stormchaser06's Blog

Your wishes for a food list have been granted! What are you going to try and bring to the MyFoxHouston/ Blogger Picnic??

As for me, I still have no idea.

Here's the details again:

Saturday, 17 May 2008

2:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Discovery Green Downtown (Map: http://devhoustondowntownpark.schipul.net/attachments/
wysiwyg/4/DG-ParkMap-Legend-lg-040408.jpg) We will be next to the playground.

Potluck Food

Friends, Families (kids included!), and Pets of all Bloggers, Chatters, and anyone that works in the same building that houses Fox 26 are all invited and welcome! 

So what happend here? Last Tuesday I was coming home from Galveston, and as it was dark, I decided to take a detour and come up 59 from the Beltway. Why? I thought it would be neat to see the searchlight atop Williams Tower sweeping across the sky. I've seen it in person once before, and I wanted to see it again! I think it's cool!

As I was approaching 610 (just before 9 PM), I noticed something, darkness. There was no searchlight in front of me! The rest of Williams Tower was lit up, but the beacon was not. It was kind of sad really, that light is unique to Houston, and it was missing. Did the 7,000 watt bulb burn out or something??

THE VIDEO IS SIDEWAYS, SORRY! HAD THE CAMERA SIDEWAYS... I WAS FOCUSING ON DRIVING. I ACCEPT NO RESPONISBILITY FOR ANY NECK INJURIES CAUSED BY THE VIEWING OF THIS SHORT VIDEO. VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK. :-)

Last Friday, I went with my brother to Walking With Dinosaurs- The Live Experience at Toyota Center. I had no problem going, it looked like a neat little show that he would enjoy. However, I was really surprised. It was a PHENOMENAL production. That is really the only word I can use to describe it.

The show went like this: There was someone playing the role of a paleontologist, and we (the whole of Toyota Center) traveled with him back in time and then followed the dinosaurs through the different periods of time. The dinosaurs were amazing! They really did look real! The smaller ones were people in the suits controlling the movements and sounds, and the larger ones were animatronics. Incredible!

I have to again say "THANK YOU!" to Lanny, it was his feature report last Thursday morning that brought this production to our attention. My brother loves dinosaurs and had no idea that this existed or was in town. He didn't have a clue as to where I was taking him until we were walking down Polk Street towards the Toyota Center and I showed him the tickets. As soon as my mum and I saw Lanny's report on the morning news, we were on the web buying tickets. THANKS AGAIN LANNY!!

Watch Lanny's report here.

I took plenty of video from the production. It's a really good show! If you decide you want to see it in person, you'll have to get on a plane and fly to Charleston, South Carolina as that is the current stop for the show's North American Tour.

Video is approximately 36 minutes long. Clear some time before viewing! You won't want to stop partway through! Enjoy!

This is for you Snoopy. LOL. Roswell, NM is "Alien Central" after a UFO supposedly crashed there in 1947.

Be sure to notice the lamp post in the top left corner too... It's got alien eyes on it!

As promised, here are some photos from Spring Break in New Mexico. Check out Carlsbad Caverns!

"HAS RESULTED," not "MAY RESULT"

I thought it looked like melting ice cream. But it's solid rock.

No service 700 feet underground??

This is what happens when I get bored on a road trip...

"More bars in more places. Nowhere, New Mexico, for example. Cingular-- raising the bar"

There is a lot of voting and campaigning going on this year, right? We have the Presidential Race, we're in the middle of Season number whatever of American Idol (I don't know, someone help me), and I'm sure I'm forgetting another something. Here's something else that should be added to your voting list if it hasn't been already. 

In case you haven't heard, Doug and Ruben are looking for a female cohost on MyFoxHouston Live! They've narrowed the field to five candidates, and now it's up to US, meaning anybody that is reading this, to decide who will be the (un?)lucky winner. (LOL)...

I've started campaigning for one of the contestants, Taucha!

Photo courtesy of MyFoxHouston Live!

Logo photo coutesy of Isiah Carey's "insite"

VOTE FOR TAUCHA HERE: http://media.myfoxhouston.com/stream/myfoxlive/co-host
s/index.html

Feel free to join the "Taucha for Co-Host" Campaign!! Just leave a comment below and then GO VOTE FOR HER!! :-D

I got this in an e-mail, and it was also on MyFoxHouston LIVE! yesterday. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY!! HURRY!!!

