bbaier.com

Look how awful this orange and black theme is. I set it for one reason and one reason only. I want to make my own wordpress themes. If you are a longtime reader(who am I kidding, no one will ever look at this) you may remember my old themes. First the areakahi theme and then the first bbaier.com theme. I made both from scratch. I liked both, and think they could be very useful as wordpress themes for myself and others. I set the ugly theme so I would have motivation to make the site…not ugly.

…update…

Ok so I never did get around to making those old themes of mine into WP themes. What can I say? I’m a busy fella. I like this new theme though. Not sure about the wallpaper yet. I might have to tweak it a bit. I was just sick of that ugly theme I had before.

Well, here are some more pictures due to the overwhelming success of my last picture post and update. This time I uploaded 5 whole pictures. The past few days have been relaxing. Lots of beach time. Yesterday we rented a car (Mustang Convertible) and drove up the side of the island. One of the things we had never been to before is this recreation of a 900 year old Buddhist temple. It was really cool to say the least. I didn’t realize this, but after we left I read that that temple was where they shot the engagement scene between Jin and Sun in ABC’s Lost. We also ended up stopping at this ranch that was used to film the golfing scene for lost. I haven’t seen any of the actors yet, but I know they are on the island because they are doing some children’s thing at the library on Sunday. In addition to finding a bunch of Lost locations we stumbled upon the estate they used to film the old 80’s TV show Magnum P.I. The house was pretty run down and didn’t look much like it did back when they were filming the show. In addition I hear George Lucas is staying at a hotel we usually go to on the Big Island, but we won’t be there this trip. I did see a couple of Japanese guys walking down the beach with a boom box blaring The Imperial Death March.

I put a couple of pictures up at my flickr site. I honestly haven’t taken many pictures yet. I’ve been too busy sunning myself on the beach and walking around Waikiki. I’ll get to work taking some more nice ones. I’m sure you all love seeing them and knowing how wonderful it is here (Please don’t kill me). Last night there was a huge downpour just as we were heading to dinner. I got a little wet, but they brought me a towel to dry off with. A bird just landed on the window sill and freaked me out. I have met some really cool people this trip. People seem to be a lot nicer around here. They are making some major changes to the Waikiki area that are going to make the place really nice. I always thought this was a great area, but they are making it even better. In about a year when they finish all the improvements it should be awesome. Thats all for now. Gotta get back out there and make sure my towel doesn’t blow away.

With all of my favorite shows back my TiVo is pulling a double shift. Here is the spring line-up in two groups; Drama/Comedy and Reality TV.

Drama/Comedy

1. Heroes – NBC – Mondays @ 9:00 PM (EST)
2. Lost – ABC – Wednesdays @ 10:00 PM (EST)
3. Scrubs – NBC – Thursdays @ 9:00 PM (EST)
4. The Office – NBC – Thursdays @ 8:30 PM (EST)

Reality TV

1. Survivor: Fiji – CBS – Thursdays @ 8:00 PM (EST)
2. The Amazing Race: All Stars – CBS – Sundays @ 8:00 PM (EST)

Perhaps I will do some sort of blurb on a few of the shows once the season develops a little more. Needless to say “Heroes” is amazing. Survivor and The Amazing Race are always awesome.

I changed the theme on my website again. I like this one alright, except for the picture of the little girl on the side which I am currently too lazy to change. Despite what you may have thought, that picture is not of me. I also don’t like the look of the flickr feed picture mosaic thing, but that will be a simple CSS fix. Someday when I get tons of time, perhaps if I win the lottery, I will create my own Wordpress theme. Then you’ll be sorry because the sheer beauty of it will bring a tear to your collective eyes. As an aside, did you know they build web publishing features right into the functionality of Office 2007? I think that’s just the berries.

