January 2012
1 post
Dish Network Woes
We recently moved from Texas to Colorado, and my parents drove in to help us with the move and see some of the sights in Colorado. My parents had never been to Colorado before, and they had a very limited amount of time for us to show them around because they needed to head back to Texas soon. We scheduled the Dish Network installation for Jan 16th from 12pm to 5pm, and got ready to drive into...
October 2011
4 posts
“Over the past year, competition for IT skills has become increasingly fierce,...”
– Now hiring: companies move away from outsourcing to control their IT destiny
“It wasn’t this busy during the dot-com boom. The demand now is at the...”
– Now hiring: companies move away from outsourcing to control their IT destiny
Swamp Thing #2 was amazing! I never imagined that this character could be so interesting! Scott Snyder is an incredible writer!
September 2011
4 posts
So I just finished the Green Lantern movie, and I’m quite disappointed. The first 2/3rd of the movie was actually really good! The changes to the storyline were understandable, and the plot was still enjoyable. Then, all of the sudden it was like the filmmakers said “Oh crap, we’ve got to end this thing” and kicked it into “high gear”, throwing storyline and...
DC takes the comic world by storm!
So far, I’m really enjoying the DC “new 52” that has been emerging this month. I’ve only really been into comics for about a year now, but for most of that time I was pretty squarely in the Marvel camp. I started out on X-Men, Wolverine, and Iron Man. Slowly but surely, though, I felt DC drawing me in. I began reading Batman and Green Lantern, and learned more about the...
American Vampire 13 to 18: Ghost War
I just finished up Ghost War, the latest storyline in the American Vampire comic by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque. A lot of people came to the American Vampire series because of Stephen King’s work on the first several issues. I actually started following the series much later, after Scott had already began his run on Detective Comics. It was Scott Snyder’s name that drew me to the...
August 2011
1 post
1 tag
The Higher Education Bubble
Time Magazine recently reported on a study showing that 85% of college graduates are now moving back home. They are now saddled with crushing student loan debt, and they’re unable to find the work they were led to believe would be abundant once they graduated.
Many of those who are actually able to find jobs have to settle for low-paying work that doesn’t take advantage of their...
June 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Comic Review: Mystery Men #2
I’ve really enjoyed rediscovering comics over the past few months, and I’ve decided to start posting reviews at my favorite comic site, Comic Vine. Here’s my first review, for the 1930’s noir series Mystery Men, issue #2.
The plot thickens…
The Good
The comic starts out great with a brief flashback that sets up one of the big reveals of the comic nicely. As the...
May 2011
1 post
Alcohol and the Believer
The topic of drinking has come up recently in my life in a few different ways, and I want to take a moment to describe my position and the biblical basis for it.
One of the primary arguments for prohibition says the the alcohol content of wine in the bible was so low that it would not cause intoxication. I’ll start out with the most common example cited when anyone talks about alcohol and...
April 2011
4 posts
That was the most sanctimonious, insulting, and infuriating speech yet from our President. I’m not one of the people claiming that Obama wasn’t born in the US, but I think that he handled those that are in the worst way possible. He should have put this issue to rest two and a half years ago by simply showing the public his birth certificate and silencing the “birthers”....
User Agreements == Oppression
Over a year ago now, Sony removed the “Other OS” feature from the Playstation. This was something they advertised as a feature, and was a big part of my decision to switch to Playstation. I’d like to be able to install Linux and awesome software like Boxee and use the Playstation as a media center. Through an online “update”, they took the feature away without warning...
Last night, I woke up around 1:30 am to find that the temperature in the house was approaching sauna-like levels. I stumbled out of bed and hurdled over the baby gate so that I could adjust the thermostat. On the way back I hit my foot on the gate hard, immediately and irrevocably waking me up.
I tried to go back to sleep, but it just wasn’t going to happen. So, I headed into the office...
March 2011
2 posts
February 2011
2 posts
I just finished watching The Monsters, a great indie film written and directed by the aforementioned Gareth Edwards. It was an alien invasion story set long after most monster movies end - long after the running and screaming and shooting and explosions. Several years later, Central America is trying to cope with the extra-terrestrial wildlife that has now become commonplace in their world. The...
“I had a loose paragraph describing the scene with just the main points that had...”
– Gareth Edwards, describing the experience of ad-libbing a feature film with extras who just happened to be on location at the time.
