EXTREME Christian Vehicle makes "Impact" in Pennsylvania

Stopping into Rutters to hit up the ATM, I noticed this beauty parked outside:

Well, maybe the lord was looking the other way because he left it there long enough for me to run home and grab the digital camera. Now, to be honest, I only live a minute away. When it comes to church vans, I'm used to seeing the blue van with the white writing on the side. This must be the new thing. Someone figured that if they created this monstrosity they would attract a new type of youth to the church. At any minute I was expecting the "Extreme!" gang from 'Harold and Kumar go to White Castle' to jump in and speed away. They didn't leave any detail untouched. From the alloy rims to the blacked-out grill to the rallye-style lighting to the fire extinguisher inside the windshield. I bet it's got a pep boys muffler too.

Now I do realize that they have every reason to soup up a van in this way. I'm not saying that they shouldn't. I'm not saying that they are doing any wrong unless you consider the spreading of Christian mythology to be wrong. That's another post for another day. I just wonder what it would be like to put decals all over a vehicle like this that say "Impact Atheism". I bet the sheriff in some small town along the bible belt wouldn't see any problem with that. You just may be thrown in county lockup for "hating the lord and savior". www.derekmartin81.com [digg=http://www.digg.com/comedy/EXTREME_Christian_Vehicle_makes_Impact_in_Pennsylvania]

Pownce is another social networking site to try out

Pownce is a social networking site that started launched June 27th of last year. It was initially invite-only but went public this Tuesday, January 22nd. I signed up today so that I may check it out. It has some features that let you link to your profiles on other similar sites. You can post public announcements or private announcements. You can send images and other files to friends. They also have a pro feature ($20/year) that gives you more features. I'm not sure if I will do much with it. The popularity of any of these sites is dependent on your friends. You have to heavily pimp a site like this to your friends in order for it to be effective. I've been active on different sites but I always shut down my profile when it gets too boring or my herd of friends moves on. I've been active on the following sites (in this order): 1. Friendster 2. Xanga 3. LinkedIn 4. MySpace 5. Facebook (haven't closed this one down yet) So ... I guess we'll see how Pownce works out. Click here to check out my profile. Be my friend.   UPDATED 1/29/2009:  Pownce was closed down on December 15, 2008.  I'm currently bouncing around on Twitter and Friendfeed.

Morgan's photo taken at the exact right time

Obviously there is a lot more to say about our dog Morgan than I will type here. I was just going through some pictures and found one that demonstrates just how crazy and energetic she is. Her rear legs are headed one way and her front legs are headed the opposite direction. Morgan is half Parson [Jack] Russell and half Fox Terrier. You can't tell from this picture but her ears are quite large and her tail is quite curly. She is about 3 1/2 years old in this picture. www.derekmartin81.com [digg=http://www.digg.com/pets_animals/Picture_of_our_dog_taken_at_the_exact_right_time]

How to use a public restroom like a germophobe

Let's face it . . . public restrooms are filthy . . . and you try to stay clean (and disease-free) What follows are in-depth instructions to follow in order to prevent germs in the restroom from coming in contact with your skin. There are many different bathroom visit variations that can exist. This is assuming that you are a guy who needs to perform number one in a restroom that has no automatic amenities (i.e. automatic hand dryer, touch less sink, etc.). If you're a girl you can follow along but be sure to "hover" over that dirty toilet seat. If you need to do number two please wait until you get back home. Some of these steps can be altered or skipped if the fine establishment was nice enough to include any of the aforementioned "automatic" processes. 1. You enter by pushing on the door. BAM! Your hand is already dirty from the other people that touched that door. You didn't see the guy with pink eye walk in 2 minutes ahead of you. 2. You need to wash your hands before spreading the germs to 'other' parts of your body. First, get a bit of paper towel out of the holder. The preferred method is to let it hang there so you don't have to lay it down anywhere. If there are other people at the sinks this may be impossible. 3. Next turn the water on, get lots of soap and scrub your hands thoroughly. Don't turn the water off with your clean hand. That handle is crawling with fecal matter from other people. Grab that bit of paper towel that you have and use it turn off the water. Use that same piece to pull the handle on the paper towel dispenser a few times. This will be your drying piece. 4. Dry off your hands and use it to pull the handle again on the dispenser. This little piece will guard your hand as you open the stall door, close it behind you and latch it. Lay the paper towel on top of handicap rail for use when you are done. Always use the handicap stall as it should be large enough that you don't brush against the walls when moving around. Don't use a urinal. As you pee into it, the splatter of everyone else's pee before you gets all over your legs and 'region'. When you are done with the toilet don't flush. Germs will shoot out of that thing like a geyser (especially if it's one of those jet-powered toilets). 5. Grab the paper towel from the handicap rail and use it to unlatch the door and open it. 6. Walk back over to the sink area and use the paper towel piece to dispense more paper towel. Follow steps 2 and 3 again. When finished use the little piece of paper towel to pull the door open so you can exit the restroom. With a little bit of practice you'll be able to smoothly open the door, prop it with your foot, throw out the paper towel and exit without looking like the maniac that you clearly are. The last step is very important since you can only imagine how dirty that handle is from all of the people that don't wash their hands before opening the door. DISCLAIMER: I am not this crazy about germs in real life. This has become a fun little ritual of mine but it doesn't mean I won't shake someone's hand or grab the handrail on an escalator. I just decided to dream up a list of logical steps for a germophobe to follow. After doing so I realize that I do make several good points. Hmmm. . . makes you think. www.derekmartin81.com

[digg=http://www.digg.com/health/How_to_use_a_public_restroom_like_a_germophobe]

