S.O.T.W and Video of the week

love in this club, by usher

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

sotw - finally a song written about me :)

Its too hot! 108 outside, 93 inside.

too damn hot, originally uploaded by jonathanerichall.

nuff said.

S.O.T.W - When the President Talks To God

When the President Talks To God by Bright Eyes



When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women’s rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where prisons should be built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs. the ghetto's broke
No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't
Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That's what God recommends

When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
While they pick which countries to invade
Which Muslim souls still can be saved?
I guess god just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God

When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?

I doubt it

I doubt it

The Revolution Continues...

Today Ron Paul will officially end his presidential campain, but his campaign for a better America isnt over, its just been started. If you've read any of my prior posts on Ron Paul you'll see how strongly he believes in a constitution-ran America where we are not in debt and can make better economic decisions. He is a very smart guy, its too bad the press didnt give him a chance, he could have been exactly what America needs and will still need, regardless who gets elected in the fall, there will be no real "change." Educate America so we dont make the same mistakes again.

campaign-for-liberty, originally uploaded by jonathanerichall.

Join the Revolution! http://www.campaignforliberty.com/

From the site..."The mission of the Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity. "

Amen.

Wash your car by throwing it into the washing machine

A great man

Its a tragedy that this man wasnt taken more serious during the primaries.

Black Widow = Dead Black Widow

So today I came home, noticed the neighbors trash cans were out so I rolled mine to the sidewalk. Upon returning to the garage I noticed A HUGE BLACK WIDOW. Thinking that looking it up on wikipedia would be cool wasnt. Now I'm more paranoid.

Wikipedia:

Although their venom is extremely potent, (15 times more potent than that of the rattlesnakes; it is also reported to be much more potent than the venom of cobras and coral snakes), these spiders are not especially large...Deaths in healthy adults from Latrodectus bites are relatively rare in terms of the number of bites per thousand people. Only 63 deaths were reported in the United States between 1950 and 1990. On the other hand, the geographical range of the widow spiders is very great.

More potent than snakes???? I hate snakes!!!!

Fearing my life was in danger, I decided not to let it live. I also thought, hey...this would be a great time to try flickr's video feature. I shot it full of ant spray. A few sprays in I panicked when it ran for a crack and forgot I was filming. HAHAHA. I wanted to know for sure it was dead, otherwise I'd be staying at a hotel tonight.





Now that it was dead, I felt comfortable taking a real closeup.



This is what it looked like after mr. spider met the bottom of my shoe. I had to know it was dead, not just playing possum.



Then as I was uploading the pics and vid to flickr, I decided to tell Rory about it, big mistake.

(6:21:35 PM) jonathan: yo
(6:24:23 PM) rory: yo, what up?
(6:24:29 PM) jonathan: just killed a black widow in my garage
(6:24:56 PM) rory: ooo, nice
(6:25:03 PM) jonathan: not nice
(6:25:03 PM) rory: was it abiggin'?
(6:25:25 PM) jonathan: i dunno
(6:25:25 PM) rory: make sure you get the eggs!!!
(6:25:37 PM) jonathan: shit, didnt see any
(6:25:46 PM) jonathan: thanks, i can sleep well now
(6:25:52 PM) rory: haha
(6:26:28 PM) rory: don't worry, it won't get you while you are sleeping, it will hide out in your shoes and get you tomorrow morning
(6:26:38 PM)rory: hahaha
(6:27:07 PM) jonathan: what happeded to the "warn" feature of aol im, i miss that :)
(6:27:20 PM) rory: ha
(6:28:31 PM) jonathan: ill need you to brew me up some antivenom
(6:28:37 PM) jonathan: stat
(6:28:47 PM) rory: ha, yea

I'm glad Rory made me feel nice and comfortable and worry free.

Getting Things Done™

no more weeds... for now anyways, originally uploaded by jonathanerichall.

Ironically and contrary to popular belief, I'm a big fan of "Getting Things Done" also known as "GTD." One of my personal philosophies is work smarter not harder. To quote wikipedia:

Getting Things Done (commonly abbreviated as GTD) is an action management method of The David Allen Company, and the title of the book by David Allen which describes the method. GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.

