This morning was pretty crazy even for a spectator. My day started out with the biggest worry of what I was going to eat for breakfast. Knowing all my eggs, toast, and coffee at home were exhausted I headed out to a local coffee shop to get some work done and have a peaceful early snack. After sitting around for awhile listening to an Audiobook and some music I noticed patrons started rushing outside and talking on cellphones. Doing my best not to be a gawker I sat inside and minded my own business. Overhearing somebody vocalize “Butterworth was on fire” got my attention.
With that I packed up my stuff and headed down Michigan Ave to get a better look. On my way I called flo to see if he heard about what happened but he was already on site. In the area were tons of police, fire trucks, first responders, frantic spectrum people barking orders, and tons of spectators trying to get a grasp on the situation. On my travels I ran into some co-workers who were in the area as well relaying overheard information.
All the major local news sources were grabbing interviews and I saw a lot of people with large digtial cameras and home camcorders taking pictures and video. After I broke apart from the people I was talking with I went for a walk around the building. After seeing the inital cloud of smoke there really wasn’t much to see other then all the commotion. Walking home from the scene I turned on the television to hear there were two people injured but nobody seriously hurt. At that time I decided to go into work and see if I could be of any assistance (clearly I’m not as I’m updating my website).
UPDATE: We made CNN
Picture Credit: Steven de Polo
The gods of Mountain Dew have thrust upon the general public three new flavors. Fresh off their winning formula of Game “Best Soda Ever” Fuel these new concoctions have a tough legacy to live up with. Do they fail?
Yesterday I went with Che to WalGreens to pick up a few necessities. On the way out the door my eyeball caught a quick glimpse of three new color bottles of Mountain Dew. After beating around the bush we decided on purchasing all three.
The first thing Dew drinkers will notice is these beverages are not highly carbonated. They lack the traditional bite Mountain Dew normally has. These drinks pack the same sugar and caffeine content but are a much lighter and less harsh taste. I believe what they are going for is a beverage people will crave in the mornings that is easer to drink the regular Mountain Dew. When trying the three flavors out I thought they more resembled a low percentage fruit juice then a regular soda.
If you are compelled and feel a strong allegiance to one of the flavors you can head to dewmocracy.com and place your vote for what one of the three favors stays. After trying all three I have to say the Revolution is my favorite mostly because it reminds me of the “Baja Blast”. Check em out while they last.
….the best action movie stars around you know we have a problem. I see this as a bad problem and a problem that is going to nip everybody in the arse.
Like most everybody I would say I’m a general fan of movies. On a given week I at least watch part of one movie and upwards to five titles. This calendar year I’ve attended the movie theater only three times, and two of those times were for movies I was genuinely excited for (one was a date night to see Run Fat Boy Run that was alright).
For the first half of 2008 the two movies I’ve had any interest in seeing in a movie theater where “Rambo” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull“. Both of those movies star men in their 60’s.
And both kicked utter ass.
Conversation between my friends always comes back to the subject of the death of action movies. With all these damn comic book and 80’s throw back movies (I GUESS they are action movies and the revisited Batman movies are the only ones I get excited about) and with the conclusion of The Matrix not many action movies of note have been released. Another conversation piece is who “The Next Big Action” star is going to be? As much as I personally do have a place for “The Rock” and Vin Diesel was badass in Pitch Black they are nothing in comparison to Arnold, Stallone, Willis, and Ford.
What we are seeing more of now are makeshift action stars. These include some who do it well (Bale, Reeves) and some who I just can’t buy as being action heroes (Downey Jr, Le Boof, Christensen I could goon for awhile here). What I mean is looking at Jean Claude Van Damme at times he just is a badass, and that is all that needs to be said. Watch this video; 152 seconds of Hard Target classic action. Watching his movies you would never know his father owned a flower shop and he was trained in ballet.
I don’t want accessible action stars. I don’t want accessible action movies. I don’t want pg-13 tame ass crap all the time.
The movie industry needs to pick it up. This week I urge all to at least rent Rambo on DVD if you are a fan of classic action movies Rambo fits the bill and takes that bill and turret guns it to pieces. If you are looking for a fun two hour romp into the past check out Indiana Jones. SUPPORT OUR AGING ACTION STARS THEY MAYBE ALL WE HAVE LEFT!
Friday morning when eating my epic morning breakfast (three eggs, PB toast, V8 Fusion juice, coffee/creamer) I got the ambition to make a few changes to vanlandw.com I’ve been meaning to do for awhile.
For years I’ve let my online presence get a little bloated. I have profiles everywhere, photos everywhere, music everywhere. Stuff is everywhere. Cleaning up and simplifying vanlandw.com I believe is a good start.
The new look is still a “WIP” but stripping away some of the fat with the single column view is something I enjoy.
Over time I expect more changes and hopefully easier ways to get the content I want people to see. Most of my online time can be tracking viewing my Google Reader Shared Items. When I finally get an external hard drive I’m going to work on unifying my archives of pictures and hopefully get all my content under the ‘vanlandw.com’ banner. Any suggestions throw them my way.
After composing this masterpiece I’m sure the only thing I’m going to hear about is how my “epic morning breakfast” really isn’t that epic to others…
Today I logged into my wp-admin and came to see there was another update to Wordpress. Never is it fun to upgrade your blogging software. It’s about this time I envy all the writers on wordpress.com or blogger.com because they don’t need to manually update their software. For us smucks folks who manage their own websites Wordpress updates can be a pain.
Enter the “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin”.
Wordpress should just buy out the creator of this plugin and throw it into the core installation just like Apple did with Coverflow. For a 0.0.1 software upgrade Wordpress will remind you every turn possible to update. Luckily I stumbled upon this plugin that takes care of everything for you.
Going though the update process that normally takes me 20-30 minutes to do everything recommended took me about five minutes including uploading the plugin to vanlandw.com to completion. The only problem I was able to see was after upgrading wordpress my K2 sidebar items were jacked but that was a quick fix.
Wordpress should have an automatic updater. Seems every product these days takes care of the grunt work for you and Wordpress should pick it up and update itself.
For reasons I cannot explain vanlandw has started running again.
Before starting college I used to be quite the runner. In High School I was captain of my track team for two years and if I was taller I would have liked to have run in college. After freshman year I was all about playing video games, hanging out with my friends, and being an awful student.
Fast forward to 2008 and I’m running a 5K this Saturday.
Honestly, I’m quite excited to become a weekend runner. For the past few weeks I’ve started a quite light training regimen. About once or twice a week I’ll go out either alone or with chiarunner and just run the best I can. There are no schedules on my wall, no miles logged or “PR’s” to beat. The way I’ve taking to fitness is the most “vanlandw” method possible. I’ve noticed lifestyle changes are coming naturally without compromising much of anything. I’ve been going out less, eating better and without having to work too hard at it. Even without training or changing much of anything lifestyle wise I could have finished the 5K without a problem…..maybe a heart bursting, leg cramping, lungs burning, stomach vomiting problem. Never the less I would have crossed the finish line.
This Saturday vanbergs and chiarunner will be running the Fifth Third River Bank Run. Downtown Grand Rapids turns into a running course filled spectators and I’m sure other randomness. If anybody else wants to run I believe it’s not too late to Register. In the past I’ve been a spectator and it’s fun if anybody wants to come and take pictures (point and laugh) or just enjoy some good all fashioned local fun (drink and smoke in front of the competitors).
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