the thirties.
Obviously , it must be the themes of the movie that make it worth watching. Themes, to me, is what makes most movies worth watching. It's the one part of the viewing experience that requires you to think. If there were no themes in Kong then we would all be left with a devastating sense of sorrow for such a sad ending. But if we think of what such a sad ending means, it becomes less of a emotional drain.
So what are the themes of Kong? I am sure that there are several, but I will try to focus on two of the primary ones. First of all, there's the idea of not interfering with somebody else when they're not bothering you or anybody else. Perhaps Jack Denham should have just left the entirety of skull island alone. But, instead, he harassed the natives, and stole one thier gods. Then he took the god back to his own home and suffered the consequences. I don't think that this is the filmmakers way of commenting on the war in Iraq causing terrorism, but I rather think that it's focusing on a more fundamental, non-political, ideal.
However, the central theme, as in most movies, is derived from the ending. As most of the human race is aware of, the monkey dies. And the very last line of the movie is, "Twas beauty killed the beast." This is where we can find the message, but interestingly enough we can take many messages from such a line. The more obvious one is that men can be suckered into anything if you show them a pretty face. This is a theme that has been around since as early as the bible when the great righteous King David stooped to a level well beneath him, when he saw the infamous naked figure of "Bath"sheba washing on the rooftop. David nearly forfeited his soul for sending Uriah to die so he could take his wife, bringing to mind his own words that he wrote several years earlier, "How are the mighty fallen!" Kong went through Hell from the very moment that found his precious gem and eventually forfeited his life in an effort to keep her safe.
If this were the meaning of the concluding declaration of the film, I would still feel a little let down. Which is why I think that there is something deeper involved. What will someone do for love. Kong was worshipped as a king and even a god on his island. He had the respect of all animals and man where he was. But he obviously wasn't happy. He realized that power was not what brought him true happiness. Everything that he had, he was willing to give up for a chance to have something to care about. This is fundamental in human nature. That's why so many rich people are unhappy. In an effort to gain the best life they could possibly have, they sacrifice what makes life worth living. Kong made the ultimate sacrifice to defend what he loved, and he was perfectly content as he met his end becuase he did not regret his decision.

Die Monkey! Die!

2005-12-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

What is the deal with Peter Jackson and his 3+ hour movies. Well actually I'm only complaining about King Kong as far as longevity is concerned. As for the Lord of the Rings movies, I still found it unbearable to suffer through 3 hours of meaningless dramatic dialogue, but I understand why it had to be that long since it came from a book and all. However, I don't think King Kong came from a book. It came from a another movie made back in 1933 which, by the way, told the exact same story in literally half the time. Perhaps the word "Edit" is completely foreign to Jackson. I know that there was at least 15 minutes of disturbing footage consisting of people being eating by giant bugs. Fancy CGI for sure, but not appatizing. I'm sure that there is some kind of meaning that can be put to that scene. Maybe, it was to give the audience a perspective of a life of an insect. But that was already done in Honey I Shrunk the Kids only Honey had kooky music. I guess if there was kooky music involved in Kong I wouldn't have found it so disturbing. Even if I assume that all the action and dialogue scenes had some kind of themed message that couldn't be cut out, there's always the excessive shots of Kong breathing. I'm sure that if you take all the monkey breath shots and take them out, you cut out another 15 minutes.

I better stop writing this post before it becomes 3 hours long. All in all I appreaciated everything else about the movie. It had great respect toward the orginal, excellant imagery of 1933 NY, and it left the themeology as it should be, which is hidden for the viewer to determine. Just keep it short. Only nerds think long movies are cool. (my semi-apologies to any friends whom I just called a nerd....whom I kidding, nobody reads this blog)

I am the Master of the Universe

2005-12-12T00:37:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like making things happen on the computer that you never thought you could do. I would like to take a moment to explain something that I am proud of accomplishing. Like so many accomplishments, it may not seem so fancy to other people, but to me I have done something that I have never been taught by any human or animal before and because of that, I am boastful.

In attempting to develop my little blogg here I wanted to have links to other blogs and sites like I've seen on other peoples' stuff. My problem was that I chose a template that didn't have a section for links. However I knew that my "Jason Sucks" Blog did have those link-ma-jiggers and I learned how to change them with my expert "Help menu" skills. However, to get the link section on my template was still the task at hand. I thought and thought about it. I could have simply changed my template, but I like the one I have. We have gotten along so well. Finally I thought of a way to fake some computer smarts. Since the template is a bunch of computer code that suck-head Jason would make fun of me for not understanding, I knew that I could not put in my own code to add the links onto the sidebar. However, I knew the code that I needed was on the "Jason Sucks" page so I simply cut and pasted the code onto my Poopenshire template and there we go. I was in business. Bill Gates aint got nothing on me.

Prankin' the Big Stank

2005-12-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

First of all, I thought that I should post a recent photo of myself since the last one I posted was more than 10 years ago. An interesting fact about both pictures is that they are both screenshots from two different movies that are related to each other. In the old photo, it was a movie called Scottie of Poopenshire 2: Beverly Strikes Back. There ended up being 9 Scottie Movies and most of them were pretty wierd. This recent photo was a screenshot from The Masked Mexican 2: Return of the Mexican. This is a movie that I just finished creating. It was my way of practicing for future projects and developing a conclusive ending to all the old movies that my friends and I used to make.

On a funny note, I got a great idea for pranking my older Brother Jason as I was developing this silly blog. You see, the two of us have this little prank war where we see who can come up the most creative or involved ways to tell each other that the other one sucks. One time I printed out hundreds of small peices of paper saying "Jason Sucks" on them and planted them all over the house so that he could find them for weeks. I even went to his work once with my friend Adam Arellano and placed these small papers all over the retail store that he was then employed at. Jason once made some police tape to put across the entry way of my door, only instead of saying crime scene, it said "Suck Scene." Many many many other creative and time consuming things came of this war but I speak of recently. Yesterday, I created another blog to go along with this one devoted to Jason Sucking. I put a few pictures on there to get it started, but I hope to enhance it in the future. By the way, I don't proofread unless I'm writing for school. But I can tell that nobody else does either.

Picture

2005-12-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the good ole days in Poopenshire. I'm the one in the middle joined by the entoboggened Chris Shuck and the shorn Adam Arellano.

Bored

2005-12-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I spelled "bored" correctly. However this is the reason that I started this Blog. I was looking at my good friend Adam's Blog and I thought to my self, "Self, you're not doing a lot right now, why don't jump on the bandwagon and get yo-sef a Blog." So that' what happened. We shall see if I keep up with it. My guess is that I will.