Here I am, posting like a hurricane...

Whoa there, what happened to Tuesday? A day without a post from Jaimie nor I, how can it be? Time to fix that starting right now! Unless you want to hear about my days at work, I'll post something a little more intriguing. It has been a while since I've posted about news, especially in regards to Apple, so let's start there.

Rumor has it that Apple is set to reveal some new iPod(s) next Wednesday, September 5th. Apple legal has already begun making their rounds removing rumored images of the new iPod Nano. Assuming Apple doesn't also remove this one, you can see a pretty good mockup of it (in addition to an opinion regarding its appearance). More exciting, for me at least, is the rumor of a 6th-generation (6G for short) full-sized iPod. My personal hope is that it will finally go full screen - 3.5" a la iPhone - for better video viewing. If that's the case, then wives (including my own) hide your husband's wallet if their into any of the following: Apple, technology, gadgets, trends, or any mix of these. That is of course if the price isn't an arm or a leg. On the other hand, if they don't announce anything that strikes your fancy - there's always Apple's own iPhone or Nokia's take on it.

As for video games, which I still play at age 22, I've been making my way through Bioshock which is both very artful and entertaining. That is to say, Jake would love it. It's a single player game, but due to it's frightening gameplay, makes it that much more scary. I'm only on the third level but it's storyline is very engaging and I've jumped on a couple occasions already - but haven't yelled in terror yet... One last thing, it's sound design (the surround is unbelievable) is a huge achievement for gaming or film.



Now to complete my trifecta of interests (technology, video games, and...), we move onto videos. I can't say much on the movie front, yet I'm still hoping to see Superbad before too long. As for television, UPS should be dropping off Heroes: Season One on HD-DVD tomorrow. Therefore, Jaimie and I will be watching our way through it in anticipation for season two and our 'possible' premier party on for the first episode on September 24th. I say 'possible' because so far no one has voiced any interest, but I continue to hold out hope. if you've already seen, and enjoyed, season one (Tom, I'm looking at you) then this is definitely your place to be. If you haven't watched it, it's never to late to join in - Jaimie and I are just starting to but with much excitement. If you'd like to join in for some episodes then you know my number or where to comment (hint: below). I'm also keeping the event very vague as to keep it flexible, but I'll reveal further (more specific) details in another week or two. I'll try not to be too car-salesman-esque in regards to the event though, no disrespect to car salesman (just the real pushy ones who ask me if I beat my wife, but that's another story for another time).

Lastly and so you don't think that I've forgotten, I'll post about Google Analytics and the conclusion to our camping trip soon enough, just couldn't ignore my current muse's of interest.

My first post

After much anticipation I am finally going to post on our blog. I am done with my internship at Kid Spirit so I will have a lot of time on my hands. Other good news that many of you may have already heard is that I got a promotion at TOGO's, very exciting! I am now a shift manager. This will be all for today, I will try not to leave all the posting to Ryan, all though I do believe that he is much better at posting and writing than I am. Unit next time, bye bye!

Camping Episode II - The Toller Strikes Back

All seemed well for our travelers last time we saw them. Due to a series of unfortunate events however, it was not meant to last. Those events went something like this:

(To the chorus of 'Back at One' by Brian McKnight)
One, unleashed dogs except Chew.
Two, Bubba's name rang out through.
Three, comes a running Winnie,
then Chewie's leash is pulled tightly.
And four, ropeburns on Jaimie and me.
Five, it starts to sting and bleed.
And that is where the injuries begun,
and it happened after 1:00...

We now have matching cuts, see?
His...

and Hers...

Don't fret for too long, these were merely flesh wounds. For Jaimie was burned, but not broken...
...bleeding, but now bandaged.


After all this, the skies forshadowed even darker (and wetter) times ahead.

Spirits stayed strong still, or sleepy in some cases, as the final night drew to a close.

"I am The Chewinator. I'm a sophisticated pet robot sent back through time, to change the future for one lucky lady."

To be concluded...

Anonymous said...

That's right - thanks to some technical help from Mr. Bain, we have opened up the flood gates to allow non-registered comments. Now that anyone can leave a comment, and I see some anonymous folks already have, we hope that you will as well.

This post serves to inform our avid readers of that fact. To make it worth your while though, how about a little sneak peak of what you can look forward to over the next few days. I wouldn't be me though if I didn't present them in the form of theatrical trailers. All I need from you is to read the following previews with your deepest and raspiest voice.

Double Feature: Camping Episode II - The Toller Strikes Back & Camping Episode III - The Return of the Winkleplecks
'Last Weekend you entered a world unlike none other with a diverse cast of characters that banded together for an epic quest. Then last week, our heroes set forth on a hike unlike any other and against all odds. Right when you thought everything was finished, the journey continues one... last... time. This weekend, be prepared to finish the trip! In the exciting conclusion, blood will be spilt and the skies will rain down with fury. This weekend, our story - will - end!'