Fear not, I have Carbonite keeping track of my data

I have been listening to a few of the podcasts on the TWIT Network this past year. I can't tell you the number of times I heard Leo Laporte remind everyone to back up their data. He normally recommends Carbonite online backup (because they are a sponsor). I decided that I need to do just that. I did a bit of research and found out that Carbonite is the best bang for the buck when it comes to online backup. $50 per year keeps an automatic backup of your entire hard drive. Some companies charge almost that much (or more) and only give you 20gb of storage. At last check, I have between 60 and 70gb of music, movies, tv shows, documents, etc. backed up securely off-site. The reason for bringing this up is that I used it this week. I got a new hard drive (320gb Western Digital) to add as a secondary drive. I need a way to hold the aforementioned data plus all the new stuff I keep getting. While trying to set it up I ran into some problems and had to format and re-partition my existing drive. The good news is that both drives are up and working and all of my files will be restored over the next few days. So this is straight from a guy that doesn't get paid to endorse anything (although I would like to). I just worry about what would have happened without file backup. www.derekmartin81.com

'Juno' reminds me of 'Knocked Up' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'

Maybe it's just me but I catch that vibe for several reasons (none of which spoil the movie in case you haven't seen it) The movie deals with an unexpected pregnancy to people that aren't prepared for a child. I'm sure there have been plenty of movies that are based on this but Knocked Up is pretty recent so it's the first one that comes to mind. Ok, so it's not too much like Knocked Up beyond that. As far as Napoleon Dynamite, this has a lot of the same features. This movie was made for about 7 or 8 Million so it has the low-budget feel to it. A few of the characters have some eccentricities (not as severe as the ND characters, but still...). There's a lot of unknown music playing throughout. The opening credits (and some writing throughout) have the handwritten block letter look that a lot of movies have been using. I'm horrible at trying to describe how a movie feels so I guess you'll have to watch it yourself. It really is a great movie. After watching it, please comment below so I can be sure that I'm not crazy. www.derekmartin81.com

Face Cake Birthday for me!

I remember what I said years ago when I first saw a photo on a cake. "What kind of dork would want that?" I pretty much left it at that until a few monthes ago when I saw the 'Scrubs' episode that featured a "face cake" that everyone was way too interested in eating. Fast forward to about a month ago when the wife and I were trying to decide what to do for my birthday. I don't like a big deal to be made so we decided to keep it simple. Dinner with friends at Red Robin and cake. She suggested face cake and we both figured out a way to poke fun at the situation. We settled on the following cake: So, there we were. A total of 15 of us causing quite a scene at Red Robin eating me for dessert. www.derekmartin81.com [digg=http://www.digg.com/comedy/Best_Face_Cake_ever_2]

A Different Kind of Pizza

One of our gifts from 'gift card christmas' was 2 gift certificates to Zpizza. According to the back of the menu, it originated out in California over 20 years ago. We just now got one in a new shopping center nearby. They have all kinds of specialty pizza. The wife got one that has toppings that look (to me) like vomit. I went for a classic pepperoni. It was real good and the price is decent too. The total bill was about $29 for a 10" specialty pizza, 14" pepperoni, snapple and fountain soda. It's not like a typical restaurant with a waiter. We order at the counter and find a table. The food shows up in about 15 minutes. I wish they had a tip jar at the register because I would have dropped a couple dollars in. The place is situated in a strip mall and is laid out like a typical pizza parlor except there is a comfy-looking leather couch to sit on and wait for food. Instead of pictures of Italy the decor is real hip and artsy. There's a lot of yellow, orange, red and green (since these are the colors of their logo). It's not a replacement for Papa Johns or the local "real" pizza places but it is a welcome change of taste. www.derekmartin81.com

Redbox is by far the best way to rent DVDs

Redbox has been around since 2003 but my wife and I just found out about it a month or two ago. Here's what it is in case you never heard of it: You go to a local location that has the Redbox. Our Giant grocery store across the street has it. The Redbox is a giant atm-looking red box. Using a touchscreen and credit card swiper you pick out (and pay for) a movie. A slot spits the title out at you. When finished watching, you return it into the slot. You can return it to any Redbox location (which is great for travelers). Aside from convenience the best part has to be the price. $1 per day. If you have it back by 9pm the following day you just pay $1 (plus tax, of course). If you want to keep it for 3 days you're still paying less than most video stores. A feature that I enjoy is the ability to reserve online. While at work on Tuesday I can check the new releases, reserve one and pay for it. I then stop by the Redbox later on and swipe my credit card. The machine makes some motorized noises and 5 seconds later the movie comes out of the (now magical) slot. No more rushing to Blockbuster in hopes that I beat everyone else in line to get the latest "Baby Geniuses" sequel (joke). www.derekmartin81.com

Steal this Film! (no really, they want you to)

Just watched a nice little documentary entitled 'Steal this Film'. I got it through bittorrent legally. Technically, the film is copyrighted but the creators of it said to steal it. They merely copyrighted it strictly so no one could "legally" acquire it (hence, you have to steal it). Confused? Basically this documentary is about the popularity of The Pirate Bay and the following that it has caused (including The Pirate Party in Sweden). The Pirate Bay is the most popular tracker of bittorrent files in the world. The easiest way to understand them is this: They organize movies, tv shows and software downloads just like Google organizes web search. If you do a Google search on 'creating a bomb' (and it leads you to a site that helps you create a bomb) is Google responsible? Of course not. This analogy translates over to The Pirate Bay to basically say that they aren't doing anything illegal either. Check out stealthisfilm.com to see what it's all about. By the way, I just may get a visit from the Feds for doing a Google search for 'creating a bomb'. Hopefully this won't be my last post. www.derekmartin81.com