Posted by Brad on September 30th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
I played Halo 3 for a large part of the day yesterday. I won’t go into specifics because I don’t want to accidentally write any spoilers, but the situation is more desperate than you could possibly imagine. The hour is late and I’m racing against an ancient evil to save humans and aliens both.
I took a break from saving the galaxy and went to dinner. While I was out, I stopped by the sporting goods store for some supplies I needed for school. Every once in a while we have an opportunity to take the kids outside for recess. I love it. I would do it every day if we could.
Previously, I had gotten some playground balls from a store called 5 Below. Everything is $5 and below. Since the balls were cheap, they didn’t last very long. That’s why I went to the sporting goods store. I wanted to get nicer equipment so it would last longer. I got a soccer ball and a football. I am also very happy to say that I got a mesh bag for the equipment. Up ’till now I’ve been using a plastic shopping bag.
Who’da thought I’d ever be excited about sporting goods?
8 Comments
Posted by Brad on September 29th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
I got Halo 3 yesterday. Because we had a Middle School Activity Night from 3-6pm after school, I went during my free period. I am a video game addict, but I don’t have all the lingo down apparently, because as I was asking the girl over the phone if what I wanted was in stock, she didn’t understand me. After finally communicating what I was after, she said they had it. The Xbox 360 game console only comes with one controller, so I had to also get a second controller. I wasn’t prepared for that expense. Sheesh! It was expensive!
I did play the game a little last night. It was amazing. The difference in graphics blows me away. The graphics of the regular gameplay of Halo 3 are better than the graphics of the cutscenes of Halo 2. The controls have changed a little, so I’m sort of clumsy. But I will get better as I go along. The story hasn’t unfolded much yet. Earth is in bad shape. The situation looks grim. And Cortana is back on the Halo ring from Halo 2. I miss her…
5 Comments
Posted by Brad on September 28th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
Yesterday after school a bunch of us went down for our principal’s husband’s installation. He was installed as the President and CEO of Lutheran World Relief. It was held in downtown Baltimore. It was a nice service and ceremony. Afterward, there was a reception with fancy appetizer-sized food. It was yummy.
The first part of the event was in a church. The bulletins all had small banners in them. What could they be for?
We walked a few blocks to the next part of the evening: an outdoor ceremony in front of the LWR office.
The outdoor ceremony was nice. Here’s what we did with the small banners:
The reception was fun. There was food and jazz music and air conditioning. Peggy showed her iron will by not eating anything. But the mini chocolate eclair called to her. I “threw myself on the grenade” and ate it so she wouldn’t be tempted.
I’m nice like that.
6 Comments
Posted by Brad on September 27th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
I was doing my thing Tuesday morning, getting ready for the day, and I found a white hair on the right side of my head. I have had some blonde ones before; they were so light that they looked white. But this was an honest-to-goodness, full-on white hair. I don’t believe I’ve seen one of those before. So this is an event to mark in the calandar books… my first white hair: September 24, 2007.
I remember pretty clearly the first time I found a different benchmark of age: a big hair outside of my nose. I’m not talking about a nose hair that’s poking out. I’m talking about a hair growing on my nose rather than in it. It’s an easy date to remember because it was Christmas Day 2000. I was in the downstairs bathroom at my parents’ house in Minnesota. I pulled it immediately. I watch pretty vigilantly now. No outside-of-the-nose hair will escape me! But it does remind me of a question I haven’t yet found a satisfactory answer for because I don’t have the guts to ask a person to whom it applies: Do old men who have big ol’ hairs on the outside of their nose not pull them because they don’t see them, or because they don’t care? Maybe when I’m older I’ll know the answer to that.
14 Comments
Posted by Brad on September 26th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
So one of the pieces of holistic health advice out there is that flax seed lowers cholesterol. The Mayo Clinic says the studies are inconclusive, but I thought I’d at least give it a try.
I went to my local treehugger grocery store and found a bag of ground-up flax seeds. The recommended daily amount is two tablespoons. The literature suggests sprinkling it on your oatmeal, but I can’t see eating oatmeal every day. I love my Carnation Instant Breakfast too much. So I’ve decided just to eat the flaxseed meal straight. I scoop out a big spoonful, start chomping on it, and drink something real quick. The flavor is actually not too bad. It’s kind of nutty. But a whole tablespoon in your mouth at one time is a little much. It’s like sawdust. Oily sawdust. As it turns out, flax seeds are where linseed oil comes from. I always thought of linseed oil as something you rub on your wood furniture, not something you eat.
On the plus side, two tablespoons of fiber and oil are quite filling. I am not as tempted to snack before lunch anymore. So here’s mud sawdust in your eye!
13 Comments