YouTubesday - 11/10/09

There's a new Star Wars Gangsta Rap after 10 years of waiting. It's not on YouTube yet, but I'll try to get it up next week. Check it out here if you really want to see it.

Drunk woman falls onto the subway tracks in Boston and almost gets hit.

Moon walking in the air.

Here is how to open a wine bottle when you don't have a corkscrew.

University of New Mexico junior defender Elizabeth Lambert beats up some Mormons.

Bringing down the wall. Couldn't they have just slid it open?

Inmates save a prison guard's life.

I think if we made everything more fun like these piano stairs, we'd do it more often.

Ever seen Kurt Russell's Star Wars audition tape?

Trailer for the sequel to This Is It called This Is More Of It.

Foto Friday - 11/6/09

This is my eleventh Foto Friday post. I can't believe it's already been two weeks since the last one. Sometimes time just flies by. Some of the pictures for today come from a visit to the arboretum at South Seattle Community College. We went there with Brian and Kristy after the Seattle Japanese garden that I posted pictures from last week. Also, pictures from Halloween events. Full set with all 87 pictures can be viewed here. And, as always, you can click to enlarge these pictures.

Bethany made an awesome dinner the other night of beef medallions, au gratin potatoes, and garlic & olive oil vermicelli.

Bethany carved a lot of pumpkins for Halloween this year. Most of them are Nightmare Before Christmas-themed. Upper left big pumpkin is Oogie Boogie and the rest of the smaller ghost pumpkins are different faces of Jack Skellington. My wife is so talented.

Lots of leaves changing at the South Seattle Community College Arboretum. Here is a good example of the greens, yellows, oranges, and reds blending together. Also put together this photo to show a closer example of the beautiful colors.

Pretty purple flowers in the arboretum.

The arboretum has a decent view of the buildings in downtown Seattle.

Messed with this picture of a flower a lot and it turned out looking pretty cool. Kind of like a painting. I could post about a half dozen pictures of flowers, but I'll spare you. Check out the full set if you want to see all of them.

I really like how it looks like the branches of the tree are reaching out to the moon in this photo.

Sunset was really pink the other night and I tried my best to get a good shot before the clouds rolled in.

Something I'd like to do one evening is go down to Seattle and take a ton of long exposure shots at night. Did a small one here from the Kent Station parking garage.

The Friday before Halloween, my work had a small table out with all sorts of good stuff on there for the little ones. There were cupcakes, cookies, rice krispie treats, candy, iced cider, and hot cider.

After checking out my building, we went over to The Commons and attended the MSft employee Halloween party. It was packed! You had to squeeze by everyone there. Each of the stores and restaurants were giving out candy to the kids. Plus, they had awesome costumes, decorations, my old co-worker Mike DJ'ing, professional photos, pumpkin painting, and a haunted house.

Here is Bethany and Juliana posing next to some decorations in the mini-Pike Place Market at The Commons.

Giant spider building a web next to the Chandy's sign.

A casket with a bunch of kids' painted pumpkins around it. Julie wasn't quite old enough to do this yet. Maybe next year.

This is the reception desk outside of the Microsoft Visitor Center. The Visitor Center on the Microsoft campus is completely open to the public and is a fun stop if you are a tourist in the area, or if you've always lived here and have just never been. The Company Store is also open to the public, except for the software/hardware area.

This is the giant globe inside the Visitor Center. It uses four projectors that together create the round image. It displays news headlines and all sorts of other stuff.

Two guys playing chess on the Microsoft Surface in the Visitor Center. It's kind of like a coffee table touchscreen computer. Pretty neat.

The Xbox area of the Visitor Center. They usually demo the latest and greatest on the big screen.

Here's the entrance to the Company Store. Buy a t-shirt or something.

As you can tell, Julie dressed up as a little pumpkin. When we first bought it for her, she tried it on and didn't want to take it off.

On Halloween night, we went to Sumner for their trick-or-treating event on Main Street. It was a lot more crowded than last year. All of the stores there give out candy to the kids.

Our families came to watch Jelly trick-or-treat. She's got the idea down pretty good. She'll walk up to someone, take a piece of candy, and drop it in her bucket.