REALLY, YOU CAN DO THIS. IT IS LITERALLY "CLICK, CLICK, CLICK" AND YOU'RE DONE.

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Hey guys!!! I just wanted to let you guys know that Memorial Hermann the
Children's Hospital (HOUSTON) is in the running for a new play center
from
the Starlight Startbright Children's Foundation. It just takes a
second...... A ll you have to do is click the link below, and vote for
Houston. Please take the time to do it, you never know when it could be
your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, brother, sister or friend. A good
smile or laugh can go a long way in a seriously ill child, what better
way
to do it than with a fun center!?!?!?!?!? The voting ends Feb. 29Th and
you
can vote once a day!! Thank you all for your support!!! (Feel FREE to
forward this on to others!!!!!)

www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/Corp/CommunityProg
rams/show-the-love.cvsp

Some of you may know that I was in my younger brother's bedroom painting the walls for the majority of last week. Friday Night, as with most DIY home improvement jobs, I had...... shall we say, a setback? Take a look:

What you see in that picture before you is half a gallon of green Behr paint that I spilled onto the white berber carpet. Technically it was "False Cypress," but who cares? It was on the carpet insead of the walls!

Now for what you're all itching to hear: How did this happen? And what happend afterwards?

Allow me to set the stage. I had a step ladder in the room to reach the top of the walls. I had just put more paint into my paint tray and replaced the lid on the can. As there was still a little bit of paint on the edge, I set the gallon can on the top step of the step ladder, between two and three feet above the floor. As I was preparing to begin painting again, I had forgotten that the paint can was on the step ladder. I knew where the step ladder was, and as I was looking up at where I was about to paint, I grabbed ahold of the ladder and lifted it towards me. As I did so, there was a loud "CLANK!!" immediately followed by a deep "THUD!!" At the same time I heard the can hit the floor, I was suddenly aware that my feet were extremely wet. When I looked down, I saw the paint can on its side in front of me, me standing in a LAKE of paint and covered up to my ankles in it, and a trail of paint splatter running between my legs all the way into the middle of the room behind me. When my Mum came in after hearing me yell for help, she laughed at me. She wasn't upset at all, she said that she never liked this carpet anyway. (I got off the hook scott free!!) 

After being rescued by my Mum, we tried to clean it up as best we could, but we still had to call our carpet cleaners. They know our carpets fairly well, and have come out on a couple of emergency calls for us before. The strange thing is, every time there is some sort of a carpet cleaning emergency, it is somehow connected to me... Anyhow, they came out first thing on Saturday Morning to attempt to get the paint out of the carpet, and this was the result:

The poor guy tried and tried and tried to get this monstrosity of a stain out of the carpet, but no matter what chemicals he used or how much he tried, it just would not come out. Now I am not saying that it was his fault nor am I in any way stating that I was dissatisfied with the carpet cleaning service, they do an excellent job when we have our carpets cleaned. I am just illustrating that even professional carpet cleaners couldn't get this stain out.

The really amusing part is this: my brother wasn't home this weekend. He had gone out camping Friday and Saturday, and so he didn't have a clue that anything had gone awry.

My mum and I knew that we would have to try and replace the carpet, but just so that we weren't stepping in paint stained carpet while trying to finish the room, we decided to cut the stain out using a box cutter.

However, once my brother came home and had been told what had happend, he stated that he needed money for something else. He was given a choice of replacement carpet or the money for the other things he needed to pay for and live with a giant whole in his carpet. He chose the latter, and so now with my painting project completed, (except for a few finishing touches), here is what the floor looks like now and will look like for a while:

Anybody want me to come and paint your house??? hahaha, just kidding.

Do any of you have any similar experiences to share?

So Mulan was on the Disney Channel late last night, and I stayed up and watched it. Come on, Disney movies are awesome. :-)

LOOK!

I have crystal clear proof! See for yourself!! We first heard about UFO sightings over Lake Travis on Wednesday, and I saw some over Houston earlier this evening!! (Sunday 20 Jan 2008). I was near Beltway 8 and Aldine Westfield and saw this at about 6:30 pm!! 

It looked like some sort of invasion, but they didn't attack. (THANK GOODNESS!!!)

CREEPY!!

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See? You can't argue with THIS:

GOTCHA!

HA HA HA HA HA!

THESE ARE NOT UFO'S! THEY ARE PLANES ON APPROACH TO GEORGE BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT. PLEASE DO NOT PANIC AND START SOUNDING THE ALARM. THIS IS ONLY A JOKE.

