Desert Island: Part Two

This time around... songs. So basically, your 5 favorite songs, or the 5 songs you could listen to forever without getting tired of them. The 1st 2 for me are easy choices, the next 3 could vary if I think about this for more than 2 minutes.

1. Only In Dreams - Weezer
2. Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
3. I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
4. Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
5. Ramble On - Led Zeppelin

Obviously I am alive in the wrong era for music... or simply, today's music is stupid and not worth listening to very often. The most recent song on the list, I Believe in Thing Called Love, is 8 or so years old... and just makes me happy, it isn't the greatest song ever... it's just fun.

Desert Island

I love Top 5 Lists... or Top "#" Lists of any sort. What are your top 5 movies of all-time, that you would take with you to a desert island for the rest of your life? (trilogies, etc. count as 1 movie)

You can tell from my list that A) I'm a total nerd, and B) My taste in movies does not match my mental acumen in the least. I find dumb things funny.

1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Star Wars Trilogy
3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
4. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
5. Best in Show

Politics I can get behind...

The Sports Fans Coalition is a group founded recently, whose main goals are listed below. I urge you all to join, as it really boils down to accountability in spending, curbing waste, and helping the average American gain access to the games they love, without fattening the pockets of lobbyists and mega-TV conglomerates.

I know only one of my readers really cares about sports (That's you, Ms. Greene), but in general this is an idea we can all get behind right?

Who We Are

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Stokes at 1 Month

He's got lots of swagger and eats and sleeps like a champion. He weighing in at 10 lbs 8 oz these days, and is in the 70th %ile for height and weight. Somehow he's only in the 40th for head size, which is odd because Jen and I have huge noggins. For those that haven't seen, and for those that always like to look at cute babies (I'm talking about you, Tat), and for those that happen to stumble across my blog (creepers)... here is a smattering of photographic representations of C. Stokes Bryan.

New Born (9/29/2009)

At the hospital, Day One

First Car Ride

Addison Brown meeting Stokes

Stokes and Yoshi are friends

First Tub Bath

Almost 1 Month Old! (a few hours shy)

I'm Terrible...

Well... actually I'm pretty amazing, but I'm terrible at posting.

Since the last time I was here, I got a year older, started another semester of grad school, have witnessed the football team I know and love collapse spectacularly (except against BYU, suck it BYU), and become a father.

Fatherhood is something I'm still trying to understand. I love Stokes, trust me, I do, but I feel so helpless at this early stage in his life... I don't provide nourishment, I don't think I can really teach him anything at this point... I'm simply a diaper changer and rock-to-sleeper. I know that will all change all too soon (he is growing so fast!!), but for now, I will just enjoy having such a beautiful young man to share a roof with.

I'll try to be better about posting, between the baby and classes I'm just about going nuts. Classes are entirely hard... just tedious, especially my online Data Mining class... doesn't it sound fun? It's even duller than it sounds... But, I can persevere.

Love you all (the 8 of you that read this)... for pictures of the young man check my Facebook profile... I will post pics here later, but I'm pretty lazy today.

Birthday Fish!

So today my Birthday Fish arrived, a wonderful gift from my wife.

I'm letting my loyal blog readers (all 8 of you) have a hand in naming these new beauties:

I got a Royal Gramma:

A Sixline Wrasse (also known as the Jap Wrasse or Pajama Wrasse... feel free to get racist with your naming of this one):


And... a Knobby Starfish:
Give names to 1, or all 3... I may or may not use them, as I reserve all rights to do whatever I want.

IM Bowling is over....

For us.

For the teams that actually win games and come through in the clutch... it is still going on.

We lost in heart-breaking fashion, in the last 2 frames of the 3rd game.... 8-7.

I personally shoulder the blame as I bowled 2 horrible games, after starting with a 178.

1st Game - 178
2nd Game - 97
3rd Game - 120

Average for the day: 133.67

Average for the season: 146.0

To adjust for potential outliers, I will find the standard deviation for the sample, and determine if any scores from the season need to be disregarded as outliers.

Mean: 146
SD: 27
Range of 2 SD: 96 - 200

As all scores fall in that range, my true average for the season was 146. Not 150, but at least I don't have caterpillars on my face, Lish.