One of the biggest GTD theories I have put to use is called "Inbox Zero." It's a plan and a mindset when it comes to handling e-mail. You can watch the video and read all about it at 42Folders.com I know the audio lip sync goes off a bit toward the middle but its worth the view. I watched it for the third time last Thursday after suggesting it to our "Process Improvement Team" at work which has a goal of simplifying and streamlining processes in city government for the betterment of our community.

At the beginning of this post I start out by saying "Ironically and contrary to popular belief..." Thats because I'm propably the laziest person you'll ever meet. When it comes to doing chores, I find other things to occupy my time (ie blogging on jonathanforpresident.com)

I get every other Friday off (I work 80 hours in 9 days to get the 10 off) and after every three day weekend I go back to work wondering what I did with my time. This Monday I wont be asking that question, I was super busy this weekend.

As the photo at the top of the post suggests, I completed phase 2 of 3 of my quarterly weeding in my supposed-maintenance free front yard. Last week I did phase 1, and spend 2 hours today going over more of the front yard with a fine toothed comb pulling all traces of weeds and grass. I justify phasing it because I don't want to aggravate my herniated disc in my lower back.

Other chores I need to accomplish and put on the list for the sole purpose of pushing myself to complete the tasks:

• Clean the house (vacuum, mop, the whole shebang!)
• Submit reciepts from the SanFran business trip for reimbursement
• Get the dishwasher fixed
• Look into pricing for "whole house fans and installation."
• Laundry
• Clean the garage
• Make out with a cheerleader.
• Wash the European engineered automobile.
• Pay registration for said automobile.
• Mail out invoices for sideproject dollars.

Ive been told lists are helpful, lets hope so.

$4.599/gallon equals $84.19

$4.599/gallon equals $84.19, originally uploaded by jonathanerichall.

Ouch! I talked to my old hockey coach today at church, he owns a Toyota dealership. I asked him when the plug-in hybrids were coming out. He said Toyota has just built a few battery factories which will make that plug-ins come to market sooner.

He said when they do, I can ask him to put me high on the list.

Sweet, can't wait.

Krystin's Wedding!

Man that came quick! It seems like yesterday little Krystin and little Chris got engaged. Our little girl is growing up!

Yesterday was fun. June, 7th, 2008, 06/07/08. Hopefully that date will be easy for Chris to remember for all those anniversary's to come. Before the wedding a bunch of us from work pre-gamed at a picnic Margie created for us at Wilson Creek Winery. I even tried wine(gasp!).

Unfortunately I didnt bring the nikon with the zoom lens so I didnt get any really good pics of the actual wedding, you can see all what I have on my flickr page.

The reception at Tim's (Chris's dad, and my director at work) House was pretty fun. The food was amazing. I had wine, beer, champagne, rumplemints, goldslaugger, and water...it was amazing I didn't end up like Aaron, he drank a little too much :)

Heres some of my favs from the evening:



Krystin and her mom walking down the aisle.


Kim holding Oscar's son Ethan


Chris making a funny face
(interesting note, there is an exact photo out there somehwere from a different angle, our flashes went off at the same time.)


Blindfolded by my tie, Chris goes for the goods with his teeth.


Margie and Krystin.


Margie, Tatiana, and Krystin.


Krystin and John "Iggy D"


Krystin, someone I dont know, and Aubrey. (Aubrey looks like a model)


The Bride and I.


The Ross family dancin'


Margie and Ray dancin'


Kim and Robbie dancin'


Krystin hearing about someone who ended up laying in the sprinklers :)


Check out the rest on the flickr page

Overall, a great night, Congrats Krystin and Chris! Have fun on the honeymoon!

Friday Night Lights!

I won a raffle at work for tickets and free parking to the 2008 Balloon and Wine Festival. Upon looking at the schedule I found that they were going to have a balloon glow, so I packed up the cameras, tripod, and water and headed off to Lake Skinner.

