Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

VW: Ze German Engineering

Posted 28 Mar 2007 — by nick
Category Fun, Technology, Volkswagen


Well I did it. After 8 months of searching, pondering and saving I bought a car. I had long since decided to buy a Volkswagen for their reliability and attention to detail – as one sales guy told me “there is a high correlation between engineers and Volkswagens.”

About a month ago I visited my dealer to talk to Brooks, my third sales guy – I didn’t really get along with the previous two. I had long ago decided I wanted a black, two door, manual rabbit which was suprisingly hard to find. Brooks was pretty accomodating, he didn’t have what I wanted on the lot and instead of trying to get me to buy something else or change my preferences on color, etc he began searching other dealers to make a trade for my car. About a week later he called me and said he found one.

She was leaving the line in Wolfsburg, Germany and would be in the USA on the March 22 and ready for me to check out shortly after that. A couple weeks past. On Monday, Brooks called me and said she arrived and was being unwrapped – she would be ready for pick up at 4:00. So exciting! I met up with Brooks at the dealer around 4:00 after work and we looked over the car, went through the necessary paper work, haggled over add-on packages, APR, etc. and at 6:15 I drove my new rabbit off the lot with just 12 miles on it. 🙂

I’m taking suggestions for names, keep in mind she is a girl (of course).

More Free Caffeine

Posted 19 Mar 2007 — by nick
Category coffee, Fun, News

Free Iced Coffee from Dunkin Donuts Wednesday March 21, 2007. (Press Release)
Well last week’s free Starbucks helped get me through the week – with the official change of seasons this week and free iced coffee from DD, I’d say getting through this week won’t be so tough either.

Just for fun: calculate your daily caffeine intake. See if you beat me I’m between 580 and 725mg / day. “OK. THAT’S ENOUGH”

Playing in the Sand

Posted 14 Mar 2007 — by nick
Category Blogs, Creation, Fun, Jesus

I’m being really productive this morning 🙂

It all started when I was reading JK’s recent post and then jumped over to his flickr sets – this dude has shot some pretty cool pictures. Once there I noticed a picture of a time I had almost all together forgotten.
A group of us from i-life were headed to Mexico to build homes for families in need about 3 years ago. One morning on our journey down we stopped off at White Sands National Park – I think simply to be kids again. The picture is of Ben Chase, Matt Dobsch, and Me (from left to right). We are jumping off the edge of a sand dune. Funtimes.

mmmm… Coffee

Posted 14 Mar 2007 — by nick
Category coffee, Fun

Just a quick post for all my fellow caffeine junkies out there:


Many thanks to the NCSA branch of Coffee Club for bring this to my attention.

"Close your eyes, Open your heart"

Posted 08 Mar 2007 — by nick
Category Fun, Movies

At some point I’m gonna need to sit down and write thoughts on a lot of the films I’ve watched recently, well the good ones at least:

This week I watched The Science of Sleep with a couple of friends. It takes a lot these days to really draw me into a story, to allow me to turn off my brain – this film did it. The story is painfully true to how awkward life can feel, at least my life. In an uncanny way it captures the feeling of being trapped by growing up. The movie has an almost music-video-ish feel to it, especially during the dream sequences. If you’ve not seen this film you should.

News from Lake Wobegon

Posted 16 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category Fun, Podcasts, Poetry, Technology


Many thanks to Beno for bringing this to my attention: The great story teller Garrison Keillor finally available on iTunes. Listening to GK serves as a reminder of his mastery of comedy and story. Check out A Prairie Home Companion – the APM radio show he anchors and source of the podcast. The segment on iTunes is “News From Lake Wobegon” – a standard segment of each APHC installment.

Occasionally I listen to The Writers Almanac by GK, another production of American Public Media. It highlights a poem each day and gives history on literary figures.

“That’s the news from Lake Wobegon where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

Toys and Vacation

Posted 18 Jan 2007 — by nick
Category Creation, Fun, Technology

The whirlwind of holidays is over now; or more accurately, recovery from the whirlwind of holidays is now complete. The past month saw me bouncing around the suburbs visiting family, enjoying the eerie quiet that consumes the vacated campus, hosting visitors for New Years and breathing the beautiful snowy air of Upper Peninsula Michigan.

As usual I received an unholy amount of gifts from my family – including gift cards meant for a Nintendo Wii, which Best Buy has yet to get in stock. Among my gifts, Settlers of Catan, firefly and multiple excellent books. With the cash-money my job provides me I was able to buy things for people that were along the lines of their desires and meaningful to them – my brother got a burr grinder which was hard for me to part with since I so badly wanted it for myself. Enjoy it Chris!

In addition to the loot received from my family I purchased a palm treo680 for myself. For the most part I’m pleased with it, however it crashes more than I would admit is acceptable. My treo had been in my possession nearly 3 weeks when Mr. Steve Jobs announced the new apple iPhone. If you know me at all you know the past week has been quite the mind game – “should I keep my treo or return it and wait for an iPhone?”

I’ve decided to keep it and commit to buying an iPhone as my next over-powered-all-in-one-cellular device.

I leave you now with this wonderful picture of me holding my baby.


Chris documented the UP Snowboarding trip pictorially with his new camera, you can find some of them in his Picasa Album.

"Facts are not what most humans believe … "

Posted 21 Dec 2006 — by nick
Category Books, Fun, Technology


While on iTunes the other day I noticed a free audiobook that seemed interesting enough: The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. The audiobook, read by the author – John Hodgman, claims to be an almanac of complete world knowledge according to the writer. The past several days have found my office mate and I listening to the book while working – chuckling due to the absurdity.

Here is a quote from the book I found hilarious and quite summarily appropriate of the book. I’ve transcribed it here for you:

“The main advantage that this book has over libraries and indeed all of it’s almanacian predecessors is that all the historical oddities and amazing true facts contained here in are lies, made up by me. And it is this astonishing innovation that allows each entry to contain many more truths than if it were merely factual.

If this last point seems confusing to you consider the banal and truthful statement that follows:

Fredric Chopin was a Polish composer in the romantic style who wrote primarily for the piano.

I guess this is sort of interesting, as most facts are, but history has shown us again and again that Facts are not what most humans believe, they are not that which moves most men or women to love, or hate, or joy or cry.

Now compare this statement:

Fredric Chopin was a Polish composer in the Romantic style who was obsessed with lady bugs, often letting dozens of them gallop over his neck, arms and long tapering fingers while playing the piano.

Obvious the lie is so much more compelling. It shocks the mind and plays on the readers imagination with lady bug covered hands. New resonances emerge and new melodies of insight – not just into the nature of Chopin but also the art of composing, the history of the lady bug as good luck charm and colioopterophilia (spelling – meaning ?). It also finally explains how Chopin solved his terrible aphid problem.”

You may recognize the voice and or face of John Hodgman as the PC from the recent “Buy a Mac” commercials in which he has done an amazing job encapsulating the ineptitude of a common PC/PC user 🙂

Download the free audiobook and enjoy the many laughs guaranteed through a listening, if you find yourself financially inclined, purchase the book.

This Makes Me Smile

Posted 10 Nov 2006 — by nick
Category Fun, Videos

Not sure how I missed this commercial, it’s almost a year old. Anyways I stumbled upon it on google video this afternoon and thought I’d share it.