Jen has a protector...

Yoshi has been demonstrably better in the last few months... which is a welcome relief, as he can be a real pain sometimes. Ever since we've had him, his favorite activity has been to sit on our bed, or on the floor, and look out our window that looks over the driveway and the street below. He has never really barked at anything at all, but has simply made whining noises when he saw something that he wanted to chase... but his whine is barely audible.

However, ever since Jen has been pregnant, he has progressively started barking more and more at passersby (who can probably barely hear him due to the distance from our window to the street) in a fairly menacing manner. He has become quite territorial of our driveway (even though we share it with 3 other apartments) and considers it his territory. Additionally, he has followed Jen around more often that he used to, and has been quite the lapdog for her.

This got me thinking, and I used the Internet-machine to discover if dogs can tell if someone is pregnant, after all, they have been found to be able to tell certain types of illnesses and even cancer in humans. While there is little scientific evidence, there are mounds of anecdotal instances that have been reported. The change in hormones/pheromones are perceptible to our little dog, and he has been great... even when he wakes us up in the middle of the night barking at some passing car. I'm glad to know that there are 2 of us that are concerned about Jen.

Additionally, he has been really good with the "baby training" we are putting him through. Randomly we'll just pull his tail, grab his paws, yank his ears, etc., to prepare him for a little kid. It is recommended so that Yoshi is prepared to react kindly and not with aggression when irritants are presented to him. He gets lots of positive reinforcement when he doesn't react with snarls, barks, and bites, and he has become pretty good.

You can't help but love this little guy....

(crawling inside an empty food bag)

(sleeping on Grandma Kelli's couch)

(wrapped up in our Papasan cushion, like a doggy-burrito)

(Yoshi hiding from Jazz by getting on top of his crate)

VICTORY!!

We (Kyre, Richie, and I ) finally got over the hump, in a big way, and won our 1st IM Bowling match. By a score of 10-0, we crushed our opponent, giving us momentum going into the playoffs next week.

Because of the blowout, we only bowled 2 games, not 3... my personal scores: 128 (horrible) and 159 (acceptable).

Week 3 Average: 143.5

Total IM Average: 150.3 (Still above 150)

Diet is going well, Jen is mostly happy and healthy (about as happy and healthy as one could be during the 7th month of pregnancy), and the summer semester is finally winding down (thankfully).

Bowling Update

Tonight, Rollin' Dirty was narrowly defeated by a tally of 8-7. It's OK though... we are pretty certain we can turn it on during the playoffs.

My individual scores:
1st Game - 145
2nd Game - 164
3rd Game - 180

Avg: 163

Overall Season Average: 152

Diet Update: Back on the wagon, doing fairly well, but it's only been a few days... so it doesn't really count yet.

IM Bowling

Intramural Bowling started tonight... and in accordance with Lish's wishes (rhyme time!) I will be posting my scores, as he does not believe I bowl in the neighborhood of 15o.

I bowled 5 games, and though I'm not one to make excuses... my arm/hand were falling off the last 2 games.

1st - 182
2nd - 141
3rd - 161
4th - 110
5th - 133

That is a total average of: 145.4

I will continue to post the scores, in order to appease Lish's evil desire to see me fail.

Overall, the team of Kyre, Mark, and myself lost 11-4, after a great 4-1 start.... next time Kyre and I won't practice beforehand.... and we may have a shot.

Diet Update: I fell off the wagon... soda is too good. Send me messages of encouragement (nice ones and mean ones) to get me back to where I should be.

I think I'm gonna be afraid all the time now... ALL OF THE TIME!!

Read this article.


Now tell me you aren't afraid of random bursts of meteor-air that will destroy us all!



BubbleSpinner Update: 35,677

Diet Update: Feelin' healthy... cheated a couple times on the soda... but overall doing better. This heat helps in the weight loss.

Stumbled upon this....

So I had occasion to break out some of my old C.S. Lewis books and quote lists when discussing life with a friend a few weeks back... and one quote in particular has been weighing on my mind:

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in."