At one point, these people who looked dead on the street got up when Michael Jackson's Thriller started playing and they did the Thriller dance. Not very many of them had the dance down, but it was a fun idea.

After checking out Sumner, we went to the new Sonic Drive-In in Bonney Lake. They had a special on corn dogs Halloween night for only 50 cents. I love Sonic. Anyway, then we went to Tawnya's friends' house for a Halloween party and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Julie got a little scared at times, but overall, she enjoyed it.

This is Norma and Russ' older daughter, Emma. You may remember her from Julie's birthday party.

A couple of the treats at the Halloween party. My dad made the ladyfingers using an almond as the fingernail.

Had Frito pie for dinner another night. Best thing to come out of the south since fried chicken! For more pictures of food, Halloween, and the arboretum, see the full set.

YouTubesday - 11/3/09

I wish my math teacher had been this cool.

Costume tips for parents with girly sons. From The Onion.

One of the best medleys I've seen put together from movie and TV clips.

Drunk Ewoks on The Today Show.

Elderly couple fights two girls in the streets. Better action than Transformers 2.

Ellen scares Taylor Swift on her show. Poor girl is having a rough year.

Baby elephant sneezes and startles itself.

Just about the funniest football play I've seen. Maybe he'll get drafted by the Lions.

Pretty cool song made from sounds and music of Pulp Fiction.

Extreme shepherding.

This kid hits a basketball with a baseball bat and makes the basket. Not sure if this is fake, but if so, it's well done.

Shark bites another shark almost clean in half. Crazy.

Ask Cam the IT Guy - 11/2/09

I work in IT support and enjoy surfing the 'Computer & Internet' section of Yahoo! Answers every once in awhile and fielding some questions. I've seen my fair share of stupid questions from users and they've seen their fair share of smart-ass answers when they...

Ask Cam the IT Guy.

Question: i cant figure out how to get my iTunes skin on iTunes,? -Wonder Chelsey

Answer: Ask Leatherface.


Question: while doing anything on my laptop it has suddenly started to stop and show nothing but a wallpaper like design? -janafay30

Answer: Is it starting to stop or stopping to start?


Question: wats a good note to post on facebook? -smileysharon010

Answer: That you ask stupid questions on Yahoo! Answers.


Question: Problems embedding a .wmv file to a web page? -flapanthers2000

Answer: No, I don't.


Question: why does my cricket internet keep saying connection failed? -Bill Gates has $50 Billion

Answer: Probably because it's a cricket and has no idea what the Internet is.


Question: pretty please click it please? -Ellie

Answer: No, I will not cyber with you.


Question: There was a website that you could go to create your own fake video news report as jokes, what is the website? -Jason

Answer: Why create your own fake news video when you could be in a real one!? All you need to do is try to speed away from the cops or something and you'll be on the local news stations in no time.


Question: how do i format my computer? i don't have a disk, i have vista? -kellenleah

Answer: I'm really confused on how you don't have a disk, yet you have Vista.


Question: What are the "unique crops" for the Green Thumb Ribbon in Farmville? -Emily

Answer: You can grow children.


Question: I have a macbook as my school computer and i accidently locked the mouse and it will not work now any help? -Lauren

Answer: Probably because you locked the mouse, but that's just a guess.


Question: how much would it cost? -Kasia

Answer: No, I will not be your gigolo.


Question: If you use AOL 9.*.* with say Qwest, Cox, or Comcast are you ON the internet twice? -Peter D

Answer: Yes. It's like when your mom makes you two Cup O'Noodles. Just in case you spill one in your parents' basement, you'll still have the other one.


Question: Please help! Every time I google my name my myspace page comes up!? -Olivia

Answer: That is generally how it works.

The Seattle Japanese Garden

Julie and I hung out with Brian and Kristy this past Saturday. One of the places we went to was the Japanese Garden in Seattle. I never even knew Seattle had a Japanese garden until I saw an article on a blog I read. Bethany could not go because she was feeling sick, so that meant I got a lot of awesome pictures of Brian and Kristy. I bet they felt like they were getting engagement photos done all over again. Most of the pictures turned out really well since the garden is so beautiful. I used a picture that Kristy took and sent to me for the movie poster above.