Google Analytics Walkthrough and Review
'One person, one blog, one hit. When statcounter isn't enough, it's time to call in reinforcements. Google Analytics will track down each viewer as the tables are turned in this summer blockbuster. This post will be so huge, this blog may not be able to contain it. Be counted, be informed, but most of all - be there!'

A Post from Jaimie?
'A post of such magnitude, it has suffered numerous delays while viewers have suffered increasing anticipation. Finally (hopefully) this week, the Jaimie doth arrive. Seeing is believing, and the only way to see is to be there opening day. This week, the blogosphere will implode and explode simultaneously in the biggest posting event of the month!'

See, now doesn't that make it sound way more exciting and fun? So pop some popcorn and snag a soda, you'll be hearing from us soon... *cue creepy, hypnotic music*

I got a BTD...

Today I found out that I was TAG Positive and apparently caught it from Ruby and Lewis' blog. However, to protect anyone else from getting this Blog Transmitted Disease, I'm not going to post the rules or tag eight other people. I only hope you too do not wake up to find that you have been tagged, and to those who have been - I look forward to reading yours.

In the meanwhile, 8 simple rules to dating my... wait, that's not right. 8 things you may-not-know about you-know-who:

1) I'm obsessed with anything done by Joss Whedon, especially if it's written by him.

2) I probably browse through 200 or so articles a day through my RSS reader, but only read about 10% of them fully.

3) Jaimie has got me hooked on a morning show called 'The Daily Buzz' every morning from 6:00-9:00 AM on the CW. I usually only watch the second half though since I'm usually asleep for the first.

4) I use to bite my nails, then quit when I became germophobic. Traded one bad habit for another.

5) I still fear change even though many of the best parts of my life have been the result of it.

6) I use to be more spontaneous. Now it's much harder whether it be because of cost, responsibilities, loss/lack of creativity or just other unrealized changes in character. It would be fun to rediscover and remploy though.

7) I actually love my job.

8) I also love my family and friends and how many people in my life are both. Such social relationships are great, even in a blog-like setting. So to everyone who has or has yet to comment, thank you!

- Raúl

(Bonus Fact: That was my name in middle school Spanish class, while in High School German it was 'R-mann.' Neat huh?)

Some News is Good News...

I'm going to interrupt the regularly scheduled post of this past weekend's camping excursion to bring you these breaking news stories that brought a grin above my chin.

First - according to Variety, my favorite TV star (or starlet) of recent years Kristen Bell (aka Veronica Mars) was added to the cast of Heroes as a guest star in a reoccuring role. You and I should be able to catch her this October when her character's story arc begins. If you don't know who she, or what Veronica Mars, is then you are officially missing out. However, if you are in-the-know, then you can understand why this news is quite exciting to me. In honor of the announcement, I'm thinking of having a 'premiere party' if anyone would be interested (?) even though it does land on the first night of school for us college folk. On a final note and for the record, Hayden Panettiere has got nothing on her.

(Heroes Season 2 Premieres Monday, Sept. 24th @ 9:00 PM PST)

Secondly, the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD has just intensified, and suprisingly in my favor considoring that I do not yet own a Blu-Ray player. The big news here is that Paramount and Dreamworks Animation (who's recent blockbusters include Transformers and Shrek the Third) each declared exclusive support for HD-DVD, at least for the next 18-months. The bad news of course being that this format war is still far from over and it's still too early to call a winner, but I'll continue to root for the underdog. To personalize this for fellow geeks, this also means that Heroes, Battlestar Gallactica, and Star Trek will be exclusive to HD-DVD. Meanwhile, it appears that Lost and Star Wars will be Blu-Ray exclusives.

Camping, Episode II - A New Hike...

Due to Jaimie feeling a bit under the weather today, and what Oregon-like weather we've had, I will let her rest (and continue watching Point Pleasant) as we continue our series of (super)action and (mis)adventures. Maybe I'll even get around to posting a commercial-break with some of the things that have been floating my boat (it's a battleship incase you were wondering) since returning. Before that however, let's continue our neverending story that could only be brought to you by this storyteller (with neverending posts... 'cause I get carried *way* away). Without further adieu, our tale continues with some sights for sore eyes...

...including amb...errr... green waves of grass,

Ryan "Fonzie" Fonzarelli,

ever flowing golden streams,

with skies and sounds that my pictures could not do justice to (however the movie Top Gun and a Kenny Loggins soundtrack probably could).

Speaking of Kenny Loggins, the soundtrack to this trip (for me) would be the Footloose OST, which Jaimie proudly played on our drive to the Metolius to pump us up. Specifically the tracks "Almost Paradise," "Holding Out for a Hero," and "Never."