Too often I catch myself viewing the actions of others as bad, deplorable, what have you. However, I'm sure there are other things I do that are just as bad, just in a different way. I don't know what temptations are placed upon others, just as they don't know what tempts me. We are all "bad people" in some regard, there is something that each of us gives in to, without any fight, that is inherently bad. It isn't the same for everyone, for we aren't all the same.

I don't want to look back at my life and find that I've been "sheltered" by never resisting temptation.


Diet Update: The diet is going well, some weight loss, I certainly feel less fat.

BubbleSpinner Update: 34,254. Word to your mother.

I went to James S. Rickards High School

And at least 2 of my readers did too... so the next message is not directed at them...

SUCK IT! (to all other Tallahassee high schools, and most schools in general)

Rickards has been ranked as the #48 high school in the United States, by Newsweek. While the 4 of the 5 Tallahassee high schools were ranked in the top 300 (Godby was somehow absent altogether from the top 1500 schools... oh yeah, that's no surprise)... Rickards was the cream of the proverbially crop.

While these rankings are really based on Rickards 2 biggest strengths, IB Testing and small graduating classes, and shouldn't be considered to be indicative of anything... I'll gladly take the honor of being a graduate of the #48 school in the US of A.

Find your school here!!! (I bet it is ranked lower than mine!)


Diet Update: Still no soda and I have had fruit everyday so far.

Updates

So, after 3 days... I have refrained from the soda and had nothing to eat that's bad for me.

No real news other than that... but oh well. Just keepin' me honest.

Averagest Loser

I have no desire to drop 100 lbs... that would be terrible and traumatic on my body, I would probably need to be in the hospital or something.

However, I do want to lose 10-20 lbs (like 5-8 stones, Tat). 'How in the world will you do this Trevor?', you may ask. 'You are the healthiest, most fit guy I know!' you may demand. I know, I know.

In all seriousness, I will have a hard time, because I love the Coke. I am dropping soda from my daily diet (unless you count icees/slurpees, because I can't go to get Jen one and not get one for me!) and adding some light to mild exercise (above and beyond playing sports).

I will be logging my success daily here... hopefully I'll have other stories too... but this is a way of keeping me honest.

Salt Water + Electric Current = Trevor is Stupid

So, you guys remember in the movie "So I Married an Axe Murderer" the scene where Mike Myers et co. are hanging out at a diner talking about terrible situations (re: bran muffins and coffee then getting stuck on the Golden Gate Bridge in traffic)?

No? Maybe you haven't seen the movie enough.

Anyway, they all come up with elaborate stories... until Tony's GF (portrayed by Debi Mazar) simply states, "How about, being electrocuted." She draws blank stares and the conversation quickly ends...

Turns out, she was right... being electrocuted sucks.

Last night, after a harrowing experience of cleaning the fish tank, replacing the filter, and buying a new pump (which was a crazy experience that required 2 trips to 2 hardware stores to modify the pump to ensure proper flow).... where was I?

Oh yeah, I electrocuted myself because of my wet hand grazing the power strip socket as I was turning the lights/pump back on. It hurt a great deal, and was very scary. Kyre and Jen were witnesses to me screaming... and I'm proud to say it wasn't a girly scream at all. Yay me!

Caution: Contains Nudity

Junk.

It is what my infant, baby child has.


Here's his face....
Hands/Arms over his face...


And the junk... oh yeah.

So, the due date is Sept. 23rd... his name will be Campbell Stokes Bryan... and he will go by Stokes.

The 8 of you that read this... enjoy.

The Trevor: is complaining about Facebook.

Before I begin, I realize the inherent irony/hypocrisy in sharing the following the story via my blog.

I'm going to rail on technology for a second, as it is severely limiting my generation's ability to compute on their own.... or maybe my generation is just lazy. Probably both.

Jen is pregnant, this is the first time I've mentioned it on the blog or anywhere on the Internet. So feel special all 8 of you that read this blog. I don't think it is something that needs to be broadcast in an overt way through Facebook statuses or 'tweeting'. However, because every single person in my generation thinks that all life news, from the PBJ sandwich they had for lunch to the details of their various illnesses, needs to be shared via Facebook, not mentioning the pregnancy on Facebook can lead to some confusion.