Brian and Kristy in front of a Japanese maple tree. The leaves are already falling, but most of the garden was still full of color.

Most of the paths are dirt and rock. There are a few places that are not stroller friendly, but overall, it's manageable.

Cobblestone bridge and Japanese stone lantern.

A nice view of the Japanese garden.

Brian and Kristy looking back at me while standing near the pond.

I have a huge crush on taking candid shots of people in black and white. There's just something so satisfying about capturing a moment that is so authentic and not staged.

Kristy was my photographer when I wanted shots of me and Julie together. She took this great one of us sitting on a bench.

One of the stone lantern was square shaped, so I had a cool idea to take this picture.

Fooled around with this photo a bit to make it more interesting. Kristy and Brian are in black and white while the background has been desaturated. Love the effect.

I could have taken a thousand photos at the garden. It's so pretty there. I want to visit again in the spring when the cherry blossoms bloom.

Brian holding his woman on a wooden bridge by a maple tree.

Looking up at the wonderful colors of the turning maple leaves.

There is much more where this came from and you can see it all in the full set. I also took more pictures elsewhere on Saturday, but I am saving those pictures for next week's Foto Friday. Stay tuned.

YouTubesday - 10/27/09

Vijay Singh hits just about one of the most amazing hole-in-ones I've ever seen.

What Obi-Wan really thinks of Mos Eisley Space Port. Has swearing.

Improv Everywhere does a musical in a grocery store.

This person parks like a pro on SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!! Reports say it happened in Canada. I didn't know they could drive up there.

The judges really like this Tokyo drift! Big deal. I do this with shopping carts in the grocery store all the time.

This guy is apparently the world champion at anvil shooting. I had no idea that this was a sport. ESPN has totally failed me in its coverage. YEEEAAAHHH!!!!

A cat attacks a breakdancer, but things don't go so well. I can't tell if this is fake.

Silent film version of that drunk guy video I posted last week. A bunch of other remixes here. I also like the Requiem for a Dream version.

Speaking of remixes, did I ever post this Slap Chop Rap? I don't think I have.

Guy uses Super Mario World to propose to his girlfriend. Lame.

Guy tries to take the first bite out of a Windows 7 Whopper.

The 411 on Linx

I've had a few people ask me about some of the links I have on the right-side of my blog in the "Linx" section. I realized that I post new links to websites all the time without really informing people of what they are. Well, that ends starting today.

I only post links of things that I visit on a daily or weekly basis that are purely for entertainment purposes. Here's the rundown on what I have already.

Cam's Facebook - This one and the next two are sort of self-explanatory. This one links to my Facebook page. I stay logged in on Facebook all day while at work, but I'm not necessarily on it the whole time. I just keep it open in a tab for quick access.

Cam's MySpace - This one links to my MySpace. I barely check this anymore since everyone has moved to FB and Twitter.

Cam's DVD List - This links to my section on a site called DVD Aficionado. It's one of the best and most thorough websites for adding your DVD/BluRay collection.

/Film - This is where I get most of my movie news. They pretty much report on everything when it comes to film. This is where I watch the latest trailers, read about the good indie films coming out of film festivals, and hear who's going to be directing what.

Woot! - This site sells one item per day (unless it's a Wootoff) at really good prices. The stuff they sell ranges from computers to fire detectors to GPS's to wristwatches. They also have a t-shirt site and a wine site that do similar things. I check all of them every morning.

CheapCheapCheap - This is where I find out about all the good deals going on at stores. They only post the really sweet deals on here. They pretty much do the same thing as slickdeals.net, but I like their organization a little better. Forum discussions, not so much.

Free Stuff Times - This site is kind of like CheapCheapCheap, except they only post free items. Most of the free items are things you can order online, but they also provide coupons and stuff.

Digg - This is the place I go for all the latest popular web articles. I don't visit as often as I used to since it has gathered quite the liberal following, but I do try to check out the top ten stories everyday. I also get some of the videos for YouTubesday from here.