Back to the story -

Here's the princess bride and her noble steed.
Easter Egg: If you look really close into the reflection of her glasses, you may be able to spot your truly behind a flashing camera.

- Gratuitous "Cute" Shot -

Our adventurers have made it happily ever after!... or have they? Keep your eyes peeled for the exciting ending to Episode II at the same blog time on the same blog channel!

In the meantime loyal readers - don't go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to.

P.S. I want to extend a cyber-thank-you to Samantha for taking the pictures in this post where you see me (minus the Morpheus-shot) in them. Thank you!

P.S.S. I love parenthesis (if you haven't noticed already).

Camping, Episode II - The Three Sisters...

I hope that picture of Chewbacca (Chewie) didn't scare you away. He's pretty fierce and we all know that it's not wise to upset a wookie.

Continuing on our journey, we find our protagonists beginning their trek over 4 miles of wilderness trails in a hike to save the world! Maybe "save" the world is a little over the top, let's go with "see" the world instead. Early on, such obstacles (or sights) such as 'huge boulders' were encountered!

Noah the Strong used his burliness and freakishly ginormous muscles to overcome such boulders...

...in addition to his smile with extra cheese.

Meanwhile, Jaimie Solo and Chewie used their charm and good looks...

...did I mention good looks? Also notice the extremly rare water bottle flower growing at the bottom right (almost as rare as finding a money tree).

The worst obstacle of all was faced by Ryan the Immature. This obstacle is indescribable by this author, but offer your best attempts at describing it in the comments. Unfortunately, Jaimie felt the effects of said object...

...effects that words can also not describe nor explain.

Scenic Intermission - Check out the beards on these tree's!

Camping, Episode I - The Fellowship of the Mellens...

A long, long time ago at a campground far, far away...

Okay, not so long ago and only about 3 hours away - you caught me. Caught me at both exaggerating and being a major geek. For this first part, I'll keep the commentary brief and let the pictures do some speaking for themselves with a comment thrown in here and there for good measure. For the first part in this trilogy (?) of posts, we'll start with some pictures from the first night on Friday.


The pioneers arriving and setting up shop (including but not in any particular order: Jaimie 'Wife' Winklepleck, Rick 'Dad' Mellen, Sara 'Sister' Mellen, and Noah 'Nephew' Mellen)...


Jaimie helping to prepare dinner for the first night. For all the guys wondering - yes it's camp food, they're weiners (insert innuendo here or in the comments, I know I would) and brat(wurst)s.


Tom and Samantha arrive just in time for dinner and the building of the opening fire which officially kicks off the weekend of camping that lies ahead.

Shortly after s'mores and before bed, Anna 'Mom' Mellen would arrive with the remainder of dogs (not of the 'Hot' variety though). As the first night drew to a close, the fullest of days was waiting to rise with the sun on the horizon - literally. In the next chapter of this epic saga, a day of hiking and another camp fire awaits our hero's - will they survive!?
To be continued...

Extremely Exciting Excuse...

Dear fellow Blog-o-sphere,

Sir Winks-a-lot here, posting a little diddy 'bout Jack and Dianne before I head off to the great outdoors. I can't say much about the camping trip I'm about to embark on now, because it's currently in the future. Once it's in the past though, I'll aim to post a recap. For now I will tell you that I am going with the in-laws to the Metolius River for a few days of fresh air and (most likely) fishing.

As for this past week and the obvious drought of posts, I have one excuse and one extremely exciting piece of news. Much like the saying "I've got some good news and some bad news," I'll begin with the excuse.



For the past week while at home and while Jaimie was closing at Togo's, I've been engulfed in the new Stranglehold demo for the (xbox) 360. Already being a huge fan of the film Hardboiled (I recommend adding it to your queue) and its signature John Woo action, I was pretty excited for the game. After playing the demo, it heightened my excitement even more. While having this affair with the demo behind the blogs back, I decided to return some love to the blog. However, if you have a 360 or know someone who does, I also recommend downloading the free demo on Xbox Live. If gaming's not your thing, then watching Hardboiled will suffice. If neither is your thing, then you need to get your heart checked because it should be beating hard and fast after such doses of quality Hong Kong action.

As for the news that is extremely exciting, at least to me, is that I should be able to enjoy Halloween for the first time in years this upcoming October 31st. The reason being that I ordered some tickets for Jaimie and I to see Matt Nathanson in Portland. I can't expand much further since it's quite some time from now, but my excitement is still bursting at the seams in anticipation. To find out why I'm a huge fan, or to find out if you may be as well, I will leave you with a video of a single from his new album Some Mad Hope. Also check out my favorite song from the new album "Come On Get Higher." Hope you all enjoy it and I look forward to writing to you all when I return early next week!