I had a friend of ours approach me and timidly ask, "Are you guys pregnant?" After replying in the affirmative and the obligatory "Congratulations!" and "Thanks!" She followed up, "I heard that you were from some people, but then I checked Facebook and didn't see anything about it, so I wasn't sure."

Ugh. Really?

(This friend is an intelligent person, too. No offense to them if they read this, but I think even they can see the ridiculousness going on)

For my peeps...

I read a column on ESPN.com called "TMQ" (The Tuesday Morning Quarterback) that is written by Gregg Easterbrook. He writes about the NFL... kind of. About half of his weekly articles (during football season, with a few in the off-season) deal with politics, pop culture, religion, and high-tech science stuff/astronomy. His main gig is as a Managing Editor at the Atlantic Monthly, a magazine of some repute.

In an column last week, he talked about the timing of Easter in relationship to Passover... I thought it was a great read, and I agree with his thoughts. Just wanted to share.

WWJHE -- When Would Jesus Hold Easter? Last year, Easter fell almost a month before Passover. TMQ complained that Easter should always fall on the Sunday after Passover begins. Jesus, after all, just before his crucifixion had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. So why doesn't Easter fall immediately after the first night of Passover? Dating for Passover has always been determined by the ancient Hebrew calendar; in 2009, Passover began on the 15th of Nisan, exactly as it did when Jesus walked the Earth. Easter dating involves a complex formula having to do with the vernal equinox and paschal full moon. During the Middle Ages, the Roman church established that Easter dating formula in part to de-emphasize Christianity's relationship to Judaism. Protestant denominations decided to accept the Roman dating, though nothing about the equinox-and-moon business is mentioned in scripture. Formally linking the observance of Easter to Passover would benefit both Christianity and Judaism, by emphasizing common history. Actually, it would benefit Western Christians. As pointed out by readers, including Sylvia Denisov of St. Louis, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Easter always falls on the Sunday following the first night of Passover.

[+] Enlarge

Alex Wong/Getty Images "Western dating of Easter has about as much in common with scripture as the Easter Bunny."

Changing the Western dating formula for Easter, to sync with Passover as is done in Eastern Christianity, would be both historically accurate and a nice ecumenical step. This spring, Easter in the West did fall on the Sunday after Passover began. Turns out that for the next six years, Easter as observed by Western Christianity will follow the first night of Passover; the schedules aren't out of whack again until 2016, when Easter falls on March 27 and Passover does not begin until April 23. That creates six years in which Western Christians could stage a campaign to restore the Passover-Easter relationship. How's about it?

How to Trap a Jew

For those who do not have a sense of humor, stop reading. By sense of humor, I mean tolerance of mild, jocular intolerance. Cool? Cool.

So, if Beyond Balderdash is to be believed, the word 'Jubate' means 'fringed with long hair'... however, I was interested in a different kind of Jew-Bait.

My good buddy Lish is of Jewish descent, and happens to live down the street from us. The trapping was more due to his place of residence, not his ancestry.... so relax.

After Mark and I started a war with some other students in my program (re: we threw some water balloons at them)... I still had 5 water balloons leftover on Sunday. Jen and I were looking for some fun, our conversation went something like this:

Trevor: "Hey! Let's go throw water balloons at Lish!"
Jen: "How will we get him out of his house?"
Trevor: "We'll bait him with Candy Beans!"
Jen: "He won't eat them off the ground"
Trevor: "We can put the Candy Beans on some napkins!"

The plan in place... we trotted over to the Harris residence. (note: While one may immediately think of Gold or "Buy-One, Get-One" Sales on Yarmulkes as appropriate Jew Bait, a little known fact is that Candy Beans are more effective.)

So, in a quiet way, we placed 5 napkins leading away from his door, with a handful of Candy Beans (SweetTart JellyBeans) on each napkin. Jen then went up to the landing of the apartments above Lish's door and I knocked on the door and hid behind some bushes.

Lish opened the door, happily surprised by the Candy Beans that had been sent like Manna from Heaven. As he walked away from the door, I scurried to cut off his escape back into the house and launched a water balloon attack as Jen dropped balloons on his head from above.