I’m starting to come to the realization that my Christmas “break” may be even busier than when I am in the middle of a big fat semester of work/classes. What with Supreme Commander LAN parties, trying to patch up friendships that I always seem to keep neglecting, or partaking in the yearly family rituals associated with Christmas I’m having trouble even remembering it all. It’s more stress than an Accounting exam. It starts out innocent enough. “Hey, buddy! I’m back in A2 for Christmas. You want to hang out while I’m in town?” To which I reply, “You bet your sweet Christmas ham I do”, in that Dr. Cox from Scrubs slightly arrogant but still endearing sort of way. Then before I know it I’m booked solid thru New Year, left with precious little time to play Twilight Princess, check the weather in Honolulu, or do any number of other things on my Wii. But, I guess it comes with the territory. When you are as cool and popular as I am (insert involuntary snort of laughter here.) it’s hard to find time to relax and contemplate what the whole thing is all about. Pssst! It’s not getting presents. For all my griping I love it all the same. Every holiday I take a picture of the table, the tree, the meal, and the occasional person or dog if they happen to be blocking one of my beloved inanimate objects. I always start out with these grand intentions of posting them on my website, but I never do. I’m feeling this year might be different. I might actually get something going instead of petering out after about 2 minutes of trying to get the browser to open while I would rather be eating delicious snacks and playing with all of my new stuff.

This is a test post of Live Writer!

Does it work?

So here we go, again….

I wanted to post this cool little quote by John Adams, our second president, that I saw on the NBC evening news tonight. Our country is 230 years old and doesn’t look a day over 50. God bless America!

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”

He apparently wrote this in a letter to his wife Abigail. He said the second day of July because he was talking about the day all of the colonies passed the resolution that said “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” The day we know as Independence Day is the day they signed the document that came out of the resolution passed on July 2, 1776. There is your American History lesson for today.

If you are interested in more John Adams Quotes check out the Wikiquote site devoted to it.

Oh look. It’s a smartly designed website……and look at that; my name is at the top of the page. I don’t understand how this could have happened. What is more troubling is the fact that I haven’t updated since October. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this sort of thing. Maybe my “I’d rather not update my website and try and do something more worthwhile” gene is stronger than my “Wow I’d better update its been about 5 minutes people might start to get worried and not know what to do and start jumping off of bridges in the absence of some really great content from my website” gene. But the worst part of it all is that “something more worthwhile” often entails entering the land of Azeroth and playing my character in World of Warcraft, playing some Xbox, PS2, or Gamecube game(yes I now have all 3 consoles), or watching some television program, more often than not some crazy Anime series I’ve decided I love. The long and short of it is that I realized last night that I am the world’s largest nerd. A dork of epic proportions I would be teased mercilessly if I were still in middle school today. And not just for the fact that I am 24 and still in middle school, but more so for the fact that I love Anime, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Video Games, and other such nerdy endeavors. This Christmas I actually asked for and got a Katana. But alas it has not always been so. Once I was rather normal. I myself seemed to shun such things. I played hockey in high school, I was pretty normal. Now…oh….now.

I think I am having my quarter life crisis. That’s right. I want to be a kid again. And not just any kid, a dorky computer nerd kid. I don’t mind. It’s actually sort of fun. It kind of shields me from the harsh realization that I will have to move on soon and get a real job and go out and be a grownup. I don’t even know if the term “quarter life crisis” is actually a phrase anyone has ever used before, but that is the only way I can describe how I feel. Not that I am particularly unhappy. On the contrary I find joy in the things that I do to be more like a kid again. The thing I don’t understand is what makes adults not want to those sorts of things any more. My parents always told me that one day I would turn on my favorite radio station and I would find that all of the songs I used to love would suddenly be silly. So, what is it that makes us change? More importantly when does this happen?

All I know is that I don’t want it to happen. And even thought everyone tells me it will happen, I don’t really think I’ll “grow up.” I want to be playing video games well into my 80’s. Think of all the great games we will have then. Think of all the fun I will have with my children as they grow and get to experience different games for the first time. Perhaps this generation of ours that grew up with the game industry will never cast it aside and embrace the monotony of adulthood. This is my hope. “All children, except one, grow up.” ~ James M. Barrie