Blog Break!

What a day. Before getting into that, first let's quickly recap the past couple days that has resulted in a (not so) severe lack of posts. Starting Thursday evening, J.W. and I went to Regal Ninth Street Cinema's to see Hot Rod. To summarize, Rod was indeed hot and I do reccomend the movie - especially to members of the less-fair sex between the ages of 20 and 30 years. To avoid giving away anything further, I will just say that it made me want to punch-dance.

Next up, Friday night (or last night) was spent at the Sexton's CockTail Party (which consisted of all three, *Andrew Dice Clay-tone* OH!). Other than the massive battle that was waging inside of me against Pepto Bismal and Nearly Normals, there were good times to be had. Not to steal Tom's thunder as I'm sure he'll be blogging about it soon enough, in addition to posting some of the many pictures he was snapping. I'll end by saying that the only thing it lacked was Paula Abdul, right Phil?

That leaves us in the present, on a fine Saturday afternoon. This post is serving a break in applying for FAFSA, which is quite monotonous. The day thus far has been about as exciting as filling out FAFSA can be, that is to say - not too exciting. Regardless, I wanted to welcome the Kiker's (of Lew & Ru blog fame) new 5 pound 3 ounce bundle of joy to the world and its new home. As you can see from their lastest post, it looks just like its father. Welcome to the club, and if I was to recommend just one application to download, it would be HandBrake. Since it's total cost is "free," it's quite difficult to pass up and may prove quite useful later on when the little one's old enough to travel.

Now it's time for me to be on my way once more. Until next time, this is Ryan with the 5 o'clock bore, I mean blog, signing off. I swear/hope Jaimie will post one of these days!

Big day for the big Apple, and I don't mean New York...

Well dudes and dudettes,

Yesterday I was unable to post regarding this but now that it has sunk in, I'll give it a go. Apple Inc. introduced some new and unfortunately-expensive goodies. Among which included new iMacs, Mac Minis, and software. My budget limits me at iLife '08, but I'll give iWork's demo a spin. The new iMacs look gorgeous, excluding the glossy screen with no option for matte (you iCreative types will feel this pain much more I'm sure). The new keyboards are quite different, and the main inspiration for this post.

I personally prefer the old keyboards to the new ones, especially on the wireless side. The new wireless keyboard lacks a number pad and isn't a full size keyboard (see picture below). Unfortunately, the old full-size bluetooth keyboards w/numpad are being phased out. For this reason, I decided to surprise the Mrs. with a wireless keyboard since she's been wanting one for a while and who knows how much longer the full-sized ones will remain. If you also were hoping to snag a full-sized wireless or old-style apple keyboard for your new (or old) Mac, it seems now would be the time. They currently can be had at the OSU bookstore (~6 wireless ones left in stock) or online at Apple's refurb. page (stock unknown). Below, I'll post some pic's that can hopefully make sense of what I just said. If it's all just technobabble to you, then disregard this post.


(C) ABCMagazin.Ro, (C) Apple Inc.

Thanks for your patience, especially those of you who hate tech and/or Apple. I'm just posting on what I know, I felt inspired to share. Now that I have, my next inspiration is to see Hot Rod at Regal, any takers?

Allow me to introduce ourselves...

Odds are that if you're here, you know us. If you're against the odds, then my name is Ryan and my wife is Jaimie. We've been married for just over a month, but don't let that fool you - we've been together for well over 4 years. I talk a lot (too much?) and Jaimie however, not so much. By the request of one, this blog was created to be viewed by many. Now to answer some questions you might also be having in a segment called "Five W's and an H."

-----

Who?
Ryan blogging this time, maybe Jaimie later.

What?
Just a short introduction, but expect the "good stuff" in the future.

When?
When the planets align, or early August - whichever you prefer.

Where?
Consider our location as the beef patty in a WA and CA burger, and I'm the cheese.

Why?
Rumor has it that the person who blogs is the one with more time on their hands. Given Jaimie's job, internship, and being a full time babe - that leaves me with just a job at the moment and the best candidate for blogging. That being said, I'll do my best to perform a song and dance until she has free time. This entertainment is free and has been rated 'R' for "read at your own risk."

High Five?
Up high, to the side, down low - too slow ______ (your name here)
...I told you so, read at your own risk...

-----

That's that and wasn't that fun? In closing, I will try to throw in some pictures that are worth a thousand words and refrain from typing those words myself. In the meantime, check out the Three Bains blog to see how our Sunday went in what turned out to be a very eventful weekend. Maybe I'll post more on that later, but for now I got to work hard for the money.

Try not to have a bad case of the Mondays.

First post...

...that's all.