We then ran away laughing. Included is a diagram of the sneak attack.

A small ray of hope for this generation...

So I generally think of myself as a pretty considerate person. If you feel otherwise, go ahead and leave a comment to the contrary. However, I'm not sure I'm as considerate as the person I encountered earlier this week.....

A few days ago, I arrived on campus to head to my Internship. I have a few options for parking when going to the Stadium for work; the Stadium general parking lot, the circus lot (next to the FSU Flying High Circus), or the Leach lot (across the street from the Leach, our gym).

The circus lot is my preferred choice, as it leaves the least legwork for my fat self. However, it is the smallest of the 3 lots, and sometimes takes a minute or seven to find a spot. Parking on campus is terrible, at least it is terrible if you want to be anywhere near your final destination. There are a couple places always available... but they aren't near anyplace that I've ever had to go, so they don't count.

To make a long story longer... general protocol in parking lots at FSU is that whoever arrives a spot where another car is backing-out first has dibs on that spot. Dibs is usually called by turning on your turn signal. So, for example, if I see someone backing out, if I get near it with my blinker on first, it is my spot.

Now to the actual story. I pulled into the circus lot, circled a few times, found nothing. After about 2 minutes of waiting, I spied someone walking to their car, and slowly followed them (a very common occurrence). However, as I followed them down one aisle, they suddenly realized their car was in the next row over, and headed through the parked cars to their vehicle. Much to my chagrin, I saw someone in that row, looking for a spot. Hoping against hope, I looped around to the aisle and saw my targeted driver entering their car, with another car already waiting with a blinker on. I gave up and decided to continue my search. However, as soon as the leaving car pulled away, the driver of the other car (blinkers on) flashed his lights at me, and beckoned for me to take the empty spot. He recognized that I had been following that person and just got hit with some bad luck. I graciously accepted, mouthed thank you, and parked. As I walked to work, I thought about how great this was, the first true act of kindness I've witnessed in an FSU parking lot in 6 years. Maybe there is some sliver of hope for my generation, the Me-Generation... and that hope resides in the driver of that Mini Cooper.

Thanks Mini-Cooper Driver Guy!

Where the Wild Things Are!!!!

Sorry for my lameness, my life isn't terribly interesting, so I don't blog much. I'll try to be much more active in the near future.

Click!!!

One of the greatest children's books of all-time will be hitting the big screen very soon. Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" has been made into a film.

We can all thank Spike Jonze, one of the truly great directors of our time, for making what appears to be a great adaptation.

I'm way psyched, even though I'm 25. You should be too.

New High Score

Sorry, my life is sorta boring.

**15,056**

Bubblespinner. Catch the fever.

Legitimate Theatre

Last night I took in a play, one of the Bard's most famous... except it was performed by one man, and it was definitely warped from the original script. MacHomer is Rick Miller's interpretation of MacBeth, if MacBeth was a one-man show where every character is represented by a Simpsons character.

After consulting with my peers (Lance and a few members of my cohort from school) we decided that it was all-in-all pretty darn impressive. His Homer impersonation wasn't great, but the rest of the interpretations were awesome... especially Marge. Bart and Lisa were barely featured... and it is our guess that he isn't very good at those either, so they were substituted by others. Overall I would guess there were at least 40 characters, ranging from Dr. Nick to Dr. Hibbert, and every non-Dr. character in between.

If it is ever being performed in a town near you, go see it. It was well worth the $10 student tickets.

No real news....

Just...

I GOT A NEW HIGH SCORE IN BUBBLESPINNER!!!!!!!

***11,652***

Play here.... beat me if you can...

In other news, people don't really know how to use punctuation. Check out this blog. It is a collection of misused quotation marks. It gave me many belly laughs. Enjoy.

So Jen hates Tat....

Jen now hates my sister Tatiana (so mean, right??!??) because Tat introduced me to this:

Click Here!!!

My high score is 1906.... try to beat that. I have been playing a week and have already wasted so much time.

I LOVE BUBBLESPINNER!!!!!

P.S. - in other items... I'll try to update more often. Sorry.