How'd ya like to run into this puppy at the swimming hole?

Thai fishermen catch 646-pound catfish

Wow!

Is Paul Legge too good for Blogger?

To read Paul Legge's new blog don't go to paullegge.blogspot.com. Instead you'll have to go to: paullegge.typepad.com/fish_bowl. What's the story, Paul?

I know that TypePad might be powered by the ultra-hip Six Apart but I can't honestly believe that you'd go for that sort of glamour... And I don't think that "paullegge.blogspot.com" was already taken.

Explination, please?

P.S. Cool photo, by the way. I'm guessing that it's Jen's handiwork?

I got tagged, twice!

Hey everyone, I'm really sorry about my absence but I've been sicker than a dog. I'm feeling a bit better now and I'll use my growing strength to reply to Sadie and Zombieslayer's tags.

First, Zombieslayer's:

10 years ago... I was learning guitar and giving (lousy) guitar lessons to the people that I would soon form a band with: Eric Fassiler and Jason Powers. I had just moved into town from Noth San Jaun and I was enjoying the fact that it no longer took 30 minutes to get to my best friend's (Jonah Wells) house. I was only 12 years old and I lived and breathed music. I also had fantasies that my guitar playing skills would make me more popular with the opposite sex. *sigh*

5 years ago... The guitar skills had finally paid off and I was engaged to the love of my life. I had just proposed to her and the wedding was almost exactly 1 year away. I was getting my carrer together, taking classes at Sierra College and interning at tristream where I would eventually be hired then laid off when the dotcoms all died.

1 year ago... My little girl, Lily, had just been born. She was just about the sweetest thing I'd ever seen. Her being our second child, I was a little more prepared for what having a newborn in the house entailed. We worked it out to where my wife slept all night while I held Lily, drank pots of coffee and watched (non-scary, for the baby) movies. It was seriously one of the most-fun times of my life. I also finished the first draft of my novel right about that time.

Yesterday... Me and the wife were sicker then we'd been in years. It was tag-team barfing. This would be bad enough but the kids woke up especially energetic. Within minutes we realized that we needed re-enforcements and called my parents to babysit. Thanks, Mom.

Today... Feeling better but still out of it. Slept until noon.

5 snacks I enjoy... Grapes, trail mix, popcorn, baby carrots, pretzels.

5 songs I know all the words to... There's way too many but here's a few off the top of my head: The Treasure in You by The 77s. You Gave Your Love To Me Softly by Weezer. We Are The Champions by Queen. Golden Slumbers by The Beatles.

5 reality televisions shows I watch... I'm with Zombieslayer on this one. We don't have a TV and I think most of what's on TV is pretty bad. Whenever I watch it I feel like my inteligence and morals have been insulted. I do like watching sports though, especially basketball, specifically The Kings.

5 television shows I watch daily... The only two I can think of would be Seinfeld and The X-Files.

5 things I would do with $100 million.... 1) Not tell anybody except for my wife and my parents that I had 100 million, just so there wouldn't be that awkward "Oh, he's a multi-millionare" thing going on. I wouldn't retire either. 2) I'd set up a non-profit foundation to support our church. 3) I'd pay off our house. 4) I'd start my own business. 5) I'd leave the rest to the kids as inheritence, which would come as I surprise to them because I wouldn't have told them about the 100 million, remember.

5 locations I would love to run away to... Carmel, England, Italy, New England, The Sierra Nevada Mountains.

5 things I like doing... Talking with my wife, visiting with friends, watching the Kings win, reading to my kids, playing with my kids.

5 things I would never wear... A speedo.

5 recently seen movies I like... Hitch, Star Wars 3, Ocean's 12, Bringing Up Baby, The Life Aqautic.

5 famous people I'd like to meet... George W. Bush, Sam Salisbury (wait a second...), CS Lewis, Robert Smith, Peter Gabriel.

5 biggest joys of the moment... Working on starting my own business, watching my kids play together, listening to new music, getting home early from work.

5 people to tag. Simon, Sadie, Bo, Amber, Joe.

Sadie, I'm going to do your books tag next.

What the?

Rocker Corgan to reform Smashing Pumpkins

Did I just read that?

Sharing the love...

The blossoming of blogs like flowers in the springtime (metaphorical, eh?) has become hard to keep up with. I feel even worse that I rarely have time to comment on their wonderful writings. Therefore I thought I'd quickly post a few links to some great blogs that I know everyone here will love.

A Day in the Life of Amber
It's almost terrifying how prolific Amber is. And it's not writing lame "I just saw Star Wars for the 5th time..." posts (don't you hate blogs like that?), there's some really interesting and thoughtful stuff here. She's also got great taste in music.


The Gist Of It
I've already plugged this one, but it deserves a second round. Browsing Simon's blog is, again, intimidating. Where do these people get their deep thoughts and content? Good reading here.

The Zombieslyer
Are you prepared for the upcoming Zombie invasion? I didn't think so. You'd better head over Zombieslayer's great blog to get your Zombie-slaying skills up-to-date. In addition, if you're sick of Left-Wing VS Right-Wing political blogging, you'll find some refreshing opinions. Not to mention a zombie-sized hoard of other great writing.