Below are some of my favorite pics of the day. It was real difficult to get great pictures of the balloon glow, they had flood lights surrounding it so the glow itself was kindof muted, plus like anything else in this world, commercialism trumped what could have been a really cool experience for kids. Meaning, instead of having lots of colorful balloons that would light up, they had a green almond champagne bottle that didn't glow and and Edwards Suites green balloon that was barely visible.














More pics on my flickr page.

Two songs of the week!

This week's songs of the week I discovered by listening to pandora, awesome web streaming application.

Making of: Pork and Beans

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

I left my ♥ in San Francisco.

I love San Fran. I was fortunate in my early career to work at a dot com in downtown San Diego. I love spending time in "downtowns." You can walk everywhere, public transportation is usually cheap and easy, you can people watch, and usually the architecture is grand and historic.

Last week, the city sent me to San Fran to attend the Google I/O developer conference. I was in heaven. I got to meet the authors of several blogs I read daily and got to be in the same room as Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra and Vice President of Search and User Experience Marissa Mayer. They shared a huge insite into why Google shares it's information and technology with us developers...."Richer web apps --> more users --> more usage --> more revenue."

I took lots of pics, available on my flickr page here, and I've selected a few to share with you here.

First off...air travel. I love to fly, I don't do it enough, and even though work was paying for it, its hard to pay more than Southwest Airlines, anything else compared looks like robbery, plus I like Southwest.

That was my plane. I sat myself on the left side so on the way, I got a great look at Catalina Island.

Thanks to Google Transit (a mashup of Google Maps and Public Transportation information) I learned that it would cost me only $6.00 to ride the BART train to my hotel, which was a block from the BART Powell station.

I stayed at the Mariott, which was a block from the Moscone Center where the conference was held. The room was really nice. Fit for a king, or a webmaster.

I figured once I got to the room I'd bring up Google and search for something or somewhere to go. The hotel didnt have wireless, and who carries cat5 cables around anyway. So I figure the Apple store was a good place to start.

The Apple store was bad ass. Other than selling every product they make (big surprise), they offer classes on how to do something on your mac. I sat through the Podcasting class that showed how to use the Garage Band software on my macbook. The stairs were cool too.

Once I got my cable I surfed the net for how to get to Chinatown. Turns out it was only a few blocks away so I went on a hunt for some good Chinese food.

I realized after looking at all the menus on the few restaurants I saw, that I like American Chinese food, mmmm peonys. So I walked through the financial district on my way to the embarcadero.

The water front was cool, a great view of the Bay Bridge.

Then with my stalking abilities, I tracked down the home of the San Francisco office for Google. They are on the fourth floor of this brick building.

Then I walked home and ate at a Chinese food place next door to the hotel, I was let down, Peony's needs to open a restaurant in San Fran.

The next morning I got up bright and early and checked into the conference. They transformed the Moscone Center into Google Developer Central.

At breakfast (bagels) I met a gentleman who spent the last three years in China geocoding a bunch of train stations on Google Earth. Im sure he was excited that Google announced during the conference that we can now embed Google Earth into our webpages now. (I know you all dont care but thats huge step in technology.)

Below is the entire keynote from the Conference titled "Client, Connectivity, and the Cloud." It was real exciting to see the future of Google. And now i'm super excited to get a phone with Android when it comes out (Google's mobile phone operating system)





After the keynote I attended several talks about Google Maps API (coding language). I cant wait to start using what I've learned on the City's website.

After the first day's events, they had a party in the grand ballroom called "Google IO After Dark" with tons of food, games, and a concert. I stopped drinking a month ago as part of my wellness plan, but I couldn't pass up the fact that Google was buying me a drink, so I had one to be able to say that :)

The next day I attended sessions on websites in general, "Making Faster Websites," "Making Search Friendly Websites," and "Using Google's Visualization Tools" just to name a few which all were awesome.

The conference didnt seem very long, I only got to attend like 8 sessions out of 90+ but I am looking forward to Google publishing all the sessions on YouTube later this week.

Overall I had the best time! Google is awesome and I for one welcome our new overloards :)

I'll leave you with a beautiful shot of La Jolla on my return trip.