DinoRPG - This is a free online game that is kind of like Pokémon, except a whole lot simpler. You can only take one turn per day (unless you pay for it), so I visit often. It's just something fun and easy to do.

Dinoparc - Very much like the above, except instead of your characters fighting the computer, you fight other players' dinos. I also used to play My Brute and Alphabounce which are other day-by-day turn-based games.

Explosm - This is one of my favorite web comics to read. They are so crude and vulgar, but oh so funny. They post a new comic daily, so I check this often.

Garfield Minus Garfield - Another great web comic that is not updating as much as they used to. They take Garfield comic strips and remove Garfield from them. Consequently, it always makes Jon look like he's insane. Really funny. Adds a whole new level to Garfield.

VG Cats - Another funny web comic. The creator is supposed to update every Monday, but he's a big slacker. These comics usually revolve around cats and video games (hence the name).

Perry Bible Fellowship - My favorite comic series of all-time. He doesn't do comic strips anymore, but I re-read his stuff and it still cracks me up.

Zero Punctuation - Every Wednesday, this guy does a cartoon video review of a video game. It's unique because he speaks really fast and he's really funny.

Jandrew Edits - These guys edit old TV shows to make them funny. So far, they've only done Star Trek: The Next Generation, Knight Rider, and ALF.

Death Cab For Cutie - The website for my favorite band in the whole wide world.

Fansub TV - One of the websites I go to to download anime and read about what's hot and new.

Anime Take - Another good site to download anime at.

Rotten Tomatoes - This is a site that most people are already familiar with. They take movie reviews from all the major critics and rate movies by a percentage. Metacritic is good as well, but I prefer RT.

Red vs. Blue - I've been going to RvB for a long time now. They are the creators of the online machinima series using Halo. I've been a member of their community for five years now.

YTMND! - This stands for You're The Man Now Dog. Long story short, it's a website where users can create a funny page using images, audio, and text.

Seattle Weekend Events - I check this site every week to see all the major events going on in the Seattle area during the weekends. This is where you'll find all the stuff like Seafair events, Bite of Seattle, and runs.

27b/6 - The guy who runs this site writes some funny stuff. His best writing comes from replying to people's e-mails in a random and crude way. If you don't find his Overdue post funny, you probably won't like his stuff.

JoBlo - Another movie site I visit for news, but not that often. I really like the release dates section for DVDs here.

Coming Soon - Yet another movie site I visit. This one I go to for theatrical release dates.

419 Eater - Always been a fan of messing with criminals and this guy does just that. He pretends like he's a dumb e-mail user and responds to scammers who are trying to get money from people online. He makes them do funny things to earn their money, but they never get anything out of it anyway because they're too stupid to realize they're really the ones being had.

Washington State DOT - Really, this is for me to check at work. It shows a good map of traffic conditions in the greater Seattle area.

Think Geek - Online store that sells tons of geeky and nerdy stuff. Some pretty sweet things in here. I want to buy everything.

Improv Everywhere - A group of improv people who perform scenes and pranks in New York City. You've probably seen some of their work before. My favorites are Frozen Grand Central, Slow-Mo Home Depot, and The Moebius. Really great stuff.

Lostpedia - This is the Wikipedia of the TV show Lost. They have everything in here.

Geni - This is the best site for online family trees. I have 46 family members in my tree alone, but Bethany has 226. If you have ever wanted to make a family tree, this is the place to do it.

SparkPeople - This is my favorite website for dieting. They let you create your own profile and you can record your meals, workouts, and more. They have lots of great articles and tips for living a healthy lifestyle. And best of all, it's free!

T33n G1rl Squ4dx0rx - My favorite section of the famous Homestar Runner. It's so silly, random, and ludicrous that I love it.

Nexon - Nexon is a company that creates a lot of cool online games. I used to play their MapleStory religiously. Now, not so much, but they have a ton of other fun games, too.

Uncyclopedia - This is the fake parody version of Wikipedia. Really fun to read whenever you are bored and have nothing better to do.

I hope I may have peaked your interest in some of these links. Check them out and feel free to send me some of your favorites. I will be doing another blog entry covering my "Other Blogs I Read" section later.