Do You Know The Muffin Man?
This one came out of the blue. Who knew that David Floyd was such a good writer? The posts range from introspective to fun. This one definitely deserves your time.

Wednesday thoughts

Hi everyone, sorry about the lack of posting lately. I've had my eyes glued to lines of code, slurping endless cups of coffee, ready to put my fist through my monitor for the past week. Not the best state to blog in.

---

Zombieslayer: Sorry, I'm not the Levi from Chico. Alot of my friends and aquintences did attend Chico but I dropped out of (junior) college rather quickly.

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I know that this does major damage to my image as a streetwise hip-hop mogul, but the second that I saw Carrie Underwood's single "Inside Your Heaven" available for download on iTunes, I did just that...

It's exactly what you'd want to hear from her. A great country ballad. (I'm a sucker for those.)

I don't really follow American Idol (I do receive regular updates from my wife) but I did hear Carrie cover Heart's "Alone" and I was immediately sold. Anyone who can sing that song like that deserves a record contract. "Howwwww can I get you alooone?"

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I saw The Aviator this weekend and I really enjoyed it. I was extremely impressed by two things.

1. The crash scene. That was insane!


2. Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn. I had just watched Bringing Up Baby and I'll be darned if she didn't do an amazing impression.

Speaking of Katherine Hepburn...

---

...my lovely wife hates her.

Thursday night is movie night in the Nunnink household and I suggested the previously mentioned Bringing Up Baby, starring Carey Grant and You-Know-Who.

About thirty minutes into the film, Suzanne turns to me and announces, "I'm going to bed." I (stunned) say, "Don't you like this?" Suzanne: "I can't stand her!" meaning Hepburn. So after a brief discussion on the talent and likeablilty of Katherine Hepburn, Suzanne headed for the bedroom and I steadfastly continued watching the film.

Suzanne does that sometimes; weird things bug her. For example, she was the only person in the audience rooting for Raoul and not The Phantom when we went to Phantom of the Opera. "The Phantom was screwed up," she informed her stunned fellows after the play. "If Christine and him got together they wouldn't be happy. And Raoul was really sweet."

I still love you, hon.

I leave you with this: Does Katherine Hepburn remind anyone else of Sarah Powers?

Billy Corgan: The Future Embrace

So I finally have listened to The Future Embrace a few times and I thought I'd post some thoughts on it.

First, Billy, thanks for the freakiest cover ever. Put a shirt on, man. Moving on...

Of all his albums, The Future Embrace sounds the most like Adore in that it's very electronic -- but really, it's a beast of its own. Very strange stuff. I'm predicting that this won't be climbing too high in the charts... And that's not a bad thing.

The sound is very thick and thin at the same time. Layered, distorted, reverb-drenched guitars on the high end, drum machines and keyboards on the low end. And, of course, Corgan's voice in the middle of it all.

The highlight of the album for me is also a highlight of musical weirdness: Billy Corgan singing with Robert Smith, covering a BeeGees song. It's great.

Other songs I'm liking:

• Walking Shade. Watch the insanely cool video here


• Mina Loy (My Old Heart). This is one of the more instantly enjoyable tracks on the album.


• To Love Somebody. The previously mentioned Robert Smith duet. Probably my favorite just for its improbability.


• The Camera Eye. A wierd number in the vein of The Pumpkin's Eye from The Lost Highway soundtrack.

I'm not sure how I feel about this album overall. There's some great songs on here but there's also some that -- at first listen -- fall flat. But, then again, I'm rarely enamored with any of Corgan's music at first listen. It takes a while to work under my skin.

We'll see how The Future Embrace fairs over time. Until then, I'm statisfied.

Simon Joins the frey...

Another friend has joined the blogging corps. Check out his new blog here: simonsgist.blogspot.com.

Just a personal note to Simon: I'm reccomending your blog in spite of the fact that you trash the year's best movie. There's a major disturbance in the force over at The Gist Of It.

It's that time of the year...

Ah Summer... That warm time of the year that brings barbecues, pool parties and -- of course -- the big GLENNBA marketing push to expand its already huge following.

Joe Glenn, the commissioner of the GNBA, collaborated with culturezoo to create a brand that would appeal to the always-courted demographic of dentists, radiologists and irrigation district employees.

The following brand statements were considered but ultimately abandoned:

"The GLENNBA: Joe just fixed the matchups to his advantage."

"The GLENNBA: You're mostly Christians, so forgive each other."

"The GLENNBA: Does anyone else think it's weird that the 50-year-olds are in better shape then the 20-year-olds?"

It was tough but we finally settled on a single-line brand-statement that, frankly, grave us all chills. (Okay, I wept.)

"Only in the GLENNBA."

Where can you see better half-court basketball? Double-overtime games that stretch late into the night? 8-foot-rim slam dunk contests? That's right: only in the GLENNBA!

We'd like to take this opportunity to unveil the new logo. Hopefully, this will be a mark synonymous with the Jerry West NBA logo, the Olympic symbol and even The American Flag itself!