Jihad Fail

Found a very funny web site, failblog.org. People submit things they consider to be a "fail", with caption "xxxxx fail".

Great example here, captioned as "Jihad Fail":

see more pwn and owned pictures

Bloody Mary, Dripping Springs Vodka, Red Eye

I thought at first when I saw Dripping Springs Vodka (web site here) in my local Twin Liquors that perhaps my alma mater's high school students had branched out in their student activities and had a class making booze! The vodka maker is not actually affiliated with the high school, though. I think it's funny that the picture on their web site has a photo taken at Enchanted Rock, probably 60+ miles away from Dripping Springs.

I'm not really a vodka connoisseur. All good-quality brands seem to taste good to me, especially in cocktails. Although I can tell that Austin based Tito's vodka (which is also quite good) has a bit of corn / whisky taste since it's based on corn instead of potato, wheat, or other grains like other vodkas.

I've started making Bloody Mary's at home lately, and it took me a while to find a recipe I liked. I really like the Red Eye Habanero mix, link here to web site. I've settled on the one below after some experimentation. Note you can also use Citadelle Gin (or other gin of your preference like Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray) instead of vodka for a change of pace -- that's really good, too.

20th Hole Bloody Mary
-- 4-6 oz Red Eye Habanero bloody mary mix
-- 2-3 oz Dripping Springs Vodka, Tito's Vodka, or Citadelle Gin
-- juice of half a lemon, freshly squeezed
-- few dashes worchestershire sauce
-- few dashes of Tabasco sauce

Mix all above in ingredients in tall glass, stir, add ice. Can also garnish with celery stalk, jalapeno-stuffed olives, or banana peppers as desired (I usually skip those formalities, especially if I'm making this on a weekday evening). BTW, I made these last night and didn't have any lemons so I used lime instead -- my wife commented that it didn't taste as good.

Musical Friday

One of my favorite things to do is put on Chris Tomlin's "Hello Love" CD while I'm riding in the car with my daughter Lauren. The first cut is "Sing Sing Sing". Lauren sings along with the song really loudly and is pretty cute. Song here:



Here's another version, done live at a concert. They do the melody slightly differently. Very cool part a little after the 3:00 mark where the band stops and lets congregation sing, then comes back in big.

Fun playing with Daniel Jones (but only in D!)

This past weekend we had a guest minister, Daniel and Shakeera (no, not THAT Shakira) Jones from Australia. They're a pretty young couple (about 25) and have two realy cute little boys, Zayd and Levi. See photo above.

Daniel plays a honest-to-god didgeridoo which happens to be a D instrument. So went spent quite a bit of time playing a D-chord during those services. I seem to recall that another guest minister from Australia that we've had at our church, Chris Harvey, also plays an instrument that is in D, a Navajo-style flute.

Musical Friday -- Cinderella

My daughter Lauren (above, getting ready for ballet class) is 4. I was looking for a clip of a Steven Curtis Chapman song I like called "Be Still and Know" (link here). Over on the side, I saw another link about something called "Cinderella", which I had not heard before.

I wasn't prepared for what was about to hit me like a 2x4 while I was sitting in my cube at work. The video comes first, then a clip of Steven explaining the story about how the song was written. The inspiration came from a frustrating evening trying to get his young adopted girls to take a bath, when they just wanted to play and dance (really funny part is about "pray quickly -- no praying for children in Africa!"). He remembers later that his oldest daughter has left the house and how he used to play with her, and then writes this song about cherishing the times with your daughter while she's young.

His daughter was killed in a tragic family accident not long after the song was published. Thinking of that, and then also thinking about my own daughter (and how fast she's growing up) made me cry. It's a little tough when something like that sneaks up on you out of the blue when you're trying to look normal and stoic at your office. ... trying to say things to a co-worker like, "Dang, these allergies are really rough today! (sniff)".

Be careful, especially you dads out there, before watching this at work. You've been warned!

He's BAAACK!

photo by Mark Rebilas

Tiger Woods will return to competitive golf on the PGA Tour Feb 25 with the World Golf Championships Match Play. Link here for story. Can't wait. I really can't wait for the Masters in April. Maybe I'll scare Natasha again yelling in my living room at shots like this:

NRO: The Audacity of Irony

I'm very happy today because I'm finally just about over a nasty cold that has lasted 16 days. My wife is probably very happy too, because I'll no longer be keeping her awake hacking and coughing all night. We also had a really fun music practice last night, working on Delirious' "Miracle Maker" and "Solid Rock".

Came across a really well-written article from conservative writer Victor Davis Hanson's column from National Review Online, The Audacity of Irony.