January 2011
2 posts
WatchElliot walking in Barbara’s parents’ backyard.
November 2010
2 posts
ToneMatrix →
A simple synthesizer and sequencer that is WAY too much fun to play with.
Virtual Shackles - Fallout 3: New Vegas →
I hate it when game developers take shortcuts like this. On the other hand, though, the game turned out buggy enough already - just imagine if they’d gone ahead and changed the UI!
October 2010
1 post
The Infamous Rice Disaster of 2010
Amount of rice on the counter and floor:
Amount of rice in the measuring cup I was aiming for:
Fail.
September 2010
2 posts
WatchAction! Adventure! Elliot and some of his favorite activities of the past few months.
WatchVideos of Elliot talking, laughing, or yelling.
July 2010
1 post
FIREFLY: The Credits Sequence It Deserved! →
I’m a huge fan of this show, and this intro is hilarious!
June 2010
5 posts
America vs Soccer →
Freelance Freedom #161 →
This is hilarious, and surprising how often people actually think this way…
Barbara and I just finshed the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and we were totally blown away. The finale was unparalleled, and it has become one of our all-time favorite shows. Lost should have taken notes on how to do a finale right…
WatchMore cute baby gibberish
WatchElliot’s cute gibberish
May 2010
5 posts
Lost Meets Lucasarts | 4 color rebellion →
This is fantastic! I would buy that game in a heartbeat!
Facebook's Bait-and-Switch →
Facebook is doing more than just taking away something from their users, they’re being downright dishonest. Until recently Facebook’s pitch to users was that it was a way to connect with people that you actually know. They were deliberately closer to the closed/private end of the spectrum. And back when they had real competition (myspace), privacy was one of the key differentiators....
Someone from Bad Robot's take on the Finale | LOST... →
I’m not sure how legitimate this is, but it’s a very good summary of a few of the unanswered questions and some of the ambiguity left by the finale.
2 tags
Arizona and Immigration Reform
The argument that the Arizona immigration law is wrong because it opens up the door to racial profiling doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny. Any law has the potential to be abused by those who wish to use it in the wrong way. An officer with malicious intent could use laws against drunk driving as an excuse to pull over drivers of a certain race simply because he was prejudiced against them....
April 2010
7 posts
xkcd: Outbreak →
XKCD is one of the best web comics around. Combine it with zombies, and hilarity ensues! This is going to be a good Friday. :-)
20 Great "All Seems Lost" Moments From Science... →
These are some epically awesome moments in Sci-Fi history, classified into nifty groups.
Somali Pirates Say They Are Subsidiary of Goldman... →
4 tags
The Birth of Our Son
The Call
While driving to work on the George Bush Turnpike, I got a call. When I looked at the Caller ID and saw my wife’s name, I knew exactly what the call was about. I had no idea about the ride we were in for, though. From that moment on, life has been unrelentingly exciting, scary, joyful, strenuous, and sweet. I turned around and headed back home to rush my wife to the hospital...
1 tag
Seven Epic Wheel of Fortune FAILs (Videos) -... →
Barbara and I often watch Wheel of Fortune when I get home from work, because it’s on right before some of our favorite shows. These are some pretty hilarious disasters from Wheel over the years.
1 tag
Tumbling My Personal Blog
I currently keep two separate blogs - my technology blog at brandonkonkle.com, and my personal blog here. I do this because the people interested in my personal entries usually have no desire to sift through mountains of technical jargon and programming examples just to get the latest news about my family. I was previously managing both blogs as custom web applications developed with the Django...
December 2009
1 post
1 tag
2009 Facebook Meme
This 2009 year-end recap has been going around Facebook this week, and I thought I’d go ahead fill out it. This has been a pretty eventful year, so this definitely doesn’t cover the half of it. I may post another entry soon, this time more blog-style, with a more detailed overview of the year for Barbara and I. In the meantime, though, here you go:
Song of the yearI usually listen to...
November 2009
1 post
2 tags
My First Few Days at Panlocal
I’ve been creating my own web sites since I was 13 years old, and over the last several years it’s grown to become the primary focus of my free time. I began to pursue a side business in web development, but I soon realized that was not enough. I loved web development so much I knew that I needed to pursue it full-time. This week, by the grace and kindness of God, my wish came true. On...