I saw this as I was about to land at George Bush Airport this evening. Myself and the guy next to me both agreed that they did look like UFO's with the way they were all lined up. We laughed and of course started talking about the story that came out of Austin/ Lake Travis last week.

Now let's see how long it takes for someone else to pick this up and... well you know how the rest will go. After all, "It's on the internet, so it has to be real, right?" (Those are Ruben's words, not mine. Gotta give credit. haha.) :-)

Let me start this one off by wishing everyone a belated MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We bought some fireworks to shoot off on New Years' Eve, and there was one that just had my name all over it. It was called The Hurricane:

So of course I had to light it off to see what it did! We were all outside acting goofy (but not too goofy, safety first!), but I hope you enjoy the video anyway. Happy New Year!

(Oh and just for the record, that is a wall cloud that is printed on the box. Gimme a break, it was after midnight and I was focused on shooting off the firework, not on naming the correct cloud formation printed on the box. LOL. 

I believe that photo shows a supercell somewhere in the plains and may be one of the photos circulating through e-mail as a picture of Hurricane Katrina or Ivan or some other big storm. It is not.)

My Grandad flew in from England to spend the Christmas and New Years Holidays with us. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed having him here. Something really out of the ordinary happend while he was here though.

Let me set the stage. He leaves a suitcase or two here with us with some of his clothes to save him carrying checked baggage every time he comes here. There is this one suitcase of his that we have moved and kept in our attics for nearly 9 years. Well, while he was here this time, he decided to clean out that suitcase with the intention of replacing it with a new one. When he had completely emptied it, he was feeling along the bottom edge when his hand hit some paper. It was underneath the bottom flap in the suitcase, which was glued down. Let me show you: (Or actually, Grandad will show you- haha)---

When he couldn't get the paper out, he pulled the flap up and discovered it was an envelope--- and there was something inside. He looked inside, and take a look at what he found:

340 POUNDS!!!! ALL IN 20 POUND NOTES!!!

Not only that, but there was a check for 15 pounds from his brother that he never deposited, a couple of receipts, a few expired credit cards of his, and a couple of gift cards! The dates on the check and receipts were May of 1999. Nearly NINE YEARS all that has been in the attic!!

When he was showing us what he had found, he said that when he first looked in the envelope and saw what was in there, it was "like being born all over again." :-)

Now for the part you've all been waiting for:

"How much is 340 Pounds in US Dollars?"

Using the current exchange rate,

340 British Pounds is....

.............

.............

..................

$670.25.

So what is dear old Grandad going to do with his long lost fortune that has now been found? We think (and are pretty sure) that he is going to use it to buy another plane ticket to come back again this Spring. The funny thing is, that amount of money is just about what it costs for him to buy a ticket.

Has anything like this ever happend to you? Ever found money stashed in an old piano or a mattress? Reached into a coat pocket and found 20 bucks from last winter?

Share your story!

I haven't been on here for a little while I know. I got really busy right before the holidays and it just kept on going. I'm still not quite done yet but thats ok. I'll get it done when I can.

I've got some pretty cool blogs (well, I think they're cool) lined up. I'll be putting them up soon. Just wanted to jump back on and say hello to everyone, I'm still here!!

Just don't. I tried it today, and if you watched MyFoxLive this afternoon, you saw what the consequences are. (You can watch a re-run until 4pm on 12/13/07 at www.myfoxhoustonlive.com, maybe MyTechGuy can tweak something for us to keep it up a little longer or archive it somewhere).

I made 7 dozen cookies (equals 84) and took them down there as a "Thank You/ Merry Christmas" deal. They didn't last an hour. They arrived at the station at 11:30/ 11:45 am, and by the time Mike got in (which I'm guessing was around 1:00 pm), there was only one half-eaten cookie left.

So, with all that sugar running through the breakroom/ newsroom and everyone wired more than the central hub at the station, you can imagine that the web show this afternoon was much more "active" than "normal." It had everything from Doug doing very illustrative impressions of tornado sirens and Producer Karen on an angry sugar high to Ruben circling every car with the telestrator (sp?) to justify a Ride Rater of 1 vs. 0 to Mike turning the weather clickers into nintendo controllers. Yes, he "Wii'd" FoxRad.

So check it out! I thought it was great! lol. I had a lot of fun doing it all. Merry Christmas Ya'll!